Henckel, Brown earn All-American honors in Fargo

Amity’s Camryn Brown earned All-American honors in freestyle at the Junior Nationals Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Sarah Jadach)

An additional two Connecticut wrestlers are coming home as All-Americans from the USA Wrestling Junior and 16U national championship meet in Fargo, North Dakota.

Southbury’s William Henckel, a rising junior at Blair Academy in New Jersey, finished fourth at 152 pounds in the Junior freestyle tournament while Amity-Woodbridge’s Camryn Brown earned All-American honors for the second straight year by finishing eighth at 132 pounds in the Junior Women’s freestyle event.

Henckel also earned All-American honors for the second consecutive year. Last July, he won the freestyle event at 145 pounds in the 16 and under division.

This week, Henckel went 6-2 and faced four All-Americans in the tournament. For his fifth straight win, Henckel beat Illinois’ Ethan Stiles, 11-6 in the quarterfinals before falling to New Jersey’s Ty Whalen in the semifinals, 8-3. Whalen, who has committed to Princeton, won the tournament.

In the consolation round, Henckel pinned North Dakota’s Boeden Greenley, who eventually finished sixth, in 3:31 to earn a spot in the consolation final. Pennsylvania’s Jude Swisher finished third with a 9-5 decision.

Brown won her first two matches with pins (1:47, 0:43) before falling in the quarterfinals to eventual national champion Janida Garcia of California. Brown pinned Arizona’s Isis France in her first consolation round contest to earn All-American honors.

In the medal round, Brown dropped a 10-8 decision to New York’s Zoe Griffith, who eventual finished fourth and was pinned by Iowa’s Ella Schmidt in 4:31 in the seventh place bout.

Several other Connecticut wrestlers have had solid tournaments but didn’t earn a medal.

In the 16U freestyle tournament, Xavier’s Jackson Heslin (Marlborough) went 6-2 in the tournament at 126 pounds. After winning his first match of the tournament, Heslin fell to Iowa’s Maximus Riggins by tech fall in 3:43. Riggins would eventually earn All-American honors with a fifth place finish.

Heslin won five straight bouts in the consolation round with three pins before falling to Arizona’s Carlos Stanton, Jr., 6-4. Stanton would also go on to earn All-American honors with an eighth place finish.

Heslin also went 4-2 at 126 pounds in the 16U Greco-Roman competition, as well. Fairfield’s Dylan Sherman (138) went 3-2 in the Greco-Roman tournament with three straight wins in the consolation bracket.

In the Junior freestyle event, three state wrestlers had three wins each. Simsbury’s Chad Mairano (170) and John Mairano (138) were each 3-2 in the tournament along with Newtown’s Nathan Taylor (182). Both Mairano’s lost their initial match but won three straight bouts in the consolation bracket.

2022 USA Wrestling Junior and 16U Nationals results