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Youtsey runner-up at FILA Jr Nationals

Full Brackets

4/15 - The FILA Junior Freestyle Nationals went down in Madison, WI this

weekend with a strong contingent of Michigan wrestlers in attendance.

The FILA Junior age division is 17-20 years old, which consists of high

school upperclassmen and college underclassmen.

The highest placing Michigander was Conor Youtsey, a former 3x D2

State Champion from Mason who completed his first year of college as a

Army Military prep student in West Point. Youtsey scored three big wins

en route to the 121lb finals. He beat former Blair Academy standout and

Stanford freshman Evan Silver in the first round, then knocked off returning

Fargo Double All-American Nathan Kraisser of Maryland, and finally

upended Cornell freshman and former California State Champ Nashon

Garrett in the semifinals. Youtsey's lone loss came to 2x Fargo Freestyle

National Champ Joey Dance in the finals.

St Johns senior Taylor Massa was the only other Michigander to finish in

the top 4. After winning the first four matches of the tournament without

surrendering a period, Massa fell in three periods to University of Iowa

sophomore Nick Moore. Massa came back with a dominant tech-fall to

advance to the 3rd place finals, but injury defaulted in his final bout to

finish 4th.

Three other prep wrestlers earned All-American status. Fowlerville junior Adam Coon, a 3x state champ, lost in the quarterfinals to Donny Longendyke who is a freshman at the University of Nebraska that was the top heavyweight recruit in the country last year. Coon battled back with two sound wins to advance into the consolation semifinals where he fell to another former big-time heavyweight recruit, Connor Medberry of the University of Wisconsin. Coon won his final match to finish 5th, with a fall over University of Illinois freshman Chris Lopez. Coon entered this weekend as the #2 ranked 285lb high school wrestler in the country behind Brooks Black of Blair Academy. Brooks Black competed in the same bracket as Coon this weekend and failed to place. The man who knocked Black out of the consolation bracket was Chris Lopez, the same guy Coon pinned in the finals. Therefore, it would be expected that Coon should move ahead of Black in most national polls as the #1 wrestler in the country.

D1 state champ Kevin Beazley of DCC finished 6th at 185lbs with a handful of wins over college freshman and sophomores and St Johns Junior Jacob Schmitt put together a sound performance to finish 8th at 121lbs.

Three collegiate grapplers competing here in the state of Michigan battled through their deep brackets to earn All-American status. Michigan State freshman Ryan Watts advance to the 154lb semifinals and ended up finishing 6th. University of Michigan redshirt freshman Chris Heald finished 7th at 185lbs. Central MIchigan redshirt freshman Ben Matthieson finished 8th at 138lbs.

Michigan Placewinners

55kg/121lbs

2nd - Conor Youtsey (Michigan Wrestling Club)

8th - Jacob Schmitt (Massas Maniacs)

63kg/138.75lbs

8th - Ben Matthieson (Central Michigan University)

70kg/154.25lbs

6th - Ryan Watts (Michigan Wrestling Club)

74kg/163lbs

4th - Taylor Massa (Michigan Wrestling Club)

84kg/185lbs

6th - Kevin Beazley (Detroit Catholic Central)