Iowa commits look to close strong at 2024 Fargo Nationals
Billed by USA Wrestling as “the world’s largest tournament,” mid-summer annually marks the latest edition of the US Marine Corps Junior & 16U Nationals.
One of the deepest and most prestigious competitions in all of high school wrestling, the event – better known as ‘Fargo’ due to its location inside of the Fargodome on campus at North Dakota State University – attracts thousands of athletes each year to vie for individual and team titles across six separate divisions.
After topping 7100 participants in 2023, this year’s tournament(s) could approach nearly eight thousand combined wrestlers between Junior/16U divisions in each of Boys Freestyle, Girls Freestyle and (Boys) Greco-Roman disciplines.
And amongst those vast, loaded fields of competitors will be several Iowa Hawkeye commits/signees looking to make one final memory before turning the page to the collegiate career that awaits them starting this fall.
At present, nine future Hawkeyes are listed as registrants for Fargo 2024 – of which a few have previously made deep and/or title-winning runs in years past.
In the paragraphs to follow I’ll detail who Iowa fans should be on the lookout for during the week ahead (July 13-20), starting with a quartet of young women that will kick off the action in the Junior Girls division this Saturday/Sunday (July 13-14).
Brooks/Solorio seek return(s) to finals, Djoumessi/Goodwin first-ever podium finishes
Just over half of Iowa’s seven-woman 2024 high school recruiting class will take to the mats this weekend at the Fargodome.
For Karlee Brooks (Arizona) and Valarie Solorio (Pennsylvania) a return trip to the finals is almost certainly at top of mind.
Brooks – the #16 pound-for-pound recruit in the country and its top-ranked prospect at 120 pounds – has a pair of top-three finishes on her Fargo career resume to date.
After earning seventh place at 106 pounds in her debut back in 2021, she’d ‘double dip’ the following year to finish runner up and third at 112 pounds in the 16U and Junior divisions respectively.
This weekend Brooks will bump up to 125 pounds, where she’ll headline a bracket chock full of talent – including 2023 Fargo champions Kaidance Gerg (Idaho), Sierra Chiesa (Pennsylvania) and Mary Manis (Florida), as well as 2023 runner up Lexie Lopez (Colorado).
Meanwhile, Valarie Solorio (#4 nationally at 100 pounds) has never known anything other than finals appearances in her previous ventures at this event.
Competing in the 100-pound weight class for Team Pennsylvania this weekend, Solorio was the Junior runner up in the exact same scenario a year ago. Two summers before that she brought home the 2021 16U individual title at 94 pounds.
The two-time finalist will have to contend with a trio of fellow top-ranked 100-pounders – #5 Katey Valdez (Colorado), #7 Makennah Craft (Ohio) and #8 Kendall Moe (Indiana) – if she hopes to bookend her Fargo career with trips to the top of the podium.
Meanwhile, the other half of the (soon-to-be) Hawkeye contingent will occupy a slightly different headspace entering the tournament.
Neither Mia Goodwin (Virginia) nor Kiara Djoumessi (Iowa) have reached the podium during their high school careers to date.
Goodwin (110 pounds) just narrowly fell out of this year’s final high school rankings, and will have every opportunity against a deep weight class to prove that was a mistake.
Conversely, Djoumessi (#15 at 140 pounds) did conclude 2023-24 with a number next to her name.
Of course, so too seemingly did the rest of the field she’s set to contend with, as no fewer than 17 other ranked wrestlers (including eight of the top-10 variety) from various weight classes are set to descend upon Fargo this weekend for a battle royale at 145.
Iowa fans can catch all the action this Saturday/Sunday (both live and archived) streaming on FloWrestling (subscription required) – with a complete schedule and brackets found HERE.
Ayala leads Hawkeye quintet looking to make its mark
Over on the men’s side of the ledger the Black & Gold will be represented by (at least) five competitors during the week to come.
***I’ll note that USA Wrestling has yet to release official entrants for the state of Oklahoma (plus New Hampshire and Vermont), so it’s possible that 2024 commit Brady Benham (Sperry, OK) could add his name to this list as well.***
Among that group, just two have previously earned All-American (top-eight) honors.
Dru Ayala (Iowa) – registered at 120 for next week – finished seventh in 2021 in the 16U division at 100 pounds, then reached the podium again as a ‘Junior’ entry in 2023 (sixth at 113).
The lone other credential from an Iowa commit comes from Class of 2025 prospect Leister Bowling IV (Colorado), who took eighth back in 2022 in the 16U Greco-Roman division (152 pounds).
Bowling IV is entered on the Greco side again this summer, where he’ll compete for a Junior title at 165 pounds.
The three remaining Hawkeye commits (each from the Class of 2024) will be looking to make their final mark as Fargo competitors with podium finishes of their own.
Four-time Montana state champion Keyan Hernandez has a rugged bracket to contend with at 126 pounds – a similar refrain one would hear about pretty much every weight class being contested inside the Fargodome over the week to come – led by returning finalists Haakon Peterson (Wisconsin) and Aaron Seidel (Pennsylvania).
The same goes for 157-pounder Kael Voinovich (#17 nationally at 157 pounds), who’ll represent Team Iowa amongst no fewer than eight other top-20 ranked athletes in the field, topped by 2025 Ohio State commit (and returning champion) Vince Bouzakis of Pennsylvania.
In all likelihood this will be the last major competition for Voinovich – the younger brother of current Hawkeye Victor Voinovich III – before he represents Serbia at the U20 World Championships in Spain this September.
One final note on the Junior Boys division – Iowa’s most recent commitment in the Class of 2024, Brody Sampson, will throw his hat in the ring next week as well.
The senior out of Ballard, IA joins a 190-pound bracket headlined by a name that will be familiar to college wrestling fans, Elijah Diakomihalis (New York) – younger brother of four-time NCAA champion and 2022 World silver medalist Yianni Diakomihalis.
The younger (albeit bigger) Diakomihalis was a 16U Fargo champion a year ago and will be looking to repeat in 2024 – this time in the Junior division.
As with the girls, all of your boys schedule/bracket information can be found HERE.
Freestyle action will take place next Monday-through-Wednesday (July 15-17) before Greco closes out this year’s event next Friday/Saturday (July 19-20) – all of it streamed on FloWrestling.
Next on the docket
With the 2024 Olympics just on the horizon there will be a bit of a natural, though brief ‘break’ between Fargo and the next massive event on the wrestling calendar.
I’ll have plenty of content to preview Spencer Lee’s pursuit of gold in Paris as his date(s) of competition (August 8-9) grow closer, but in the meantime fear not, as there will be additional Hawkeye wrestling content to tide you over in the interim.
After recapping the events of Fargo, I’ll be putting together a summary of sorts for the men’s/women’s 2024 recruiting classes – for which final rankings have since been released by Flo and USA Wrestling respectively.
I’m also working on an up-to-date eligibility/depth chart for both programs akin to those Hawkeye Report frequenters will be familiar with seeing on the site for football as well as men’s/women’s hoops.
Hopefully all of you guys out there are enjoying your summer, and thanks as always for reading.
‘Till next time.
