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Fargo Recap-5 National Titles, 22 All-Americans, Love The Fight performances

By Brandon Paulson, 07/25/17, 2:00PM CDT

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PINnacle wrestlers representing the MN Storm, and Wisconsin, competed for a chance to win the coveted Stop Sign, and to be a national champion. 5 National titles were earned, along with 22 All-American honors. photo credit The Guillotine.

Emily Shilson had another dominating performance winning the Cadet Freestyle championship at 94lbs, and the Junior Freestyle title at 100lbs. Emily has now won 4 Fargo titles, and has yet to go the full distance in a match. Emily did a great job with her 2on1's, and gut wrenches.

Peyton Robb won a Junior National Greco Title, to go along with his 3rd place finish in Freestyle. Peyton just got back from winning the Cadet Pan Am Greco and Freestyle tournament after a successful spring. Robb had a 3 time fargo champ, Artalona from Florida, in the finals, and built a comfortable lead after a couple rib gut wrenches. Peyton is now in Colorado Springs training with the Senior and Cadet World Greco Teams.

Patrick McKee had 62 points scored on himself during the freestyle portion of the tournament, but still managed to win a Junior National Freestyle Title. Patrick can score points in bunches, and proved that by knocking off some of the best in the country in one of the deepest weights in the country. Pat was also a double AA, as he placed 4th in the Junior Greco tournament.

Ryan Sokol teched his way through the Cadet Freestyle tournament, and he is only a 1st year Cadet. Ryan threw some beautiful hip-tosses, and controlled the underhook position throughout the tournament in dominating his opponents.

Double All-Americans included Shilson, McKee, Robb, Grant Parrish, Tyler Eischens, and Paxton Creese. Our wrestlers love to wrestle both styles! Some like freestyle better, and some greco, but they understand that wrestling both will help you become a better wrestler. It is hard, tough, and exhausting to wrestle both styles at the National tournament. That is why you do it. Only thee strongest survive! The list of All-Americans are below, but first a couple stories.

LOVE THE FIGHT

There is no tougher match, physically or mentally, than losing in the semifinals of the Junior Freestyle National, and then have to come back 15 minutes later and wrestle in the consolation semifinals. In years past, many of our best athletes have went down in that round, even when they were the better wrestler. This year Alex Lloyd and Peyton Robb both lost in the semis. Alex had to wrestle a guy he beat earlier in the tournament from Pennsylvania. During the match, Alex sprained his knee, but kept fighting. Alex got a takedown on pure grit to win the match and head to the 3rd place match. Peyton was absolutely exhausted after losing a lead against nemesis Will Lewan and being defeated in the semifinals. Although devasted and tired, Peyton fought through his next match, bringing himself to being physically ill because of exhaustion, but pulled the match out. Love The Fight

Sam Webster came to more PINnacle practices this spring than anybody. He does the right things on, and off, the mat. Unfortunately, he had another PINnacle wrestler, Jake Bergeland, in the blood round and ended up 1 round away from being an All-American in Freestyle. First round in Greco he draws the defending 5th place finisher in the Cadet Worlds. Sam battled hard, but came up on the losing end. After a blood round loss, and a 1st round loss, it would have been easy to give in a little bit. But Sam kept his cool and refocused for his next match.  Sam reeled off 6 straight wins to become a Junior National All-American. Love The Fight

Tyler Eischens turned in an All-American performance with an 8th place finish in the Junior National Freestyle Tournament. In Greco, Tyler won a tight 6-6 affair in the rd of 16. Unfortunately, this match was protested, because his opponent thought he was winning much of the 2nd period as a point was accidentally put on the board for his opponent. The protest was won. The rules state that they had to start the 2nd period with the score as it was at the beginning of the 2nd. So now Tyler is down 2-4, and he can't use one of his major weapons of conditioning to his advantage. Unfortunately, Tyler lost this match. Now, Tyler has a 15 minute break before he has to wrestle a consolation match. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Tyler showed his true character, and put a beating on his next opponent. That protested match was his only loss of Junior Greco as he came back and took 3rd and become a double AA at Junior Nationals. Love The Fight

Everything wasn't roses at Fargo, and never is at these big tournaments. We had 5 wrestlers lose in the blood round(if you win you are AA, if you lose you don't place) in the Junior Freestyle alone, and 12 wrestlers lose in the blood round overall. This is heartbreaking for us, and hard to keep upbeat for the next wrestler you coach. Hopefully these guys will learn from these losses and keep from happening again.

Lastly, I had to Love The Fight, as this match(need flopro) was how I started my Fargo this year with Patrick McKee. If my memory serves me correctly(as I haven't, and will never, watch this again)I had some choice words for Pat when he was down 7-11 in the 2nd period. Pat ended up winning this 1st round 14-13. Jared was lucky enough to be in the corner for this 19-17 Semifinal win. As one PINnacle parent said after the tournament, "Sometimes I can't tell if you are going to throw the brick for the officials, or you just want to throw the brick AT Patrick". Love The Fight!

Final Results- 5 Champions, 22 All-Americans, 67 Competitors

Junior Freestyle
Patrick McKee -Champion
Peyton Robb - 3rd
Brent Jones - 3rd
Jakob Bergeland - 4th
Alex Lloyd - 4th
Jake Allar-6th
Tyler Eischens -8th
 
Junior Freestyle Womens
Emily Shilson - Champion
 
Junior Greco
Peyton Robb - Champion
Tyler Eischens - 3rd
Patrick McKee - 4th
Kenny O'neil - 4th
Rylee Molitor - 7th
Sam Webster - 7th
 
Cadet Freestyle
Ryan Sokol - Champion
Riley Habisch - 4th
Paxton Creese - 6th
Grant Parrish - 6th
 
Cadet Freestyle Womens
Emily Shilson - Champion
 
Cadet Greco Roman
Colby Njos - 2nd
Grant Parrish - 2nd
Paxton Creese - 3rd