Another monstrous Junior Nationals has come and gone, and we’re still reckoning with the results. For the third year in a row, entries in the brackets eclipsed the 8,000 mark. All six divisions saw more than 1,000 competitors take the mat in Fargo, North Dakota.
As big as those numbers are, they represent substantial growth in recent years. The total number of entrants has more than doubled over the last ten years.
You can see that growth in the table below, which lists the entrants in the 16U and Junior divisions in Greco-Roman and boys' and girls' freestyle since 2011.
Fargo Is About State Bragging Rights
The interstate rivalries run hot inside the Fargodome. Each state is competing against every other state for placements, points, and singlet swag. We’ll save rating the quality of each team’s gear for another time. What we can do now is calculate the team standings in all three styles and two age divisions and find out who earned the recently rechristened U.S. Marine Corps Battles Won Trophies.
Below are the top 10 teams in each division, plus the Outstanding Wrestler.
16U Boys Freestyle
1st: Pennsylvania, 352
2nd: Iowa, 178
3rd: California, 128
4th: Ohio, 115
5th: Wisconsin, 100
6th: Indiana, 88
7th: Minnesota, 79
8th: Washington, 76
9th: Illinois, 71
10th: Florida, 58
OW: 132 lbs - Alex Marchetti, Pennsylvania
Junior Boys Freestyle
1st: California, 197
2nd: Iowa, 158
3rd: Pennsylvania, 157
4th: Florida, 119
5th: Illinois, 105
6th: Indiana, 98
7th: Ohio, 92
8th: Minnesota, 91
9th: Wisconsin, 68
10th: Oklahoma, 53
OW: 113 lbs - Analu Woode, Hawaii
16U Greco-Roman
1st: Iowa, 190
2nd: Pennsylvania, 152
3rd: Illinois, 143
4th: Utah, 106
5th: Wisconsin, 103
6th: Minnesota, 102
7th: Alaska, 82
8th: California, 81
9th: Washington, 74
10th: Florida, 61
OW: 113 lbs - Evan Cies, Pennsylvania
Junior Greco-Roman
1st: Illinois, 249
2nd: Iowa, 112
3rd: Oklahoma, 84
4th: Minnesota, 80
5th: California, 64
6th: Maryland, 63
7th: Colorado, 61
8th: Ohio, 59
8th: Florida, 59
10th: Utah, 56
OW: 175 lbs - Ivan Ivanov, Idaho
16U Girls
1st: Pennsylvania, 172
2nd: Oklahoma, 113
3rd: Kansas, 110
4th: Illinois, 105
5th: California, 104
6th: New York, 79
7th: Arizona, 64
8th: Florida, 61
8th: Washington, 61
10th: Wisconsin, 57
OW: 110 lbs - Riley Karwowski, Pennsylvania
Junior Girls
1st: Pennsylvania, 165
2nd: Michigan, 164
3rd: Indiana, 117
4th: Texas, 84
5th: California, 68
5th: Arizona, 68
7th: Ohio, 61
7th: Wisconsin, 61
9th: Iowa, 60
10th: New Jersey, 57
OW: 155 lbs - Eloise Woolsey, New Mexico
Now that we have our top-10 lists, we can assign points to each state's team placement in every division and add the combined scores to produce an ultimate Fargo state ranking, which is as follows.
Ultimate Fargo State Rankings
1st: Pennsylvania, 110
2nd: Iowa, 89
3rd: California, 79
4th: Illinois, 68
5th: Oklahoma, 37
6th: Minnesota, 36
6th: Wisconsin, 36
8th: Ohio, 35
9th: Indiana, 33
10th: Florida, 29
A commanding performance from the Keystone State, with Iowa once again punching above its weight despite being a smaller state in terms of population.
Keeping The Olympic Momentum Going
Junior Nationals may be in the rearview mirror, but the U17 World Championships are just around the corner. Ten Americans in Greco-Roman, men's freestyle, and women's freestyle are hitting the mats in Baku, Azerbaijan, from July 27-August 2.
Can’t make it to Baku? Have no fear—you can watch all the action live on FloWrestling. Just keep in mind that Azerbaijan is eight hours ahead of the East Coast and 11 hours ahead of the West Coast.