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MPSSAA approves official girls high school wrestling championships for Maryland

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) has approved an officially sanctioned girls state high school championships for the 2019-20 academic year. With the addition of Maryland hosting an official girls state championships next year, there are 16 states with state association approval for girls wrestling (in alphabetical order): Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington.
Over the last two weeks, three states have been officially added to this list: Maryland, Kansas and Colorado. This decision in Maryland was approved on April 26 at MPSSAA Board of Control meetings. The official minutes of that meeting are below. Rest of the story with this great news at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/May/06/Maryland-adds-girls-high-school-wrestling-championships?mc_cid=7e512389ee&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

May 7, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Senior World Team Trials Qualifiers as of May 6, 2019

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Wrestling will post regular updates on the athletes who have qualified for the 2019 World Team Trials Challenge Tournament, which will determine the 30 remaining Final X spots across all three Olympic styles—men’s and women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman. There are two Final X events, Final X in Rutgers on June 8 and Final X in Lincoln on June 15. The winners of these events will compete for the United States at the World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, in October. Half of the Final X field has already been determined through World medalists as well as the 2019 U.S. Open n Las Vegas. With the completion of the 2019 Last Chance Senior World Team Trials tournament this past weekend in East Stroudsburg, Pa., all of the men’s freestyle spots have been filled.

UWW Junior and U23 aged women can still qualify at Women’s Nationals this weekend in Irving, Texas. Greco-Roman athletes can still qualify by placing top-three at the XXIII Outstanding Ukrainian Wrestlers and Coaches Memorial this weekend in Kiev, Ukraine  The qualifiers on this list are determined based upon the approved 2019 World Team Trials Qualification and Procedures for men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman.
Click here for Women’s Freestyle Procedures
Click here for Men’s Freestyle Procedures
Click here for Greco-Roman Procedures
For more information and to order tickets for Final X, visit: FinalX.tv
Men’s Freestyle
57 kg
FINAL X: Daton Fix, 2019 U.S. Open champion (Titan Mercury WC)
2018 Senior Men’s Freestyle World Team member – Thomas Gilman (Titan Mercury/Hawkeye WC)
2018 U23 Men’s Freestyle World Team member – Jack Mueller (Titan Mercury/Cavalier WC)
2018 Junior Men’s Freestyle World Team member – Daton Fix (Titan Mercury/Cowboy RTC)
2019 NCAA Division I champion – Spencer Lee (125 pounds) (Titan Mercury/Hawkeye WC)
Rest of the list and story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/May/06/Complete-list-of-World-Team-Trials-qualifiers?mc_cid=7e512389ee&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

May 7, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Burroughs beats Askren, Yianni stops Bajrang in historic Beat the Streets event in Madison Square Garden

By Gary Abbott and Mike Willis, USA Wrestling
NEW YORK, N.Y. – The sport of wrestling was the big winner during the 10th Beat the Streets competition, with a sold-out crowd of 5,000 fans supporting many of the best wrestlers in the nation and world at the Hulu Theater in the world-famous Madison Square Garden. In the Main Event, 2012 Olympic champion and four-time World champion Jordan Burroughs scored an 11-0 technical fall over 2008 Olympic wrestler and MMA star Ben Askren to close out the evening. Burroughs nailed a couple of patented blast doubles including one for four points. Up 9-0 at the break, Burroughs ended the bout with a low level attack early in the second period to win 11-0. “I absolutely love to wrestle. This is what I do fulltime,” said Burroughs, who was then joined by Askren in the interview area. “Ben, thank you. We have done this a lot in the past, but we have never been able to create this kind of fanfare. Let’s do it again next year.”

