NJCAA Preview: Clackamas looks to repeat as champions, Western Wyoming among top challengers
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by Johnnie Johnson, Special to TheMat.com
The Clackamas Cougars look to defend their title at the 2020 NJCAA National Championships at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, March 6-7.
Clackamas earned 10 qualifiers from the West District, putting all 10 wrestlers in the final match of the West championship in Coos Bay, Ore. It culminated in seven champions and Clackamas’ ninth title in the past 10 years. This season’s squad returns four national qualifiers from last season’s record-breaking performance, which saw the Cougar mat men set the new national scoring record at the NJCAA Championship.
Clackamas wrestling is known from coast-to-coast for producing high-caliber wrestlers and students. Under the guidance of 13th-year Head Coach Josh Rhoden, the program has compiled a dual meet record of 141-35-2 and produced 77 All-Americans, 24 National Finalists, 11 National Champions, as well as earned 92 Academic All-Americans. The Cougars have won a total of seven National Dual Meet Championships over the years.
At last year’s NJCAA Nationals, with a school record of nine All-Americans, Clackamas set the National Scoring record with an incredible 176.5 team points. Clackamas has a legitimate chance of putting six wrestlers in the finals with a one-two-three punch at 125-133-and 141 with three top ranked wrestlers.
A summary of the Clackamas wrestlers:
125- Cameron Enriquez- Region Champ
133- Jason Shaner- Region Champ, Returning AA
141- Marckis Branford- Region Runner Up dropping a match to #3 ranked Matthew Hofenbredl of Southwest Oregon.
149 - Marty Margolis III was a Region Champ, and previous National Qualifier, is ranked 8th
157 - Joel Romero, was also a Region Champ and returning AA is ranked 2nd
165- Beau Bradley, Regional champion who defeated ranked NIC wrestlers
174- Dax Bennett, Regional champion who defeated ranked NIC wrestlers.
184 - Romeo Manue was a Region Runner-Up having lost to North Idaho’s 5th ranked Hunter Gregerson.
197- Tarik Sutkovic, a Region Champ is also ranked 2nd
285- Tommy Mommer- Region Runner Up, Returning AA is ranked 3rd
The top threats in stopping the Cougars from repeating comes from Western Wyoming, North Idaho, Northeast Oklahoma, host college Iowa Western and the remaining Iowa Colleges (Iowa Central, North Iowa Area, and Ellsworth).
Western Wyoming, held the pre-season and No. 1 ranking in the early NJCAA season, followed by North Idaho, who placed a close second behind the Cougars at their regional championships.
Coach Art Castillo of Western Wyoming has the Mustangs positioned to win an NJCAA title and topple Clackamas. With a regional title in hand and having been ranked at the top of the NJCAA for a bulk of the season, WWCC has 10 national qualifiers, eight of which are ranked, and several 2X returning national qualifiers.
The Mustang qualifiers include:
* two-time national qualifiers in 125-pound Dalton Stutzman, 4th at Region, and Returning Region Champ from 2019.
* At 133, Kyle Evans, 2nd at Region. 2019 region Champ, is a returning AA having placed 5th in 2019, 4th at US Open Senior Greco 63kg in 2019, is currently ranked 4th.
* Also ranked fourth at 141 is Kedric Coonis a regional champion with a 22-4 record.
*Another fourth ranked wrestler for the Mustangs is 149-poundetr Joey Revelli who is a Returning National Qualifier
* At 157 Anthony Herrera was a regional champion and crowed the OW and is ranked 3rd.
* At 165 Jared Bird Region is a two-time regional champion and NQ, also comes in with a number 4 ranking
* 174-pounder Andrew Nicholson is Region Champ and is ranked 5th
* Ranked 6th at 184, Jace Anderson was 2nd at Regionals and is a two-time national qualifier
* 197-pound Tucker Tomlinson is now a two-time regional champion 2018, 2020, and 2X NQ and brings the #3 ranking to nationals.
* A returning AA placing 3rd in 2019 is 285-pound Landon Brown having won regionals and became another 2X national qualifier for Coach Castillo.
