Olympic (Trials) dreams may begin and end in Fort Worth, Texas, this weekend at senior nationals, as hundreds of elite wrestlers take the mat looking for their opportunity to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Trials in State College, Pennsylvania, in April.
Any athlete who finishes in the top five of their respective weight class this weekend during the Dec. 15-17 tournament secures their spot. Locking up a spot in December means potentially not having to make weight again until April, which could be especially important for athletes in between weights who are cutting or bulking after wrestling a non-Olympic weight for the last several years or throughout the college season.
This year's senior nationals event, though, isn’t the only qualifying tournament for the Olympic Trials, as some athletes have already qualified through previous world team participation, age group medal performance or a Bill Ferrell Invitational championship. Athletes can also secure a ticket to Olympic Trials in the coming months by qualifying the weight at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier or winning the Pan American championships.
Current snapshot of U.S. Olympic Team Trials qualifiers in women’s freestyle 🇺🇸 — 34 women have made the cut so far. #TeamUSA #Paris2024
— USA Wrestling (@USAWrestling) December 9, 2023
🪧 Next up: Senior Nationals in Ft. Worth where up to 30 more names will get added to this list. pic.twitter.com/jLsHlzaNpC
Men’s freestyle athletes who win the 2024 NCAA wrestling tournament will also qualify while women’s freestyle athletes who win the NCWWC national championship or the NAIA national championships can also qualify for the Trials. There will also be a last-chance tournament in the spring for one final group of athletes to punch their ticket to the Trials.
For now, though, the focus will be on Fort Worth. Here’s what we know about the college athletes competing in this year's senior nationals:
Penn State is sending a squad of current athletes, former champs and up-and-coming contenders
While the list of registered athletes is long and includes dozens of former NCAA qualifiers, All-Americans and national champions, no college team is sending more active All-American male college athletes to Texas than the Penn State Nittany Lions. The Blue and White have three current starters in the mix in Fort Worth including All-Americans Beau Bartlett, Bernie Truax and Greg Kerkvliet, along with several other athletes on the roster including Cael Nasdeo, Timothy Levine, Tyler Kasak, Terrell Barraclough, Alex Facundo, Aarif Asif and Donovon Ball. Nasedo will compete at 57kg, while Levine and Kasak will be in the same 65kg bracket as Bartlett. Barraclough and Facundo will hold down 74k for the Nittany Lions, a weight class where the club already has both the No. 1 athlete nationally at the weight, Kyle Dake, and the No. 2 athlete at the weight, Jason Nolf. Aarif and Ball will both compete one weight up, at 86k, with Traux.
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Of all of these athletes, Kerkvliet is probably in the best position to not only finish top five but possibly win his bracket at 125kg, just given the nature of the weight class. Kerkvliet enters this tournament with momentum on his side, as he’s 4-0 on the year in the folkstyle scene, with his biggest win coming just a few weeks ago in the NWCA All-Star exhibition match where he bonused U23 world champion Wyatt Hendrickson with authority. Kerkvliet is no stranger to the freestyle landscape either, as he won a world title as a cadet in 2017 and a silver medal at the junior world championships in 2018.
3-time All American Greg Kerkvliet comes in strong at No. 4 on @ShaneSparksBTN’s Sparks 24 Countdown! pic.twitter.com/84XJM7r7ug
— Big Ten Wrestling (@B1GWrestling) December 6, 2023
Now up at the senior level, Kerkvliet has the potential to compete for even more hardware. His biggest competition will be veteran freestyler Dom Bradley, though All-Americans Christian Lance and Trent Hillger — both of whom Kerkvliet has beaten in folkstyle — will also be in the mix. Lance is an interesting name to note here because the former Husker has already qualified for the Trials by way of his results at the Bill Ferrell, so if he finishes in the top five (in a weight that only has 11 entrants), he could block another qualifier from earning a spot.
Beyond Kerkvliet, his teammates Bartlett and Truax also have solid opportunities to finish within the Top 5 and punch their tickets to Trials, though Bartlett’s weight — 65kg — is one of the deepest in the country. Within in bracket, Bartlett will have NCAA champion and 2022 senior world team member Seth Gross, Olympic Trials finalist Joey McKenna, NCAA champions Dean Heil, Andrew Alirez, Jaydin Eierman and Anthony Ashnault, Big Ten champions Luke Pletcher, Alec Pantaleo and Patrick Lugo and All-Americans Michael McGee, Matthew Kolodzik and Austin DeSanto. Top five will be no easy task.
