After having such a great day of competition on day 1 and Team Georgia finding themselves finishing in 2nd place in Pool B, day 2 would be a different story. Team GA would find themselves in duals against California, Illinois, and Utah Gold to finish up the freestyle national duals tournament.
Starting the day with California is no easy task, California is a top tier wrestling state. Georgia came out firing on all cylinders winning 5 of the first 7 matches with 1 of those losses coming by forfeit at 100 lbs. After those first 5 wins California would wake up and start treating Georgia like the little brother. California would go on to win 9 of the next 10 matches and show why they are a powerhouse state in this sport. California won this dual with ease by a score of 47-25.
After the early morning wake up call by California, Georgia would have to shake that off because next up was blue blood state Illinois. Illinois is another state that is very well respected for their wrestling program. Georgia would win at the bookends of this dual but lost it in the middle of the lineup. Ga started off with 3 wins, all of which came with bonus points. Illinois would proceed to go on a 10 match win streak which was all started by back to back forfeits at 100 and 106. The back end of Georgias line up did not just lay down and accept defeat. They wrestled hard and came up with 3 wins out of the last 4 matches but it was too little too late.
The final dual of the tournament was the placement match for the Gold/Silver pool against Utah Gold. Georgia and Utah Gold would battle it out for 7th and 8th place in the Gold/Silver pool. As they have throughout both tournament Ariah Mills an Cody Clarke started team Georgia off with 2 bonus point wins after that it was all down hill as Utah Gold was able to put together 10 out of the next 11 matches to take a commanding lead that they would not give back. Dylan Reel and Ronan An did what they could to make it respectable but Utah just would not be denied in the end beating Georgia by a score of 52-25.
Overall the 16U Geogia Freestyle National Team finished in 2nd place in pool B, 8th place in the Gold/Silver pool and 8th out of 35 teams. Even though it was a disappointing 2nd day these boys got to experience competition against some of the best kids that this nation had to offer. Even though things did not go the way we all hoped, they are better wrestlers than they were when they got on the place to head out to Utah a few days ago. I am certainly excited and encouraged byhow this team did on the national stage. They represented this state very well and gained respect for not only themselves but for our entire state.
Cadet Freestyle Team Ga Day 2 Hammer(s): Ariah Mills and Cody Clarke both went undefeated on the day with 3-0 records. Mills 2 techs and 1 pin while Clarke finished with 2 pins and 1 decision win.
A link to the tournament brackets can be found here
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