The second day of Junior Men's Freestyle in Fargo is annually one of the best days of the year in high school wrestling.

When it gets to the semifinals, the crowd picks up with ohhhs and ahhhs and your head is on a swivel scouring the three semi mats. In particular this year, the Ohio boys put on a show. In a quick flurry, Julian Tagg (120) Jordan Decatur (132), and an all-Ohio semi of Gabe Tagg and Jordan Crace (138) were in matches that produced 74points.

You can read the results page for all the big bouts. But here we'll examine the paths the finalists traversed to get to the big stage and how the bracket played out. 

100 Joey Fischer (Pennsylvania) vs. Ronan Schuelke (Illinois)

Top Half: Fischer's toughest challenge came in quarters when he upended Eli Griffin, an Akron AA, 5-1.

Bottom Half: Schuelke beat Collin Noel, 7-5, in semi's.

106 #6-Wil Guida (New Jersey) vs. Anthony King (Illinois)

Top Half: Returning Champ Guida had all techs/pins before an 8-3 win over Riley Parker in semi's. Kase Mauger, a returning AA, defaulted in the round of 16. 

Bottom Half: Illinois' Anthony King took out Alex Cottey in a wild 16-12 quarter before blanking #4-Chaowanapibool.

113 #11-Cullan Schriever (Iowa) vs. Jonathan Prata (California) 

Top Half: It was #19-Dustin Norris making noise early on as he beat #13-Chris Kim. When he met Schriever in the semi's, Schriever got a big lead and then kinda coasted to an 8-6 win. Schriever had also teched a super tough Dominic Chavez in the round of 32. Former Fargo Champ Andrew Chambal was upset by Ryan Henningson, who then lost to Norris. PA's Nick Onea beat Pan Am winner Paxton Creese before losing to Schriever. 

Bottom Half: Prata is just doing the dang thing. He beat Ironman finalist Ryan Miller, Fargo Champ Jeremiah Reno, and then #4-Brendon Garcia, a Fargo finalist. Garcia beat two ranked wrestlers - Tristan Lujan and Joey Thompson, before the semi loss to Prata, which was an 8-6 thriller that saw Prate score the deciding points with :30 left. 

120 #11-Aden Reeves (Iowa) vs. #15-Eric Barnett (Wisconsin)

Top Half: Angelo Rini upset Ironman finalist Cevion Severado in the round of 16 but it may not have mattered the way Reeves is wrestling. His win over Julian Tagg (8-8) in the semi's was one of the most fire matches of the tourney. Tagg had beaten NJ Champ Anthony Clark and 2017 Cadet Champ Dylan Ragusin to get there. 

Bottom Half: Barnett is on fire! He's gone through Anthony Molton, Brandon Kaylor, Dylan Shawver and Kyle Biscoglia in a deep bottom bracket. Biscoglia had a great run. Nic Botello, Rhett Golowenski, and a tech of #3-Trevor Mastrogiovanni lead him to the semi's before he lost to Barnett. Shawver beat 2017 Cadet Champ Noah Surtin before he lost to Barnett in quarters. 

126 Reece Witcraft (Oklahoma) vs. #10-Michael Colaiocco (New Jersey)

Top Half: One of the biggest early round shocks came when PA Champ Doug Zapf beat defending Fargo JR Champ Pat McKee in the round of 64. Zapf kept right on winning until he hit Witcraft in quarters. Already with a win over nationally ranked Jordan Hamdan, Witcraft then beat Kellyn March (who had beaten Blair's Chris Cannon), to reach the finals. 

Bottom Half: Kyle Burwick, whose stock has really been rising, looked good all tournament (although he didn't hit anyone ranked). But Colaiocco pretty much dominated their semi. Burwick will face McKee in the 3rd place match. 

132 #2-Jordan Decatur (Ohio) vs. #7-Ridge Lovett (Idaho) 

Top Half: Decatur was just on another level in his first five matches in which he outscored his opponents 54-4. It looked to be much of the same when he got a lead on Jackson Henson. Then Henson turned it into a war. 17-6 Decatur prevailed. Ryan Ripplinger beat PA Runner-Up Colton Camacho. Henson's big win was a tech of #3-Connor McGonagle, who would go on to beat Malyke Hines and Dylan D'Emilio on the back side.

Bottom Half: Ridge Lovett beat two premier foes in getting to the finals: #1-Beau Bartlett in the quarters and then D'Emilio in semi's. Bartlett is in the 3rd place match tomorrow against McGonagle. 

138 #8-Keegan O'toole (Wisconsin) vs. #4-Gabe Tagg (Ohio) 

Top Half: O'Toole edged Mosha Schwartz 2-2 in quarters before teching Ed Scott in semi's. Danny Fongaro beat my pick, Legend Lamer, in the early rounds. Schwartz, who lost to Fongaro in NE Regionals, got revenge in the round of 16. 

