The Breakdown - Episode 11 - Junior Boys Freestyle
Interested in watching some high quality wrestling? Go back and watch the Junior Freestyle Duals … the SE teams, but in reality any of the teams competing. There were some great matches, some outstanding throws, and the many duals came down to the last match.
Iowa downed Oklahoma Red 40-23 to claim the overall title - their first in 16 years. Minnesota Blue downed Illinois 37-27 for 3rd. Wisconsin, Ohio Red, California, and New Jersey rounded out the top 8.
Alabama and Tennessee battle with some of the best in Pool A
Both Alabama and Tennessee lost their first round matches in Pool A - Alabama to #2 seed Colorado 47-25 and Tennessee in a heartbreaker 36-34 to Michigan Blue. Tennessee rebounded with wins over Nebraska and Colorado before losing to Michigan Blue again for 3rd. Alabama came back from that opening round loss to down Texas B 38-29 before losing to Michigan Blue and Colorado (again) to finish their action in Pool A.
Tennessee moved onto the Bronze/Copper Pool for Day 2 and Alabama moved into the Red/Blue Pool. Tennessee dropped their opening match to Georgia Blue 51-12, beat Minnesota Red 35-33 and then lost to Kansas and North Dakota Blue to finish 5th in the Bronze Pool. Bentley Ellison’s 10-2 win at the end of the Minnesota Red match sealed the win for Tennessee.
Alabama lost their opening match in the Red/Blue pool to Florida 43-21 and then dropped a tough one to Texas A 34-32 in a dual where their 2 forfeits really hurt them. Alabama rebounded with a win over George Red 41-22 before dropping a close one to Indiana 32-31 to finish the tournament.
Georgia Blue just misses the All American Pool; Georgia Red battles into the Red/Blue Pool
Georgia Blue won their opening match vs. North Dakota Red before losing the pool B semifinal to New Jersey 41-25 (the match that would keep them from making the All American Pool and their only loss in Freestyle). Georgia Blue rebounded by downing California Blue and Oklahoma Blue to finish Pool B. Georgia Blue finished up their tournament with wins over Tennessee, Kansas, Minnesota Red, and Oklahoma Blue to take 9th.
Georgia Red lost a close one to North Dakota Blue 38-30 before downing South Carolina. They finished their action in Pool D with losses to Kansas and Pennsylvania. Georgia Red lost to Texas A, Florida, and Alabama before downing California Blue to take 7th in the Red/Blue Pool. Georgia Red was very competitive despite giving up 4 forfeits.
Florida and South Carolina
Florida finished 5th in Pool B after going 2-2 with a bye in the opening round. They lost to Illinois 56-9 in the semis and lost to Oklahoma Blue 39-30 in the consi semis before getting on board with a dual win for 5th over California Blue. Florida then turned it on for day 2 - going unbeaten to claim the top spot in the Red/Blue Pool. They downed Alabama, Georgia Red, Texas A, and finally Colorado in a 36-31 match that came down to an 11-9 win by Hayden Whidden at 126 and a fall by Sebastian Melguizo at 132.
South Carolina brought 11 to Tulsa - and in this field that was going to be a real challenge (in getting dual wins). They went 0-2 in Pool D, but were significantly more competitive in the Green/Yellow Pool on Day 2. Still forfeiting 5 is always going to put a team behind … and South Carolina could never find a way to recover those 25 points. They finished the tournament losing to Texas B, Nebraska, Arkansas, and North Dakota Red.
Team Florida
Five on the Rise
The Freestyle portion of the Junior Duals were filled with some outstanding individual performances. We’ve identified 5 below that really stood out plus an “others to watch” section that highlights some of those that you should definitely keep an eye on heading into Fargo
Another thing to keep in mind … going unbeaten is always the best measure of how well someone wrestled. It is important to note that some below (with losses) had tougher matches than others that might have finished with better records.
120 - Cole Hunt (Georgia) - 8-0 with 2 close wins over Potts of Oklahoma (8-7) and Collins of New Jersey (13-10) plus 6 tech falls.
160 - Gunner Filipowicz (Georgia) - 8-0 (6-0 with 2 forfeits). 6 tech falls with very good wins over Braden Anderson of Oklahoma, Kodiak Cannedy of Tennessee, and others.
160 - Will Miller (Alabama) - few walked away from the four days of wrestling with an unblemished record (in both Greco and Freestyle), but Miller was one of them. He was 8-0 with 5 tech falls and 3 falls. App State got a good one … and several SE programs will be sorry they didn’t pursue Miller more diligently.
170 - Gabe Arnold (Georgia) - 8-0 (7-0 with a forfeit). Really nice win over Michael Dellagatta of New Jersey 8-4.
