FILA Junior Greco-Roman National Championships ends with eight champs; Safratowich named Most Outsta

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John Fuller (USA Wrestling)
04/28/2005


Las Vegas, Nev. - Tyler Safratowich (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm) rolled through the 66 kg/145.5 lbs. bracket on Thursday afternoon at the FILA Junior Greco-Roman National Championships, ending with a 2-1, 4-0 win over Jade McCammon (Marquette, Mich./USOEC) in the gold-medal bout to claim his first FILA Junior Nationals title.    For his effort, and dominance at his weight class, Safratowich was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler.    McCammon was one of two finalists for the USOEC, the other being Andy Bisek (Marquette, Mich./USOEC) at 74 kg/163 lbs.    Bisek lost in the finals, however, to Mike Felling (Madison, Wis./Wisconsin), 1-0, 1-0.    At 50 kg/110 lbs., Joey Martin (Weatogue, Conn./Team Smith) dominated Terry Allison (Marquette, Mich./USOEC) in a best-of-three series, as Martin and Allison were the only two wrestlers in the weight class.    Martin won the first bout, 8-0, 6-0, and the second by fall in the second period.    Luis Salinas (Ithaca, N.Y.) won the title at 55 kg/121 lbs. with a 7-0, 2-3, 1-0 win over Christopher Iorio (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem).    The Greco-Roman champion that traveled the furthest distance was Elijah Hutchison (Soldotna, Alaska/Team Alaska), who came from behind to win the title at 60 kg/132 lbs. over Travis Lang (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm).    Hutchison lost the first period, 1-3, but won the final two periods, 4-0 and 1-0 to earn his first FILA Junior gold medal.    Luke Hogle (Ithaca, N.Y.) defeated Jeremy Pederson (Quantico, Va./U.S. Marine Corps), 1-0, 2-1 at 84 kg/185 lbs.    At 96 kg/211.5 lbs., Robert Smith (San Ramon, Calif./CYC) downed Travis Gardner (Corvallis, Ore./Orange Crush), 7-1, 5-1 for his first title.    Northwestern Univ. heavyweight Dustin Fox (Evanston, Ill.) defeated Brandon Rupp (Pocatello, Idaho/Poky Grapplers), 5-0, 1-0, at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. for the gold medal.    The top six placewinners of this tournament qualify for the FILA Junior World Team Trials, held in Colorado Springs, Colo., May 22-29. The winners of that event will represent the United States at the Junior World Championships in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 5-10.    Men's freestyle competition will begin on Friday, April 29 and end on Saturday, April 30.