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Traux’s 86kg bracket is tough and has a number of key names, but it doesn’t carry quite the depth as Bartlett’s 65kg bracket, just because it’s not as big. The most interesting potential matches for Truax though, depending on how the bracket shakes out, could come against former Penn State wrestlers and NCAA champions Max Dean and Mark Hall, neither of whom are currently training in State College. Three-time NCAA All-American Alex Dieringer is also a key threat at this weight, as are All-Americans David McFadden, Evan Wick and Marcus Coleman. Taylor Lujan, a No. 1 seed for the canceled 2020 NCAA tournament, rounds out the stars here and serves as a reminder that there are no easy matches in this weight this weekend. Lujan has career wins over Coleman during the NCAA season as well as NCAA champions Gabe Dean and Keith Gavin during FloWrestling’s 8-man 195-bracket in 2020. He’s not someone to be overlooked.
The Nittany Lion Wrestling Club already has nine wrestlers qualified for Trials in Thomas Gilman, Nick Lee, Zain Retherford, Kyle Dake, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Jason Nolf, David Taylor, Aaron Brooks and Kyle Snyder, and two of those wrestlers — Mesenbrink and Brooks — are active in the college scene looking for their first and fourth NCAA titles respectively this March. Bartlett, Truax and Kerkvliet will look to add their names to this prestigious list this weekend.
less impressed, more involved. balancing the process of making it happen and letting it come. creating a life full of livin’
— Mitchell Mesenbrink (@Mitch_Mes) December 11, 2023
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BTS action moments before fun time. it’s an honor to represent the best place and people in the world⚪️🦁🔵
🎥: @ImranHeard pic.twitter.com/v9W3zxZ1z0
Penn State commit Luke Lilledahl will also be an interesting name for Nittany Lion fans to follow as he attempts to make his way through a 57kg bracket that includes multiple-time NCAA champions Spencer Lee and Nick Suriano. Fellow future Nittany Lion Connor and Cole Mirasola will compete at 86kg and 97kg respectively, with the latter weight also including notable names like Tony Cassioppi, TJ Dudley, Eric Schultz, Nate Jackson, Kollin Moore, Lou DePrez and Jacob Warner.
Braunagel and Schultz look to showcase Greco skills
Jumping over to Greco, two names stand out: Zac Braunagel and Cohlton Schultz. The story of these two athletes making their mark on the Greco scene is a familiar one. Greco, as a style, has been a struggle for the U.S. as of late, with just one athlete bringing home a world medal at the senior level in the last seven years.
Arizona State’s Cohlton Schultz, in particular, though, is someone who has worked to help the U.S. break this rut, and the Sun Devil has been dominant on the domestic scene as he consistently earns his opportunity to compete for international hardware. The problem for Schultz is that he’s been stopped, on the world level, in his past three appearances by Iakobi Kauai in 2021, Oskar Marvik in 2022 and Romas Fridrikas in 2023 before he’s even had a chance to compete for a medal.
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As a member of the 2023 world team, Schultz has already locked up his Olympic Trials spot and secured a bid to the finals of senior nationals, so his participation in senior nationals is likely just to stay sharp and earn the spot as a U.S. rep for the Pan American Games. He has an Olympic redshirt available to him if he wants to take it too, though he’s still projected as the starter for the Sun Devils at 285 pounds, at least according to the rankings.
His biggest competition this weekend will come against a proven foe in Adam Coon, the 2021 Olympic Trials champion and former NFL football player. Coon, however, has also qualified for the Trials by way of his 2019 senior world team participation. If Coon wrestles at his best, look for a Coon vs. Schultz final as two of the nation’s best Greco stars could meet again.
Down two weights at 87kg, another senior level college wrestler in Zac Braunagel of Illinois will also look to add to his Greco resume with a senior nationals win. Braunagel, who finished 17th in Serbia after a win over Azym Annamammedov and a loss to Zhan Beleniuk, is currently taking an Olympic redshirt at Illinois, alongside his brother, a Greco star at 77kg, as he works to chase an Olympic dream.
