If you sense a sting in the air today, it might be the extreme winter weather Ohio is having. It could also be the electricity emanating from Champaign County. No other high school athletic event in the nation today is bigger than what’s going to go down at Graham High School at 7 p.m. Let’s just say a national championship is on the line.
Tonight national No. 1 Blair Academy from New Jersey makes its way from the East Coast to the Heart of it All to face No. 3 ranked Graham. These two schools have won the last two national championships, and the winner of this one will be in line for its second in three years.
Blair already beat Graham once this season at the season-opening Walsh Ironman, finishing first with 196.5 points. The Falcons were second (157.5) but did not have the services of freshman Bo Jordan or nationally-ranked sophomore Felipe Martinez. In last weekend’s dual meet win at Lakewood St. Edward, Jordan beat then national No. 1 Jamie Clark 6-3 (at 130).
Martinez is ranked No. 9 in the country and will tangle with Blair’s national No. 1 Chris Villalonga in one of many intriguing matches.
Other meetings that will include two nationally-ranked wrestlers are:
119: No. 4 Nick Brascetta (jr., Graham) vs No. 10. Mark Grey (so., Blair)
189: No. 1 Mike Evans (sr., Blair) vs No. 6 Max Thomusseit (sr., Graham)
The Brascetta-Grey pairing is a rematch from an Ironman consolation semifinal in December that Brascetta won 3-1.
The Evans-Thomusseit match is a rematch from the Ironman final that Evans took 6-2.
Additional nationally-ranked wrestlers will appear in the following weight classes:
