Interested in watching some high quality wrestling? Go back and watch the Junior Freestyle Duals … the SE teams, but in reality any of the teams competing. There were some great matches, some outstanding throws, and the many duals came down to the last match.

Iowa downed Oklahoma Red 40-23 to claim the overall title - their first in 16 years. Minnesota Blue downed Illinois 37-27 for 3rd. Wisconsin, Ohio Red, California, and New Jersey rounded out the top 8.

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Alabama and Tennessee battle with some of the best in Pool A

Both Alabama and Tennessee lost their first round matches in Pool A - Alabama to #2 seed Colorado 47-25 and Tennessee in a heartbreaker 36-34 to Michigan Blue. Tennessee rebounded with wins over Nebraska and Colorado before losing to Michigan Blue again for 3rd. Alabama came back from that opening round loss to down Texas B 38-29 before losing to Michigan Blue and Colorado (again) to finish their action in Pool A.

Tennessee moved onto the Bronze/Copper Pool for Day 2 and Alabama moved into the Red/Blue Pool. Tennessee dropped their opening match to Georgia Blue 51-12, beat Minnesota Red 35-33 and then lost to Kansas and North Dakota Blue to finish 5th in the Bronze Pool. Bentley Ellison’s 10-2 win at the end of the Minnesota Red match sealed the win for Tennessee.

Alabama lost their opening match in the Red/Blue pool to Florida 43-21 and then dropped a tough one to Texas A 34-32 in a dual where their 2 forfeits really hurt them. Alabama rebounded with a win over George Red 41-22 before dropping a close one to Indiana 32-31 to finish the tournament.

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Georgia Blue just misses the All American Pool; Georgia Red battles into the Red/Blue Pool

Georgia Blue won their opening match vs. North Dakota Red before losing the pool B semifinal to New Jersey 41-25 (the match that would keep them from making the All American Pool and their only loss in Freestyle). Georgia Blue rebounded by downing California Blue and Oklahoma Blue to finish Pool B. Georgia Blue finished up their tournament with wins over Tennessee, Kansas, Minnesota Red, and Oklahoma Blue to take 9th.

Georgia Red lost a close one to North Dakota Blue 38-30 before downing South Carolina. They finished their action in Pool D with losses to Kansas and Pennsylvania. Georgia Red lost to Texas A, Florida, and Alabama before downing California Blue to take 7th in the Red/Blue Pool. Georgia Red was very competitive despite giving up 4 forfeits.

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Florida and South Carolina

Florida finished 5th in Pool B after going 2-2 with a bye in the opening round. They lost to Illinois 56-9 in the semis and lost to Oklahoma Blue 39-30 in the consi semis before getting on board with a dual win for 5th over California Blue. Florida then turned it on for day 2 - going unbeaten to claim the top spot in the Red/Blue Pool. They downed Alabama, Georgia Red, Texas A, and finally Colorado in a 36-31 match that came down to an 11-9 win by Hayden Whidden at 126 and a fall by Sebastian Melguizo at 132.

South Carolina brought 11 to Tulsa - and in this field that was going to be a real challenge (in getting dual wins). They went 0-2 in Pool D, but were significantly more competitive in the Green/Yellow Pool on Day 2. Still forfeiting 5 is always going to put a team behind … and South Carolina could never find a way to recover those 25 points. They finished the tournament losing to Texas B, Nebraska, Arkansas, and North Dakota Red.

Team Florida

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Five on the Rise

The Freestyle portion of the Junior Duals were filled with some outstanding individual performances. We’ve identified 5 below that really stood out plus an “others to watch” section that highlights some of those that you should definitely keep an eye on heading into Fargo

Another thing to keep in mind … going unbeaten is always the best measure of how well someone wrestled. It is important to note that some below (with losses) had tougher matches than others that might have finished with better records.

• 120 - Cole Hunt (Georgia) - 8-0 with 2 close wins over Potts of Oklahoma (8-7) and Collins of New Jersey (13-10) plus 6 tech falls.

