Believe the Hype: Chris Phillips Lives up to his Billing and More

(above): Chris Phillips With his Most Outstanding Wrestler Trophy. Photo Credit: Bob Tuneberg, Villager News.

It’s been said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  However, In front of a bewildered crowd at Walsh Jesuit High School on Saturday Night, Chris Phillips began his journey towards becoming Ohio’s best ever- with not so much a single step as a gigantic leap.  In a gym full of the nation’s premier superstars, the freshman 171 from Monroeville stole the show.

On Saturday morning, Chris Phillips faced an unthinkable challenge- he had to go through nationally ranked Corey Peltier of Blair Academy, the (now)#1 ranked wrestler in Division II, Zac Thomusseit, and the nation’s best 171 in Brian Roddy of St. Edward.   What followed is something that was beyond jaw dropping- Phillips handled all three, scoring ten takedowns to none for his three great adversaries.  But even these numbers didn’t really tell the whole story.  As great as his offense was, his defense was even better.  The fact is that in these three matches Phillips was never even close to being scored upon.  Almost every flurry of action resulted in either a Phillips takedown or going out of bounds as Phillip was close to a takedown. 

The final of course versus Brian Roddy was, as predicted, a match that fans will remember.  Roddy, headed to Northwestern on full scholarship, was brilliant as usual in this tournament, defeating two of Ohio’s best 171’s, Nick Mills and Keith Witt, 22-9 and 11-3 respectively.  One of the most intimidating high school wrestlers that has ever competed in this state- the general consensus was that he would put an end to the latest “mutant freshman” (meant as a compliment) from Monroeville’s great run.  That was my feeling heading into the tournament- but after seeing Phillips completely outclass the excellent Peltier and Thomusseit, I wasn’t so sure.  While Peltier is a former cadet national champ, defending Beast of the East Champion and FILA Cadet National Champ (who defeated one of the top seniors in the nation last summer in Mike Benefiel) the Thumusseit win almost impresses me more.  My connections at Graham have been telling me for some time that Thomusseit was underrated and should be the #1 ranked 171 in Division II- after Thomusseit’s win over Peltier for 3rd place they are certainly correct.  

Thomusseit, with lanky build and great defensive skills, has a style that can slow down even the most high-octane offenses.  I saw him slow down Sean Nemec, Jason Welch of California (a scoring machine regarded as the best senior in the nation), and even Colt Sponseller last year.  Phillips defeated him by about the same margin as the others, but having watched all of these bouts, Phillips was the most dominant against Thomusseit.  While the other wrestlers found themselves frustrated by his defense with numerous stalemates- Phillips took three shots in the first two periods, and finished all three, two of them without any sort of difficulty, before he began to tire in the third period and slowed his attacks (please note:  not saying that Phillips is better than Jason Welch or Colt Sponseller, just that he had less trouble with Thomusseit than either)
 
There are three high school matches that are indelibly etched in my mind.  The first one was Schlatter-Metcalf, at the M.I.T., with the crowd on their feet applauding both wrestlers before the match began, the second was Sponseller-Nemec last year, with the crowd exploding as (then) underdog Sponseller scored time and time again on the St. Edward star.  This was the third- but it was a much different feel to it.  The gym was dead silent during this match- nobody shouting encouragement, nobody talking, just the entire crowd watching the match with 110% focus.  You could hear a pin drop in the gymnasium (except when Phillips was scoring).   There was a tension to the bout, a sense of the history perhaps, that you could cut with a knife-  At one point, Chris Deshon of Walsh (half-kidding) reminded me to breathe.

On a side note, much has been made of Brian Roddy getting physical with Phillips as the match wore on.  To me, this is “much ado about nothing”.   Let’s face it this isn’t a game of croquet.  Trying to get the freshman rattled is as good a strategy as any I can think of.  It has also been noted that Brian Roddy was in a no-win situation, going from the hunter to the hunted.  Very true, and I certainly didn’t envy him- but what I saw over the entire weekend was a wrestler- freshman in high school or not- who was quite simply the best wrestler gymnasium chalk-full of national champions.

Historical Perspective

While a freshman in high school being the nation’s best 171, and Ohio’s best wrestler, period  (with apologies to Jameson, Boyd, Taylor, Roddy, and Stieber) is incomprehensible……to some extent, it is just the natural progression of Phillips career.  There were many who felt that the young man from Monroeville, while outstanding, had been over-hyped (primarily by this site).  In fact, I have under-hyped him as I knew if I posted how good I really thought this kid was, I would be regarded as the village idiot- the fans had to see it for themselves to believe it.  Thus, when I posted last year that 8th grader Chris Phillips could likely beat 3x state runner-up Derek Foore- and was quickly derided  as a fool (on my own forum no less)- I just let it drop and said you’ll see next year (it looks a bit less idiotic now, considering Roddy majored Foore last year).   However, what I saw on Saturday was truly even better than I had imagined.

