Joey McKenna is on a roll.
Over the past two months, the New Jersey native and two-time Pac-12 champ won his first Big Ten title, finished third at the NCAA Championship in Cleveland, and served as an alternate on the World Cup team that won the gold medal in Iowa City. McKenna topped all that in Las Vegas this weekend by winning the U.S. Open Senior Freestyle Championship at 65 kg, earning a berth at Final X for a shot to make his first Senior World Team.
Final X is a new best-of-three series that will determine spots on the U.S. senior freestyle world team and the opportunity to compete at the 2018 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Oct. 20-28, 2018. Final X will be held over three consecutive weekends and in three different cities; McKenna will wrestle in State College, Penn., June 16.
McKenna came into The Open as the No. 2 seed, behind teammate and training partner Logan Stieber, the 2016 World Champion at 61 kg. Stieber finished the tournament in third place after a shocking upset by Missouri wrestler Jaydin Eierman, the man McKenna beat for third at the NCAA tournament a month ago.
The two would square off again in Las Vegas with similar results. McKenna showed no weakness en route to the final match of the weekend, racking up four consecutive tech falls without surrendering a single point.
Facing Eierman again, McKenna took control early on with a push out and a takedown to race out to a 3-0 lead. In the second period, Eierman appeared to have McKenna's single-leg attempt fended off and was working for control when McKenna simply out-powered his foe, lifting him in the air and doing an imitation of a front flip that resulted in a takedown.
A pair of pushouts led to a 7-0 lead that Eierman simply couldn't overcome. He managed a push out of his own and a head-pinch roll to get some points on the board, for a final score of 7-3 in McKenna's favor.
Because there is no returning world medalist at 65 kg competing for a spot on the world team, McKenna essentially gets a bye to Final X. There, he will face the winner of the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament (May 18-20 in Rochester, Minn.) in a best-of-three series to determine who will gets the spot on the world team.
Stieber, as one of the Top 7 finishers at the Open and returning world team member, earned a berth in the Challenge Tournament. He will compete against Eierman and the other top Open finishers, as well as the winners of the Dave Schultz and Bill Farrell memorial tournaments.
Should Stieber win the Challenge Tournament in Rochester next month, he and McKenna will face off for the world team spot in State College June 16.
Pretty special to see @_LogieBear_ work with @Joey_McKenna all year. Pupil/Student. Iron sharpens iron. Love this place and our culture. #positiveinfinity
— Thomas Ryan (@Buckeye158) April 29, 2018
Stieber was viewed as a heavy favorite to win the Open. He breezed through his first two matches of the weekend without needing to wrestle more than a minute in either.
Eierman had different plans in the quarterfinals, unfortunately. Stieber led 4-0 at the end of the first period, but from there out it was all Eierman. He rolled up six unanswered points, though Stieber managed a last-second push out to narrow the decision to a single point.
Stieber took any disappointment he had out on his opponents in the consolation bracket, reeling off four consecutive tech falls on his way to a third-place finish.
The Alumni
Johnny DiJulius, Hunter Stieber and Kenny Courts – three well-regarded former Buckeyes – also wrestled in Las Vegas for their shot at the world team. All three ended their tournaments Friday without placing.
DiJulius went 2-2 at 61 kg. After dropping his first match of the weekend, JDJ notched a tech and then a 10-4 win over Cory Clark before a loss to Jens Lantz ended his tournament.
Hunter Stieber, at 70 kg, likewise made an early exit Friday. After winning his first pair of matches, he fell to eventual finalist Jason Chamberlain in the quarterfinals, and then came up on the wrong end of a tech fall in his first consolation match.
Kenny Courts, who made quite an impression on the crowd at the Bill Farrell tournament earlier this year after a two-year hiatus from competition, seemed primed to make a run at 92 kg.
Coming into Las Vegas at the 5-seed in The Open, Courts had a strong first-round victory, but seemed sluggish in his second bout, and was bounced into the consolation bracket. He won a wild 20-10 tech in his first wrestleback match, but couldn't finish a second, and joined DiJulius and Stieber in watching the rest of the tournament from the stands.
The Young Bucks
While senior freestyle gets all the attention, the UWW Junior Freestyle tournament had plenty of action, particularly for Buckeye fans. Nearly a dozen current or future Buckeyes made the trek to Vegas for their own shot at making a world team.
Several Buckeye juniors competing have world experience under their belt already, including Class of 2018 commits Malik Heinselman and Gavin Hoffman, and 2019 pledge Jordan Decatur.
Heinselman and Decatur were the highlights of the weekend in the junior competition, as both battled their way to the finals and finished as runners up at 57kg and 61 kg, respectively. Between them they racked up 10 tech falls against just those two losses in the finals.
Both will compete for a shot at the Junior World Team at the Team Trials in Rochester May 18-19.
Joining them in earning a berth to the World Trials this weekend were Kaleb Romero, who finished 4th at 74 kg, and Ethan Smith, who finished 8th at 79 kg. Romero, who doesn't have a ton of freestyle experience, came up short in the quarterfinals, but battled through three consolation matches to make the podium.
Smith, on the other hand, was a takedown shy of victory in the Round of 16, and won three in a row before dropping his final two bouts. He finished in eighth, good enough for a spot at the World Team trials.
The biggest surprise among the juniors was Gavin Hoffman's early exit. Hoffman, who won bronze at last fall's Cadet World Championships in Athens, Greece, made it through a pair of gritty decisions and a high-scoring tech fall to get to the quarterfinals. There he faced Arizona State's Kordell Norfleet, who racked up the 10 points for the tech in just :64.
Hoffman sustained what appeared to be an ankle injury during his Round of 16 match, but it turned out to be much more serious than he originally thought – he actually broke his ankle, so after the loss to Norfleet and additional evaluation, bowed out of the tournament.
Montoursville's Gavin Hoffman broke his ankle during his second match this morning at the Junior Freestyle US Open and won't compete on the second day, he said tonight ... Hoffman wrestled two more matches after breaking the ankle, including a 20-8 win in the round of 16
— Mitch Rupert (@Mitch_Rupert) April 28, 2018
It is unclear yet how long the injury will sideline the Pennsylvania native, though he was anticipated to be a redshirt on the Buckeye roster this fall regardless. Eleven Warriors will have more on the status of his injury as information becomes available.
With one champion, two runners-up and three other placers holding allegiance to Ohio State, it was an exciting weekend for fans of the Buckeye wrestling program. With strong performances by a current starter and a handful of likely future starters, coach Tom Ryan and staff should come back from Las Vegas feeling like they beat the house after all.
