Potential Blaze-Vega Super Match Highlights Loaded 138 lbs Ironman Field
Potential Blaze-Vega Super Match Highlights Loaded 138 lbs Ironman Field
The Ironman bracket at 138 lbs includes 5 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 highlighted by two #1s- Marcus Blaze and Sergio Vega.
It's not often at any level you get to see two #1 wrestlers in the country fall into the same bracket. That's exactly what we will see this weekend at 138 lbs in Akron, Ohio at the 2024 Ironman. This bracket includes 5 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in the country, World champions, Fargo champions and All-Americans, Super 32 champions and All-Americans, and plenty of other very solid guys looking to make an impact. Let's take a look at everything you need to know about the 138-pound bracket this weekend at Ironman.
2024 Ironman
The Favorites
#1 (132) Marcus Blaze, Perrysburg, OH (Penn State)
#1 (138) Sergio Vega, Sunnyside, AZ (Oklahoma State)
Two #1 nationally ranked wrestlers highlight the 138 lb bracket at Ironman. Marcus Blaze and Sergio Vega are two of the most accomplished and exciting wrestlers in the country and have won just about everything there is to win at this level.
Although Blaze is moving up in weight, he is probably the favorite at this weight over a red-hot Vega largely due to his accomplishments on the freestyle scene. Blaze won this tournament in 2021 down at 113 lbs over Luke Lilledahl, was third in 2022 after taking a quarterfinal loss to Leo Deluca, but avenged that loss for third-place. Last year, Blaze was in another monster bracket at Ironman at 132 lbs where he dominated his way to the finals before falling in ultimate tiebreaker 3-2 to Ben Davino.
Watch the 2023 Ironman final between Blaze and Davino
Blaze has the best freestyle credentials of potentially any high school wrestler ever. The #1 ranked wrestler on the Class of 2025 Big Board won a loaded 55 kg field at the U17 World Team Trials back in 2023, including defeating Anthony Knox two matches to none in the best-of-three finals. Blaze then went on to navigate his way to a U17 World Championship at 55 kg. Blaze then went on to finish 3rd at the 2024 Olympic Trials at 57 kg, defeating NCAA champion Nico Megaludis, Luke Lilledahl, and Jax Forrest along the way.
This summer, Blaze made the U20 World Team and finished with a bronze medal, only losing to eventual senior World Champion Masanosuke Ono of Japan in the semifinals. Just a week following the U20 World Championships, Blaze threw his hat in the ring at the Senior World Team Trials and went on a tear by taking out Kyle Burwick, NCAA champion Seth Gross, NCAA champion Nahshon Garrett, and World silver-medalist Daton Fix before falling in the best of 3 finals to Vito Arujau.
Watch Blaze defeat Fix at the 2024 Senior World Team Trials
Blaze recently made his long-awaited commitment to Penn State which helped propel Penn State over Oklahoma State as the #1 recruiting class in the most recent set of 2025 NCAA Recruiting Class Rankings. He will be looking to close out his Ironman career this weekend with a second Ironman title.
Standing in his way however, is Sergio Vega. Vega has been on an absolute heater of his own the last year and is one of, if not the, most exciting guy in the country right now to watch in high school. Vega put the whole country on notice last year at Super 32 when he picked up arguably the biggest upset of the tournament, defeating #1 in the country at the time Ben Davino in the semifinals with a late takedown. Vega went on to fall to Bo Bassett in the 132 lb Super 32 final.
Watch Vega upset Davino in the 2023 Super 32 semifinals
Since then, Vega has made huge jumps in his game. Vega dominated his way to a Fargo title this summer, defeating Drew Gorman 10-2 in the finals for the 138-pound stop sign. Vega followed that up with another super impressive performance at Who's Number One in September where he defeated Gorman once again, this time a 12-5 decision.
Watch Vega defeat Gorman at the 2024 Who's Number One
Vega then made his way back to Super 32 just a couple of weeks later and finally got his Super 32 belt, capping off a dominant run with a fall over #4 Tahir Parkins in the semfinals and a 18-5 major decision over #3 Dalton Perry in the finals.
