Young Guns In Ft Worth: Senior Nationals 57kg Preview + Predictions
Young Guns In Ft Worth: Senior Nationals 57kg Preview + Predictions
A breakdown of all the entries of the 2023 Senior Nationals Olympic Team Trials Qualifier in Fort Worth, Texas at 57 kilograms.
It’s an Olympic year! Or very nearly an Olympic year. Paris 2024 will be here before we know it, and we need to figure out who Team USA’s men’s freestyle Olympians will be.
Senior Nationals is the most important event in the Olympic Team Trials process (outside of the actual trials themselves) as up to five Americans can qualify for the event, the most of any qualifying event.
More Senior Nationals Content: Entries | Women's Matchups | Lee v Suriano | All-Weights Preview | College Fan Guide
Five wrestlers have already qualified for the Olympic Team Trials at 57kg:
Five more guys qualified for the Trials at 61kg and have the option to move down to 57 (technically, anyone can move down to 57, but realistically, I don’t think we’re going to see anyone drop from 65kg or higher, and frankly, neither do you):
You can read more about the Team USA Olympic Team Trials qualification process here.
Of that group, only Spencer Lee is registered for Senior Nats, which means if Lee places top 5 in Fort Worth, only four new wrestlers will qualify for the Trials.
Zane Richards was already announced as Team USA’s rep for both the Pan Am Championships and the Pan Am Olympic Games Qualifier at 57kg in March, which will be held on consecutive weekends in March of 2024 in Acapulco, Mexico. 57 and 65 are the only Men’s freestyle weights not yet qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games.
That means after that after Senior Nationals, anyone who hasn’t qualified for the Olympic Trials while have just one last shot to make the field at the appropriately titled Last Chance Qualifier.
So you see why Senior Nationals is a big deal.
With that out of the way, let’s check out the field in Fort Worth.
Contenders
- Spencer Lee
- Nico Megaludis
- Nick Suriano
Lee’s historic collegiate career in Iowa City lasted from the fall of 2017 to the spring of 2023, during which time he primarily competed in folkstyle. Spencer earned three NCAA titles and four All-American honors as well as the #1 seed in the canceled 2020 NCAA tournament while in a Hawkeye singlet, all punctuated by a 2019 Senior Nationals title in freestyle.
Prior to college, Lee showed why he was one of the most sought-after recruits of his class, making the 2013 U17 world team and then winning gold at U17s in 2014 and then gold at U20s in 2015 and 2016.
Post college, Lee immediately jumped into the freestyle fray a month after his final NCAA tournament, making the semifinals of the US Open before having to withdraw due to injuries. After a convalescent summer, Lee was back on the mat at the Bill Farrell Memorial International, where he won a deep bracket that included a finals matchup with Nico Megaludis.
Watch Spencer defeat Nico in the Bill Farrell finals from last November:
Both Megaludis and Lee trained at the Young Guns wrestling club in western Pennsylvania prior to starting their collegiate careers. Lee even stated after his Farrell title how much he looked up to Megaludis back in those days.
Like Lee, Megaludis is an NCAA champ and four-time All-American. He is also a Bill Farrell titlist, having won the NYAC-hosted tournament back in 2016.
Other accolades Nico earned on the freestyle circuit include medals at the prestigious Yashar Dogu and Alexander Medved tournaments. Nico also works full-time in finance when he’s not competing in the world’s oldest and greatest combat sport.
Then there is the mercurial Nick Suriano, whose itinerant ways have recently seen him training at Cal Poly. The enigmatic yet prolific two-time NCAA champ is also no stranger to the freestyle scene.
Surinao made a deep run at the World Team in 2021 at 61kg and more recently finished as runner-up at the 2023 US Open, finishing third on the US ladder at 57kg behind Richards and Gilman.
The mighty New Jerseyan has also won the Henri Deglane twice and snagged a silver at the Matteo Pellicone, all in the last four years. He also has a win over the highly-credentialed Beka Bujiashvili of Georgia from the 2022 World Cup.
Suriano has never wrestled Megaludis (to my knowledge anyway), while Spencer and Nico wrestled within the last month. Spencer and Suriano have a history that goes back to high school, though it has been a minute since they locked horns on the mat.
We’ve written about such a potential matchup on more than one occasion (link and link).
More Young(er) Guns
Cooper Flynn, fresh off his 2023 U23 world team and slightly less fresh off his 2023 Ziolkowski gold medal, could very well disrupt this field in ways not many saw coming.
The Tennessean is currently taking an Olympic redshirt but figures to be a major contributor in the Virginia Tech Hokie lineup before his collegiate career is done.
Penn State commit Luke Lilledahl could also be a factor in the field of veteran lightweights. Though still just a senior at Wyoming Seminary, he’s already got two silvers and a gold medal in the last three years at UWW age-level world championships. He also went 9-2 against D1 competition at open college tournaments last season.
Watch highlights of Luke's gold medal U17 finals match in 2022.
More Contenders
This tournament was expected to bring out the best in the nation, and the depth at 57 is strong evidence that expectations were exceeded.
Courtney is a three-time All-American, while Cronin and Turner both made the NCAA podium once before, and all within the last two years.
DeShazer was a two-time NCAA DII champ at Nebraska-Kearney, and Josh-Rod was a three-time NCAA qualifier at North Dakota State.
DeShazer has a longer and more distinguished freestyle career than most people realize. People forget he nearly had Thomas Gilman beat at the 2017 Last Chance Qualifier before Gilman went on his world silver medal run.
Sleepers and Landmines
It’s tough to imagine many dark horses emerging from this stacked field but don’t sleep on two-time FloNationals finalist and 2017 champ Ben Kamali (that's right, I brought up FloNats credentials) and Nittany Lion Wrestling Club-trained Cael Nasdeo.
Five other entrants round out the 57kg field: William Sprouse, Jakob Lyons, Lee Celestino, Michael Beets, and Peter Del Gallo
Predictions
- Nick Suriano
- Spencer Lee
- Nico Megaludis
- Cooper Flynn
- Daniel DeShazer
I would not be surprised in the least if we see Lee at the top of the podium, however, I’m giving the benefit of the doubt to Suriano until we see that matchup again. Depending on how things go in the early rounds, though, I may be inclined to change my opinion going into the finals (assuming they are on opposite sides of the bracket, which, like, really needs to happen. Like, for real. Please make it happen. Thank you).