220 - Noah Pettigrew (Georgia) - 8-0 (6-0 with 2 forfeits) - very good win over Ashton Davis of Tennessee (10-0 tech fall) - had 5 tech falls and a fall.
Others to watch:
120 - Yanni Vines (Alabama) - 6-2 with good wins over Milani of Michigan and Ditomasso of Georgia. Vines is on the cusp of pushing for a spot on the podium in Fargo, but will need to find a way to beat the likes of Strickenberger and Black (who he lost to this past week).
120 - Dominic Ditomasso (Georgia) - 5-3 with a fantastic win over Cadet Greco Fargo Champ Christian Tanefeu of North Dakota.
126 - Hayden Whidden (Florida) - 6-1 with 2 forfeits. Only loss to Baysinger of Illinois. Really good win over Angelo Lozado of Colorado - who was a Cadet All American 2 years ago.
126 - Amantee Mills (Georgia) - 5-3 with a forfeit win. Split matches with Oklahoma’s Rhett Peak and lost a close match to Totten of New Jersey 6-5. Really good win over Parker Janssen of Minnesota.
132 - Sebastian Melguizo (Florida) - 5-2 … good wins and two tough losses.
138/145 - Yannis Charles (South Carolina) - 4-2 splitting time between 138 and 145. Took one of his 2 losses at 145 vs. Connor Powell of Georgia. Had a wild 20-17 win over Brexton Beach of Arkansas.
138/145 - Brayden Ivy (Tennessee) - Unbeaten at 138 (6-0) - only loss came in bumping up to face Kilic of Georgia.
145 - Michael Kilic (Georgia) - 7-1 with a good 6-6 criteria win over 2019 Cadet All American Kyle Boeke and a tough 6-5 loss to Whalen of New Jersey.
145 - James Latona (Alabama) - 4-2 and split time with Logan Reaves at 145. Some good wins, but it was his loss to Ivan Morris that was the most telling - Morris was a Fargo All American 2 years ago as a Cadet. He lost 21-11 in a match that was all over the place (was 4-4 at the break). On his feet … Latona dominated, but couldn’t allow Morris on top.
145/152 - Luke Belcher (Tennessee) - Unbeaten at 145 (6-0) … only loss came to Jake Piccirilli of Georgia at 152.
152 - Jake Piccirilli (Georgia) - 6-2 with a pair of wins over Daegab Griffin of Oklahoma. Lost a close 6-5 decision to Elmore of Kansas.
160 - Zyan Hall (Georgia) - 6-1 (5-1 with a forfeit). Only loss came to Alabama’s Will Miller. Beat Couto of Florida as well Renner of North Dakota.
160/170 - Kodiak Cannedy (Tennessee) - 6-1 splitting time between 160/170 - only loss coming to Filipowicz of Georgia. Won a wild 21-18 decision over Kaden Renner of North Dakota.
182 - Warren Hoyt (Alabama) - 7-1 and wrestled outstanding. Gave up a quick fall to Robinson of Texas, but otherwise wrestled extremely well.
182 - Matthew Singleton (Georgia) - 7-1 and probably still a bit upset with his loss to Soldano of New Jersey (they got in a 50/50 situation in which Soldano came out on top and got the fall). Others Singleton ran through the 182’s - only giving up points to Cadet All American Jared Simma of Kansas in a 12-2 tech fall win.
182 - Gervacio Gonzalez (Tennessee) - only loss came to 2019 Cadet All American Jared Simma of Kansas.
195 - Ryan Cody (Florida) - 6-1 with a loss to Sheeren of Texas. Good win over Chesbro of Oklahoma and Adams of Georgia.
195 - Hunter Adams (Georgia) - 7-1 with only loss coming to Ryan Cody of Florida. Nice win over Sheeren of Texas 10-8
195 - Thomas Godbee (Georgia) - wrestled extremely well with his only loss coming to Ayzerov of New Jersey.
220 - Tristan Middlebrook (Florida) - 5-2 with a win over Webster of Georgia. Lost to Culp of Illinois and Newlin of Oklahoma.
220/285 - Logan Webster (Georgia) - 7-1 (5-1 with 2 forfeits). Stepped up and got 2 wins at 285 for Georgia Red. Only loss came to Tristan Middlebrook of Florida.
220 - Ashton Davis (Tennessee) - 6-2 with a loss to Pettigrew of Georgia and Caiden Casella (Kansas). Dominated in his 6 wins.
285 - Chase Horne (Georgia) - unbeaten and easily handled the competition … 5 tech falls (only giving up a point to McDaniel of Tennessee) plus a fall and a 9-0 decision of Novak of Minnesota.
285 - Abe Preston (Alabama) - Unbeaten at 8-0 (with 4 forfeits) Won 3 close matches - 9-8 over Vergara of Florida, 7-5 over Boggan of Michigan, and 8-4 over Valle of Georgia.