Three Gophers freshman earned All-America honors at the United States Marine Corps Junior Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota this week.
All three freshmen ran through their brackets to place on the podium top-eight with 160-pound Baylor Fernandes placing the highest at third with 138-pound Marcos Polanco (7th) and 152-pound Cael Carlson (8th) following suit.
Fernandes won eight matches with his only loss at the tournament coming in the quarterfinals to Dajuan Johnson of Wisconsin. After the loss, the Illinois native ran off four straight victories to finish in the bronze medal spot. Seven of Fernandes’ eight victories came via superiority.
After falling into the consolation side of the bracket, California native Polanco propelled himself to the seventh-place match with three more victories including a fall after only 1:37 in the final bout.
Carlson, a native of the Land of 10,000 Lakes, won five matches to earn his spot on the podium via the seventh-place match. Carlson won four matches by superiority and another by fall.
Martin Wilkie and Sebas Swiggum both had great tournaments with several big wins by superiority or fall.
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