• 160 - Gunner Filipowicz (Georgia) - 8-0 (6-0 with 2 forfeits). 6 tech falls with very good wins over Braden Anderson of Oklahoma, Kodiak Cannedy of Tennessee, and others.

• 160 - Will Miller (Alabama) - few walked away from the four days of wrestling with an unblemished record (in both Greco and Freestyle), but Miller was one of them. He was 8-0 with 5 tech falls and 3 falls. App State got a good one … and several SE programs will be sorry they didn’t pursue Miller more diligently.

• 170 - Gabe Arnold (Georgia) - 8-0 (7-0 with a forfeit). Really nice win over Michael Dellagatta of New Jersey 8-4.

• 220 - Noah Pettigrew (Georgia) - 8-0 (6-0 with 2 forfeits) - very good win over Ashton Davis of Tennessee (10-0 tech fall) - had 5 tech falls and a fall.

Others to watch:

• 120 - Yanni Vines (Alabama) - 6-2 with good wins over Milani of Michigan and Ditomasso of Georgia. Vines is on the cusp of pushing for a spot on the podium in Fargo, but will need to find a way to beat the likes of Strickenberger and Black (who he lost to this past week).

• 120 - Dominic Ditomasso (Georgia) - 5-3 with a fantastic win over Cadet Greco Fargo Champ Christian Tanefeu of North Dakota.

• 126 - Hayden Whidden (Florida) - 6-1 with 2 forfeits. Only loss to Baysinger of Illinois. Really good win over Angelo Lozado of Colorado - who was a Cadet All American 2 years ago.

• 126 - Amantee Mills (Georgia) - 5-3 with a forfeit win. Split matches with Oklahoma’s Rhett Peak and lost a close match to Totten of New Jersey 6-5. Really good win over Parker Janssen of Minnesota.

• 132 - Sebastian Melguizo (Florida) - 5-2 … good wins and two tough losses.

• 138/145 - Yannis Charles (South Carolina) - 4-2 splitting time between 138 and 145. Took one of his 2 losses at 145 vs. Connor Powell of Georgia. Had a wild 20-17 win over Brexton Beach of Arkansas.

• 138/145 - Brayden Ivy (Tennessee) - Unbeaten at 138 (6-0) - only loss came in bumping up to face Kilic of Georgia.

• 145 - Michael Kilic (Georgia) - 7-1 with a good 6-6 criteria win over 2019 Cadet All American Kyle Boeke and a tough 6-5 loss to Whalen of New Jersey.

• 145 - James Latona (Alabama) - 4-2 and split time with Logan Reaves at 145. Some good wins, but it was his loss to Ivan Morris that was the most telling - Morris was a Fargo All American 2 years ago as a Cadet. He lost 21-11 in a match that was all over the place (was 4-4 at the break). On his feet … Latona dominated, but couldn’t allow Morris on top.

• 145/152 - Luke Belcher (Tennessee) - Unbeaten at 145 (6-0) … only loss came to Jake Piccirilli of Georgia at 152.

• 152 - Jake Piccirilli (Georgia) - 6-2 with a pair of wins over Daegab Griffin of Oklahoma. Lost a close 6-5 decision to Elmore of Kansas.

• 160 - Zyan Hall (Georgia) - 6-1 (5-1 with a forfeit). Only loss came to Alabama’s Will Miller. Beat Couto of Florida as well Renner of North Dakota.

• 160/170 - Kodiak Cannedy (Tennessee) - 6-1 splitting time between 160/170 - only loss coming to Filipowicz of Georgia. Won a wild 21-18 decision over Kaden Renner of North Dakota.

• 182 - Warren Hoyt (Alabama) - 7-1 and wrestled outstanding. Gave up a quick fall to Robinson of Texas, but otherwise wrestled extremely well.

• 182 - Matthew Singleton (Georgia) - 7-1 and probably still a bit upset with his loss to Soldano of New Jersey (they got in a 50/50 situation in which Soldano came out on top and got the fall). Others Singleton ran through the 182’s - only giving up points to Cadet All American Jared Simma of Kansas in a 12-2 tech fall win.

