FARGO, N.D. — The Fargo Dome hosted the 16U and Junior Nationals July 15-22, where four local wrestlers represented team Wisconsin. The tournament features the best wrestlers in the nation with up to 200 kids in a bracket and 30 mats wrestling at a time.

“There’s a lot more people,” Darlington-Black Hawk’s Ethan Aird said. “It makes the atmosphere feel big and adds more importance to the matches.”

Owen Seffrood (Darlington-Black Hawk) and Blake Endres (Sugar River) wrestled in the 16U Division, while Aird (Darlington-Black Hawk) and Aidan Gruenenfelder (Pecatonica-Argyle) participated in the Juniors Division.

Seffrood and Gruenenfelder have wrestled for Team Wisconsin in the past, but still cherish each moment they get on the mat at such a big stage.

“It’s fun and exciting,” Gruenenfelder said. “Not many people get this opportunity.”

In the freestyle portion of the tournament, Gruenenfelder went 4-2 losing in the notorious “blood round,” where the winner makes the podium and loser walks away with nothing. He had five technical falls, while his losses were also by technical fall. In freestyle wrestling, a technical fall is a margin of 10 points, instead of 15 in the WIAA. 

Gruenenfelder made it the furthest of the local representatives, as Seffrood went 2-2, Endres 2-2 and Aird 1-2. Each wrestler participated in the WIAA individual state wrestling tournament in February and hope the extra mat time and experience will take them a step further in the 2024 tournament.

“State won’t ever compare to this,” Seffrood said. “It helps me stay calm. It helps me realize I can compete with some of the best kids in the country.”

Gruenenfelder and Aird also competed in the Greco portion of the tournament, which concluded after the Monroe Times deadline.