4 Weights To Watch At Navy's Season Debut At The Clarion Open
4 Weights To Watch At Navy's Season Debut At The Clarion Open
A resurgent Navy wrestling squad under head coach Cary Kolat is sending a full team to the Clarion Open for their big intercollegiate season debut.
A resurgent Navy squad under head coach Cary Kolat is sending a full team to the Clarion Open for their big season debut. Here's what fans of the Midshipmen should watch for this Sunday at the Open, which is our EIWA Dual of the Week (even though it's not a dual. Don't worry about that right now, it still counts).
The EIWA Dual of the Week is our weekly spotlight on the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association that will typically involve a single dual meet between two EIWA teams but other times it'll be an early season tournament prominently featuring an EIWA team or some other competition. Mostly it'll be the former, but in this case it's the latter.
Now that we've cleared that up, feel free to peruse a list of everyone registered for the Clarion Open, here.
Other non-Navy EIWA wrestlers of note that will be in the brackets include Kurt Phipps of Bucknell, who went 22-11 at 133-pounds last season and just missed out on qualifying for the NCAA tournament, and Ricky Cabanillas of Brown, who went 25-14 in 2020 and is back for his senior year to lead the Ivy League team from Providence, Rhode Island.
141 lbs - #16 Josh Koderhandt
Bumping up to 141 after a stellar rookie campaign at 133 is sophomore Josh Koderhandt, one of three returning NCAA qualifiers for Navy.
Koderhandt was the #1 seed at the 2022 EIWA Championship but finished as a runner-up. He received the #17 seed at the NCAAs, winning his first-round match against Utah Valley's Haiden Drury before dropping his next two bouts.
Koderhandt will be a contender for the Clarion Open title but will face stiff competition from Purdue's #12 Parker Filius, Clarion's Seth Koleno, Edinboro's Gabe Willochell, and Cornell's Josh Saunders, who is entering the tournament as part of the Spartan Combat RTC, as he is deferring his eligibility this season.
Watch Koderhandt's dramatic overtime victory via pinfall in the semifinals of the 2022 EIWAs:
157 lbs - Andrew Cerniglia
Nazareth, PA's Andrew Cerniglia will be in one of the Clarion Open's deepest brackets, with 25 wrestlers registered for 157-pounds.
Cerniglia is another of Navy's returning NCAA qualifiers, and, in fact, qualified for both the 2021 and 2022 NCAAs. Andrew is now looking to go for three-in-a-row in just his third year of eligibility.
Like Koderhandt, Cerniglia was a runnerup at the 2022 EIWAs, losing to Princeton's Quincy Monday in the finals. That was following a bracket busting semifinal victory over Lehigh's Josh Humphreys where Cerniglia secured an elusive defensive fall.
Watch Cerniglia defeat Humphreys:
Cerniglia will be favored to win to finish first in the very large 157-pound bracket in Clarion.
184 lbs - David Key & Ryder Rogotzke
The present and the future of 184-pounds in Annapolis will be taking the mat in Clarion. The always-entertaining Ryder Rogotzke sits at #20 on the Class of 2023 Big Board, making him one of Navy's bluest of blue-chip recruits in recent history. He hails from Stillwater High School in Minnesota (not Oklahoma).
Still a senior in high school, Rogotzke will have his hands full in his first D1 competition. Besides his teammate, David Key, the third Midshipman on the squad to have qualified for the NCAA Championships, this bracket will feature Clarion's #21 Will Feldkamp, Edinboro's Ethan Ducca, Gardner-Webb's Jha'Quan Anderson, and Purdue's highly touted redshirt freshman, Ben Vanadia.
Watch Rogotzke win his second Super 32 title from less than a month ago:
Upon the aforementioned Key rests some of Navy's highest hopes for an All-American honor next March. Key was stopped in the round of 16 in 2021 after notching victories over Chris Weiler and Zach Braunagel.
285 lbs - Ryan Catka and Grady Greiss
Cary Kolat has one of the better problems a head coach can face, which is to have more quality wrestlers than he has starting spots. At heavyweight, the conundrum is slightly exacerbated there is no higher weight into which his wrestlers could bump. But it's still better for a team to have too many good heavies than too little, or none at all.
Catka is a sophomore and the returning starter. As a true freshman, Catka racked up 24 wins though he fell short of an NCAA Tournament bid, going 1-2 at the 2022 EIWAs.
Greiss, a junior, went 20-6 last season but did not participate in the postseason. He did, however, defeat Hunter Catka of Virginia Tech (also Ryan's older brother), as well as Lock Haven's #12 Isaac Reid.
Watch Greiss over Reid:
This tournament may serve as a de facto wrestle-off for Coach Kolat, although the final call may not be made until the EIWA tournament rolls around in March.
Looking to spoil that potential all-Middie Clarion Open final are the likes of Edinboro's Jon Spaulding, Pittsburgh's Jake Slinger, and Purdue's Hayden Copass.
And let's make sure we don't forget the incredible trophies the Clarion Open winner will claim. It's Helmet SZN in Western PA this weekend!
Helmets have arrived for the Clarion Open Champs! Register at the link below for your chance to earn one of these bad boys! https://t.co/B9oUGUuu7t pic.twitter.com/yPRZd3bCK5
— Clarion Wrestling (@WrestlingCUP) October 15, 2019