That would be the Junior National Duals in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which will be coming to a close with the championship pools and medal matches -- in freestyle -- this coming Sunday (June 28). Wrestling commences with Greco-Roman starting on Wednesday, June 24. Medal matches for Greco-Roman will occur on Friday, as will the start of the freestyle competition.
The competition in both styles will be strong with many wrestlers in the national rankings present. Looking back to the 2008 Junior National Duals, 30 of the Greco-Roman competitors were ranked by InterMat in the end of year weight class rankings for 2008-09. From the freestyle competition, approximately 50 wrestlers appeared in the end of season rankings for 2008-09. Those numbers do not account for some of the top graduates in the class of 2008 that competed -- such as Scott Winston, Jordan Oliver, Mario Mason, and Nate Moore.
In the midst of the highly competitive environment, entries from the state of Illinois have found Oklahoma City to be very kind in recent years. In freestyle, the squad from the Land of Lincoln has made the championship match four consecutive times, the last three times coming home with the title. The Greco-Roman squad has had similar success, with three straight championship match appearances and two straight titles.
What is the key to the success of Team Illinois? Obviously, first and foremost is terrific talent. However, the other important component is superlative leadership, organization, and coaching. Illinois teams made it to the finals in both Schoolboy Dual Meet championships this year, winning the Freestyle title; and swept the titles at the Cadet National Duals this past weekend.
Sean Bormet, head freestyle coach for Illinois, is a two-time winner of USA Wrestling’s Freestyle Coach of the Year (2006, 2008) and earned USA Wrestling’s Developmental Coach of the Year in 2004. Head Greco-Roman coach Brian Medlin is a veteran of the national and international Greco-Roman circuit, and currently serves as head coach at Washington High School.
Looking ahead to 2009
For yet another year, fans everywhere will be able to follow the competition using TrackWrestling.com. The computer program will have up-to-date pools, results, and the schedule of matches. For news recaps of the competition, check out the Web site for USA Wrestling, TheMat.com.
While neither an official team list nor official lineups have yet to be made available to the public, expect to see at least 25 teams for each style from close to 25 states. Each competition will start with a round-robin in which teams will be split into four pools.
The top two teams from each pool will advance to the championship competition, which will commence with two four-team groups that compete in another round-robin. The top team in each championship pool will compete for first place, the second team in each competes for third place, and such for the top eight places. Teams finishing third through sixth in the preliminary pools will advance to a single elimination consolation bracket, from which the two finalists will finish ninth and tenth.
Defending champions Illinois look to be locked and loaded in each of the competitions. However, more titles will not be going back to the Land of Lincoln without stiff challenges.
Look for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa, and Michigan to lead the pack of challengers in Greco-Roman competition.
In the freestyle competition, the host squad Oklahoma looks to be the primary challenger. They will be led by many of the wrestlers that upset Team USA in the Wrestling USA Dream Team Classic. Ladd Rupp, Stephen Swan, Dallas Bailey, Zack White, and Chris Perry are among those likely to appear on the Junior Duals freestyle squad. The quintet of wrestlers went 4-1 in the Dream Team Classic match.
Other squads to watch include those from New Jersey, Iowa, Ohio, and Minnesota.
Looking back at 2008
Greco-Roman:
Illinois went undefeated for the competition, going 8-0 without facing any real challenges on the way to a second consecutive title. This included victories over teams that finished second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth. Runners-up California were victorious in their first seven matches of the competition; including wins over the fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth place squads.
Championship Match: Illinois defeated California 1, 45-18
Third-Place Match: Minnesota 1 defeated Iowa, 52-13
Fifth-Place Match: Missouri defeated Wisconsin, 39-27
Seventh-Place Match: Kansas defeated Michigan, 34-31
Ninth-Place Match: New York defeated Texas, 33-30
Freestyle:
Facing only one really close dual meet along its path, a 29-28 victory over host Oklahoma in the championship pool stage, Illinois was 9-0 for the competition on the way to a third consecutive title. It also marked back-to-back sweeps of the Junior National dual meet championships. Despite a 48-20 loss to Kansas in the final dual of the championship pool, Iowa advanced to the final on the strength of its victory over New Jersey in the previous round. Yet again, Illinois defeated a powerful group of challengers on the way to the title -- earning victories over teams that finished second, third, fourth, fifth, eighth, and ninth.
Championship Match: Illinois defeated Iowa, 39-23
Third-Place Match: New Jersey defeated Minnesota-1, 33-27
Fifth-Place Match: Oklahoma defeated Missouri, 42-20
Seventh-Place Match: Kansas defeated Pennsylvania, 33-28
Ninth-Place Match: New York defeated Texas, 38-19
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