The Breakdown - Episode 9 - Junior Duals Greco
Georgia finishes 4th in Greco Duals
Georgia is a really good example of how hard it is to make the All American pool at Junior Duals. How it takes a team to win the close duals … Georgia might have had several undefeated wrestlers if they had dropped to another pool (that’s not a knock on them or the other pools - it is simply a reality). The All American Pool is a grind and it was a battle to get there in the first place. They had 2 fierce battles in Pool A - a 36-33 win over Indiana Gold and a 34-33 win over Iowa before losing to Illinois 59-10. A loss to either Indiana or Iowa could have put them out of the top 6, but the team persevered.
The Indiana match wasn’t actually as close as the final score would lead you to believe - Georgia forfeited the final 2 weights (10 points) after securing the win. Still that wouldn’t have been possible without several hard fought wins earlier (Austin Thiel over Braxton Vest 5-4 at 132 comes to mind). Iowa was a different story - Georgia had to battle until the final match (and get a team point from Dominic DiTomasso in a 22-10 loss to Chad Bellis at 120 to secure the win). Illinois easily handled Georgia 59-10 in the pool A final - and would go on to win the title fairly easily.
Georgia started to Gold/Silver (All American Pool) with a loss to Oklahoma Blue, but rebounded with a 34-31 win over Wisconsin and a 33-32 win over California before losing to Illinois (again) and Minnesota Blue. Fourth overall in some outstanding duals and terrific individual matches. You can expect many of these kids to battle again in Fargo - this time with an individual stopsign on the line.
Florida and Tennessee just miss on top 6
Tennessee shared Pool A with Georgia, Iowa, Illinois and others. Florida was in Pool C with Oklahoma Blue, California, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas A, and Alabama.
Tennessee wrestled Iowa tough in their opening match - losing 37-24. The boys from the Volunteer state bounced back with wins over Indiana 46-15 and Minnesota Red 39-29 to make the Pool A consi finals where they lost to Iowa (again 37-24). Tennessee lost their opening match in the Bronze/Copper Pool to Florida 39-25 and then beat Michigan Blue and Missouri before losing to Iowa (for the 3rd time) and Colorado. Tennessee finished 4th and was in every dual until the end.
Florida finished 3rd in Pool C - downing Texas A 41-24 before losing to top seed Oklahoma Blue 43-21. Wins over Alabama and Missouri gave them a shot at making the All American pool … but a 40-26 loss to California for true second put them into the Bronze/Copper Pool. Florida finished 3rd in the Bronze pool with wins over Tennessee and Missouri and losses to Colorado, Michigan Blue, and Iowa.
Alabama finishes 5th in the Red Pool
Alabama lost their opening match to California before getting a bye to a match with Florida (also a loss). Alabama finished Pool C with a loss to Pennsylvania … the Red pool didn’t offer much relief as Team Alabama took losses to Kansas, Minnesota Red, Oklahoma Red, and Pennsylvania (again) before getting their only dual win of the tournament over Texas B.
The team overall might have struggled, but Alabama was competitive in every dual and had some outstanding individual performances.
Five on the Rise
The Greco portion of the Junior Duals were filled with some outstanding individual performances. We’ve identified 5 below that really stood out (but could have increased that to ten without a problem … as a result - the others to watch section below highlights some of those that you should definitely keep an eye on heading into Fargo).
Another thing to keep in mind … Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee were all close (or in Georgia’s case) in the top pool - meaning that there were no easy matches. If you looked at some of the breakdowns from Cadets or Schoolboys you might have seen many wrestlers going undefeated. That’s just not the reality (for the most part) in Junior duals.
138 - David Panone (Georgia) - 5-1 with three really good wins over Moore of Illinois, Rodriguez of California and Miess of Wisconsin. Lost to Stevie Barnes of Iowa.
160 - Will Miller (Alabama) - simply outstanding - finishing 7-0 at 160. 5 tech falls, a fall and a 10-6 decision of Collin McCorkle of Pennsylvania. Didn’t get to see Kootnz, Wiley, or Rogge, but was great in the matchups he did get.
