Top National High School Tournaments

[durdon]

Here are the National tournaments that matter for HS.   

1. UWW Juniors and Cadets(U16) - by far the hardest of all the tournaments that holds the most respect with D1 coaches.  It’s for a freaking spot on the world team  and it has half the weights of normal tourneys. 

2. Fargo - some will argue that Super32 is 2nd but getting a stop sign at Fargo is one of biggest accomplishments in HS wrestling. Stop Signs matter to D1 coaches big time. 

3. Super 32 is the most respected Folkstyle Tourney even though Ironman is harder. Make it to 2nd day as Noah did or place like Coffey did and your stock skyrockets among D1 coaches.

4. Ironman - the toughest Folkstyle tourney there is, especially at the bigger weights.  TN kids almost never wrestle at this in season tourney which is a shame as you can get major exposure here.  

That’s the big 4, you place at these tourneys and you are getting money to go high level D1. 

5. National Prep - yes, it’s only Prep schools but this tourney hold a huge amount of respect among college coaches.  The Ivys and pseudo ivys recruit almost exclusively from this tourney. This tourney placement gets you seeded at Super32, NHSCA and a bunch of other tourneys. 

6. Beast of the East - last year was first year there were some TN kids at this tourney and this year there going to be a ton.  You will see this tournament listed in D1 college bio’s if one of their kids placed here. Hopefully, we will get some TN AA’s this year. 

7. NHSCA- This is the only grade level tourney that gets kids a ton of respect. Colleges recruit this tourney hard. 
 

8. Flonationals - there are tougher tourneys than this but because it’s a Flo’s event it gets way over hyped and gets kids noticed.  Last year it fell the weekend before UWW Juniors so the junior division was weak but the cadets was freaking loaded. 
 

9. Doc Buchanan- it’s in California and the last 2 years the brackets have been sick.  This one gets a lot of notice since there a ton of west coast kids that go that don’t go to other tourneys so colleges watch this one hard. 
 

10. Powerade - this one has dropped off the past couple of years but the name still hold weight.  All the big PA kids go to Powerade and it’s there warm up for states

Brother Ed is there anything I’m missing and is this the order you would rank these?  I was on the fence about where to put Powerade and should this list expand to 12 and add Cheesehead and Reno? 

Edited October 26, 2019 by durdon

[ObserverW]

Durdon-I appreciate your knowledge of wrestling but you have a loud voice and type massively long posts so I think people assume your opinions are facts and others therefore build on your faulty assumptions and self-serving statements.  I don't have the time or interest to research too much but just from memory I am going to toss out a few names that debunk your statement about Ivy Leagues recruiting "almost exclusively from Prep Nationals."  Dake, Yanni, Max & Gabe Dean, Peppleman--not at Nat Preps.  I am sure there are many others but those quickly come to mind.  Your opinions are completely skewed by your own experience.  Just because a couple of Baylor kids ended up at Cornell because they competed well at PN does not qualify your statement.  And the funniest part is I KNOW you want to list it higher on your list but you are trying to pretend to be humble.  

UWW & Fargo, while certainly tough tournaments, are not 1 & 2. The population of wrestlers who compete at these events is a fraction of the talent throughout the United States.  I know you try to fly the freestyle flag but deep in your heart you know there are kids who are sitting at home watching Fargo who would blow through many of those AA's.  Comparing freestyle and folkstyle tournaments and determining a kids "ranking" in folkstyle because of how many AA's they have in a freestyle tournament is pretty close to idiotic.  That is akin to saying Jeff Gordon should be ranked as a top 5 motorcycle racer.  Both sports are racing and he was amazing at one so he therefore must be amazing at another racing sport.  That argument only works if you are a NASCAR fan and trying to prove your own opinion.  Kind of similar to someone who touts the private school wrestlers and those who perform well at freestyle events as the best.  In the end its all about perspective and you seem to have lost it.   

 

Edited October 26, 2019 by ObserverW

[durdon]

Cornell is a top 5 program so they recruit the very top level kids and not just Prep. 
 

You also just lost all credibility when you said UWW wasn’t number 1.  There is ZERO debate that UWW is the toughest tournament in all of High School wrestling.  NO DEBATE! 
 

Let’s look at 2015 UWW Cadets

Find me another High School tournament with this level of talent in every single bracket???

