The Elite 8 Duals, hosted this coming weekend by Compound Sportswear, is one of the premier fall events for high school boys from around the country. What makes Elite 8 different than Super 32 or some other events is that it is a dual format with some of the best club teams from around the country coming together to see who reigns supreme. Those club teams routinely fill their rosters with many of the best wrestlers around (whether they train at those clubs or not) and 12 teams get together for 2 days of outstanding competition.

The robes are given to the winners and Team Dynasty claimed them in 2023. To give you an idea of the level of competition - take a look at last year’s final between Dynasty and POWA:

POWA forfeited to Jax Forrest and Bo Bassett because of injuries, but the number of age-group World Team members, wrestlers ranked in the top 5 at their weight, Fargo Champs/All Americans, Super 32 Champs/All Americans etc. was off the charts.

And based on the lineups we’ve seen … 2024 will be no different.

So let’s begin with the basics:

When: September 21-22

Where: Georgia International Convention Center (Atlanta, GA)

Schedule:

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The Teams:

Pool A

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Pool B

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A preview to still to come …

Photo Credit: Dan Ward

As I’m sure you are aware … technically there is no Super 32 Early Entry for the girls division, but the Florida crew doesn’t want the girls to miss out on an opportunity to compete - so they host one anyway. One of the best things about the girls tournament is that it is both freestyle and folkstyle … keep in mind that the Super 32 Tournament in Greensboro in about a month is strictly freestyle for the girls (the boys on the other hand is strictly folkstyle).

We saw 3 double champs (claiming the top spot in both freestyle and folkstyle) and the group was headlined by Well Trained’s Camdyn Elliott. Elliott downed defending State champ Joslyn Johnson in both styles. Gladiator’s Willow White won both styles at 123, and Riverdale’s Juliana Caisse claimed the title at 139. We saw a different hammer claim the top step at each of the other weights.

97

• Freestyle Champ - Paola Perez

• Folkstyle Champ - Aniyah Wayne

• Perez and Wayne split their finals with Perez winning Freestyle 8-2 and Wayne claiming Folkstyle 5-0.

103

• Freestyle Champ - Maya Alvarado

• Folkstyle Champ - Breanna Higgins

• Higgins placed in both styles - winning folkstyle over Zoey McDonald 4-3. Shoutout to Grace Jawluski who made the podium in both styles as well - losing 9-9 to Alvarado in the Freestyle finals.

108

• Double Champ - Camdyn Elliott

• Great weight - just like Ward and I discussed last week. Elliott downed Natalie Choequegonza 10-1 in the Freestyle final and beat Johnson 6-0 in Folkstyle. Jazyln Diaz and Miayalee Ortiz both wrestled well to make the podium in each style.

115

• Freestyle Champ - Emma Bauknight

• Folkstyle Champ - Beyonce Espinosa

• Bauknight downed Espinosa In the freestyle finals 8-5. Bauknight was 3rd in Folkstyle (losing to Espinosa by fall in the quarters).

123

• Double Champ - Willow White

• White dominated until the final in Freestyle where she had to grind out an 11-9 win over Arianna Ruiz (in fact she had to mount a comeback to take the title from Ruiz). White beat Ruiz more handily in Folkstyle - taking the final 20-9 after putting up 14 points in the 1st period.

130

• Freestyle Champ - Katelynn Oliver

• Folkstyle Champ - Ana Vilar

• Oliver had to grind out a tough 10-6 win over Asabi in the quarters, but handled the semis (8-0 over Espinal) and finals (6-0 over Vilar) with relative ease. Vilar would take the Folkstyle title over Oliver with a fall in the 2nd period (after leading 6-3).

139

• Double Champ - Julianna Caisse

• Caisse had two falls and a 4-0 decision over Elody Rodriguez to take Freestyle and pinned Honore and Hoppe to claim the Folkstyle title.

148

• Freestyle Champ - Kristy More

• Folkstyle Champ - Noella Varela

• More dominated Freestyle - a 10-0 tech and two quick falls. more lost to Varela by fall in the finals of Folkstyle. More was up 9-5 on Varela when she was pinned in the 2nd period.

160

• Freestyle - three person round robin that Teegan Robinson won with two falls.

• Folkstyle - 8 person bracket that saw Zaria Slater down Robinson in the semis and then pin Alyssa Gerber in the finals.

172

• Isabella McFarlane downed Alex Calidonio 2-0 in the opening round of Freestyle and then pinned Monticello before taking a 6-6 criteria win over Payton Moyer in the finals.

• Calidonio had a fall and then a 6-1 win over Moyer to claim the Folkstyle title.

195

• Only Freestyle and dominated by Fargo All American Grace Leota

Photo Credit: Dan Ward

CJ Torres and many of the other top seeded hammers took care of business this weekend. Torres gave up 6 escapes on his way to putting up 56 points. Kalais Nazario of Mater Lakes was the only wrestler to push Torres the entire match - losing 10-0 in the 165 lb. final. Check out our brief recap of all the action below:

106

• Champ: Lazaro Soto (Eagle Empire) - looks like Soto’s takedown with 30 seconds remaining was the difference in his win over McLean.

• Battle of 1 vs 2 seed and the top 4 seeds all made the semis

• BOOM - Connor Barnes - two falls and then a quarterfinal loss to Horn before winning 4 in a row to take 3rd.

113

• Champ: Lucas Barrios (KWA) - downed top seed Liam Davis in the quarters when Davis went out with an injury (Davis was leading in a good battle between the two before Davis got injured).

• McGowan took a medical forfeit over Rocco Ruiz, Erik Perez downed Ethan Hamilton to make the finals on the bottom side.

• BOOM - Timothy McLean battled back after a 9-4 loss to Hamilton to win 6 in a row (including 1-0 decision over Hamilton) to take 3rd.

120

• Champ: Bradley Patterson (Camden) - domination. Patterson didn’t give up a point (and he’s slated to wrestle at Elite 8 down a weight 😳). He beat Kaleb Williams 17-0 in the semis and then pinned Keegan Mesina in 35 seconds in the finals.

• Great battle on the bottom with Mesina downing Illinois State Champ Eric Bush 16-1 before taking out Malachi Ortiz 2-1 in the semis.

• BOOM - Mario DiBella had 3 wins before losing to Ortiz 8-3 … he then won 3 on the backside (including a 13-0 major of Williams) before losing to Ortiz (again) - this time 4-2 to take 4th.

126

• Champ: Reid Yakes (Tampa Bay Tigers) - Yakes had to win a close one in his opening match over Roberto De Jesus Rivera 4-2 before going on a tear with an 11-0 major, 8-0 major, a 9-4 decision of David Leiva and then an 11-0 major of Zac Berry in the finals.

• Really good matches throughout the bracket - but neither the 1 or 2 seed made the finals.

• BOOM - Zach Berry of Palm Harbor downed top seed Nathaniel Williams 4-0 and Adrian Day 2-1 in the semis before losing to Yakes. Berry came in unseeded and showed everyone he is someone to watch this coming season.

132

• Champ: Jovani Solis (Gladiator) - Solis looked every bit of the best freshman in the SE. He didn’t give up an offensive point the entire tournament - yielding just 5 escapes. He beat 2x Georgia State Champ Hunter Prosen 17-1 and Florida State Placer Dillon Smith 10-3 on his way to the title.

• One of the best brackets of the morning session. Deep with tons of talent. Camden teammates Prosen and Higgins double forfeited their 3rd place match - both dropped their semis (Smith beat Higgins 3-1). This is a very good 1-2 punch for Camden.

• BOOM - Dillon Smith (Eagle Empire) … not a huge BOOM (because I try to highlight those off the radar here), but Smith had two solid wins that you can’t not talk about. He beat Xavier Albo 2-1 in tiebreaker and then downed Higgins 3-1 before losing to Solis.

138

• Champ: Emmett Nelson - Illinois hammer dropped in and won the bracket - toughest match was an 8-7 decision over Camden’s Zow in the quarters.

