Strong Ohio team stops New Jersey to win National Junior Freestyle Duals
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by Roger Moore
OKLAHOMA CITY - The chant was "O-H-IO", "O-H-IO."
It came about five minutes after a 35-22 victory over New Jersey 1 in the finals of the 2009 Junior Freestyle National Duals. The chant was a vocal display after Ohio had done most of its talking on the mat in 10 decisive dual victories.
"Last year a group of the kids and a couple of parents came to me and talked about (coming back to Oklahoma City)," said Ohio coach Eric Burnett. "We came out five years ago and (Ohio) brought a team a year later, so we wanted to do what we could to get back out here.
"It takes a commitment from a lot of people. Kids want to go to Disney (Duals in Florida) and do other things, but personally I think this is the best. I want our kids to be a part of this."
Ohio won titles in 2001, 2003 and 2004 but had been absent from the field since 2005. Iowa won the championship in 2005 with Illinois claiming the last three.
2009 belonged to Ohio, highlighted by a Saturday night win over Illinois and against four solid opponents - California, Missouri, Minnesota 1 and New Jersey 1 - on Sunday.
Ohio also won the Rollie Hoover Sportsmanship Award for the freestyle division.
"We really have a great team. We trained hard and made the commitment to come here," said 145-pounder David Taylor. "We weren't coming here for experience, we came here to win. You look at this field, with Illinois taking seventh, there were a lot of teams that were pretty close.
"Our scores were big, but that's because we had a lot of guys step up at big times during duals. (Cam Tessari) had a huge pin for us (in the finals) and you can look back at a lot of close matches we won."
The championship match saw Ohio win eight and New Jersey 1 take seven.
A 15-3 Ohio lead was built on a technical fall by Ryan Taylor (98), decisions by Jerome Robinson (112) and Cadet All-American Hunter Steiber (119) and a technical fall by national champion Logan Stieber (125).
New Jersey would win six of the final 10 bouts but the early hole was too much to overcome.
"Last summer after Fargo, everybody talked about putting this team together and we were able to get it done" said Logan Stieber, who is expected to attend Ohio State after his senior year. "Our best guys matched up with everybody's best guys and we felt we were better. And our 215 pounder (Logan Erb) wrestled really well. It's a dual team format and we really like that.
"I had never been to this tournament before. I thought it was great. There was great competition."
"This is a great tournament," Taylor said. "You get so many tough matches. And we only brought 15 guys so there were no breaks."
New Jersey cut the Illinois lead to 15-6 with a two period decision of Felipe Martinez at 130, but Tessari caught Tony Buxton with a double overhook and tossed him straight to his back for a pin at 1:35 to put Ohio up 20-6.
Austin Ormsbee took care of Zach Neibert at 140, but again Ohio responded when Taylor won a two-period decision over former Cadet All-American Chris Villalonga.
Jersey came back with a pair of tough three period decisions by Brandon Rolnick (152) and John Guzzo (160) to make it 25-16 with four bouts to wrestle.
Ohio's Nick Heflin had a decisive two-period win at 171 and it was 28-16.
Jersey's Max Huntley beat Max Tomuseitt in two 1-1 periods and Jonathan Becker won a tough bout against Erb at 215 to make it 30-22.
There was no heavyweight bout with things already out of reach.
"I think we have a great group of kids," said Coach Todd Haverdil. "They trained very hard for this tournament and it showed. The best kids seek out the best competition in the country and there's no doubt a lot of the best kids are here.
"We just brought a freestyle team. It has to be rough on those guys who wrestled both (freestyle and Greco), but I think it says a lot about our kids, the fact that we brought 15."
Robinson, who gave Deutsch his only loss this week in the finals, Logan and Hunter Stieber, Tessari, Taylor and 285-pounder Jeremy Johnson all went 10-0 in the tournament.
Minnesota 1 lost to Ohio in the first session of the afternoon but came back to beat Oklahoma 1, 34-30, in the third place match. Last year's fourth place squad took control, 26-10, when national champion Dylan Ness pinned Cadet All-American Jeromy Davenport at 140 pounds.
Iowa routed California, 50-16, for fifth and Illinois, which lost three matches on Sunday, hammered Missouri, 53-13, for seventh.
