A final recap of the 2017 Cadet/Junior Nationals:
http://airtimeusawks.podomatic.com/2017 USA Wrestling-Kansas Cadet/Junior Nationals Recap
Team Kansas came away with sixteen All-American finishes from Fargo 2017. Gavin Carter (Washburn Rural High School), Wyatt Hendrickson (Newton High School), and Jace Koelzer (Olathe South High School), earned All-American finishes in both Greco and Freestyle. Nicole Moore (Nickerson High School) garnered All-American finishes in both Cadet and Junior divisions of the Woman’s competition.
A strong contingent of women represented Team Kansas, especially in the Junior division where both Breanna Douglas (132 lbs. of Paola High School) and Marissa Patterson (180 lbs.) made the finals. Douglas outscored her opponents 34-0 in match points on her way to the finals, where she ran into a formidable opponent and fell short. Patterson became only the fourth Woman’s division National Champion for Team Kansas. She finished with a 4-0 record and recorded a first period fall in the finals. The Shawnee Heights graduate is set to compete for Wayland Baptist University. Those two, along with an AA finish from Moore (100 lbs.) and strong performances from the other six Kansas female wrestlers combined for a top 10 finish in the team standings. The ladies finished in eighth-place.
The Cadet Women also had a strong showing with a fifth-place finish from Moore and a Runner-up finish at 164 pounds from Elisa Robinson (Junction City High School), who is now a two-time Cadet All-American.
The girls competed in the duals portion of the Fargo experience as well. It is believed that this is the first time that Kansas has been represented as a standalone team in this competition. The ladies went 2-2 in the tournament.
On the Cadet Greco front, Cade Lindsey (Derby High School) finished in fifth-place at 152 pounds, Carter came in eighth-place at 182 pounds, and Hendrickson came away with a solid third-place showing at 195 pounds.
Team Kansas also had three All-Americans in Cadet Freestyle, with Carter and Hendrickson matching their placements from Greco and rising freshman Kyle Haas (Maize) finishing in eighth-place at 170 pounds.
With eleven NCAA Division I signees from the Class of 2017, along with a team Runner-up finish in Greco in 2015, Team Kansas had high expectations coming in to the 2017 Fargo competition in the Junior division. However, of those eleven DI signees, only Mason Wallace, a University of Tennessee-Chattanooga commit from Manhattan High School took part in the competition. Most of the others were already on campus taking classes and were unable to get the time off. Additionally, DII signees Dylan Servis (Dodge City High School and Western State University signee) and Dylan Prince (Pittsburg High School and Central Oklahoma University signee) were not part of the Kansas contingent. Both were past All-Americans at Fargo. All told, ten eligible past All-Americans were absent from the competition for Team Kansas.
In Junior Greco, Team Kansas brought three All-American plaques back with Koelzer finishing in eighth-place at 113 pounds, Corbin Nirschl finishing in sixth-place at 126 pounds, and Jevon Parrish coming away with a seventh-place showing at 126 pounds. Nirschl, a past Junior Greco National Runner-up, plans to become a resident athlete at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs this fall. Parrish, a rising senior at Olathe North, was a Runner-up at the 2017 UWW Cadet World Team Trials. By capturing his sixth All-American finish at Fargo, Koelzer joins an elite group of Kansas wrestlers. Only four other wrestlers from the Sunflower State have six or more All-American finishes from the Cadet/Junior Nationals. Others on that list include; Chad Carlile (6 AA Finishes), Jeff Vesta (6 AA finishes), Nathan Furches (8 AA finishes), and Eric Akin (9 AA finishes).
In the rugged Junior Freestyle competition, Team Kansas had two All-Americans with Koelzer finishing in fourth-place and Manhattan High School’s Jalin Harper finishing in eighth-place. Competition was stiff in all of the weight classes, but Harper’s 160-pound division was one of the deepest with several high-profile recruits included. The tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler (Ohio’s David Carr) came out of that bracket. Sam Sasso of Pennsylvania (who some publications list as the #1 recruit in the nation at 160) placed sixth. Jaron Chavez of Idaho, who Harper split with during the tournament, won the Greco National Championship at 160 pounds in the Junior division. Several prominent recruits failed to make the podium for a top eight finish.
Team Kansas can be proud of its results from Fargo 2017 and can look forward to a promising future. A special thanks goes out to the coaching and administrative staffs that volunteer countless hours to promote the cause and put a competitive team on the mat.
2017 USMC/USAW CADET GR NATIONALS
152 Cade Lindsey 5th place
182 Gavin Carter 8th place
195 Wyatt Hendrickson 3rd place
2017 USMC/USAW CADET FS NATIONALS
170 Kyle Haas 8th place
182 Gavin Carter 8th place
195 Wyatt Hendrickson 3rd place
2017 USMC/USAW JUNIOR GR NATIONALS
113 Jace Koelzer 8th place
126 Corbin Nirschl 6th place
126 Jevon Parrish 7th place
2017 USMC/USAW JUNIOR FS NATIONALS
113 Jace Koelzer 4th place
160 Jalin Harper 8th place
2017 USMC/USAW CADET WM NATIONALS
100 Nicole Moore 5th place
164 Elisa Robinson 2nd place
2017 USMC/USAW JUNIOR WM NATIONALS
100 Nicole Moore 7th place
132 Breanna Douglas 2nd place
180 Marissa Patterson 1st place
2017 USMC/USAW WOMEN'S NATIONAL DUALS
Kansas 24 Illinois 43
Kansas 30 FL/NY/TN 28
Kansas 34 Texas Blue 23
Kansas 18 Colorado 38
