Ok let’s get right to it. Every year Blair and Wyoming Seminary are the two teams battling it out for the team trophy and that’s how it looks again this year, with Blair being a heavy favorite again as well.

The Buccaneers won 11 straight titles from 2003-13 before Wyoming Sem broke the streak and outpointed them in 2014. Of note, Sem had a fifth year competitor on that team. But it didn’t take Blair too long to get back on track as they’ve won the last four titles. 

But besides the two perennial powerhouses we will certainly see some great competition coming from a few others who have some title contenders in their lineups.

Lastly, it’s worth a mention that last year’s 113-pound runner-up and two-time Cadet World Champion Kurt Mchenry will not be returning to this year tournament in hopes of capturing his first prep title. The future Wolverine has already headed to Michigan to begin training and prepping for the college ranks. 

Anyway, let’s get to this year’s competitors.

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Brackets on FloArena

106

Qualifiers

Breakdown

#16 Daniel Wask is certainly the guy expected to come out on top. He and Erik Roggie met in the Beast of the East finals, where Wask pitched a 5-0 shutout to win the tournament. Malvern Prep’s Kyle Mathues and Belmont Hill’s Jimmy Harrington, who wask tech falled in the third round, were also in the bracket and did not place.

Wyoming Seminary’s Nick Fea as well as Roggie, Wask and Mathues were in the same bracket at Ironman and just like at the Beast, Wask was the highest, and in this case, the only, placer with an 8th place finish. Another contender to watch out for is Jacob Craig of The Hill School. He took out Fea in the PAISWT finals. Mathues was third. 

A few others to watch are St. Paul’s Nasir Wilkinson, who was a Powerade placer, and this year’s KC Stampede Champ Jackson Bond from Baylor.

Holmes’ picks: 1. Wask  2. Roggie  3. Fea  4. Craig

113

Qualifiers

Breakdown

With the departure of Kurt McHenry, two-time Fargo Champion Wil Guida has made the drop to this weight class from 120. His move makes this weight class even more stacked as it features the #10 through #13 ranked wrestlers in the country. 

So let’s start at the top. #10 Ryan Miller, who essentially was splitting time at the beginning of the season here, has fully taken over the weight class for Blair and has manned it with authority. And by the way, he’s a returning Prep National Champion too, so it’s no surprise that he’s maintained a dominant presence in the Bucs’ lineup. This season he placed 5th at Ironman along with winning the NJ/NY qualifier. 

Guida is the next guy in line at #11. Like I said, he started the season up at 120 and it seemed to be a bit tough as he failed to place at the Powerade, a tournament where he was a finalist the year before. But he did come away with an 8th place finish at the Beast. However, the move to 113 has seemed to fit him just fine. Last week he defeated #12 Cooper Flynn 3-1 in the finals. Flynn is another contender here. He placed 7th at Ironman and 5th at the Beast this year. Flynn also battled with Miller earlier in the year, taking 3-1 losses in sudden victory at Ironman and in the dual meet. 

Last in the line of ranked contenders here is Wyoming Seminary’s #13 Troy Spratley. The freshman has competed well for Sem this year out-placing Miller and Flynn at Ironman with a third place finish. Spratley may have the highest ranking of these contenders, but I would not be surprised to see him make the finals. He already owns a win over Flynn on the backside at the Beast.

It’s going to be tough to crack into the top 4 with these contenders, but another guy to keep an eye on is Dayton Delviscio from Malvern Prep. He was a runner-up to Spratley in the state finals last week and also has a 3rd place finish at Escape the Rock and a 5th place finish at Powerade on his resume. 

Holmes’ picks: 1. Miller  2. Spratley  3. Guida  4. Flynn

120

Qualifiers

Breakdown

The obviously storyline here is the potential rematch between #5 Trevor Mastrogiovanni and #10 Chris Barnabae. When they met at the Beast it was Barnabae getting the huge 11-4 win over Mastrogiovanni who at a time was the top dog in this weight class. Mastro’s big time performance came at Ironman, where Barnabae failed to place. But Mastro dug pretty deep to come out on top of a very tough bracket where he had to collect some clutch takedowns late in the semis and finals to do so. But since then he’s taken the loss to Barnabae and as well as taking another tough one to Joey Cruz of Clovis North at WNO Duals. 

