2016 Bill Farrell International Open

Brackets And Seeds For The Women At Bill Farrell 2016

Brackets And Seeds For The Women At Bill Farrell 2016

FloWrestling breaks down the women's seeds and brackets for the non-Olympic weight World Team Trials at the 2016 Bill Farrell Memorial.

Nov 9, 2016 by Wrestling Nomad
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Below are the seeds for the non-Olmypic weight (55kg and 60kg) World Team Trials at the 2016 Bill Farrell Memorial International. There will be a best-of-three finals series for only these two weights. The winners will represent the United States on December 10-11 in Budapest, Hungary, at the World Championships.

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Remember, everything starts at 10 AM EST on Thursday, November 10, and the whole event can be seen LIVE on FloWrestling. We will also have archives of every match. Complete brackets can be found on FloArena.

55kg

  1. Kelsey Campbell (Sunkist Kids)
  2. Whitney Conder (Army WCAP)
  3. Michaela Hutchison (Titan Mercury WC)
  4. Sarah Hildebrandt (NYAC)
  5. Jacarra Winchester (Titan Mercury WC)
  6. Deanna Betterman (Sunkist Kids)
No surprises here. Kelsey Campbell won the Olympic Trials at 58kg and was our Olympian at 55kg back in 2012 in London. Whitney Conder was the American representative at 53kg for the both the 2014 and 2015 world championships, and she has several wins over Hutchison. Both Campbell and Conder prefer a slower-paced match, while Michaela Hutchison wants to wear her opponent down with a swing single and bar series.

Hutchison wound up fourth at OTT, with a win over Sarah Hildebrandt in the consolation semifinals. Sarah Hildebrandt has a win over Winchester from the 2015 WTT and over Deanna Betterman from senior nationals in December. The most interesting wrinkle would have been if Jacarra Winchester ended up as the sixth seed, as she has two wins over Hutchison, though both were from two years ago.

60kg

  1. Alli Ragan (Sunkist Kids)
  2. Mallory Velte (Titan Mercury WC)
  3. Leigh Jaynes (NYAC)
  4. Kayla Miracle (Sunkist Kids)
  5. Randi Beltz (Titan Mercury WC)
  6. Jennifer Page (Titan Mercury WC)
  7. Areana Villaescusa (Army WCAP)
There is a good mix of women coming up from 58kg and down from 63kg at this weight. Alli Ragan was the obvious top seed, as she was the worlds representative three years in a row and made the OTT finals back in April. She gets the only bye in this bracket. 

Though Leigh Jaynes won a bronze medal at 60kg in Vegas last September, she fell to Mallory Velte at OTT to draw in the three seed. Velte is on a great run since February, winning WCWAs, University nationals, and getting third at the Trials.

Like Velte, Kayla Miracle won WCWAs and Universitys. This will be her first competition after winning a bronze at the junior world championships in France. Randi Beltz actually beat Miracle at OTT down at 58kg but is seeded below her, possibly due to Miracle's overall resume. She has more head-to-head wins over Beltz, just not the most recent. Ultimately, it doesn't matter as they will see each other in the first round.

Notes for the Olympic weights


- Three-time world champion Adeline Gray makes her return to the mat Thursday! After a disappointing Rio, Gray starts her next quad for USA Wrestling competing in the NYAC, which is the same club that sponsors her.

- This event will serve as the first qualifier for the 2017 World Team Trials, which will be held April 27-29 next year in Las Vegas: The highest placed Women's Freestyle USA athlete per Olympic weight category winning a medal who has yet to qualify will earn a spot in the 2017 World Team Trials.

- Defending 48kg champion Yuka Yago of Japan is back but is up at 53kg this year. She is in the largest bracket with 10 women, and it is virtually a field of Oklahoma City (via ARIES WC) against the world, as there are five girls from Canada, Brazil, and Japan. Also in that field is Jade Parsons, the highest returning placer and the only international placer from last year at 53kg.

- Natsha Kramble of Canada is the only returning placer in the 48kg field, with the podium being swept by Japan. Her first-round match is against two-time WCWA champion Cody Pfau. Also on that side of the bracket is Mareka Shidochi of Japan, who faces Erin Golston inround one. So we are almost guaranteed of another Pfau-Golston match, which might be the one rivalry in wrestling right now you can count on to see every single event.

- Becka Leathers is competing at 58kg, which is not the first time she has done so, as she wrestled it at OTT. She has been at 55kg for several years, and considering that weight here is a world team weight, it perhaps signals that Leathers is officially making the move up in weight. This could also mean we no longer see her at 123 pounds, where she won her WCWA title for Oklahoma City.

- Two junior world bronze medalists could meet in the finals at 63kg. Alexis Porter won her medal at 67kg, while Maya Nelson's was at this same weight of 63kg. Nelson was originally entered at 60kg for the WTT but was forced to go into the higher bracket.