After the smoke cleared, I wanted to share some thoughts about our Juniors. Despite injuries, these guys showed incredible heart to place in both styles!

98 - Parker Howell - This guy stepped up and filled the gap we had at 98. He was only weighing about 92 and had just completed the Cadet duals. He saved us 16 team points and I won't soon forget the grin on his face when he beat the Michigan kid!
98/105 - Javier Vieyra - Javi went 105 greco and then came to the aid of our FS team at 98. Totaling 17 matches he had huge wins over NJ, WA and IN and wrestled the IL and WI kids into the 3rd period.
105 - Zac Gentzler - Zac ran the table and was named to the All-Tournament FS team! He beat the IL and WI kids and his 22 second pin in the PA dual lit up the bench as we beat PA for the first time in many years.
112 - Austin Hood - This weight was brutal and Austin wrestled 11 matches. He pinned the NE kid in 32 seconds and had a big win over Neighbors in that classic MO dual. We really missed him in FS after his injury!
119/125 - Aspen Kmiec - Aspen made 119 for the GR team and suffered and injury that threatened to keep him out of FS. This kid is a pinning machine with two huge pins against WI and PA. In the PA dual, I was talking to another wrestler and missed his 22 second pin. That match continued the momentum and the team was on a roll.
119 - Geoff Wright - This guy is what the duals are all about. I had not seen much of him until these duals. I really felt bad for him as he started out on the tail end of 3 one-sided losses. In the 4th match against WA, he lost the first period 7-0. Then....he had enough and won the next two periods for the win. After tasting victory, he beat the MO kid, went three periods against FL and finished with a huge win over NJ. Geoff scored 11 points for us and should be feeling pretty good about his effort in OKC!
125 - Robbie Hines - Robbie scored 18 team points in FS and overcame a first period deficit to beat his NE opponent. He finished 4-2. He is a tough kid with not a lot of FS experience and he got better as the day went on.
125 - Tommy Williams - A former Fargo AA, Tommy has been on the golf course for most of the FS/GR season. With few matches under his belt, he showed that he still has it with a big pin against Wisconsin and a win over NJ.
125 - Mario Corado - If you've never seen Corado wrestle, it's a treat. He's an athletic kid that gets in all kinds of scrambles. After teching the WA guy, he went 3 periods in a close loss to MO. He was injured in that match and it kept him off the mat in FS.
130 - Brandon Charbonneau - A state champion from Emporia, Brandon had some great battles in his 10 matches. He went 5-5 overall with big wins over CO, WA and NJ. He almost beat Ben Morgan from MN in a 3 period match that could have went either way.
130 - Daniel DeShazer - After a slow start in GR, he came through with 4 key wins in FS. He beat a tough WI kid, losing only two very close matches to PA and IA. He is always in any match with his lightning fast speed. Even though he's been off the mat for awhile, he contributed greatly in 10 matches for Team KS.
135 - Zack Tanenbaum - Zack had two marquee wins in the IL and MO duals. His pin over Courier from MO was a blast to watch. He wrestled 11 matches over the weekend and scored 23 team points.
135 - Symon Seaton - Symon wrestled 9 matches and had big wins over WI and NJ. He's another one that is a blast to watch. Always eventful!
140 - Tyson Schmidtberger - Probably the surprise of the tournament for me. We all know how tough Tyson is in folkstyle and he made a pretty good showing at last years duals, but this year he was awesome. He wrestled GR only and went 7-2. In our first dual he beat nationally ranked Himmelman from CO, 4-0, 4-0. It wasn't ever close. He lost to AJ Zemke from WI in a 3 period battle. Ft. Hays is getting a good one here.
140/145 - Taylor Moeder - A pleasure to watch. His duck under should be sold in videos to kids clubs. He went 7-3, losing only to Ballweg and Lubeck in FS. The PA and MN guys will sure remember him. He's a three time state champion waiting to happen.
140 - Bryce Hood - This multiple state placer headed to Luther College wrestled 3 matches before suffering a concussion. The Hood household had a rough two weeks with Cullen, Austin and Bryce getting hurt. Bryce is tough like his younger brothers and had a big win over NJ and gave us much needed depth at 140
