In Atlantic City, New Jersey this weekend a number of Maryland Wrestlers shined in reaching the podium of what is traditionally one of the more difficult regional tournaments in the Fargo qualifying process, the Phil Portuese Northeast Regional.
As its name suggests, the field is mostly made up of wrestlers from the Middle Atlantic area and other surrounding states. Quite a few placed in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman, while some chose to focus on just one of the disciplines.
Bullis’ Salah Tsarni captured 165lb16U titles in both styles winning his FS final, 10-9, over Pennsylvania’s Blake Hostetter. Tsarni defeated all the other foes by technical superiority, 13-2 over Xayden Sallit (Pennsylvania), and posting consecutive 11-0 scores over two Pennsylvanians in his first two bouts, Brock Frable and Shaurya Pandey.
In the GR competition, Tsarni met his high school teammate Noah Tucker in the finals and posted a tech, 11-0. Tsarni teched Pandey again and pinned New York’s Ayden Sproul (1:54) in his first two matches.
Tucker reached the finals by pinning Pennsylvania’s Bode Terry in 44 seconds and posting a tech versus Sallit, 10-0. Tucker was third in FS where he beat Sallit, 9-2, in the bronze bout. Tucker beat Terry, 10-0, and pinned Caleb Rice (Pennsylvania) in 21 seconds. Tucker’s FS loss came to Hostetter by fall, 1:57.
Tyler Verceles, who is fresh off a GR title at the US Open in Las Vegas earlier this month, kept his winning ways going, claiming crowns at 94lbs in both disciplines here. Verceles beat New York’s Tanner Catrabone, 10-0, in the FS finals. To reach the final, Verceles downed Virginia’s Vince Von Bernewitz, 6-1, blanked New York’s Robert McGlynn, 4-0, and decked Virginia’s Harrison Swink in 12 seconds.
Verceles’ GR gold came by a 6-1 decision of Von Bernewitz, who is a Virginia FS and GR state champion. Three techs paved the way to the finals including an 11-0 one over McGlynn and 8-0 shutouts over New Jersey’s Gregory Parani and Virginia’s Chase Ramsay.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Austin Hayes captured a 100lb GR championship and placed third in FS. The GR gold was earned with an 8-4 decision of Pennsylvania’s Van Ward, who was fourth in his district but did not place in his region. Hayes won two close matches with guys who placed winning 12-10 versus third place finisher Wyatt Stauffer (Pennsylvania) and 10-7 over New Jersey’s William Webb, who was fifth.
Hayes met Ward in the FS consolation final and once again came out ahead of his rival, also by an 8-4 tally. Stauffer handed Hayes his loss in this bracket, 10-0. Hayes’ FS victims were New York’s Trevor Patrovich (15-4), Pennsylvania’s Joey Synan (10-0), New Jersey’s Julian Zargo (8-4), and Connecticut’s Justin Bunnell (16-6).
Brooklyn Pickett (138) took third in FS, and in doing so added a huge win to his ledger when he got by New Jersey’s Ryan DeGeorge, 12-6. DeGeorge is ranked 11th in the nation by Scorebook Live at 126lbs and claimed a New Jersey state title to go along with a fourth-place finish at the Beast of the East and a fifth place showing at PowerAde.
Pickett beat DeGeorge in the consolation semis, in the consolation finals, Pickett posted a 10-0 tech of Connecticut’s Harry Marino. Pickett fell to the grappler who claimed gold, New Jersey’s Nate Keller, 11-1. Keller lost in the blood round of his state tournament.
St. Mary’s Ryken’s Evan Boblits, who is listed in the Honorable Mention section of SB Live’s 144lb national rankings, placed third in FS and fourth in GR in the Junior Division at 144. His third-place win was notable as it came over New Jersey’s Blasé Mele, who was sixth in the state and seventh at Escape The Rock and beat Blair Academy’s National Prep Champ, Billy DeKraker, at the Sam Cali Tournament in December. DeKraker is ranked 17th in the country at 138lbs.
Boblits beat Pennsylvania’s Matthew Dimen twice, 8-5 and 5-0. The Knights’ FS loss was to Pierson Manville (Pennsylvania), who is ranked third in the nation at 144.