"Nobody has their absolute best here, but this was a very deep group of teams," said Illinois coach Sean Bormet. "We obviously didn't come here to take seventh. But I think it was a very good tournament overall.
"We've been tough several years in a row. This year we had some critical mistakes in big matches. We could have been wrestling for first just as easily as Oklahoma or Iowa. All it takes is a few mistakes in a field like this and you are going to get beat. It kind of snowballed on us but we'll be back."
Ohio rolled into the finals with a 41-18 win over Minnesota 1.
After falling behind 8-1, Robinson (112), Hunter (119) and Logan Stieber (125) picked up technical falls and Ohio was off to the races.
David Thorn (130) and Ness (135) would be the last two Minnesotans to win as Taylor's technical fall at 145 started a run of seven straight victories for Ohio.
New Jersey 1 joined Ohio with nine wins in nine starts with a victory over Iowa, jumping out to a 12-6 lead thanks to a Tyler Fraley, who was 10-0 for the tournament - decision in three periods at 105, a pin by Deutsch at 112 and a technical fall by Evan Silver at 119.
Ormsbee won a tough three-period bout with Bart Reiter at 140 and it was 21-12.
Rolnick's pin at 152 gave New Jersey a 29-13 lead and all-but-sealed the deal.
Illinois fell for a fourth consecutive time when Oklahoma rallied for a 31-31 tie - the hosts won nine bouts to win the dual.
2008 national champion Chris Perry moved up to 215 and beat Jack Allen to send the dual to 285 with Illinois up 30-28. Blake Bean then beat Chris Brassell, 1-1, 2-0, to forge the tie.
Illinois trailed for much of the dual but rallied to tie it at 25 on a solid performance by All-American Lee Munster in beating All-American Dallas Bailey at 171.
Illinois' Jon Morrison beat Ladd Rupp in a three period battle of All-Americans and teammates at Oklahoma State University this fall.
The win pushed Oklahoma's record to 7-2 and put them in the third place match against Minnesota 1 and a rematch of Saturday night's dramatic 33-32 Minnesota 1 victory to decide Pool B.
California beat Missouri, 32-30, to advance to the fifth place match against Iowa.
NATIONAL JUNIOR FREESTYLE DUALS
At Oklahoma City, Okla.
Championship Results
1st Place - Ohio
2nd Place - New Jersey 1
3rd Place - Minnesota 1
4th Place - Oklahoma 1
5th Place - Iowa
6th Place - California
7th Place - Illinois
8th Place - Missouri
1st - Ohio defeated New Jersey 1 35-22.
3rd - Minnesota 1 defeated Oklahoma 1 34-30.
5th - Iowa defeated California 50-16.
7th - Illinois defeated Missouri 53-13
Championship Match
Ohio 35, New Jersey 1 22
98 Ryan Taylor (Ohio) tech. fall Trevor Albrecht (New Jersey 1) 6-0,6-0
105 Tyler Fraley (New Jersey 1) over Brian Spangler (Ohio) Dec 7-0,1-0
112 Jerome Robinson (Ohio) over Rob Deutsch (New Jersey 1) Dec 2-0,1-0
119 Hunter Stieber (Ohio) over Evan Silver (New Jersey 1) Dec 2-0,3-0
125 Logan Stieber (Ohio) over Joe Duca (New Jersey 1) Pin 1:06
130 Frank Cagnina (New Jersey 1) over Felipe Martinez (Ohio) Dec 4-0,6-0
135 Cam Tessari (Ohio) over Tony Buxton (New Jersey 1) Pin 1:35
140 Austin Ormsbee (New Jersey 1) over Zach Neibert (Ohio) Dec 1-0,4-0
145 David Taylor (Ohio) over Chris Villalonga (New Jersey 1) Dec 1-0,3-1
152 Brandon Rolnick (New Jersey 1) over Pierce Harger (Ohio) Dec 1-2,2-0,3-1
160 John Guzzo (New Jersey 1) over Dave Habat (Ohio) Dec 0-3,3-0,1-0
171 Nick Heflin (Ohio) over Preston Keiffer (New Jersey 1) Dec 7-0,2-0
189 Max Huntley (New Jersey 1) over Max Tomusseit (Ohio) Dec 1-1,1-1
215 Jonathan Becker (New Jersey 1) over Logan Erb (Ohio) Dec 3-2,2-0
285 Jeremy Johnson (Ohio) by forfeit
Junior National Duals All-Tournament Team - Freestyle
98 pounds - Mike Dauterieve of Texas went 8-0
