WIESBADEN, Germany – The Ramstein boys wrestling program doesn’t fight the way others view them.

The Royals are the “evil empire.” In fact, they’re the ones who call themselves that.

After the end results of the 2025 DODEA European wrestling on Saturday afternoon at the Wiesbaden Sports and Fitness Center on Clay Kaserne, Ramstein’s earned that moniker. The Royals won their third straight European team title with 262 points, more than 100 points ahead of their nearest competitor, Stuttgart, at 158.5.

Kaiserslautern finished third with 120 points.

Ramstein isn’t the only program in the midst of a dynasty. The Naples boys clinched their third-straight Division II title with 159 points. Vicenza came in second with 107.5.

In Division III, Alconbury usurped AFNORTH for the team championship with 109 points. Spangdahlem took second with 59.5 points and Ankara, in its second season back as a program, totaled 55 points for third.

Four Royals – Nate Greene at 120 pounds, Camren Carlson at 132, Kydan Echard at 165 and Chris Farrington at 190 – stood atop the podium in their respective weight classes.

No other school had more than two.

“We’re on top of everybody’s list, we’re the biggest threat,” Echard said. “We use that pressure, and we try to capitalize on it, knowing that we’re the team to beat. So, we’re going to act like the team to beat.”

Coach Thomas Wright credited the program’s culture as a reason for its success.

He said everybody works toward improving in time for Euros. It doesn’t matter the grades, as it stretches from a freshman like Greene to a senior like Echard.

“When you have 50, 60, 70 kids working in a room, you develop the younger kids,” Wright said. “The older kids are great leaders, they lift up everybody and they make sure the program continues.”

Wright and Farrington also credited the assistant coaches. All but one was new this year, but Farrington especially said they helped make him a better wrestler.

“As long as we still have this roster of coaches, no matter what, we’re going to keep growing,” he said.

106

It may be Reilly Tobias’ first year wrestling in DODEA, but he wasted no time in fulfilling his dream of winning a European title with a 15-0 technical fall over Alconbury’s Daniel Scavola.

The Kaiserslautern freshman scored his first takedown within the first 10 seconds and nearly pinned the Dragon sophomore three times in the opening period.

It allowed Tobias (20-1) to build up such a lead that all he needed was a reversal in the opening seconds of the second frame to post the win.

“I was extremely motivated,” Tobias said. “I’ve beaten him twice – I’ve pinned him once, won by points once. It’s all in the mind games.”

113

Edison Vega-Figueroa had hoped to win three titles this weekend.

After Saturday, the sophomore had clinched two of them, starting with a pin of Vicenza’s Kyler Mukai at the 1-minute, 10-second mark in the 113 final.

Two of them were within his power. The last is out of his hands.

“I’m going for a three-peat,” Vega-Figueroa said. “Alconbury’s going to win a team title, and the Eagles are going to win the Super Bowl.”

Vega-Figueroa made quick work of Mukai in a battle of undefeateds.

Having not faced the Cougar before, the Dragon said he didn’t know what to expect. But when he got onto the mat, Mukai reminded him of Ramstein’s Cole Santos, whom Vega-Figueroa beat in the semifinals.

That gave him an idea of what to do.

“When I saw him, I thought of him as the Ramstein kid,” Vega Figueroa said. “He tried to use his muscles against me. I knew he was going to push it, so I just pushed back in and then I got him.”

120

Greene had just one loss this season, but it wasn’t in his own weight class.

When the Royals traveled to Aviano on Jan. 18, he wanted to eat Italian pasta to his heart’s content. To do that, he had to wrestle up a weight class.

Back at his normal weight, though, he proved untouchable. He finished the season with a perfect record at 120 and the perfect ending, a 15-5 major decision over Vilseck’s Sean-Carlos Fuentes, who had just one loss heading into the final.

Heading into the third period, Greene held a four-point advantage. Starting in the down position, the Ramstein freshman exploded over the final 2 minutes, picking up nine points.

“I put in a lot of work for it,” Greene said. “The outcome came to (winning a title).”

126

Mitchell Horrigan’s second European title was supposed to be about adding another jewel to his crown.

But instead of celebrating his 14-9 victory, the Vicenza senior worried more about his final opponent and teammate, Liam Dokos. The freshman landed on his head with 16 seconds left in the match.

“It’s not the way I wanted to win,” Horrigan said. “It sucks that throwing’s a part of the game, but he was winning most of that match until I started throwing. Especially as teammates, we don’t want to see each other hurt.”

Dokos gave Horrigan all he could handle and more.

In fact, the younger Cougar led for most of the match until Horrigan produced a takedown with 1:40 remaining in the match and four near-fall points flipped the script.

After Dokos tied up the match seconds later, Horrigan got a reversal with 55 seconds left to retake the lead and never look back.

The senior mentor praised his freshman protégé for his effort.

“The DODEA way is that there’s always a new big bad person to show up,” Horrigan said. “Liam will be one of those big, bad people.”

132

Carlson spent the whole season as an underdog.

Despite finishing fifth at Euros last winter, the junior struggled this season with a record below .500 and needed a wild-card spot to compete in Wiesbaden.

He won’t be overlooked anymore. Carlson made a deep run this weekend and capped it off with a 10-9 victory over Spangdahlem’s Troy Truscott in the final bout.

Carlson recovered from a five-point deficit in the middle of the second period, but he scored four quick points via an escape and a takedown over a 13-second span to make it 6-5.

In the third, after Truscott pushed the lead out to three with a reversal, the Royal junior produced another flurry over the final 59 seconds to score five points.

