The Tulsa National youth national tournament is the toughest youth wrestling competition that we have attended. Great wrestlers from around the country gather every year to see who is the best of the best.  Tulsa is also the place where crazy happens-crazy parents, crazy kids, crazy stories. This year was no different. PINnacle Wrestling ended up with 8 placers, which was our 2nd most in history. For PINnacle this year, Character Was Revealed.

Gavin Winter(Rocori)- 10U 73lbs. Gavin was pinned in the 1st round, and to put it bluntly, didn't perform very well and could have easily been O 2 barbecue. After his loss, Gavin went on a 6 match winning streak to make the placing rounds.  He battled every match, and stuck with the plan that was given him. Gavin ended up in 5th place in another 2-1 battle for 5th. 

Jore Volk- Lakeville- 12u 64lbs. In the semifinals Jore was in a tight 5-3 match and hit a beautiful double leg and put his opponent to his back for a 4 point move to move ahead 9-3. With 6 seconds left his opponent hit a stand up and Jore did a back arch suplay and was rightfully called for a slam. Although there was only 2 seconds on the clock, his opponent decided to not get up and take a win due to the slam. The ill feeling I got is still with me, and I'm sure is still with Jore. Although Jore was extremely upset, he kept his cool and ended up having to wrestle his consolation semifinal match about 10 minutes later. To go out and compete when one of your goals has been taken from you, when you don't feel like competing, when you would rather be anywhere but back out on the mat, is what true character is.  Jore won that match 1-0,and we couldn't be prouder as coaches. 2 hours later, his semifinal opponent, and family, decided they couldn't take that win away from Jore and had the match result reversed. Only in Tulsa. Jore went on to lose in the finals, but win his true 2nd match.

Zach Hanson - Lakeville- 10u 73lbs - Zach was the definition of Love The Fight, all weekend. Unbelievable matches, and crazy finishes.  In the 2nd round, Zach went in to overtime and hit a nice shot to pull out the victory. In the quarters, Zach went up against a wrestler he had lost to in the Kickoff, and Zach stuck to his plan(underhook, underhook, underhook) and pulled off a great win.  His semifinals match was one of the best 20 seconds I have seen from a PINnacle youth wrestler. Zach was down 3-0 with 20 seconds left, Jared tells him to pull to his hiptoss(yes Jared) and Zach hip-tosses his opponent to his back, unfortunately his opponent gets off his back after a 1 count. Zach immediately cut his opponent with 10 seconds remaining and gets in on another double and drives the guy down, unfortunately his opponent scrambled enough to not give up the takedown. Zach lost the match, but not really. The fight he showed, the grit displayed, the competitor revealed, was awesome. Zach then had to come back and wrestle against his 2nd round OT opponent. This time his opponent was up 2-0 with 30 seconds left and Zach hit 3 shots, and finally took him down with 15 seconds left. Zach had to fight off a deep single leg in OT, then scored on a single himself. LOVE THE FIGHT!

PINnacle Wrestling had many wins, and plenty of losses. But, more importantly, character was revealed, and it showed that the next generation of PINnacle Wrestlers will be Champions on and off the mat!

Tulsa Placers

Chase Mills 6th 8U 55

Brandon Morvari 3rd 10U 52

Cash "Money" Raymond 6th 10U 70

Zach Hanson 4th 10U 73

Travis Smith 4th 10U 76

Gavin Winter 5th 10U 76

Calvin Lonnquist 5th 10U 80

Jore Volk 12U 64

Charli Raymond Girls 10U 3rd