Wrestling: In-State Commit Antrell Taylor Demolishes at Dual Tournament

The Huskers are riding a few really solid recruiting classes as of late. Two of those players are from in-state Millard South High School in Scott Robertson and Antrell Taylor. Robertson will join the Huskers as a freshman this fall, while Taylor still has his senior year of high school ahead of him and hopes to win his third state title.

Over the weekend, the MWC Wrestling Academy out of Omaha traveled to State College to take part in the Ultimate Club Duals. Taylor competed at 73kg for MWC while Robertson was at 69kg.

“Founded in 2016 in the heart of the Lehigh Valley, the vision of Ultimate Club Duals was to create a world class freestyle event that would crown the best freestyle club team in the United States. The Ultimate Club Duals utilizes a unique format that combines all age groups (Scholastic, Cadet and Junior) to form one team, to create the most inclusive wrestling experience in the country.” - from ultimateclubduals.com

So, each team gets to take part in duals against other club teams from around the country. Each team competes at 19 weight classes from 34kg (75 pounds) through 129kg (284 pounds). With a field of 32 teams, the format was slightly complicated with each team starting in a four-team pool. MWC competed in Pool D, going 2-1 to finish second. Next, the MWC Wrestling Academy, the No. 2 team in Pool D, took on Sebolt Wrestling Academy, which finished first in Pool C. MWC fell to Sebolt 61-18 and landed in the Silver bracket (Four brackets were Gold, Silver, Copper and Bronze).

In the Silver bracket, MWC won both its quarterfinal (46-34 over M2 Gold) and semifinal matches (54-29 over Capital Wrestling Club) to move on to the final. MWC won its final dual 53-30 over Doughboy Red to win the Silver bracket.

Instrumental for MWC were the two Husker commits. Taylor showed off his elite talent while Robertson showed that he’s a top-shelf wrestler. Now, this tournament was wrestled at freestyle, not folkstyle, meaning that these results need to be taken with a grain of salt when it comes to translating to college wrestling.

Here’s a clip of Taylor in this year’s state semifinal.

To be honest, it’s hard to be more dominant than Taylor was this weekend at 73kg (161 pounds). Through seven duals, Taylor went 7-0. But it wasn’t that he won all of his matches that was so impressive, it was how he won them. Taylor won six matches by tech fall and another via injury default (he was leading 8-0 at the time), his fastest finish being a 17-second 10-0 tech fall win over Bryan Shannon of Capital Wrestling Club.

Even more impressive is the fact that Taylor didn’t give up a single point as he steamrolled his competition to the tune of 69-0. He spent just over seven total minutes on the mat.

Taylor is ranked No. 8 in the country at 160 pounds according to FloWrestling and showed this weekend that he should be moving up the board.

Also having a solid weekend was Robertson at 69kg (152 pounds). The 2021 state finalist as a senior, Robertson went 5-2 on the weekend. After winning all three matches by tech fall in pool play, Robertson fell 8-1 by decision in MWC’s loss to Sebolt.

In the Silver bracket, Robertson won 10-0 by tech fall in the quarters but lost a tight 4-4 decision to DJ McGee of Capital Wrestling Club. Up 4-2 late in the match, Robertson gave up a blast double-leg takedown with 4 seconds left. He then won his match in the final 10-0 by tech fall in 1:27.

Robertson figures to redshirt this coming year and will probably project to 157 pounds for the Huskers. Taylor will be Nebraska’s future at whatever weight class he ends up at. I’d anticipate he ends up at 165 or 174 when he gets to campus in 2022.