ILLINI FARGO CENTRAL (GRECO)
Because Fargo is so big, this post will mostly deal with Junior division wrestlers from ILLINOIS with a special emphasis on ILLINI recruits. We will be watching and cheering on the 16U field from our great state, of course, but most of the coverage will deal with the older boys. Your time will come, little ones!
We will update with important ILLINOIS stories and videos. Below you will find updates on how the ILLINI recruits and others are faring, schedules for Junior and 16U division Greco, a bracket link, streaming information, and a list of registered ILLINOIS Junior athletes.
FINAL UPDATE
Fargo Greco was a smashing success for Team ILLINOIS with an overall team title for the 16U group and a third-place finish for the Juniors. ILLINI recruits also saw success with Kannon Webster adding to his Fargo legend, while Joey Ruzic finished as an All American. Additionally, Wyatt Medlin won a National Championship at 132 in the 16U division.
Themat.com had a lot to say about Team ILLINOIS and specifically about ILLINI recruits. This is what they wrote about Webster's and Medlin's championships:
"Kannon Webster was the third athlete to repeat last year’s result, besting Illinois teammate Noah Manuel Tapia by 6-3 decision. He was the only wrestler to win in both styles at the 2023 USMC Junior National Championships and adds to a long list of honors at this event. With the victory, Webster earned his fourth Fargo championship over the past three years and has made the Junior national finals four times. He won the title in freestyle in 2021 and 2023 and in Greco-Roman in 2022. Webster is the 22nd wrestler to win at least four national titles across all styles and age divisions."
"Illinois’ team title was clinched after victories by Wyatt Medlin at 132 pounds and Aaron Stewart at 160 pounds. Medlin improved on last year’s eighth-place finish at 113 pounds by growing into a 132-pound titlist after an 8-4 win over Oklahoma’s Jake Miller."
This is what Kannon Webster's wrestling resume looks like now:
Kannon Webster, Washington, Ill.
Current FloWrestling Ranking: No. 2 at 145
2022 Junior Nationals champion in freestyle… Second in 2022 U20 World Team Trials… Second in 2022 U20 Nationals in freestyle… 2022 Junior Nationals Greco-Roman champion… Second in 2022 Junior Nationals in freestyle… Fourth in 2022 U20 Freestyle Nationals… 2022 Northern Plains Junior Regional freestyle champion… 2021 Junior Nationals champion in freestyle and third in Greco-Roman…. Fifth in 2021 UWW Cadet Nationals in freestyle… 2021 Northern Plains Junior Regionals champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman… Third in 2019 16U Nationals in both freestyle and Greco-Roman… Third in 2019 UWW Cadet Nationals in both freestyle and Greco-Roman… 2019 Illinois 16U state champion in freestyle and second in Greco-Roman… Graduate of Washington Community High School… Three-time Illinois state champion… 2023 Illinois state champion at 2022 Illinois 2A state champion at 132 pounds as a junior with a 51-1 record… 2020 Illinois 2A state champion at 106 pounds with a 54-0 record…. Committed to Illinois… Born: December 21, 2004… Age: 17
There are a couple of omissions including a Pan Am Championship and 2023 National Championships at Fargo in Greco and Freestyle!
As a final note, USA Wrestling hasn't updated the final state standings to include Greco-Roman wrestling, so I have done it for them. Here is where everything stood before the Greco competition began:
#FARGO2023 OVERALL TEAM STANDINGS
(After four of six events)
1 Pennsylvania 599
2 ILLINOIS 448
3 California 401
4 Iowa 385
Here are the final totals to include all six events in Fargo:
#FARGO2023 OVERALL TEAM STANDINGS
(After six of six events)
1 ILLINOIS 767
2 Pennsylvania 761
3 Iowa 696
4 California 532 (might've been passed up for fourth. Not checking. Don't care).
Kannon Webster won in the Finals over his ILLINOIS Brother Noah Tapia by the score of 6-3. It was, again, Brother on Brother violence, but it was great that both of them were on the big stage representing Team ILLINOIS. It has been a joy to watch both of them at State and during National Duals.
