The Team GA Schoolboy group began their freestyle tournament today in Pennsylvania. After a decent showing in the Greco duals finishing middle of the road, I am sure this team and coaching staff is wanting to put on a show in the freestyle tournament. Team GA was placed in Group B along with 9 other teams. Groups will wrestle a 16 man bracket and place everyone for the next days placement pools.
GA started their day against New York Gold. This dual was a back and forth affair from start to finish with New York Gold and Georgia trading wins down until the final match. New York Gold had a 3 point lead going into the final match and Joaquin Salas came up with a huge 10-0 tech fall to give GA the win by 1 point 40-39. A great quarterfinal win and start to the tournament.
Next up in the semis GA took on New Jersey, typically a very strong national team. The Garden State team proved to be too much for our boys today as New Jersey won 12 out of 18 matches. To make matters worse, 2 of GA’s wins came by forfeit. On the bright side of the 12 matches lost, 5 of them were by 1 point or by criteria. It seems Team GA was a couple unlucky breaks away from making this dual much more competitive than the score suggests.
After getting knocked over to the consolation side of the bracket Team GA would meet up with Washington in the conso semis. Washington started strong winning 4 of the first 6 matches but then Team GA went on a run winning 6 of the next matches. GA wasnt able to secure the dual until the final match on the back of Hamza Sayeeds 12-2 tech fall. Sayeed took care of business with 3 consecutive 4 point arm throws to send GA to the consolation finals with a 43-37 win over Washington.
In the conso finals Georgia would take on Pennsylvania Red. With the exception of the middle of the lineup, from 97 lbs to 119 lbs, Pennsylvania absolutely handled Georgia. Pennsylvania won the first five matches and 6 out of the final 7. The lone win in that final 7 matches was a forfeit by Pennsylvania. Georgia would lose to Pennsylvania 49-28 giving them a 4th place finish in Pool B placing them in the bronze/copper pool for the second round of the two day tournament.
The placement pools are setup to be traditional pool play round robin brackets where 8 teams will be split into 2 pools of 4. Each team will wrestle their pool of 4 and depending on how they finish they will be matched up to their counterpart from the other pool of 4 to see where they finish in the overall tournament itself.
Team GA finished up day 1 of freestyle taking on Oklahoma Blue in the first round of the bronze/copper pool. Oklahoma Blue was a very well coached and put together squad who had an answer for almost everything GA threw at them. Oklahoma Blue won this dual by a score of 54-24.
Tomorrow team GA will take on Maryland, Indiana, and whoever from the opposite pool of 4 for the placement match. Team GA finished the day with a 2-3 record.
Schoolboy Freestyle Team GA Day 1 Hammer: Walker Bunch finished the day ith a 4-1 record. His only loss ws a 3-2 decision against New Jersey. Bunch had 1 pin, 2 techs, and 1 decision win.
Honorable Mention was Peyton Nicholson who also had a 4-1 record on the day.
You can find a link to the brackets here
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