14U Duals Preview

Still waiting on Tennessee. If we do not receive anything from them by this weekend we will go ahead and post a preview of those to watch from Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. Alabama and South Carolina are not sending a team to 14U Duals this year. Below is a look at the current rosters with PIN Ratings. We will try to put this in context with other states, but at the moment we do not know their rosters - so this might simply be looking at wrestlers to watch from the SE. Check back this weekend to see if we have been able to get the South Carolina and Tennessee rosters. Full preview will be posted by Sunday.

No Brackets are posted yet, but below are the links to where you find them once they get posted.

Schedule:

Wednesday June 12

8:00 am               2:00 pm                Session 1 – Greco (Preliminary Pool Rounds 1-2-3)

2:00 pm               3:00 pm                Lunch Break

3:00 pm               10:00 pm              Session 2 – Greco (Preliminary Pool Rounds 4-5-6)

 

Thursday June 13

8:00 am                2:00 pm               Session 3 – Greco: Gold/Silver, Bronze/Copper, Red/Blue, Green/Yellow (3 Rounds)

2:30 pm                4:30 pm               Session 4 – Greco: Finals and Awards (1 Round)

 

Friday June 14

7:00 am                                              Doors open

8:00 am                  2:00 pm              Session 1 – Freestyle (Rounds 1-2-3)

2:00 pm                  3:00 pm              Lunch Break

3:00 pm                  9:00 pm              Session 2 – Freestyle (Rounds 4-5-6)

 

Saturday June 15

8:00 am                  2:00 pm             Session 3 – FS: Gold/Silver, Bronze/Copper, Red/Blue, Green/Yellow (3 Rounds)

2:30 pm                  4:30 pm             Session 4 – FS: Finals and Awards (1 Round)

A look back to 2023 14U Greco Duals:

  • 33 teams from 28 states competed including teams from every SE state.

  • Pennsylvania Blue beat Ohio 50-27 to take 1st

Top 8 were:

  1. Pennsylvania Blue

  2. Ohio

  3. Wisconsin

  4. Illinois

  5. Iowa

  6. Oklahoma Blue

  7. New Jersey

  8. Washington

How the Southeast fared:

  • Alabama 1-7

  • Florida 4-4

  • Georgia 4-2

  • North Carolina 1-5

  • South Carolina 0-7

  • Tennessee 3-3

Florida finished the highest of the SE teams in the field by taking 15th (7th in the Bronze/Copper Pool). 

A few SE wrestlers that competed in the 16U Greco duals last year – which will help them this year include:

  • Grayson McDonald (FL) – 5-3 at 77

  • Elijah Castanon (FL) –  2-2 at 92

  • Logan Price (FL) – 2-4 at 106

  • Drake DePetris (FL) – 1-5 at 136

  • Brighton Prine (GA) – 1-2 at 83

  • Walker Woodard (GA) – 4-2 at 106/110

  • Will Farnham (NC) – 0-6 at 106

Same as the 16U preview … I can’t overstate how important it is to be a 2nd year 14U, 16U or Junior.  I know Jason Bryant keeps the Fargo Almanac, but I don’t know if he has tracked how many All Americans each year are 2nd year vs. 1st year for their age group.  I’d venture it is a fairly significant difference in those that make the podium.  The wrestlers above will be in an outstanding position to wrestle well this week based on that experience – regardless of how they performed a year ago.

A look back to 2023 14U Freestyle Duals:

  • 37 teams from 32 states competed including teams from every SE state.

  • Pennsylvania Blue beat Ohio 46-31 to take 1st

Top 8:

  1. Pennsylvania Blue

  2. Ohio

  3. Illinois

  4. Wisconsin

  5. Minnesota Blue

  6. Missouri Red

  7. Iowa

  8. Georgia

How the Southeast fared:

  • Alabama 0-6

  • Florida 7-3

  • Georgia 3-6

  • North Carolina 3-3

  • South Carolina 1-6

  • Tennessee 5-3

Two of the top teams last year from the SE in Georgia (8th) and Florida (10th).  Georgia beat Florida in their dual 41-40 in a match that came down to criteria to determine who would make top 8.  Each team wrestled great, but both lose some firepower from last year’s squads … so it will be interesting to see how they fare this year.  That said, there are still several returners that will be counted on to help put these teams back in the All American discussion this year.

Again a few SE wrestlers competed in the 16U Freestyle Duals last year …

  • Grayson McDonald (FL) – 2-8 at 77

  • Elijah Castanon (FL) –  9-1 at 92

  • Logan Price (FL) – 2-3 at 106/110

  • Drake DePetris (FL) – 0-1 at 136

  • Brighton Prine (GA) – 1-1 at 83

  • Walker Woodard (GA) – 4-5 at 106/110

  • Will Farnham (NC) – 0-6 at 106

What to expect this week:

Same refrain as what we said in 16U … the usual suspects return and although we don’t know the rosters for any state outside the Southeast, we can expect that Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and others will be in the hunt for the title.  If we knew some of the rosters we could project ahead to possible seeds and matchups … unfortunately that is not the case.  So we will focus on the SE and a few wrestlers to watch from each team:

NOTE: South Carolina and Alabama are not bringing a team this year.  We did not hear back from Team Tennessee – so we don’t have a preview of their lineup.  That leaves us with three …

North Carolina: We begin with North Carolina because (on paper) they simply don’t have the numbers to be competitive as a team.  They have some outstanding individuals in Randall Shaver and Elias Osorio as well as returning 14U member from last year’s squad in Will Farnham.  The team will struggle this week … but that doesn’t mean that individuals can’t have a breakout performance.

Florida vs. Georgia

A year ago, we had a fantastic battle between some of the best 14U’s from each state with Georgia ultimately coming out on top in a close decision to make the top 8.  We could see something similar happen in 2024.  Both teams have hammers throughout their lineups and depending on their seeds – they could be battling for a #2 spot in one of the pools on day 1.  Neither team is likely to claim the title or the top spot in their pool (Florida has two holes at 71 and 250 and making up those points against the top teams will be nearly impossible.  Georgia doesn’t have any holes, but they will ask Walker Woodard or Jackson Carr to step up on occasion to fill the 130 lb. spot).

Both of these teams lost hammers from last year (Tovar and Mocco from Florida; Mills, Clarke, and others for Georgia).  Both will need some of their returning 14U’s to play an important role and then we will turn to some new faces to have an impact.

For Georgia – that is Walker Woodard who has a PIN Rating in both Greco and Freestyle that is above 1100.  Issac Jung, Liam Nielsen, Xavier Mance (Freestyle), and Nemiah Boyden (Greco) will need to play big roles if Georgia is going to make the top 8 once again.  Elijah Merritt doesn’t have a PIN Rating, but he’s tough at 83 and is another one to keep an eye on.  Teams can really make an impact by winning down low and up top … so Asher Asad, Kannon Chambers, Nathaniel Park, Canann Goss, Hamza Sayeed, and David Robinson could be huge in degerming how far Georgia goes this week.

For Florida – Lots of 14U returners on this squad (Castanon, McDonald, Price, DePetris, etc.).  Russ Haas is the only wrestler on Team Florida with an 1100 PIN Rating in both Greco and Freestyle … he wrestles a very tough weight in 14U (110) and will be counted on to make an impact for Florida this week.  Florida will need to wrestle above their PIN Ratings if they are going to make the top 8.

Jason Fulmore