• 182 - Gervacio Gonzalez (Tennessee) - only loss came to 2019 Cadet All American Jared Simma of Kansas.

• 195 - Ryan Cody (Florida) - 6-1 with a loss to Sheeren of Texas. Good win over Chesbro of Oklahoma and Adams of Georgia.

• 195 - Hunter Adams (Georgia) - 7-1 with only loss coming to Ryan Cody of Florida. Nice win over Sheeren of Texas 10-8

• 195 - Thomas Godbee (Georgia) - wrestled extremely well with his only loss coming to Ayzerov of New Jersey.

• 220 - Tristan Middlebrook (Florida) - 5-2 with a win over Webster of Georgia. Lost to Culp of Illinois and Newlin of Oklahoma.

• 220/285 - Logan Webster (Georgia) - 7-1 (5-1 with 2 forfeits). Stepped up and got 2 wins at 285 for Georgia Red. Only loss came to Tristan Middlebrook of Florida.

• 220 - Ashton Davis (Tennessee) - 6-2 with a loss to Pettigrew of Georgia and Caiden Casella (Kansas). Dominated in his 6 wins.

• 285 - Chase Horne (Georgia) - unbeaten and easily handled the competition … 5 tech falls (only giving up a point to McDaniel of Tennessee) plus a fall and a 9-0 decision of Novak of Minnesota.

• 285 - Abe Preston (Alabama) - Unbeaten at 8-0 (with 4 forfeits) Won 3 close matches - 9-8 over Vergara of Florida, 7-5 over Boggan of Michigan, and 8-4 over Valle of Georgia.

Florida Girls Earn All American

The Florida girls stepped up and claimed an All American finish at the Junior Duals in Tulsa, Oklahoma this past week. Florida won a hard fought 36-27 dual vs. Colorado to make the finals in Pool A - losing to eventual overall Champ California 52-12.

Florida then jumped into the deep end with some outstanding teams in the Gold/Silver (All American pool). They lost a close one to Pennsylvania Blue 35-32 as well as Texas Black 36-29 before losing again to California. Florida finished with losses to Missouri 34-24 and Illinois 35-32 to finish 6th.

Florida was in every dual (except their losses to California) and could have finished higher than 6th … still it was a very good effort with some outstanding individual performances.

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South Carolina and Georgia

Both South Carolina and Georgia brought significantly fewer than a full squad and that showed in the overall duals. South Carolina finished 3-4 despite forfeiting 5 of the 14 weights … they benefited from some other squads missing a few as well, but it was mainly because the 9 they brought all came to compete. Two finished 8-0 (Zao Estrada and Emma Burk) and three others finished 7-1. We will get to individual accomplishments below, but that is how South Carolina was able to stay competitive.

Georgia finished 0-4 while forfeiting 3 weight classes. They fought hard vs. Texas White (33-23 loss), Texas Blue (28-23), and Arkansas (39-29) and were only really overwhelmed as a team vs. Missouri (42-26). Georgia also had some outstanding individual performances … May Prade, Genevieve An, and Dianna Holmes each were unbeaten.

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Five on the Rise

Several outstanding individual accomplishments … tough to pick just 5 to highlight. These girls look ready to make a run in Fargo. Because it was so difficult to narrow to 5 - I’ve included an others to watch section below that includes a few others that wrestled well and could make waves in Fargo in July.

Also it should be noted … the path for the Florida girls was more difficult (because the team made the All American pool) - so not all records are “equal”, but everyone below wrestled well in their matches. Also it was fairly clear that if South Carolina hadn’t had to give up 5 forfeits they would have been hard for anyone to beat.

• 112 - Hannah Hall (Florida) - Hannah wrestled extremely well finishing 6-1 and her only loss coming to Avery Ashley of Texas Black. Hall should be in the hunt for a spot on the podium in Fargo.

