Oklahoma Men Dominates: Champions and All-Americans Shine at Fargo National Wrestling Tournament

Three national champions, 12 other All-Americans and a 3^rd place team finish highlighted Team Oklahoma’s performance at the rugged US Marine Corps 16U and Junior National Tournament, recognized as the largest wrestling tournament in the WORLD. 

In the Junior Tournament, Turner Ross, Van Smith, and Thomas Verrette all battled through the best in the nation, to claim the coveted championship stop signs, with Cason Craft (2^nd), Jake Miller (3^rd), Trae Rios (4^th), and Will Deutschlander (5^th) all earning All-American honors.

Rhodes Molenda led the Team Oklahoma in the 16U tournaments, earning two All-American finishes with a runner-up finish in Greco and a 4^th place finish in freestyle. Others to earn All-American honors in this well-known and ultra-tough tournament, included Kingston Sikes (4^th), Bryson Burton (5^th), Rylan Sandoval (6^th), Aiden Jalajel (6^th), Diesel Pederson (6^th), and Griffin Sensintaffar (8^th).  

Led by national champions Van Smith and Thomas Verrette, and All-Americans Trae Rios and Will Deuthschlander, the Junior Boys’ Greco team followed up last year’s runner-up finish, with a 3^rd place finish this year. 

The tournament better known as “Fargo” took place July 12-19, in Fargo, ND.  July 12-13 was the Junior and 16U girls freestyle tournament (no Greco for girls…yet). Boys freestyle took place July 14-16, with the 17^th being a day of rest and finishing up the tournament with Greco on July 18-19. 

The six tournaments (four men’s and two women’s) showed substantial growth in overall participation, with 469 more entries than last year’s record setting numbers. 2024 was a record-breaking year in all six tournaments and 2025 continued the rapid growth, once again setting new records in all six tournaments. A breakdown of the six tournaments shows:

16U Women’s Freestyle – 1,029 entries (191 more than old record / 22.8% increase over old record!)

16U Men’s Freestyle – 1,786 entries (88 more than old record)

16U Men’s Greco – 1,274 entries (13 more than old record)

Junior Women’s – 1,216 entries (79 more than old record)

Junior Men’s Freestyle – 1,887 entries (70 more than old record)

Junior Men’s Greco – 1,339 entries (28 more than old record)

TOTAL – 8,531 ENTRIES (469 more than old record / record set last year – 8,062)

How big is the tournament? Wrestling took place on 30 MATS! Hopefully, you have seen a panoramic view of 30 mats completely covering the FargoDome.

Oklahoma was well represented with a total of 211 wrestlers competing in the tournament, including 140 boys and 71 girls. Most of the boys doubled up competing in both the freestyle and Greco tournaments with 55 Juniors competing in both tournaments and 45 16U competing in both tournaments.

Coaches were Nik Turner, Archie Randall, Bryson McGowan, Ashton Cooper, Andrew McCune, Hardell Moore, Sam Hazewinkel, Tanner Ward, Joe Smith, Mike Miller, Cody Karstetter, Ray Blake, Draven Pierce, Bobby Miller, Gabe Ellis, Tony Cook, Zac Livingston, Matt Douglas, Izack Wilson, and Ty Bowling.

For the boys, the freestyle tournament took place first and the 106 lb. finals were an all-Oklahoma event as Turner Ross won a 6-6 criteria thriller over Cason Craft to claim the 106 lb. title. Ross, a Fargo runner-up in 2023 and 3^rd place finisher in 2024, dominated his opponents on the way to the finals, winning five straight by tech fall and outscoring his opponents 55-2. Ross didn’t waste any time on the mat, earning the five tech falls in an incredible 4:19, with tech falls in 0:21, 0:39, 0:17, 1:35, and advancing to the finals with a tech fall in 1:27 over Colorado’s Daniel Romero. 

Craft was just as dominant on his way to the finals, going 5-0 with five tech falls and never allowing a point. Craft outscored his opponents 51-0, including a 0:30 tech fall in the quarterfinals over Iowa’s Kaiden Belinsky and 1:39 tech fall in the semifinals over Oregon’s Michael Salas-Sanche. With the runner-up finish, Craft reached rare air as he is now a 1X champion and 6X Fargo All-American.

Broken Arrow’s Jake Miller wrestled an outstanding tournament, battling through a talented field of 159 wrestlers to take a well-earned 3^rd place finish at 144 lbs.  Miller went 8-1 in the tournament with one tech fall. In the 3^rd place match, Miller trailed California’s Michael Ramero 2-1 after the 1^st period, but dominated the final period, winning by a 7-3 score and earning an impressive fourth Fargo All-American finish. 

In the Junior Greco Tournament, Mustang’s Van Smith turned in a stellar performance to capture the 126 lb. title. Smith went 7-0 with four tech falls. Smith, a 2024 All-American and the 9^th seed this year, opened the tournament with three straight tech falls, before taking a 7-5 win over 8^th seed Jackson Heslin from Connecticut, a big 8-6 win over number one seed Tanner Telford from Utah and advanced to the finals with a 6-3 win over 3^rd seed Czar Quintanilla from Washington.  In the finals against Hawaii’s Paliku Chang, Smith led 2-1 after one period before taking control in the 2^nd period and claiming the title with a 9-1 tech fall in 3:56.

Edmond North’s Thomas Verrette joined Smith as a Greco champion, dominating his opponents by going 7-0 with six tech falls to win the 138 lb. title. Verrette only allowed one point in the tournament, outscoring his opponents 57-1. Verrette opened with five straight tech falls before advancing to the finals with a 5-1 win over Indiana’s Isaiah Schaefer. In the finals, Verrette faced Pennsylvania’s Ned Kauffman and Verrette took control early, jumping to a 6-0 lead after the first period and claimed the championship stop sign with a 9-0 tech fall in 4:13.  With the win, Verrette joined an elite group as a 3X Greco champion and 5X All-American.  