UWW Cadet MFS - 50 KG

Guaranteed Places

• 2nd Place - Gavin Teasdale of Pennsylvania
• 2nd Place - Drew Mattin of Ohio
• 3rd Place - Roman Bravo-Young of Arizona
• 4th Place - Jordan Decatur of Ohio
• 5th Place - Brandon Courtney of Arizona
• 6th Place - Jaden Abas of California
• 8th Place - Quinn Kinner of New Jersey
• 8th Place - Logan Treaster of Kansas

UWW Cadet MFS - 54 KG

Guaranteed Places

• 2nd Place - Spencer Lee of Pennsylvania
• 2nd Place - Daton Fix of Oklahoma
• 3rd Place - Austin Gomez of Illinois
• 4th Place - Cade Olivas of California
• 5th Place - Ian Parker of Michigan
• 6th Place - Max Murin of Pennsylvania
• 8th Place - Paul Konrath of Indiana
• 8th Place - Nicholas Raimo of New Jersey

UWW Cadet MFS - 58 KG

Guaranteed Places

• 2nd Place - Yianni Diakomihalis of New York
• 2nd Place - Vito Arvjav of New York
• 3rd Place - Taylor LaMont of Utah
• 4th Place - Ben Freeman of Michigan
• 5th Place - Jaden Enriquez of California
• 6th Place - Kaden Gfeller of Oklahoma
• 8th Place - Alex Lloyd of Minnesota
• 8th Place - Tim Kane of Connecticut

UWW Cadet MFS - 63 KG

Guaranteed Places

• 2nd Place - Jarod Verkleeren of Pennsylvania
• 2nd Place - Kanen Storr of Michigan
• 3rd Place - Quentin Hovis of Arizona
• 4th Place - Anthony Artalona of Florida
• 5th Place - Shayne Oster of Illinois
• 6th Place - Jaron Jensen of Utah
• 8th Place - Corey Shie of Ohio
• 8th Place - Joe Lee of Indiana

UWW Cadet MFS - 100 KG

Guaranteed Places

• 2nd Place - Kobe Woods of Indiana
• 2nd Place - Gable Steveson of Minnesota
• 3rd Place - Jordan Wood of Pennsylvania
• 4th Place - Anthony Piscopo of Pennsylvania
• 5th Place - Cohlton Schultz of Colorado
• 6th Place - Kayne Hutchison of Kansas
• 8th Place - Ali`i Loyola of Missouri
• 8th Place - Ian Ruble of Wisconsin

[BQ125]

Scott I disagree as Super 32 is the toughest.  Fargo is a great accomplishment but with cadet and the Junior along with multiple extra weights it comes in 2nd to me.  Great list but you have a ton of Fargo placers that never place at Super 32.  My opinion. 

[Greenhorn]

6 hours ago, BQ125 said:

Scott I disagree as Super 32 is the toughest.  Fargo is a great accomplishment but with cadet and the Junior along with multiple extra weights it comes in 2nd to me.  Great list but you have a ton of Fargo placers that never place at Super 32.  My opinion. 

Dam I can’t believe I agree with bbq00

[JSamson7]

On 10/26/2019 at 10:33 AM, ObserverW said:

Durdon-I appreciate your knowledge of wrestling but you have a loud voice and type massively long posts so I think people assume your opinions are facts and others therefore build on your faulty assumptions and self-serving statements.  I don't have the time or interest to research too much but just from memory I am going to toss out a few names that debunk your statement about Ivy Leagues recruiting "almost exclusively from Prep Nationals."  Dake, Yanni, Max & Gabe Dean, Peppleman--not at Nat Preps.  I am sure there are many others but those quickly come to mind.  Your opinions are completely skewed by your own experience.  Just because a couple of Baylor kids ended up at Cornell because they competed well at PN does not qualify your statement.  And the funniest part is I KNOW you want to list it higher on your list but you are trying to pretend to be humble.  

UWW & Fargo, while certainly tough tournaments, are not 1 & 2. The population of wrestlers who compete at these events is a fraction of the talent throughout the United States.  I know you try to fly the freestyle flag but deep in your heart you know there are kids who are sitting at home watching Fargo who would blow through many of those AA's.  Comparing freestyle and folkstyle tournaments and determining a kids "ranking" in folkstyle because of how many AA's they have in a freestyle tournament is pretty close to idiotic.  That is akin to saying Jeff Gordon should be ranked as a top 5 motorcycle racer.  Both sports are racing and he was amazing at one so he therefore must be amazing at another racing sport.  That argument only works if you are a NASCAR fan and trying to prove your own opinion.  Kind of similar to someone who touts the private school wrestlers and those who perform well at freestyle events as the best.  In the end its all about perspective and you seem to have lost it.   

 

^^^^^THIS

[ObserverW]

On 10/26/2019 at 12:18 PM, durdon said:

Cornell is a top 5 program so they recruit the very top level kids and not just Prep. 
 

You also just lost all credibility when you said UWW wasn’t number 1.  There is ZERO debate that UWW is the toughest tournament in all of High School wrestling.  NO DEBATE! 
 

Let’s look at 2015 UWW Cadets

Find me another High School tournament with this level of talent in every single bracket???

