Girls' National Duals Recap

Steve and Teague are joined by Bryan Koontz and Efrain Ayala 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Welcome to the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast with your co-hosts Teak Fenwick and Steve Lurkwin.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast. I'm your host, Teague Fenwick, coming to you live from Holman. Joining me as always from Koshkinong, my co-host, Steve Lurquin. Steve, great to be here.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

And a chocolate chip cookie to anybody who can find where Koshkinong is on a map. But Tete, always pumped to be here to talk some wrestling.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

Hey Steve, we have a fun one tonight. We had two episodes last week. Highly recommend checking those out. We had uh we talked about with Pat Yauk about the Milton Girls and their trip to uh winning their second team state title. And then we had Doug Forsyth on. We talked about the new postseason assignment, so that was good stuff. But Steve, while that was going on while we were podcasting over the course of like a two-week span, uh teams from uh all well, not teams from all over Wisconsin, but teams consisting of some of our very best were wrestling in the national duels. Uh first and foremost, want to give a shout out to uh the boys 14U, 16U juniors, Freestyle and Greco teams. From everything I saw and heard, it looked like it was a pretty great experience for everybody. Had some pretty high place. I think uh junior uh freestyle ended up placing fourth, and that was in Milwaukee again. So always fun. We get some good national wrestling in uh Milwaukee. Steve, all together in one go were the girls down in Indiana, which uh can't wait to talk to these guys about this. We have a couple familiar faces on. One who's been on the show before and one who may have a little social media uh notoriety to say the least. So with that being said, let's introduce our guests. Introducing first up here in the top right. You may know him of uh Herky jerk fame, but uh coming to us from am I right in saying Manowa, Efrain?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yes, sir, Manoa.

SPEAKER_04 2:23

Coming to us from Manowa, Mr. Efrain Ayala, he coaches of the 16U girls. Efrain, chatted a couple times this year. Uh, I am pumped to have you on, brother. You you bring great energy to the table, and I'm excited to get you on the show.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Oh, excited to be here. Thank you, guys.

SPEAKER_04 2:42

And coming back, hitting that rarefied air of recurring guest status. Yes, you may uh know him as the father of the Koontz boys from Stevens Point, but a lot of folks know him as uh the head coach, head girls coach for WWF. Bring it back, Mr. Brian Koontz. Brian, pumped to have you on.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

It's good to be back. I love talking about uh the great results of the Wisconsin girls wrestlers. It's always uh better to talk about uh great things happening than anything else. So thanks for having me back on.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

So icebreaker question, and we'll start with Brian here. Brian, how are the boys doing now?

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Oh, boys are doing great. Um, Dylan, you know, had shoulder surgery um just before the Olympic trials in 2024. So he kind of was slow coming back. Um and for those that don't know, Dylan was Dennis Hall's assistant coach for the University of Dubuque women, and Brady was John McGovern's assistant coach at the University of Dubuque for the men. But last fall they got the opportunity um to uh Sam Hayswinkle gave him a call. He was an Olympian in 2012 and freestyle, a world team member in 2018 and in Greco, and he's another little guy, so he he understands how the lightweights wrestle. He gave him a nice offer to uh go down to Oklahoma City, real nice suburb, uh Edmund, Oklahoma, to just train full-time Greco um without having to worry about wrestling folk style with college kids or uh coaching freestyle and everything else. And Brady went in the end of October, and uh Dylan waited for the school year to end, and he just moved there uh two weeks ago. Benji Peak is down there as well. He went down in uh uh January, and Brett Bach from Wisconsin Rapids, who um had an incredible uh first uh senior level tournament, finished third in the U.S. Open. Um, probably uh a call here or there would have put him in the finals against Benji. Um and so Brett moved down there in January. And so uh the name of the club is called Position Wrestling. It's a private club, it's not an RTC. And um, it's for the first time the boys are not wrestling any folk style or doing anything. Uh, they're just able to practice in Greco without any of the admin worries, uh, running youth club or anything like that. So it's a good situation. So um I would say Brady and Dylan both suffered a little bit. Um not that there's a codependency, but um when Brady moved to Oklahoma, uh Dylan's uh training partners were cut in half. He's had Tyler Klein in, you know, who's from um uh uh Hartford and uh at Dubuque, who was a graduate assistant for the women as well there. And um, but with Brady gone, they lost one-third of their uh trifecta of training partners and work. So uh they're healthy, they're good, they're in the best situation they've ever been in, and I've got to give uh Sam Hayeswinkle a lot of credit for uh getting this club going. So it's it's just beginning. Uh they were they had five wrestlers at the U.S. Open, and they had two finalists, uh two thirds and a fifth. So uh I think I think they've done okay so far. So uh it'll grow, it'll get better, and there's not many places if you're a Greco guy um to actually really truly go train and immerse yourself in Greco, other than being at Northern Michigan or being one of the few people that get into WCAP. So uh the boys are doing great, and um you know they're getting ready to uh compete overseas. Um Brady will be in Budapest at the UWW World Ranking Tournament in July. And Dylan, who the movers came last week and is just kind of getting settled in, um, will be competing in Poland uh along with Brady uh towards the end of August. So moving forward, they're doing great. And um, you know, it's it's it's nice that uh they're in that uh really, really good positive situation.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

Love it. Good stuff, good stuff. Andy Frain, uh for you, I gotta ask, do you have the house to yourself right now, or are the girls like behind the computer like snickering at you or what?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

They're out there doing horse chores right now. They're running the horses and exercising and just having a blast out there.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

So I got them out of here. So even though you're on a podcast where we're talking the whole time, this might be like the most calm that your house has been in a while.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Seriously, it is. Oh, yeah. Usually you got the two girls rustling around, yelling at each other, hollering. So we're all we all work from home, so the girls are homeschooled here, so it's a busy household.

SPEAKER_04 7:27

If Pip comes in the household, you gotta let me know because I gotta turn on my sensor button just to be ready.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

I'll let you know, alrighty.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

So, Efraine, you you bring a great energy to the table, like I said, uh, and and uh just you with your social media, savvy. I know I was hanging out with Carl DeLuca. We were playing Mario Party last weekend, and and he told me uh how him and his arm just loved that uh you're great at social media just coming out with like impromptu videos, and he said it would literally just be like you gotta be sitting, hanging out, and bam, you whip the phone out, you have a TikTok made or whatever made going, whatever the kids watch nowadays. And uh it definitely kept them on their toes, but it's exciting. It was cool to see the behind the scenes of uh the girls' teams and what you coaches were doing. Take us through that process. Like, do you just have a quick mind for like, oh, I should get a video of what's going on right now, or do you kind of conjure up something first before you take the phone? Like, how impromptu is that for you?

SPEAKER_01 8:27

It's pretty impromptu. The girls know they've gotten really good at it through the years on the fly. I know Nazar one time was like, dude, you just caught me off the fly there. Like, and that's what you want. You know, that's our big thing with our social media is we're just trying to get the reality of it. So we want people to know exactly what's going on. I want the girls to, if something happens, like, oh my gosh, stop, repeat that. And so we just kind of want to give you a little insight of what our family's like because I think there's a lot of similar families going through a lot of different similar challenges and having some fun with it. But yeah, Carl De Luca, I wish I would have got this on video. So I am gonna give him, I we'll talk about it in a little bit for 16U, but Carl won us that duel at 16U. So he threw the brick out. You talk about a guy who knows exactly what he's doing, you know, from his refing experience and coaching experience, and he sat there and caught something none of us actually caught in the moment, and he's like, You gotta throw the brick. And so we end up throwing the brick and we end up winning that match. But we'll talk about that later.

SPEAKER_04 9:31

Fun, fun. Uh uh, guys, I'm gonna start with the year. I think the one thing I really appreciate about the girls' tournament is that all right, I actually do want to say this before we get all into wrestling talk. Steve, this is kind of crazy to think about, and I know we don't like to talk about the B-word on here, but this is our first ever episode of Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast that we're doing at the same time that Giannis Antecupo is not a Milwaukee buck. And fellas, I know we're wrestlers, but kind of breaks my heart a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

That's a big name.

SPEAKER_04 10:09

I never got to say it on air, so I think I just had to get it out once. I don't have any comments for that.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

All right, well, I've been counting on one hand how many bucks games I've watched this last year, and that's uh that's this many. So you know what?

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Brian, do you know how to drill a basketball dribble a basketball?

SPEAKER_04 10:29

I can dribble. I can't shoot. Anything beyond that, yeah. Well, fellas, one thing I love about the girls' tournament is uh that all three teams are together. And I don't know, like I wish that could be possible for the guys. I don't know if they could do it with six different teams. I think logistically it'd probably be a little tough. But Brian, first of all, how how tough is that logistically for you and Nasa to work out with all the travel arrangements and whatnot, but also like with how tough it is, how nice is that to have all those girls of all different ages together?

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Yeah, it's actually there's so many positives um having it all together under one roof. First of which, Nasa Bianchi, the girls' director, she does so much work. I can't stress um how lucky we are that she's she's there and she's she's the right person for it. She's so organized and it requires so much um extra work behind the scenes as far as the logistics, um, whether it's three duels and three different, you know, three age groups in three different places or all age groups in one place, um, it's it's hotels, it's travel, it's filling the team. Um, you don't always get um the person with the highest pin ranking um wanting to do it. Um knowing where uh the what weight classes you should take alternates in case somebody needs a break or somebody gets hurt. There's so much um planning and logistics, and it's kind of like a Rubik's Cube. If you if you get one piece in place, it seems to disrupt something else. So you're constantly having to work everything at once. Now, the convenience from my perspective uh of having all of the duels in one location was was a luxury for me. So we had Dan Lisavage, uh Carl DeLuca, and Josh Murnain as the 14U coaches. We had Efrain and um uh Jason Jason Hoenzi and um Matea Rale as the 16U coaches, and then we had Nazar Kolchitsky, Jake Wozniak, and Brooke Thurber as the junior coaches. So I have the luxury of being able to um bounce around where I might be needed. If any athletes need exhibition matches, uh I can go over to uh an empty mat and give them their matches. And I ended up refing a whole bunch of matches during the tournament because we had some long breaks in between our duels and so forth. Um, but it's nice where I can basically be there in one location and for all the girls uh and watch, but it's really, really beneficial for some of those 14 you girls, um, many of which might not have wrestled outside of the state very much, especially when Northern Plains is at the Dells and so forth. And then they get to be on the bus, they get to warm up, they get to practice, and they get to see how some of our uh junior girls, uh especially the ones that are maybe juniors or seniors in high school that are really accomplished, um, that example, um, that routine, um, and just being around that, uh, I think is really beneficial for the 14 use because it helps kind of build that bond throughout the entire age groups of Wisconsin wrestling, uh but also you know the example that's set and and and the fun that it creates um goes a long way in in helping them develop and as part of the wrestling journey. It is mentally exhausting, though, because you seem to, no matter how hard you try, you get pulled in emotionally for every single match of every single dual meet. And when you have three age groups going on at once, um it is just draining. Um, and given it's it's a mental grind, even for the girls, because they they will have seven matches, some of them. There might be two hours, three hours in between them, and you're trying to rest, you're trying to refuel, you're getting bored, you're getting antsy, you know you oh, they call you to a mat and you're on deck, but the the dual meet before you hasn't even started yet. So now you're hanging around. So it is very, very much a good training ground for just the grind at Fargo or the grind at other tournaments and just the quality of competition. And then also every region wrestles differently. They wrestle differently in California than they do in Michigan or New York. So it gives our girls a lot of uh opportunity to kind of assess where their skill levels are and what they're familiar with or not familiar with by what some of these other states bring to the table. So it's great having them all together. It creates a lot of work for NASA, but she does like the best job anybody could ever imagine. And it's great for me to be able to just see all three age groups competing all day long. And we've got just great coaches that do a really, really good job of reading some of these athletes, you know, who is kind of a little sluggish um after four matches today. Maybe they should sit this dual meet out and we'll put somebody else in, that sort of thing. So um it's very convenient. It works out great. If I had a preference, I'd love them all to continue to be uh together with all three age groups. It's it's just um a much better overall experience for all of the Wisconsin girls.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Ryan, I gotta ask you. Oh, sorry, for yeah, I'll I'll bounce it to you. I will address some of the chat here. We got Kayla back in the chat. Doug, there is no Brewers baseball tonight, so you better have us on the big screen right now, Doug. We got Scott Cleaver, the number one recurring guest on the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast. Scott, I think we all agree we can crown NASA, the queen of Wisconsin at wrestling. And Andrew, glad to see you here. The girls did indeed kill it. Yeah, Efrain, bouncing it to you, man. I mean, build upon that from uh not only your perspective as a coach and what you got to see, but also just, and that'd be really cool for you as a parent. And Nellie's a pretty social girl, so I'm sure she made her round between every girl of every age. Uh, take us through that from both the coaching and parent perspective, just that togetherness.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yeah, so being able to Nelly's been on the team the last three years, and that is one of her biggest goals, is just to want to be on that team because of the experience you gain out of it. And I mean, going from 14U and watching all those junior girls train, and so just the full experience of being a part of that whole atmosphere is just huge in itself. Whether you got a match, alternate, just being a part of the pro like it's just it's fun, the excitement. I mean, when we were the 16U team was dueling, or the 14U team was dueling, the junior girls were overwatching. It's just it's such a great atmosphere for these girls and competing, and then they just level up. And that's what you're starting to see with all our Wisconsin girls is the junior girls kind of set the pace, and now our 16-year girls are following them. And we have a lot of young 14-year girls and a lot of new faces that we saw on that team. And I mean, they're starting to level up. I mean, they were winning matches, they probably shouldn't have just because they wanted to perform and they wanted to prove to the rest of their Wisconsin teammates that they're ready to wrestle. So it's been fun and just being a part of that journey watching this. I mean, 14U girls being new faces. I remember Nile was there, and just now starting to see that whole group grow together and where they've come from from the 14U team to now the 16U team, and then watching them as juniors, and then also watching the junior team through those years as well.

SPEAKER_04 18:26

Well, because what girls in the same grade, they could be on the same team for what? Is it six years? What do we got?

SPEAKER_01 18:35

No, the two versions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

Good stuff. Love it. So fellas, going into we are gonna go uh in order tonight talking about the teams. We're gonna talk uh 14U, then we'll talk juniors, and we will finish it off with our uh national uh champ 16U team. I do have to say uh that uh I think with the first, second, and sixth place finishes, I was talking to Gabby Lord Klein. This was the highest aggregate finish of all three girls' teams combined, which was absolutely awesome. I think it speaks to the talent and it speaks to the work that you guys and many others put in on the the coaching and administrative level. And also, too, we we kind of seen the storm coming for Wisconsin for for a while. Where it's just like, oh, this is the best freshman class ever. And then we it I think Steve and I have said that about four or five years in a row now, and now we're kind of seeing that crescendo of things. Uh 14U sixth place finish, it uh tough tournament, a lot of close duels. I know we'll uh dive into that, but Brian, kind of a developmental question for you. Because I know talking with other coaches, whether it be uh prior years or even talking with the 14U guys, you guys really stress process over results at the 14U level. And we're all we've all coached here, whether whatever sport uh to different extents, uh we do like to win, but we also know that that you do want to find that long-term process that that makes the kid the best in the long term. I guess the question for you, Brian, that I was thinking about is how does that training process go? Like, is there a way that like a different state trains where it's like, all right, this will help them in 14U, but down the road it might not benefit them as much? Like, how do you how do you preach that process?

