CORALVILLE, Iowa –The nine Sun Devils competing at the 2020 Senior Nationals had a successful weekend at the tournament. Between Greco-Roman and men's freestyle, they combined for an overall record of 20-14 with five, including Greco-Roman 130 kg champion Cohlton Schultz, placing on the podium.
"Cohlton continues to set the standard for Sun Devil Wrestling," Jones stated. "Winning two U.S. National titles and he's still a freshman, I'm not sure anyone's done that before."
That's a champion's smile????#ForksUp pic.twitter.com/3J2u92SF6Z
— Sun Devil Wrestling (@ASUWrestling) October 10, 2020
Adding to Schultz's championship victory on Sunday afternoon, Arizona State redshirt senior Anthony Valencia (47 kg) and alumni Tanner Hall (125 kg) placed second in their respective men's freestyle weight classes at the 2020 Senior Nationals.
Anthony Valencia and Tanner Hall both fall short and will be crowned 2?nd in their perspective weight class divisions at the 2020 Senior Nationals. #ForksUp | #SeniorNationals pic.twitter.com/5A7v05yCg4
— Sun Devil Wrestling (@ASUWrestling) October 11, 2020
"I thought it was a great weekend and our assistant coaches, Frank Molinaro, Lee Pritts and Mark Perry, did a super job of getting them ready for this tournament," head coach Zeke Jones said. "Putting four wrestlers in the semi finals, three in the finals, and a champion shows that we're competing with the best at the highest level. We need to continue to get better and I still think we have room to improve because right now we're firing at about 75%."
In the second championship bout of the day, Hall went face-to-face with University of Michigan junior Mason Parris for the heavyweight title. Hall exposed Parris and came from behind to even the score 2-2 before Parris ultimately pulled away with back to back takedowns.
Following Hall, third-seed Valencia confronted Michigan alumni Logan Massa for the 74 kg championship on mat one. With early momentum Valencia snagged the first point of the bout with a slide by, but ended up out of bounds unable to collect the takedown. With a five point deficit, Valencia was able to shoot Massa out of bounds for a lone point, but in an attempt to go big with Massa the Sun Devil ended up on his back to finish the bout.
The two Sun Devils are joined by redshirt junior Chad Porter in their second place accomplishment at Senior Nationals. Porter claimed second in the Roman-Greco 97 kg weight class on Friday night.
"The biggest surprise of all this weekend was Trey Munoz making the semi-finals," Jones said. "He's just a freshman and making it that far isn't an easy feat."
The redshirt freshman was the final Sun Devil to place on the podium and went 2-0 in his semi-finals run for the Greco-Roman 87 kg weight class.
Highlights from the weekend!?? #ForksUp | #SeniorNationals pic.twitter.com/ZbQMrOT9AQ
— Sun Devil Wrestling (@ASUWrestling) October 11, 2020
Weekend Records (20-14):
Greco-Roman
-Nicholas Raimo (60 kg) 2-2
-Cade Belshay (87 kg) 0-2
-Trey Munoz (87 kg) 2-0 and placed 6th overall in 87 kg
-Chad Porter (97 kg) and placed 2nd overall in 97 kg
-Cohlton Schultz (130 kg) 4-0 and placed 1st overall in 130 kg
Men's Freestyle
-Brandon Courtney (57 kg) 1-2
-Anthony Valencia (74 kg) 4-1 and placed 2nd overall in 74 kg
-Austin Clayton (86 kg) 1-2
-Tanner Hall (125 kg) 3-1 and placed 2nd overall in 125 kg
For the full recaps of weekend action, visit www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling.