Georgia finishes 16U Greco Duals in 16th; Mills and Andrews are unbeaten

Georgia made the Bronze/Copper Pool in Utah, but finished the tournament 0-3 with losses to Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Oregon. Georgia finished 16th overall, the highest of any SE team, but struggled to win the close duals. Florida finished 5th in Pool B and then ran the table on Day 2 in the Red/Blue Pool … beating Minnesota Red, North Dakota, Michigan, and Texas Gold. They finished 17th overall. South Carolina had an outstanding Day 2 with wins over Texas Red, Montana, and Utah Black before losing to Maryland in the Green/Yellow Pool final. North Carolina finished the tournament 1-2 with losses to Maryland and Texas Red and a win over Arkansas. Each team featured some outstanding individual performances.

Outstanding Individual Performances:

Just two from the Southeast finished Greco unbeaten … Mac Andrews of Florida was 8-0 at 165 lbs. and Ariah Mills of Georgia was 8-0 wrestling at 88 and 94 lbs. Andrews handled the competition fairly easily and was really only pushed in one match - against Carter Nekvapil of Texas - winning 6-4. We didn’t get a chance to see Andrews go against Ivan Ivanov of Idaho (who was also unbeaten at the weight) … perhaps they will cross paths in Fargo in a month. Mills simply dominated at 88 and 94 lbs. None of his matches were close as he finished with 6 tech falls and 1 fall and only gave up points to Jack Mulvahill of Oregon in a 10-2 tech fall. Many other wrestlers had outstanding tournaments, but one we need to mention with Andrews and Mills is Cody Clarke of Georgia. Clarke’s only loss came to Evan Provost of Oregon 6-1 … and that happened wrestling up a weight class at 100 lbs. At 94, Clarke was a hammer and beat an outstanding Thales Silva of California 2-0 in their dual. Others with an outstanding Greco tournament include:

Florida:

  • 94 - Zachary Leto was 6-2

  • 100 - RJ Phlean was 6-2

  • 113 - Jovanni Tovar was 6-2 with a loss to Cooper Mathews of Colorado 6-3

  • 126 - Reid Yakes was 6-2

  • 150 - Nik Blake was 7-1 with his only loss coming in a wild 20-15 match against Luke Burgar of Texas

  • 190 - Peter Mocco was 7-1 with his only loss coming to unbeaten Carter Brown of Missouri

  • 215 - Cristhian Soto was 7-1 with his only loss coming to unbeaten Christian Mertz of North Dakota

Georgia:

  • 106 - Teequavious Mills was 6-2

  • 144 - Mihai Necula was 4-1 with his only loss coming to unbeaten Drake Morrison of Idaho 10-7

  • 150 - Paxton Legatt was 6-2

  • 190 - Robert McCoy was 4-1 with his only loss coming to unbeaten Blaise Turner of Idaho

North Carolina:

  • 138 - Denys Tsap was 3-1

  • 144 - Aaron Ellison was 5-2

South Carolina:

  • 113 - Montero Royal was 6-1 with his only loss coming to unbeaten Alexander Pierce of Iowa

  • 132 - Zane Chavis was 5-2

  • 175 - Logan Hinton was 6-1

  • 190 - Jesse Howard was 5-2

  • 285 - Landon Jackson was 7-1

Freestyle begins in the morning. Here are the top 8 seeds and the brackets:

  1. Indiana

  2. Iowa

  3. Illinois

  4. California

  5. Utah Gold

  6. Pennsylvania

  7. Minnesota Blue

  8. Wisconsin

No Pool D bracket below because there are no SE teams in Pool D.

Florida pulls the overall #1 seed Indiana in the opening round. North Carolina and South Carolina each get seeded teams as well … North Carolina will wrestle #8 Wisconsin in the opening round of Pool A and South Carolina will wrestle #3 seed Illinois in the opening round of Pool C.

Georgia will take on Maryland in the quarters and then will get the winner of North Dakota and Minnesota Blue (assuming they can beat Maryland).

Jason Fulmore
Florida finishes 14U Greco Duals in 13th; Georgia has 3 remain unbeaten

Team Florida finished their 14U journey on a winning note with a 48-33 dual win over Maryland to take 13th. Florida, the only SE team to make the Bronze/Copper Pool, started Day 2 with a loss to New Jersey before rebounding with wins over Oklahoma Red and Maryland.

Team Florida opened Day 1 with wins over Washington and Arkansas before dropping their Pool B finals match to Pennsylvania Blue (the eventual Champs) and Illinois in the True 2nd match to take 3rd. A loss to New York Gold ended their opening day 2-3. 2-1 on Day 2 helped bring Florida to 4-4 in Greco.

Team Georgia lost several close duals on Day 1 (39-37 to PA Red) and 40-39 to New Jersey to drop to the Red/Blue Pool. Georgia finished Greco 2-2 with wins over Minnesota Red and Oklahoma Blue and losses to Texas Gold and Washington. Georgia lost 3 duals by a total of 4 points … this team has to feel like they could have finished higher than they did.

