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Future Cowboys Reece Witcraft, Trevor Mastrogiovanni Win at Walsh Jesuit Ironman

This pair could make for a very strong lower-weight duo for OSU.

Published

5 years ago

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The Walsh Jesuit Ironman is one of the toughest high school wrestling tournaments in the country. Elite wrestlers come from all over the place, and it’s really a great test to see where recruits stack up next to other top wrestlers.

Three future Cowboys were wrestling here with 2020 commit Trevor Mastrogiovanni at 120 and 2019 signees Reece Witcraft and Brevin Balmaceda at 126 and 152, respectively.

Mastrogiovanni and Witcraft are two guys that will never lull fans to sleep in a match.

Mastro started off the tournament by dominating the No. 9 wrestler in the country to pick up an 11-1 major decision. He then fairly comfortably navigated his way to the semifinals where he had one of the more exciting matches of the tournament. He went to overtime with 10th-ranked Nick Bouzakis. No one scored on their feet in the first OT, so it went to the mat. Bouzakis got a 30 second ride then Mastro went on top. Mastro gave up an escape then got a takedown in the last few seconds to win and make the final.

His final match had a similar level of excitement. It stayed in regulation, but ultimately he ends up behind a little on the scoreboard and needing a late TD against the third-ranked wrestler in the country. With just a few seconds left he does this.

Reece Witcraft is one high-flying, fun-to-watch wrestler. He had a pretty tough bracket to navigate to make the final. He beat some nationally ranked guys and wrestled well to get there. On paper, that’s all he had to do to have a solid tournament for him.

In the final he matched up with the No. 2-ranked wrestler in the country Michael Colaiocco out of Blair Academy. He does a lot of upper body stuff and big throws. In the second period he does this.

That puts him up and he gets a locked hands call and gives up an escape that closes the gap on the score a little, but he still holds a lead. When most guys would maybe stall a little and just coast out the match, he literally looks at the clock here, sees how much time is left, and digs in under-hooks and hits this throw to seal the win. Wild!

Brevin Balmaceda pretty comfortably navigated his way to the final where he wrestled 3 seed and OU commit Sam Dover. He dropped the final 5-2 and finished second.

Thoughts

I have to give a shoutout to Reece Witcraft for making me look good, probably smarter than I actually am, when I did this write-up on signing day I talked about how I felt he was a bit under the radar, but had so much raw talent that he could really take off. He’s already starting to do that and he’s not even in the room yet.

At the time of the signing day story he was ranked 19th in the country. After beating No. 9 and No. 2, he’s almost certain to jump into the top 5. The expectation level with him has to have gone up a bit. I think when he committed/signed, on paper it looked like he’d be an asset, but not necessarily a high level contender. With the win here I think he’s bumped himself into a higher category with even bigger expectations. He is very athletic and not afraid to let it fly.

Mastrogiovanni a true blue-chip recruit. As a group he’s coming in with Dustin Plott and Konner Doucet, who are cut from similar cloth. He has some close matches that make you a little nervous, but comes through in the clutch in all of them. And all of those tight ones were against the most elite competition that is out there.

These two will have some time in the room with Nick Piccininni and Daton Fix, which will do a lot for them. They should make a pretty strong 1-2 combo at the lower weights in the future.

 

 

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