By Rob Sherrill, W.I.N. Columnist

What does it take to become a champion on the big stage at Fargo?

Apparently, a lot of things; two of which are talent and ability.

As we saw recently in the ASICS/Vaughan Junior National Freestyle Championships, as well as the Cadet and Junior national dual tournaments that preceded them, many wrestlers possess those two things. That’s an indication of the unprecedented depth of the pool of age-group talent that exists in the United States today.

And then there’s that something that’s more difficult to measure: motivation.

Quite a few wrestlers combined their extraordinary talent and ability with motivation to come out on top on age-group wrestling’s biggest stage.

Three of those wrestlers were two-time Pennsylvania state champion Jordan Oliver (119) of Easton High, three-time Iowa state finalist Nate Moore (125) of Iowa City West High and two-time Washington state champion Michael Mangrum (140) of Auburn Riverside High. They are three of the nation’s elite seniors this coming year.

The motivator: The recent release of the 19th annual ASICS High School All-America Team. It’s announced annually just prior to the National Duals, which gives the 112 wrestlers, which grace the beautifully designed poster, a golden opportunity to take potshots at the paper kings of the mountain.

And every year, a few of them succeed.

They’re following in the footsteps of current Cornell University standout Troy Nickerson. Three years ago, prior to his senior year, the five-time New York state champion parlayed a second team All-America selection into the motivation to become not only a double Junior National champion, but a pair of Outstanding Wrestler awards as well.

This year’s trio did Nickerson one better: They scored head-to-head victories over wrestlers selected ahead of them en route to their crowns.

Oliver, a second team All-America selection, was part of one of the tournament’s most intriguing pools — Pool B at 119 — that saw him paired with both of the week’s Greco-Roman finalists: five-time Minnesota state champion Zach Sanders of Wabasha-Kellogg High and California champion Nikko Triggas of Moraga Camplindo High, the Greco-Roman champion for a third consecutive year.

First, Oliver avenged his only loss of the high school season, beating Triggas, 2-0, 4-2, in the seventh round in a battle of unbeatens. Then, in the pool final, Oliver took out Sanders, the defending champion and first team ASICS member in a 1-0, 1-0 struggle witnessed by several hundred of his closest friends.

Oliver didn’t wrestle his greatest in the final, actually scoring only two of the match’s five points, but managed to rebound from a 1-0 first-period loss for back-to-back 1-1 wins over fellow junior Brian Owen of Spokane (Wash.) University High.

Owen has overcome some adversity of his own. He hasn’t won a state title since his freshman year, but seems recovering from a back injury that derailed his state quest this year.

Like Oliver, Moore, an honorable mention selection, scored two key wins en route to his title. In the seventh round, he took out second team pick Dan White of Hightstown (N.J.) Peddie School, 4-2, 1-1. That victory helped send him to the finals against two-time California champion Boris Novachkov of Fremont High, who had won the Greco-Roman title and was trying to make it a double. Moore won another titanic struggle, 1-0, 1-0, scoring the winning takedown in the second period off a restart in the final eight seconds. Not bad for a wrestler with just a single state title to his credit.

White, meanwhile, finished third for the second straight year.

Then there was Mangrum, selected No. 3 on the ASICS squad, who won a battle of defending champions surprisingly easily, allowing just a single point in a 5-1, 4-0 victory over Michigan-bound Kellen Russell of Blairstown (N.J.) Blair Academy. Both, in fact, were two-time defending champions, having won Cadet National freestyle crowns in 2005.

Iron-man Mangrum’s motivation took other forms as well. He was smarting after a fifth-place finish in the Greco-Roman tournament, a meet in which he took back-to-back losses in pool competition after an 8-0 start. Mangrum was pinned by Justin Accordino of Wilkes Barre (Pa.) Coughlin High, then lost to eventual champion Kendrick Sanders of Homestead (Fla.) South Dade.

Russell’s motivation, meanwhile, may have been spent on his 2-1, 4-2 round-robin victory over the ASICS First Team selection, Tyler Nauman of Middletown (Pa.) High. That victory had allowed Russell to square his season’s series against Nauman, who finished fifth, at two victories apiece.

Some other Junior Freestyle champions had motivations of a different kind.

At 171, Mike Benefiel of Lombard (Ill.) Montini High, a star at the Cadet level who had fallen far short of expectations in two previous Junior appearances, made his final age-group meet one to remember, leaving no doubt about his First Team qualifications in a dominating title run that saw him allow just two points in the tournament.

