Heidelberg's Elliot Boltz, right, tries to bring down Michael Vanderbloemen of Naples in an opening-round 152-pound bout at the DODDS European wrestling finals in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Friday. Boltz won the match to advance to the next round. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Heidelberg's Elliot Boltz, right, tries to bring down Michael Vanderbloemen of Naples in an opening-round 152-pound bout at the DODDS European wrestling finals in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Friday. Boltz won the match to advance to the next round. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
In an opening-round 103-pound match on Friday, London Central's Jonathan Scott, top, tries to pin Joseph Mueller of Bitburg. Scott won the match. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Baumholder's Michael Walker, rear, grapples with Iceland's Jonathan Watson in a opening-round 112-pound bout. Walker won the match. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Menwith Hill's Cole McClain, top, gets the better of Mannheim's Mike Adams in a opening-round 130-pound bout on Friday. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Wurzburg's Liz Barry, bottom, struggles to avoid the pin by Kaiserslautern's Jamie Jung in a opening-round 130-pound bout. She escaped here, but Jung pinned her later in the match. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
WIESBADEN, Germany — The top seeds in the European wrestling championships were nearly perfect on Friday.
In the first-round and quarterfinal matches, the 13 No. 1 seeds posted 23 falls in 24 matches, as all advanced to Saturday semifinals, which begin at 10 a.m. at the Sportshalle just off the Second Ring road at Elasser Platz.
Top seeds Cameron Clawson of Heidelberg (130 pounds) and Saevar Weaver of Würzburg (145) wasted little time. Clawson pinned his two opponents in 99 seconds; Weaver won his matches in 83 seconds.
Two others moved to the semifinals even quicker.
Defending 275-pound champion Bo Daniels of Iceland drew a bye in the first round, then crushed Mike Merrill of London Central in 22 seconds. AFNORTH’s 160-pound favorite, Ryan Butler, also drew a first-round bye, then pinned Matthew Domo of Giessen in 39 seconds.
“I wanted to wrestle two matches,” Butler said. “I would have like to get some wrestling in.”
Returning champion Donald Walker of Heidelberg also outclassed his only opponent, Joe Bouknight of Hohenfels, with a fall in 1:37.
Brothers Bryan and Andrew Isbell of Brussels also did well. Top-seeded senior Andrew reached the 152 semis and second-seeded sophomore Bryan the 140 semis with a pair of falls each.
Bryan credited his brother for his success.
“We used to have a wrestling mat in our garage,” he said. “We used to wrestle all day long.”
Andrew flattened his two opponents in 3:59; Bryan used 4:10, and said he appreciated the short work day.
“It helps a little bit,” Bryan said after pinning Miller Tyson of Naples 3:19 into their quarterfinal match. “I found myself getting a little tired out there today.”
On Saturday, four of Ramstein’s seven quarterfinalists — including returning champion Chris Barbe — will wrestle each other at 112 and 119. Saturday’s other inner-school semifinal pits top-seeded Division II champion Joe Morrow against Patch teammate Chris Vucich at 119.
The highest seeds to lose on Friday were a trio of No. 4s — London Central’s Jonathan Scott to Mannheim’s Andrew Elizaldez at 103, Bitburg’s Kyle McQuisten to Juan Rivera of Wiesbaden at 119, and American School in London’s Ben Torgersen to SHAPE’s J.D. Devine at 140.
Of the three pulling the upsets, only Elizaldez reached the semis.
His reward?
He’ll be taking on one of those top-seeded dominators, Brian Apgar of Ramstein, in the first match of the day Saturday.
