Cadet Duals
Greeley, Colorado
July 3-7, 2002

by Head Coach Richard Fergola

 
Kansas places 6th in Greco Roman

In Greco, Kansas Gold was unseeded. We went 5-1 in our preliminary pool, only losing to Utah 37-35 in the final dual of the pool. It came down to the heavyweight match. We advanced to the championship pools. In our first championship pool match we wrestled Oklahoma, the #5 seed and we lost 3 matches in a row that we were winning. It still came down to the heavyweight match and we lost 37-30. We then wrestled the #1 seed and the eventual champions, Minnesota Storm, and lost to them 43-27. The next morning we wrestled Illinois and had to beat them to go for 5th and 6th. It came down to the heavyweight match again and Caleb Payne came through with a press fall for the dual win 36-33.

In the medal match for 5th, we wrestled Pennsylvania. We had some great performances and some hard losses and we lost to PA 36-29 and placed 6th in Greco.

The Silver team was short handed 5 weights but did win a dual against Colorado Blue. The Silver team did not win any duals at last years competition. For being open at 5 weights the boys that were on the team, wrestled their hearts out and had about 4 close duals.

Kansas wins pool, fails to place in Freestyle

In freestyle, Kansas Gold walked through their preliminary pool with 3 straight routs over North Dakota, Idaho, and Wisconsin, who was the #3 seed in Greco and the #8 seed in freestyle. Kansas Gold was the #7 seed in freestyle. For the championship rounds, they did not run the Red and Blue Pool format, they took the top two teams from the pools and put them in a 16 team bracket. Kansas Gold had Team New Jersey in their first dual. In came down to the heavyweight match again, and New Jersey prevailed 37-31. That put Kansas Gold in the back door of the championship bracket and we had to face Ohio. Kansas had a tight one with Team Ohio, but we advanced with a 37-33 win. Our next opponent was Michigan. We had to win this dual to place in freestyle. It was a very tough dual, with some great matches. It cam down to the heavyweight match again, and Michigan won and knock us out of the tournament with a 38-31 win.

Overall, Kansas Gold and Kansas Silver teams had a great time and experience at this years Cadet Duals. I think this years Cadets are one of the best ever. I think that Fargo will be very exciting.