The Breakdown - Episode 10 - Junior Girls
Florida Girls Earn All American
The Florida girls stepped up and claimed an All American finish at the Junior Duals in Tulsa, Oklahoma this past week. Florida won a hard fought 36-27 dual vs. Colorado to make the finals in Pool A - losing to eventual overall Champ California 52-12.
Florida then jumped into the deep end with some outstanding teams in the Gold/Silver (All American pool). They lost a close one to Pennsylvania Blue 35-32 as well as Texas Black 36-29 before losing again to California. Florida finished with losses to Missouri 34-24 and Illinois 35-32 to finish 6th.
Florida was in every dual (except their losses to California) and could have finished higher than 6th … still it was a very good effort with some outstanding individual performances.
South Carolina and Georgia
Both South Carolina and Georgia brought significantly fewer than a full squad and that showed in the overall duals. South Carolina finished 3-4 despite forfeiting 5 of the 14 weights … they benefited from some other squads missing a few as well, but it was mainly because the 9 they brought all came to compete. Two finished 8-0 (Zao Estrada and Emma Burk) and three others finished 7-1. We will get to individual accomplishments below, but that is how South Carolina was able to stay competitive.
Georgia finished 0-4 while forfeiting 3 weight classes. They fought hard vs. Texas White (33-23 loss), Texas Blue (28-23), and Arkansas (39-29) and were only really overwhelmed as a team vs. Missouri (42-26). Georgia also had some outstanding individual performances … May Prade, Genevieve An, and Dianna Holmes each were unbeaten.
Five on the Rise
Several outstanding individual accomplishments … tough to pick just 5 to highlight. These girls look ready to make a run in Fargo. Because it was so difficult to narrow to 5 - I’ve included an others to watch section below that includes a few others that wrestled well and could make waves in Fargo in July.
Also it should be noted … the path for the Florida girls was more difficult (because the team made the All American pool) - so not all records are “equal”, but everyone below wrestled well in their matches. Also it was fairly clear that if South Carolina hadn’t had to give up 5 forfeits they would have been hard for anyone to beat.
112 - Hannah Hall (Florida) - Hannah wrestled extremely well finishing 6-1 and her only loss coming to Avery Ashley of Texas Black. Hall should be in the hunt for a spot on the podium in Fargo.
117 - Zao Estrada (South Carolina) - Few wrestlers were as dominant this weekend as Estrada. She had 4 tech falls and 3 falls. We didn’t get to see Estrada vs. Taylinn Long or Diaz, but those matches should happen in another month.
117/122 - Juliana Diaz (Florida) - Diaz was 6-1 with her only loss coming to Taylin Long of Illinois. She looked good in bumping up to 122 to take out Alexis Segura of Colorado.
132/138 - May Prado (Georgia) - 4-0 with 3 tech falls and a 31 second fall. Did what was necessary - win the matches in front of you. Would like to have seen her matchup with Sarah Savidge, Mayson Gray, and others, but wrestled well in the matches she had.
152 - Emma Burk (South Carolina) - Unbeaten at 8-0 with 4 falls, 3 tech falls, and a forfeit. Only match that was close was a 15-5 tech fall of Shean Miller of Minnesota.
Others to watch:
100/106 - Kealonie Vega (Florida) - split time with Clare Booe at 100/106 and finished the tournament 5-2 with losses to Eliana Martinez of Texas Black and Madison Avila of California. Kealonie had a nice hard fought win over Jayleah Pletz of Pennsylvania 7-6.
100/106 - Clare Booe (Florida) - split time at 100/106 with Vega. Finished 3-4, but was an important part of Florida making the All American pool.
112 - Dianna Holmes (Georgia) - 4-0 with 3 falls and a 10-0 tech fall. Same as Prado - won every match she had and that is all she could control. It will be interesting to see how that translates into how well she does in Fargo in July.
122 - Isabella Hoffman (South Carolina) - Hoffman finished 5-3 and split matches with Patron Plummer of Pennsylvania (getting a 20-19 decision and losing by fall). She ran into a very tough Ngao Shoua Whitethorn of Minnesota, but otherwise was in her match vs. Herrick (losing 9-6) before getting pinned.
127 - Genevieve An (Georgia) - 4-0 (with 2 forfeits). Two falls and missed opportunity to see the top 127’s that included Savannah Cosme of Colorado and Alex Janiak of Illinois. Still nice to get W’s vs. the competition you did get a chance to wrestle.
132 - April Kelly (South Carolina) - 7-1 and dominant in her wins. Competitive in her lone loss to Madyson Gray of Kansas (19-8 tech fall). Still if she wants to claim a stopsign in Fargo … she will have to figure out how to beat the likes of Gray (Gray was unbeaten at 9-0 and only gave up points to Kelly).
138 - Carolina Gilstrap (South Carolina) - 5-3 in a very competitive 138 weight class. Nice win over Yatcilla of PA 10-8 (also had a fall of Yatcilla). Got an opportunity to see what the top of the 138 weight class looks like in a loss to Marissa Porsch of Kansas.
144 - Caitlyn Davis (South Carolina) - 7-1 with her only loss coming to Maddie Kubicki of Missouri. Won a wild 14-11 decision over Allyssa Johnson of North Dakota.
180 - Dasia Yearby (South Carolina) - 7-1 with her only loss coming to Jaycee Foeller of Missouri. Had 4 forfeits, but was dominant in her other 3 matches.
180/200 - Sierra Chavez (Florida) - 5-2 with a match at 200 vs. Missouri (where she got the fall). Sierra was in every match - losing to Brittyn Corbishley of Texas 10-4 and split decisions with Maliya Castillo of California.
225 - Andrea Smith (Florida) - 3-1 and split time at 225 with Kiara Brin. Smith’s only loss came to Hannah Francis of Texas Black. She had falls over DeHerrera, Benjamin, and Sepeda.