Pictured: Team Iowa Slaughter Mouse at the 2021 Scholastic Duals in Orlando, Florida. Photo courtesy of Joshua Worthen's Twitter.
Official release written by AAU Wrestling national women's director, Jason Loyd.
The 2020 AAU National Scholastic Duals were canceled, like many events, due to COVID-19. Making for a spectacular achievement, the AAU continued to push the bar and keep moving women's wrestling forward this year at the 2021 Disney Duals.
Our 2021 AAU National Scholastic Duals more than doubled the previous participation from 2019. With 20 all-female high school dual teams, the coaches were overjoyed to receive 12 or 13 high-quality opponents for each of their athletes to wrestle.
Feedback from parents, coaches, and athletes alike was pure positivity. Statements from the coaches included, "We came here to wrestle, and we found three days worth of matches." Another coach said, "This tournament is awesome. We can bring our whole team, and they all have an opportunity to work."
The competition was the toughest this event has ever seen. AAU athletes continue advancing and developing their skills. As a result, the overall competition took a huge step up this year despite many new teams and new populations participating for the first time.
The local talent here in Florida and nearby Georgia, for instance, proved pivotal to some of these aforementioned competitive advancements. Just as the local in-state Iowa support helped push the 2021 Twin Rivers Girls Nationals to 42 all-female teams earlier this year, the local talent that showed up to the 2021 Disney Duals has helped women's AAU Wrestling reach its biggest Disney Duals field yet.
The Top Teams:
After pool play, there were two undefeated teams: Iowa Slaughter Mouse and St. Louis Green. Both teams were 9-0, leaving little doubt who the top dogs were after each squad delivered dominating showings during the pool play portion of the competition. These performances were highlighted by knock-out contributions from Iowa's Deeds and Porcelli and St. Louis' Wehrmeister and Eggering.
However, with three full days of action, it was the the efforts during the final day that proved who genuinely wanted to win the event.
Iowa jumped out, defeating their first two opponents, but then had their fortunes reversed. South Orange County Wrestling Academy (SOWA) dug deep and avenged their previous loss to the 11-0 Iowa Slaughter Mouse Team. SOWA's accomplishment was only surpassed, though, as SOWA proceeded to topple the then-12-0 St. Louis squad. This total team effort gave SOWA a hard-fought and well-earned "National AAU Title."
Anyone who watches female events knows the excitement and volume in the venue begins to rise when girls take the mat. This energy only intensifies when big-time team duals are on the line. Fans got to see both of the occurrences take place at the Orange County Convention Center this past week. SOWA may have gone into the final day as an underdog but proved their tenacity and grit, as they took down the two top undefeated teams to win the title.
Also exciting, the staff of female AAU officials additionally supported the excitement of the female athletes and coaches. In doing so, the finals and semi-final had an added visual of the complete path for women in the sport of wrestling, and in particular AAU Wrestling, can be.
In the end, the support and excitement seen this week is precisely the kind of excitement we want to see. We hope the level of competition will keep building at Disney Duals in the years to come, and this remains an legitimate opportunity for all girls in AAU Wrestling that wish to advance further in the sport.
Additional results, statistics, and award winners can be found on TrackWrestling.
Back to articles