Zahid Valencia's Absurd Hit List
Zahid Valencia's Absurd Hit List
Before Zahid Valencia trie to make his first senior mean's freestyle world team, let's check out his most impressive wins throughout his career.
Zahid Valencia is about to face the toughest test in the biggest match of his young career. The 20-year-old Californian will take on Kyle Dake, a four-time NCAA champion and one of the top middleweight freestylers in the world, in the second installment of Final X on Saturday.
We'll find out if Valencia is up to the task at Rec Hall in State College, PA. In the meantime, let's take a look at the impressive resume this budding superstar has put together, even though he'll only be entering his junior year of eligibility at Arizona State.
WATCH FINAL X - STATE COLLEGE LIVE
We can start with a *hopefully* complete list of all the All-Americans Valencia has taken out in his collegiate career thus far.
- Bo Jordan, Ohio State: 3, 3, 2, 5
- Brain Realbuto, Cornell: 6, 2, 5
- David Kocer, South Dakota State: 7
- Ethan Ramos, North Carolina: 6
- Jordan Kutler, Lehigh: 6
- Lelund Weatherspoon, Iowa State: 6
- Myles Amine, Michigan: 4, 3
- Zac Brunson, Illinois: 6
And of course in March, in Valencia's last college match, he beat NCAA champion and junior world champion Mark Hall in the finals of the national tournament in Cleveland.
Watch Valencia claim an NCAA title as a sophomore:
Digging through the archives, we can find another win over an All-American, all the way back in 2012 in the FloNationals finals against Lehigh's Scott Parker at a mind-boggling 106 pounds. Several years later Parker would place eighth and seventh at 133 pounds in the NCAAs.
Watch the blast from the past for Valencia and Parker below:
One year later in the 2013 Fargo Cadets finals at 126 pounds, Valencia beat NCAA runner-up and recently crowned U23 national champion Hayden Hidlay to claim his first USA Wrestling stop sign.
The next year, Valencia would triumph in the 2014 edition of Who's #1, besting future Ohio State standout and NCAA champion Myles Martin 3-1 in overtime.
A couple years and several weight classes later and Valencia would achieve the first of three consecutive U.S. Open and Junior World Team Trials championships. He took out an insane collection of hammers on his way to those trophies and a silver medal at the 2017 Junior World Championships.
Below are the highlights from that incredible run.
2015 Junior U.S. Open 84kg Champion
Defeated Myles Martin, an NCAA champion and U23 champion in the finals 7-0.
2015 Junior World Team Trials 84kg Champion
Defeated two-time NCAA All-American Chandler Rogers in two straight matches, 10-0 and via pinfall in 2:49.
2016 Junior U.S. Open 84kg Champion
Defeated Ohio State's Myles Martin for the second year in a row, also by the score of 7-0.
Watch Valencia make history repeat itself:
2016 Junior World Team Trials 84kg Champion
Defeated two-time NCAA champion Bo Nickal in two straight matches, 8-2 and 2-1.
Watch match one of that series below:
The second match can be found here.
2017 Junior U.S. Open and World Team Trials 84kg Champion
Valencia beat Nick Reenan three times, 10-0 in the Open finals and 11-1 and 12-1 in the Team Trials finals.
Out of UWW junior eligibility, Valencia entered the World Team Trials' Senior men's freestyle challenge tournament at 79kg last May. As an NCAA champ, Valencia was able to skip the U.S. Open and go right to the trials. Valencia continued his winning ways in Rochester, MN, beating All-American Josh Asper in the semifinals 10-0 to earn a wrestle-off with Alex Dieringer for a spot in Final X.
There, Valencia put together his most impressive performance to date, taking out the three-time NCAA champion in two straight matches, 7-0 and 5-1.
This is the same Alex Dieringer who took Kyle Dake to the brink in April in the U.S. Open finals, losing on criteria.
Will Valencia be able to up his game once again and knock off Dake? We'll all find out together this weekend in State College. See you there!