Virginia Beach, Va.-Gilroy High’s Hunter Collins won the
171-pound Junior Division championship at the High School
Nationals, a tournament that is divided by grades.
Virginia Beach, Va.-Gilroy High’s Hunter Collins won the 171-pound Junior Division championship at the High School Nationals, a tournament that is divided by grades.
Collins defeated two-time Ohio state champion Cody Magrum 3-1 in the finals. In the semifinals, Collins beat Delaware state finalist Brock Budesheim 18-0 in the semifinals. He also beat two-time Maryland finalist Tyler Mullen 6-3, Collin Toney of New York 13-4 and two-time Pennsylvania state qualifier Ben Clymer 4-1.
Gilroy sophomore Martin Gonzalez also competed, going 2-2. Competing in the 119-pound Sophomore Division, Gonzalez beat Illinois third-place finisher Justin Farmer 8-4 and defeated two-time North Carolina state qualifier Dakota Holt 10-4. He lost in overtime 5-3 to Erik Spjut of Texas in a match that Gonzalez led 3-2 before being called for stalling with 10 seconds left in regulation. Gonzalez also dropped an 8-3 decision to New York state champion Devon Brown.
Seventeen of this year’s 20 NCAA Division 1 wrestling finalists have participated in this tournament in the past. The meet featured wrestlers with more than 700 state championships among them.
