Today, 6/12/24 began the annual National Team Duals tournament. Teams from all over the country come to compete to see which state has the best dual team in the nation. These teams will compete in two duals style tournaments in both greco roman and freestyle over the course of 4 days, June 12 to June 15th. Day 1 and 2 will be Greco Roman, day 3 and 4 will be freestyle. The 14U team competed in Philadelphia while the 16U team competed in Utah.
Both the 14U and 16U teams took part in day 1 of Greco Roman today. Both were drawn into an 8 team bracket, how they finished in their bracket will determine which crossover pool they go into the following day. Below you will find a general recap of how the 14U team finished up the first day of competition.
14U National Duals Team: (SchoolBoy)
This 14U national team that was assembled to compete at the highest level in this tournament. Donovan Panone, of Level Up, is the head coach of this group along with Derrick Washington, Josh Mariakis, and Justin Boyden. The schoolboy team is littered with statechamps, state placers, and overall excellent wrestlers.
14U Ga finished the day in 6th place overall in pool D, they went 2-3 on the day with a couple of heartbreaking losses as a team. Their first round opponent in the quarters was Pennsylvania Red, GA lost that dual 39-37. Team Ga had a 37-32 lead going into the final two matches of the day and neither one of them went our way. Pennsylvania Red started out on a 4 match win streak then GA rallied with a 5 match win streak of their own. The dual went back and forth for the rest of the dual until the final two matches.
Team GA’s second round opponent was Delaware and team GA put on a show. Delaware had 8 forfeits in their lineup against us, the other 10 wrestlers won their matches. Team GA won 18 out of 18 matches on a way to an 81-4 trouncing of Delaware.
In the conso semis we ran into New Jersey, traditionally a very strong wrestling state. This was as close a dual as you could have, going back and forth match for match coming down to the wire. Going into the final two matches of the dual we were tied with NJ 35-35. Asher Asad put team GA ahead with a 12-4 tech fall, since the NJ kid was able to score team NJ as awarded 1 team point. That 1 team point ended up deciding the dual since the Team GA anchor this dual lost in a tech fall 8-0. Losing to NJ in the conso semis put the Schoolboy team in a dual with Pennsylvania Red again for 5th and 6th place.
The second matchup with Pennsylvania Red Was not as close as the first dual with them. Team GA ended up losing 40-31. The bookends of our lineup had a rough day against Pennsylvania Red losing in both duals. After losing to Pennsylvania Red in the 5th and 6th place match Team GA went into the Red/Blue Pool with 7 other teams. The Red/Blue Pool has Oklahoma Blue, Arkansas, Pennsylvania Red, Tennessee, Washington, Texas Gold, Minnesota Red, and GA.
Team Ga went ahead and wrestled the first round of crossover pool action against Minnesota Red and absolutely hammered Minnesota 63-15. Team Ga will take on Washington and Texas Gold tomorrow before wrestling in the placement matches for this Red/Blue Pool.
Day 1 Greco Hammer for Schoolboy National Team: Xavier Mance 5-0 on the day without surrendering a single pint. 8-0 Tech fall every match.
You can find the link to the Schoolboy Greco National Team bracket here
Pony Boy Wrestling 