Road to Ironman: Jason Renteria (113 preview)

This weekend some of the greatest high school talent will be traveling to the Walsh-Ironman wrestling tournament in Ohio. Some of the teams that will be vying for a team title are: #2 Oak Park River Forest – IL, #4 St. Paris-Graham – OH, #10 Franklin Regional – PA, and of course #1 Blair Academy – NJ. If you are not up to date on your high school power houses, the first three schools listed in that group each contain a recruit that has already given their verbal to the University of Iowa. Today we will examine Jason Renteria of #2 OPRF as he seeks his first Ironman title as a sophomore.

A little background on Renteria: Currently #4 at 113, last year at 106 Renteria came into the Ironman tournament and took second place falling to Tyler Warner 12-2. This year Renteria is back, but up a weight and what he is most looking forward to is some of the competitors in the field, “I’m really looking forward to the competition. This tournament is tough.” Renteria said.

Although Renteria is looking forward to testing himself against the best in the nation, he doesn’t let those wrestlers intimidate him, “(The competition) doesn’t affect me. I know you have to take it one match at a time.”

Some of those wrestlers in Renteria’s bracket are: #2 Devin Brown, #7 Paxton Rosen, #9 Noah Baughman, #11 Mitch Moore, and #20 Tommy Hoskins.

Renteria has spent time up at 120 this preseason getting allowing himself to figure out what he needs to work on in order to be ready for the coming season. He also reflected on his last Ironman tournament, “When you come to the Ironman you have to be strong in every position, and mentally. I wasn’t ready last year.”

This year will be a different story with Renteria most likely being the second seed, but he is still a large threat to take the title.

Renteria is a wrestler that is excited by all challenges he could face. I went ahead and asked him about his upcoming match between himself and future teammate Justin Mejia as both of their teams will meet in a dual this upcoming season, “I think it’s going to be a great match, Justin is really tough. I’m sure we will put on a show. It’s going to be really cool to meet my college practice partner.”

Indeed it will be cool when Hawkeye fans will get an opprotunity to watch two of the toughest lightweights in the country square off, and the fans get the satisfaction of knowing no matter which wrestler comes out on top in the highly anticipated battle, both will end up in Black and Gold singlets.

This Ironman weight it shaping up to be a fantastic one, and even though he is not the highest ranked wrestler in the bracket, I think we have seen enough upsets this early in the year to know that Renteria has a legitimate shot at an Ironman title.

The Ironman tournament takes place this weekend starting Friday 12/12 and goes through Saturday 12/13. If you have a FloPro subscription, you can catch all of the Ironman action, including Renteria’s matches.

Additional notes:

• Jason Renteria has earned the #2 seed at 113 pounds
• Potential quarterfinals opponent – Alan Hart (St. Edwards, OH), 5th place at Ironman 2013, 7th at state 2013
• Potential semifinals opponent – #7 Paxton Rosen (Edmond North, OK), 3rd at Ironman 2013 (106), state runner-up