Stats from Fargo

Records were broken at the 2024 Junior and 16U Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota. The largest wrestling tournament in the world continues to grow each year.

Let’s take a look at some impressive statistics.

For starters, over 8,000 wrestlers competed in the FargoDome from July 12-20. That is an amazing stat in its own right. For the first time ever all 50 states were represented as well as Guam and U.S. Territories.

The growth of women’s wrestling continues to break records at Fargo. A record 1,137 women competed in Juniors and 838 in 16U.

39 states scored points in at least one of the six tournaments: Junior and 16U women’s freestyle, Junior and 16U men’s freestyle, and Junior and 16U men’s Greco-Roman.

When combining the six tournaments, Pennsylvania crushed the rest of the country in the overall team standings. PA had 933 total team points followed by California in second at 709 and Illinois at 681. Iowa was fourth with 478 and Ohio was fifth at 435.

To see that PA scored more points than Iowa and Ohio combined puts the team point totals into perspective. PA had five champs in men’s 16U and four champs in Junior freestyle.

My home state of Iowa finished fourth overall when combining the six tournaments. What stands out is that Iowa did not score a single point in the Junior Women’s division. The highest place winner in 16U was fourth place. For having such a great tradition for wrestling Iowa has some catching up to do in women’s wrestling at the high school level.

In 16U men’s freestyle Iowa finished third in the team race with nine All Americans and a state record three champs. In Junior Freestyle Iowa placed ninth in the team race.

Iowa easily won the 16U GR team title with 212 points followed by California at 150 and Pennsylvania with 149 points. Iowa placed 15th in Junior GR.

So once again 16U in Iowa did great by placing first in GR and third in freestyle. The Juniors were 9th in freestyle and 15th in GR. That is quite a drop off at the Junior level.

I remember back in the 80’s when Iowa owned Junior Nationals. That was before a 16U/Cadet division. A lot more of the top ranked wrestlers with the best of the best competing in one tournament. Iowa would have as many as four national champions, one or two runner-ups and it was not uncommon to have two Iowans place at the same weight. Not so any more.