23rd Annual Observerland Wrestling Tournament Preview
The Observer Newspaper will once again sponsor a wrestling tournament this Saturday with teams from its readership area. Wrestling is set to begin at 9:00 am at Livonia Churchill High School.
Participating teams are: Belleville (B), Detroit Catholic Central White (DCC), Clarenceville (CL), Farmington (F), Farmington Hills Harrison (FHH), Garden City (GC), Westland John Glenn (JG), Livonia Churchill (LC), Livonia Franklin (LF), Livonia Stevenson (LS), Lutheran Westland (LW), Northville (N), Plymouth (P), Redford Thurston (RT), Salem (S), and Wayne Memorial (WM). Area teams not participating this year are Canton, North Farmington, and Redford Union.
In general, area teams are a bit weaker this year than in previous years. One exception is Plymouth, which is the consensus favorite to win this tournament after winning the Wayne County tournament and going undefeated in the KLAA South. However, the Wildcats may not be at full strength on Saturday and individual tournaments can be tricky. Teams with four or five studs, like Franklin and John Glenn, could get enough bonus and advancement points to win. Also, teams that are solid throughout their line-ups like Belleville and DCC White could surprise by gaining lots of points in the consolation rounds.
Individually, there is a lot of talent in this area and most final and semi-final matches should be very competitive. Additionally, several weight classes are quite deep and may have wrestlers that advance further in the postseason than they will in this tournament. Below is a weight-by-weight break down.
103 Pounds: This weight features all new faces; not one of the competing 103-pounders wrestled in last year’s tournament. John Glenn freshman John Siemasz has made the biggest impact so far this year, winning the Wayne County championship and earning a #9 ranking by MichiganGrappler.com. Plymouth sophomore, Collin Reed, finished third at Wayne County and should also make the finals here. Josh Mussan (LC) and Chase Walkowiak (F) are good bets to place. The rest of the field is totally unproven and here is an opportunity for a young wrestler to earn some surprise points for his team.
112: One might be absolutely thrilled, or a little disappointed in the finals, which should feature two wrestlers with tremendous past success at 103, but struggling a bit at 112. Michael Volyanyuk (FHH) was state runner-up at 103 last year, but has lost much more than one would expect this year and has dropped from highly ranked to honorable mention. Brandon Harris (P) was a state qualifier at 103 as a freshman, but was injured most of last year and has struggled against stronger kids this year, most recently being throttled by Tecumseh’s Drew Marten, 12-0. Still, I look for Harris to be better in the neutral position and pull out a close victory. The rest of the field are mostly young, unproven wrestlers that could finish anywhere from 0-2 to third place. Look for Jack DeJack (WM), Ethan Englehart (LC), Doug Laviolette (LW), and Cameron Shaughnessy (S) to battle it out for third.
119: This is the deepest weight of the tournament. It has four currently ranked wrestlers, the top four placers at the Wayne County tournament, the fifth place finisher at the Oakland County tournament, and a couple other kids with victories over the above. Of all these, Mo Youssef stands alone as consistently winning his head-to-head matches and I see the Plymouth senior successfully defending his Observerland title (103 last year). Who will face him? Tim Way (WM) is unrecognized by MichiganGrappler.com, but he has beaten most of the other competitors, but also has losses to them. Josh Perez (LC) and Chase Spanos (JG) have been ranked most of the year and are very tough. Chris Brown (B) finished ahead of Spanos, Perez, and Way at the Salem tournament and I see him here with ranked teammate Austin Koehler wrestling up at 125. Jeremy Nelson (LF) recently beat Way and is a threat to place highly. Joe Lyon (DCC) placed fifth at Oakland County, but will be hard pressed to win a match in this field. Another very strong 119-pounder may not be wrestling Saturday. Stevenson regional qualifier Marco Lytwyn is nursing an injury.
125: This is shaping up to be another deep, competitive bracket. Kevin Huynh (JG), Nathan Atienza (LF), and Shunhe Wang (N) finished 1, 2, 3, at Wayne County. If Koehler is indeed here, that makes three ranked wrestlers. Tyler Mulligan from Wayne is a solid kid and Spencer Schiftar (P) has some great wins, but also some horrible losses. If the Schiftar who beat Josh Perez (#10 D1 119) and Lake Fenton’s Jared Corcoran (#7 D3 119) shows up, then wrestling fans should be treated to some tremendous semi-finals matches. I still expect the freshman Atienza to win this weight.