98 pounds - Sam Brancale of Minnesota 2 went 6-0
105 pounds - Tyler Fraley of New Jersey 1 went 10-0
105 pounds - Thomas Gilman of Nebraska went 6-0
105 pounds - Jordan Kingsley of Minnesota 1 went 6-0
105 pounds - Hayden Zillmer of Minnesota 1 went 6-0
112 pounds - Jerome Robinson of Ohio went 10-0
119 pounds - Hunter Stieber of Ohio went 10-0
119 pounds - Sean Boylan of Delaware went 7-0
119 pounds - Camden Eppert of Indiana went 6-0
125 pounds - Logan Stieber of Ohio went 10-0
125 pounds - Jesse Thielke of Wisconsin went 9-0
125 pounds - Edwin Cooper of Illinois went 6-0
130 pounds - Frank Cagnina of New Jersey 1 went 10-0
130 pounds - David Thorn of Minnesota 1 went 10-0
135 pounds - Cam Tessari of Ohio went 10-0
135 pounds - Trevor Johnson of North Dakota went 8-0
135 pounds - Jacob Ballweg of Iowa went 7-0
140 pounds - Dylan Ness of Minnesota 1 went 8-0
145 pounds - David Taylor of Ohio went 10-0
145 pounds - Nazar Kulchytsky of Wisconsin went 8-0
152 pounds - Brandon Rolnick of New Jersey 1 went 7-0
160 pounds - Derek St. John of Iowa went 9-0
160 pounds - Jesse Shanaman of New Jersey 2 went 7-0
171 pounds - Kris Klapprodt of South Dakota went 6-0
189 pounds - Chris Perry of Oklahoma 1 went 6-0
215 pounds - Alex Polizzi of Wisconsin went 8-0
285 pounds - Jeremy Johnson of Ohio went 10-0
285 pounds - Nikko Bogojevic of Wisconsin went 8-0
It came about five minutes after a 35-22 victory over New Jersey 1 in the finals of the 2009 Junior Freestyle National Duals. The chant was a vocal display after Ohio had done most of its talking on the mat in 10 decisive dual victories.
"Last year a group of the kids and a couple of parents came to me and talked about (coming back to Oklahoma City)," said Ohio coach Eric Burnett. "We came out five years ago and (Ohio) brought a team a year later, so we wanted to do what we could to get back out here.
"It takes a commitment from a lot of people. Kids want to go to Disney (Duals in Florida) and do other things, but personally I think this is the best. I want our kids to be a part of this."
Ohio won titles in 2001, 2003 and 2004 but had been absent from the field since 2005. Iowa won the championship in 2005 with Illinois claiming the last three.
2009 belonged to Ohio, highlighted by a Saturday night win over Illinois and against four solid opponents - California, Missouri, Minnesota 1 and New Jersey 1 - on Sunday.
Ohio also won the Rollie Hoover Sportsmanship Award for the freestyle division.
"We really have a great team. We trained hard and made the commitment to come here," said 145-pounder David Taylor. "We weren't coming here for experience, we came here to win. You look at this field, with Illinois taking seventh, there were a lot of teams that were pretty close.
"Our scores were big, but that's because we had a lot of guys step up at big times during duals. (Cam Tessari) had a huge pin for us (in the finals) and you can look back at a lot of close matches we won."
The championship match saw Ohio win eight and New Jersey 1 take seven.
A 15-3 Ohio lead was built on a technical fall by Ryan Taylor (98), decisions by Jerome Robinson (112) and Cadet All-American Hunter Steiber (119) and a technical fall by national champion Logan Stieber (125).
New Jersey would win six of the final 10 bouts but the early hole was too much to overcome.
"Last summer after Fargo, everybody talked about putting this team together and we were able to get it done" said Logan Stieber, who is expected to attend Ohio State after his senior year. "Our best guys matched up with everybody's best guys and we felt we were better. And our 215 pounder (Logan Erb) wrestled really well. It's a dual team format and we really like that.