I first noted the name Chris Phillips while looking through the brackets of the OAC Junior High State in 2005.  At that time, I noted that a sixth grader from Monroeville had won 12-0 in the finals of that single-division state tournament.  Looking through the complete brackets, I then noted that 12 points was his closest match of the weekend.  That really caught my attention, since it was remarkable for a sixth grader to be 12 points better than the best wrestlers in the state two years older than him.  (especially when you consider he was piling up that many points in a 4:30 match).   Generally, even an excellent sixth grader could not even hang with a top eighth grader in this weight range.   The next thing I noted was that the wrestler who Phillips defeated 12-0 (Andrew Gasber) came within a single win of All-American status at the cadet nationals later that summer.  If Phillips was 12 points better than a wrestler who made it that far in Fargo…. that meant that, on paper, the sixth grader was good enough to place and probably place high against 8th, 9th, and 10th grade wrestlers at cadet nationals as a middleweight.  It followed, in my estimation, that if he could place high at Fargo, he was good enough to place that season as a sixth grader at the state tournament wrestling at 119 lbs.  Obviously, this wasn’t even something the mind could comprehend, so the jury was still out as I waited to see more results.

Of course I go to many tournaments and talk a lot of wrestling with people at those tournaments- the following year I had the following conversation with a number of fans on several different occasions:

Fan: “hey, you won’t believe this, but a seventh grader came into our room and beat (insert state champion or high placer here).  Admin: “Let me guess, from Monroeville?”  Fan: Yeah, how did you know?   You heard it enough times, about enough state champions and placers, from enough different people and you had to take notice.

Aside from practice room reports, during the spring following that year the seventh grade Phillips traveled with the Ohio Samsons to the NHSCA Duals.  Competing in the All-Star Division, Phillips was beaten just once, by a Pennsylvania state runner-up who is now wrestling for a Division I college.  In that match, Phillips was leading 6-1 before getting pinned in a cradle late in the bout.  He followed that up by winning by technical fall against Brent Terry, the fourth place finisher in the state in Division II.   In short, Chris Phillips has been good enough to place at the Ohio State Tournament since sixth grade, and good enough to win state as a middleweight since seventh grade.   So, when you consider how much improvement that one typically makes between 7th and 9th grade- the fact that he may now be the nation’s best 171- and possibly good enough to compete on a Big Ten wrestling mat at age 15- is not so much shocking, as the expected progression of a wrestler who has been light years ahead of others his age for years.   

If he can continue the progression that one might expect a high school wrestler to make in three years- considering the level he is at now- it is not out of the question that in three years Chris Phillips could be approaching a world-class level.  Not only has there never been a freshman to compare Phillips to in Ohio among upperweights(the closest would be, ironically enough, Brian Roddy), there isn’t a freshman that you can really compare him to nationally either that I am aware of- the level this Monroeville wrestler is at for his size and age is simply unprecedented, at least in the U.S.A.

(above): Mike Milkovich Senior, possibly the greatest coach in Ohio history, was honored in a classy ceremony before the Ironman finals. Photo Credit: Bob Tuneberg, Villager News.

In a prior article, shortly before Dustin Schlatter defeated Zach Esposito to kick off his great run that ended in an NCAA Title as a true freshman,  I wrote that Schlatter was the sort of wrestler who came along in a Ohio once in a generation, like Alan Fried was in his generation and Tom Milkovich was in his (see www.ohiowrestlingsite.com/articles/article21.php).  Mark down the prediction- there is so much that can happen between now and then, but I believe Chris Phillips will be the sort of wrestler who comes along not once in a generation, but once in a lifetime.  Phillips is sort of like Dustin Schlatter, Harry Lester, and CP Schlatter rolled into one.  He has the Schlatter-like positioning and instincts- always in the right place at the right time- but with the speed of Harry Lester and the strength of CP Schlatter.  Think Schlatter with a lot more ability to create his own offense.  The well-meaning pundits who like to “overthink” these sort of things- the same doubters who kept bringing up Sponseller’s bad Fargo and looking for excuses for his opponents when he turned every top 160 in the nation into “Adam” last year- will look for a fly in the ointment.  Really, just go to www.flowrestling.org- and bearing in mind how great the wrestlers he’s facing are, and that he is freshman wrestling 171, and tell me I’m wrong.   It occurs to me, that with the Ironman honoring Mike Milkovich- the legendary Maple Heights coach who paved the way for so many great great wrestlers in northeast Ohio by his teaching and by his example- it was sort of appropriate that he was there on the night that what should be the greatest career in Ohio history began- one legend in his twilight, the other just beginning.

