USA Wrestling

Minnesota Blue Places Third at Junior Duals

TULSA, Okla. – Iowa’s Junior men’s freestyle team looked strong over both days of the 2021 Junior Freestyle National Duals, but may have saved its best wrestling for the championship finals.

After dropping the first two bouts, Iowa won 10 of the final 13 matches, including some very close battles, to defeat returning champion Oklahoma Outlaws Red, 40-23.

The finals dual meet began at 138, where Carter Young of Oklahoma secured a controlled 4-1 decision over Joel Jesuroga of Iowa. Young scored a first-period takedown to lead 2-1 at the break, then added two second period step-outs after leg attacks to secure the win. Continue reading at teamusa.org →

Coming into the 2021 Junior National Greco-Roman Duals, Illinois had won three straight team titles, including the most recent one held in 2019. With the COVID-19 pandemic canceling last year’s event, it would be a different group of wrestlers tasked with trying to make it four in a row for Illinois.

Although it wasn’t easy, and the team needed some help from another team, it was Illinois Junior Greco-Roman which had the championship trophy to pose early Thursday evening.

The six teams in the Gold/Silver pool each wrestled each other, with all of the teams getting five duals. After five rounds of action, Illinois Junior Greco-Roman, Minnesota Blue and host Oklahoma Outlaws Blue all finished with identical 4-1 records.

In short, the tiebreaker goes like this. The team with the least classification points is third, and that was Minnesota. Then, the head to head win by Illinois over Oklahoma gave Illinois the championship trophy. Continue reading at teamusa.org →

Minnesota Blue Places Third at 16U Duals

WESTFIELD, Ind. – Ohio Red and Minnesota Red claimed titles in freestyle at the 16U and 14U divisions, respectively, at the 2021 National Duals in Westfield, Ind.

In 16U competition, Ohio Red won the tournament with a 41-32 defeat over Jew Jersey. Ohio won nine of the dual’s 17 bouts to help propel the squad to the win. Taking third was Minnesota Blue, which took out Illinois, 49-27. Pennsylvania Blue finished fifth and California finished seventh in the tournament.

Winning the 14U tournament was Minnesota Red, defeating California, 41-31 in the finals. For bronze, New Jersey edged out Iowa, 39-38. Ohio Scarlet was fifth, while Illinois took seventh. Continue reading at teamusa.org →

After a two-day demolition of the Greco-Roman field at the 16U National Duals, Minnesota coach Adam Thronson shared a simple secret to his state’s success in the sport — experimentation.

No, the Minnesotans aren’t reinventing the Greco wheel with anything cutting edge, according to Thronson.

They’re just giving the discipline a shot and their commitment is making Minnesota a national Greco hotbed.

“We have four regional training sites throughout Minnesota,” Thronson said. “We have amazing clubs in Minnesota that are always pushing for going to the Greco tournament on Friday and the freestyle tournament on Saturday. It’s just important to give things a try. I don’t think Minnesota is doing anything special. We just stick to a system and we want kids to give this a try. It’s working toward building kids’ confidence from a young age and when they do that we can come to a tournament like this and have a lot of success.” Continue reading at flowrestling.org →