North Idaho and NIACC look to return to prominence in the NJCAA with a title hunt this year. NIACC has not seen a title since the early 1970s, while North Idaho has been a mainstay in the title hunt over the past 30 years. Coach Steve Kelly of NIACC has had one of the best season in many years for the Trojans with a season-high No. 2 ranking, and have been in the top three nationally a majority of the season.
North Idaho has seen a resurgence of the program with first-year coach Mike Sebaaly. Coming from the ever tough region with Clackamas, NIC was a close second and looks to be the next best chance beside Western Wyoming to unseed the Cougars of Clackamas. The North Idaho Cardinal wrestling team qualified all 10 weight classes Feb. 16 at the NJCAA West District Qualifier hosted by Southwest Oregon Community College in Coos Bay, OR. While small in size, the five-team tournament featured three teams that reside in the top 10 in the last NJCAA wrestling poll. Of note is that Clackamas and North Idaho wrestled to a dual meet tie- with Clackamas winning by the Tie Breaker #2 criteria despite losing a team point.
Hunter Gregerson was the lone champion for the Cards, winning the 184-pound weight class 9-3. Other Cardinals qualifying for the national tournament were: 3rd ranked Andy Lucero (125), Isaac Lopez (133), 5th ranked Larry Johnson (141), also ranked 5th is Sal Silva (149), previously ranked 5th at 165, Navarro Nanpuya is at 157, 9th ranked Zay Duran (165), Alan Badley (174), 5th ranked Micah Tynanes (197), and 8th ranked Cohle Feliciano (285).
As a team, the Cards have a lot of wrestlers ranked in the top five and they will all need to wrestle at or above their rankings and seeds to threaten Clackamas. NIC has had several wrestlers who have dropped a weight during the season, which could bolster their NJCAA finish.
In 2019, Northeast Oklahoma A&M amassed 152 points, which would have been good enough to win the NJCAA any other year, but ended up second to Clackamas who had a record breaking tournament with 176.5 points.
Coach Joe Renfro and the Golden Norse are coming off a regional championship, and qualifying their entire team, were ranked 7th in the latest NJCAA. Despite the ranking, NEO and teams coached by Joe Renfro are always a title threat!
Approaching the NJCAA tournament Coach Renfro stated that,” We’re a clean slate this year, brother. No returning qualifiers/AA’s, but it is an even year. We’ve had good fortune while at NEO in 2014, 2016, and 2018, maybe this 2020 will give us good fortune again.”
Under Coach Renfro, NEO has won the national title in each of the even years he has been at the helm!
Renfro continued, ”Our team might not be the most decorated on paper, but they do find a way to get the job done, they’re pretty gritty at times. A little bit of grit and toughness can go a long ways, we’ll see what happens. There are a lot of good teams out there, Clackamas, Western Wyoming, Iowa Western, just to name a few, so we’ll have to be on our game if we want to take the main prize home because those teams will be fighting. Only a few more days left to prepare and we need to make sure we focus and utilize them wisely.”
Not to be left out of the title hunt conversation is host team Iowa Western, led by coach Josh Watts. The Reavers come off of a Central Region championship in which most prognosticators had IWCC coming in fourth in the region behind NIACC who has been ranked 2nd, traditional title winner Iowa Central, and consistent top 8 team, Ellsworth.
The Reavers wrestled well at regionals and not only won the Central Regional title, but coach Watts was named Regional Coach of the year and IWCC qualified a full contingency of wrestlers. One advantage for the Reavers is the fact that they are the host school for the NJCAA National Wrestling Tournament held at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Heading into nationals, Reaver head coach Josh Watts stated,” I think we are as good as we choose to be. It just depends on what we want to do when we get there (nationals). The goal has always been the same, to win a national title, and that is what we are setting out to do. In the past we have always had winners, guys who knew how to win close one and two -point matches. Now, we have guys who are capable of scoring bonus points.”
And, to win a title, IWCC will need a lot of bonus points.
In terms of the team race from 4th through 8th place, any number of NJCAA teams could be in the trophy hunt including Iowa Central, NIACC, Ellsworth, and Iowa Western.