While C. Phillips stole the show this weekend, there were a number of other great Ohio wrestlers who also made big statements this weekend.  Most notably:

Squire Continues his winning Ways

I have to admit, I wasn’t that high on Squire before this weekend.  To me, his mistake-free style was effective last year, but I wondered if he had the raw athleticism to progress to a level among the great middleweights in this state one day.  His poor showing at Disney and failure to make weight at Fargo also were also a concern.  Suffice it to say that after this weekend, I am officially “on board.”  With a great deal of explosiveness and strength added to his incredible poise, Squire wrestled with great heart and other  than Phillips and Stieber, he was the underclassman who everyone was talking about all weekend.  In a tight bout with the vastly improved Seth Horner of Massillon Perry (knocked off nationally ranked Anthony Valles of Blair Academy in the semis), somehow, you just knew he was going to get it done and remain unbeaten for his career.  He had come to win- just like when he avenged a Disney loss to the very tough Grabfelder of Pennsylvania in the semis- and that was just what happened as Squire three-quarter nelson clinched it.

After the Ironman finals, I heard many people say, “Squire will never lose a high school match now.” As great as he was, running the table will be an extremely difficult task.  He will have Kyle Lang (assuming he goes back to 130) and Joe Parra (third last year) in Sectionals, Districts, and State.  Horner is also in his District.  That makes three top three finishers in Districts to contend with, two of them in his Sectional.  He will also have Horner at Districts and state, and three-time state runner-up Ryan Fields, who will be on a mission this year, at state again as well.  With this many great opponents lined up to go unbeaten will be extremely difficult- and he will likely have either Parra, Lang or Horner (or Collin Palmer possibly)- all juniors- to contend with next year as well.  Lang in particular- as incredibly dangerous as he is- will be very difficult to beat three straight times (see the 16-4 win over Jordan Thome).  Then again, with the skill, poise and heart Squire is wrestling with- I cannot rule it out.

Skonieczny Defeats Colin Johnston

In what has to be termed a “breakthrough win”, Chase Skonieczny knocked off Colin Johnston of Pennsylvania in a wild 8-7 bout.  Skonieczny of course is a three-time state placer who is ranked #1.  Collin Johnston entered with the #1 ranking nationally, however, following winning Junior Nationals last summer.  Ohio fans know Johnston best for defeating Collin Palmer last year at Ironman.  Johnston struck quickly with an easy takedown on Skonieczny who quickly escaped.  As Johnston appeared headed for a second takedown, Skonieczny maintained his poise, found an opening came up with a takedown and a 3-2 lead.  From there, Skonieczny threw his outstanding “boots” in and rode out the period for a 3-2 lead.  This put Skoniezny in a good spot- since Johnston wasn’t even close to getting out from Skonieczy, he was reluctant to go underneath and face the boots yet again.  Thus, he chose neutral, meaning that assuming Johnston would kick out Skonieczny in the third, he basically had a two point lead at that point.  Following a stalling point, Johnston battled back with a takedown for a 5-4 lead and pressed the action in the third period after quickly cutting Skonieczny. 

With the home crowd circling around the mat cheering him on, and the score tied at 5-5, Johnston forced an ill-advised outside trip and Skonieczny quickly struck with a low double to take a 7-5 lead, which held up in an 8-7 final.  Unfortunately, Skonieczny was injured early in the second period against Colin Palmer in the finals.  No word yet on how serious the injury is but hopefully he has a speedy recovery.

(above): David Taylor posted a decisive win against archrival Jamie Clark. Photo Credit: Bob Tuneberg, Villager News.

Three-Peat for David Taylor

For the third straight year, David Taylor defeated a great opponent in the finals of Ironman.  That he won was not so much a surprise as the ease with which he won.  Taylor scored all three takedowns to defeat an uncharacteristically flat Jamie Clark of St. Edward.  Clark’s good shots were frustrated by Taylor’s leverage, and Taylor picked his spots wisely  Similar to Chris Phillips, there is an efficiency in Taylor’s wrestling- it seemed he tried three moves in the finals against Clark and scored three takedowns.  While Clark is go-go-go all the time, Taylor waits patiently, then explodes into an effortless takedown at just the right moment.