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yeah, well, what we see with the 14U girls, kind of the in general terms, um, we kind of do it as a coaching staff at uh as a as uh as a whole, regardless of the age group, where we send people, you know, when when people go out to UWW age-level world team trials in Spokane, or they're at Super 32, or even at the duels or at Fargo, we are always gathering feedback on kind of the common areas we're seeing uh our girls either struggle, get beat in certain positions, or maybe uh some situations or positions where we need to improve, uh, either coach better technique or more match awareness. So, as a whole, in general terms, we're always um looking at those uh consistent areas that go across uh all the age groups. Now, with 14 use specifically, it's not surprising. You see some of the, and I won't call them beginner wrestlers because not many of these girls are beginner wrestlers at this stage of the game, especially especially what I would call are more elite wrestlers that are you know on these dual teams for their age group. But they still struggle in this, you know, different areas than say our juniors would, um, just because they haven't been exposed to as many uh different positions. Um they haven't some of them haven't been exposed to national level competition. They might be uh tearing it up, you know, at the new London Youth Tournament and then show up at junior duels and uh be faced with somebody that wrestles totally different or from different positions than what they're used to. But um you know one of the basic things that we see more of in the 14U is just good solid um shot defense um you know working working that um some of it is um front headlock um from from from the offense of it or the defense of it um some of those areas that you know you're in all the time um we might emphasize a little more with the 14U um just because they just don't have the experience or they make some of the um common mistakes you would expect uh beginners to make um that you might not have to emphasize uh at the junior level so you know the coaches of the 14U we're all taking notes on areas to improve on and things to maybe cover better next year uh even something as uh related to the duels is you know every match counts and every point counts if you are losing by nine make sure you score one point before you get tacked to help your team little things like that that a lot of these uh girls haven't really thought about or they even if you go over especially with 14U they're not conscious of it because it's all new to them. Um you know the juniors and the 16Us are a little more similar uh especially the ones that have kind of climbed the age group from one uh 14U national dual team becomes a 16U national dual team uh member but as far as just the journey and the development we're always looking at uh WWF girls as a whole and where do we need to improve the the clubs do a tremendous job the local high school coaches do a tremendous job but there's always a few things that maybe we don't see much in Wisconsin that we have to be on the lookout for say when we go to Fargo um or next year when we go back to the duels. But um the 14 news though uh are a lot of fun just because they're just so wide-eyed and um taking it all in like a a kid in a candy shop a lot of them um it's it's a new experience for them and the road trip and just the excitement of being in a hotel on a on a trip like this to them is new. But I'm actually always I don't know why I'm always surprised but always um pleased that when it comes time to go to bed, warm up get ready for your match and wrestle um they're all professional like they've been there and done that even if they haven't um so you know I've got to tip my hat to all of these girls and all of their parents and their club coaches and high school coaches because they're ready to go you know and there's a lot of things that we we can't reinvent the wheel between now and Fargo or at Fargo camp but there's a few areas we've already collected from uh the coaches that were at the duels that maybe we need to go back over a little bit at Fargo camp um just to kind of help reinforce it or improve it because that one mistake here or there could be the difference between being on the podium at Fargo and being an all-American or losing in the blood round. So um you know we just we just try to keep developing and keep getting better. And specifically yes when you're a 14U uh even 16 you or even the juniors um the duels are fantastic and we want every age group to be champions for Wisconsin. But at the end of the day we just want the experience to be uh something you know an experience of a lifetime for the kids for the coaches and we also want to take things back with us that make us better wrestlers. And so as long as the duels are serving to help develop us and make us better wrestlers even if it's just for Fargo a month down the road or maybe next year or the year after as long as we're moving forward and progressing and developing then I think we're getting what we want to and what we need to get out of the duels even though we show up there and we're all business and we're gonna find some time for fun and we want to win um that's not the be all end all. That's that's something that sorts itself out.

SPEAKER_04 26:31

As long as we're getting better um everything will fall into place eventually you know I thought I asked a really long question and I was so excited to see how you'd attack it and that was that was awesome. Yeah. Efraine do you have anything to to expound upon with that that was good. I mean I guess you get you probably seen first person that that grow from 14U to 16U right what I want to what I think a lot of kids get out of it is the confidence booster you get there.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

I mean going to world team trials you know like Brian talked about or any other big high level national tournaments it's tough to take a kid out there and possibly go oh and two so some of these kids who go to the state tournament freestyle they end up making the team they're probably hesitant but they know their kids are going to be guaranteed quite a few matches so they go try it out and then they get out there and they compete with a couple other girls who maybe at a national level and then at that point that's where like sparks you know it gives that little spark for them where it's like hey I can go to world team trials and start competing there and you know be able to compete with these kids. So the confidence booster I think is the biggest thing from 14U on to 16U and I mean so many girls were competing I mean you got Juliana Lesavage who's a Pan Am champ and she's going back at it. She's training at the highest level and that's one of your practice partners that's someone you're hanging out with. And so it just again like I said before it just levels you up. So it keeps bringing everybody in together and high intensity fun fun stuff there.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Well hey 14U we'll dive into with some of the results here Brian I'm just gonna go over all of the dual results and am I right in that it's the bracket stuff on day one and then pool action and the placement on day two no we start we start with the pool.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

And then you the pool bracket yeah yeah yeah it's like the World Cup. You all start in the pool and you're guaranteed your three matches and then after that you advance based on um where you fell into your pool. So um you you get you stay in the championship side after the pool if you finish first or second in your pool. And then after that it just works like regular line bracketing. You win you advance this way you lose you advance that way. And um I would I will say this and um our our 14U team was much better than the sixth place finish that they they um ended up with. And sometimes it really is um I don't want to use the term luck of the draw but sometimes it is the draw where you're a much better team um than where you ended up in the bracket because you got ousted by a championship team earlier or who you saw in in one round um you had a real tight match and then I think you can kind of tell by our uh our our you know some of those duels um that we were a pretty solid team but when we ran into the good teams it just happened to be at a at a time in the bracket where maybe we were better than some of the teams that advanced further on the other side um but the future is very bright for the 14U age group um for those that'll be back next year and then those that'll be you know we've got to replace people in the 16U age group that will be um matriculating to quote my Hank Stram terminology today. Nice some will some of the 16U will you know be juniors next year for their age group.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

So uh the 14Us that will come in uh are going to be pretty impressive they're gonna be seasoned veterans at 16U and when you can call a 16U first year 16U a seasoned veteran um then you know our our Wisconsin wrestling federation is doing the right thing in giving these uh kids opportunities and and supporting them so on day one i'll I'll pull up the screen share again here I know you talk about that luck of the draw because I know of the three losses two of the losses were to the the first and second place teams uh yep get the win against New York 76 to two beat Pennsylvania 62 to 15 and then lose to California gold of 43 to 36 is there any of the championships action then on day one like do you do this first round here um there was supposed to be but then there was a letter there's a storm coming in so they wanted to cancel or everything to stop early so we only got the three duels correct Brian everybody yeah yeah we were supposed to have one more round on day one but because there were tornado warnings uh that were going to be coming in the early evening we ended up starting um with what was supposed to be the last dual meet on day one uh we started an hour earlier and made that the first dual meet on day two so how are the girls feeling then after day one I know they end up second so it's it's got to be interesting when you're uh you you finish second in your pool you're still move like you still have a chance to win the whole thing but you end the day on a loss in that in this specific instance where the where are these 14 year old girls' heads at in this situation well I think it's it's it's a very long day regardless of whether you had that extra duel uh or you went undefeated and to be perfectly honest um getting out of there an hour early might actually have been a good thing for everybody it's it's one less mental drain you're now back into a routine and getting to bed earlier I think to some extent starting at 8 a.m the next day instead of 9 a.m might have been better um and but uh we had a pizza party in the uh dining area of the hotel so I think once that started I think day one was behind them and they were looking to day two so they did a good job of not dwelling on you know that match they lost in the previous duel or that the team lost a duel.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

You know it's like golf you have a bad shot you have to have a very short memory and just move on to the next one. And our girls did a pretty good job of that.

