Dasia Yearby makes the Junior Finals

The strength of South Carolina in Fargo was once again with their women … the Junior Women put 3 on the podium and finished 14th overall. The 16U Women had one All American, Annalise Maralit, and took 30th. No other South Carolinians made the podium … several wrestled well, but the brackets are deep and competitive. As I said in the previews … there are many ways to measure success. Bringing home hardware is certainly one measure (and to be fair it is an important measure), but growth is an important measure along the way (and for South Carolina - especially on the mens side that is important). Jayden Morris finished 4-2, Cason Howle was 3-2, and others went 2-2 in 16U Freestyle … and that is an important measure of success as South Carolina continues to build. Look for the South Carolina men to continue to make those types of gains in the future.

For the South Carolina Women, the future is now and Dasia Yearby led the way. Dasia dominated the bottom side of the bracket on her way to the 225 lb. finals - outscoring her opponents 30-1 and securing 3 falls. Unfortunately Dasia ran into a a dominant Eliana Bommarito of Michigan in the finals … after giving up an early 6 to Bommarito, Yearby nearly pulled off the win when she put her on her back about a minute into the match … alas Dasia couldn’t get the fall and Eliana came back to finish off the match later in the 1st period. Dasia was joined on the podium by Zao Estrada and Caitlyn Davis.

Zao dominated early with 3 consecutive wins before dropping her Round of 16 match to Alejandra Valdiviezo of California. Estrada put her head down and went to work on the backside, reeling off 5 consecutive wins (including one over Valdiviezo in the consi semis) to make the consi finals. A loss to Alyssa Randles of Idaho finished her week in Fargo - 4th in Junior Women at 122 and 8-2.

Caitlyn Davis began things on a hot streak … winning her first two matches with ease before beating returning Fargo Champ Nebi Tsarni 11-10 in the Round of 16 and Maddie Kubicki 13-10 in the quarters. She lost to Clarissa Agostini of Michigan in the semis and then took losses to Tsarni and Allyssa Johnson to finish 6th in Junior Women at 144.

South Carolina’s first All American of the weekend was 16U Annalise Maralit. Annalise won 2 to make the semifinals at 94 lbs. before losing to Joely Slyter of Idaho. Annalise finished with a win over Kendall Moe of Indiana and a loss to Caley Graber of Minnesota to take 4th in the 16U Women’s bracket.

As a “team” (and don’t get me wrong I understand scoring only the All Americans) - South Carolina finished:

14th Junior Women
30th 16U Women

Bloodrounders

Getting to the bloodround of any major tournament is an accomplishment … getting so close to the podium in Fargo only to fall by one match can be heart-breaking. South Carolina had no wrestlers that lost in the bloodround in any of the tournaments. There are many that wrestled extremely well … South Carolina brought a solid group, but with 6 states to cover - there is now way to highlight everyone that competed. Check out the brackets for yourself at the link above.