“It is May 6 on a Monday and there are 5,000 people in this theater to see wrestling. It was awesome,” said Askren. Ben Askren was in the first Beat the Streets Gala competition a decade ago on the U.S.S. Intrepid. Burroughs won his ninth match in Beat the Streets competition. Olympians in the same weight class, Askren competed for Team USA in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China and Burroughs competed in the 2012 Olympics in London, England and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There were four international matches and the United States won them all. The biggest battle happened at 65 kg, when two-time NCAA champion and two-time Cadet World champion Yianni Diakomihalis of Cornell edged 2018 World silver medalist and two-time Asian champion Bajrang Punia of India, 10-8. Tied 2-2 at the break, Diakomihalis was up 8-4 in the second period, and came out of a wild scramble late to win 10-8. Diakomihalis was a 2019 U.S. Open champion a few weeks ago in his first full-season competing at the Senior level. When asked about beating the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the world in Bajrang, Diakomihalis was honest about what that means. “It don’t mean anything. I did not win a World title in that match. It just shows me that I am ready to win a World tournament. It’s good to know,” said Diakomihalis. The other U.S. winners against foreign opponents were Kyle Snyder (97 kg), Mallory Velte (62 kg) and Becka Leathers (57 kg), all World medalists for Team USA. Snyder, a 2016 Olympic champion and two-time World champion, scored a technical fall over 2015 Junior World bronze medalist Nishan Randhawa of Canada, 15-1. Up 9-0, Snyder nailed a big throw to close out the … Rest of the story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/May/06/BTS-wrap-Burroughs-beats-Askren?mc_cid=7e512389ee&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

May 7, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Look at the Remarkable Wrestling Career of Ben Askren

Tomorrow night, Ben Askren will challenge one of the greatest American wrestlers in history, Jordan Burroughs, at the Beat the Streets “Grapple at the Garden” event at the Hulu Theater in New York City. Askren has primarily focused on the MMA cage and coaching at the Askren Wrestling Academy for most of the last decade, so it may be easy for some to forget just how remarkable and unique Ben’s career on the wrestling mat actually was. Here are some of his most notable achievements mainly during his career at the University of Missouri, but also as an international competitor and 2008 US Olympian.  Ben became the first NCAA Champion in Missouri wrestling history in 2006. That year he was also named the Most Outstanding Wrestler at the NCAA Championships. 

His 45-0 record during his junior season (2005-06) made him the first undefeated wrestler in school history.  In 2006-07, Askren won his second NCAA title which made him the first Missouri athlete in any sport to become a two-time NCAA champ since 1998-99.  Ben was the first four-time All-American in school history going (2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st) in his four years on the mat for the Tigers.  His second place finish in 2004, Ben was the first Missouri freshman finalist. Rest of the story at
https://news.theopenmat.com/college-wrestling-news/a-look-at-the-remarkable-wrestling-career-of-ben-askren/72973

May 7, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

TOM’s 2019 Women’s Collegiate Recruiting Class Rankings

It’s recruiting rankings season and what better way to start off TOM’s recruiting rankings by posting the Women’s Collegiate Recruiting rankings, the first of their kind. The high school Class of 2018 took the WCWA and women’s college wrestling by storm producing three true freshman national champions at the WCWA nationals, along with three more finalists. Will the Class of 2019, be able to live up to the lofty expectations laid out by their predecessors? Only time will tell, but this year’s recruiting class has some women that have earned world medals and countless national honors and seem bound for success at the next level. Here are the top ten recruiting classes by TOM for the Class of 2019. 