• 117 - Zao Estrada (South Carolina) - Few wrestlers were as dominant this weekend as Estrada. She had 4 tech falls and 3 falls. We didn’t get to see Estrada vs. Taylinn Long or Diaz, but those matches should happen in another month.

• 117/122 - Juliana Diaz (Florida) - Diaz was 6-1 with her only loss coming to Taylin Long of Illinois. She looked good in bumping up to 122 to take out Alexis Segura of Colorado.

• 132/138 - May Prado (Georgia) - 4-0 with 3 tech falls and a 31 second fall. Did what was necessary - win the matches in front of you. Would like to have seen her matchup with Sarah Savidge, Mayson Gray, and others, but wrestled well in the matches she had.

• 152 - Emma Burk (South Carolina) - Unbeaten at 8-0 with 4 falls, 3 tech falls, and a forfeit. Only match that was close was a 15-5 tech fall of Shean Miller of Minnesota.

Others to watch:

• 100/106 - Kealonie Vega (Florida) - split time with Clare Booe at 100/106 and finished the tournament 5-2 with losses to Eliana Martinez of Texas Black and Madison Avila of California. Kealonie had a nice hard fought win over Jayleah Pletz of Pennsylvania 7-6.

• 100/106 - Clare Booe (Florida) - split time at 100/106 with Vega. Finished 3-4, but was an important part of Florida making the All American pool.

• 112 - Dianna Holmes (Georgia) - 4-0 with 3 falls and a 10-0 tech fall. Same as Prado - won every match she had and that is all she could control. It will be interesting to see how that translates into how well she does in Fargo in July.

• 122 - Isabella Hoffman (South Carolina) - Hoffman finished 5-3 and split matches with Patron Plummer of Pennsylvania (getting a 20-19 decision and losing by fall). She ran into a very tough Ngao Shoua Whitethorn of Minnesota, but otherwise was in her match vs. Herrick (losing 9-6) before getting pinned.

• 127 - Genevieve An (Georgia) - 4-0 (with 2 forfeits). Two falls and missed opportunity to see the top 127’s that included Savannah Cosme of Colorado and Alex Janiak of Illinois. Still nice to get W’s vs. the competition you did get a chance to wrestle.

• 132 - April Kelly (South Carolina) - 7-1 and dominant in her wins. Competitive in her lone loss to Madyson Gray of Kansas (19-8 tech fall). Still if she wants to claim a stopsign in Fargo … she will have to figure out how to beat the likes of Gray (Gray was unbeaten at 9-0 and only gave up points to Kelly).

• 138 - Carolina Gilstrap (South Carolina) - 5-3 in a very competitive 138 weight class. Nice win over Yatcilla of PA 10-8 (also had a fall of Yatcilla). Got an opportunity to see what the top of the 138 weight class looks like in a loss to Marissa Porsch of Kansas.

• 144 - Caitlyn Davis (South Carolina) - 7-1 with her only loss coming to Maddie Kubicki of Missouri. Won a wild 14-11 decision over Allyssa Johnson of North Dakota.

• 180 - Dasia Yearby (South Carolina) - 7-1 with her only loss coming to Jaycee Foeller of Missouri. Had 4 forfeits, but was dominant in her other 3 matches.

• 180/200 - Sierra Chavez (Florida) - 5-2 with a match at 200 vs. Missouri (where she got the fall). Sierra was in every match - losing to Brittyn Corbishley of Texas 10-4 and split decisions with Maliya Castillo of California.

• 225 - Andrea Smith (Florida) - 3-1 and split time at 225 with Kiara Brin. Smith’s only loss came to Hannah Francis of Texas Black. She had falls over DeHerrera, Benjamin, and Sepeda.

Georgia finishes 4th in Greco Duals

Georgia is a really good example of how hard it is to make the All American pool at Junior Duals. How it takes a team to win the close duals … Georgia might have had several undefeated wrestlers if they had dropped to another pool (that’s not a knock on them or the other pools - it is simply a reality). The All American Pool is a grind and it was a battle to get there in the first place. They had 2 fierce battles in Pool A - a 36-33 win over Indiana Gold and a 34-33 win over Iowa before losing to Illinois 59-10. A loss to either Indiana or Iowa could have put them out of the top 6, but the team persevered.