SPEAKER_04 33:08

So um you know day one is going to be long it wasn't as long but um they they were focused they were ready and you know we were back at the hotel an hour earlier anyway or two hours earlier probably so it worked out all right and I think they got the jitters out after that you know so having that day one only the three matches it was perfect they got the jitters out they got the excitement out of there probably a lot of them hadn't been there before so then going into day two they just feel really good yeah that's a good pointy frame because being 14 you is that's uh it's their literal first national experience right so that that first day is very crucial for not necessarily a piece of cake just to walk onto a national team and wrestle that type of competition going into day two I know a day starts off with the loss against Pennsylvania Blue who ends up winning the whole thing 43 to 36 they beat they lose to Colorado 41 to 36 beat Minnesota 49 to 26 that's the one that really matters here.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

Yeah and then uh losing 40 240 end up placing six but I'll tell you what you guys you look at how close those duels are you even look on the other side of the gold silver pool and it seems like any of these top six teams even you can almost go to the top eight and any of these top six teams for sure could have been a champion on a given tournament yeah I think I think that Pennsylvania team was was very very very good but there's some of those other duels um there was a match here or there um that could have completely shifted it you know you have you have and it works for both teams you have somebody that's winning um and they're in good control of the match they make one mistake and they find themselves pinned uh and then that just completely you know you can say that's a 10-point swing or a a nine you know a 10-point swing on the scorecard or so forth. So some of those close losses I think if you wrestle those duels again um might be completely different. The the parity uh with so many of these teams in all the age groups um are are there it just comes down to who doesn't make the mistake or who pulls the trigger when the opportunity is there or which members of the team uh are not mentally drained or they find the ability to focus when they have to um so it's not unique to 14U but a lot of those duels um I think if they wrestled them again you might see different results it's just the way it is because everybody's so good and and and the parody like I said is it is there.

SPEAKER_04 35:55

Any moments from either day of 14U Brian or Ephraim I know you were more with 16 so we'll get more from you on this but any moments uh individuals matches that that that stick out to you the most from this year.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Well I I it's really it's really strange but it's a lot of girls you know if you're a wrestler if you're if you're a wrestler you you tend to focus on the losses they hurt more than the wins feel good it's just the nature human nature and the nature of the sport um but I I think that the uh matches we lost uh you know by five points here or there are matches I'd love to you know re-wrestle but you know as far as 14 U go and and and all of the age groups it is a grind it doesn't matter how good you are or how how talented you are you're going to have a match where just mentally you think you're great but you just can't focus or you make a mistake or things happen. It's hard to go through this gauntlet unscathed. But for 14U Anastasia Spurgeon was 7-0 Juliana Lesavage was 6-0 um Marissa Zeitler was 5-0 and then I think uh Ella Schachner and Kylie Williams were 6-1 and and Lily Culverhouse who uh might you know she maybe wasn't the most experienced person um mentally she was really impressive she just went out there and just banged away and all the girls on all the teams um never backed down wrestled the full uh you know four or six minutes depending upon their age group but for the girls at 14U that went through completely unscathed that's really impressive especially at that age because um it's just hard to get mentally focused and up for every match when it's this big of a grind and the competition is always that tough.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Efraine anything uh to cap off with 14U before we move on I truly wish I had a chance to watch more of it I did get a chance to watch the Colorado match and watching those girls and the energy they were given because that dual meet was kind of going back and forth for a while and there was one girl get been then we go on to the next match and they were just picking each other up especially those high level girls I mean you got Juliana Breesh all those girls were picking these younger girls up because it is you have the the lighter weights because in these dual meets we'll start out at let's say 75 for 14 you and then it works its way up so a lot of these little kids sometimes end up being at the end of the duel which makes things really interesting you know it's you got your older mature girls who've been there probably a couple time or two and know what to do. And then your younger girls are like oh my gosh this duel's getting really tight what are we gonna do here and you have your older mature girls just helping them out and kind of picking them up and getting them ready to get out on that mat. So that was fun to see that was one big thing I saw during that Colorado duel that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

Hey before we go on to uh the the junior girls catching up in the comments here Andrew Andrew still wants to see a dip and dots review with uh me and Pip which I think it's inevitable. I think that now that I know Pip likes dip and dots it's it's gotta happen next year at some juncture. Jimmy glad to see you in the chat Jeremy pumped up with how the girls wrestled they wrestled their hearts out we could grab media passes and a 10 next year. I uh Steve doesn't have a grad party to plan for next year. So that's right he might be looking for something to do during that week in June Carl's excited he's uh giving some love to Anna Marissa and Kylie saying that they crushed it and yeah so oh Ben dipping with Pippin I like that that could be oh we're gonna have to have to stay track me I wish we would have caught both of you because that's where Pip was all about those dip and dots.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

And I didn't know you liked them as much as until after we left people were saying on social media like you should have gone in with T and had them do a whole review together like oh my gosh that would have been epic.

SPEAKER_04 40:05

T doesn't need any more dip and dots oh hey it it's it's my bulking season now so then I can eat more dip and dots in the winter.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

Bulking season so the Wisconsin Texas match that was for fifth right that I'm assuming obviously I'm asking a uh pretty rude question here but 40-40 the tiebreaker has got to be most falls tech falls is that the uh yeah it well it it actually comes down to did you have any wrestlers get disqualified for a flagrant foul or you know throwing a punch and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

So that criteria rarely is ever invoked. So then it comes down to actual falls tech falls and down the line. So um you know the the juniors uh won their duel against Michigan based on that same criteria of uh the most falls and the juniors came down to nail biters like you know up until the finals they had like four in a row that came down to the last match or close to it Carl the blit the brick thrower says uh Texas had most wins nine to eight oh there you go there you go a very big pro of having an odd numbered amount of waking that is that's true makes it pretty clear ask Carl if he won any bricks during that time Carl the the floor is yours I know it's like a 30 second delay so the chat's all yours we'll we'll see if we'll see if Carl uh did win any bricks once he gets back to us in the chat here we'll gonna use the power of my fancy technology here and share the screen for the junior girls big bracket here as we got a full 16 or well there's a couple buys in there but junior girls uh my first question with the the junior girls Brian how much uh recruiting it does it take if any to get those seniors going into their freshman year of college back and uh yeah how well how happy are those girls that they made the decision to to do one more go-around well I hope they're all pleased they did it we're we're so happy that they did and I will say this to kind of back into it at the end of the last duel meet uh against Pennsylvania yeah we wanted to win uh we ended up second but 10 minutes later um all of those girls realized they still accomplished a lot in making the finals but what hit them after you know we got our plaque and everybody got their second place medal the the girls that are graduating out it hit them that this was their last national dual team together and some of these girls have been on these dual teams you know every single year together um you know going back and we had a handful of girls crying their eyes out and it wasn't because they got second place or they're just saying goodbye to people they were visibly moved that this was the last time they were going to be on a dual team with these teammates. Now they all know they're gonna be traveling and competing at Fargo and they're part of the Wisconsin team but Fargo is an individual tournament where they just happen to keep team points. And so it tells you how wonderful this experience is when some of these girls that are graduating out are sad and happy and crying and hugging one another because it's the end of the line for them as far as a dual team. So that goes way beyond um the results or whether they had won the duel or not. That reaction was going to be the same either way. So um with with with the girls and the juniors um I don't even remember your original question now, but um you know they we We had so many girls do it. Oh.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

Awesome. It was awesome. We'll fill this time as uh fatigue works to get him back.