• Chaos. None of the top 4 seeds made it past the quarters. Several huge wins … Ozy Aquino over Sharipov, Chris Williams of Camden over Bonachea 7-5 and one of the best early round matches was an 11-7 overtime win by Roderque Zow over Armand Williams.

• BOOM - Chris Williams (Camden) … beat Bonachea, the 2 seed, and then pinned Bowermaster before losing to Nelson in the finals (it will be interesting to see how Wilder gets Williams into the lineup - going to be tough with Prosen, Higgins, Zow, etc. all battling it out for a spot).

144

• Champ: EJ Solis - Solis and Paridon showed why they are nationally-ranked - both took care of business and then battled it out 4-2 in the finals.

• Solis and Paridon were outstanding. Rozier, Campbell, Bruner, and others were outstanding as well.

• BOOM - Gavin Cohen (Well Trained) - solid wins and then an outstanding 6-3 decision of Michael Kersey in the quarters. Cohen’s only loss on the day was to Solis in the semis. He beat Bruner and Rozier on the backside to finish 3rd.

150

• Champ: Zeno Moore … and it wasn’t close. Moore (like Patterson, Torres, and a few others) dominated with 6 tech falls (guess he likes the new 3 point takedown).

• Bottom side featured some great matchups … Brock Weaver over Bates 8-6, Basile over Weaver 3-1 and well as a solid win by Barrett over Duhaylungsod.

• BOOM - Landon Bates bounced back from an 8-6 loss to Weaver to down Lopez, Barrett, and then getting a fall over Duhaylungsod to take 3rd.

157

• Champ: Tyree Graham - wrestled great and won some close matches including a last second takedown to downed Vukajlovic.

• Really good weight that featured some great matchups. Graham beat Nikita Chechkovsky 4-1, Graham beat Vukajlovic 5-4, Andrews downed Moreno 8-2, Hodge downed Vlad Chechkovsky 5-1, Andrews beat Hodge 1-0, and Graham beat Andrews 6-0 in the final.

• BOOM - Jovan Vukajlovic came back from a close loss to Graham to beat Vlad Chechkovsky and Eric Hodge to take 3rd. Two very good wins on the day.

165

• Champ: CJ Torres - domination … we already talked about CJ’s run through the bracket.

• Torres was on another level … Kalias Nazario was superb on the bottom side with 3 1st period falls and a 19-4 tech fall including a 29 second fall of Drake Bonney in the semis.

• BOOM - This would go to Robbie Nelson who battled back from an early loss to take 3rd, but Nelson is from Illinois - so we will also recognize an SE hammer that did well - Vincent Contreras of Funky Monkey had 3 falls before being injured in his quarter to CJ Torres.

175

• Champ: Ronald Robinson of Victory Elite beat 3 seed Tre Driggett in the opening round … beat Sweitzer 4-1 in overtime and then beat Conner Bonney 14-1 to take the title.

• BOOM - Raymond Shaw - only loss to eventual Champ Robinson (4-1 in the quarters). Battled through the backside to take 3rd with solid wins over Driggett, Mercado, and Gonzales.

190

• Champ: Top seed Mateo Martinez of Somerset dominated - won the weight with 4 falls and a 14-3 major decision.

• BOOM - Brody Switzer battled from the 3 seed to take 2nd including a solid 11-8 decision of Darrius Montgomery in the semis.

215

• Champ: Myron Mendez looked outstanding on his way to the title. Beating Marvin Mendez, Comerford, CJ McCutcheon, and top seed Damian Soto.

• BOOM - Top 4 seeds all made the top 4 - so we go with Marvin Mendez who lost to the eventual champ in the opening round and then won 3 in a row before medically forfeiting to McCutcheon in the consi semis.

285

• Champ - Joseph Schulze of Camden won a tough 1-0 decision over Liam Higgins before pinning Lattimore in the finals.

• BOOM - Liam Higgins - beat Elder 1-0 and pinned Honara before losing to Schulze in a cloe one OR Ari Montalvo who beat Higgins for 3rd - beat Vansickle, the top seed, before losing to Lattimore in the semis.