"I had never been to this tournament before. I thought it was great. There was great competition."
"This is a great tournament," Taylor said. "You get so many tough matches. And we only brought 15 guys so there were no breaks."
New Jersey cut the Illinois lead to 15-6 with a two period decision of Felipe Martinez at 130, but Tessari caught Tony Buxton with a double overhook and tossed him straight to his back for a pin at 1:35 to put Ohio up 20-6.
Austin Ormsbee took care of Zach Neibert at 140, but again Ohio responded when Taylor won a two-period decision over former Cadet All-American Chris Villalonga.
Jersey came back with a pair of tough three period decisions by Brandon Rolnick (152) and John Guzzo (160) to make it 25-16 with four bouts to wrestle.
Ohio's Nick Heflin had a decisive two-period win at 171 and it was 28-16.
Jersey's Max Huntley beat Max Tomuseitt in two 1-1 periods and Jonathan Becker won a tough bout against Erb at 215 to make it 30-22.
There was no heavyweight bout with things already out of reach.
"I think we have a great group of kids," said Coach Todd Haverdil. "They trained very hard for this tournament and it showed. The best kids seek out the best competition in the country and there's no doubt a lot of the best kids are here.
"We just brought a freestyle team. It has to be rough on those guys who wrestled both (freestyle and Greco), but I think it says a lot about our kids, the fact that we brought 15."
Robinson, who gave Deutsch his only loss this week in the finals, Logan and Hunter Stieber, Tessari, Taylor and 285-pounder Jeremy Johnson all went 10-0 in the tournament.
Minnesota 1 lost to Ohio in the first session of the afternoon but came back to beat Oklahoma 1, 34-30, in the third place match. Last year's fourth place squad took control, 26-10, when national champion Dylan Ness pinned Cadet All-American Jeromy Davenport at 140 pounds.
Iowa routed California, 50-16, for fifth and Illinois, which lost three matches on Sunday, hammered Missouri, 53-13, for seventh.
"Nobody has their absolute best here, but this was a very deep group of teams," said Illinois coach Sean Bormet. "We obviously didn't come here to take seventh. But I think it was a very good tournament overall.
"We've been tough several years in a row. This year we had some critical mistakes in big matches. We could have been wrestling for first just as easily as Oklahoma or Iowa. All it takes is a few mistakes in a field like this and you are going to get beat. It kind of snowballed on us but we'll be back."
Ohio rolled into the finals with a 41-18 win over Minnesota 1.
After falling behind 8-1, Robinson (112), Hunter (119) and Logan Stieber (125) picked up technical falls and Ohio was off to the races.
David Thorn (130) and Ness (135) would be the last two Minnesotans to win as Taylor's technical fall at 145 started a run of seven straight victories for Ohio.
New Jersey 1 joined Ohio with nine wins in nine starts with a victory over Iowa, jumping out to a 12-6 lead thanks to a Tyler Fraley, who was 10-0 for the tournament - decision in three periods at 105, a pin by Deutsch at 112 and a technical fall by Evan Silver at 119.
Ormsbee won a tough three-period bout with Bart Reiter at 140 and it was 21-12.
Rolnick's pin at 152 gave New Jersey a 29-13 lead and all-but-sealed the deal.
Illinois fell for a fourth consecutive time when Oklahoma rallied for a 31-31 tie - the hosts won nine bouts to win the dual.
2008 national champion Chris Perry moved up to 215 and beat Jack Allen to send the dual to 285 with Illinois up 30-28. Blake Bean then beat Chris Brassell, 1-1, 2-0, to forge the tie.
Illinois trailed for much of the dual but rallied to tie it at 25 on a solid performance by All-American Lee Munster in beating All-American Dallas Bailey at 171.
Illinois' Jon Morrison beat Ladd Rupp in a three period battle of All-Americans and teammates at Oklahoma State University this fall.
The win pushed Oklahoma's record to 7-2 and put them in the third place match against Minnesota 1 and a rematch of Saturday night's dramatic 33-32 Minnesota 1 victory to decide Pool B.
California beat Missouri, 32-30, to advance to the fifth place match against Iowa.
