PERRY STILL ALIVE FOR ALL-AMERICAN STATUS
By Joe Walker
FARGO, ND Central Mountain junior Dalton Perry is the lone Wildcat still wrestling in the 2024 National Freestyle Championships in the Fargodome on the campus of North Dakota University, as he needs one win in the consolations on Wednesday to win All-American status at the prestigious event.
In the 138 pound championship round of 16, Perry dropped a tough 6-4 decision to Three-time Iowa state champion Carter Freeman to fall into the consolations. Perry bounced back and posted an 11-8 decision over Tyler Turzinski (Minnesota) and then a solid 12-1 tech fall over Brogan Fielding of Ohio. The win over Turzinski was the second time he beat the Minnesota wrestler in the tournament.
Perry is 5-1 thus far and is now in the second round of eight consolations and he will face the top seeded Alex Braun of Minnesota, as a win will put Perry into the top eight at 138 pounds. Braun will be a really tough test, as the Oklahoma University signee is a two-time Minnesota state champion and a four-time state placewinner and is ranked fourth in the country. Braun had 256 career high school wins and was voted Minnesota’s Mr. Wrestling this past year. Braun got upset in the tournament’s quarterfinals.
Wildcat senior Griffin Walizer ran into some really tough competition on Tuesday and was eliminated from the tournament. In his championship round of 16 bout he dropped a 12-3 decision to Kyrel Keavell of Indiana, who was a Two-time state champion and four-time state placewinner.
Walizer bounced back and won a solid 8-0 decision in the first consolation bout at 144 pounds, as he defeated Andres Chapparro-Urrego of Illinois. Then in the first consolation round of 8, Walizer dropped a close 13-10 decision to #19 seeded Mason Petersen of Nebraska. Petersen is a defending Nebraska state champion and placed third two years ago. Walizer went 3-2 in the tournament.
In the 16U National Freestyle Championships, freshman Aiden Kunes was eliminated on Tuesday, but posted a fine 5-2 record in the tournament. After falling into the consolations on Monday, Kunes posted a 3-1 mark on Tuesday.
In his first consolation bout, Kunes posted a 10-0 tech fall over Connor Allison of Maryland and then an 11-0 tech fall over Hayden Hutt of Iowa. Kunes kept things going with an 11-2 decision over Makael Aguayo of Montana.
In his fourth match of the day, Kunes ran into #6 seeded Austin Collins of Colorado. Collins handed the young Wildcat a 9-4 defeat and eliminated him from the tourney. Collins is a defending Colorado state champion after finishing as a state runner-up two years ago.