Bottom Half: There was big noise early as Clay Carlson took out the nation's #1 wrestler, Jaden Abas. Abas has wrestled all the way back to the 3rd place match tomorrow. Crace, who had beaten Caleb Rea and Trevor Chumbley already, was set to face Abas. But he beat Carlson, Nick Freeman, and NJ Champ Lucas Revano before losing a wild semi to Tagg. Tagg also beat Dawson Sihavong and Jacob Butler, who had taken out 2017 Cadet finalst Aidan Medora, along the way.

Top Half: Anthony Artalona came in looking for his 4th title. He was obviously dealing with an injury, and was ousted by Daniel Manibog before defaulting in consi's. That is not to take away from Meek's great performance. Meek beat title contender Michael Blockhus and then Drew Scharenbrock, who had dispatched Manibog.

Bottom Half: 2017 Cadet finalist Michael Weber either missed weight or was injured. He didn't compete on Day 2, giving Andonian a pass to quarters, where he beat Johnny Lovett. He faced Yapoujian in the semi's and won a rather easy 8-3 decision. Yapoujian had beaten Matt Lee, Cade Devos, and Jason Kraisser.

152 Brayton Lee (Indiana) vs. Alexander Lloyd (Minnesota)

Top Half: On a mission. Brayton Lee outscored his opponents 61-0. In the quarters he teched Akron finalist Josh Otto. His semifinal opponent was Kendall Coleman, who stopped the run of a red-hot Tyler Eischens. 

Bottom Half: The bottom portion was absolutely ridiculous. Kiernan Shanahan and Jake Stiles, both nationally ranked, met in the round of 32. Lloyd then beat Stiles in R16. Two Top 5 guys, Jace Luchau and Conner Brady, met in the other R16 in that quad. Lloyd beat Luchau in quarters. Pure madness.

A returning AA ranked #2 in the country, Isaac Wilcox was in the top half and lost to two unranked wrestlers to DNP. Cam Amine was on fire heading into his semi showdown with Lloyd, but got injured in the first period of a scoreless bout and defaulted.

160 Jared Franek (North Dakota) vs. Danny Braunagel (Illinois) 

Top Half: Returning finalist Franek was dominant though he hit just one ranked opponent (Sean Harman).

Bottom Half: Great run by Braunagel in beating Nelson Brands, 2017 Cadet Champ Kanniard, and then Tyler Dow.

170 #6-Carson Kharchla (Ohio) vs. vs. #1-Dustin Plott (Oklahoma)

Top Half: Something's in the water at 170. It's loaded recently. It was in Akron and it is here. Kharchla was a lot of people's sleeper pick and he's making them look smart. He took a 7-0 lead in the first period over former Fargo Champ Travis Wittlake and won 7-4. He also beat #7-Parker Keckeisen, who would beat Wittlake on the back side.

Bottom Half: The #1 vs. #3 showdown materialized when Starocci got through #11-Chris Foca in the quarters. Plott scored the only takedowns in a 6-2 win vs. Starocci.

182 Jack Jessen (Illinois) vs. Joel Shapiro (Iowa) 

Top Half: Six straight techs for my pre-tournament pick. Jessen beat last year's Cadet finalist, Devin Winston in semi's 12-2. Only one opponent made it to the 2nd period with him. Both of last year's Cadet 170 finalists were up top. Victor Marcelli, who was 7th last year, beat 2017 Cadet finalist Jake Logan early. Winston then took out Marcelli.

Bottom Half: Jackson Turley beat two ranked opponents before hitting Shapiro in semi's. Shapiro also beat Jared Krattinger, this year's FloNationals Champ, in the round of 16. 

195 Lucas Davison (Indiana) vs. #7-Peter Christensen (Illinois) 

Top Half: Davison beat two ranked guys on his way. First was PA's Julian Gorring and then Austin Cooley in semi's. In a loaded bracket, there were 3 former AA's who didn't even reach the quarters. 

Bottom Half: The bottom half was no walk in the park, either. Christensen looked great in beating Konnor Doucet, the Akron finalist, Wyatt Hendrickson, and Christian Knop.

220 #8-Jace Punke (Illinois) vs. #3-Luke Luffman (Illinois)

Top Half: It was an all-Illinois semifinal up top. But Punke's big win came in quarters over FloNationals Champ and returning AA, Lewis Fernandes. Returning AA Connor Bourne was taken out early by Ronald Wilkie.

Bottom Half: Luffman, a runner-up last year in Cadets, beat Akron AA Josh Heindselman in semi's. 

Top Half: The match-up we were all waiting for ended in a blink. Returning Champ Anthony Cassioppi teched 2x FloNationals Champ Mason Parris, 12-2 in 2:47. The points he gave up in that match were the first ones scored against him as he blanked his four previous opponents with the longest match going 1:37 included two under :15. 

Bottom Half: Hutmacher, last year's Cadet Champ, was almost nearly as dominant, outscoring opponents in his five matches 60-6. The big upset came when Illinois' Aiden Guttridge, who lost in the blood round last year, took out #4-Brooks Baker.