Taylor looks to be vastly improved on his feet from last season.  He dominated not only Clark, but completely dismantled a very solid Shane Gentry in the quarterfinals by a 19-4 technical fall.  Taylor has added a beautiful inside trip to his arsenal that I have not seen him hit before.  He used this technique to take down both Clark and Gentry.  At this point, it’s tough to not see Taylor becoming the first four-time Ironman Champion- unless he should meet up with Stieber again in which case all bets are off.

Logan Stieber of course was brilliant once again, yielding only a takedown off a strange counter to a very tough California wrestler- who then built a huge lead on before pinning.  Brother Hunter probably locked down the #1 ranking nationally-speaking.  Faced with a very tough draw, he handled Brascetta, Mitch, and Carter all with ease, and defeated Gus Sako in a 5-4 bout in the semis.

(above): Ben Jordan defeated Zach Toal and Vince Ramos but fell to Jon Burns here. Photo Credit: Bob Tuneberg, Villager News.

Passing of the Torch- Graham wins Ironman Crown by a Whopping 42 Points

In what some were dubbing the “passing of the torch”, St. Paris Graham shellacked Blair Academy by a whopping 42 points.  Despite my growing reputation for being an Ohio “homer”, going in I thought that Blair had the slightest of edges over the Falcons.  However, what you really saw happen was Graham “gel” as a team.  Sometimes, when you have teammates who possess the commitment to winning that David Taylor, Coby Boyd, and Ben Jordan have, teammates take notice of how they compete and come along for the ride.  Everyone around them gets better.  You saw this with James Mannier: never a state placer, Mannier defeated nationally ranked Jared King in the second round and never looked back- eventually finishing fourth with close losses to champion Josh Condon and King.  Three weeks ago I had him projected on the Graham third string, yet Mannier emerged as the clear #2 at this weight behind an injured Eric Cubberly.

(above): Chris Phillips wrestling against Zach Thomusseit of Graham. Photo Credit: Bob Tuneberg, Villager News.

You also saw Tucker Armstrong riding “on the coattails” of the Graham train.  Armstrong showed flashes of brilliance last year but failed to place at the state tournament.  While his 7th place finish may not stagger you, he defeated defending state champion Garbrandt 7-1 and also beat a 2x state champion from Virginia.  Zach Thomusseit also moves up to the #1 ranking, and possibly, as mentioned, a national ranking with not only a win over Peltier by also a win by fall over the wrestler (Deciantis) who beat Nick Mills.  Nick Brascetta was a “borderline” placer in my view coming in, but outperformed expectations with quality wins over (Fargo AA) Sam Brody, Jacob Corrill, and Makara of Pennsylvania.  His only losses were to Stieber and Sako.  Matt Stephens lived up to his #3 ranking in Division II with a 5th place finish, this freshman could be a finalist though the gap between him and Sulzer is still pretty wide it seems after their Ironman bout.  Zach Neibert took a hard fought bronze, with wins over Papesh, California State Placer Klingsheim (a former cadet All-American), and the very tough Garofalo of Virginia- versus only a loss to Sam White.  Bouts that seem like “tossups” almost always seem to go Neibert’s way lately- and I think he is a solid favorite at this weight in Division II.

(above): Alex Meade and Coby Boyd battle in one of the premier bouts of the evening. Photo Credit: Bob Tuneberg, Villager News.

Cody Boyd finished as runner-up for the second consecutive year to one of the premier middleweights in the nation, 2x Cadet National Champion Alex Meade of Delaware.  Meade is one of the premier middleweights in the nation, but needed double overtime to get past the Graham senior.  This was on the heels of a great 5-3 win over Johnny Koepp of Bishop Lynch.  How good Koepp is was aptly demonstrated by his 12-3 win over Kusar of CVCA.  How tough the Ironman is was aptly demonstrated by the fact that 3x state champion Zac Cibula managed only an 8th place finish, and had to squeak out a 12-11 consolation win to even place.  As many of you know, I went with Nick Heflin of Perry for the #2 ranking despite the fact that he didn’t get to state last year- that pick looked a lot better after Heflin defeated future 4x state champion Cibular for 7th.  Heflin did not fare so well against Coby Boyd though, trailing 14-2 early in the second period at which time he was pinned.  Finally, Ben Jordan did what Jordan does- win close bouts- knocking off an excellent an underrated Zach Toal and Vince Ramos by a single point, before falling in the finals to the outstanding Jon Burns.