The numbers next to each wrestlers name refer to their ranking within the Top 100 wrestlers in the Class of 2019.For full/current recruiting lists for each school check out TOM’s Women’s Collegiate Commitment Page. 
10) Emmanuel
Top Recruits: #56 Niya Gaines – Bear Creek, CA (130 lbs); #90 Cristina Santoyo – Monroe, CA (191 lbs); #92 Bianca Rosales – Timber Creek, TX (191 lbs)
One of the title favorites coming into the 2019 WCWA National Championship was Emmanuel. The fourth-year program was able to finish in the top four nationally and crowned an individual national champion for the second consecutive season. Four national finalists are among the returners for Lions in 2019-20. While the recruiting Class of 2019 doesn’t appear to have any superstars that are going to impact the Emmanuel lineup immediately, there are some very intriguing prospects for Hall of Famer Kristie Davis and Link Davis to work with. Gaines is a two-time California state placer who was third last July in Fargo at the Junior tournament. Santoyo is a two-time California runner-up, who was also third in Fargo last year. Rosales won a Texas state title this year, after coming up short in the finals as a Junior. 
9) North Central
Top Recruits: #24 Yelena Makoyed – Bella Vista, CA (170 lbs); NR Asia Nguyen-Smith – West Chicago, IL (123 lbs); NR Malea Palahniuk – Thurston, OR (143 lbs)
Though they have yet to wrestle a single match, North Central ends up in the top ten with their first recruiting class. Recent signee Yelena Makoyed, a top-25 recruit, is the superstar of the group. She is a two-time California state finalist and won the championship during her senior season. Just to make it to the state finals, Yelena needed to knock off a multiple-time California state champion and All-American Jerzie Estrada. Makoyed dominated the field at the West Coast Tournament of Champions and was third at Folkstyle Nationals in 2018. Nguyen-Smith almost made the top 100 based off of a strong showing at the National Duals last season. Asia recently took home a title at the state freestyle meet. Palahniuk was a multiple-time Oregon state champion, although she was not able to add another in 2019. All in all, North Central should have a strong nucleus to build off of in their initial season and will most likely ascend up the women’s collegiate rankings sooner rather than later.
8) Southern Oregon
Top Recruits: #74 Kyleigh Lopez – North Medford, Oregon (116 lbs); #80 Marissa Kurtz – Sweet Home, OR (116 lbs); #87 Nora Ochoa – Reed, NV (116 lbs)
Southern Oregon is a team that you may not have expected to see in the rankings, but the numbers speak for themselves with three top-100 recruits on board, two of which are in-state products. Lopez was a four-time Oregon state champion, though this was the first year girls wrestling was officially recognized by the OSAA. Kurtz is a three-time state champion. Neither Lopez nor Kurtz has the national level credentials that other top recruits may possess, so they are not quite as widely known commodities. Last summer in Junior Freestyle at Fargo, Ochoa turned in a respectable performance, winning four matches, yet missing out on the podium. During the high school season, Nora earned a title at the West Coast Tournament of Champions in a field that was littered with talented competition from California.  Rest of the list and story at
https://news.theopenmat.com/womens-wrestling/toms-2019-women-collegiate-recruiting-class-rankings/72984

May 7, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

NAIA men’s Scholar All-American Awards announced by NWCA

What’s the true measure of a successful National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics men’s college wrestling program? Beyond won-loss records, pinning percentages and other on-the-mat stats, there’s the performance of wrestlers in the classroom.  The men wrestlers at Montana State University-Northern earned the highest team grade point average among NAIA schools in 2019, with a 3.362 GPA… while the matmen at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University had the most individuals earn All-American Scholar honors, the National Wrestling Coaches Association announced this week. 
Top NAIA men’s mat programs for team GPA
In terms of team GPA, the Lights of MSU-Northern edged out second-place Bethany College of Kansas, last year’s top-ranked men’s mat program, with a 3.362 GPA. Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, came in right behind the top two academic programs, with a 3.330 GPA. 
Here are the top NAIA men’s wrestling programs based on team GPA:
1. Montana State-Northern (3.362 GPA)
2. Bethany College (3.338 GPA)
3. Morningside College (3.330 GPA)
4. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (3.320 GPA)
5. University of the Cumberlands (3.293 GPA)
6. Concordia University, Nebraska (3.253 GPA)
7. Baker University (3.225 GPA)
8. Grand View University (3.215 GPA)
9. Indiana Institute of Technology (3.169 GPA)
10. Eastern Oregon University (3.162 GPA)
Rest of the list and story at
http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21890?fbclid=IwAR3z2FRSTlsm82VXihanpWRqeljUvHaqMow7q1yfbk3TMUchu-cXpGPfVuo

May 7, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment