Three members of the Wayne High Blue Devil wrestling program recently competed at Fargo Nationals featuring qualifying wrestlers from across the country.
Senior Hannah Burris (girls 120), junior Anna Naeve (girls 145) and senior Grant Maas (boys 157) all were in the Junior Division during the U.S. Marine Crop Junior Nationals with wrestling taking place July 10 - 19 at the Fargo Dome in North Dakota.
Each wrestler had to be in the top four during the Nebraska Freestyle Championships as both Burris and Naeve wrestled in the round of 128 while Maas had 197 boys in his bracket in Fargo.
Burris (120/130) is now a two-year qualifier for Fargo following a third place finish during state freestyle.
Naeve just wrested one other girl twice in her weight class to qualify for her first trip to Fargo.
Grant Maas had to go through 32 kids in his bracket coming out with a third place medal to qualify for his first trip to Fargo.
Hannah Burris has been wrestling 120/130 and focusing on freestyle over the summer. She has traveled all across the state of Nebraska including two trips to Kearney, Grand Island, Lincoln and other locations. Burris has been training along with Anna Naeve with NATF in Norfolk.
Burris qualified in the 130 pound class during state freestyle but when arrived at Fargo, officials bumped her down to the 120 class due to weight.
The Wayne native suffered a first round loss to Danita Palmore from Illinois by tech fall (11-0, 3:28) and then dropped a decision by fall (1:32) against Abigail Monaco from Missouri.
"It was easier going into the skin stuff and everything with weigh-ins a second time," said Burris. "Knowing your way around the whole place and not quite as nervous because you know what to expect was another plus."
Burris has wrestled against girls from Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina and more around the region.
"They wrestle different but I'm having fun with it," Burris added. "You never know what they were going to do, they were just different with their style."
Going in preparing for 130 and then moving down to the Junior Division 120 class, she had to get more prepared mentally as the top 15 girls in the US were in the 120 class..
Burris is continuing to work on her upper body strength and improve her consistency. She feels comfortable with the freestyle moves and was excited following a training session with AJ Ferrari, a recent transfer to Nebraska saying Burris had the 'most beautiful leg lace even at the college level'.
After talking with college coaches, they state coaches don't look at if you rank or place, but if you qualified for Fargo and went to compete. Burris is prospecting to wrestle for Morningside University (IA), Southeast Community College in Beatrice, York University and Fort Hays State University (KS).
Burris is looking forward to bringing back additional knowledge from the national competition along with wrestling with her Wayne teammates.
"Training and how I prepare for a match is something I'll look to pass a long," Burris mentioned. "Some of the stuff we do at freestyle events are different and can't do than what we do in folk style wrestling for high school."
Burris has spent more time wrestling alongside Naeve and Nyla Bolles and hopes Nyla recovers from her recent summer injury in preparation for the wrestling season. There was also a chance Burris was just going to train freestyle through her senior year, but her teammates wouldn't let her go.
Upcoming for Burris will be War of Roses in Ohio in early October and Preseason Nationals in Des Moines, IA in late October.
Burris will wrestle through the fall before wrestling for Wayne High this winter.
Anna Naeve has been wrestling 145 throughout the summer.
She explained her initial thoughts from the trip to Fargo.
"It was definitely big," said Naeve. "There was a lot of people there and it was definitely very hard."
Anna Naeve wrestled in the 145lb class in the Junior Girls Division. She first received an opening round bye before suffering a round of 64 loss to Maggie Ortmann from Missouri by fall (1:22).
Naeve then won by fall (1:07) over Emily Ortiz from Washington before ending with a tech fall decision (10-0, 1:28) against Colbie Tenborg from Iowa.
Naeve has traveled to Iowa, Florida, Indiana, Virginia along with Fargo recently representing Nebraska on the AAU circuit. She has wrestled freestyle and folk style with the main difference in scoring.
She has trained in Norfolk at NATF.
Naeve added it's been different wrestling other girls outside of Nebraska.
"It's definitely different. I think other states, they wrestle different and in folk style too. Like they just do different moves than what we do in Nebraska."
"Cool to see other places...I think meeting other people from other states has been fun," Naeve added.
Upcoming for Naeve will be a trip to Branson, Missouri during the Cowboy Rumble for Girls with Grit and individual tournament August 1 - 2 along with a trip to Indiana for War of Roses October 4 - 5 competing for Girls with Grit.
Naeve also mentioned she'll want to improve on her neutral position and looks forward to helping the Blue Devil girls this winter.
"Maybe show some different moves," Naeve mentioned. "Coach Trautman shows this way, but there could be another way."
Anna Naeve will run on the Wayne High cross country team this fall.
Grant Maas has been in the 157/165 weight classes this summer.
On the day that he qualified for Fargo it was also the same day as his brother, Grady's confirmation. For the first time in any competition, Grant traveled by himself with no family in the crowd. Following confirmation back in Wayne, the family kept track online and saw a result was posted that he took third and punched his golden ticket to the Fargo Nationals.
"Just going to Fargo it's the toughest tournament I've ever been to," said Grant Maas "Down there, brackets are huge."
Grant Maas (Wayne) competed in the 157 pound division of the Junior National bracket in Fargo.
He first suffered an opening round loss by tech fall (10-0, 1:03) against William Phillips from Tennessee.
Maas followed with a bye before suffering a loss by tech fall (16-6, 3:28) against Raydon Bipes from Minnesota.
He has trained mainly in Gretna along with training sessions at Morningside along with the Norfolk Athletic Training Facility (NATF) in Norfolk leading up to qualifying for Fargo.
Most of his summer competition was freestyle/Greco.
"I get to wrestle a lot of kids from different states," Maas added. "Some kids I've seen before and then just from in-season mainly just wrestling Nebraska and then switching over to wrestling all these national level kids. It's fun and you might not do as well as you want but you're seeing better competition. Seeing what it takes and just good thing to see outside Nebraska."
During the Junior National Duals in Milwaukee he wrestled mainly Greco and a little bit of freestyle and in Fargo recently represented Team Nebraska.
During his trip to Milwaukee he alternated between 157 and 165 (wrestling up) after one of his teammates didn't make weight and helped fill the void to help the team.
He's had a lot of great partners during his trainings which has helped him compete against top national wrestlers.
Upcoming for Grant Maas will be additional training including a tournament in Kansas City along with a goal to qualify for the Super 32 this fall.
Grant will continue to work on his flaws with his training partners after coming up short from his goal at state last year during the school season.
He is also getting prepared for the upcoming Blue Devil winter sports season.
"I'd like to bring a lot of technique that I've seen throughout places I go," Maas mentioned. "I'll show a couple of moves at practices. The more you travel, the more you get to see. Just bringing that outside technique into our program (Wayne) helps a lot."
Grant Maas will wrestle through the fall into the Blue Devil winter sports season.