 

See, there you go again spouting off your opinion as fact.  Just because there is ZERO debate that UWW is the toughest tournament IN YOUR MIND, doesn't make it true.  

Also I find it interesting that you had to go back to 2015 to find the talent level at UWW sufficient to attempt to prove your argument.  But since you asked, I quickly pulled up the results of Ironman.  They have a list of former place winners who were All American.  The last year it was updated was 2016 so I just pulled 2016, 2015, & 2014.  I will note that I am not advocating Ironman as the toughest tournament, in fact, I would probably lean toward S32 and Powerade.  It is also important to note that Ironman is an in season tournament so the pool of potential entries is very limited.  Even given these limitations, Ironman still have more talent than UWW.

 

2016 Habat, David Jordan, Isaac McIntosh, Morgan Miller, Ian Retherford, Zain Beckman, Mason Cruz, Darian Dance, Joey Harger, Pierce Johnson, Jeremy Kindig, Josh Thomas, Lorenzo   2015 Epperly, Zach Heil, Dean Jordan, Bo Martinez, Isaiah Snyder, Kyle Tomasello, Nathan Walz, Ty Gulibon, James Huntley, Max Moisey, Zeke Taylor, Ryan Villalonga, Chris

2014 Chisko, Solomon Cruz, Randy Martin, Myles McKenna. Joey Mecate, Chris Meredith, Bryce Nickal, Bo Schram, Connor Ward, Joseph

[BQ125]

Super 32 toughest!!  

[PurpleWrestler]

the fact is this, and it's simple, THE toughest tournament can change each and every year. It will and always will, depend on who enters it. This past year, in my opinion, Super 32 was the toughest. Reason why, the numbers, And to be a part of the tournament 90% of the kids were state placers or early entry qualifiers. So you take 150 man bracket, and no kids are not a high level wrestler, then to make it day 2 does say a lot. But that same does not always hold true for the upper weights, because a lot of those kids are playing football and can't go. So for the upper weights, other tournaments are the toughest. 

So basically, this argument on what is the "toughest" is pointless, unless you want to say. "What was the toughest THIS year"

 

[Thethunda190]

On 10/26/2019 at 2:34 AM, durdon said:

Here are the National tournaments that matter for HS.   

1. UWW Juniors and Cadets(U16) - by far the hardest of all the tournaments that holds the most respect with D1 coaches.  It’s for a freaking spot on the world team  and it has half the weights of normal tourneys. 

2. Fargo - some will argue that Super32 is 2nd but getting a stop sign at Fargo is one of biggest accomplishments in HS wrestling. Stop Signs matter to D1 coaches big time. 

3. Super 32 is the most respected Folkstyle Tourney even though Ironman is harder. Make it to 2nd day as Noah did or place like Coffey did and your stock skyrockets among D1 coaches.

4. Ironman - the toughest Folkstyle tourney there is, especially at the bigger weights.  TN kids almost never wrestle at this in season tourney which is a shame as you can get major exposure here.  

That’s the big 4, you place at these tourneys and you are getting money to go high level D1. 

5. National Prep - yes, it’s only Prep schools but this tourney hold a huge amount of respect among college coaches.  The Ivys and pseudo ivys recruit almost exclusively from this tourney. This tourney placement gets you seeded at Super32, NHSCA and a bunch of other tourneys. 

6. Beast of the East - last year was first year there were some TN kids at this tourney and this year there going to be a ton.  You will see this tournament listed in D1 college bio’s if one of their kids placed here. Hopefully, we will get some TN AA’s this year. 

7. NHSCA- This is the only grade level tourney that gets kids a ton of respect. Colleges recruit this tourney hard. 
 

8. Flonationals - there are tougher tourneys than this but because it’s a Flo’s event it gets way over hyped and gets kids noticed.  Last year it fell the weekend before UWW Juniors so the junior division was weak but the cadets was freaking loaded. 
 

9. Doc Buchanan- it’s in California and the last 2 years the brackets have been sick.  This one gets a lot of notice since there a ton of west coast kids that go that don’t go to other tourneys so colleges watch this one hard. 
 

10. Powerade - this one has dropped off the past couple of years but the name still hold weight.  All the big PA kids go to Powerade and it’s there warm up for states

Brother Ed is there anything I’m missing and is this the order you would rank these?  I was on the fence about where to put Powerade and should this list expand to 12 and add Cheesehead and Reno? 

I would have to agree with you on your list Scott. To say UWW, Fargo, and Ironman aren't the three top tournaments in the country tells me that a person doesn't watch a lot of top level wrestling. Super 32 is really high up there but with the lack of talent in the upper weights it drops down a few notches  

[BQ125]

Now that is funny!!