Junior Greco champs Omania, Dow and Cassioppi help wrap up Fargo

WIN Magazine was in Fargo, N.D., last week for the 48^th Annual U.S. Marines USA Wrestling Cadet and Junior Nationals and is now preparing to provide comprehensive coverage of the many different styles and age groups in WIN’s next issue that will be printed on Aug. 7. Click here to receive that issue and purchase a subscription to WIN Magazine.

By Mike Finn

FARGO, N.D. — Peyton Omania and Tyler Dow are looking forward to representing the United States at the UWW Junior World Championships this September in Slovakia.

But first the respective natives of California and Wisconsin used the 2018 U.S. Marines Junior Nationals to capture Greco-Roman championships last Friday (July 20) in the Fargodome.

“I wanted to use this as a warm-up for the Worlds, but I also wanted to win a (Fargo championship),” said Dow, the future Wisconsin Badger and native of Stoughton, Wisc., who defeated Donnell Washington of Illinois, 16-11. “I’ve been coming to this tournament for four years but I had never gotten a (championship trophy) stop sign.”

Omania, who will compete at Michigan State next fall, had a more difficult time beating Tyler Eischens of Minnesota, 8-7.

“This isn’t the way I wanted to wrestle,” said Omania, a graduate of De La Salle High School and Concord, Calif. “I needed to score more points and be more stingy (in giving up points).”

Meanwhile Anthony Cassioppi from Illinois became just the second all-time Junior wrestler to capture titles in both the freestyle and Greco-Roman tournaments, joining Adam Coon of Michigan (in 2012 and ’13), when the future Iowa Hawkeye easily won the 285-pound Greco championship over Austin Emerson of Michigan.

“It took a whole lot of hard work, a whole lot of practicing,” said Cassioppi, who also won the Junior national freestyle championship last Tuesday. “It is just working harder than everybody else. This year, I think the competition was easier than last year. But this year, I was sick the whole tournament, so I had a lot of things going on that I had to deal with that was not on the mat. That made it a lot harder.”

Cassioppi also helped Illinois dominate the Greco-Roman tournament. Overall the Illini state captured four Greco championships, the others coming from Alex Cramer (170 pounds), Zachary Braunagel (182) and Jace Punke (220). Illinois set a record with 10 Greco finalists and produced 20 All-Americans on the final day of the week-long 48^th annual Cadet/Junior national tournament.

Overall, Illinois also produced the most champions (15) and All-Americans in the six different tournaments that were held in Fargo. That was followed by California (6/67), Washington (7/50) and Pennsylvania (7/46).

U.S. Marines Junior Nationals

July 20, 2018 • Fargo, N.D.

Greco-Roman Championship Matches

100 — Eli Griffin (Oklahoma) dec. Christian Tanefeu (North Dakota), 3-1

106 — Brenden Chaowanapibool (Washington) dec. Anthony King (Illinois), 6-2

113 — Paxton Creese (Minnesota) dec. Ryan Rowland (Florida), 13-4

120 — Chayse La joie (Michigan) dec. Cevion Severado (Missouri), 7-6

126 — Austin Almaguer (Washington) pinned King Sandoval (Virginia), 10-8 5:12

132 — Ridge Lovett (Idaho) dec. Delon Kanari (Illinois), 10-2

138 — Kyle Parco (California) dec. Dawson Sihavong (California), 11-6

145 — Cael Carlson (Minnesota) pinned We Rachal (Illinois), 11-7 3:33

152 — Peyton Omania (California) dec. Tyler Eischens (Minnesota), 8-7

160 — Tyler Dow (Wisconsin) dec. Donnell Washington (Illinois), 16-11

170 — Alex Cramer (Illinois) dec. Christopher Foca (New Jersey), 9-4

182 — Zachary Braunagel (Illinois) dec. Jack Jessen (Illinois), 5-4

195 — Lucas Davison (Indiana) won by TF over Guillermo Escobedo (California), 12-0 2:25

220 — Jace Punke (Illinois) dec. Luke Luffman (Illinois), 5-3

285 — Anthony Cassioppi (Illinois) won by TF over Austin Emerson (Michigan), 11-0 1:46

Top 10 Junior Greco-Roman State Standings

Top 10 States in Overall Champs and All-Americans