EDITOR'S NOTE: The SWnews4u.com Athlete of the Week is a new web-only feature that will publish each Friday throughout the calendar year.
Fennimore’s Alston is the SWnews4u.com Athlete of the Week for July 20–26.
The sophomore-to-be went 6–1 to place second out of 83 wrestlers at 120 pounds while respesenting Team Wisconsin at the USA Wrestling Cadet Greco Roman National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota July 18–25.
Nutter, a returning All-American who earned eigth place in last year’s national championships, used six straight victories to reach the 120-pound title match and earn All-American honors for a second straight year.
The Fargo national championships, the premeir national summer tournament for high school wrestlers, features two international styles of wrestling that have different rules than high school wrestling. There are higher point values for lifting wrestlers in the air or by using leverage to throw them from their feet to their backs. This year, nearly 1,000 wrestlers took part in the Greco Roman competition.
After a first-round bye in his 83-man bracket, Nutter opened the tournament with three straight 10-0 technical falls over Missouri’s Tanner Pavlica, Washington’s Mason Sabin, and New Jersey’s Charlie Cunningham. Any time a wrestler gains a 10-point advantage the match is stopped.
In round four, Nutter found himself in an uncomfortable predicament by getting caught off guard and down by an 8-0 score before he battled back to notch a 25-12 win over Idaho’s Braydon Huber.
The victorious rally past Huber pitted Nutter against Jack Davis, who was the Pennsylvania Greco state champ and most recently awarded to the National All-Tournament Team as an undefeated wrestler in the national duals.
Nutter once again found himself down late in the match, 14-6, and on the verge of defeat. However, he rattled off 10 straight points to pull out the victory and advance to the finals.
In his semifinal match, Nutter quickly took control of the match and launched Missouri’s Colin Valdiviez multiple times to get a quick 12–0 victory.
New Jersey's Nicholas Raimo ended Nutter's run with a 10–0 technical fall in the 120-pounds finals.
Nutter finishes his freshman postseason with a Wiscosnin Greco state championship, Northern Plains regional championship, a World Team Member Alternate as a result of his FILA performance earlier this year in the United Wrestling Federation Championships in Akron, Ohio, and a USA Wrestling All-American with this second place finish.
Nutter finished his freshman year at Fennimore with a 51–1 record after winning the WIAA Division 3 120-pound individual state title at the WIAA Championships in February. He also helped the Golden Eagles win the SWAL title for the first time in more than two decades and helped Fennimore advance to the WIAA Team State Championships.
