Another great tournament is in the books . . . and boy, was this a crazy one. Congrats to the PSU program, and condolences to those who came up short of their goals.
There were a lot of positives in this tournament, and I thought it might be nice to acknowledge them here.
I’d like to start with a couple of individuals who stood out to me . . .
• #14 Will Feldkamp (Clarion) — This guy drew Brooks in the 2nd round, and he was game! Despite ultimately being pinned, he kept his head up, wrestling back to a 7th-place finish, which included wins over #13 Pinto, #22 Hawks, #9 Salazar, and #11 Kane. Great to see the genuine joy he had, not to mention his caution-to-the-wind approach. Always nice to see the smaller schools grab a slice of the pie, too.
• #13 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) — Following a rough B1G tournament, the freshman lost to #4 McGee in the 2nd round of Nattys but fought back to a 6th-place finish and AA status. And it was not an easy path, as he persevered to beat #19 Zaccone, #11 Ragusin, #10 Byrd, and #6 Latona . . . only to again face McGee and then the very tough Nagao. Even though he lost those, Mendez showed a lot of guts to endure that far as a #13.
Those are just 2 examples to celebrate from the 2023 National Championships. Others welcome.
There were a lot of positives in this tournament, and I thought it might be nice to acknowledge them here.
I’d like to start with a couple of individuals who stood out to me . . .
• #14 Will Feldkamp (Clarion) — This guy drew Brooks in the 2nd round, and he was game! Despite ultimately being pinned, he kept his head up, wrestling back to a 7th-place finish, which included wins over #13 Pinto, #22 Hawks, #9 Salazar, and #11 Kane. Great to see the genuine joy he had, not to mention his caution-to-the-wind approach. Always nice to see the smaller schools grab a slice of the pie, too.
• #13 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) — Following a rough B1G tournament, the freshman lost to #4 McGee in the 2nd round of Nattys but fought back to a 6th-place finish and AA status. And it was not an easy path, as he persevered to beat #19 Zaccone, #11 Ragusin, #10 Byrd, and #6 Latona . . . only to again face McGee and then the very tough Nagao. Even though he lost those, Mendez showed a lot of guts to endure that far as a #13.
Those are just 2 examples to celebrate from the 2023 National Championships. Others welcome.