SPEAKER_04 44:15

Yeah, Steve, are you in the are you in the comments?

SPEAKER_03 44:17

I'm gonna kick Brian real quick and then I'll shoot him a text here. Efrain Carl said he was seven for eight on bricks or uh cow tipping, as he likes to call it. Uh cow throwing. I like the cow tipping expression. Damn back. And the important one, the 16-year finals, he said. So which obviously we talked about before.

SPEAKER_04 44:36

Steve, he called it cow throwing because uh they had like uh they had blue and red cows, I think, to throw for their bricks.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

I understand that. I get it, but I just like cow tipping better as a as a phrase. So I've a couple of reasons.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

No, the couple refs we had, we had a cheese head, and it looked like moldy cheese because we colored it in with uh blue and red, and we threw it out there, and it was kind of like a squishy and it fell. But the first ref ended up telling us we couldn't use it anymore. Oh we had to use the original brick. I was like, come on.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yeah, he was actually he was actually mad that we threw the uh Swiss cheese looking red or blue brick. Is he from uh was he from Illinois?

SPEAKER_01 45:20

He must have been.

SPEAKER_04 45:25

All right, so going Brian, I'm sorry, I kind of lost track. Uh yeah, you hopped up. We were talking about the senior girls, and then I think uh we were jumping into results a little bit, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

So, yeah, the senior girls, if you look at the results, they had a run uh up until to get into the finals where it seemed like every dual meet was coming down to the last match, um, which puts a lot of pressure on that girl. Um but you know, we had that same uh issue with 16U as well. Uh and uh they walked out there and just wrestled the match like it was the first or second match of the duel. So they did a great job. And we had already talked about the the dual meet with Michigan. You know, we had lost to Michigan last year, uh which knocked us out of making to the finals. And this year, you know, it came down. I'm trying to remember, um, it was 37-37, maybe I think was the score.

SPEAKER_05 46:21

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

Um Maddie Peach went out and got a tech, and it was a nail biter. Maddie was clearly uh the better wrestler and a stronger wrestler, but the girl wouldn't quit and she wouldn't give up, and she eked out a couple of points. So then we knew when Maddie texts her, they're gonna get a point on the board, and we're we're all trying to figure out what the uh criteria is gonna be. Um, and there was kind of uh both teams were on their benches just kind of waiting for the referees to declare it, and then uh our junior girls just jumped up and went nuts, and uh we won. So, you know, it would have been better had we known immediately that we won it, but you know, it was kind of anticlimactic, but yeah, it was it was you know, waiting, waiting, waiting uh until they you know let us know. But we won it be but on the uh grounds of having one more pin than Michigan had.

SPEAKER_04 47:18

Oh, Jeremy said he said tech falls it ended up being. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

Well, maybe that was it. But yeah, and you know, one of the yeah, so I would I suppose Jeremy would know.

SPEAKER_04 47:32

So I I do want to give credit to Cassie Sapp of Michigan because getting out of a Maddie Peach arm bar, uh most girls have a bear of a time with that.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

So well, we we we blame the ref for that because um Maddie had her tilted sideways uh vertical, one shoulder, and was about to take her over when they blew the whistle and started them back up. And uh we figured we were gonna get a pin there and then we wouldn't have to worry about criteria at all. But uh yeah, and and and the the Michigan team was really good, really solid, and they fought like heck, everybody was fighting tooth and nail for every second for every point. Um, you know, so it was it was exciting, but we had so many exciting matches and exciting duels. You can't just lay it all on the Michigan duel. Um, but one of the questions you would ask earlier about you know, getting the lineup together and getting the girls to compete, and are they um because of their age and and so forth, do some of them you know not do the junior duels? You know, we had two two uh age-level world team members, um, you know, uh Riley Hanrahan and um Taylor Whiting that opted out of the uh duels due to the timeline, the schedule uh for their training for the world team trials. Now, I can remember a time, and I I don't remember exactly, we had uh three Wisconsin girls on uh age-level world teams with Allie Houck, Macy Kilty, and Jaden Laurent, and they opted out of the duels. And I don't fault anybody for doing that because the duels is not uh as significant uh or as important, and it's not part of the training schedule, so to speak. But we lost like two or three duels that year by like one point and criteria and everything else. And so it happens. Um, you know, we're excited that we have uh two of our junior girls uh on age-level world teams, and it just gives somebody else a chance to uh get more matches and to be a part of the trip and everything else and and so forth. So um if they do the duels, it's great. If they opt out of the duels for whatever reason, um that's great as well.

SPEAKER_04 49:56

It is kind of crazy looking at the results of the final duel, the Pennsylvania duel here. You talk about that that senior class that just graduated, and the duel ends off with uh Devlin, Angie, uh, Kylie, uh, Maddie, and uh Carly. Yeah. Man, Pennsylvania on their wrestling. Just ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Well, they they're their world team members were on their dual team. Oh at least one of them. Uh so you know that's that that's just an individual decision, and I support anybody's decision um to compete or not. And it was wherever we were, wherever Taylor or Riley would have been, we had somebody um right there to fill that spot anyway. Um, that's an outstanding wrestler. So it didn't really take much away from uh our lineup because we have the depth in Wisconsin juniors uh wrestling to uh fill that gap when somebody's training for a world championship. So we totally understand it.

SPEAKER_04 51:00

Anything else on the the junior squad that finished second before we uh move on to the finale?

SPEAKER_02 51:07

Well, Brooke Huffman was seven and oh, Autumn King uh from Bayport was uh seven and oh, Carly was six and oh, and then Maddie and Isabella uh Raby were six and one. And um, you know, it's it's a grind. So to get through the tournament with those kinds of records is impressive. I look forward to seeing what all of our junior girls do at Fargo. But if you can go through the duel 7-0, 6-0, 6-1, um, you're gonna make a lot of noise at Fargo.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

Love it. Love it. Um, I'll kind of go off of what he was saying. So I the the intensity for every single duel was crazy. I you'd have Jake Rozniak, Brooke Thurber, and Nazaret all sending going into a corner, just trying to strategize for every single duel, and every other team was doing the same thing because every duel came down to the wire. So Pennsylvania had gotten beat by Colorado, who we beat. Um, and then to get through the poll on that day, Colorado, even though PA had won that poll or something like that, Colorado was gonna jump them to go into the finals against Wisconsin. So, what PA ended up doing is forfeiting the last three matches, which bumped out Colorado and put them on the fifth place competition, and then who went for third? I don't know how they did this on the fly, but they did this on the fly and they were explaining it to me. I was like, oh my gosh. So you had to figure out how to win the duel and how to not get bumped out and to bump out Colorado.

SPEAKER_02 52:42

Yeah, they they they they forfeited a bunch of matches to give the team they were competing against more total points so they would finish ahead of Colorado on that.