130: My favorites to make the finals are Nick Robertson (LF) and Dylan Dwyer (P). They did not meet on Wednesday as Coach Chiola bumped Robertson up to 135. I give a slight edge to Dwyer because he seems physically quite a bit stronger. This weight is not very deep and a relatively unknown could place as high as third. Keep an eye on Jesse Jones (F) who is having a very good year. Other possible placers are Spencer Compo (N, fourth at Wayne County), Trevor Demers (LS), and Chyle Johnson (DCC, fourth at 112 last year).
135: I see three very talented kids vying for the title at this weight. I think Eli Joseph (DCC) has the upper hand because of the tough competition he sees day in and day out, and because of his third place finish last year behind two all-staters (Manny Govantes and Danny Martinez). Jamonty Houze (B) and Caleb Richter (LW) are both having excellent years and could make the finals. Gabe Colston (FHH) and Joey Walker (CL) could also place top five.
140: Jon Conn (P) is on a mission and I don’t foresee anyone preventing him from winning this weight. Other than him, it is hard to predict who else might place here. Some possibilities are Tunde Alawode (JG), Brandon Bellant (B), Connor Even (LW), Zack Leck (LC) and Sandro Lytwyn (LS).
145: Zach Francis (LW) should be a lock at 145. Sofus Nielson (P) would also be a good bet to make the finals, but I have heard his return to the line-up by Saturday is doubtful. That means this is another weight that presents a great opportunity for an unheralded wrestler to pick up major team points. Perhaps Caleb Brown (B), Caleb McCabe (S), Ryan O’Connor (DCC), or Majdi Hatem (LS).
152: Middle weights seem really down this season and 152 looks particularly weak. Nick Frazier (LF) and Domanick Slagle (CL) are solid wrestlers who should meet in the finals, but who else will be on the medal stand? Can Colt DeSmit be a placer for Garden City? Perhaps Aaron Heinonen (WM) can pick up valuable team points for the Wolfpack.
160: Jordan Atienza (LF) should win this weight handily. Joey Shaver (P) will most likely be his opponent in the finals, but Shaver hasn’t come close to beating Atienza this year. As with 152, there just doesn’t seem to be much meat to this bracket. I have no idea who the other placers will be. Some wrestlers that seem like decent possibilities are Cameron Fyffe (CL), Adam McGrath (DCC), and Connor Thornbury (S).
171: Competitiveness is starting to pick up with this weight. Hussein Youssef (P) is having a break-out season, and is my favorite to win. However, Connor Vaughan (LS) has been ranked this year and should be a big challenge for Youssef. Northville’s Matt Cylla looked strong at the Wayne County tournament, taking third. Jonah Lambart (LW) is one of those up and down wrestlers that could place if he is “on”. Connor Cox (DCC) placed fourth at the Salem tournament and Mitch Retting is coming along nicely for Franklin; either could also medal here.
189: Mitchell Gross (S) is the only ranked wrestler at this weight and is heavily favored to win. The rest of the field is fairly deep and evenly matched, which should make for some exciting matches. Baker Hadwan (LC) is much improved over last year. Brandon Underwood (B) and James Pomerico (WM) placed third and fifth, respectively, at Wayne County. Brad Scott (LS) is dangerous if totally healthy, and Josh Robinson (FHH) can be dangerous as well.
215: It is not certain who will wrestle here, but there should be several exciting matches. The preview in the Observer newspaper indicates that Jordan Brandon will bump up to heavyweight, and teammate Nate Irvine will go 215. I have also heard some talk that Aaron Mauldin (WM) will cut down to 215 for this tournament, ala Jake Range several years ago. I will assume that both Brandon and Mauldin are at heavyweight, which means 215 is wide open as to who may win it. Likely candidates appear to be Trent Bekker (F), Irvine, Thomas Krueger (LW), Michael Robinson (FHH), and Donovan Steele (B).
285: If Brandon and Mauldin are both here, I fully expect to see them in the finals, with Brandon winning in lopsided fashion. Another question at this weight is whether Melvin Ivey (RT) will wrestle. Ivey started the year off great, with a convincing win over Maudlin at the Garden City Christmas tournament. He suffered a lone, very close, loss at Wayne County and placed fifth. However, I have not seen that he has wrestled yet in 2014. If Ivey does participate, then perhaps Michael Jordan (P) would receive the #4 seed and we could see a rematch with Brandon. I wonder if Brandon would try the blast double again, or go with safer takedowns like sweep single and ankle pick (Michael Jordan blocked the blast double and pinned Brandon).
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