Takedown Report

Monday: Maybe the best day for wrestling celebrity watching in Fargo

BY GARY ABBOTT, USA WRESTLING | JULY 15, 2019,

There are seven days of competition at the USMC Junior/16U Nationals in Fargo, N.D., and every day there are a ton of well-known wrestling people who are all around. Today has the 16U men’s freestyle finals and the Junior men’s freestyle knockout rounds through the semifinals. This is a day in which college wrestling coaches come out of the woodwork, to see the great talent that could be available for their programs. For wrestling people watching, there is no better day in Fargo. Before we get too far, we wanted to note the first Olympic champion sighting, as 1976 Olympic champion and 1972 Olympic silver medalist John Peterson was walking across the Fargodome floor. Peterson is not only one of the wrestling greats, but is also a fantastic person. When you spend time around him, you respect his faith and kindness. He has some great wrestling stories to boot.

Before we list all of the additional college coaches we have run into the last 24 hours, we also want to recognize some more great international competitors in the house. 2001 World silver medalist Brandon Eggum, who also gets on the college coach list as the head man at the University of Minnesota, is here to help stock the Gopher wrestling room with new talent. Eggum got the chance to compete in one Senior World Championships, and had a great run to the finals. It is guys like Eggum who make the U.S. men’s freestyle program so powerful. If you make a U.S. Senior World Team, you are expected to win a medal, and Eggum got it done when he got that chance. Rest of the story at

July 16, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized