2017 Cadet/Junior National Championships

Fargo 2017: Breakout Performances

Fargo 2017: Breakout Performances

Fargo always serves as a coming-out party for wrestling's biggest and brightest stars, and the 2017 installment at the Cadet and Junior National Championships last week was no exception.

Jul 25, 2017 by Mike Mal
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Fargo always serves as a coming-out party for wrestling's biggest and brightest stars, and the 2017 installment at the Cadet and Junior National Championships last week was no exception. When we look back at these seven tournaments in the coming months, the breakout stars may become a little more clear cut, but these are the performances that turned heads in the immediate aftermath of the event.

Robert Kanniard

160lb, Cadet Freestyle, 1st Place

Kanniard busted out in Fargo. He put some serious work in too, outscoring his opponents 72-16 in his six matches in the the Fargodome. Oh, and he can hit a single leg to both sides of your body too, so that's terrifying.

Carson Manville

132lb, Cadet Freestyle and Greco, 1st Place

The rate of progression that we see with this young man from event to event is becoming staggering. There is always something that you can point to that makes you scratch your head and think, "He couldn't do that the last time I saw him." This time it was the strength of his hand-fighting. 

Macey Kilty

127lb, Cadet And Junior Freestyle, 1st Place

It's difficult to say that a world and Pan Am medalist had a breakout performance at a national event even though she did beat a world champion. What makes her performance breakout worthy is the way that she went about it. The word dominant doesn't really begin to do her performance justice, especially when she puts on this type of performance:



Kaden Gfeller

Junior Freestyle, 2nd Place 

People have sleeping on Kaden Gfeller. One reason might be because he has been plagued by injuries and missed a few major events. The same injuries seem to have caused him to have less-than-impressive results at the major events that he attended, but Fargo saw the Oklahoma State commit come back to form. 

AJ Ferrari

Cadet Freestyle, 1st Place

AJ Ferrari jumped on a lot of people's radar by making it to the finals of the Reno TOC this passed December as a freshman. Ferrari impressed in a very deep Fargo field, and did it after just coming off an injury.

Ashton Sharp

195lb, Cadet Freestyle and Greco, 1st Place

A crashed car, poison ivy, hair in the mouth, and mom waking him up too early couldn't stop Ashton Sharp from winning a stop sign. A true star was born in Fargo.