The NJCAA has two division team titles that are awarded at the national wrestling tournament, scholarship (Division-1) and non-scholarship (division 3) divisions. Three of the top non-scholarship are ranked No. 13 or No. 14 overall in combined divisions, with Harper College, led by Coach Dan Loprieno, getting the nod as the top ranked team for the non-scholarship title race. However, the other two teams, Nassau and Rochester are ranked second, and both teams have won the title and have the capability of doing it again.
Coach Loprieno has been the head wrestling coach at Harper College since 1998 and in his 17 seasons, the team has won three national championships (2001, 2006 and 2010). Along with his three titles, Loprieno’s teams have finished second in the nation three times, third in the nation twice and finished fourth in the nation once. In addition, Loprieno has guided the Hawks to ten Regional titles and runners-up in the region twice.
The RCTC Yellowjackets are lead by coach Randy Rager, who said, “I still think with the nine we have qualified, RCTC has a great opportunity to win another NJCAA Non-Scholarship title. Each guy will have to do a little more and dig a little deeper to get it done. I think it will come down to Nassau, Harper, and Rochester.”
The Yellowjackets have Francis Fuenffinger at 125. "Frannie" enters the meet as the #8 seed, Parker Dobrocky at 133 is the #5 seed. Auston Hall at 141 makes his second appearance in the NJCAA Championships and is unseeded. Brandon Kidd Jr. at 149 is the #8 seed. Seth Brossard at 165 is seeded No. 5 and leads the Jackets in falls with 23. Jeremiah Colon at 174 enters the meet seeded fifth. Gavin Christoffersen is seeded #7. Richie Hammonds at 197. Richie is the highest seeded Jacket at #3. John Noll at 285 enters the tournament unseeded.
Gone is long-time Nassau coach Paul Schmidt, and international wrestling star Vougar Oroudjov is the current interim coach for the Lions. Nassau was the 2020 regional champion and brings four ranked wrestlers to the NJCAA to battle for the D-3 title. The Lion wrestlers include No. 9 ranked Brandon Escobar at 125, 133-pounder Anthony Sobotker who is ranked 7th, plus 6th ranked Paul Illicete at 165, and heavyweight Michael Babcort who is ranked ninth.
The NJCAA National Wrestling Tournament will be held March 6th and 7th at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Live broadcast and brackets will appear on Flowrestling.
NJCAA Tournament website
Clackamas earned 10 qualifiers from the West District, putting all 10 wrestlers in the final match of the West championship in Coos Bay, Ore. It culminated in seven champions and Clackamas’ ninth title in the past 10 years. This season’s squad returns four national qualifiers from last season’s record-breaking performance, which saw the Cougar mat men set the new national scoring record at the NJCAA Championship.
Clackamas wrestling is known from coast-to-coast for producing high-caliber wrestlers and students. Under the guidance of 13th-year Head Coach Josh Rhoden, the program has compiled a dual meet record of 141-35-2 and produced 77 All-Americans, 24 National Finalists, 11 National Champions, as well as earned 92 Academic All-Americans. The Cougars have won a total of seven National Dual Meet Championships over the years.
At last year’s NJCAA Nationals, with a school record of nine All-Americans, Clackamas set the National Scoring record with an incredible 176.5 team points. Clackamas has a legitimate chance of putting six wrestlers in the finals with a one-two-three punch at 125-133-and 141 with three top ranked wrestlers.
A summary of the Clackamas wrestlers:
125- Cameron Enriquez- Region Champ
133- Jason Shaner- Region Champ, Returning AA
141- Marckis Branford- Region Runner Up dropping a match to #3 ranked Matthew Hofenbredl of Southwest Oregon.
149 - Marty Margolis III was a Region Champ, and previous National Qualifier, is ranked 8th
157 - Joel Romero, was also a Region Champ and returning AA is ranked 2nd
165- Beau Bradley, Regional champion who defeated ranked NIC wrestlers
174- Dax Bennett, Regional champion who defeated ranked NIC wrestlers.
184 - Romeo Manue was a Region Runner-Up having lost to North Idaho’s 5th ranked Hunter Gregerson.
197- Tarik Sutkovic, a Region Champ is also ranked 2nd
285- Tommy Mommer- Region Runner Up, Returning AA is ranked 3rd
The top threats in stopping the Cougars from repeating comes from Western Wyoming, North Idaho, Northeast Oklahoma, host college Iowa Western and the remaining Iowa Colleges (Iowa Central, North Iowa Area, and Ellsworth).