SPEAKER_04 52:54

Ohio blue. Oh wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

Evidently, evidently they have Sir Isaac Newton as one of their coaches, and they they figured that out in like you know, two minutes. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 53:09

Yeah, they gave up their last three matches against Ohio. Ohio wrestled for third, and Pennsylvania wrestled.

SPEAKER_01 53:17

So had that not happened, we wouldn't even wrestle PA technically in the finals, you know.

SPEAKER_04 53:25

Dang. Does that open up the conversation for the tiebreaker criteria? I don't know because I don't know enough about it, so I won't say anything.

SPEAKER_03 53:32

That's beyond my bandwidth right there. I can't even my brain's smoking just thinking about that one. Sorry, Steve, what were you saying? I cut you off, I think. Yeah. No, I already said it. I'm good. Oh, okay. I just said it was above my bandwidth to figure that out. That's uh that's uh something.

SPEAKER_04 53:54

Yeah, the fact that I think it's really impressive that they figured this out mid-duel. They probably kind of knew beforehand, but I really like the Sorizac Newton comment.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

That was that's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_04 54:08

All right, 16 U, Efrain. I gotta ask you first, uh, did the girls come in with the goal to win this thing outright or what?

SPEAKER_01 54:17

Well, I'll just give you an example. Uh, Penelope was running state track the week before, and then in theory qualified for Nike Nationals, but going into Freestyle State, she knew that there was a huge opportunity that they could win as a team, you know, and so she chose to wrestle on the national duel team as opposed to going to Nike Nationals. So if that gives you just kind of a little bit of an example, but all these girls, uh when we saw this lineup starting to shake out at the state tournament for freestyle, uh, you could start to see, like, holy cow, this is gonna be quite the team to be reckoned with. Um, and then through the whole meet, there was some shifting that we had to do. So uh Dalen Cody, who's a hammer, uh, suffered an injury early on in the tournament. And so we ended up having to shift some people places. Uh, we ended up bumping up Ember Zupank to 120, and then Morgan Johnson went to 125. And holy cow, did both of those girls just perform and help out? And it had bet if it hadn't been for them, you know, we wouldn't have had a chance to, you know, make it to the finals and then end up winning it.

SPEAKER_04 55:24

Yeah, I'm looking at that. I just want to look at the lineup, so I looked at this championship or the the final and the pool action here. But it it's pretty loaded, Steve. We we've mentioned a lot of these names quite a few times, and I think uh some we'll be talking about over the next four years. But yeah, Cora Stewart, Ramsey, got Katie Davidson who's coming up, you have uh Brindley Vaughn, and I've I won't go through the whole the whole roster here, but folks, you're watching this at home. You can you can look at the screen share, and yeah, this is this lineup is a force to be reckoned with. Efraine going through a day one, win against Arizona Black 52 to 17, Indiana Gold 44 to 31, and then a 40 to 29 against Washington. Any highlights or anything from day one that you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_01 56:19

Jeepers, there was a lot. So we'll start off with Arizona Black. Um, Arizona Black doesn't have the depth, but going into that duel, I was a little nervous seeing a lot of those names in there because they're they have some hammers in there. So I think Bellamano ends up being a world team member, I'm pretty sure. It's just the list in there, and then Cora Stewart ends up beating Daphne Gomez, who's just she's a tough cookie. Um, so that list right there is just it was tough. So those girls wrestled amazing against the Arizona Black. And like I said, going in that first duel, I was like, holy cow, our first duel is gonna be a tough one. I don't know if we're gonna have to really bring it. And these girls ended up bringing it, and we, you know, we ended up handling it pretty well, but I was a little nervous going into that first duel.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

Ended up getting the win of 52 to 17. Nice little run there at the end by uh Brinley, one of my favorite names, by the way, Persephone out of Madison. Then Bryn Mercedes and Brielle closing things out.

SPEAKER_02 57:20

Persephone, I just have to say, um we we got her some exhibition matches um just because she was sharing time with another wrestler to weight class. And we were just hoping to maybe get her, you know, one or two matches on an empty mat. And people kept showing up, and with like 30 seconds rest, she was like, I'll wrestle again, I'll go again for like five exhibition matches in like 30 minutes time. And I'm like, holy cow, this person's built to last. So I was impressed. And the 16U, though, I I want to get into it so I don't um forget later. Brindley Vaughn went 6-0, and then Ramsey uh Vandenberg, you know, with the pressure on in the in the in the last match, uh, got the 19-second pin, but she went 6-1. Katie Davidson was 6-1, Panel B. Ayala was uh 6-1. Um, Maya Beckett was 5-1, and then uh Mercedes Cruz um and uh Bryn Schmidt were 5-2. And uh they look good, they look solid. Everybody just wrestled every second of every match. Um, and you know, what I see from a lot of these uh kids is that they all know people from their home club, their homeschool, um, you know, where they're traveling to different clubs. But even the girls that are maybe at different clubs, different parts of the state, they instantly bond and they're instantly uh, you know, even if they didn't know each other, somebody takes a loss and is a little down on their themselves. It's somebody that they just got to know that might come over and um give them some words of encouragement. It's not just the person they've been going to club to for the past five years. So all three of our teams, uh, the girls really did um bond and work well. And some of the more experienced people or older people were were always there as as the great teammate at the right time. So um 16U's run was very impressive uh to come away national champions, um, you know, especially in in the method that they did. Um I'm really excited for the 14 news that'll be up to 16U next year, so we can defend that. And I'm really excited about the 16Us that'll be uh in the juniors. So, you know, we've got to uh just keep it going. So I'll turn it back over to uh Efrain to uh give you more of the synopsis of the 16U since he was in the corner for every one of their matches.

SPEAKER_04 59:52

Miss Rita Hoffman does agree with all of us that the 16U were really fun to watch. Rita, that's they were pretty excited. So Efrain, I gotta ask in this Washington duel with three matches left, the score is 28 to 27. Were you a little nervous at that point?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:11

We were will you pull that up really quick just so we can see. Yeah that it was intense. Um, so yeah, you start off at 115 and then we ended all the way down with the girl. I mean, ever in I I want you to realize like we saw a lot of a lot of, especially on this 16U team, a lot of these girls were out in Washington, and sometimes that's the only time we get a chance to actually wrestle a lot of those girls. So we saw these were a lot of familiar faces going into this and a lot of hammers from Washington. So I think I want to say Brindley Vaughn's match, that girl was ranked nationally. I I know one of them was, but I'm pretty sure it was the Washington girl, and that was a huge win for Brindley Vaughn. And then I know Penelope, that was the match she lost at the US Open. That girl ended up uh all-Americaning at the showcase, and Nellie ended up coming back and beating that girl. That was another highlight. Uh, cheapers, there was all kinds of matches in there that I could say they were huge.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:11

How were how are you during that that Penelope match? Because the duel was not clinched yet at this point. When Penelope's wrestling, Ephraim, like what what percentage of like coach are you, and what percentage of dad are you at that point? Like, do you set back and like let the other people coach, or are you all in, or like what are you doing during that match? That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Unfortunately, I'm a lot of dads, so I think I was jumping just because that was a huge that was a big match for her. That one, that girl ended up beating um Katie Biscolia the next match, and then that took her into All American. So for Nelly, when she saw that that matchup, she's like, Holy cow, we got a chance to do this again. I'm like, dad's trying to be like, Yep, we're gonna be good, but in the back, it's like, oh my gosh, this is and then when you see the duel come down to that tight, it's like, okay, holy cow, can we get this done? And she just she really turned it on. And I know Maya Beckett in there, that was a big match for her. She just took it to her girl. I mean, a tech fall in that type of duel is really big as well. So, and then Alexa Thomas also solidifying she wrestled. She had a great weekend as well, or weekday, uh, going six and one. So, yeah, a lot of great matches right there. These girls truly performed in that duel, and that was not an easy one.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:28