Westmoore’s Trae Rios earned his second Fargo All-American honors with a 4^th place finish at 175 lbs. Rios went 6-2 with one fall and five tech falls. Rios advanced to the semifinals with four tech falls and a fall but fell in the semifinals to eventual champion Lincoln Jipp from Iowa. Rios advanced to the 3^rd place match with an 11-3 tech fall win over Indiana’s Waylon Cressell. 

Will Deutschlander earned Edmond North’s sixth All-American finish of the tournament, with a 5^th place finish at 157 lbs. Deutschlander went 5-2 with one fall and three tech falls. He won his 5^th place match 2-2 over Colorado’s David Burchett. 

In the 16U division, Edmond North’s Rhodes Molenda was impressive in earning double All-American with a runner-up finish in Greco and a 4^th place finish in freestyle. In Greco, Molenda went 4-1 with one fall and one tech fall. He opened with a tech fall in just 0:24 and followed that with a 0:30 fall. He took an 8-5 win over 4^th seed Andrew Olson from Minnesota in the quarterfinals and advanced to the finals with a medical forfeit win over number one seed Noah Larios from California.

In the freestyle tournament, Molenda went 5-2 with one fall and two tech falls. Molenda split with number one seed Kameron Hazelett from Indiana, picking up a big 1-1 win in the quarterfinals, but falling to Hazelett in the 3^rd place match. Molenda advanced to the 3^rd place match with a 14-4 tech fall win over Jaden Rakestraw from Georgia. 

In addition to Molenda, Team Oklahoma had five other All-Americans in the Greco Tournament.

Duncan’s Bryson Burton had a great tournament, going 7-2 with seven tech falls to earn a 5^th place All-American finish at 132 lbs. His wins included tech falls over the #2 seed Tyler Yancey from Texas, #4 seed Austin Schield from Idaho and #6 seed Jamison Gregory from Michigan. Burton won his 5^th place match with a tech fall in 2:57 over Alex Gau from Minnesota.  

Blackwell’s Rylan Sandoval opened his tournament with an 8-0 tech fall, 5-2 win and 6-3 win over teammate Braxton Plunk to advance to the semifinals on his way to a 6^th place All-American finish.

Coweta’s Aiden Jalajel went 5-3 with one fall and three tech falls to earn a 6^th place All-American finish at 120 lbs. Jalajel opened the tournament with three tech falls and a fall and then advanced to the semifinals with a 5-1 win over #2 seed Scout Scott from Idaho. 

Broken Arrow’s Diesel Pederson opened the tournament with four straight wins to advance to semifinals on his way to a 6^th place All-American finish. Pederson started with a fall in 2:31, followed by a 6-0 win, 10-0 tech fall and advanced to the semifinals with an 11-7 win over Murphy Randolph from Kansas. 

Sand Springs’ Griffin Sensintaffar went 5-3 with two falls and two tech falls to earn an 8^th place All-American finish at 113 lbs. In his blood round match to make All-American, Sensintaffar won by fall in 2:42 over California’s Lytning Hazen.

In 16U freestyle, in addition to Molenda, Carl Albert’s Kingston Sikes brought home an All-American stop sign with a 4^th place finish at 165 lbs. Sikes went 7-2 with one fall and three tech falls in the tournament.  Sikes opened the tournament with a 9-7 win over #4 seed Arkail Griffin-Edwards from Illinois and after falling into the consolation bracket, Sikes reeled off five straight wins, including an 11-0 tech fall over Iowa’s William Fullhart to advance to the 3^rd place match.  

JUNION BOY’S FREESTYLE NATIONAL CHAMPION

106 Turner Ross (Edmond North) 

JUNIOR BOY’S GRECO NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

126 Van Smith (Mustang)

138 Thomas Verrette (Edmond North) 

JUNIOR BOY’S FREESTYLE ALL-AMERICANS

106 Cason Craft (Coweta) – 2^nd

144 Jake Miller (Broken Arrow) – 3^rd

JUNIOR BOY’S GRECO ALL-AMERICANS

175 Trae Rios (Westmoore) – 4^th

157 Will Deutschlander (Edmond North) – 5^th

16U BOY’S FREESTYLE ALL-AMERICANS

165 Kingston Sikes (Carl Albert) – 4^th

285 Rhodes Molenda (Edmond North) – 4^th

16U BOY’S GRECO ALL-AMERICANS

285 Rhodes Molenda (Edmond North) – 2^nd 

132 Bryson Burton (Duncan) – 5^th 

94 Rylan Sandoval (Blackwell) – 6^th 

120 Aiden Jalajel (Coweta) – 6^th 

150 Diesel Pederson (Broken Arrow) – 6^th 

113 Griffin Sensintaffar (Sand Springs) – 8^th 

TEAM PLACINGS

Junior Boy’s Greco – 3^rd (Two national champions and two other All-Americans)

Junior Boy Freestyle – 10^th (One national champion and two other All-Americans)

16U Boy’s Greco – 14^th (Six All-Americans)

16U Boy’s Freestyle – 20^th (Two All-Americans)

NUMBER OF OKLAHOMA WRESTLERS

Junior Freestyle – 75 (75 in 2024 and 63 in 2023)

Junior Greco – 54 (48 in 2024 and 38 in 2023)

16U Freestyle – 65 (58 in 2024 and 58 in 2023)

16U Greco – 45 (46 in 2024 and 51 in 2023) 

Junior Women – 27 (30 last year and 26 in 2023)

16U Women – 44 (39 last year and 36 in 2023)

JUNIOR TEAM MEMBERS

16U TEAM MEMBERS