Yianni, JO, Molinaro: 65kg Is The Money Weight In Fort Worth
Yianni, JO, Molinaro: 65kg Is The Money Weight In Fort Worth
At this weekend's Senior Nationals - US Olympic Trials Qualifier in Fort Worth, 65kg will be the deepest bracket and most fun weight to watch.
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Obviously every bracket this weekend will be loaded with talent, but there's no question which weight will be the one to watch: 65kg.
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The 65kg field for Senior Nationals has star power, a long list of credentials, and some of the most exciting wrestlers who will be in the gym this Saturday and Sunday in Fort Worth. Only five of them will place highly enough to qualify for the Olympic Team Trials this coming April.
Let's start with our projected seeds for this bracket. You will eventually find brackets in FloArena.
65kg Projected Seeds
- Yianni Diakomihalis
- Jordan Oliver
- Frank Molinaro
- Evan Henderson
- Joey McKenna
- Jaydin Eierman
- Bryce Meredith
- Ben Whitford
- Dom Demas
- Jayson Ness
- Dean Heil
- Alec Pantaleo
Jordan Oliver is already qualified for OTT by winning the Bill Farrell, so if he places in the top five this weekend he would limit the number of new qualifiers to four.
Among projected seeds, there are eight NCAA titles and 14 national finals appearances. Yianni won two Cadet world titles, Jordan Oliver made a Junior world final, Molinaro finished fifth at the 2016 Olympics, and McKenna has two age-level medals.
Taking a look at some of the other registered studs:
- Nick Dardanes
- Earl Hall
- Colton McCrystal
- Rob Mathers
- Joey Lazor
- Matt Kolodzik
- Ethan Lizak
- Josh Saunders
- Sean Fausz
- Mario Mason
Adding in those guys with the projected seeds, you've got five U23 world team appearances, five Junior world team spots, and three guys who wrestled at Cadet worlds.
OK, so you get it, this weight is star-studded and battle-tested. Beyond that, though, we've got an excellent range of styles to make 65kg intriguing.
Yianni is an all-time scrambler who loves forcing as many different wrestling positions as he can muster. Oliver is one of the slickest takedown artists of this decade. Molinaro is a bruising hand fighter with a devastating lefty hi-c. Henderson has learned well from Kendall Cross at the NYC RTC and is now tossing people left and right.
McKenna has some of the most excellent baseline defense you'll see. Eierman is as creative as they come. Meredith uses his folkstyle chops on top and has modified it to fit par terre. Whitford was a high school dynamo who still has all the same tricks from his time in Michigan.
Demas will inside trip literally anyone, and Jayson Ness is always looking to put someone on their back. Heil's tenacity has grown into a modified freestyle game, and Pantaleo is a compact pitbull looking to overpower everyone.
Now, what about these potential matchups?
In the finals, we could be looking at Yianni vs Jordan Oliver or Frank Molinaro, both of which we saw at the U.S. Open in April. To get there, you're going to be treated to yet another chapter in the always entertaining JO/Gorilla Hulk rivalry, or a rematch of the 2019 NCAA finals between Yianni and McKena.
Now, that last one would require McKenna to knock off Evan Henderson in the quarters, reversing a result from their 24-point barn burner in the Bill Farrell third-place match. Another possible quarter is between Jaydin Eierman and Molinaro, a match we saw three different times this spring, all of which went Molinaro's way.
Reviewing potential Round of 16 matchups, Bryce Meredith vs Jayson Ness sticks out, as does Dean Heil vs Jaydin Eierman. Joey McKenna and Alec Pantaleo wrestled 141 and 157, respectively, in the same season, but now could meet at 65kg.
Can Yianni take over Fort Worth like he did Las Vegas? Will the move to Chapel Hill result in the best Jordan Oliver we've ever seen? Can Frank Molinaro make a Cinderella run like he did in 2016? Who will be left for the last chance qualifier at the end of March?
All of these and more will be answered by Sunday afternoon, but no matter how you slice it, 65kg is the best weight this weekend.