Five members of the Iowa Wrestling program will be competing in the UWW Junior World Team Trials this weekend.  Jacob Warner (92 kg) and Jeremiah Moody (74 kg) won the UWW Junior Nationals in Las Vegas recently to automatically qualify for the best of three finals to be held on Saturday.  Warner and Moody both had outstanding tournaments and looked the best they ever have. Max Murin (65 kg) placed second at UWW Junior Nationals and Myles Wilson (86 kg) placed eighth to qualify for the mini-tournament to be held Friday.  The winner of the mini-tournament will face the UWW Junior National champion in a best of three format on Saturday.

Alex Marinelli (74 kg) qualified for the mini-tournament from being a D-I All American this past season.  With the way that Marinelli underperformed on the last day of the Big Tens and Nationals, I am expecting a very motivated wrestler that will compete hard.  After completing all season at 165, Marinelli looks the part to now compete at 163 lbs. Right now Marinelli looks like a lean and grisled wolf coming out of a long hard Yellowstone winter.  I am expecting a huge tournament out of Marinelli and there is a strong chance of an All-Iowa finals of Marinelli and Moody at 74 kg.

I reported in my blog yesterday that incoming Iowa Wrestling recruit Anthony Cassioppi from Hononegah High School (Roscoe, IL) will be competing at 125 kg at the UWW Junior World Team Trials.  Cassioppi qualified for the mini-tournament by winning a Junior Freestyle national title last summer in Fargo.

The competition begins at 10 AM (CST) on Friday at the RCTC Regional Sports Center in Rochester, MN. The UWW Junior division is for ages 18-20.  Wrestlers will be competing for a spot on Team USA to compete at the Junior World Freestyle Championships in Trnava, Slovakia on September 22-23.  

It would be a big deal to put a Hawkeye on the UWW Junior World team.  It would be huge to put two or three Hawks on this world team. Definitely a possibility.  

Let’s get ‘em in the middle.

Go Hawks!