And at 189, three-time Colorado champion Sonny Yohn of Alamosa (Colo.) High shook off the effects of one of the most bitter losses in recent finals history — his controversial three-period loss to Idahoan Clayton Foster a year ago — to claim the title this year in his final try.

What all of this demonstrates is that on any given day, it doesn’t matter whether the opponent is a First Team selection, honorable mention or left off the list altogether. Plenty of poster boys were taken out by more anonymous opponents, proving that there’s really no such thing as a right or a wrong selection.

And that’s why we watch the matches with such interest and anticipation.


Iowa City West, Oak Park add to next season’s drama

When they meet for the fourth consecutive year in the Lepic Duals in Iowa City next January, host Iowa City West High and Kansas City (Mo.) Oak Park High will share an important distinction. They’ll enter that showdown with line-ups that include more returning 2007 All-Americans than any other high school in America.

Each school’s lineup will feature four Fargo All-Americans, including three double place-winners each under the Fargodome.

Iowa City West junior Dylan Carew and senior Nate Moore were the 125-pound champions in Cadet Greco-Roman and Junior freestyle, respectively, and Carew was a double finalist. Sophomore Nick Moore, Nate’s brother, was third in both Cadet styles at 135 and senior Grant Gambrall (171) was third in Junior Greco-Roman and fifth in freestyle.

Oak Park junior Mac Bailey (125) split the Cadet finals with Carew and seniors Brent Haynes (sixth in Greco-Roman, fourth in freestyle at 189) and Elijah Madison (second in Greco-Roman, fifth in freestyle at 285) were double Junior All-Americans. Senior Dylan Joiner (140) finished eighth in Junior freestyle.

Iowa City West won last year to avenge a pair of lopsided Oak Park wins the previous two seasons.

Blair Academy was the only school with more All-Americans. The Bucs had six. Only two, however, return next season: sophomore Chris Villalonga (third in Cadet freestyle at 119) and incoming freshman John Guzzo (third in Cadet freestyle at 140).

Four other schools — Brandon (Fla.) High, Oak Park (Ill.) O.P.-River Forest High, Jackson (Minn.) County Central High and Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic High — each had three All-Americans.


Updated New York state tournament format produced Fargo dividends

When it comes to tradition — doing things the way your older brother did them, the way your father did them, even the way your grandfather did them — no state’s wrestling system comes closer to fitting that stereotype than the one you’ll find in New York.

For more than 40 years, only the champion of each of New York’s 13 state qualifying regions — 11 statewide sections and two additional sections, the state’s Catholic schools and the New York City public schools (PSAL) — advanced to a single-class state tournament.

That means over two generations of a state tournament with just 13 competitors per weight class in a state with nearly 600 high schools encompassing a wide range of enrollments.

So it’s no wonder that Long Island schools and particularly Suffolk County-based Section 11 dominated the state for years. Many outstanding wrestlers who fell just short of taking a section title got lost in the shuffle as far as national recognition was concerned.

But New York is changing. Three years ago, the state split into two divisions. This year, the 13-man brackets became 16-man brackets with the addition of three wild cards per weight. Section runners-up earned those wild cards based on a state association-administered computer program that took previous state and section performances, overall record and competition into consideration.

Those changes have helped open up the state.

This year, Rochester-based Section 5 swept both divisions scoring titles and crowned 10 of the state’s 28 champions. And if that wasn’t enough, the double champions are licking their chops as the 2008 state tournament comes to the Blue Cross Arena in March, the state meet’s first trip to Rochester since 1969.

Upstate New York walked the walk at Fargo, too.

Only two of the 18 New Yorkers who took All-America honors under the Dome were from historic Long Island: Cadet Greco-Roman place-winner Anthony Volpe (Rocky Point High) and Junior Greco-Roman place-winner Shane Strumwasser (Massapequa High), from Nassau County, which is Section 8 territory.

Six, including Cadet freestyle champion Austin Meys (152) of Clifton Park Shenendehowa High and Junior Greco-Roman finalist Nate Graham (171) of Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High, are from Albany-area Section 2. Southern Tier-area Section 4 produced five All-Americans, Section 5 featured four All-Americans and Buffalo’s Section 6 (via the Catholic section) claimed the other one.

Six of the 18 also came from the small-school Division 2 state tournament. Graham likely would have been relegated to watching the state tournament from the stands a few short years ago. He’d have been stuck behind Hunter Meys, Austin’s brother and the Division 1 Outstanding Wrestler. No longer. Graham got his chance at state, upsetting a two-time defending champion en route to closing his career a state champion.

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