First of all, I want to thank everyone who helped out this weekend at our tournament. I know it was a lot of work for parents, kids, coaches, and family members. The good news is all of the hard work on and off the mat paid off in a big way. We were able to capture titles at both the JV and Varsity level.

For the JV, this was the first time we were able to put together two JV teams out in our own tournament (which speaks well of our numbers this year) and they were both in the top 3. Our red team went undefeated to win the tournament. Our blue team finished third behind Vacaville. The great thing is we were able to get everyone some matches for those who were eligible to compete. Some of our JV wrestlers wrestled both days and we were able to get most of them at least a match in at the varsity level.

Our varsity team had another impressive performance as they went 5-0 to sweep through the tournament including dominant victories over Franklin in the semifinals and Vacaville in the finals. We had several wrestlers go 5-0 at the varsity level including Lorenzo De La Riva, Connor Pollock, Mason Koshiyama, Nick Fiegener, Isaias Diaz, and Alex Hurlimann. Pollock, Fiegener, and Diaz were selected to the All Tournament team.

HD Video and Photo Highlights here

Congratulations to our four Mad Dawg wrestlers who placed at the California Freestyle/Greco Roman State Championships. Competing in the schoolboy division (7th and 8th graders) were Jason Bergquist and Jake Bienvenue who were wrestling Greco-Roman.  Bergquist improved upon his 3rd place finish last year as he took 2nd place at 105 lbs.  Bienvenue finished third at 160 lbs. in his first state experience.

Earning State medals in the Freestyle Cadet Division were freshmen Kyle Parrott (130) who ended up 7th and Nicholas Fiegener (145) who took 2nd.  By placing in the top 3 in the Cadet Division, Fiegener has qualified for the Freestyle Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota this Summer.  All four state placers have qualified for the Western Regional in Pocatello, Idaho this June.

This past weekend, we had 18 Mad Dawg wrestlers compete at the Reno Worlds tournament which had wrestlers from all over the country in attendance.  This year there were almost 2,700 total wrestlers in action.  This is a very tough tournament to place in and we had three of our wrestlers medal in the top 5 for their respective weights.

Freshman Nicholas Fiegener led the way as he finished third place at 135 lbs for the 15 and under division.  What made this even more impressive was that his weight class had 161 wrestlers which was the biggest bracket the tournament has ever had!  He finished ahead of several California state qualifiers and a CA state placer.

Jordan Alleva (18 and under HWT) and Isaias Diaz (18 U 152) both reached the semifinals before dropping down to the 5th place match.  Both were able to win their last matches to finish 5th in their respective brackets.  Diaz improved upon his 6th place finish at this tournament a year ago.

We took three wrestlers to the NHSCA National Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia this last week and the boys had a great experience.  Nicholas Fiegener went 5-2 to finish 7th in the country in the freshman bracket at 138 lbs.    By placing in the top 8, Fiegener earned All-American status, and joined Tianna Camous and Jordan Hart as the third Folsom High wrestler to become an All-American in the last three years.  Fiegener is the first FHS wrestler to become an All-American as a Freshman, and he had to do it the hard way.  Nick lost his first match to the eventual champion to send him into the consolation bracket.  He then rattled off 4 wins in a row to get into the medal rounds. Also competing in the Freshman division was Kyle Parrott at 128 lbs.

Wrestling in the Junior division was Isaias Diaz, who competed at 148 lbs.  Diaz had a great tournament as well as he went 3-2 to finish in the top 16 in the country in his weight class.  Diaz had a bigger bracket (63 wrestlers) which made it even tougher to reach All-American status. One of his three victories included a great comeback win against a 2X state placer from Texas.