Jul. 21—Two local wrestlers closed out All-American performances at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior National Championships freestyle competition on Tuesday.
Forest Hills’ Jackson Arrington placed fourth at 145 pounds, while Bishop McCort Catholic’s Erik Gibson finished sixth at 152. Their performances helped Pennsylvania to a second-place finish in the team standings. Illinois won the event with 130 points — 19 more than the Keystone State, which did not advance a single wrestler to the championship round, but did have 10 All-Americans.
Arrington was up two weight classes from 132, where he won his second PIAA title in March. The jump in weight seemed to agree with him early on, as the North Carolina State recruit outscored his first five opponents by a combined score of 53-5.
His run ended in the quarterfinals, where he lost 10-0 to eventual champion Jordan Williams of Oklahoma.
Arrington reeled off three consecutive victories, dropping Oklahoma’s Teague Travis as well as two California wrestlers — Henry Porter and Nicco Ruiz — in the consolation bracket.
Matthew Bianchi of Wisconsin beat Arrington 14-6 in the third-place bout.
Gibson won his first five bouts before dropping three in a row. He pinned Minnesota’s Cade Sundgaard, scored technical falls over Montana’s Jesse Horner and Jaden Reynolds, then notched close victories over Wisconsin’s Cale Anderson and Arizona’s Kaleb Larkin.
New Jersey’s Daniel Wask beat Gibson 12-8 in the semifinals on Monday night, and Luka Wick of California won 10-0 to send the Bishop McCort wrestler to the fifth-place bout, where Minnesota’s Cael Swensen beat him 14-3 on Tuesday.
A Cornell recruit, Gibson placed seventh at Fargo in 2019. The event was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arrington and Gibson are both eligible to compete in the Greco-Roman competition, which begins Thursday.