170 - Aidan Bowers (Tennessee) - Bowers was simply outstanding - 8-0 (with 8 tech falls). He didn’t look challenged in any match that I watched.
195 - Ryan Cody (Florida) - Cody was dominant in his 8 wins (7 techs and a fall) - in fact in each tech fall win he didn’t give up a point. Lost a close one to Voelker of Iowa 8-6 and lost to Kodiak Stephens of California.
220 - Ashton Davis (Tennessee) - 8-1 and dominated in all but one match. Only loss came to Kalob Runyan of Iowa by fall (he beat Runyan twice before 10-4 and 10-0. Davis has to be amongst the top contenders in Fargo at 220.
Others to watch:
106 - Tyler Washburn (Florida) - 6-4 at 106 with losses to Forbes and Ray Ray Harris. Looked great in his 6 wins - has to think he should have won the match vs. Jackson Blum of Michigan (lost 7-6).
113 - Christian Guzman (Florida) - 7-3 but with 2 losses that could have gone his way - a 9-9 loss on criteria to Hendrikson of Texas and a 12-11 loss to Stokes of Oklahoma. Had a nice fall of Nolan Wertanen of Michigan.
120/126 - Yanni Vines (Alabama) - 6-2 with one of those losses coming to Anthony Ferraro of Pennsylvania up at 126. Won some tight matches at 120 that helped Alabama stay in the duals. Only match that I’m sure Yanni would want back is the 11-1 loss to Grigor Cholakyan of California … Vines had beaten Grigor earlier this year in folkstyle.
120 - Bentley Ellison (Tennessee) - 6-2 and split matches with Garret Rinken of Iowa. Ellison’s only other loss came to Chad Bellis of Iowa (an 11-1 tech fall). Some really good wrestling from Bentley in Greco.
126 - Hayden Whidden (Florida) - 7-3 with good wins over Lozado, Dindl, and Caviness. Whidden can make the podium in Fargo, but he will need to figure out how to beat those on that next tier (Porter of Iowa and Moore of Missouri).
132 - Sebastian Melguizo (Florida) - 7-3 with tough losses to Jordan Cullors of Oklahoma and Joseph Airola of Colorado. Had an excellent 7-5 win over Keyveon Roller of Tennessee.
132 - Keyveon Roller (Tennessee) - 6-2 with two tough losses (to Melguizo 7-5 and to Walker Bents of Minnesota 5-3). Had a very good win over Kade Willis of Missouri.
138/145 - Dayne Dalrymple (Tennessee) - 5-4 with 2 losses to a very good Stevie Barnes of Iowa as well as a 1-1 criteria loss to Eli Ashcroft of Missouri. Go watch Dalrymple vs Gust of Minnesota - a 15-8 win but it was fun to watch.
145 - Michael Kilic (Georgia) - 5-1 - two outstanding matches to watch if you area fan … a 9-6 win over Nicco Ruiz of California and the 4-1 loss to Tommy Curran of Illinois.
182 - Gervacio Gonzalez (Tennessee) - 7-2. 1-2 vs. Ahrendsen of Iowa. Really good wins over Mariacher of Indiana and Nicolosi of Florida.
182/195 - Warren Hoyt (Alabama) - went 5-3 overall - 5-2 at 182 with one of his losses coming up at 195 vs. Meissner of Minnesota. Split matches with Richner of Pennsylvania and had a nice tech fall of Nicolosi of Florida.
182/195 - Matthew Singleton (Georgia) - 4-2 with a tough 4-3 loss to Deanthony Parker of Illinois. Singelton’s other loss came up at 195 to Stephens of California. Nice win over Ahrendsen of Iowa.
220 - Tristan Middlebrook (Florida) - 7-3 with some good wins (Kitchignham of Oklahoma to name one). Still needs to get wins over the likes of Runyon, Ferris, and Ashton Davis if he is going to make a run for the podium in Fargo.
285 - Chase Horne (Georgia) - 3-0 and split time with Valle at 285. Didn’t give up a point in his 3 wins … including wins over Fleshman and Beese. Would like to have seen Horne vs. Boersma of Illinois (but I’m sure that’s coming in July).