IA Wrestle Fargo Cadet Preview

This year Iowa will be taking a talented group* into the Fargo High School National Championships, and while only a pair of Cadet All-Americans will be returning for Team Iowa, they are bringing plenty of experience that hopefully will make a push to put multiple guys on the stand. A year ago, Iowa took 11th as a team in freestyle, finishing with 23 points, and Iowa was 6th in Greco-Roman.

*Note: I haven’t received Fargo rosters, so I am making an assumption that most of the guys that competed last year or have been really active this summer are heading to Fargo.

Leading the charge for the Cadets will be Glenwood’s Anthony Sherry at 170 pounds. While wrestling in the middle weights is often a tough task for a freshman to break through in, Sherry was more than exceptional. He brought home a Greco-Roman runner-up honors in 2014 and was also the sixth place finisher on the freestyle side at 152 pounds. This past year he was fourth in the state of Iowa in a loaded 160 pound 3A bracket. Sherry has not blown up the national radar, and is only just starting to be ranked at his weight. He remains among Iowa’s strongest Cadet All-American candidates, and is definitely the biggest threat to double All-American.

The other returning All-American is Noah Fye, who should be moving up from 100 pounds to the tougher 106 pound bracket. Last summer Fye took home seventh at the national tournament and then took third in the 2A 106 pound bracket this past winter. Despite being a returning All-American, Fye is actually ranked #2 in our FRECO rankings at 106 pound behind Aden Reeves, and I feel good about Fye’s chances to repeat – which means Reeves should be in contention too.

Everyone is talking about Alex Thomsen after the freshman tore through the season going undefeated at 113 pounds, and he actually handed Fargo All-American Drew West his first regular season loss in his career. After testing the waters in the Juniors and with motivation from just missing the stand in 2014, Thomsen will be motivated to go out and make the stand for 2015. He is the state’s top ranked freshman in the 2018 class rankings by InterMat (#45), which is two places higher than Sherry. Thomsen is a phenomenal talent and a must watch at this tournament.

Kyle Biscoglia is expected to be a contender at 100 pounds for Team Iowa. He was bumped from the Waukee lineup when Jakob Allison decided to drop for the state tournament, but now in 2015 he is expected to be the man at 106 pounds for the Warriors, and is already considered a top 20 wrestler at his weight nationally. He posted an impressive 9-0 record at Cadet National Duals, and was also a respectable 3-4 filling in for the Junior Duals team. In addition to Biscoglia, Don Bosco state medalist Gable Fox will also be a name to watch at 100 pounds. He was 8-0 at Cadet National Duals, and also wrestled on one of the Junior National Dual teams. Eric Faught, who has posted plenty of marquee Schoolboy victories will be interesting in his first go at Cadet’s as well.

At 113 pounds Iowa has a trio of interesting wrestlers to watch. Chief among them there is the nationally ranked and 3A state champion Brody Teske, who is currently the top ranked Iowan. Surprisingly 2A state champion Michael Millage is the third man in this group behind McGwire Midkiff who took fifth in the 3A bracket with Teske. It will be interesting to see if one of these three can come out on the stand.

Nelson Brands is a big favorite to talk about (must be his famous dad who coaches at Iowa), but the 132 pound wrestler put together a nice season this past year for Iowa City West. He might not have qualified for state (his district was loaded with ranked guys) and he may be up several weight classes from 2014 Fargo (113), but he has been very impressive thus far. He is the state’s best 132 pound FRECO wrestler, and he went 7-2 in freestyle at Cadet National Duals. Brands is also fairly savvy in Greco, so he is a double All-American threat.

Trey Brisker surprised a few fans this past season when he made it to the 138 pound finals in the 1A bracket this past season, and he did so by taking out a highly touted Hawkeye commit, Jeren Glosser. He ran into Lisbon’s Carter Happel in the finals, so his resume is pretty solid it will be interesting to see what he can do. Cayd Lara is up a few weights and is currently ranked at 145 in our FRECO rankings, after taking seventh at 132 pounds this winter.

Ben Sarasin made his way into InterMat’s rankings after a 9-0 freestyle performance at Cadet National Duals at 152 pounds. He’s an accomplished freestyle wrestler that is the name to watch at this weight.

Marcus Coleman was probably the MVP of the Cadet National Dual team, going an combined 15-0 in freestyle (9-0) and Greco-Roman (5-0) winning most his matches by fall or technical fall. A 3A 152 pound state champion, Coleman is one of the top 20 wrestlers in the nation at his weight.

At 195 pounds Bryce Esmoil and Garrett Kubovec will be names to watch. Kubovec was 8-0 for Team Iowa in the Greco-Roman National Duals, and he did that at 195 and 220 pounds. He remains a threat to reach the stand, at least in Greco. Esmoil is a little newer to Greco, but holds the top Cadet spot in our FRECO rankings. He took seventh at state this past year and should be a name to watch for the next three years.

Stay tuned to IAWrestle.com for all of your Iowa Fargo Cadet and Junior results.

SCHEDULE FOR CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS IN FARGO
Saturday, July 18 – Cadet Women’s Finals at 7:00 p.m. Central
Monday, July 20 – Cadet Greco-Roman Finals at 2:00 p.m. Central
Tuesday, July 21 – Junior Greco-Roman Finals at 2:15 p.m. Central
Tuesday, July 21 – Junior Women Finals at 5:45 p.m. Central
Wednesday, July 22 – Junior Women Freestyle Duals Finals at 3:30 p.m. Central
Friday, July 24 – Cadet Men’s Freestyle Finals at 2:00 p.m. Central
Saturday, July 25 – Junior Men’s Freestyle Finals at 10:00 a.m. Central

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Ross Bartachek (@rossbchek)

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Lead Editor of IA Wrestle

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