The Breakdown - Episode 8 - Schoolboy Freestyle
Minnesota Red - the top overall seed - took care of business in their final vs. California. New Jersey was 3rd with a close 39-38 win over Iowa. Ohio Scarlet, Oklahoma Red, Illinois, and Wisconsin rounded out the top 8.
Florida - who just missed out on a trip to the All American pool - battled hard through day 2. They won close matches vs. Missouri Blue, Minnesota Blue before losing to eventual Bronze Champ Pennsylvania Blue. They finished the tournament with a 45-34 win over Indiana Gold.
Georgia bounced back from a good 1st day of Freestyle to get 3 wins and take the top spot on the Red Pool. They beat a good Tennessee squad 45-36, Nebraska 54-26, Kansas Red 52-26, and New York 50-32.
Tennessee dropped their opening match of the pool to Georgia, but rebounded with a win over Nebraska and a loss to Kansas Red. It looks as if they didn’t wrestle PA Red for 5th (I don’t know why).
Alabama dropped to Yellow pool after a tough day one and finished the tournament with 3 losses and a win over Colorado Blue to finish 4th in the pool.
There were more than 5 wrestlers “on the rise” - that had a superb freestyle tournament. These are the 5 I noticed … the others that made waves are listed below:
71 - Noah Watkins (Tennessee) - 6-1 and a buzzsaw at 71 - had 4 tech falls and a fall to go along with a forfeit. Only loss came to a very tough Landon Thoennes of Minnesota.
87 - Lincoln Sledzianowski (Florida) - 9-0 with one of the most beautiful 5-point throws you will see. Lincoln was outstanding - only match I wish we could have seen at 87 was him vs. Munaretto of Illinois.
114 - Bradley Williams (Alabama) - 7-0 - unbeaten at 114 with big wins over Kohler of Utah and Bedford of Texas. Because Alabama lost several of their duals we didn’t get to see Williams vs. Isaiah Jones or Daniel Heiser … but they should cross paths at Kids Nationals.
125 - Micah Wittenberg (Florida) - 9-0 with some big wins including a 13-4 decision of Tyler of Virginia and a 13-2 tech of Gillette of Minnesota.
149 - Cy Fowler (Tennessee) - 7-0 with 2 forfeits, 3 tech falls (without giving up a point) and 2 quick falls.
Others:
71 - Everett Stephens (Florida) - 7-2 with 2 forfeits … tough loss to Eli Gabrielson on criteria, but got a good win over Collins of Minnesota (also on critera)
77 - Jose Cordero (Tennessee) - 5-0 with 2 forfeits … still in his 3 wins he looked very good.
87 - Roman Belardo (Georgia) - 7-2 with some good wins and competitive in his loss to Deputy of Pennsylvania.
97 - Nathaniel Boger (Tennessee) - 5-2 with 5 techs and a tough loss to Mead of Minnesota (10-8).
102 - Chase Walker (Tennessee) - 4-1 with some very good wins - split time with Little
102 - Zachary Little (Tennessee) - 3-1 with so good wins splitting time with Walker
102 - Jonathan Moder (Florida) - 5-4 but wrestled hard for the team - in two of his losses he scored and in a freestyle dual that is important. Had a nice win over Kaleb Mead of Minnesota as well.
106/110 - Kiowa Vines (Alabama) - 4-1 splitting time between 106 and 110. Only loss coming to Austin Ellis of Utah.
106/110 - Zac Bosken (Tennessee) - 4-2 with dominant wins and close losses (7-4 to Medlin and 7-5 to Katherman).
110 - Trae Peeler (Alabama) - 4-1 at 110 with a very good win over Carter Eisenmann of Nebraska.
119 - Ronan An - Georgia - 5-3 with a tough loss to Giancola of Kansas 11-9
125/130 - David Jewell (Georgia) - 6-1 with some very good wins sharing time with Paul Lanier at the two weights.
130/136 - Connor Stephens (Georgia) - 7-2 after splitting time at both 130 and 136. Was unbeaten at 136 - taking 2 losses at 130 to Shane Wagner of PA and Kaden Wallace of OK.
136 - Kalias Nazario (Florida) - 3-0 splitting time with Gavin Isaacs at 136.
149/165 - Bryan Picallo (Florida) - 7-2 and bumped up to 165 for the team and got a fall vs. Maryland. Took two losses and one was a barnburner 15-13 decision to Duitsman of Minnesota.
165/187 - Kriecg Roe (Georgia) - 7-1 after splitting time between 165 and 187 … which is a tough split - but came up big for Georgia vs. New York up at 187 in getting the fall over Sackett.
187/250 - Alexander Smith (Florida) - 8-1 splitting time between 187 and 250.
250 - Sebastian Garcia (Georgia) - finished up 2 days of freestyle 7-2 (5-2 with 2 forfeits).