Lincoln, Neb., May 18, 2001 - Two new rising stars in the Penn State wrestling program made a splash on the national stage last weekend as red-shirt freshmen James and Jason Woodall (St. Dupont, Pa.) shared both freestyle and Greco-Roman titles at 69kg at the 2001 FILA Junior World Trials in Lincoln, Neb.
The twin brothers, who will see their first season of competition for Penn State next year, posted five wins each in the freestyle competition and three each in the Greco-Roman bracket before meeting in the finals of each. The brothers elected not to wrestle the finals matches and shared the titles for the under 20-year old competition. The championship's marked Penn State's first undergraduates to win national titles in freestyle or Greco-Roman competition since 1996.
James posted two falls and two technical falls in the freestyle competition and won all of his Greco-Roman matches by fall, while Jason defeated the eventual third place finisher in each bracket on his way to the final.
Having shared the titles, the two were given the opportunity to decide who would represent the United State's at the FILA Junior World Championships in each style at 69kg. Jason will join the U.S. FILA Junior World freestyle team which competes August 9-12 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. James will join the U.S. FILA Junior World Greco-Roman team which competes August 22-26, also in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Also placing for Penn State at the event were sophomore Josh Moore who placed seventh at 63kg and red-shirt freshman Josh Walker who took fifth at 130kg.