Sounds like we need an iframe camera, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:33

That's what Steve and I can do. We will one of us will do matches, one of us will be on the be like the the sideline cam.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:41

Yeah, that would be good.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:42

You can broadcast, could broadcast live from the mat side, you know. So the girls, I'm guessing, are riding pretty high going into uh into day two Efrain. Do you have to do anything to like level them out? Like coming in, like, hey, like let's just work, we gotta stay locked in, ready to go, or they are they in a pretty good spot mentally coming into day two.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:04

Oh gosh, you're working. I mean, even being 16U, these girls are all veterans, they know what needs to be done, and it was fun. Everybody got to bed. I mean, we had that pizza party, these girls were back into their bedrooms early and ready to go because they knew what had to be done. They start scouting. I mean, if you look at any of those girls, they're already watching matches on their own and trying to figure out what they need a game plan for themselves, and I think that's huge. So, for a coaching perspective, I didn't really have to do too much other than just scout just a little bit, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:34

All the the pool results, the three matches leading up to the placement match, came out with the plomb on day two, beating Ohio Blue 51 to 18, 46 to 27 over Oklahoma, and a duel that probably had folks on the edge of their seat. We finally got the win against Pennsylvania, everybody. Uh last pool match, 39 to 35. I've I gotta pull that one up. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

Holy smokes, was that a duel? Going into that one, yeah. You gotta realize, I don't think we've ever beaten PA. So going into that duel, and that's gonna put us into the championship, was huge. And I know these girls were ready for it, but at the same time, it's in the back of your head, it's like, holy cow, we've never beaten PA. And PA's pretty well known for wrestling, and they bring some hammers. So going into that duel, these girls were ready and locked in, and you can see through that whole list. I mean, there were a lot of matches that kind of came down to the wire where there were points taken. Um, I want to say this is the one where Morgan Johnson Johnson. Yeah, she knocked that off. Her and I think, yes, and then Alexa Penelope, that was a 12-11 match. That was crazy. Alexa took care of business right away. Um, gosh, let me look at this too. I don't want to miss it.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

Was this the dual meet where I threw the cue because I saw the two hands on the head when Penelope's bar burner? And they didn't give it to us, and we went back and watched it, and the girl did indeed have two hands on Penelope's head, but they must have reviewed the wrong segment because it was clearly obvious.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:20

Yeah, so that ended up putting that match to I think it was like nine to ten or ten, nine-tent. We were down with like 20 seconds left, and yeah, she ends up pulling it off and scoring. That was I was on the edge of my seat for that one.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:35

Yeah, so uh yeah, three to two with with Brynn Schmidt, who uh that's yes, I wanted to say that one too.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

Brynn Schmidt wrestled a very strategic match there. She was sat in two on runs. A lot of that had to go. I mean, that one was with passivity. I mean, being on the shot clock, right, Brian?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:54

Yes, yes. That was a shot clock victory, but she stayed in really good position. You know, a lot of these girls know who they're wrestling, and they've wrestled them before. And we don't really have to chirp in their ear much. And Brin is one of those girls that knows who she's she's wrestling, what their tendencies are, and the position she's weak in, or where she's not as advantaged when she wrestles some of these people. So she went into this match uh with a clear uh strategy of what position she was going to wrestle in and what she was gonna take away from them and that sort of thing. So um, you know, she she knew you know her opponents shoot blast doubles. So I'll just get the two-on-one and take the space away from them, things like that. So it was a strategic win um that she gutted out because she knew what she was getting into. So it was it was very smart, very advanced, what I would call uh mad and match savvy that she employed there.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:57

So a couple of ranked wins.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:00

Sorry. Sorry, if you look at the top, I'm I thought if you look at the top, the top starting roster, that set the momentum. Like 130, 130 Katie Davidson in there getting a pant. Like those are big points to get that momentum rolling for the team.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:16

And a couple of nationally ranked wins in this duel as uh Brin beat number 23 in the nation in that match, and uh Brinley's match, it was a dominant pin. Uh the girls ranked 15th in the nation, so the Vaughn girls are turning into the Avengers, it seems like.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:39

Yeah, Brindley is just a stone cold killer. Uh, she comes out, takes care of business, uh, steps out like nothing. I mean, even after that big pin, I and that was the one I goofed up the duels, but that's that was the nationally ranked girl that she ends up pinning. She walks off the mat like nothing. Like, yep, that's what I was expected to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:56

So it's fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:59

All right, last duel. Last duel, definitely not least, Efrain. I'll pull the screen up here. Folks, don't be shocked. This one came down to the wire. Wisconsin had to win the last five matches, basically. And uh, take us through the emotions and just the the play-by-play of this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:25

Holy cow, did every say so. If people don't know who are watching, in freestyle, points can be scored even if you lose. So if you score a point, you automatically score a team point for your team, unless you get pinned. And then the rest of the points, I mean, I guess three, four, five decision, tech, and then a pin. So if you look through the list, there's some matches in here where it was golly, there's a few in here that were just super impressive where we gained a point. We weren't supposed to. Uh, like I told you, if you look early on against Savannah Hoyer, that 4-2 match, I'm gonna give that one to Carl DeLuca with the break throw. So that match was Savannah was winning 2-0. They get in a scramble. Uh, ref ends up calling 2-2. So the score ends up being 4-4. And Carl looks at me and says, Nope. Stone cold killer. If you know Carl, he's emotionally he's just kind of very level-headed. He's not very high, very low. He's like, Nope, we need to throw the brick. And we threw it, won it. We had like 20 seconds left, and Savannah just sat in good position and won that match. That was huge.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:41

Yeah, going for Carrez. One, two, three, uh, three matches. That Wisconsin picked up a point in a loss. So essentially the difference maker.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:52

Yeah, I gotta jump in with Ember Zupank's match, where that was a tight match. But she was in control, but she was maybe winning uh by a score of you know, five to two, something like that. And the girl took a shot and she just kind of had a chin and an arm or uh a chest lock and the clock was running, and she she underhooked and took the chin and was just letting the clock run. And the girl underneath just relaxed with four seconds left. So she just, you know, you can call it whatever you want, a cow catcher or a pancake or whatever it was. But we were expecting to get three points uh for winning that match, but they were going to get one point for scoring. And Ember wrestled the entire match without letting up. And we got that pin, and that really was uh a key moment. You know, every match counts and nobody wins or loses a duel for you, but the Wisconsin wrestler wrestled the full uh match, and the uh opponent relaxed thinking the clock was gonna run and they were just gonna take their loss.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:06

With one second to go. Oh, wait, no, sorry. It's yeah, it's not with one second to go, is it? Yeah, because it's two periods, three minutes. Uh it's a it's a four minute, it's a four-minute match. We got it with one minute left. Yeah, yeah. Because they're two minutes to two minutes. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:22

Now I'm talking like a Rube over here. All right. We're growing it together, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:29

Yeah. So the the 16 user wrestling two-minute periods. So she literally got that pin with one second left on the clock, and it would have been just three points for us and one point for them, but she wrestled the full four minutes, and the other girl took the last three seconds off.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:47

And then Alexa Thomas, too. Oh, sorry, yeah. Had a really good one. Alexa Thomas had a 6-0 match in that one. I mean, I know she even got a little injured in that one as well. She was struggling with a little ankle injury and just battled it out and just kept in good position. They got in some crazy scrambles, never gave up that point, and we win 6-0. That's big too.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:07