Joey Ruzic ended his Fargo as an All American. His final go-round was a 8-0 tech fall in 3:00 in the Seventh Place match. His opponent was Easton Cooper of Wisconsin. It was especially nice to see Ruzic come back in the consolation and not only persevere, but also shut out (4-0) the fellow who beat him on the Championship side of the bracket.
Wyatt Medlin beat Jake Miller of Oklahoma in the Championship match 8-4. He used a slick arm drag for a takedown and then celebrated with a shortened Lezginka dance followed by a hug from his father.
UPDATES
The viewing schedule for later today remains the same as below. Today's first session starts at 9am (Central), the next session begins at 3pm (Central), and the final session begins at 6pm (Central). Streaming is available on the FloWrestling subscription website.
ILLINI RECRUITS/COMMITS
KANNON WEBSTER is into the quarters after beating Anderson Heap of Florida by the score of 3-1. In his next match, the Washington Wizard will face Brady Collins of Colorado, a Reno TOC winner this year. He's also a past Fargo Greco runner-up at 138 pounds in the U16 division.
WILL BAYSINGAR lost in the round of sixteen to Isaiah Powe of Alabama, who hit a last second throw to go ahead in the score. He will have Gunnar Hamre of Wisconsin in the consolation bracket. In 2021, Hamre was seventh at the Cadet World Team Trials in Greco, and he won a Northern Plains recently. He'll not be a slouch. Will needs three wins to ensure an All American award.
ANTHONY "JOEY" RUZIC, like Baysingar, needs to run off three consecutive wins to earn AA honors. His first test will involve Brother on Brother violence: A match with Drew Davis, another two-time ILLINOIS State Champion. What's more, there are a total of four ILLINOIS wrestlers in the upper-half of this consolation bracket. Ruzic and Davis, as well as Phelps and Flores.
ILLINOIS WRESTLERS
The Land of Lincoln has 8 wrestlers on the Championship side, 25 remaining over to the Consolation side of the bracket. As noted above, there are four ILLINOIS men in the upper half of the 120 Consolation bracket! The 33 wrestlers still fighting is the most in the Junior Greco division, but California has 29, with 12 on the Championship side of the bracket.
Pennsylvania only has 14 wrestlers left in the tournament. Themat.com had this to say about Kannon Webster:
After a stellar run to the 145-pound Junior freestyle title earlier this week, Webster remains in the hunt for his fourth Fargo championship over the past three years. He qualified for the quarters with two shutout technical falls followed by a 3-1 decision win over Florida’s Anderson Heap. Webster has made the Junior national finals four times. He won top prize in freestyle in 2021 and 2023 and did the same on the Greco-Roman front in 2022.
And about those U16 kids, themat.com provided these numbers:
Quarterfinalists by State
Illinois (13), Iowa (13), Pennsylvania (11), Ohio (10), Oklahoma (9), Colorado (6), Georgia (6), Minnesota (6), Tennessee (5), Wisconsin (5), Indiana (4), Utah (4), Washington (4), California (3), New Jersey (3), Texas (3), Virginia (3), Florida (2), Kansas (2), Missouri (2), Montana (2), Nebraska (2), Nevada (2), Oregon (2), South Dakota (2), West Virginia (2), Alabama (1), Alaska (1), Arizona (1), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (1), Idaho (1), Kentucky (1), Maryland (1), Michigan (1), New Mexico (1)
IMPORTANT: There is a new Schedule for Friday, July 21st. Juniors will wrestle from 9am to 1pm. Then, 16U will wrestle from 3pm to 7:30pm. This change is reflected in the Schedule below.
FIRST-ROUND MATCHUPS
138 William Baysinger has a first-round matchup in the round of 128 against Ian Stephens of Georgia. This will be match #3080. Stephens is a tall drink of water for 138, but he also was bounced out of the Freestyle portion of Fargo with two quick tech fall losses. I expect that Will's gut wrench will be put to use here.