The Indiana match wasn’t actually as close as the final score would lead you to believe - Georgia forfeited the final 2 weights (10 points) after securing the win. Still that wouldn’t have been possible without several hard fought wins earlier (Austin Thiel over Braxton Vest 5-4 at 132 comes to mind). Iowa was a different story - Georgia had to battle until the final match (and get a team point from Dominic DiTomasso in a 22-10 loss to Chad Bellis at 120 to secure the win). Illinois easily handled Georgia 59-10 in the pool A final - and would go on to win the title fairly easily.

Georgia started to Gold/Silver (All American Pool) with a loss to Oklahoma Blue, but rebounded with a 34-31 win over Wisconsin and a 33-32 win over California before losing to Illinois (again) and Minnesota Blue. Fourth overall in some outstanding duals and terrific individual matches. You can expect many of these kids to battle again in Fargo - this time with an individual stopsign on the line.

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Florida and Tennessee just miss on top 6

Tennessee shared Pool A with Georgia, Iowa, Illinois and others. Florida was in Pool C with Oklahoma Blue, California, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas A, and Alabama.

Tennessee wrestled Iowa tough in their opening match - losing 37-24. The boys from the Volunteer state bounced back with wins over Indiana 46-15 and Minnesota Red 39-29 to make the Pool A consi finals where they lost to Iowa (again 37-24). Tennessee lost their opening match in the Bronze/Copper Pool to Florida 39-25 and then beat Michigan Blue and Missouri before losing to Iowa (for the 3rd time) and Colorado. Tennessee finished 4th and was in every dual until the end.

Florida finished 3rd in Pool C - downing Texas A 41-24 before losing to top seed Oklahoma Blue 43-21. Wins over Alabama and Missouri gave them a shot at making the All American pool … but a 40-26 loss to California for true second put them into the Bronze/Copper Pool. Florida finished 3rd in the Bronze pool with wins over Tennessee and Missouri and losses to Colorado, Michigan Blue, and Iowa.

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Alabama finishes 5th in the Red Pool

Alabama lost their opening match to California before getting a bye to a match with Florida (also a loss). Alabama finished Pool C with a loss to Pennsylvania … the Red pool didn’t offer much relief as Team Alabama took losses to Kansas, Minnesota Red, Oklahoma Red, and Pennsylvania (again) before getting their only dual win of the tournament over Texas B.

The team overall might have struggled, but Alabama was competitive in every dual and had some outstanding individual performances.

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Five on the Rise

The Greco portion of the Junior Duals were filled with some outstanding individual performances. We’ve identified 5 below that really stood out (but could have increased that to ten without a problem … as a result - the others to watch section below highlights some of those that you should definitely keep an eye on heading into Fargo).

Another thing to keep in mind … Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee were all close (or in Georgia’s case) in the top pool - meaning that there were no easy matches. If you looked at some of the breakdowns from Cadets or Schoolboys you might have seen many wrestlers going undefeated. That’s just not the reality (for the most part) in Junior duals.

• 138 - David Panone (Georgia) - 5-1 with three really good wins over Moore of Illinois, Rodriguez of California and Miess of Wisconsin. Lost to Stevie Barnes of Iowa.

• 160 - Will Miller (Alabama) - simply outstanding - finishing 7-0 at 160. 5 tech falls, a fall and a 10-6 decision of Collin McCorkle of Pennsylvania. Didn’t get to see Kootnz, Wiley, or Rogge, but was great in the matchups he did get.

• 170 - Aidan Bowers (Tennessee) - Bowers was simply outstanding - 8-0 (with 8 tech falls). He didn’t look challenged in any match that I watched.