Tennessee finished 1-3 on Day 1 in Pool C and went 0-4 on Day 2 to take 8th in the Red/Blue Pool. Six forfeits absolutely killed any chance for Tennessee to do well as a team … that is giving up 30 points in every dual … just something you can’t do that this level and expect team success.

North Carolina was in a similar boat with forfeits and finished Greco 0-7.

Outstanding Individual Performances

Despite some challenges - each squad had some outstanding individual performances. Georgia is the only team to finish the tournament with unbeaten wrestlers. Beau Abbott was 3-0 at 87 lbs. and Isaac Jung and Alessandro Vitello Jr. were each unbeaten in splitting reps at 97 lbs. Jung was 5-0 with outstanding wins over Nathan Fenner (PA) and Stephen Bagocius (NJ). Vitello had 3 8-0 tech falls to finish 3-0 at 97 lbs. Below are a few others that finished the Greco portion of the Duals with a solid outing:

Florida

  • 92 - Lucas Layne was 6-2

  • 114 - Logan Price was 6-2 with a tough 6-3 loss to Max Mandac of Illinois

  • 136 - Matteo Gonzalez was 6-1 with a solid 12-9 win over Tyce Thompson of Oklahoma

  • 187/250 - Sultan Olzha was 6-2

Georgia:

  • 103 - Liam Nielsen was 6-2 with two very close losses (7-6 tp Rakhmatov of Texas and 8-6 to Joyce of New Jersey)

  • 110 - Xavier Mance was 6-2 with a 7-6 loss to Crowsey of Texas

  • 125 - Walker Woodard was 6-2 with an 8-6 loss to Choo of Texas and an 8-6 win over Carl of Pennsylvania

  • 149 - Nathaniel Park was 7-1 with his only loss coming to Gage Evans of Pennsylvania 9-4

  • 165 - Canaan Goss was 6-2

North Carolina:

  • 106 - Catoe Byrd was 4-3

Tennessee:

  • 77 - Chase Smith was 7-1 with his only loss coming to Ryder Sandoval of Oklahoma

  • 136 - Ruger Pennington was 6-2 with one of his few losses to very tough Gage Evans of Pennsylvania

  • 250 - Bobby Jow Adamson was 7-1 with his only loss to Rhodes Molenda of Oklahoma

All teams are back in action tomorrow for Freestyle. Here is what you need to know:

Top 8 Seeds:

  1. Ohio Scarlet

  2. Iowa

  3. Illinois

  4. Pennsylvania Blue

  5. Wisconsin

  6. Indiana

  7. Washington

  8. Minnesota Blue

There is a Pool D, but no SE teams are in the Pool so we did not include it. Florida pulls the toughest draw with #6 seed Indiana in the opening round. Georgia has a tough bottom side of the bracket in Pool B and will get a good New York Gold squad in the quarters … a win they will need to have if they are going to make the top 8. North Carolina sits up top in Pool B and will wrestle the winner of Iowa and Kansas in the quarters. Tennessee is in Pool A and get a winnable match in the quarters with Arkansas … although giving up so many forfeits it will be a tough challenge.

Jason Fulmore
16U Duals Seeds and Brackets

Top 8 Seeds:

  1. Iowa

  2. Utah Gold

  3. Minnesota Blue

  4. Illinois

  5. Texas Gold

  6. California

  7. Colorado

  8. Washington

Terrible draw for South Carolina as they get the overall #1 seed Iowa in the opening round of Pool A.

Matches to watch in the Iowa vs. South Carolina dual:

  • 113 Montero Royal vs. Alexander Pierce

  • 190 Jesse Howard vs. Andy Franke

North Carolina will wrestle Kansas in the opening round of Pool A.

Matches to watch in the North Carolina vs. Kansas dual:

  • 144 Aaron Ellison vs. Thunder Page

  • 165 Jeshurun Mills vs. Luke Kerns

Tough pull for the Florida 16U’s as they get #7 overall seed Colorado first thing in the morning in Pool B.

3 Matches to watch in Florida vs. Colorado

  • 100 RJ Phelan vs. Tristan Pino

  • 113 Jovanni Tovar vs. Cooper Mathews

  • 126 Reid Yakes vs. Deven Lopez

Louisiana will wrestle Missouri in the opening round of Pool B.

Georgia will take on Montana in the opening round of Pool C. A win and they will get the winner of #6 seed California and New Jersey.

3 Matches to watch in Georgia vs. Montana

  • 94 - Cody Clarke vs. Remington Grunhuvd

  • 113 - Tanner Hunt vs. Kellen Downing

  • 120 - Chris Phillips vs. Christopher Grossman

Arkansas will wrestle Idaho to open action in Pool D.

Jason Fulmore