Boblits suffered a loss to Pennsylvania’s Luis Alberto-DeSilva in the consolation final and fell to Virginia’s three-time Class 3 state champion, Noah Nininger (No. 19 at 150), 9-0, in the GR slate. Two of his GR wins were over Virginia Class 6 state runner-up Benjamin Aguilar, 8-0, and New York’s Trevor Bishop, 8-0, who was fourth in the DII state tournament.
In the high school age groups, Maryland had one more double placer who competes in the state in Mt. St. Joseph’s Tyler Stephens. In the 16U brackets, Stephens was fifth in FS and third in GR at 144lbs. One of Stephens FS losses came against the champ, Pennsylvania’s Hudson Hohman, 10-0. Hohman, a two-time AA state placer, was an Honorable Mention wrestler in the national rankings for a spell.
Stephens GR bronze was earned with a win over McDonogh’s Matthew Tees, 9-0. Stephens lost to Pennsylvania’s Barrett Keiffer in the championship brackets then avenged that loss in the consolation rounds.
There was one other 16U FS placer and that was Gilman’s Liam McGettigan, who is ranked 16th in the country. McGettigan suffered two surprise losses en route to finishing fourth at 106.
The first was to New Jersey’s PJ Terranova, 8-7, who competes for Delbarton, and was pushed to 113lbs because of Cam Sontz also being in that room. As an undersized 113lber, Terranova took his lumps and failed to place at the state tournament.
McGettigan’s loss in the consolation finals was a bit more shocking as Terranova fares well when he is at 106, but New York’s Ethan Andreula, who was third in the DI states, gaining the edge over the Greyhound was certainly unexpected. Terranova won the title here and finished second at 106 at the Journeymen World Classic with a win over Iowa’s Nico DeSalvo.
Two Marylanders finished third in 16U GR, Oakland Mills’ Raul Rodriguez (150) and St. Mary’s Ryken’s Ethan Vayro (190). Placing fourth was Grayson DeCosmo (88) and Sparrows Point’s Brandon Wunder was sixth at 106lbs.
Wunder’s fellow Pointer, Christian Manley came in third at 126lbs in Junior GR. Manley defeated Pennsylvania’s Easton Mull, 9-0, in the consolation finals. Mull was fourth in the AA states. Manley fell to Virginia’s three-time Class 3 state champion, Colin Martin, 11-5, in the semis.
Landon’s Theo Shockey landed in the sixth position at 126 in GR, dropping matches to Mull, Pennsylvania’s Marcus Heck and New York’s Firdavs Ahmadzoda. Manley beat Ahmadzoda.
Spalding’s Zane Leitzel placed fifth at 138lbs in the Junior FS slate. In his placement bout, Leitzel beat New York DI state silver medalist Luke Nieto, 18-8. Leitzel lost to Virginia Class 6 state champ, Tyler Traves twice, both by 10-0 tallies.
Ben Smith, who competed for Mt. St. Joe in 2022-2023, but took his talents to the New York Military Academy this year, won a Junior GR gold and placed fourth in FS.
Smith is currently ranked 20th in the nation at 165 and competed at that weight here. The GR gold came versus Jackson Albert, 8-0, who was seventh in the Pennsylvania AA states. In the semis, Smith took out another PA state placer, Jackson Butler, who was eighth in the AA states. Albert beat Butler in the 145lb seventh place bout.
In FS, Smith lost to two three-time Pennsylvania state placers, No. 25 Gunnar Myers and unranked Luke Sipes. Smith beat New Jersey’s Barry Norman and hung a loss on Max Nevlin, who was fifth at the NJ state tournament.
Peter Snyder took his talents to the Blair Academy for his high school career and won a National Prep crown last year and finished fifth this year. Snyder placed third here at 215 beating fellow prep placer Kingston Daniells Silva (New York), 7-0, in the bronze bout. Snyder also defeated a Blair wrestler, who like him is from Maryland, Cael Mielnik. Mielnik was second at the National Prep Tournament at 215lbs. Snyder lost to No. 7 Austin Johnson (Pennsylvania), a junior, who is a three-time state finalist and one time champ. Another quality win for Snyder came over two-time PA state placer Dante Burns.
Comments