The Raiders head into their 2023-34 season tomorrow with their annual challenge in the Ironman classic at the Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, OH.
Coach Casey Taylor
Head Coach Casey Taylor begins his 13th season with an amazing career record of 239-31 to go along with 5 State Team Dual Championships and 3 State Championships in the individual bracketed tournaments.
Ironman Tournament
If you have followed Reynolds wrestling (or high school wrestling in general), you know the Ironman is THE top high school tournament in the country. The best teams and individuals across the country fly and drive to compete in this event.
If you plan to go, the tournament is at Walsh Jesuit High School Cuyahoga Falls, OH.
FRIDAY
10:00 am Wrestling Begins and continues all day
SATURDAY
10:00 am All consolations
11:45 am Semifinals and consolations
1:30 pm Consolation & Consolation Q-finals
4:00 pm Parade of Champions
4:30 pm Finals and 3rd/5th place bouts
6:45 pm Awards Ceremony
You must have access to a FloWrestling account to watch the livestream. However, you can follow up- to-the-minute results on FloArena.com for free.
To this point Taylor says, “I call Ironman the Daytona of Wrestling.” (accurately comparing the tourney to the famous NASCAR event). He continues, “Because you start your season with the biggest event on the calendar and this year the tournament will be as tough as it ever has been. We love that it brings out the best in our kids.”.
Casey reflected on this year’s team and its capabilities:
“I think this team is eager to go scrap at the best wrestling tournament in the nation! They know that they have to be prepared physically and mentally, and they have all worked very hard the past few weeks leading up to the event. Now, we will go test ourselves and see where we need to improve upon going forward. The goal is fairly simple: wrestle with toughness and heart, work hard to make it to day 2, and if so, climb the podium as high as possible.
… I am really excited about this team. They know what lies ahead of them and they accept the challenge. The team is fairly young, with half of our entries being 9th and 10th graders. The message to them is to go there with intentions to win, never back down from competition and in the end, this will better prepare the entire team for the season and ultimately the post season.”
The last sentence rings true in that this can be a breakout opportunity even if you drop a pair of matches. Just last year, Angelo Lomonte lost his two first matches but gave very gutsy fights against two ranked opponents, leading the way into a very successful inaugural season.
For the Raiders, Louie Gill is the only seeded wrestler with an 8th seed. He finished fourth at last year’s Ironman.
Starting line-up for IRONMAN (Ohio weights):
Wt-Wrestler (yr) 2023-24 Career
106-Angelo Lomonte (11) 27-13 27-13
113-Waylon Waite (10) 30-15 30-15
120-Louie Gill (12) 21-3 93-10
126-Logan Stewart (9)
132-Brendon Anderson (9)
138-Chase Bell (12) 32-14 80-40
145-Greyden Gustas (10) 14-20 14-20
150-Kevyn Malgieri (12) 1-4 2-14
157-Emery Johnson (9)
165-Vito Gentile (11) 31-17 60-34
175-Louie Dejulia (11) 15-22 24-35
190-Colton Tupper (10)
215-Kolton Wilkinson (12) 9-18 10-18
285-Casey Resek 10 10-21 10-21
Captain Chase Bell
Looking at the starting lineup above verifies Taylor’s claim of a youthful team. Leading the team are captain Chase Bell and co-captains Louie Gill and Kolton Wilkinson. Chase is a three-year starter and state place winner last year - he committed to attend and wrestle at Frostburg University. A North Carolina State commit, Louie begins his second season as a Raider and is a former State Champ and Runner-up. Kolton, who started last year after missing his freshman & sophomore years due to injuries, hopes to continue on improving as he did in the final weeks of last season.
Co-Captains Louie Gill & Kolton Wilkinson
Record watch: Louie and Chase have a good shot of joining the “100 wins” club this year!
Two other state qualifiers return in sophomore Walen Waite and junior Vito Gentile. Both had outstanding campaigns last year (and Vito, for the last two years) and hope to build on their experiences.
A group of 2nd year starters, Angelo Lomonte, Greyden Gustas, Kevyn Malgieri, Louie Dejulia, Kolton Wilkinson and Casey Resek hope to continue to build on the success of the second half of last season. In typical Raider tradition, all of them built momentum as the season progressed and showed that they will be a force this year.
Angelo is a returning section champ and district runner-up and hopefully uses that experience to be a leader this year. A much bigger Louie has a lot of potential and put it togther at the end of the season to reach the section tournament finals.
Rookies Logan Stewart, Brendon Anderson, Emery Johnson and Colton Tupper all had outstanding junior high records and have the experience and skills to do big things! We will probably say much more about this great core of young wrestlers as they prove themselves on the high school level.
Pre-Season Rankings:
Take all of this as just a suggestion - rankings, at this point, are mostly conjecture. The people creating the lists try to be thorough but at this early stage, they just can’t know which kids still have a fighting spirit or wrestled and trained all summer, or even matured from young soft bodies to having some serious athletic skills.
Regardless, rankings are still fun to look at and discuss. Just don’t hold much faith in them since the guys still have to do it on the mat. In spite of my caveat, the Raiders are getting a lot of attention and respect going into this season.
FloWrestling PA AA Rankings
107 Angelo Lomonte 8th
121 Louie Gill 2nd
133 Chase Bell 9th
Also, Louie is nationally ranked 12th in his weight class and is #64 on the “Big Board” for all seniors and all weights.
Keystone Caliber Wrestling Rankings - AA
NW Reg State
107 Angelo Lamonte 1 9
113 Waylon Waite 2 18
121 Louie Gill 1 3
127 Logan Stewart 1 8
133 Greydon Gustas 10
139 Chase Bell 1 7
152 Emery Johnson 8
160 Louie Dejulia 10
172 Vito Gentile 3 9
189 Colten Tupper 7
285 Casey Resek 10
The next competition: RHS goes to Mercer on December 19 for the first dual match of the season.
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