Van Hoven Edges Quest School in Thriller to Win 2025 NHSCA National Duals Title

On Saturday morning, May the 24th, one of the largest wrestling dual meet tournaments in the nation, the NHSCA National Duals, began in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Two days later, on Monday afternoon, two teams were left standing to determine the champion, top-seeded Team Shutt Van Hoven and the number five seed, Quest School of Wrestling Gold.

Van Hoven was a conglomerate of national wrestlers from various locales, while Quest School is a squad comprised mostly of Pennsylvanians. Despite Quest School pulling off five upsets and winning more matches by bonus points (three to two for VH), they would fall by one-point to Van Hoven, 27-26, when they lost the heavyweight bout.

South Dakota’s Micah Hach, who is ranked 13th at 285 pounds in the latest rankings from High School on SI, played the role of hero for Van Hoven when he blanked Colin Whyte, 5-0. Whyte is unranked but downed Honorable Mention Maximus Forrester of Indiana during the pool rounds.

Two of the upsets by Quest School came in the first three matches with Preston Bubash winning an overtime tiebreaker match with Georgia’s Teequavious Mills (No. 10 at 106), 3-2, at 113 pounds, followed by Santino Sloboda (No. 21 at 126), posting a 6-3 decision of Louisiana’s Alex Rozas (No. 7 at 113) at 120 pounds for a 6-3 Quest lead.

Bubash and Teequavious MIlls exchanged escapes during regulation and overtime with Bubash finally securing the win after riding his rival out for the final overtime period. Sloboda worked through a wild scramble to hook an ankle in the first period, then allowed a subsequent escape to take a 3-1 lead over Rozas. Sloboda started on bottom in the second and hit a beautiful Granby for a reversal. From there each would add an escape to their tallies.

Van Hoven won the opener at 106 with No. 1 Ariah Mills (Georgia) pitching a shutout versus Chase Karenbauer (No. 20 at 113), 4-0. All four points came on the same overtime sequence with a reversal to a tilt for two near-fall points. Ariah’s brother, No. 3 Antonio Mills beat No. 27 Antonio Boni, 12-6, at 126 pounds to draw it even at six each. It appeared that Antonio was on his way to a tech fall, putting four takedowns on the sheet to go up 12-3 in the third when Boni secured a takedown of his own and contained Antonio the rest of the way.

Quest School’s Luke Willochell won a showdown of honorable mention grapplers with Indiana’s Nate Rioux, by an 11-2 major decision at 132 pounds for the first bonus points of the dual. That win started a four-match win streak that would leave Quest School holding a 20-6 advantage.

After a scoreless first, Willochell put an escape on the board in the second. Rioux chose to start in neutral for the third and paid for that by giving up a seven point move to Willochell on a sweet roll through tilt straight to the back. Rioux would escape and allow Willochell another takedown on a slide by.

Upsets were used by Quest School to move out front as honorable mention Kai Vielma went into overtime with No. 11 Israel Borge and authored an 8-3 win in the second tiebreaker round at 138. After both scored on escapes during the regular portion of the match, Kai Vielma added another escape in the second frame of overtime. The third saw Borge start down and hit a reversal only to watch Kai Vielma counter with a Peterson on the edge of the mat for the winning points.

The 144-pound match saw unranked Hudson Hohman edge No. 26 Tyler Traves (Virginia), 2-1. Hohman and Traves each scored escapes with Hohman gaining one point in the third on a technical violation from Traves. Kai’s brother, Lonzy, who is not ranked surprised Indiana’s No. 19 Michael Ortega at 152 pounds with a 10-2 major decision. Lonzy opened with a takedown and had his way with Ortega in the final frame where he added two takedowns to the scorebook.

The man whose team had taken his name, Chase Van Hoven (No. 8 at 157), got his squad back on the right side of things with an 8-0 major decision of Evan Petrovich (No. 12 at 150) at 160 pounds. No one scored to start the bout, but Van Hoven added five points in the second with the final three coming on a slick shuckby with two seconds on the clock. Van Hoven would add a late takedown in the third to secure a major decision.

At 170, Liam Crook took out fellow honorable mention entry, Maximus Fortier of West Virginia, who was one of Quest’s few non-Pennsylvania wrestlers, 8-2. The score was 1-1 in the third with each registering an escape. Crook got in on a shot and climbed the ladder where he was able to secure an arm and turn it into a back point situation for seven points.

