In a 54 KG weight bracket filled with elite level talent, Hettinger’s Kyle Burwick finished 2-2, two matches short of All American status.  Burwick showed impressive grit in his first bout of the tournament, scoring a takedown in the final ten seconds to upend Dylan Shawver of Ohio 8-4.  Burwick showed impressive freestyle awareness early in the match, giving up his legs but ultimately scoring a cheap tilt counter for two points and an early 2-0 lead. From there the two traded takedowns to start the second period before Shawver grabbed a 4-4 lead with :30 seconds left on the clock.   Needing a score to advance, Burwick was able to run through Shawver for a four point feet-to-back takedown.  The Class B 3X state champion was upended in the next round by Connecticut’s Jakob Camacho 10-0.  Camacho went on to finish fourth in the tournament.

On the backside, Burwick scored a 12-1 technical superiority victory over Eric Barnett of Wisconsin before losing to California’s Christian Nunez 5-3.  The match with Nunez featured a lot of Burwick leg attacks followed by Nunez counter scrambles.  A minute into the first, Burwick found a beautiful hi-crotch but gave up two exposure points and left the exchange down 2-1.  Another similar exchange in the second game Burwick takedown and Nunez a reversal making the score 3-3 with Nunez holding tie breaker criteria.  Nunez iced the match with another counter takedown in the last :30 seconds.

Overall, Burwick was pleased with the way he rebounded from what he considered was a subpar opening session of wrestling Saturday morning.

“I didn’t wrestle well in the first couple of matches,” Burwick stated after the tournament. “We were able to make some adjustments and I felt I wrestled better later in the day.”

Burwick’s next action will be with team North Dakota at Junior Duals in Tulsa Oklahoma toward the end of June.