Four Triple Crown hopefuls go unbeaten on first day of Cadet Nationals freestyle tournament

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Craig Sesker (USA Wrestling)
07/17/2013


Iowa’s Jacob Marnin rolled to three straight wins on Wednesday at the Fargo Dome. John Sachs photo.

FARGO, N.D. – Four wrestlers with USA Wrestling Triple Crown aspirations finished unbeaten on the first day of the Cadet Nationals freestyle tournament on Wednesday.

Oklahoma’s Daton Fix (113 pounds), Texas’ Nick Reenan (152), Colorado’s Mark Hall (160) and Iowa’s Jacob Marnin (285) each went unbeaten over the two sessions Wednesday at the Fargo Dome.

All four wrestlers were dominant while powering through the field as the world’s biggest wrestling tournament continued on 23 mats in eastern North Dakota.

Those wrestlers earned Cadet Folkstyle Nationals titles in April in Cedar Falls, Iowa before winning Cadet Nationals Greco-Roman titles on Monday in Fargo.

Illinois’ Larry Early, another wrestler bidding for a Triple Crown, rolled to four straight wins before running into Maryland’s Austin Kraisser. Early fell by technical fall at 145. He moved up a weight after winning a Cadet Greco title at 138.

Kraisser went undefeated on the first day of competition in Cadet freestyle.

2012 Triple Crown winner Lance Benick of Minnesota (220) also went unbeaten on Wednesday. Benick won a Cadet Nationals Greco title on Monday and won a Junior Folkstyle Nationals crown in April.

Benick recorded two falls in a combined 28 seconds on Wednesday.

Cadets will resume competition on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Fargo. The Cadet finals are scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m.

There are 1,007 entries in the Cadet Nationals freestyle division, an increase of 64 from 2012. The numbers of participants have increased in every division this year in Fargo.

Cadet wrestlers are 15 and 16 years old.

Day 6 of the eight-day event is scheduled for Thursday in Fargo. Competition resumes at 9:30 a.m. with the Junior Nationals freestyle competition beginning.