There are 96 wrestlers in the bracket. That includes the following ILLINOIS wrestlers: Khalimsky, Kelly, Rokey, Walker and DiFalco. The Land of Lincoln should put up a lot of points in this bracket.
First Match: This bracket was redrawn with Will receiving the second seed. He faced Pacheco of New Mexico and forced an :08 pinfall! It might be the fastest of the tournament.
In the next round, he teched Castillo of Arizona. The round of 32 found Will facing Sieminski of Oregon, and that didn't last long.
He got the first round tech.
Isaiah Powe, an old, familiar foe awaits in the round of 16. Baysingar has beaten him twice in Freestyle in the last year.
120 Anthony "Joey" Ruzic is the #1 seed in the weight and was a Fargo Junior Greco National Champion last year at 113. Ruzic has a bye in the first round of 128. His next round opponent, Dakota Fenwick of Arkansas, also has a bye in the first round. Fenwick wrestled at 113 in Junior Freestyle. He was bounced in two matches as well, losing 0-4 and then by tech. There are 79 wrestlers in the bracket, with a total of 10 ILLINOIS grapplers, including Ruzic and Garcia, Tourdot, Davis, O'Donnell, Farley, Khiev, Phelps, Whitaker and Flores.
First Match: Ruzic beat Dakota Fenwick of Arkansas by pinfall at the 2:41 mark. In the round of 64, Joey beat Sieminski of Oregon by tech fall in :51.
In the round of 32, though, Ruzic faced constant blood timeouts from a nose gusher, as well as pretty awful reffing and judging, and dropped a 13-18 decision to Martinez Chavez of Arizona.
Joey bounced back in a big way on the backside getting a :40 tech fall against Ayon of California. In his next match, he'll face the winner of Christmas (AL) or Hanley (MD). I'm betting it's Christmas, and that's a wonderful time of year.
145 Kannon Webster is the #1 seed at this weight, and as a returning champion, he also gets a bye in the first round of 128. We counted an even 100 wrestlers bracketed at this weight.
Kannon's first opponent will have had a round of 128 opponent, as the ILLINI star is scheduled to meet the winner of Nicholas Egbalic of Nevada and Louden Stradling of Michigan.
Egbalic is a Nevada state champion at 144, and he won something called the USA Western States Championships, although he placed fourth in the Western Regionals. Stradling finished second at state at 144, and he won his state's Freestyle and Greco tournaments down at 138.
Stradling made it to the round of 64 in Free before being teched by somebody who didn't place. Egbalic did the exact same thing.
Along with Kannon, there are 7 wrestlers representing ILLINOIS in the bracket, including Merrill, Hodge, Onstad, Samayoa, Slaastad and Cox.
First Match: They redrew this bracket, so Kannon faced Schmidt of Minnesota in his first match. Webster was able to work behind his opponent twice for takedowns and gut wrenches, earning the first period tech. He will face Glenn of Nebraska in the round of 32.
He beat Glenn by first-period tech fall 9-0. Again, his opponent made a mistake, Kannon got behind him and secured the takedown. He then used two trapped arm gut wrenches to take a 6-0 lead. Glenn crawled out of bounds and lost a point for that and was put down. Another trapped-arm, and that was match.
PRE-EVENT HYPE
ILLINOIS athletes and ILLINI recruits got some love from themat.com in their pre-match hype article:
Returning Junior Greco-Roman champions
Mack Mauger of Idaho (106, now at 113)
Anthony Ruzic of Illinois (113, now at 120)
Otto Black of Colorado (126, now at 132)
Kannon Webster of Illinois (132, now at 145)
Aden Attao of Idaho (285).