Watch Vega defeat Perry in the 2024 Super 32 final
Blaze is the top seed at 138 lbs and his path to the finals could meet him up in the semifinals with the winner between #6 Sam Herring and #7 Jayce Paridon. Herring and Paridon split matches at Super 32 with Paridon winning 6-3 in the round of 16 while Herring won 10-4 in the consolation semifinals.
Vega is the #6 ranked prospect on the Class of 2025 Big Board and recently flipped his commitment from Cornell to Oklahoma State, adding to the already insane depth of that recruiting class for the Cowboys. Vega will likely see multiple time Fargo All-American Thomas Verrette in the quarterfinals before a likely matchup with #3 (at 132) Seth Mendoza in the semifinals. Mendoza is certainly capable of playing spoiler here, as he is one of the best in the country and has made the finals of just about every major tournament throughout his high school career.
The Contenders
#3 (132) Seth Mendoza, Mt. Carmel, IL (Missouri)
#6 (138) Sam Herring, Bishop McCort, PA (Penn State)
#7 (138) Jayce Paridon, Lake Highland Prep, FL (Virginia)
#9 on the Class of 2025 Big Board Seth Mendoza tops the list of contenders that could challenge to make the finals here. Mendoza has wrestled on the biggest of stages at the high school level, making the Fargo finals in both 2022 and 2024, the Super 32 finals in both 2022 and 2024, and has competed in two Who's Number One events. Mendoza was also just a hair away from upsetting Luke Lilledahl in the semifinals here last year, as he fell 9-5 in sudden victory before coming back to finish 3rd.
Watch Mendoza vs. Lilledahl in the 2023 Ironman semifinals
The common theme in all of these accolades for Mendoza is that he has always come up just a bit short at all of these major events against the country's best. I believe Mendoza is capable of making the jump and punching through here but he will need to be on his absolute A-game in order to pull off the upset against Vega.
As mentioned above, Sam Herring, #20 on the Class of 2026 Big Board and Jayce Paridon, #73 on the Class of 2025 Big Board split matches this fall at Super 32, but these two also met in the round of 16 this summer at Fargo where Herring pulled off a late comeback to win 13-8. Needless to say, these guys are very close and either could come away with the win in that much anticipated quarterfinal with the winner getting their shot at Blaze.
Sleepers & Darkhorses
#14 (138) Gunner Andrick - Point Pleasant, WV (West Virginia)
Thomas Verrette - Edmond North, OK (Cornell)
138 lbs Pre-Seeds
Complete Ironman pre-seeds for every weight are available here.
1. Marcus Blaze - Perrysburg, OH
2. Sergio Vega - Sunnyside, AZ
3. Seth Mendoza - Mount Carmel, IL
4. Sam Herring - Bishop McCort, PA
5. Jayce Paridon - Lake Highland Prep, FL
6. Gunner Andrick - Point Pleasant, WV
7. Thomas Verrette - Edmond North, OK
8. Geronimo Rivera - Layton, UT
9. Thomas Silva - Hononegah, IL
10. Israel Borge - Westlake, UT
11. Kane Shawger - St. Xavier, OH
12. Isaiah Schaefer - Mater Dei, IN
13. Donovan Allen - Marist, IL
14. Braylon Reynolds - Brownsburg, IN
15. Jason Torres - Malvern Prep, PA
16. Kolten Hmel - St. Edward, OH
Prediction
The potential final between Blaze and Vega is a wrestling fan's dream. Both guys have all of the accolades to go and set the NCAA field on fire next season and have very different styles. Blaze's best style is arguably freestyle while Vega's is arguably folkstyle but obviously both have had major success in both. I have a hard time seeing this one being a high scoring match as Blaze's defense and ability to slow matches down with his handfight and head-hands defense is world-level. However, I do believe this match will be full of amazing scrambles and exchanges with the guy who is able to take advantage of those exchanges ultimately coming away with the victory. Vega is incredible in scrambles and a very creative wrestler that navigates his way through exchanges to score, however, I have seen Marcus Blaze find ways to win in the biggest moments way too many times to pick against him.
1) Marcus Blaze 2) Sergio Vega 3) Seth Mendoza 4) Sam Herring 5) Jayce Paridon 6) Thomas Verrette 7) Gunner Andrick 8) Thomas SIlva