It's a special look back at 20 years of the Super 32 on the Short Time Wrestling Podcast! Back in 2000, I was still in college at Old Dominion. I was working on tracking down results from any and all high school tournaments and after attending my first USA Wrestling Cadet & Junior Nationals the summer prior, I started covering more off-season stuff for the first iteration of Mat Talk Online. This involved fall folkstyle events from USAW and the AAU, spring freestyle and paying attention to out-of-state tournaments where Virginia teams participated. One of those tournaments popped up in 2000, my fourth year in college at ODU and my fourth running Mat Talk Online. It was the Super 32. I first noticed it that fall when a local wrestler in the coverage area of the newspaper I was working at won at 119 pounds. George Dodson was an Eagle Scout from Denbigh High Sc hool who never reached the Group AAA state tournament. Then I saw Drake Dickenson’s name. Drake wrestled at Magna Vista in the Southwest portion of Virginia before crossing the state line to wrestle for Dave Barker at Eden-Morehead. And that’s how it all began for me. This list is a look back at things that make me go “oh wow,” and is not designed to be an inclusive list. During the 2005-08 years, I ran InterMat for the NWCA, which then owned the site. So my knowledge of high school wrestling from that era was in top form. Prior to 2005, I worked and lived in Virginia, so that’s where the lion’s share of my knowledge existed. In 2000, the very first champion was at 101.1 pounds and it was host Morehead’s Chris Moore defeating future Virginia four-time state champion Matt Epperly of Christiansburg, Virginia. Epperly went on to wrestle at Virginia Tech and qualified for the NCAA Division I Championships twice. Current UNC Pembroke coach Othello “O.T.” Johnson claimed a title at 163 pounds, beating Chris Ward of James Madison High School in Virginia. One time in Fargo, Ward got out after curfew. Team Virginia coach Ben Summerlin ran him outside until he puked. In 2001, David Barker cites this as a turning point in the tournament’s second year. Virginia powerhouse Great Bridge shows up and crowns four champions. Daren Burns, who wrestled at UNC Greensboro, was third at 190 pounds. He got better. In 2002, the word is out. The Super 32 is now challenging the Lock Haven Fall Classic as the top preseason event on the east coast and the event is starting to gain traction nationally. A middle school division is added as well. Ashtin Primus from Connellsville, Pennsylvania comes down and cradles his way to a title. Future Division III All-American Donny Ooton of Great Bridge wins at 140, while future Old Dominion All-American Chris Brown wins at 145. In 2003, we’ve got nationally ranked wrestlers hitting one another before the finals. Eric Hoffman, a future NJCAA national champion from Iowa Central and D1 national qualifier comes out from Iowa where he falls in the finals to Dusty McKinney at 125. A pair of future two-time D1 All-Americans meet in the finals at 103 where Tyler Nauman of Middletown, Pennsylvania beats eighth-grader Scotti Sentes of Riverside, Florida, 6-2. Primus wins another title, this time at 135. Future Missouri All-American Raymond Jordan of New Bern, North Carolina beats future Limestone Division II national champion Dan Scanlan of Loudoun County, Virginia 4-1 in the finals at 171. Scores of future Division I wrestlers who don’t place. Moving to 2004, Ashtin Primus wins his third straight Super 32. Hammer champions include – well, they were pretty much all hammers. At 112, Ian Moser of Delaware beat Walker Faison of Virginia in a bout with two of the best lightweights in the country. New Jersey brought a strong group from Bound Brook as Nick Murray and Andrew Flanagan won titles. Top-ranked wrestlers Patrick Bond of Great Bridge, Cody Gardner of Christiansburg and Kenny Lester of Oviedo, Florida swept the top three weights. In 2005, Brandon, Florida’s talented crop of hammers comes in, led by Eric Grajales at 103 pounds. Grajales bests Steve Mitcheff of Ohio 7-0 in the finals. Among the names at 103 were Matt Snyder and Nic Bedelyon of Pennsylvania – shout out to the late Wayne Danger – Eric Dunnett of New Jersey, Zeke Hofer from Colorado, Joey Lazor of Georgia and Andrew Williams of Virginia. No, I’m not going to load up all these brackets, because this is where the podcast will get significantly larger. UWW media guy Eric Olanowski was also in this bracket. At 112, North Carolina’s Brandon Davis emerged as the champion, but wasn’t heard from much in college. Current Huntingdon College head wrestling coach Matt Oliver, beat Marshall Peppelman in the semifinals and felt to Davis in the final. Anyone remember Ryan Fields from Ohio? Yup. He was the champ at 119, beating future D1 All-American Walter Peppelman in the finals. Future All-American Jarrod Garnett of Virginia Tech doesn’t place. 