Vote: Who should be SBLive's Lower Weight National Wrestler of the Week (1/22/2024)?

Here are eight wrestlers for your voting consideration

Billy Buckheit | Jan 22, 2024

Vote: Who should be SBLive's Lower Weight National Wrestler of the Week (1/22/2024)? /

It's time once again for you to help us decide who is SBLive Sports National High School Lower Weight Wrestler of the Week.

Below are the details on the candidates we have selected for your consideration. Share this post with your friends, family, teammates and classmates and encourage everyone to support the wrestler they find most deserving. You can vote as often as you like and the winner will be announced in next week's poll. Voting ends on Sunday, January 28th at 11:59 p.m. (Pacific).

Congratulations to last week's winner: Killian Coluccio of Christian Brothers Academy (New Jersey).

Here are this week's nominees:

Oumar Tounkara (Teaneck, NJ) 106 – Tounkara defeated St. Joseph Regional’s Charlie Esposito, 10-5, in the finals of the Bergen County Tournament. Esposito has appeared in the honorable mention section of our rankings.

Tommy Baker (Edmond North, OK) 113 – Baker, who is not ranked, faced his teammate Jake Goodin (No. 16 at 106) in the finals of the Yukon Jay Hancock Memorial Tournament, and captured the gold with a 1-0 decision.

Jack Baron (Germantown Academy, PA) 114 – Like Jay Hancock, Pennsylvania’s Coal Cracker Invitational allowed multiple entries per teams at each weight. Baron beat his squadron mate, 2-1, in the finals. But Baron’s biggest win came in the semis over Wyoming Seminary’s Nikos Filipos, 2-0. If Filipos was Seminary’s starter, he would be in the 113lb rankings.

Jake Knight (Bettendorf, IA) 120 – Knight, who is ranked 25th at 120 in the country met honorable mention Dru Ayala (Fort Dodge, IA) in the finals of the Ed Winger Tournament and came out with a 5-3 victory.

Victor-Alexander Gutierrez (Central Catholic, CA) 132 – In the MidCals finals in California, Gutierrez (HM) faced off with No. 15 Elijah Cortez (Gilroy) and walked off the mat as the champ after securing a 2-1 victory.

Eddie Bowman (Trinidad, CO) 138 – Bowman, who has never been ranked nationally, found himself in the finals of the Top of the Rockies tournament with D’mitri Garza-Alarcon (Fort Lupton, CO), who has been in and out of the rankings. Bowman secured the gold with a 7-6 win.

Carter Freeman (Waukee Northwest, IA) 138 – Freeman faced Koy Davidson (Fort Dodge, IA) in the Ed Winger finals and was able to gain revenge for an earlier loss to Davidson at the Council Bluffs Tournament, 2-1. At Ed Winger, Freeman came out ahead of Davidson 3-2.

Daniel Zepeda (Gilroy, CA) 144 – Zepeda, who is ranked No. 14 at 150, dropped down to 144 where he encountered No. 13 Beau Hickman (Tuttle, OK) in the MidCals Finals. Zepeda won the gold with a 5-2 decision of Hickman.

Published Jan 22, 2024

BILLY BUCKHEIT

Billy Buckheit is a long-time high school wrestling expert and journalist who has been doing the individual national high school wrestling rankings for SBLive Sports since 2022. He also provides coverage a major high school wrestling tournaments throughout the year. Billy previously served as the senior wrestling writer for Varsity Sports Network and the Baltimore Banner. He has also served on the seeding committees for many prestigious regional and national tournaments. In addition, he is the editor of Billy B's Wrestling World, a popular Facebook page dedicated to high school wrestling, and is an editorial contributor for the Maryland State Wrestling Association (MSWA).