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.

Georgia’s Caleb Henson won a barnburner to claim the 152 lb. title over Danny Wask of New Jersey. Henson downed Wask 9-9 on criteria (most 2 point takedowns) to claim the title. Henson was superb over the last two days with wins over Cael Swenson, Luka Wick, and others. Henson was joined in the finals by “Minions” teammate Chase Horne, but Horne couldn’t make it two in a row for Georgia as he fell to Wisconsin’s Ben Kawczynski. Joining Henson and Horne on the podium were Cole Hunt (6th at 113) and Noah Pettigrew (3rd at 220). Pettigrew’s only loss came in the semis to eventual Champ Christian Carroll of Indiana. Hunt lost a tough one for 5th - 11-10 back and forth battle with Ohio’s Codie Cuerbo. Georgia as a team took 12th overall and Henson became the first Junior National Champ for the state since 1999 when Chris Rodrigues claimed the 114.5 pound title.

Florida matched Georgia in terms of All Americans - putting 4 on the podium, but a little further down (and finished 17th as a team). Lake Highland Prep’s Danny Nini lost in the consolation finals to former teammate Nic Bouzakis at 132 lbs. Florida had 2 All Americans at 126 in Braden Basile (6th) and Sebastian Melguizo (8th) - Kai Owen lost to Melguizo in the bloodround or Florida might have added another at 126. Ethan Vergara was the final Floridian on the podium - finishing 7th at 285. Vergara had a huge 5-3 win in the bloodround over Gage Cook of Washington to make the podium … he lost to Tristan Kemp of Massachusetts before taking a forfeit for 7th. Tennessee had 4 go deep into the consolations, but just 2 ended up on the podium. Cooper Flynn finished 3rd - with his only loss coming on a controversial passivity call as time expired to eventual champ Kannon Webster in the quarters. Hunter Mason battled through one of the deepest weights at 132 to finish 7th.

There was tons to talk about from the 2 days of Junior Freestyle, but like the rest we will hold that for a post tournament blog post … there were several wrestlers that wrestled well, but came up just short of the podium.

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Junior Women Take the Mat

Florida puts 6 on the podium. Overall it was a tough day for the Junior Women from the SE as none advanced to tomorrow morning’s semifinal round. But not all was lost as the SE put on 9 on the podium including 6 from the Sunshine State.

Clare Booe and Kealonie Vega will wrestle in the 100 lb. consi quarters in the morning … meaning one of the two will wrestle for 7th later in the afternoon. Booe is a double All American as she finished 4th in the 16U bracket earlier in the week. Hannah Hall (112), Juliana Diaz (117), Sierra Chavez (180), and Andrea Smith (225) will also wrestle in the consi quarters tomorrow to determine their spot on the podium. South Carolina will have 2 Junior Women All Americans as they head back to the Palmetto state at the end of the week. Caitlyn Davis (138) and Dasia Yearby (180) will wrestle in the consi quarters starting at 9 am (Fargo time). The final SE hammer in the consis is Amani Jones of Georgia. Amani lost a close one to Adrienna Jones of California 7-5 in the quarters. Jones rebounded with a tech fall in the bloodround to assure her spot on the podium.