Michigan Grappler's 2009 Disney Recap
7/1 - It has now been nearly a week since the
Disney Duals wrapped up in Florida, so lets
take a look back at the week that was.
From a team perspective, Michigan was up to
par with performances from the year's past.
Three Michigan teams finished in the top 7 and
for the 2nd straight year a Michigan squad
finished runners-up as Freeze made a good run
to the finals before being stopped by
Pennsylvania Diesel.
Blue finished 6th and Red finished 7th in what
seemed to be a more evenly matched team than
year's past. A good indicator of the depth in
this year's field was returning champs Ohio
Samsons finishing 16th. There were some very
tough teams from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois,
Missouri, and Iowa in attendance and many Michigan grapplers notched big time individual wins.
It is hard to pinpoint one or two individual performances that standout, however, there were a handful of guys who made a statement. Here is our look at the notable showings and what to take from this year's Disney Duals:
Morse, Nieman & Humes go undefeated
Heading into their senior seasons, Ryan Nieman and Nick
Humes needed a good showing at Disney and they both came
through by winning all of their matches. 2x state champ
Nieman should be one of the top recruits in this class next
year and he was dominant throughout his four days at Disney.
While Nieman did not notch any wins over nationally ranked
wrestlers, his dominant performance over Shawn Greevy of PA
in the finals was impressive and shows that he is capable of
competing with top tier national level guys. Greevy was 3rd in
the Pennsylvania AAA state tournament and Nieman picked
him apart en route to a 14-3 win.
Top ranked Junior Jackson Morse went undefeated as
well, wrestling 145lbs for Team Red. We previously reported
that Morse lost twice to Bo Candelaria of PA, however, we have
discovered that the AAU results were incorrectly reported and
in fact, Morse beat Candelaria twice.
State Runner-Up Humes showed that he should be one a
favorite to win the state title next year and his recruiting stock
should have increased as well.
Top Juniors battling
A handful of the top recruits for next year's senior class were wrestling at Disney and many were tested. Here is how some of the top juniors fared:
Nick McDiarmid of Fowlerville separated himself as one of the elite big men in the state this year, going undefeated at 215lbs en route to the Division 2 state title. He has tallied a handful of notable wins in the past year at last year's Disney Duals, Fargo, and the Super 32s, and he further solidifed himself on the national scene with his overtime win over Pennsylvania state runner-up Dallas Brown. Brown will be wrestling for Maryland next fall and his only loss at the PA State Tournament was to #2 ranked Jon Fausey 7-5 in the finals.
Rockford state champ Jake Dorulla made his 1st trip to Disney. The current #2 ranked wrestler in the junior class lost three times, once early in the pool rounds Marc Bryan of Kryptonite 7-5 and then to PA state qualifier Tristan Warner 3-0 in the Championshp Bracket. Dorulla was 1-1 with Warner as he beat him in the pool rounds, he also lost to MI Grappler Wrestler of the Year Dan Yates.
Darius Wass of Swan Valley lost two times as well for Freeze, however, he also scored a big pin over Mason Beckman of PA, who is currently ranked 13th in the nation by WIN Magazine, and he also downed Tyler Rauzahan of PA who is currently ranked 16th by InterMat. Wass' losses came to 2x Ohio State Champ Ty Mitch and Brighton state runner-up Grant Pizzo, both by close scores 2-0 and 2-1.
Troy Lamson of Swan Valley looked very good at 145lbs for Freeze as his only losses of the tournament came to Seth Horner of Ohio, who is currently ranked 13th nationally by WIN, and 2x state champ Morse who is currently nationally ranked as well.
A couple other top juniors with only two losses on the week were Ben Matthieson of Holt and John Rizgallah of Allegan. Rizgallah lost both matches to Barnes from PA Select while Matthieson lost to PA state qualifier Kevin Gooding and NHSCA Sophomore All-American Kyle Bauer of Pennsyvania.
Rollercoaster week for Yates
Michigan Grappler Wrestler of the Year Dan Yates came into Disney with a target on his back after winning the Senior Nationals this spring. At the start of the week Yates announced his commitment to the University of Michigan, which received a lot of attention not only from us but also on the national level from major outlets such as InterMat. The week started as expected as Yates ran through all of his opponents up to the finals, however, he was upended in the finals against James Fleming of Diesel. Fleming's unorthodox style and draping ride gave Yates fits as he upset the nationally ranked Hesperia grappler. While the week did not end the way he would of likely wanted it to, it was still a big week for Yates and probably a good learning expierence as well. Fleming was 5th in the PA state tournament this year, which shows the depth of Pennsylvania as a state.
Big win for Daniels
Stevensville Lakeshore freshman Tyler Daniels made an instant splash in his first year of high school wrestling as he won the Division 2 state title at 103lbs, however, Daniels had yet to prove himself nationally heading into last week in Disney. In the finals against Diesel he scored one of the biggest Michigan individual wins of the tournament with a 4-2 win over nationally ranked Shyheim Brown of Pennsyvania. Brown, who was 3rd in the state in PA this year, is ranked in the Top 20 nationally at 103lbs by both WIN and InterMat. Daniels' only loss of the tournament came to Mack McGuire of Quest, however, his win over Brown should get him closer to receiving national attention.
NOTE - We have found many errors in the AAU reported results, so we apologize if anything is reported incorrectly. If you see anything that is reported wrongly in this article, please email us and we will change it. Thank you.
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