Kemerer-Young Power Young Guns to Second NHSCA National Duals Title

It gets talked about a lot, especially in recruiting talk, but the Young Guns wrestling club in Pennsylvania may be the richest collection of high school talent in the entire country. The club, which is run by former Hawkeye standouts Jody Strimatter and Eric Jurgens, boasts many future Division I wrestlers including Hawkeye commits Michael Kemerer and Kaleb Young.

Kemerer is the nation’s top 145 pound recruit, and has finished the year as the top 145 pound wrestler by both InterMat and ASICS to name a few. As a senior he won multiple national tournaments and will be heading to wrestle for Iowa this next fall. His Young Guns teammate, Kaleb Young only finished his junior season this past winter, but is considered a top 50 recruit for the coming 2016 recruiting class. Both of the wrestlers competed on the Young Guns Black team (the Guns had enough wrestlers to fill four teams – a Red, Blue, White, and Black) and both wrestled up a weight class from this past season.

Making the finals for the second straight year, the Young Guns squared off against the NY Kong squad to capture their second NHSCA National Dual Title this past weekend. After opening with a pair of decisions from Job Chisko and Devin Brown, the NY Kong team strung together four straight wins to take a 12-6 team lead. A 5-3 win by Virginia bound Sam Krivus closed the gap to 12-9, and then Mike Kemerer took the mat for the Young Guns at 152 pounds.

Kemerer jumped out to a 14-3 major decision (watch here on FLO) over Harvard commit Tommy Dutton (a top 150 recruit) to give his team back the lead. Kaleb Young followed his future teammate with a 10-1 major decision of his own (FLO) at 160 pounds and to put his team up 17-12 with five matches remaining. It was a lead NY Kong would never be able to take back as the Young Guns won 26-21 on their way to the title.

Kemerer was excited after his title, tweeting this out:

Last time taking the mat with many of my Young Guns teammates. Great weekend of wrestling. National champs!

— Michael Kemerer (@Kem_Daughg65) May 25, 2015

The Young Guns team was certainly dominant, finishing the tournament 7-0, but perhaps a bigger deal might have been the margin of their victories. To start off day one of the tourney, the Young Guns Black team won their first three matches by a 215-0 margin. The second day they weren’t as dominant, but they still out scored other teams 178-9. It wasn’t until the finals of the tournament that the Young Guns were even challenged, and it was the first time they lost more than two matches in the same dual. The final dual point spread for the Young Guns was 419-35.