145 - Derrick Weller - The ironman on the team. Derrick wrestled 18 matches! It was arguably the toughest weight class with Josh Kindig, Dylan Ness, Austin Wilson, Cody Caldwell, Kyle Ash, James Green and Brad Squire! He went 5-2 in Greco and plowed through all of the matches without complaint. Watch out for this guy at Lindenwood.
152 - Ryne Cokeley - You can never blink during Ryne's matches. If it's not a 5 pointer, it's two 3's with 20 seconds left, like he had against Daniel Breit from MO. He's one of the only guys that you are still thinking he can win when he's down 5-0 with short time. He went 9-2 overall and 6-0 in FS and was named to the All-Tournament team. Another Fargo AA awaits him.
152/160 - Bradley Little - Wow. That's how I felt about how Bradley contributed. Here was a kid that wrestled 140 folkstyle and was asked to wrestle 152/160 at the nations highest level. He wrestled 13 matches, going 4-1 in GR. He went 160 four times and had an incredible tech fall at 60 against PA. He teched the FL kid, beat NJ and GA. Right before he stepped on the mat against Nick Moore of Iowa, Bradley said lightly, "You didn't tell me he was going to Iowa". Yet he wanted that match. That's the kinda kid he is. Tough as heck.
160 - Kane Kelley - Kane was a late replacement after our original 160 backed out. His first match out of the box, he wrestled a Fargo AA from NE and only lost 1-1, 1-3. He scored 10 points for the team and is a total athlete.
160 - Spencer Wilson - This cadet also filled the last minute GR gap at 60. Fresh off the cadet duals he scored 7 team points, highlighted by his 35 second pin over WA.
171/189 - Matt Reed - Matt ran the table at the cadet duals 16-0. For Juniors he was asked to go 171 GR and 189 FS. He wrestled another 14 matches and went 7-7 total and 5-4 at 171. He had key wins against CO, WA, GA qand NJ. None of those were as big as his 8-0, 2-1 win over Cody Johnston from MO. Those three headlocks came from nowhere and shocked his MO foe. Church is gonna have a good time with this kid the next two years!
171 - Parker Madl - Wrestling FS only, Parker had 10 matches that included FIVE AA's! He scored 27 points and had a huge win vs. MN while taking nationally ranked Akui from IL all three periods before losing 3-2, 0-1, 0-1. I can't wait to see him in crimson and cream at OU.
189 - Eric Mason - Another cadet who finished a grueling previous week, Eric scored 10 team points in GR only. He will surely be needed the next two years at these duals.
215 - Kyle Caylor - Probably his best performance at this tournament. I think it's the best I've seen him wrestle. He went a combined 11-1, going undefeated in FS and being named to the All-Tournament team. He scored a team high 42 points! He avenged a previous loss to Alex Polizzi from WI by beating him in GR, then elevated him in a 5 point throw to a press in FS! He also had huge wins over PA and IL. (I am now wishing I had talked Kyle into going to OU);)
215 - Nick Pearch - It was nice having quality depth at the upper weights. Nick went 5-3 overall with big wins over WA and NJ. He's a good sized athletic guy that gave us the luxury of resting Kyle.
285 - Derek Holly - We had two quality HWT's. Derek went 6-4 overall with 4 big pins, one vs. the IL kid. He scored 30 team points!
285 - Beau Bennett - Beau went 7-3 and scored 34 team points! His tournament may have been defined by his dual winning match against MO. He was up 3-0 in the first and got thrown to his back with 30 seconds to go. It was CLOSE to being a fall, yet the giant from Pittsburg fought to the whistle to stay alive. He then won the 2nd period 3-0 to set up the tiebreaking third. The team score was 26-26 and with the crowd going wild, he delivered the victory with a 3-1 period! The Baker faithful are going to love this guy!

At the end of the weekend, our Kansas Juniors paid the price and got it done. Those PA and MO duals were worth the trip alone. This team could flat out wrestle and now they have etched their names in the record book.

Well done Juniors! On to Fargo!



Last edited by Chief Renegade; 07/01/10 03:15 PM.

Eric Johnson


Acts 4:12