Back to work.#Illini I #HTTO pic.twitter.com/zbN3Lc43zP
— Illinois Wrestling (@IlliniWrestling) October 12, 2023
Zac Braunagel has already qualified for the Trials, as has fellow senior national team member and one of the biggest competitors for Braunagel this weekend: Spencer Woods. A bronze medalist at the 2021 Olympic Trials, Woods competed down at 82kg on the international stage this year, finishing 18th. Woods and Braunagel are two of 24 athletes in this weight class, and their experience on the world stage will make them names to watch.
A rising Hawks team is looking for more Trials qualifiers
Much like Penn State’s dominance on the men’s folkstyle scene and the select Greco prowess from a couple collegiate stars, the story in women's collegiate freestyle is a headline fans have heard before: Iowa leads the way. Under head coach Clarissa Chun leadership, the Hawks are currently ranked No. 1 in the NWCA rankings after dominant wins over East Stroudsburg, Presbyterian, Lindenwood and Sacred Heart.
Now, the team will pivot slightly away from the college schedule and send eight athletes to Fort Worth, looking to qualify themselves for the Olympic Trials. The team was originally planning to send ten athletes, but Eli McKowen of the Des Moines Register recently reported that two of those ten — Kylie Welker and Bella Mir — will not participate.
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Welker's withdrawl is a particularly big loss for the Hawks, as she was expected to compete for gold at 76kg, one of Iowa's deepest weights. She has already qualified for the Trials, so she does not need to compete, and, even without her, the Hawks will still have some representation here. Teammates Marlynne Deede and Rose Cassioppi will both take the mat looking to punch their tickets to the Trials. Deede, a senior, competed for Augsburg prior to joining the Hawks, and racked up four All-American honors and a national championship during her first collegiate stint, while Cassioppi is just starting her freshman year with the Black and Gold after three All-American finishes at Fargo in high school.
The other popular weight for Iowa is 50kg, and this happens to be yet another deep bracket with a former world medalist. Alyssa Lampe, an assistant coach at Linfield University, will hold the advantage given her previous world accolades, but Iowa will put forward Emilie Gonzalez, Ava Bayless, Brianna Gonzalez, in a quest to earn a spot on the podium. In the Iowa dual lineup, these three athletes wrestle at 101, 109 and 116 pounds, but they'll all convene now at 110 for this meeting. The road for the Hawks at this weight will be an uphill battle, as 50kg will also feature Emily Shilson, a junior world champ and U23 world champion, and Sage Mortimer, a fellow college wrestler who now competes at Grand Valley State University but is currently redshirting, among others.
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Of Iowa's three other athletes including Alexandra Baudhuin (57kg), Esther Han (62kg) and Nanea Estrella (62kg), Estrella is likely in the best position to crack the top five in her weight class, given her previous success on the senior level. A transfer from Menlo College, Estrella won this tournament in 2022 down at 59kg and also took home gold at the U20 2022 Pan American Championships. She's been active on the circuit since she was a cadet and has shown no signs of slowing. Recently named the USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week for her performance in the Trailblazer Duals, Estrella is someone representing Iowa well in and beyond her college matches. She'll have to get past her own teammate in Han if she wants to earn gold, and her path to victory will likely also involve taking down some combination of 2022 senior world team member Abigail Nette, 2022 U23 world team member Lexie Basham, 2021 U23 world team member Ashlynn Ortega and 2019 Cadet world team member Skylar Hattendorf. Life University's Sarah Savidge will also be in the mix in this interesting weight class.
Women's freestyle wrestling is growing as a sport, though a number of the top athletes either elected not to compete in college or are pursuing international wrestling full-time instead. This trend will be fascinating to follow through the 2024 Olympics and beyond. Regardless of their specific path, the depth in the women's weights suggests good things for the future of Team USA in women's freestyle.
In terms of who will qualify for which spots though, nothing is guaranteed, and everything is earned in Forth Worth. And for the wrestlers who finish in the top five, that reward is a shot at an Olympic dream.
