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UPDATE: Five still alive for Kids Triple Crown with Greco wins at Kids FS/GR Nationals in Utah

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by Brian E. Preece Special to TheMat.com

Orem, UT -- The action was fast and furious at the 2012 ASICS USA Wrestling Kids Nationals Tuesday.


A total of 585 wrestlers from 36 different states took to the mats at the Utah Valley University UCCU Event Center in Greco-Roman, and after Tuesday's wrestling five wrestlers still entertain hopes of being Triple Crown winners as wrestling in Freestyle resumes Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.


Those five wrestlers are Lance Keneley of Green Valley Wrestling Club (Nevada) who won the Intermediate 120-pound plus division, Patrick Samson of Pounders (California) who won the 60-pound Novice division, Theorius Robison of Parker Sons of Thunder (Colorado) who won the 80-pound Novice division, Peyton Robb of PINnacle (Minnesota) who won the 90-pound Novice division and Owen Webster, also of PINnacle (Minnesota), who won the Schoolboy/girl 128-pound division.


Keneley was dominant as he won two bouts by pin and one by injury default to cruise to a title.


Samson survived a bracket with 15 wrestlers and a close match with Emily Shilson (Minnesota) 1-1, 2-0 to come away with the gold medal. Shilson then lost to Idaho's Darrick Stacey by pin to finish third.


Robison navigated through a field of 20 wrestlers to win his title as he bested Utah's Gentry Warner via a pin in just 55 seconds.


Robb moved up a weight class since Cedar Falls but had no problems winning his championship final with a technical fall 6-0, 6-0 win over Utah's Lance Jensen. Robb's closest match actually came in the quarterfinals when he survived a match with David Montes 5-0, 4-4, 0-0.


Webster had a back and forth bout with David San Miguel of California but finally prevailed in a three-round affair. Webster won the first round of the series 4-1, but San Miguel took the second one 4-4 (criteria) then Webster bounced back with a 1-0 win in the third period to get to the top of the podium.


2011 Triple Crown winner Travis Wittlake (Oregon), who lost to Utah's Brock Hardy at the Folkstyle Nationals earlier this spring, thus denying him a Triple Crown bid this year, avenged that loss with a 33-second pin. Wittlake and Hardy are developing quite the rivalry as the three met three times last week at the Western Regionals with Wittlake winning all three bouts.


The Beehive State did get some amount of revenge as Taylor LaMont defeated Ohio's Corey Shie 5-0, 9-0 in the Schoolboy/girl 105-pound division. Shie had come into the two-day event with high hopes of winning the Triple Crown but ran into LaMont who ended the match with a spectacular 5-point high amplitude throw.


Despite hosting the event Utah was bested in total number of entrants by neighboring state Nevada as the Silver State put 70-wrestlers into the field, Oregon which entered 50 grapplers and California which had 46 wrestlers going in the Greco-Roman tournament. Host Utah was next with 45 participants while Pennsylvania had 34 wrestlers travel over 2000 miles to the Wasatch Front to battle it out in the premier youth wrestling event in Greco-Roman and Freestyle. Despite being halfway across the Pacific Ocean Hawaii entered eight wrestlers while Alaska brought 16 grapplers to test their wares.

2012 USA WRESTLING KIDS NATIONAL GRECO-ROMAN CHAMPIONS

Intermediate Greco-Roman National Champions

50 - Jett Strickenberger of Colorado

55 - Jackson Eller of Colorado

60 - Oakley Ridge of Utah

65 - Robby Vaughn of Washington

70 - Carson Manville of Virginia

75 - Alex Facundo of Michigan

80 - Manuel Rojas of Michigan

87 - Ridge Troupe of Montana

95 - Gaven Murphy of Washington

103 - Geoffrey Kelley of Utah

112 - Justin Darter, Jr. of California

120+ - Lance Keneley of Nevada

120++ - Austin Kelso of Iowa

Novice National Greco-Roman Champions

60 - Patrick Samson of California

65 - Drew Eller of Colorado

70 - Ridge Lovett of Idaho

75 - Colton Yapoujian of Colorado

80 - Theorius Robison of Colorado

85 - Cole Matthews of Pennsylvania

90 - Peyton Robb of Minnesota

95 - James Rogers of Washington

100 - Jace Anderson of Utah

105 - Jake Hendricks of Pennsylvania

112 - Zac Musselman of Utah

120 - Travis Wittlake of Oregon

130 - Gavin Hoffman of Pennsylvania

140 - Santos Cantu of Oregon

140+ - Daniel Bradbury of Alaska

Schoolboy National Greco-Roman Champions

70 - Dylan Koontz of Wisconsin

77 - Brandon Lucas of Ohio

84 - Pat Walker of Illinois

91- Austin Gomez of Illinois

98 - Daton Fix of Oklahoma

105 - Taylor LaMont of Utah

112 - Isaiah Palomino of California

120 - Jaden Enriquez of California

128 - Owen Webster of Minnesota

136 - Ashton J. Seely of Utah

144 - Wyatt Koelling of Utah

152 - Andrew Berreyesa of Nevada

160 - Gary Jantzer of Oregon

175 - Brian Barnes of Oregon

190 - Jacob Cavins of Indiana

210 - Tyler Burris of Oregon

Bantam Festival Greco-Roman champions

40 - Jacob Cook of Wyoming

45 - Kaistin Vasquez of Hawaii

50 - Chapman McKown of Oklahoma

55 - Avery Allen of Montana

60 - Jadon Skellenger of California

65 - Tainui Kellner of Wyoming

70 - Keagan Bartlett of Wyoming

75 - Darrius Evans of Hawaii

75+ - Kenneth Blackwell of Michigan

Click for complete Kids Nationals Greco-Roman results

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