Pony Boy Wrestling

The women’s junior freestyle national team began their quest for respect on the national level today competing at the Cox Business Convention Center in Tulsa Oklahoma. Thirty seven teams, representing 28 different states, from all over the nation are competing to see who is the best team in the nation. Georgia has 2 teams competing in this years tournament. Being able to compete with two teams this year is a testament to how much this sport has grown in our state. Georgia Blue and Georgia Red are both littered with state champions and state placers. These are some of the best female wrestlers that this state has to offer. 

Teams for this tournament were placed into one of 4 pools in day 1. Each pool will wrestle through a bracket style tournament to find where they placed 1-8. Depending on how each team finished in their pool they will then be placed in a round robin pool on day 2. The top 2 teams from each pool will go into the gold/silver pool, 3rd and 4th will go to the bronze/copper pool and so on and so forth until everyone is placed into a day 2 pool. 

Below you will find a recap of both squads activities. 

Georgia Blue Recap:

Day 1

Georgia Blue is filled with some of the absolute best that Georgia has to offer. Multiple time state champions, multi time state placers, and nationally ranked wrestlers are in almost every weight class. Georgia Blue was placed in pool B along with 9 other teams, they had a bye in the round of 16 and met up with California Red in the quarter finals. This dual started with fireworks where California started the dual with back to back pins and Georgia answered with their own back to back pins. Both teams would trade matches until the heavyweight match, California was able to get a pin at heavyweight which is what began a 5 natch win streak for California. Georgia would make a valiant effort ending the dual with 2 pins and a tech fall but it was too little too late. California want on to win the dual 37-35. 

Georgia got pushed into the consolation side of the bracket after that loss and would take on Tennessee next. Tennessee would win the first match of the dual but then Georgia would go on a 7 match in streak, 6 of those wins coming by fall. Georgia would not look back after that win streak and ended up winning this dual 54-19. 

Georgia versus Idaho was a close dual, almost all the way down to the final match. Both teams would go back and forth with wins and pins all the way through the lineup. Several things went Team Georgias way in order for us to pull out a win against Idaho. Receiving 3 forfeits from The Gem State certainly helped us out, but in reality, I believe that winning 4 out of the final 5 matches allowed us to walk away with this dual by a score of 38-31. 

In the conso semis Georgia would take on Oklahoma, traditionally a very strong wrestling state with loaded athletes top to bottom throughout their lineup. Oklahoma was never really in any danger in this one, they controlled this dual from start to finish. Oklahoma really put a stamp on the dual winning 7 of the final 9 matches on their way to a 47-22 victory over Team Georgia Blue. 

In the last match of the day Team Georgia Blue took on North Dakota for 5th place in pool B. Ayana Fletcher set the tone for Georgia Blue in the first match of this dual with a 17 second fall. Georgia would also win the next 3 matches in convincing fashion taking a 17-1 lead. While North Dakota gave a great effort, the ladies on Georgia Blue would not be denied this victory. Georgia Blue defeated North Dakota in convincing fashion with a 46-24 score. 

Day 2

With Georgia Blue finishing in 5th place in Pool B, they were then placed in the Red/Blue pool along with the other teams who finished in 5th and 6th place in their pools from day 1. The Red/Blue pool is set up as a round robin pool where each team will wrestle 3 matches in a 4 team pool and then a crossover dual with their equal counterpart from the opposite 4 team pool within the Red/Blue pool. For example, if Texas and Oklahoma both finish in 3rd place in their respective pools they will wrestle eachother in the crossover round for 5th and 6th within pool Red/Blue. 

Georgia Blue started day 2 with Michigan Red this dual went back and forth between the two teams all the way down until the last matches. Every match in this dual,except for the exception of 1, was a fall for one of the two teams. Georgia started with a pair of wins, then Michigan countered with their own wins, neither team relenting or backing down. Georgia took control of this dual with the last 5 matches of the dual winning 4 of the last 5. Team Georgia Blue won this dual 44-30. 

Up next was Virgina, this second dual of the day was a dual of runs for each team. Virgina started the party with 2 techs and a fall to take a lead. Georgia Blue responded with 3 of their own wins to make it close. This continued until Team Georgia hit the middle of their lineup, similarly to the Michigan Red dual, Georgia Blue would finish this dual in dominant fashion winning 5 out of the final 6 matches to win by a score of 46-25. 

The final pool play dual was against Utah. Utah started off strong winning 6 out of th first 8 matches of this dual. As they have done in both of the precious duals today the middle of Georgia Blue’s lineup did their best to rally back and go on a run to put Georgia in a position to win the dual but it was too little too late. The lead Utah had built was too much to overcome and Team Georgia Blue lost 39-32. 