NATIONAL JUNIOR FREESTYLE DUALS
At Oklahoma City, Okla.
Championship Results
1st Place - Ohio
2nd Place - New Jersey 1
3rd Place - Minnesota 1
4th Place - Oklahoma 1
5th Place - Iowa
6th Place - California
7th Place - Illinois
8th Place - Missouri
1st - Ohio defeated New Jersey 1 35-22.
3rd - Minnesota 1 defeated Oklahoma 1 34-30.
5th - Iowa defeated California 50-16.
7th - Illinois defeated Missouri 53-13
Championship Match
Ohio 35, New Jersey 1 22
98 Ryan Taylor (Ohio) tech. fall Trevor Albrecht (New Jersey 1) 6-0,6-0
105 Tyler Fraley (New Jersey 1) over Brian Spangler (Ohio) Dec 7-0,1-0
112 Jerome Robinson (Ohio) over Rob Deutsch (New Jersey 1) Dec 2-0,1-0
119 Hunter Stieber (Ohio) over Evan Silver (New Jersey 1) Dec 2-0,3-0
125 Logan Stieber (Ohio) over Joe Duca (New Jersey 1) Pin 1:06
130 Frank Cagnina (New Jersey 1) over Felipe Martinez (Ohio) Dec 4-0,6-0
135 Cam Tessari (Ohio) over Tony Buxton (New Jersey 1) Pin 1:35
140 Austin Ormsbee (New Jersey 1) over Zach Neibert (Ohio) Dec 1-0,4-0
145 David Taylor (Ohio) over Chris Villalonga (New Jersey 1) Dec 1-0,3-1
152 Brandon Rolnick (New Jersey 1) over Pierce Harger (Ohio) Dec 1-2,2-0,3-1
160 John Guzzo (New Jersey 1) over Dave Habat (Ohio) Dec 0-3,3-0,1-0
171 Nick Heflin (Ohio) over Preston Keiffer (New Jersey 1) Dec 7-0,2-0
189 Max Huntley (New Jersey 1) over Max Tomusseit (Ohio) Dec 1-1,1-1
215 Jonathan Becker (New Jersey 1) over Logan Erb (Ohio) Dec 3-2,2-0
285 Jeremy Johnson (Ohio) by forfeit
Junior National Duals All-Tournament Team - Freestyle
98 pounds - Mike Dauterieve of Texas went 8-0
98 pounds - Sam Brancale of Minnesota 2 went 6-0
105 pounds - Tyler Fraley of New Jersey 1 went 10-0
105 pounds - Thomas Gilman of Nebraska went 6-0
105 pounds - Jordan Kingsley of Minnesota 1 went 6-0
105 pounds - Hayden Zillmer of Minnesota 1 went 6-0
112 pounds - Jerome Robinson of Ohio went 10-0
119 pounds - Hunter Stieber of Ohio went 10-0
119 pounds - Sean Boylan of Delaware went 7-0
119 pounds - Camden Eppert of Indiana went 6-0
125 pounds - Logan Stieber of Ohio went 10-0
125 pounds - Jesse Thielke of Wisconsin went 9-0
125 pounds - Edwin Cooper of Illinois went 6-0
130 pounds - Frank Cagnina of New Jersey 1 went 10-0
130 pounds - David Thorn of Minnesota 1 went 10-0
135 pounds - Cam Tessari of Ohio went 10-0
135 pounds - Trevor Johnson of North Dakota went 8-0
135 pounds - Jacob Ballweg of Iowa went 7-0
140 pounds - Dylan Ness of Minnesota 1 went 8-0
145 pounds - David Taylor of Ohio went 10-0
145 pounds - Nazar Kulchytsky of Wisconsin went 8-0
152 pounds - Brandon Rolnick of New Jersey 1 went 7-0
160 pounds - Derek St. John of Iowa went 9-0
160 pounds - Jesse Shanaman of New Jersey 2 went 7-0
171 pounds - Kris Klapprodt of South Dakota went 6-0
189 pounds - Chris Perry of Oklahoma 1 went 6-0
215 pounds - Alex Polizzi of Wisconsin went 8-0
285 pounds - Jeremy Johnson of Ohio went 10-0
285 pounds - Nikko Bogojevic of Wisconsin went 8-0
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