Complete Results: 16U Freestyle

Herriman, Utah — One year after Wisconsin made history with its first Junior Freestyle National Duals title, the 16U Freestyle squad locked in a historic title of their own—this time in Herriman, Utah. A key difference? The nation wasn’t expecting Wisconsin to come out on top. “The No. 7 seed seems to be treating us well,” said Scott Kluever.

Wisconsin faced No. 1 seed Ohio in the finals and leveraged everything they had to keep their edge. "That match went how we expected—we knew it was going to be a battle," explained 16U Freestyle Head Coach Newton Smerchek. “We talked about it when we were returning the rental vans—so many times in a match we’d be locked in a lace or something, and they fought for every point—to score or not get scored on.” Narrow decisions (even one on criteria), points scored in losses, and huge wins by fall all proved to be difference-makers in the 41-32 victory.

And to get there, they had put together incredible wins. The team defeated No. 2 seed Illinois (W35-41) on Friday to claim the Pool B title before closing the first day of competition with a victory over neighboring state Minnesota W42-28 to start off the Gold/Silver pool. Saturday started with a win over Oklahoma 43-30 and then the Iowa match was won by a razor-thin margin, W40-37. “They just cared about each other enough to go after it,” Smerchek said. “This is a special group of kids . . . all the credit goes to the athletes and the clubs in Wisconsin. Their care and commitment is incredible." 

Team Wisconsin is known for rallying around verbal somethings. This time it was ‘pick the next guy up.’ Meaning, if one person didn’t succeed, somebody’s gotta pick him up. “I know for sure in the Illinois match we struggled maybe a little in our lighter matches, and our bigger guys picked us up, and then when we got to the later matches our lightweights came and picked it up,” Smercheck said.

Keeping it together in this format a lot of times comes down to staying with it mentally. In those tight moments, it was 16U Director/Coach Randy Ferrell and Coach Dewey Krueger in the corner—calm, steady, and positive. “Sometimes these guys just need to hear how great they are—‘Dude, you know you’re the best’—and they are. They know that. But they need to hear it sometimes,” said Smerchek.

One of the neat throughlines in this victory is the continued showing of the long-term investment from athletes and coaches. A handful of young men on this team took a loss to Ohio at 14U National Duals not long ago. “It’s amazing the work and development these guys have put in to change those results,” Smerchek said. “Tony Schaaf gets credit—it wasn’t hard for me to ask these guys to be part of the 16U team because of how great a time they had with 14U. The whole WWF program is in sync and successful right now—it’s really amazing to be part of.”

Kluever, the WWF State Coach Coordinator, shared in a Facebook post: “Wisconsin is a wrestling state, and this group showed what you can accomplish when you wrestle for each other.”

At the airport, while the winners were off getting celebratory ice cream, Smerchek summed it up simply: “All the credit goes to the guys; it was fantastic.”

Competition in the series of National Dual tournaments continues next week with 14U, 16U, and Junior women’s freestyle in Indiana, and Junior men’s freestyle and Greco right at home in Milwaukee, WI!

Complete Results:

• 16U Freestyle
• Wisconsin over South Carolina (Dec 69-11)
• Wisconsin over Pennsylvania Red (Dec 50-24)
• Wisconsin over Illinois (Dec 41-35)
• Wisconsin over Minnesota Blue (Dec 42-28)
• Wisconsin over Oklahoma Outlaws Blue (Dec 43-30)
• Wisconsin over Iowa Blue (Dec 40-37)
• Wisconsin over Ohio (Dec 41-32)

Helpful Notes

→ Team WI Rosters: https://bit.ly/43zCkts
→ Stream live on FloWrestling
→ Brackets posted on USA Bracketing
→ ABOUT: National Duals are age-level USA Wrestling events featuring some of the most talented freestyle and Greco wrestlers on state association teams nationwide.

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The Wisconsin Wrestling Federation, guided by USA Wrestling, provides quality opportunities for its members to achieve their full human and athletic potential. Wisconsin Wrestling Federation will strive to be USA Wrestling’s best state organization.