Returning Junior Greco-Roman runners-up
Isaac Stewart of Montana (100, now at 106)
Brayton Casey of Wisconsin (106, now at 113)
Carter Nogle of Maryland (113, now at 132)
Massey Odiotti of Illinois (120, now at 126)
Derek Guanajuato of Arizona (126, now at 138)
Jadon Skellenger of Idaho (160, now at 152)
SCHEDULE
Friday, July 21st
Wrestler Doors Open at 7:30 AM
Doors Open to the Public at 8:00 AM
Session XIII -
9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
JR Boys Greco-Roman: Championship (2 Rds) and Consolation (1 or 2 Rds)
Session XIV –
3:00 PM to 7:30 PM
16U Boys Greco-Roman: Championship (2 Rds) and Consolation (2 Rds)
Saturday, July 22nd
Wrestler Doors Open at 7:30 AM
Doors Open to the Public at 8:00 AM
Session XV -
9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
16U/JR Boys Greco-Roman: Quarterfinals, Semifinals (2 Rds) and Consolation (3 or 4 Rds)
Session XVI -
3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
16U/JR Boys Greco-Roman: Consolations, Consolation Semifinals, and 3rd-8th Medal Matches (4 Rds)
Session XVII -
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM
16U/JR Boys Greco-Roman: Parade of Champions and Finals
STREAMING/BRACKETS
Your one and only streaming option is FloWrestling. You can find the link at their main page while the tournament is ongoing. Use Floarena for brackets.
REGISTERED ILLINOIS FARGO GRECO ATHLETES
This is a very deep pool of dangerous wrestlers. Sure, it could use a Marinopoulos or a Swaw or a so and so. But this team should bring home the bacon. There are 10 wrestlers at 120 and 132 pounds, another 9 at 220, but 0 at 100.
JR Greco 106 lbs - Julius Avendano, Colin Bosak, Grayson Kongkaeow, Matthew Nguyen, John Sheehy
JR Greco 113 lbs - Savion Essiet, Cole Gentsch, Dominick Marre, Tyler Tiangco, Anthony Alanis
JR Greco 120 lbs - Anthony Ruzic, Brian Farley, Theodore Flores, Inocencio Garcia, Kalani Khiev, Brennan O'Donnell, Brady Phelps, Tommy Tourdot, Jimmy Whitaker, Drew Davis
JR Greco 126 lbs - Joshua Vazquez, Javier Enriquez-Lynd, Jack Palzet, Gauge Shipp, Johnny Vega, Tyler Weidman, Massey Odiotti
JR Greco 132 lbs - HM Colby Crouch, Holden Brazelton, Keygan Jennings, Zachary Parisi, Jordan Rasof, Jacob Redington, Cale Stonitsch, Marco Terrizzi, Dillon White, Tyson Zvonar
JR Greco 138 lbs - #18 Will Baysingar, HM Peyton Cox, Johnathan Rokey, Giorgio DiFalco, Braden Kelly, Maddox Khalimsky, Olin Walker
JR Greco 145 lbs - #2 Kannon Webster, Michael Hodge III, Kaden Inman, Finn Merrill, Evan Onstad, Omar Samayoa, Julian Slaastad, Noah Manuel Tapia
JR Greco 152 lbs - Connor Cumbee, Pedro Jimenez, Fernando Lopez, Austin Martin
JR Greco 160 lbs - Gunnar Garelli, Maguire Hoeksema, Tyler Martinez, Hannan Muslimovic
JR Greco 170 lbs - Mataeo Blessing, Brady Brewick, Patrick Downing, Matthew Jens, Connor Kelly, Sean Kolkebeck, Gabriel Orosco
JR Greco 182 lbs - Matthew Kubas, Bryor Newbold, Zane Pannell, Gabino Perez, RJ Samuels, Francisco Solis
JR Greco 195 lbs - Devontae Givens, Aaron Cramer, Karlondo Duboise, Evan Grazzini, Quinn Herbert, Cole Matulenko, Jimmy Amatore
JR Greco 220 lbs - HM Nick Nosler, Leonardo Tovar, Noah Wenzel, Austin Bagdasarian, Lamar Bradley, Cooper Caraway, Samuel Costello, Justin Hoffer, Kaiden Morris
JR Greco 285 lbs - HM Marko Ivanisevic, Jackson Barnhart, Noah Gomez, Leo Meyer, Markos Mihalopoulos, Jesse Saavedra, Wyatt Schmitt, Roy Phelps, Jr.
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