California and Mocco lead the field at the high school nationals
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Pat Tocci (NWCA)
04/07/2001
At the completion of the second day of wrestling at the high school nationals things are shaping up to be very exciting and intense on the final day of competition. The story of the day on Saturday was clearly the dominance of the California contingent and the Iowa bound Steve Mocco. California, which brought the biggest group of wrestlers to Delaware, has been very impressive as they advanced 11 wrestlers to the Semi-final round. New Jersey who trails California in the team race has pushed seven wrestlers into the semis. However, the big story with New Jersey has been the awesome domination of Steve Mocco. Mocco, has three falls for the championships including a 0:19 second fall in the quarterfinals. While Mocco has been coasting, two of the nation's other top recruits had to survive sudden victory wars to advance in the championship rounds. Michigan's Nick Simmons saved off a near takedown in the sudden victory to get his own to pull out an exciting 6-4sv win over Ohio's Drew Opfer. At 135lbs, Alex Tirapelle of California also had to resort to a takedown in the sudden victory period to defeat Jason Jones of New York. Colorado's Josh Ingrim pulled off a slight shocker of the tournament with his 4-2Sv win over Florida's Joe Hennis at 275. Many people were looking ahead to a Mocco - Hennis showdown. Kyle Ott of Ohio, California's Steve Esparza and Ryan Halsey, Maryland's Kevin Gaberilson and Idaho's Jake Rosholt were other top ranked wrestlers who all advanced in the championship round. In what makes the national tournament exciting is when wrestlers from outside the hotbed states advance wrestlers in the tournament. This year has been no exception as wrestlers from Vermont, Tennessee, North Dakota, Delaware and North Carolina have all advanced wrestlers to the semifinal round. Please check back on Sunday afternoon for further updates.