Wrestling: Mason City’s Cullan Schriever wins Junior freestyle national title

Cullan Schriever keeps his favorite wrestling awards on top of his dresser at home. The standout Mason City wrestler has piled up plenty of hardware over the years, including a Cadet freestyle national championship in 2016, as well as a pair of individual Iowa state titles.

After this week, Schriever will have to make room for another octagonal trophy. The rising junior-to-be won a junior men’s freestyle national title at 113 pounds on Tuesday in Fargo, North Dakota.

“This one means more,” Schriever told the Register. “At the junior level, every match is a dogfight. If you aren’t ready, you’ll get beat. It’s tougher to win.”

The junior freestyle and Greco-Roman championships are considered some of the toughest high school tournaments in the country, and Schriever came ready this week. He went 6-0, outscoring his opponents 65-27. He won three times by technical fall, and produced two solid 8-6 victories en route to Tuesday afternoon’s final against California’s Jonathan Prata.

Against Prata, Schriever had perhaps his toughest battle. Prata struck early with a takedown and two turns and added a push-out to lead 7-0 in the first period. Schriever cut the deficit to 7-2 with a takedown before the break, then used two big four-point takedowns in the second period to storm back to a 10-10 win on criteria.

“I wasn’t worried when I went down 7-0, because it was so early,” Schriever said. “He was super tall, so that leglace transition was tight. But I was confident in my scoring ability, especially after that late takedown in the first period.

“This was the best I’ve ever wrestled in a tournament, I think. I kept attacking. I felt good. This was honestly the best I’ve ever felt.”

And that’s a scary thought. Schriever is considered one of the top wrestling prospects of the 2020 recruiting class — Flowrestling ranks him No. 43 overall. His performance in Fargo reinforces that fact.

Reeves, Shapiro both fall in finals

Schriever was one of three wrestlers from Iowa to make Tuesday’s finals. Albia’s Aden Reeves (120 pounds) and West Des Moines Valley’s Joel Shapiro (182) also navigated their respective brackets to reach the finals.

Neither had Schriever's level of success.

Reeves, a previous All-American at both the cadet and junior levels and an Iowa State commit, lost by first-period fall against Wisconsin’s Eric Barnett. Barnett scored a takedown after locking Reeves up in a cradle, and readjusted his positioning to get the pin in 1 minute, 32 seconds.

Shapiro, a future Iowa State wrestler and two-time Iowa state champion, ran into a buzzsaw in Illinois’s Jack Jessen, a Northwestern signee. Jessen rolled up Shapiro in an 11-0 technical fall in less than three minutes.

MORE WRESTLING COVERAGE

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• Ankeny's Caleb Rathjen reaches Cadet national finals
• Iowa high school state wrestling tournament to be seeded
• Nate Moore to be new wrestling coach at Iowa City West
• Mike Moreno returns as Urbandale's wrestling coach

Outgoing seniors bring home hardware

The one thing that stood out about Team Iowa’s junior men’s freestyle roster was the amount of outgoing seniors who decided to compete. Oftentimes, most don’t because they’re already on campus for college, but this week's exceptions put on a show.

The list: Waukee’s Kyle Biscoglia, New Hampton’s Michael Blockhus, Iowa City West’s Nelson Brands, Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s Ben Sarasin, Waterloo East’s Tyrell Gordon, Dubuque Wahlert’s Boone McDermott and Atlantic’s John McConkey. Each of them earned All-American honors this week. All but Gordon won a state title back in February (Gordon took third at 195 in 3A).

A good number of them — Biscoglia, Blockhus, Gordon and McConkey — are headed to Northern Iowa. Blockhus took third at 145. Biscoglia and McConkey both took fourth at 120 and 285, respectively. Gordon took sixth at 195.

Sarasin, bound for the University of Chicago, took sixth at 170. McDermott, who recently decided to attend Iowa Central, placed third at 220. He dropped his second match, then ripped off nine straight in the wrestlebacks, including eight by technical fall.

Brands, a three-time state champ for West and future Iowa Hawkeye, placed third at 160. He reached the round of 16, where he fell to future Illini wrestler Danny Braunagel, the eventual champion. Brands then rolled up six wins on the backside by a combined 49-4.

Team Iowa amassed 61 points behind 13 All-Americans, good for third place in the junior men’s freestyle tournament. Ohio placed second with 62 points. Illinois ran away with the team title by scoring 95 points.

All-Americans returning for 2018-19

Although the list of outgoing seniors is long, many Iowa prep wrestlers who competed this week will return next high school season. We’ve already discussed Schriever and Reeves, but three others also earned All-American honors.

Kael Brisker, who will be a just sophomore at Wilton, took eighth at 100 pounds. Brisker dropped his first-round match, then rolled through the wrestlebacks to reach the podium. Not bad for someone who went 0-2 at the 1A state tournament.

Cade DeVos, a rising-senior and 2018 state champion for Southeast Polk, took seventh at 145. DeVos, a cadet All-American in both freestyle and Greco-Roman last year, reached the round of 16, then battled back to medal through the wrestlebacks.

Spencer Trenary, an upcoming senior for Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, took seventh at 285 pounds. Trenary reached the quarterfinals, where he lost to eventual finalist Nash Hutmacher of South Dakota. A couple more wins in the wrestlebacks secured another All-American finish.

Iowa, ISU, UNI recruits fare well

A trio of incoming collegiate wrestlers — that is, out-of-state recruits that are coming to Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa — were also in action.

Anthony Cassioppi, a future Hawkeye competing for Illinois, blew through the field at 285 pounds to win a junior freestyle national title. Cassioppi went 6-0 and allowed just two points while scoring 51. All of his wins were either by tech or by fall. It was like watching a really grown man among other young men.

Chris Foca, an Iowa State commit from New Jersey, placed seventh at 170 pounds. Foca reached the quarterfinals before winning once more in the wrestlebacks to secure All-American honors.

Parker Keckeison, a future Northern Iowa wrestler from Wisconsin, placed third at 170. After falling in the round of 16, Keckeison strung together six straight wrestleback victories to win the bronze. He beat Foca 13-7 in the consolation quarterfinals.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.