After defeating Mastrogiovanni, Barnabae took a loss in the semis and consi semis to slide to the 5th place match where he met and pinned (in 52-seconds) another contender in this bracket, #8 Lachlan McNeil. The same day that Mastrogiovanni lost to Cruz, McNeil defeated Cruz. He also owns a win over California State Champion #11 Maximo Renteria of Buchanan. Along with those two pretty big wins over Cali studs and 4th and 6th place finishes at Ironman and the Beast McNeil is still a bit of a question mark for me. He took a tough 7-1 loss to Mastrogiovanni during Sem’s dual with Blair and just last week lost to Chris Kim of Germantown Academy in the finals by injury default. So hopefully he is healthy and competing at his fullest this weekend at Preps.

Kim is the last contender for me here. He was 3rd at Escape the Rock and did not place at the Beast after taking losses to #2 Ryan Crookham and #4 Nic Bouzakis. 

But Mastrogiovanni is going for his third straight title, so despite any losses he’s taken during the year, I’m betting he’s going to be ready to turn up once he steps on the mat in Stabler Arena.

Needless to say, this weight could be a lot of fun.

Holmes’ picks: 1. Mastrogiovanni  2. Barnabae  3. McNeil  4. Kim

126

Qualifiers

Breakdown

Well, ya see, it’s pretty hard to bet against #2 Michael Colaiocco. He’s had two losses this year and neither of those guys will be in the tournament. Outside of those 2 losses, he’s basically had the entire weight class out behind the woodshed all year. I think he will see Wyoming Seminary’s Drew Munch in the finals. Munch was a Prep National Champ in 2017 then didn’t break back into the lineup again until this year and has looked pretty tough. A 13-4 loss to Colaiocco about a month ago is going to be a hard gap to close. 

But an interesting tidbit of info at play here is: Munch defeated Mosha Schwartz at Ironman. Schwartz defeated Robert Howard in the Doc B finals. Howard defeated Colaiocco during their dual and Colaiocco defeated Munch, which both happened in January. Do with that what you will.

Holmes’ picks: 1. Colaiocco  2. Munch  3. Truntich  4. Colman

132

Qualifiers

Breakdown

The only thing to talk about here is the fact that Shayne Van Ness will be out for revenge on Beau Bartlett. The last time they met it only last 24 seconds. Bartlett, who is seeking his second straight title, locked up a cement job and tossed Van Ness to his back to hand him his first loss of the year and knock him from the top spot in the weight class. But this one should end the night. It’ll be high paced and packed with action. 

Holmes’ picks: 1. Bartlett  2. Van Ness  3. Kable  4. Wehmeyer

138

Qualifiers

Breakdown

When Sem and Blair faced off a month ago, Travis Mastrogiovanni edged Jonathan Miers 3-2. Then last weekend at the state tournament Miers took a tough loss to Dalton Harkins in OT. These three will be battling it out for title. On a side note, it’s just great to see Miers competing at a high level again after being sidelined for most of the year with an injury. 

But for me Mastrogiovanni is the frontrunner, but based on those previous results, not by a lot. 

Holmes’ picks: 1. Mastrogiovanni  2. Miers  3. Harkins  4. Yost

145

Qualifiers

Breakdown

This one is a bit of a toss up. At the top are Connor Kievman, Josh Gobencion, Manzona Bryant and Ibraheim Mendheim. Kievman, who was last year's champ, lost to Gobencion when the teams met in the dual. Then Gobencion lost to Mendheim in the state finals while Kievman defeated FloNational runner-up, Bryant. It’s really anyone’s game here. 

Holmes’ picks: 1. Mendheim  2. Kievman  3. Govencion  4. Bryant

152

Qualifiers

Breakdown

Nick Incontrera is the returning champ here so he’s certainly the man to beat here. In his way this year is Benny Baker and Andrew Connolly. Baker and Incontrera wrestled to a 5-4 finish earlier this year with Incontrera getting the win. Connolly has had a pretty solid year and was the runner-up to Baker at states. Also watch Zane Cox. He’s coming in with just a two losses on the year, one of which was to Baker. But he should definitely not be taken lightly.

