Fargo 2026: Miller Three-Peats, Woode Named OW as Junior Men's Freestyle Wraps — Greco Starts Tuesday

The first act of Fargo 2026 is complete. Junior men's freestyle ran July 10-12 at the FARGODOME in Fargo, N.D., under this year's reshuffled format — men's freestyle first, Junior and 16U Greco-Roman mid-week starting Tuesday, and women's freestyle expanded to three full days to close the event July 16-18. Fifteen champions were crowned Sunday night, and MatMetrics is ingesting every bracket as results are finalized.

The headline belongs to Melvin Miller of Pennsylvania. The Virginia Tech commit beat Illinois' Rocco Cassioppi 7-4 in the 165-pound final to become just the 13th wrestler ever to win three or more Junior freestyle national titles — and it's his fourth Fargo podium. Miller's MatMetrics profile tells the story of a wrestler who simply does not lose at this level: a 102-2 career record in our database and a Glicko-2 rating of 2637, among the highest marks we track at any weight.

The Outstanding Wrestler award went to Analu Woode of Hawaii, who pinned California's Thales Silva at 3:15 in the 113-pound final after going through two returning national champions to get there. Woode — 54-0 in the matches MatMetrics has tracked — becomes Hawaii's first Junior national champion in 25 years, since Travis Lee in 2001. At 132, Georgia's Antonio Mills (an Ohio State commit) went back-to-back with a wild 12-9 win over 2023 U17 World champion Paul Kenny of New Jersey, making Mills Georgia's first multi-time Junior champion since Sean Hage in the mid-1990s.

The rest of the finals delivered up and down the card. Ty Martin of Iowa opened the night with a 10-0 technical fall at 100 pounds. California's Luke Loren (106) outlasted Oklahoma's Cache Williams 12-8, Brayden Wenrich of Pennsylvania teched Michael Batista 14-2 at 120, and Sammy Sanchez of California rolled to an 11-1 tech at 126. Tyler Dekraker of Florida controlled Dawson Youngblut 10-2 at 138, Jesse Grajeda of California teched Braylon Reynolds 11-0 at 144, and Davis Parrow of Minnesota edged Jason Dube 9-7 at 150. Charlie DeSena of Florida won the tightest final of the night, 3-2 over Iowa's Mac Crosson at 157. Up top, Zack Aquila of Ohio survived Mario Carini 9-8 at 175, Waylon Cressell of Indiana beat Nicholas Singer 8-3 at 190, Sam Howard of Indiana held off Daniel Moylan 11-10 at 215, and Michael Mocco of Florida took the heavyweight title 9-6 over Wisconsin's Tyson Martin.

Two team notes worth flagging. California claimed the inaugural Battles Won Award with 197 team points, ahead of Iowa (158) and Pennsylvania (157). And keep an eye on Waylon Cressell this week: after five previous All-American finishes, the Northern Iowa commit finally broke through for a freestyle title — and if he wins Greco-Roman at 190, he'd become just the 10th Junior Boys Triple Crown winner since 2007.

Greco-Roman takes the mats Tuesday for both Junior and 16U divisions, and the storyline density is real: freestyle champions chasing doubles, Greco specialists who skipped freestyle entirely, and the annual question of which states' Greco rooms show up deepest. Women's freestyle — with six returning champions registered, including Jaclyn Bouzakis, Emma Bacon, Nora Akpan, Violette Lasure, Olivia Georges, and Deionna Borders — closes the tournament July 16-18 with an extra day of competition in the new format.

MatMetrics has ingested the complete Junior and 16U men's freestyle brackets — 7,044 matches across all 32 weight classes, from the pigtails through the finals. The finishing rate says everything about the pace of freestyle in Fargo: over half of all contested matches ended in technical falls, with roughly 15% ending in falls and only about 30% going the distance to a decision. Results are flowing into wrestler profiles, ratings, and head-to-head records now — search any wrestler above to see how their Fargo run moved their numbers, and check back during Greco and women's freestyle for updates.