Joey Blaze and Dylan D'Emilio are NCAA Wrestling All-Americans
Volume 4 Issue 6
Two local wrestlers have earned All-American status at the NCAA Division I Championships this weekend. Joey Blaze (Perrysburg) finished in 2nd place in the 157 lbs. weight class to earn his first All-American finish. Dylan D’Emilio (Genoa) finished in 4th place in the 149 lbs. weight class to earn All-American status for the second time.
Joey Blaze came out of high school as a highly decorated and wrestler and was one of the nation’s top recruits. He chose Purdue and went to the NCAA Championships last year as a true freshman, but lost both of his two matches. This season, Blaze had a 20-5 record, including 10-1 in dual matches. He finished runner-up in the Big Ten in his weight class to Antrell Taylor of Nebraska. He then wrestled his way to the NCAA finals where he again was defeated by Antrell Taylor.
Dylan D’Emilio was a four time state champion in high school for Genoa and is a graduate student at Ohio State. This is D’Emilio’s fifth straight year qualifying for the NCAA Championships. He previously earned All-American status by finishing 8th in 2023 in the 141 lbs. weight class. D’Emilio finished 5th at the Big Ten Championships. He opened up the NCAA Championships with two very convincing wins to reach the final eight and secure a guranteed All-American finish. He then had another convincing win to reach the last four. He was then defeated in the semifinals and third place match to secure a 4th place overall finish.
Joey Blaze became the first ever Wood County native to achieve All-American status at the NCAA Wrestling Championships. He is won of four local athletes to ever finish 2nd place (JD Bergman, Kevin Randleman, Greg Wojciehowski). Dylan D’Emilio becomes the 4th ever Ottawa County native (JD Bergman, Ian Miller, Mark Bleknap) to earn All-American status and the 12th Northwest Ohio to ever earn multiple wrestling All-American statuses (Airron Richardson, Charlie Jones, Dustin Fox, Greg Wojciehowski, Hunter Steiber, Logan Steiber, Ian Miller, JD Bergman, Kevin Randleman, Mark Belknap, Mark Coleman).