Western Wyoming, held the pre-season and No. 1 ranking in the early NJCAA season, followed by North Idaho, who placed a close second behind the Cougars at their regional championships.
Coach Art Castillo of Western Wyoming has the Mustangs positioned to win an NJCAA title and topple Clackamas. With a regional title in hand and having been ranked at the top of the NJCAA for a bulk of the season, WWCC has 10 national qualifiers, eight of which are ranked, and several 2X returning national qualifiers.
The Mustang qualifiers include:
* two-time national qualifiers in 125-pound Dalton Stutzman, 4th at Region, and Returning Region Champ from 2019.
* At 133, Kyle Evans, 2nd at Region. 2019 region Champ, is a returning AA having placed 5th in 2019, 4th at US Open Senior Greco 63kg in 2019, is currently ranked 4th.
* Also ranked fourth at 141 is Kedric Coonis a regional champion with a 22-4 record.
*Another fourth ranked wrestler for the Mustangs is 149-poundetr Joey Revelli who is a Returning National Qualifier
* At 157 Anthony Herrera was a regional champion and crowed the OW and is ranked 3rd.
* At 165 Jared Bird Region is a two-time regional champion and NQ, also comes in with a number 4 ranking
* 174-pounder Andrew Nicholson is Region Champ and is ranked 5th
* Ranked 6th at 184, Jace Anderson was 2nd at Regionals and is a two-time national qualifier
* 197-pound Tucker Tomlinson is now a two-time regional champion 2018, 2020, and 2X NQ and brings the #3 ranking to nationals.
* A returning AA placing 3rd in 2019 is 285-pound Landon Brown having won regionals and became another 2X national qualifier for Coach Castillo.
North Idaho and NIACC look to return to prominence in the NJCAA with a title hunt this year. NIACC has not seen a title since the early 1970s, while North Idaho has been a mainstay in the title hunt over the past 30 years. Coach Steve Kelly of NIACC has had one of the best season in many years for the Trojans with a season-high No. 2 ranking, and have been in the top three nationally a majority of the season.
North Idaho has seen a resurgence of the program with first-year coach Mike Sebaaly. Coming from the ever tough region with Clackamas, NIC was a close second and looks to be the next best chance beside Western Wyoming to unseed the Cougars of Clackamas. The North Idaho Cardinal wrestling team qualified all 10 weight classes Feb. 16 at the NJCAA West District Qualifier hosted by Southwest Oregon Community College in Coos Bay, OR. While small in size, the five-team tournament featured three teams that reside in the top 10 in the last NJCAA wrestling poll. Of note is that Clackamas and North Idaho wrestled to a dual meet tie- with Clackamas winning by the Tie Breaker #2 criteria despite losing a team point.
Hunter Gregerson was the lone champion for the Cards, winning the 184-pound weight class 9-3. Other Cardinals qualifying for the national tournament were: 3rd ranked Andy Lucero (125), Isaac Lopez (133), 5th ranked Larry Johnson (141), also ranked 5th is Sal Silva (149), previously ranked 5th at 165, Navarro Nanpuya is at 157, 9th ranked Zay Duran (165), Alan Badley (174), 5th ranked Micah Tynanes (197), and 8th ranked Cohle Feliciano (285).
As a team, the Cards have a lot of wrestlers ranked in the top five and they will all need to wrestle at or above their rankings and seeds to threaten Clackamas. NIC has had several wrestlers who have dropped a weight during the season, which could bolster their NJCAA finish.
In 2019, Northeast Oklahoma A&M amassed 152 points, which would have been good enough to win the NJCAA any other year, but ended up second to Clackamas who had a record breaking tournament with 176.5 points.
Coach Joe Renfro and the Golden Norse are coming off a regional championship, and qualifying their entire team, were ranked 7th in the latest NJCAA. Despite the ranking, NEO and teams coached by Joe Renfro are always a title threat!
