Eight NY wrestlers won All American honors at the USAW Cadet and Junior National Championships held in Fargo, ND this past week. Burke Paddock from section 5 was runner-up at 152lbs in the Cadet/GR championships. He lost a very close match in the finals to Scott Gibbons of Louisiana. In the Junior division, Mark Raghunandan (98lbs, section 8) and Nick Gwiazdowski (215lbs, section 2) were both double All Americans. Mark finished 5th in GR and 2nd in FS. Nick took home bronze medals in both GR and FS. Ben Villaret from section 12, finished 4th in GR and norrowly missed placing in FS, after losing a very close match to Nick Moore, the number one ranked HS wrestler in the country. Tyler Beckwith of section 4 placed for the third year in a row, finishing 4th in FS at 189lbs. Matt Loew, of section 8, brought home his second All American award, finishing 8th at 189lbs. In the women’s division, Tanya Kusse from section 6 finished third at 124lbs and Jenna Burkert of section 11 was runner-up at 132lbs. In total, New York had 165 particiants; 155 men (many competed in both GR and FS) and 10 women in what has become the largest wrestling tournament in the world. New York finished 10th in Junior FS and ninth in the womens division. Many thanks to the coaching Staff, in particular Rick Gumble and Jeff Blatnick, for all their help and time spent with our team. Rick and Jeff, along with all the other coaches, staff and officials who are part of our team, contribute so much to our kids, we cannot begin to thank them all enough. For complete results go to, www.themat.com event/results pages.
