CJ Walrath; Notre Dame HS ‘23/DC Elite
In an era of Southeast Iowa wrestling where we have a guy (Marcel Lopez) who is on pace to become the first ever 4X state champion to come from the SEISC, CJ Walrath also sticks out, for he was an absolute wrecking ball as a Sophomore at 2A 170 this season… To be fair, this kid has always been a wrecking ball in SE Iowa growing up, most years placing in the top 3-4 at AAU State and winning Grade School State a couple-few times. This year though, CJ Walrath bulldozed his way to one of the best seasons I can remember a Sophomore from my area having. A giant leap from a disappointing Freshman campaign that was plagued by injuries. This kid as a Sophomore was at a weight that is typically overcrowded by Seniors (170)…and he came into state undefeated with over 40 wins and placed 3rd… His only loss of the season came in the semis at the state tournament to the eventual champion, Carson Babcock by a score of 6-3. And get this, his closest match coming into the state tournament…an 11-2 win over the guy who placed 8th at state in his bracket, Logan Waltz of Camanche. And get this, CJ only had 3 other matches besides Waltz during the regular season in which he did not pin his opponent…and get this, all, but 2 of his pins in the regular season came in the first period. For a Sophomore at 170 lbs, that is just plain incredible.
At state, Walrath had a rare, close 3-1 win over Kalen Meyer of CL-G-R… he wrestled Meyer again for 3rd and 4th and pinned him. If this kid is putting up stats like these as a Sophomore, I can’t imagine how “Mike Tyson-esque” his statline will appear when he is a Senior.
It doesn’t appear that CJ competes in the “standard” national/offseason tourneys that many do, but he did compete in the AAU Scholastic Duals, where the team he was a member of, Iowa Black, wrestled in 11 duals… How did CJ do at this, you may be wondering?
2021 AAU Scholastic Duals (06/22 – 06/27/2021)
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Randolph Pyrzewski (Michigan Freeze) Dec 9-2
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Cutter Jones (Montana White) Fall 2:53
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Avery Dickerson (Michigan Blue AS) Fall 3:44
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Justin Griffith (Delaware) Maj 14-5
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Wyatt Haynes (STL Black) Maj 13-0
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Bradley Hornback (East Side Wrestling) Fall 1:57
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Kyle Grey (Backyard Boyz White) Maj 10-1
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Jamal Lewis (Nauman Blue) Dec 5-0
170 – Clinton Walrath (Iowa Black) over Vaughn Spencer (Nauman Blue) Dec 4-3
CJ has been trained in the club wrestling scene by Johnny Siegel and Dusty Coufal in one of the state of Iowa’s most consistently excellent wrestling clubs, DC Elite.
This kid may be on pace to becoming one of Southeast Iowa’s best ever wrestlers. Actually, scratch that… he has already earned that status with his Sophomore season alone. At this rate and especially if he continues to accelerate through college, he may have a case for being SE Iowa’s best ever wrestler. I bet the college recruiters will be knocking his door down when he’s a Senior and if they don’t, they definitely should be.
Keep making SE Iowa proud, kid!