Holmes’ picks: 1. Incontrera  2. Baker  3. Connolly  4. Cox

160

Qualifiers

Breakdown

Look for another Blair-Sem matchup here in the finals. Dom Mata and Jake Stefanowicz are the guys to beat. Mata was a California State champ a season ago before making the move to Blair this year and will look to add a National Prep title to his trophy case. He defeated Stefanowicz 5-0 this year so look for the Blue Knight to come with a different game plan and sense of urgency. 

Holmes’ picks: 1. Stefanowicz  2. Mata  3. Dunbar  4. Feldman

170

Qualifiers

Breakdown

Umm, well, Julian Ramirez. It’s his world honestly. Which is exactly what most thought last time him and Mason Reiniche were in the same bracket. Ramirez bounced back to take out Jackson Turley, who we will talk about later, in the finals last year. Reiniche was a runner-up to Andrew Merola last year.  But Ramirez has been dominant on his way to the finals of every tournament this year with losses only to Carson Kharchla at Ironman and when he bumped up to face Darrien Roberts. Besides that it’s been a pretty dominant year. I’m sure that everyone will be keeping a close eye on where Ramirez and Reiniche are in the bracket. I’d expect them to meet in the finals with Cole Rees being the only person who could come between them. 

Holmes’ picks: 1. Ramirez  2. Reiniche  3. Rees

182

Qualifiers

Breakdown

Somebody pop some corn Jackson Turley is coming to town. I’ll be honest, he’s one of my favorites. Before you fire up the bias bus, I’ll explain why he’s one of my favorites later. Anyway, on the other side is Darrien Roberts, a guy who I’ve been really impressed with. He’s made a lot of improvements and it’s showed as he claimed the Ironman title this year. In that final he beat Turley, 4-2. But then just a few weeks later Turley put it on him to the tune of a 10-5 decision in the Beast semifinals. I think I’m going to have to go with Turley.

Now here’s my why: Based on how quickly he made adjustments and not only closed the gap but created one of his own on a larger scale is impressive.

Holmes’ picks: 1. Turley  2. Roberts  3. Craft  4. Slate

195

Qualifiers

Breakdown

Before I get to the guys who I think will make the finals, I have to give props to Rylan Rogers. To my knowledge this is the third weight class he’s wrestled in this season. He filled in for Dom Mata at 160 at WNO Duals, then wrestled 170 against Wyoming Sem during the dual and is now incredibly undersized here at 195. I haven’t seen him compete here, but based on his first place finish at states, I’m guessing quickness is the top option. Well, at least I hope it because he’s going to need it to sort through the minefield that includes Jack Parr, Jack Wimmer, Austin Cooley and Nicholas Florschutz. 

For me it’s these  guy who will be in the dogfight for the Prep title here and I’m giving the nod to Cooley. 

Holmes’ picks: 1. Cooley  2. Parr  3. Wimmer  4. Florschutz

220

Qualifiers

Breakdown

Someone pass this on to Owen Trephan and Jake Kaminski, please. Please do whatever you did in your match at Ironman again. That was wild. Sincerely, The Fans.

Trephan, who claimed the title at this weight last season, won the 20-point overtime battle in the Ironman semis, then Kaminski returned the favor during the dual with a one-point win (4-3 was the final score). This could be the match that decides the series should they meet in the finals. 

Holmes’ picks: 1. Kaminski  2. Trephan  3. Kappes  4. Jones

285

Qualifiers

Breakdown

Give me Isaac Righter for the win. However…..the biggest battle is Righter vs Righter. He’s incredibly talented. He was able to keep it together to win a Beast title this year, but that came after he was dq’d in the first round of Ironman just a few weeks prior. So hopefully his wrestling speaks louder this weekend.

Holmes’ picks: 1. Righter  2. Leyland  3. Williams  4. Ekwonu