• 195 - Ryan Cody (Florida) - Cody was dominant in his 8 wins (7 techs and a fall) - in fact in each tech fall win he didn’t give up a point. Lost a close one to Voelker of Iowa 8-6 and lost to Kodiak Stephens of California.

• 220 - Ashton Davis (Tennessee) - 8-1 and dominated in all but one match. Only loss came to Kalob Runyan of Iowa by fall (he beat Runyan twice before 10-4 and 10-0. Davis has to be amongst the top contenders in Fargo at 220.

Others to watch:

• 106 - Tyler Washburn (Florida) - 6-4 at 106 with losses to Forbes and Ray Ray Harris. Looked great in his 6 wins - has to think he should have won the match vs. Jackson Blum of Michigan (lost 7-6).

• 113 - Christian Guzman (Florida) - 7-3 but with 2 losses that could have gone his way - a 9-9 loss on criteria to Hendrikson of Texas and a 12-11 loss to Stokes of Oklahoma. Had a nice fall of Nolan Wertanen of Michigan.

• 120/126 - Yanni Vines (Alabama) - 6-2 with one of those losses coming to Anthony Ferraro of Pennsylvania up at 126. Won some tight matches at 120 that helped Alabama stay in the duals. Only match that I’m sure Yanni would want back is the 11-1 loss to Grigor Cholakyan of California … Vines had beaten Grigor earlier this year in folkstyle.

• 120 - Bentley Ellison (Tennessee) - 6-2 and split matches with Garret Rinken of Iowa. Ellison’s only other loss came to Chad Bellis of Iowa (an 11-1 tech fall). Some really good wrestling from Bentley in Greco.

• 126 - Hayden Whidden (Florida) - 7-3 with good wins over Lozado, Dindl, and Caviness. Whidden can make the podium in Fargo, but he will need to figure out how to beat those on that next tier (Porter of Iowa and Moore of Missouri).

• 132 - Sebastian Melguizo (Florida) - 7-3 with tough losses to Jordan Cullors of Oklahoma and Joseph Airola of Colorado. Had an excellent 7-5 win over Keyveon Roller of Tennessee.

• 132 - Keyveon Roller (Tennessee) - 6-2 with two tough losses (to Melguizo 7-5 and to Walker Bents of Minnesota 5-3). Had a very good win over Kade Willis of Missouri.

• 138/145 - Dayne Dalrymple (Tennessee) - 5-4 with 2 losses to a very good Stevie Barnes of Iowa as well as a 1-1 criteria loss to Eli Ashcroft of Missouri. Go watch Dalrymple vs Gust of Minnesota - a 15-8 win but it was fun to watch.

• 145 - Michael Kilic (Georgia) - 5-1 - two outstanding matches to watch if you area fan … a 9-6 win over Nicco Ruiz of California and the 4-1 loss to Tommy Curran of Illinois.

• 182 - Gervacio Gonzalez (Tennessee) - 7-2. 1-2 vs. Ahrendsen of Iowa. Really good wins over Mariacher of Indiana and Nicolosi of Florida.

• 182/195 - Warren Hoyt (Alabama) - went 5-3 overall - 5-2 at 182 with one of his losses coming up at 195 vs. Meissner of Minnesota. Split matches with Richner of Pennsylvania and had a nice tech fall of Nicolosi of Florida.

• 182/195 - Matthew Singleton (Georgia) - 4-2 with a tough 4-3 loss to Deanthony Parker of Illinois. Singelton’s other loss came up at 195 to Stephens of California. Nice win over Ahrendsen of Iowa.

• 220 - Tristan Middlebrook (Florida) - 7-3 with some good wins (Kitchignham of Oklahoma to name one). Still needs to get wins over the likes of Runyon, Ferris, and Ashton Davis if he is going to make a run for the podium in Fargo.

• 285 - Chase Horne (Georgia) - 3-0 and split time with Valle at 285. Didn’t give up a point in his 3 wins … including wins over Fleshman and Beese. Would like to have seen Horne vs. Boersma of Illinois (but I’m sure that’s coming in July).