16U Greco-Roman semifinals set; six athletes look to double up on Fargo titles; Team Pennsylvania takes strong lead

Photo of Koy Hopke by Austin Bernard

Fargo, N.D. — Koy Hopke (220) and Mack Mauger (94) still are in contention for the USA Wrestling Triple Crown awards as Thursday’s 2021 16U Nationals Greco-Roman semifinals matchups are officially set. Five other athletes are wrestling to take home their second titles of the tournament after winning freestyle championships earlier this week.

Headed into tomorrow’s action, Team Pennsylvania has the most wrestlers in the semifinals (10). They have a significant lead in the team race with 78 points - the next closest team is Team Minnesota with 41.

Hopke, the Team Wisconsin standout, is into the semis as he continues his dominance here in Fargo. He has posted tech-falls in all three of his matches, outscoring his competition 32-2. Hopke will face Virginia’s Parker Ferrell in the semi-finals. Mauger, who turned heads with an impressive performance through his freestyle bracket, looks poised to yet again add a stop sign to his trophy case. He’ll wrestle Pennsylvania’s Davis Motyka for a spot in the finals.

We’ll see five more athletes look to double up on titles tomorrow: Ohio’s Javaan Yarbrough (88), Arizona’s Adrian Meza (126), Minnesota’s Zach Hanson (132), Nebraska’s Joel Adams (138) and South Dakota’s Navarro Schunke (285).

Four athletes who earned runner-up status in the 16U freestyle finals are also featured in tomorrow’s semi-final pairings: Wisconsin’s Haakon Peterson (88), Pennsylvania’s Pierson Manville (145), Oklahoma’s KJ Evans (152) and California’s Cody Merrill (170).

Mason Gibson, another Pennsylvania standout who was upset in the 16U freestyle semifinals, will be competing for a spot in the Greco-Roman finals. He will wrestle California’s Daniel Zepeda. The other side of that bracket — Meza vs. Pennsylvania’s Kamdyn Williams (Folkstyle Nationals champion) also looks set to be an entertaining bout.

At 88 pounds, we could see a rematch of the 16U freestyle finals. Yarbrough, with a win, could see Wisconsin’s Haakon Peterson if both advance. Peterson will wrestle 2021 Folkstyle Nationals champion Griffin Rial in his semifinal bout.

Tomorrow’s wrestling begins at 8:30 a.m. CST. Fans can watch all of the action on FloWrestling.

Semifinal pairings

88 pounds

Javaan Yarbrough (Ohio) vs Cole Welte (Nebraska)

Haakon Peterson (Wisconsin) vs Griffin Rial (Colorado)

94 pounds

Brady Phelps (Illinois) vs Josef Garshnick (Pennsylvania)

Davis Motyka (Pennsylvania) vs Mack Mauger (Idaho)

100 pounds

Layne Kleimann (Utah) vs Jaxton Packer (Idaho)

Cole Gentsch (Illinois) vs Trey Wagner (Pennsylvania)

106 pounds

Noah Nininger (Virginia) vs. Matthew Martino (Idaho)

Anthony Ruzic (Illinois) vs. Nathan Desmond (Pennsylvania)

113 pounds

Austin Laudenbach (Minnesota) vs. Miles Anderson (Nebraska)

Logan Swensen (Minnesota) vs. Nick Treaster (Kansas)

120 pounds

Zan Fugitt (Missouri) vs. Kael Lauridsen (Nebraska)

Jax Forrest (North Carolina) vs. Tanner Frothinger (Idaho)

126 pounds

Daniel Zepeda (California) vs. Mason Gibson (Pennsylvania)

Adrian Meza (Arizona) vs. Kamdyn Williams (Pennsylvania)

132 pounds

Gabriel Delgado (Nevada) vs. Dmitri Alarcon (Colorado)

Casper Stewart (New York) vs. Zach Hanson (Minnesota)

138 pounds

Joel Adams (Nebraska) vs. Jude Randall (Oklahoma)

Cade White (Idaho) vs. Brady Collins (Colorado)

145 pounds

Pierson Manville (Pennsylvania) vs. Ethan Mojena (Florida)

Dylan Evans (Pennsylvania) vs. Brett Back (Wisconsin)

152 pounds

Arvin Khosravy (California) vs. Lars Michaelson (Washington)

Nicholas Fox (Iowa) vs. Kj Evans (Oklahoma)

160 pounds

Jed Webster (Minnesota) vs. Talon McCollom (Oklahoma)

Liam Scrivanich (Pennsylvania) vs. Roman Garcia (Florida)

170 pounds

Oscar Williams (Oklahoma) vs. Hoke Poe Hogan (Georgia)

Nick Nosler (Illinois) vs. Toby Schoffstall (Virginia)

182 pounds

Soren Herzog (Minnesota) vs. De’Alcapon Veazy (Indiana)

Hudson Davis (Oregon) vs. Cody Merrill (California)

195 pounds

McCrae Hagarty (Iowa) vs. William McCleary (Utah)

Sawyer Bartelt (Florida) vs. Dai’mont Mucker (Missouri)

220 pounds

Koy Hopke (Wisconsin) vs. Parker Ferrell (Virginia)

Austin Johnson (Pennsylvania) vs. Samuel Murphy (Missouri)

285 pounds

Navarro Schunke (South Dakota) vs. Sebastian Lopez (Kansas)

Aidan Fockler (Ohio) vs. Spencer Lanosga (Louisiana)

Team scores through the quarterfinals

1 - Pennsylvania (78)

2 - Minnesota (41)

3 - Idaho (39)

4 - Oklahoma (36)

5 - Illinois (32)