All told, when the rankings are updated this weekend, St. Paris Graham will have the #1 spot locked down in seven weight classes and the #2 ranking in three others, for a total of ten projected finalists!

RISING STOCK

By now there isn’t a whole lot to say about the Stieber’s, Coby Boyd, and Collin Palmer that has already been said- they were superb as always- so I wanted to mention a few other wrestlers who peformed notably ‘better than expected” this weekend.   

Dan Genetin

Genetin quietly had a great tournament (as did his teammate Seth Horner up a weight class). Genetin was expected to be at 130 or 135 this year, so it was a huge surprise to see him entered at 125 lbs., but the move appears to be the correct one right now.  Genetin took third in a weight class that returning Division II state champion Cody Garbrandt managed only an 8th place finish in.  Looking at the common opponents between the two, Genetin pinned 2x Oklahoma State Champion Partain (who beat Garbrandt), and won 8-0 over the wrestler (2x Virginia state champ Andrew Williams) who beat Garbrandt 6-2.  His only loss was 1-0 to the eventual champ Villalonga.  Throw in an 8-3 win for 3rd place against Riley Adamson, and you have a superb weekend of wrestling.  Genetin looks to be a solid favorite at 125 right now with Tommy Pretty being his most serious challenger.  

Alex Utley

I never got a chance to see him wrestle this weekend, and none of his matches are on flowrestling, so I don’t have too much commentary on this freshman’s style, but what a great performance by the CVCA Grappler.  CVCA fans predicted in emails sent to me recently he was going to have a great season so I ranked him fairly high for a freshman upperweight (#8), but clearly, not high enough.  Among the highlights:

17-5 over Lionel Woods of Claymont (state qualifier)
7-1 over Trey Edmunds of Nevada (Junior Greco AA, Cadet Greco National Champ, 2nd at Reno TOC)
14-2 over Utah State Champ Justin Curtice
8-5 over 2x Virginia State Champ Sam Rakes (a wrestler who was arguably “rankable” among the top 12 in the nation heading into this weekend).

Funny thing is, there has been barely a mention of Utley throughout the state- due probably to the fact that another Division III freshman upperweight as created quite a stir.  However, Utley has the look of a three-time champion to me (provided he can steer clear of Phillips down the road).  Following this great performance Utley jumps from #8 to #2.  

Johnni DiJulius

At this time I have to refer back to a time where I referred to DiJulius as the Division II favorite at 103 and a huge controversy ensued on the forum, apparently I had not lost my mind after all.  “Johnni D” backed up his #1 ranking and then some this weekend.  First, DiJulius got the ball rolling with  a 16-4 win over Junior National AA Brody of Illinois, while he was subsequently pinned by white-hot Devin Carter of Virginia, DiJulius rebounded with a solid 6-3 win over very tough Evan Silver of Blair (avenging four prior losses) and then pulled off a real shocker by knocking off Gus Sako 5-4 in the third place bout.  A great scrambler and leg-rider, DiJulius is clearly the man to beat at this weight in Division II at this point, though I don’t expect Ty Mitch to be conceding the title to him anytime soon.  Supposedly, Wayne Garabrandt is also dropping to this weight.  Garabrandt was fourth here last year and may seem the logical favorite should he drop.  However, I look for DiJulius and Mitch to still have a slight edge on him.  There is a big difference between last year when Garbrandt was cutting to make 103 and Mitch weighed about 98, versus now when Garabrandt will likely be “sucked down” to make this weight and Mitch will be a good-sized 103- completely different ballgame. Nevertheless, the weight remains a great three-man race at this time.

Others whose “stock” went up beside those mentioned above:
Zach Toal (3rd best Junior in Ohio; decisive wins over Habat and Goins and only one point losses versus Mario Mason and Ben Jordan).
Kirk Tank (great wins over Cibula of WI and Cassady of CO),
Marc Bryan (moves to #2 at 160 with his 5th place finish including a win over Rakes),
Tom Deroia  of Walsh Jesuit (complete unknown who took 7th at 215),
Ryan Nelisse (moves to #2 spot after beating Nathan Jones- the #1 ranked in Division III- and pushing Jeremy Foster hard),
Kyle Lang (places 6th, but wins 16-4 over Jordan Thome, beats two-time OK State Champ Matt Bryan, and loses by a point to Colin Johnston and Kolodzik),
Cam Tessari (won big over Division II Runner-up Inghram, wrestled Taylor tough to back up his #1 ranking in D-III).

Stay tuned this weekend for Coverage of the Super Eight Duals at St. Edward High School!

Please feel free to comment on this article on the message forum!

OhioWrestlingSite.com 2005