Illinois, Wisconsin Red, Pennsylvania Red, Indiana Gold top men’s freestyle pools at AFSW Junior National Duals

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – The men’s freestyle competition at the 2025 Air Force Special Warfare Junior National Duals began on Friday at Baird Center North with Illinois (Pool A), Wisconsin Red (Pool B), Pennsylvania Red (Pool C) and Indiana Gold (Pool D) each winning its preliminary pool.

43 teams began the day in one of four preliminary pools, structured as traditional straight-line brackets. The top two teams from each preliminary pool advanced to the Gold/Silver Bracket where they are guaranteed a top-eight finish and remain in contention for the first-place prize.

No. 1 overall seed Illinois, who won the Greco-Roman title yesterday, picked up three decisive wins to claim the Pool A title. Evan Gosz and Bruno Cassioppi were exemplary in a 55-10 win over Washington in the pool final, each man picking up a pin. Illinois won 13-of-15 matches in the championship dual. Washington went on to drop its true-second dual by 14 points to surprise Gold/Silver Bracket qualifier Ohio Gray.

Returning national champion Wisconsin Red impressed on its way to the Pool B title with a 40-23 victory over No. 2 seed Utah. Standout performance honors go to Wisconsin’s 100-pounder, Riley Longdin, who capped the dual meet with a second-period pin over Utah’s Gavyn DeCol.

The Pool C title came down to the last match—Pennsylvania Red’s Nathan Schuman utilized a pair of fireman’s carries to earn a 13-1 technical fall over Ohio Scarlet’s Bennett Wachter at 100 pounds. Midway through the championship dual, Michael Turi logged a pivotal pin at 150 pounds for Pennsylvania Red, who wound up winning, 36-29.

Indiana Gold proved to be the class of Pool D. It doubled up Minnesota Blue, 44-22, in the pool title dual. Earning pins for Indiana in the championship match were Nathan Rioux at 132 pounds and Michael White at 190 pounds.

Matching up in the Gold/Silver Bracket are Illinois, Indiana Gold, Ohio Scarlet and Utah in Pool A, and Wisconsin Red, Pennsylvania Red, Minnesota Blue and Ohio Gray in Pool B. One of these eight teams will claim the men’s freestyle national title tomorrow.

The Air Force Special Warfare Junior National Duals is streaming live and on-demand at FloWrestling.com. Multiple subscription options are available to watch. Updated brackets and match-by-match results are available at USABracketing.com.

The men’s freestyle tournament continues Saturday at 9 a.m. (CT) with the remaining color pool duals and placement matches. A complete schedule of events for this weekend’s tournament in Milwaukee is available at usawrestlingevents.com.