Loyola Academy earns six All-America honors at national wrestling tournament in Fargo

Loyola Academy continued to develop its wrestling firepower at the annual summer national meet in Fargo, North Dakota.

Five Ramblers wrestlers earned six All-American awards across two styles, Roman-Greco and freestyle, at the U.S. Marine Corps/USA Wrestling Junior and Under-16 National Championships at the Fargodome July 15-22.

Wrestlers earn All-American at the famed tournament by finishing among the top eight in their weight class.

Off her Illinois High School Association championship in February, Harlee Hiller earned second in women's junior freestyle at 106 pounds. Girls competed only in freestyle.

Hiller helped Team Illinois win its first junior women's freestyle competition; Team Illinois men won the 16U Greco division, while Idaho won the junior Greco and Pennsylvania took both freestyle divisions.

"We'll get 'em next year," said Loyola coach Matt Collum, on the Team Illinois staff and a two-time Fargo All-American in the early 2000s.

Loyola's other 2023 state champion, Northwestern-bound Massey Odiotti, went up 6 pounds to 126 and placed third in junior Greco. It was his third time at Fargo; he was last year's runner-up at 120.

Unlike the Roman-Greco style, Odiotti explained, in freestyle a wrestler can initiate or stop an attack using the legs.

Helping Team Illinois to its 16U Greco title, Ramblers incoming sophomore Kai Calcutt placed second at 220 pounds, and also fifth in freestyle.

Another incoming sophomore, 100-pounder James Hemmila, placed second at 16U Greco, and incoming freshman Niko Odiotti, Massey's younger brother, placed sixth at 16U freestyle at 88 pounds.

"I think it was really cool to be a part of a team that won," Hiller said, "and being with so many other finalists and All-Americans was really cool. And to be able to train with so many higher-level athletes was cool as well."

The Team Illinois girls trained four days before Fargo at Aurora University, headed by Greg Gomez of Greg Gomez Trained Wrestling in West Chicago.

In the title match at Fargo, Hiller took an early 2-1 lead over Indiana's Heather Crull. Crull then scored 2 points on a takedown, and pinned Hiller 51 seconds into the match.

"Harlee did amazing," Collum said. "I thought she was ready to roll in that finals match, she just got caught. I thought she was going to bring home a national title."

This was an improvement for Hiller both against Crull and at Fargo, where the incoming junior placed eighth in 2022.

Wrestling in the 16U field in 2022, this summer Hiller was the youngest in her Junior weight class in a bracket that had women up to 20 years old.

Crull beat Hiller "really quickly" in the finals of the World Team Trials in April in Spokane, Washington, she said.

"I've learned defensive techniques and to stay in my stance and keep my hands low," said Hiller, who in June went 4-0 to win the 108-pound title at the Pan Am Games.

"I'm sad I lost in the finals and I think I could have won the match, but I think it was a really good experience overall. I look to improve and hopefully come back and win it next year," she said.

Graduated Loyola star Massey Odiotti had a valuable lesson reinforced over the tournament's last two days, June 21-22.

He already was taxed after going 3-2 in freestyle competition against the nation's cream of the crop, the "hammers," as Odiotti called the top wrestlers.

Odiotti started the Greco tournament 5-0 before falling to eventual 126-pound champion Isaiah Cortez, out of California, in the semifinals.

Pushed into the consolation bracket, Odiotti realized he needed to overcome disappointment. He had followed his first loss in freestyle with a second and didn't want to repeat that scenario.

"Looking back on it, it was a good challenge," he said. "Going into college, I'll have to bounce back from losses pretty quickly."

Odiotti finished the Greco bracket with an 8-0 consolation semifinal win over another California wrestler, then earned third place by beating Utah's Layne Kleimann 7-3.

Already training the past several weeks in Northwestern's wrestling room, Odiotti helped Loyola exceed past All-American finishes at Fargo.

"That's the plan," Collum said.