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There was a lot to take in on Tuesday at the Fargodome in Fargo, North Dakota. We had Greco-Roman Phase II World Team Trials, Junior Greco-Roman Finals and Junior Women’s freestyle finals. Tuesday’s the craziest day here in Fargo, so sit back, relax and take your time, because it’s time for another Fargo Update coming up NOW on the Short Time Wrestling Podcast.
LET’S START BY GETTING INTO ALL OF THIS STUFF
The Army's Justin Lester made his seventh U.S. World Team with two straight victories over Pat Smith of the Minnesota Storm in the Phase II Trials at 71kg. Lester, a World bronze medalist in 2006 and 2007, made things look easy in the first match of the best-of-three series, teching Smith 9-0 in 54 seconds. The second time around, it was a bit more of a battle as Lester got past Smith 2-1. Smith took the early lead with a pushout, but Lester matched him with a pushout of his own to effectively take the lead. Smith tried pushing the pace, but Lester tacked on a pushout with 32 seconds remaining to cement his lead and join the team heading to Uzbekistan in September.
Joe Rau, who won a Junior Greco-Roman title for Illinois back in 2009, earned a spot on the U.S. World Team at 80kg after defeating 2012 Olympian Ben Provisor in two straight matches. Rau beat Provisor in the first match 1-0 with the decisive point coming on Provisor's second caution. In the second match, Rau, wrestling for the Minnesota Storm, used a pushout from a front headlock position in the first period. It would be the only point of the match as Rau would again win 1-0. It's Rau's second World Team berth of the summer. He recently competed at the World University Championships in Hungary at 85kg.
JUNIOR GRECO
California's Randon Miranda started out the night with a 14-4 techincal fall victory over Connecticut's Zack Murillo at 100 pounds. Miranda captured the second leg of the Junior Triple Crown. He won the Folkstyle Nationals earlier this year. Miranda led from start to finish, but got in trouble early after Murillo stepped over and put Miranda to his back. Miranda built a 7-2 lead until Murillo stepped over again, but Miranda avoided trouble and then scored three more takedowns to ice the victory.
Arizona's Danny Vega won the state's ninth overall Junior Greco-Roman title with a 7-2 victory over Todd Small of Georgia at 106. At the Cadet level, Vega as second in Greco last year and won a freestyle championship. Like Miranda, he's still eligible to win the Triple Crown after winning Folkstyle Nationals earlier this year.
Idaho's Dorian Sapien took home the title at 113 pounds with a 12-6 victory over Kansas' Corbin Nirschl. Sapien fell behind early, but hit a big four-point armspin that changed the pace of the match. Sapien won Idaho's ninth all-time Junior Greco-Roman title.
Skyler Petry's stellar summer continued as the Minnesota native topped New Jersey's Anthony Cefolo 2-1 at 120 pounds. Petry scored a takedown early in the match and only gave up a late point. Petry, bound for the University of Minnesota, becomes Minnesota's 34th Junior Greco-Roman champion.
Utah's Taylor Lamont wrestled up to the Junior level and came away with a national title. Lamont doesn't compete on Sundays, and he's still in the Cadet age group, so since the Junior tournament started on Monday, he competed there and it didn't seem to make much difference. At 126 pounds Lamont fell behind early to Kegan Calkins of Illinois, but after Lamont tied it up with a takedown, he launched Calkins with a nice reverse lift for five points. It's all the scoring that would take place in Lamont's 7-2 win.
New York's William Koll picked up a title with a punishingly dominant 11-0 victory at 132 pounds over New Jersey's William Kui. Koll countered a headlock attempt to get a takedown, then hit a big five pointer to build a 7-0 lead. Koll then finished Kui off scoring a takedown and a two-point gutwrench. Koll is the son of Cornell head coach Rob Koll.
After finishing second last year, Missouri's Blake Clevenger claimed the championship at 138 pounds with an 8-1 victory over Georgia's Rudy Guillen. Clevenger, who signed with Division II Ouachita Baptist, hit a nice armdrag to score his first takedown, then gave up a pushout only to score two straight pushouts to build a 4-1 lead. He'd add four more points on two different exposures, one from his knees and another on a counter.
Iowa State-bound Renaldo Rodriguez-Spencer of New York had an exciting and explosive 145-pound championship bout with Sir Romeo Howard of Illinois. The 2014 Junior World Teamer earned a 16-5 technical fall. Howard got up 2-0 on two pushouts before Rodriguez-Spencer scored a takedown and then racked up three turns. Howard would get a point on one of those three sequences for Rodriguez-Spencer not arching through.
Utah's second champion of the night came at 152 pounds as Brooks Robinson rallied from a 4-0 deficit to pin Colorado's Nick Tarpley at 2:09. Tarpley hit Robinson for four early in the match and following, Robinson was attended to for the doctors after he landed hard on the mat. When they came back to the center, it was all Robinson as he tossed Tarpley for four points and then hit a quick headlock to get the fall.
Iowa-bound Burke Paddock gave New York a third championship of the night after winning at 160 pounds. Paddock teched Minnesota's Jake Deutschlander 10-0. Paddock scored two early then threw Deutschlander for four points to build a 6-0 lead. Paddock's lead went to 8-0 after a failed armspin attempt from his opponent then the final blow came with a two-point gutwrench.
Much like the Cadet Greco-Roman finals, there was a highly anticipated bout between two hammers and just like the Cadets, the 170-pound match was completely one-sided. Jon Jay Chavez of Idaho won his second straight Junior title by dominating another returning champion, Chandler Rogers from Oklahoma, 10-0 in just 80 seconds. Chavez came out quickly, getting two pushouts to build a 2-0 lead. Then came the fireworks as Chavez planted Rogers for four points and then finished the match with two two-point gutwrenches.
No surprise that Chavez was the OW.
Justan Rivera gave Georgia its only champion of the night with a title at 182 pounds. A well-time lateral drop on the edge was the difference as Rivera took home a 4-2 win over Ohio's A.J. Kowal. The Ohioan led 2-0 on the strength of a correct throw and a pushout and was pushing for another pushout when Rivera used the forward momentum to throw Kowal to his back with just over a minute left in the second period. Rivera won the Cadet freestyle championship last year and was the runner-up in Greco-Roman.
Oregon's Samuel Colbray won his sixth overall title in Fargo and his first Junior Greco-Roman title with an 8-0 victory over Joel Dixon of Oklahoma. Colbray won both styles each of the previous two years on the Cadet level. He hit a big lateral drop, nearly pinning Dixon.
At 220, Utah's Roy Nash gave his state a third championship as he beat Wisconsin's Tyler Schmidt in the final for the second year in a row. Nash went back and forth with Schmidt until getting two turns in par terre to break open a close match and come away with a 13-8 victory. The title was Nash's fifth in Fargo. He was a double champion last year.
Iowa-bound Sam Stoll of Minnesota won his first Junior Greco-Roman heavyweight championship with a 2-0 win over Northern Iowa-bound Adarios Jones of Illinois. The lone points came when Stoll scored a two-point gutwrench in par terre after Jones was put down for passivity.
TEAMS
With 16 All-Americans, Illinois crusied to the team championship wth 69 points. It’s the sixth straight Junior Greco-Roman title for the Land of Lincoln. Minnesota was second with 51, Utah third, New York fourth and get this … GEORGIA was fifth. They’ll be having some fun at the Turf tonight.
ON THE WOMEN’S SIDE
For the second year in a row, the twin sisters from California will share the championship at 97 pounds. Regina and Marina Doi combined to go 6-0 and didn't give up a single point en route to their championship.
After becoming South Dakota's first Cadet women's champion on Saturday, Ronna Heaton did the same on Tuesday at the Junior level with a 17-6 technical fall over Harmonie Roberts of California at 105 pounds. Roberts jumped out to an early lead, but Heaton came back with a quick pace, picking up bunches of exposure points and finishing powerful takedowns.
At 112 pounds, Marizza Birrueta became Washington's ninth Junior women's champion after pinning Texas' Cassidy Jasperson at 5:13. The bout was close throughout until Birrueta, the Cadet runner-up last year, turned Jasperson to her back and go the fall.
In an all-California final, Dominique Parrish claimed the championship over Madison Tung 8-4 at 117 pounds. Tied up at two after the pair traded takedowns, Parrish took Tung to her back for four points and tacked on two more to build an 8-2 lead. Tung then hit back to back inside trips for takedowns to close within 8-6 but Parrish fought off the late Tung attempts.
The California crew continued their championship ways as two-time Cadet World Team member Gabrielle Garcia picked up the championship at 121 pounds with a fall in 42 seconds over Arizona's Areana Villaescusa. Garcia won the Cadet championship in 2013.
Colorado's Maya Nelson repeated as a Junior women's champion by picking up an 11-0 technical fall victory over Idaho's Cierra Foster, who had won a Cadet title earlier this week. Nelson used a variety of offensive attacks including a pair of her noted armspins. Nelson won a Pan American Junior championship earlier this year.
Just five days after winning a FILA Cadet World championship in Slovakia, Hawaii's Teshya Alo won her second Junior women's championship by teching another returning champion. Alo beat Indiana's Kayla Miracle 10-0 at 130 pounds. The title was Alo's fourth in Fargo to go with her nearly two dozen national titles in wrestling and judo. Alo's offense was keyed by two misdirection low singles and a pair of chinwhips countering Miracle's attempts.
Alo was voted the OW.
Washington's Desiree Zavala captured the championship at 138 pounds beating Iowa's Cassandra Herkelman 12-2. Herkelman took a 2-0 lead into the second period, but after a four-point fireman's carry, it was all Zavala as she scored four second-period takedowns to earn the championship. Zavala was only fifth at the Cadet women's tournament last year.
New York's Alexis Porter had a tougher time defending her title than many might have thought. Now a two-time Junior champion, Porter got past Florida's Shamera Mctier 5-2 to win the gold at 148 pounds. Porter trailed 2-1 until getting a nice takedown with a shuck from her knees and then tacked on a late takedown for the final margin.
Kendall Reusing of California didn't come back from Slovakia with a medal at the Cadet World Championships, but she got to Fargo in time to win a Junior championship at 159 pounds. Reusing tossed Cadet champion Alexis Bleau of New York to the mat midway through the first period with a great shoulder throw. Reusing was eighth in Slovakia.
After finishing in second at the Cadet women's tournament earlier this week, Texas' Taylor Rosario found a bit of redemption on the raised platform as she claimed the Junior women's championship at 172 pounds. Rosario beat fellow Texan Clarc Walker 11-1, finishing the bout with a nice four-point toss on the edge.
Kiaya Van Scoyoc repeated as a Junior women's title with a fall over Texas' Rachel Bridges. Van Scoyoc's judo background was apparent as she hit a big arm throw and set up a headlock from another head tie situation.
Team wise, it was all California as the Golden State had 112 points and added 25 All-Americans to its total. So California had more than a quarter of the All-Americans.
Today, it’s the Turf.
