Florida finishes 14U Greco Duals in 13th; Georgia has 3 remain unbeaten

Team Florida finished their 14U journey on a winning note with a 48-33 dual win over Maryland to take 13th. Florida, the only SE team to make the Bronze/Copper Pool, started Day 2 with a loss to New Jersey before rebounding with wins over Oklahoma Red and Maryland.

Team Florida opened Day 1 with wins over Washington and Arkansas before dropping their Pool B finals match to Pennsylvania Blue (the eventual Champs) and Illinois in the True 2nd match to take 3rd. A loss to New York Gold ended their opening day 2-3. 2-1 on Day 2 helped bring Florida to 4-4 in Greco.

Team Georgia lost several close duals on Day 1 (39-37 to PA Red) and 40-39 to New Jersey to drop to the Red/Blue Pool. Georgia finished Greco 2-2 with wins over Minnesota Red and Oklahoma Blue and losses to Texas Gold and Washington. Georgia lost 3 duals by a total of 4 points … this team has to feel like they could have finished higher than they did.

Tennessee finished 1-3 on Day 1 in Pool C and went 0-4 on Day 2 to take 8th in the Red/Blue Pool. Six forfeits absolutely killed any chance for Tennessee to do well as a team … that is giving up 30 points in every dual … just something you can’t do that this level and expect team success.

North Carolina was in a similar boat with forfeits and finished Greco 0-7.

Outstanding Individual Performances

Despite some challenges - each squad had some outstanding individual performances. Georgia is the only team to finish the tournament with unbeaten wrestlers. Beau Abbott was 3-0 at 87 lbs. and Isaac Jung and Alessandro Vitello Jr. were each unbeaten in splitting reps at 97 lbs. Jung was 5-0 with outstanding wins over Nathan Fenner (PA) and Stephen Bagocius (NJ). Vitello had 3 8-0 tech falls to finish 3-0 at 97 lbs. Below are a few others that finished the Greco portion of the Duals with a solid outing:

Florida

  • 92 - Lucas Layne was 6-2

  • 114 - Logan Price was 6-2 with a tough 6-3 loss to Max Mandac of Illinois

  • 136 - Matteo Gonzalez was 6-1 with a solid 12-9 win over Tyce Thompson of Oklahoma

  • 187/250 - Sultan Olzha was 6-2

Georgia:

  • 103 - Liam Nielsen was 6-2 with two very close losses (7-6 tp Rakhmatov of Texas and 8-6 to Joyce of New Jersey)

  • 110 - Xavier Mance was 6-2 with a 7-6 loss to Crowsey of Texas

  • 125 - Walker Woodard was 6-2 with an 8-6 loss to Choo of Texas and an 8-6 win over Carl of Pennsylvania

  • 149 - Nathaniel Park was 7-1 with his only loss coming to Gage Evans of Pennsylvania 9-4

  • 165 - Canaan Goss was 6-2

North Carolina:

  • 106 - Catoe Byrd was 4-3

Tennessee:

  • 77 - Chase Smith was 7-1 with his only loss coming to Ryder Sandoval of Oklahoma

  • 136 - Ruger Pennington was 6-2 with one of his few losses to very tough Gage Evans of Pennsylvania

  • 250 - Bobby Jow Adamson was 7-1 with his only loss to Rhodes Molenda of Oklahoma

All teams are back in action tomorrow for Freestyle. Here is what you need to know:

Top 8 Seeds:

  1. Ohio Scarlet

  2. Iowa

  3. Illinois

  4. Pennsylvania Blue

  5. Wisconsin

  6. Indiana

  7. Washington

  8. Minnesota Blue

There is a Pool D, but no SE teams are in the Pool so we did not include it. Florida pulls the toughest draw with #6 seed Indiana in the opening round. Georgia has a tough bottom side of the bracket in Pool B and will get a good New York Gold squad in the quarters … a win they will need to have if they are going to make the top 8. North Carolina sits up top in Pool B and will wrestle the winner of Iowa and Kansas in the quarters. Tennessee is in Pool A and get a winnable match in the quarters with Arkansas … although giving up so many forfeits it will be a tough challenge.

Jason Fulmore