16U Greco will finish things up this morning with the semifinals and the consolation quarters beginning at 8:30. They are currently scheduled to wrestle their placement matches at 2 pm Fargo time. Mojena, Garcia, and Bartelt of Florida, as well as Jax Forrest (NC) and Hoke Poe-Hogan (GA) will look to win one more and put themselves one win away from a Greco National Title. Brandon Cody, Drew Gorman, Dominick Bambinelli, Will Caneer, Willie Cox, William Jakeway and Yannis Charles will look to win 2 matches in the morning and a 3rd in the afternoon to take 3rd at their weight. Brandon Cody and Yannis Charles will meet first thing this morning - so there will be at least one wrestler from the SE in the 7th place match at 138.

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Junior Men begin their quest for a Greco Title

2019 16U Greco National Champs Michael Kilic and RJ Weston of Georgia as well as Junior Greco Runner-up Ryan Cody of Florida headline the field from the Southeast. Only Braden Basile and Ethan Vergara (both from Florida) have an opportunity to earn double All American status. Henson, Horne, Pettigrew, Hunt, Nini, Melguizo, Mason, and Flynn are not in the bracket for Greco after placing in Freestyle. Action begins at 8:30 am and will run until the break for the 16U placement matches.

Florida put 6 Junior Women on the podium … tying the most ever for a Florida Women’s team (Florida had 6 Junior AA’s in 2006 also). If I am wrong please let me know. This year’s squad finished 17th as a team. South Carolina had 2 All Americans and finished 22nd. Amani Jones was Georgia’s only All American in 2021 - leading the team to 26th overall.

Kealonie Vega and Sierra Chavez were the highest placing Floridians … finishing 6th (Vega at 100 and Chavez at 180). Juliana Diaz and Clare Booe were 7th - Diaz at 117 and Boe at 100 (after losing to Vega in the consolation quarters). Booe is the only woman in the SE to double All American this week … she was 3rd in 16U and 7th in Juniors. Hannah Hall and Andrea smith capped off a great run by the Florida team - taking 8th (Hall at 112 and Smith at 225).

South Carolina had 14 points - good enough for 22nd in the team race. They were led by All Americans Caitlyn Davis (4th at 138) and Dasia Yearby (8th at 180). Georgia’s Amani Jones took a tough 7-5 loss in the quarters but battled back through the bracket. Jones downed Adrienna Turner of California 4-1 (the same woman she lost to on the front side) to finish 5th.

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Mojena, Bartelt, and Garcia from Florida, Poe-Hogan of Georgia and Forrest of North Carolina in the 16U Greco Semis

Florida’s Ethan Mojena (145), Roman Garcia (160), and Sawyer Bartelt (195) punched their ticket to tomorrow morning’s semifinals. They are joined by Georgia’s Hoke Poe-Hogan at 170 lbs. and Jax Forrest of North Carolina at 120. Forrest, Mojena, Garcia, Poe-Hogan, and Bartelt will each attempt to punch their ticket to tomorrow afternoon’s finals, but first each has work to do in the morning. Forrest will wrestle Tanner Frothinger of Idaho, Mojena gets Pennsylvania’s Pierson Manville who finished 2nd at 145 in Freestyle. Garcia will wrestle Liam Scrivanich of PA, Hoke Poe-Hogan gets Oscar Williams of Oklahoma at 170, and Sawyer Bartlet will face Dai’mont Mucker of Missouri at 195.

Those 5 semifinalists are joined by Brandon Cody of Florida at 138, Drew Gorman (113) and Dominic Bambinelli (152) of Georgia, Will Caneer (195) and Willie Cox (285) of Alabama, and William Jakeway (88) and Yannis Charles (138) of South Carolina. Cody and Charles will wrestle in the consolation quarters so one of the two will wrestle for 7th tomorrow afternoon. It is worth noting that Mojena, Garcia, Bartelt, Forrest, Gorman, and Bambinelli are double 16U All Americans in 2021. I don’t know how rare the feat is … but it quite an accomplishment to make the podium in both styles.

9 SE Junior Women will wrestle for their place on the podium this morning. Each of the 9 are in the consolation bracket and two - Florida’s Kealonie Vega and Calre Booe will wrestle each other at 100 lbs. The other 6 need 3 more wins to claim 3rd. Florida’s Hannah Hall (112), Juliana Diaz (117), Sierra Chavez (180), and Andrea Smith (225) as well as South Carolina’s Caitlyn Davis (138) and Dasia Yearby (180) and Georgia’s Amani Jones (122) will look to climb the podium.

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16U Greco Begins

The final shot for a spot on the podium begins this morning for the 16U men. Alabama has 18 wrestlers competing, Florida (25), Georgia (26), North Carolina (4), South Carolina (6), and Tennessee (9). Action starts bright and early at 8 am and should go through 3 rounds (both championship and consolations) before taking a break to highlight the Junior Women All American matches in the early afternoon.