Not many girls attempted both 16U and Juniors this weekend, but one was able to pull it off and claim a title in each division … Ryleigh Sturgill of Tennessee. Sturgill claimed the 100 lb. title in both divisions. She dominated 16U with two 21 second falls to claim the title and then added a fall and two superior decisions to claim the Junior title. Fellow Tennessean Senna Grassman stopped 16U Champ Mackenzie Carder’s run for a double title in the Junior 120 semifinal with a hard fought 8-6 decision … Grassman went on to beat Georgia’s Evey Hill to claim the title. Same thing happened at 125 where Alabama’s Evelyn Holmes Smith downed 16U Champ Isabella Ndinga Mbappe 10-2 in the finals. SE Regions featured some outstanding matches and some individuals that should make a run to a stop sign in Fargo.
Ariah Mills, Jovanni Tovar, and Dylan Reel each claimed double titles this past weekend in Atlanta. Mills (Georgia) dominated the 88 lb. brackets … wrestling a total of 46 seconds in Greco with 2 technical superior decisions and wracking up 32 points (to ZERO) to claim the Freestyle title. Mills enters the summer as one of the best 16U’s in the country and has to be one of the SE’s best shot to claim a stop sign in Fargo. Tover (Florida) was equally as impressive up at 113. He put up 37 points on his way to the Greco title while yielding just 3 points. In Freestyle, Tovar pitched 3 shutouts (10 or 11 technical superior decisions) and beat Alabama hammer David Hill by fall (leading 10-4 in the quarters. We have Reel listed as Georgia, but he is among the new crew headed to Baylor in the fall (Team Georgia or Team Tennessee this summer?). Reel was just as dominant as his fellow double champs … posting 3 falls in Greco with 2 superior decisions and 2 falls in Freestyle including a fall of Logan Rawlinson in the 175 lb. final.
There were single champs for the SE in each style and some outstanding wrestling. 132 was the deepest bracket in my opinion and featured some outstanding matchups with Josiah Boyden (Georgia), Jovani Solis (Florida), Legend Ellis (Oklahoma), AJ DeLaCruz (South Carolina), and others. Each of the SE states had a lot of success and if they can encourage these hammers to make the trip to Fargo … the Southeast should have a productive week in North Dakota later this summer.
Antonio Mills of Georgia and Max Norman of Tennessee pulled off a rare double title this weekend in Juniors. Several wrestlers won Greco, but were turned away in the Freestyle finals from a second title. Mills beat Axel Ritchie of Tennessee 8-0 in Greco and then downed another Tennessean in Jojo Uhorchuk 14-8 to claim the 120 lb. Junior Freestyle titles. Max Norman earned a superior decision over Mason Parsons for the 175 lb. Greco title on Saturday and followed it up with a 11-0 superior decision over Owen Wasley of Wisconsin for his second title.
Hunter Sturgill of Tennessee, Evan Wingrove of Georgia, and Willie Cox of Alabama each won Greco titles on Saturday and marched back to the finals in Freestyle, but came up just short of earning a double title. Sturgill lost to Alabama’s Daishun Powe 7-5 at 157 and Evan Wingrove lost to James Blacman of Virginia 18-7 … both of those were rematches of the Greco final (Sturgill beat Powe 3-2 and Wingrove beat Blacman 8-0). Willie Cox downed Nicholas Rodgers of North Carolina 10-2 in Greco, but came up just short (an 11-9 decision) to Tyson Russell of Tennessee in the Freestyle finals.
Georgia led the way with 4 Junior Freestyle Champs, Florida was 2nd with 3, Tennessee and Virginia had 2 each. On the Greco side, South Carolina and Georgia each had 3 Champs, Alabama had 2 with Tennessee, Florida, Virginia, and Illinois each claiming 1.