13-seed Abbie Rush, a future Boston U. wrestler, stormed into the finals, beating future All-American Peter Yates and past champ Ian Moser. He falls to Mike Robinson of Lewistown, Pa., who later on in the year will hand Mike Grey of Delbarton, New Jersey, his first high school loss at the Beast of the East. Robinson was given a #42 seed at the Super 32 and won it. He was unseeded when he fell in the finals to Kellen Russell at the Beast. Tyler Nauman beat Peter Yates in the blood round. Bishop Lynch from Texas came out and brought some studs as Luke Silver and Luke Ashmore won titles. Christiansburg’s Andrew Clement won 10 matches – although two were forfeits – to claim third at 140. Nick Nelson, a future All-American at Virginia, stopped Ashtin Primus in his bid for a fourth title with a fall in the finals at 145. Nelson had earlier edged Bubba Jenkins and then beat Matt Cathell of Delaware and Bryan Tracy of Paulsboro, New Jersey in the semis. Jon Reader of Davison, Michigan had four pins and a major to reach the finals against Matt Epperly. Reader won 4-1. Future NCAA champion Dustin Kilgore was third, losing by fall in the quarters to eventual champion Tommy Spellman of New Jersey. Spellman beat Reynolds’ Lawrence Beckman in the finals. Yes, of those Reynolds Beckmans. You know what, if I do this for every year, it’ll be longer than the three-hour finals show I put on from the Asian Championships. So let’s look at JUST THE FINALS for 2006 and the numbers. Nine Division I All-Americans, of them, there was two-time champion David Taylor from Graham, Ohio. You also have Division II champion Tommy Abbott of Delaware, two-time NJCAA champion and NAIA All-American Jamelle Jones, also of Delaware. The head-to-heads of note saw Pennsylvania’s Troy Dolan beat Jarrod Garnett of Delaware. Man, Delaware had a good crop of guys in that era. Collin Dozier of Virginia over Tyler Nauman of Pennsylvania, Dustin Kilgore of Ohio beat Jordan Blanton of Illinois in a battle of future three-time All-Americans. Jones beat future NCAA finalist Chris Honeycutt of St. Edward at 189. New York’s Kyle Dake, wrestling at 112, lost to Virginia’s Michael Garafalo and Georgia’s Joey Lazor and finished 7/8. Olanowski won this bracket by the way. At 119, returning champion Brandon Davis of North Carolina fell to the 7/8, which wasn’t yet wrestled. Among champion Frank Perrelli’s victims – a guy named Creed, a Levi Strauss, Scotti Sentes and Josh Kindig. That was just to reach the finals. Ok, the first two were more for name effect. His opponent, Gabriel Espinosa of Florida beat Travis Coffey of North Carolina, Nic Bedelyon and Eric Grajales to reach the finals. Nick Nelson repeated, winning at 145 pounds with a 5-3 win over Tommy Abbott. Future Division III champion Vincent Renaut was ousted in the blood round by future Buffalo Bull John-Martin Cannon at 152. Scott Winson beat Ben Bennett in the semis at 160, Jordan Blanton beat Cam Simaz in the semis before falling to Kilgore in the finals. Moving to 2007, which was the second-to-last year I attended because when you move away from the East Coast, getting to North Cacka-lacky ain’t so easy. First, the finals stats: seven Division I All-Americans, one three-time D1 champion, and a Greco-Roman World teamer – Max Nowry. At 125, Eric Grajales beat Pennsylvania’s Jordan Oliver 1-0, Collin Palmer of Ohio beat Kenny Courts of Pennsylvania 4-2 at 135. Future All-Americans to fall were Walter Peppelman, who lost to Tony Jameson of Ohio and Ed Ruth, who lost to Michigan’s Jacob Burge 5-4 at 171. Anthony Clinton of North Carolina won by injury default over Virginia’s Max Huntley, who hadn’t yet transferred to Blair Academy. Now, the fun stuff. A.J. Schopp beat Devin Carter for third at 103, Jeremy Sandoval of Texas beat Tony Ramos for fifth at 125, Jarrod Garnett beat Josh Kindig for third at 130, Marshall Peppelman beat R.J. Pena of Oregon for third at 140, future All-American from The Citadel, Odie Delaney was fifth at 215. Other “what the heck” stats include: Max Nowry beating A.J. Schopp in the semis, Grajales beating Ramos 8-0 in the semis, future Cornell backup Joe Stanzione beating Joey Lazor. There’s some weird tie-in there with Dake if you can do the math. Collin Palmer over Taylor Massa in the semis. Sightings of C.J. Napier of Kansas and Carson Fields of Georgia at 135. Another Kansan, Aldon Isenberg finishing second to Trevor Melde of New Jersey at 140. The aforementioned free-wheeling Tony Jameson of Ohio. Future four-time NAIA champion Brock Gutches beating future Division III All-American Emmanuel Ajagbe of New Jersey in the consolation semis at 145. Joe Booth making his national breakout performance at 152. My friend Nate Schy still can’t stand him from his fantasy wrestling draft picks. He even told him such on Facebook. Eric Cubberly of Ohio beat Scotty Winston of New Jersey in the finals at 160. Ed Ruth beat Jordan Blanton in the semifinals and this is before Ruth ever went to Blair. Jacob Burge’s semifinal op
