GENEVA, Ohio — By placing fourth in the 79 kg division of the U23 Freestyle Nationals, App State's
Will Miller became the sixth USA Wrestling All-American in the last three years from Boone RTC.
Miller,
Luke Uliano (79 kg) and
Sean Carter (65 kg) all advanced to Day 2 of competition and placed in the final 12 of their brackets, with one more victory at that point needed to secure a top-eight performance.
The 23rd-seeded Uliano and unseeded Carter, who had beaten top-10 seeds earlier in the event, lost in that round. The unseeded Miller, who had joined Uliano as a quarterfinalist before dropping into the consolation bracket, clinched All-America honors with a 16-5 victory over 11th-seeded Bubba Wilson, a two-time NCAA qualifier (folkstyle) from Nebraska.
Miller then earned a spot in the third-place match by winning two more matches, as he posted a 13-3 victory against Joey Bianchi, an NCAA qualifier (folkstyle) from Little Rock, before winning by a 6-2 score against Indiana's Nick South.
Miller took a 7-1 record into the third-place match before losing a second time to Minnesota's Clayton Whiting.
Uliano reached the quarterfinal round with a 3-0 record before dropping his final two matches. Carter improved to 5-1 in the event before falling 8-6 to Iowa State's Zach Redding, who had built an 8-0 lead before holding on for a close victory. Carter had advanced to the final 16 by scoring the final four points to even the score at 8-all against sixth-seeded Nash Singleton from Oregon State — one tiebreaker favors the last wrestler to score.
App State and Boone RTC had four wrestlers in the final 16, as
Tomas Brooker joined Miller, Uliano and Carter in that grouping. The 26th-seeded Brooker won his first two matches and posted a 13-10 victory against seventh-seeded Luke Vanadia from Michigan State by erasing an 8-0 deficit after one period and a 10-8 deficit with 1:09 remaining, getting four points in the final seven seconds.
Chad Bellis (61 kg) won four times in the event, while three victories apiece came from
Kaden Keiser (70 kg),
Levi Andrews (125 kg),
Alex Hopper (79 kg),
Bryson Terrell (57 kg) and
Jayden Dobeck (74 kg).
Aldo Hernandez (65 kg),
Colby McBride (57 kg),
Ethan Shell (65 kg),
Nicholas Grizales (74 kg) and rising freshman
Ayson Rice (70 kg) won two times apiece.