Approaching the NJCAA tournament Coach Renfro stated that,” We’re a clean slate this year, brother. No returning qualifiers/AA’s, but it is an even year. We’ve had good fortune while at NEO in 2014, 2016, and 2018, maybe this 2020 will give us good fortune again.”
Under Coach Renfro, NEO has won the national title in each of the even years he has been at the helm!
Renfro continued, ”Our team might not be the most decorated on paper, but they do find a way to get the job done, they’re pretty gritty at times. A little bit of grit and toughness can go a long ways, we’ll see what happens. There are a lot of good teams out there, Clackamas, Western Wyoming, Iowa Western, just to name a few, so we’ll have to be on our game if we want to take the main prize home because those teams will be fighting. Only a few more days left to prepare and we need to make sure we focus and utilize them wisely.”
Not to be left out of the title hunt conversation is host team Iowa Western, led by coach Josh Watts. The Reavers come off of a Central Region championship in which most prognosticators had IWCC coming in fourth in the region behind NIACC who has been ranked 2nd, traditional title winner Iowa Central, and consistent top 8 team, Ellsworth.
The Reavers wrestled well at regionals and not only won the Central Regional title, but coach Watts was named Regional Coach of the year and IWCC qualified a full contingency of wrestlers. One advantage for the Reavers is the fact that they are the host school for the NJCAA National Wrestling Tournament held at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Heading into nationals, Reaver head coach Josh Watts stated,” I think we are as good as we choose to be. It just depends on what we want to do when we get there (nationals). The goal has always been the same, to win a national title, and that is what we are setting out to do. In the past we have always had winners, guys who knew how to win close one and two -point matches. Now, we have guys who are capable of scoring bonus points.”
And, to win a title, IWCC will need a lot of bonus points.
In terms of the team race from 4th through 8th place, any number of NJCAA teams could be in the trophy hunt including Iowa Central, NIACC, Ellsworth, and Iowa Western.
The NJCAA has two division team titles that are awarded at the national wrestling tournament, scholarship (Division-1) and non-scholarship (division 3) divisions. Three of the top non-scholarship are ranked No. 13 or No. 14 overall in combined divisions, with Harper College, led by Coach Dan Loprieno, getting the nod as the top ranked team for the non-scholarship title race. However, the other two teams, Nassau and Rochester are ranked second, and both teams have won the title and have the capability of doing it again.
Coach Loprieno has been the head wrestling coach at Harper College since 1998 and in his 17 seasons, the team has won three national championships (2001, 2006 and 2010). Along with his three titles, Loprieno’s teams have finished second in the nation three times, third in the nation twice and finished fourth in the nation once. In addition, Loprieno has guided the Hawks to ten Regional titles and runners-up in the region twice.
The RCTC Yellowjackets are lead by coach Randy Rager, who said, “I still think with the nine we have qualified, RCTC has a great opportunity to win another NJCAA Non-Scholarship title. Each guy will have to do a little more and dig a little deeper to get it done. I think it will come down to Nassau, Harper, and Rochester.”
The Yellowjackets have Francis Fuenffinger at 125. "Frannie" enters the meet as the #8 seed, Parker Dobrocky at 133 is the #5 seed. Auston Hall at 141 makes his second appearance in the NJCAA Championships and is unseeded. Brandon Kidd Jr. at 149 is the #8 seed. Seth Brossard at 165 is seeded No. 5 and leads the Jackets in falls with 23. Jeremiah Colon at 174 enters the meet seeded fifth. Gavin Christoffersen is seeded #7. Richie Hammonds at 197. Richie is the highest seeded Jacket at #3. John Noll at 285 enters the tournament unseeded.
Gone is long-time Nassau coach Paul Schmidt, and international wrestling star Vougar Oroudjov is the current interim coach for the Lions. Nassau was the 2020 regional champion and brings four ranked wrestlers to the NJCAA to battle for the D-3 title. The Lion wrestlers include No. 9 ranked Brandon Escobar at 125, 133-pounder Anthony Sobotker who is ranked 7th, plus 6th ranked Paul Illicete at 165, and heavyweight Michael Babcort who is ranked ninth.
The NJCAA National Wrestling Tournament will be held March 6th and 7th at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Live broadcast and brackets will appear on Flowrestling.
NJCAA Tournament website
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