Maryland’s Salah Tsarni (No. 7 at 175) made it three in a row for Van Hoven with an 18-2 technical fall at 182 pounds of Kellen Buggey, to bring his squad within two at 20-18. Tsarni simply overpowered Buggey with five takedowns and near-fall points at the end to reach the tech.

Another West Virginia wrestler picked up the final win for Quest School when Eli Knight stuck California’s Carter Vannest at 195 pounds for a 26-18 lead. Quest School forfeited to honorable mention Noah Mathis of Kansas at 220 pounds to make the count 26-24 and set up the winner take all heavyweight showdown that was won by Hach to earn the title for Van Hoven.

In the Championship Bracket, Van Hoven also defeated TNWC Silver Fox (45-9), Doughboy Black (51-10), Indiana Outlaws Black (56-3), and Team Shutt Bowman (70-0). In their Championship Pool “A”, Van Hoven won two by shutout (76-0 and 77-0) and a third match, 63-3. They blanked all three foes in their initial pool as well (77-0, 81-0, and 80-0).

Going unscathed for Team Shutt Van Hoven with 11-0 records were Ariah Mills, Antonio Mills, Van Hoven, and Crook. Pennsylvania’s Kavin Muyleart (No. 16 at 120 pounds) was 5-0 in limited duty at 132 pounds where he split time with Rioux, who went 5-1.

Also suffering just one defeat with 10-1 counts were Rozas, Traves, Tsarni, Vannest, Mathis, and Hach. Tsarni’s loss came in the dual versus Indiana Outlaws Black with Indiana’s Michael White (No. 21 at 195), 9-3. Mathis fell to fellow Kansas grappler, the unranked Carter Green, 4-0, in Championship Pool action. Hach fell to No. 24 Thomas Brown (Massachusetts), 4-1, versus Doughboy Black.

Borge won his first nine matches then lost his last two to go 9-2. Borge’s second loss came against TNWC Silver Fox’s Camden Baum of Pennsylvania (No. 14 at 144), 4-2. Teequavious Mills and Ortega were 8-3. Interestingly, both lost their last three matches.

Mills’ losses leading up to the finals were to No. 19 Braiden Lotier (Pennsylvania), 10-0, and previously ranked at 113 pounds, Massachusetts’ Julian Rios, 12-0, whom we had been seeing at 120 pounds recently and was moved there from 113. Ortega was tripped up by the same two teams (Silver Fox and Doughboy) as Mills before the finals with losses to No. 29 Jackson Butler of Pennsylvania, 4-1, and Massachusetts’ James Tildsley, 4-1.

There were far too many matches with rankings implications to list them all here. We will provide an account of the most pertinent of those results below.

113

Jose Cordero (TN) 4-2 Dakota Santamaria (PA) (No. 12 at 106)

Urijah Courter (IA) 3-2 TB2 No. 26 Tanner Tran (TN)

Jaron Barrientos (NY) 5-2 William Soto (NY) (No. 14 at 106)

120

Robby Rodriguez (NJ) 4-3 David Hill (AL) (No. 25 at 113)

Christian Ramirez (NJ) 9-0 Jackson Wells (KY) (No. 17 at 113)

CJ Caines (PA) 9-1 No. 10 Dunia Sibomana (NY)

No. 23 Dominick Morrison (PA) 7-0 No. 8 Izayiah Chavez (TX)

Curtis Nelson (PA) 7-4 OT No. 25 Sam Wolford (PA)

126

Tye Johnson (NC) 4-1 OT Braiden Weaver (PA) (No. 17 at 120)

Connor Whitely (OH) 2-1 TB2 Weaver

138

Kai Vielma (PA) (HM) 10-2 Geronimo Rivera (UT) (No. 24 at 132)

152

Lorenzo Alston (NC) 4-0 TJ Meyer (KY) (HM)

160

Mason Horwat (PA) 7-4 Kage Jones (NJ) (HM)

Cody Hamilton (PA) 4-1 No. 30 Billy Tyler (VA)

Kross Cassidy (VA) (No. 14 at 165) 1-0 Jaelen Culp (SC) (No. 13 at 165)

170

Jon Smith (PA) 10-3 Taye Wilson (KS) (HM)

195

No. 26 Greyson Meak (NY) 3-1 No. 17 Ty Morrison (PA)

285

Max Forrester (IN) (HM) 11-8 No. 27 Ryder Smith (TN)