Cowboy RTC Puts Three into U.S. Open Finals

One of the more important freestyle wrestling tournaments of the calendar year is this weekend, and the Cowboys are well-represented.

Wyatt Hendrickson, Dustin Plott and Joey McKenna made the U.S. Open finals on Friday.

Starting with Captain America, Hendrickson teched his way through the 125 kg semis. He beat four-time NCAA All-American and former U23 world champ Tony Cassioppi 12-2 in the quarters before beating former NCAA champ Greg Kerkvliet 11-1 in the semis.

Hendrickson will get Demetrius Thomas in Saturday night’s final. Thomas beat Coby Merrill, the younger brother of OSU NCAA finalist Cody Merrill, in the semis. Mason Parris earned the top seed in the bracket, but fell to Merrill 8-1 in the quarters.

Plott also teched his way into the finals at 92 kg. He beat Bucknell’s Dillon Bechtold 12-2 in the semis. Bechtold was a NCAA qualifier the past two seasons.

Plott, a four-time All-American while at OSU, will wrestle Michael Macchiavello in the final after Macchiavello beat reigning 197-pound NCAA champ Josh Barr 4-1 in the quarters. Macchiavello wrestled at NC State, with his final year coming in 2019 when he won his first NCAA title.

McKenna did his college wrestling at Stanford but trains in Stillwater at the Cowboy RTC. He made the 65 kg final by beating Jesse Mendez 3-2 in the semis. Mendez was who Sergio Vega beat in the NCAA final this year. Mendez was a two-time NCAA champ.

McKenna will wrestle superstar high schooler Bo Bassett in the final. Bassett won a wild bout against reigning 149-pound NCAA champ Aden Valencia in the quarters before teching former Penn State wrestler Beau Bartlett 10-0 in the battle of Bo(eau)s.

A win in the finals for those three would move them on to Final X where they’d wrestle in a best-of-three series. Win that series, and they’d represent the United States at the Senior World Championships.

Elsewhere

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the orange-clad contingent, though.

Jax Forrest dropped an NCAA finals rematch against Ohio State’s Ben Davino in the 61 kg semifinal, falling 8-4. Forrest still has a shot at third on Saturday.

Former Cowboy Cam Amine got what might be the biggest win of his wrestling career in the quarterfinals at 74 kg when he beat David Carr 6-3. Carr was a two-time national champ at Iowa State and a U20 World champ. He wrestled at the Senior World Championships last year and was right there with the best guys in the world.

Amine couldn’t get past James Green in the semis, though, with Green winning 2-1. Green took silver at the Senior World Championships in 2017.

Cowboy national champ Dean Hamiti dropped his quarterfinal bout to Muhamed McBryde.

Cody Merrill was on the opposite side of Plott’s bracket and fell to Macchiavello 2-1 in the quarters.

Saturday’s Schedule

The consolation rounds and medal matches will resume at noon (Central) on Saturday.

The championship finals will be at 8 p.m.

The event is streamed on Flo.