Huntley High School sophomore David Ferrante placed third in the Cadet Freestyle 160-pound bracket at the USA Wrestling Junior and Cadet National tournament in Fargo, North Dakota July 16. In doing so, he became Huntley’s first Fargo All-America honoree.
The tournament is the largest high-school wrestling tournament in the country.
“The quality is huge. The who’s who of wrestling is there,” Coach B.J. Bertelsman said of the tournament in a Northwest Herald article. “You look at the NCAA champions and NCAA All-Americans, and 90 percent of them wrestled at Fargo. These are the top-notch guys. Not too many high-level guys miss the Fargo nationals unless they’re on the world team.”
The honor is even more impressive given Ferrante’s relative youth. He will return to the mats this fall as after a freshman season that included a number of individual honors, including a fourth-place finish at state in the 152-lb. weight class.
“It was pretty surreal because you know, you wrestle at state and stuff, but this is obviously by far the biggest tournament I’ve been in,” Ferrante said. “When I walked out in the semifinal match on the big stage it kind of hit me like, ‘Oh wow, I’m wrestling in the semifinals of Fargo. This is a big deal.'”
Earlier this summer, Ferrante was ranked among the top 25 sophomores in the country by InterMat.
Read more about Ferrante’s accomplishment on the Northwest Herald website »