In the crossover dual for 3rd and 4th place in the Red/Blue pool Team Georgia Blue took on Texas Red. In repetitive fashion, this dual played out like several have before it for this team. The beginning part of the lineup traded wins with Texas Red, keeping it just close enough for the middle/back half of the lineup to dominate their opponents to take the lead. Georgia Blue finished this dual winning 4 of the final 6 matches, giving Georgia Blue just enough of a lead to seal the third place finish in this pool by a score of 37-31. 

Georgia blue finished the freestyle tournament with a 6-3 overall record. Finishing 5th in Pool B, 3rd in the Red/Blue pool, and 19th out of 37 teams. 

Junior Women’s Freestyle National Duals Georgia Blue Team Hammer: Kori Campbell is the hammer going undefeated, going 9-0 in the freestyle tournament with 6 falls, 1 tech fall, and 1 decision. 

Georgia Red Recap:

Day 1

Just like Georgia Blue, this team is also loaded with state placers and state champions. One major difference between this group and Georgia Blue is this group is forfeiting 5 out of the 15 weight classes, making it extremely difficult to win a dual style tournament. Georgia Red was placed in the 8 team bracket of pool D with their first opponent being Nebraska. 

Nebraska was more than up for the challenge that Georgia Red was able to put forth for this first dual of the tournament winning every single match of this dual and blanking Georgia Red 72-0 for the final score. No more needs to be said about this dual, lets move on the consolation side of the bracket. 

In the second dual of the day, some of the girls on Georgia Red were able to find their form Samantha Patton, Madison Cooley, Ava Catledge, and Isabella Mingeldorff were all able to earn either a fall or tech fall to secure 18 points for Georgia Red. Other than that Team Virginia was able to take care of business in the other matches. As I stated earlier this team is in an almost impossible spot forfeiting so many matches but Virginia still walked away with this dual by a score of 47-18. 

In the 7th/8th place match of the day Georgia Red took on North Carolina in the final match of the day. Luckily for us, North Carolina had just as many forfeits as Georgia Red did. So this dual was decided on the mat and not by a lack of wrestlers. Of the 7 matches wrestled Georgia Red won 4 of the 7, Two by fall and two by tech fall. Georgia Red was able to win this dual by a score of 33-24. 

Day 2

With Georgia Red finishing in 7th place in Pool D they were placed in the Yellow/Green pool where they will face other teams who finished in 7th and 8th place in their respective duals. The Yellow/Green pool is set up as a round robin pool where each team will wrestle 3 matches in a 4 team pool and then a crossover dual with their equal counterpart from the opposite 4 team pool within the Yellow/Green pool. For example, if Texas and Oklahoma both finish in 3rd place in their respective pools they will wrestle each other in the crossover round for 5th and 6th within pool Yellow/Green. 

Georgia Red began their day with South Dakota, unfortunately for our girls on Georgia Red, it was more of the same as day 1. While Georgia Red continued to give up multiple forfeits, making it almost impossible to win duals consistently, the ladies would not be deterred. Finding themselves slightly over matched, losing 5 out of the 9 matches wrestled. Adding on the forfeit points, South Dakota won this dual in a fairly straightforward manner with a final score of 46-22. 

In the second dual of the day, Georgia Red would dual Ohio Blue. In an all too familiar story line, Georgia Red had a good showing and would have been a contender in this dual if it were not for the forfeits in this lineup. Giving up 5 forfeits is a difficult thing for any dual team to overcome, especially at the national level. The young ladies from Georgia gave a valiant effort and did all they could but in the end it was just too much, losing 46-29. 

In the second to last dual of the day, Georgia Red took on Arkansas. Arkansas took a commanding lead winning the first five matches, 3 of them were forfeits. The middle of our lineup came in to make the score respectable but with Arkansas winning the bookend weight classes and all the forfeits Arkansas was able to win this one fairly convincingly with a score of 49-25. 

The 7th and 8th place match for the Yellow/Green pool was the final match of the day. This final match was against North Carolina, and luckily forfeits would not be a major factor in this one since North Carolina had a bunch of forfeits as well. Both teams would go back and forth each winning matches. Isabella Mingeldorff and Alanna Garner started the winning for Georgia Red, followed by Addison Braswell and Samantha Patton. The final three matches of the dual were all won by Georgia Red in order to take a 35-23 lead and finish the tournament on a high note. 

Georgia Red finished Pool D in 7th place, Yellow/Green pool in 7th place, and 31 out of 37 teams with  2-5 record. 

Junior Women’s Freestyle National Duals Georgia Red Team Hammer: Samantha Patton finished with a 6-1 record, recording 3 pins, 2 forfeits, 1 tech, and 1 loss. Patton was a machine for Georgia Red and handled everyone once she got going after that first dual. We can attribute that to nerves being on the national stage for the first time.  

You can find the brackets for this tournament here