After Mojo gets her win in the penultimate match, how confident are you feeling with Ramsey stepping up to the plate in the end? So she won up 6-1.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:20

Well, I was just gonna say she she was 5-1 up to that point, so I knew she was wrestling well. So I would say I I figured we had a 75% chance of winning that match. But I was nervous this whole get out because there's a 25% chance we could lose. And I also saw really good wrestlers in control of matches get pinned because they get caught and they get in bad positions. So I was a nervous wreck. So I'll I'll turn it over to Efrain here.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

I've had the opportunity of having Ramsey on a couple of my dual teams, and she is way too fun to watch. Uh, she comes out there aggressive, and I think she just she's what they call a gamer. She's bringing it. So going out there, you couldn't ask for a better person to be in that position and be like, yep, Ramsey's gonna take care of business. And she sure did. That's cool. Inside trip to her back, pin. Oh my gosh, it was picture perfect.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:16

That's good. That's how that's how I like them. I don't like nail biters that decide a duel. I like I like dominance, this decide of duel.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:25

I and I saw the video on Flo. The scary thing is she made it look easy. Uh people need to realize we're talking national like level girls here. They're wrestling for their team, like their state team, and uh Ramsey just bowled it right over. Like it was it was impressive. Uh heck of a performance coaches. Uh, am I right? Is this the the first team championship for the girls?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:55

Yes.

unknown 1:13:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:57

Bravo. That's awesome. Congrats, guys. That's that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:03

And I just gotta give credit to our female um athleteslash coaches. Uh, you have Matea, who's still competing, she's in there. You have Brooke Thurber, who's also competing coach, like our female athletes slash coaches, and you got Nisa in there who's as our director. Like, those are the girls who are we're just coaches, but those girls are our role models for our entire state of Wisconsin, and I they really paved the way for our gals.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:32

I just can't stop looking at this last box score again. Had to win all five. They bit the bullet, they grinded down, got the victory, and yeah. Heck of a way to end it. And I think uh just speaking through all three teams, uh, one what a huge experience. Like a they all got to experience it together. Highest aggregate finish, and uh seems like you guys left with a lot of memories. So that was uh a trip well trip well done in Indiana, I would say. Do you guys have any final thoughts? Yeah, any final thoughts on the 16U squad, Efrain.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:10

Uh, you guys better watch out. They're gonna continue to come. Like those girls are ready. Fargo's gonna be fun. I know every single one of them. They were right back on the mat on Monday, ready training. Uh, you can see there's pictures all over the place, girls training. Uh, they're ready, they're on a mission, so it hasn't stopped. It's just begun for those girls, and everybody's gonna follow through with it too. Follow suit.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:33

Yeah, I'm really excited because yeah, I Scott Cleaver's still on the uh um call, but you know, there was that window where we didn't go to the duels from 2013 through 2017 um with the boys or anything. And at first I was kind of relieved because of the cost, the expense, um the extra weigh-ins, all of that. But um, going into Fargo, there was always a few wrestlers that the layoff did not do them well. Um, say if they wrestled in Northern Plains and then they went to Fargo, um, they could have, you know, close to two months without a real match, no matter how many simulated matches you go. So I do like the fact that all Wisconsin teams are back at the duels um, you know, since 2019 or 2018, um, because it really is a good training ground for Fargo for the boys and the girls to have those long days, to have seven matches over two days, to be wrestling that type of competition, because you're staying sharp, you're going through the mental routine, you're getting a weigh-in a month in between, so things are under control, and you just become battle-tested and battle-ready with time to recover physically and mentally. So I think based on what I've seen from our girls and just the improvements I've seen made since state freestyle, Northern Plains um duels, I think that that those improvements are going to continue, and we're going to see a few matches that maybe we lost the duels that would be these people of Fargo. Because I think our girls are all developing and moving in the right direction and gaining confidence. So I'd love the duels um as a separate event, but I also love the duels as a training ground and uh a run to get ready for Fargo.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:29

Love it. Brian, I'm gonna I don't did anyone else hear that when Brian was talking, or is it just me? Okay. Brian, you got like a little choppy when you were talking. So I'm gonna kick you, but hop back on right away, and then we'll close this puppy out.

unknown 1:17:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:45

That's why it was adjusting. I thought it was me. Okay, yeah, I thought it was me too. In most cases, I think it's me. I'm like, what did I do it wrong?

SPEAKER_04 1:17:53

All right, I'll I'll I'll wait once. All right, how are we sounding, Brian? All right, I think we're cooking again. But I just want to say, fellas, uh, thank you for taking the time to come on and and share the stories over the last because I know you have the duels, you have what, uh a week and a half or two weeks, and then you're getting prepped for Fargo again. So let me add that along with the the families and the jobs and whatnot, and uh yeah, for you two to come on and take an hour and a half of your time, we appreciate it. So, Ephraim, I'd say a great first episode for you on the Wisconsin Wrestler Pod.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:34

Thank you for having me, guys. Truly appreciate it, and appreciate all you guys do for Wisconsin Wrestling.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:39

Hey, thank thank you, brother. Like I said, Steve and I might need to do a tour of the the Herky Jerk ranch up in Manila at some point for some content.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:48

You come out whenever. So we'll throw the mass out, we'll do some wrestling too, okay?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:52

I did, just so you know, I used to be a barrel racer, so we could uh we could even get me on a horse if you if you feel so.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:01

All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:04

I've never done that, but I did a few uh bat races after softball games.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:08

I don't know if that counts.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:13

There might have been some uh uh drinks involved in that one.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:16

But uh Brian, when people say that you're a wealth of knowledge, I mean there's really there's no hyperbole for that because you really are. You you know your stuff, and I think more importantly than knowing your technique, at least you just know your people and how to get people better and whatnot. And that's uh it's always fun to get your wisdom on the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:39

Well, I appreciate you having me on. I always enjoy it. I love talking wrestling.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:45

It shows.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:47

And last plug, folks, for those of you who are wrestling historians like I, you gotta look at some of the Coots Boys bracket from the late 2010s because that is a straight nostalgia hit.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

Some classic. Oh, it is. Well, I was looking just the other day, I was looking at Brady's uh bracket from Fargo. Um, he had Ridge Lovett, I think Brady finished second, Ridge Lovett was third, and Patrick McKee was fourth.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:15

So, you know, and that and and so I'm like, yeah, you know, so it's like that. It's a murderer's row. Yeah.

unknown 1:20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:23

And then and Brady lost in the finals to Ravon Foley, who was an all-American in Michigan State. So yeah, and some of those kids, you just kept seeing them over and over again.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:34

Well, hey, fellas, it was a fun hour 21. Uh, glad to have you on. Maybe maybe next year we can make this all happen again. And who knows if Scott's still tuned in, maybe get us a hookup to go down to Indiana or something, get some more coverage. I will say, I should have done this at the start, but Gabby did a great article on uh the girls' tournaments. We shared it. It's on the WWF page. Definitely go check that out. And I know uh Grappler page, the Pearsons that did an article as well. So love to see all the content coming out for the national duels. But fellas, thank you again one more time. Appreciate you both. Uh Steve, I don't know what we're doing next. I think we're kind of itching for another uh another bracket look back. We might try to do a mid-2000s one with a guest on it. So uh stay tuned for that. And then, of course, we've still got our four-timer boys before they ship off to Michigan. So thank you everybody for tuning in. It was a great chat tonight, and until next time, we will catch you on the flip six.