As the Falcons returned from another great Penn State University summer intensive camp, it was great to see Hazard from Robinson, Cameron from Forest Park and Battlefield guys. We also saw a bunch of good teams from PA, Ohio, and Jersey as the Falcons won majority of the matches. PSU divided the 30+ teams up into 2 pools based on strength. Although we did not have the wealth of upperclassmen (11th and 12th graders) that we have had in the past 2 years, we were aligned and remained in the tougher wrestling pool.
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Team Fauquier @ Penn State
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I was really impressed with how tough the newer guys wrestled. I saw significant improvement within just a few days from guys like Andrew Smith, Clifford Harris, Caleb Strum, Ray Bernot, Kyle Roche and Trevor Marable. I was happy to see that Max Strum was able to go the camp and see improvements as he was our only winner of the end of camp takedown tournament.
Marco Tcheukado and Michael Villalobos also did a great job battling with each opposing team's best kids as they were inevitably in the 140's, and then at the end of camp, they both apparently felt like they were not challenged enough and proceeded to have a 10 minute takedown grind match.
Henry Weber had a tough start coming directly from a hot lineman camp, but by day 3 he was getting in the grove and winning some matches. The boys seemed to really enjoy the "optional" early morning workouts more this year than ever.
Although all the guys had some extreme calf soreness issues after the PSU Stadium steps workout, only a few took advantage of my soreness mitigation technique. Having Cael Sanderson and the PSU wrestling staff mat side made the kids work hard.
Cael Sanderson-vs-Fauquier Youth Wrestlers
Cael Sanderson-vs-Fauquier Youth Wrestlers