With 11 seconds left, he nursed a one-point advantage, holding off a late Truscott challenge to seal the win.

“This whole tournament, I’ve been coming back,” Carlson said. “Before this tournament, I had more losses than wins, and I just kept telling myself one more.”

138

Munro Davis’ reputation proceeded him everywhere he went in Europe.

Davis already had two championships under his belt heading into his senior year, and he anticipated everybody trying to stop him from getting a third.

Saturday, he proved himself inevitable. Davis defeated Stuttgart’s Rucell Phillip with a technical fall 17-2 at the buzzer of the second period.

“Everyone at the tournaments, they all know who you are,” Davis said. “Hoping to get the three-peat, I finally got it.”

Davis really turned it on in the second frame, escaping from the down position and getting a takedown in the opening 20 seconds.

The Warrior senior really poured it on with another takedown and a near fall in the final 33 seconds.

“It was nice that we’re the same size,” Davis said of Phillip. “I struggle with a lot of taller kids, but he’s a quick wrestler. He’s really good.”

144

Lucas Landrum moved to Vilseck from Tennessee this year and brought plenty of postseason experience with him. That included qualifying for the Tennessee high school tournament.

He put that to good use. The junior finished the year with a perfect 13-0 record after getting the technical fall over Ramstein’s Liam Horne with 1:40 left in the third period, 21-5.

Landrum highlighted his dominance at 144 on Saturday, jumping out to a 10-2 advantage in the first minute and never looking back.

He said he didn’t let being the favorite heading into Euros get to him.

“It adds expectations, but luckily, I stuck to my training and with all that skill, I was able to take the win,” Landrum said.

150

Jayden Freeman made it back-to-back crowns for the Falcons, defeating Vicenza’s Paul Sturtevant 8-1.

The Vilseck senior jumped out to a 7-0 lead over the first 1:30 before cruising the rest of the way.

Falling in the semifinal round his sophomore and junior campaigns motivated Freeman to go after a perfect record.

His win Saturday moved him to 22-0.

“My goal has always been an undefeated season,” Freeman said. “Undefeated means I win Euros. Having emphasized this throughout the whole offseason, every time I’ve practiced, every time I’ve been to a German tournament, I was training for this.”

157

Kai Lewis didn’t need much time to realize that he was better than most of his opponents on the mats in DODEA.

The junior moved to Stuttgart from Virginia just before the winter break and couldn’t be touched at 157. In Saturday’s final, Lewis faced defending European champion Isaac Martinez and defeated him with a pin at 3:39.

The match wasn’t close after the first period, as Lewis produced a takedown and a near-fall that gave him a seven-point lead. The 2025 European wrestling tournament MVP never looked back.

“After the first tournament, it didn’t really compare to nothing in the States,” Lewis said. “I came here pretty confident., but not so confident that it turned out cocky.”

165

Echard continued his magical 13-month stretch with his third European title across two sports.

Following a wrestling title last year and a football title in the fall, the Ramstein senior took care of Wiesbaden’s Wyatt Massey with a pin at 1:39.

It was Echard’s seventh pin in as many matches at the European tournament. His average fall time was 60.5 seconds.

Those numbers earned him the title of pin champion.

“I stuck to my game plan,” Echard said. “I watched film. I executed my moves pretty to the degree that I was fine with. I’m just happy with my performance overall.”

175

Jonathan King wasn’t happy with the way his 2023-2024 campaign ended.

After a great regular season, he failed to place at the European championships. That drove him to work over the offseason to avoid that result.

Not only did he get himself on the podium this weekend, but he also put himself at the top. The sophomore beat the previously undefeated Andrew Morrow of Stuttgart with a 12-6 decision.

In the first 3 minutes of the match, King stretched his lead out to 9-2 and kept Morrow at arm’s length the rest of the way.

“It’s all about my mentality,” King said. “Last year, I let the nerves creep in. I didn’t do what I was able to do. This year, I just kept myself calm and worked the way I knew.”

190

Farrington admitted he feared going against Lakenheath’s Jaden DuBois.

The junior had lost multiple times against the Lancer, including a technical fall and getting blanked.

But Farrington credited his coaches for helping him get that hump, resulting in a 15-2 major decision over the senior.

Farrington posted all his points over the final 2:11 of the match.

“I was scared the entire season to wrestle against him, and that really hurt my performance against other people as well,” Farrington said. “So, (the coaches) taught me the right way and fixed my mentality, something clicked in me and I was a lot more confident in my shots, sprawls, takedowns, pins – all of that.”

215

Lakenheath’s Adrian Hill completed an unblemished rookie season when he pinned Hohenfels’ Nehemiah Baleto at the 2:50 mark.

It took the junior, who hadn’t wrestled before moving to England, three takedowns before he finally got the Tiger senior onto his back for the win.

The victory put Hill at 24-0 on the season.

“It’s been nothing but a blessing, man,” Hill said of winning a European crown. “I cannot even express my words how much it means to me.”

285

Daniel Garin looked up to former teammate John Ruland, who won a European title in the heavyweight division in 2023.

Garin wanted to repeat the feat, which he did with a 7-3 decision over Naples’ Declan Newsome to close out the tournament.

Garin got a wild reaction from the home crowd at the final whistle. He controlled most of the third period after a reversal with 1:43 remaining gave him cushion over the Wildcat.

“I’m just glad to be here, to follow in the footsteps of big John, trying to lengthen that legacy that he created for us,” Garin said. “It’s amazing.”

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