The Junior World Team Trials are this weekend and everyone is focused on who makes the team, on the line is more than just the opportunity to represent the Stars & Stripes; with 1) our recent history of success and 2) the correlation from Junior World success to Senior World success, there's legacy up for grabs.

Last year, 10 of the 20 wrestlers in Final X were former Junior World Team Members - Gilman, Fix, McKenna, Stieber, Chamberlain, Burroughs, Zahid, Taylor, Snyder, and Coon. Reenan was a World Teamer in Greco.

Two more former Junior World Team Members will sit in the finals of Seniors this weekend - Alex Dieringer and Pat Downey.

And then there's the team side of things. Our Junior Freestyle Team has been on a roll on the World stage recently. Over the last five years we earned a team medal three times. Our 'worst' finish was 5th.

We'll be rolling out previews breaking down the Junior Trials' field. But first, how about a stroll down memory lane?

Below are the last ten years of American Junior Freestyle results.

WATCH WORLD TEAM TRIALS LIVE

May 17-19   |   Raleigh, NC

2009 - Ankara, Turkey - 4th Place

Team Race: Iran won with three golds and two bronze.

US Highlights: Oliver's loss came to Agahusein Mustafayev who was Euro Runner-Up in 2019. Both of Perry's losses were to monsters: Selim Yasar medaled at Seniors three times, including Olympic Silver. His bronze bout loss was to Dato Marsagishvili who was bronze in the Olympics and Worlds. Bradley beat Giorgi Sakandelide, who was stuck behind Petriashvili in Georgia until recently transferring to Qatar.

World Highlights: Ahmet Peker over Rustam Ampar at 55kg. Jabril Hasanov beat Devid Safaryan (who (kinda) won Worlds in 2013) at 66kg.

2010 - Budapest, Hungary - 6th Place

Team Race: Russian crushed. The medaled in 7 of 8 - 5 Golds.

US Highlights: Perry made the team for the second year in a row and was our only medalist. His only loss was to Ibrihim Bulakbasi who would take 5th at the Olympics in 2012. 

World Highlights: Khinchegashvili beat Asgarov in the finals at 55kg. Both would go on to make the finals at the next two Olympics.

2011 - Bucharest, Romania - 8th Place

Team Race: Tight team race this year with Russia leading in medalists (6) and Golds (3). Both Georgia and Iran had 5 medalists. 

US Highlights: Stieber was our lone medalist, losing in the finals to future OLY Champ Togrul Asgarov. Grey lost on the front to Khinchigeshvili and then to Ukraine. Kindig lost to Iran's Ibrahim Nasiri, who went on to lose to Khetik Tsabolov (the Russian Burroughs beat in World finals in '17), and was never heard from again. Seriously.

World Highlights: While there were certainly big names winning the tournament (Khinch, Asgarov, Tsabolov, Dato), the placers were oddly thin with few, if any, head-to-heads among future SR level stars. 

2012 - Pattaya, Thailand - 14th Place

Team Race: Russia scored half the champs. Iran was 2nd with three champs and a Bronze. Mongolia took Bronze with just a champ and a Bronze.

US Highlights: This was the worst USA performance in 15 years. Only Downey reached a medal match. Downey lost to Javad Ebrahimi who won University Worlds in 2016 and Dogu last year. Russia's Shamil Kudiiamogamedov (now wrestling for Italy) was Bronze in that bracket. 

World Highlights: Kurbanaliev beat Mustafa Kaya in semifinals. Geno Petriashvili (GEO) won his 1st of 8 JR/SR World medals. 

2013 - Sofia, Bulgaria - 5th Place

Team Race: A decent amount of parity this year. Russia again won the title. They have 2 champs and five total medalists. Azerbaijan had one champ and four Bronze.

US Highlights: Dieringer lost to Russia's Zaseev whom he just beat (2019 Yarygin) in January. Snyder beat Viktor Kazishvili (ARM) in the finals. 

World Highlights: Petriashvili won his first World title. He beat Giorgi Gogaev (who you'll read about below) in the semi's. Turkey's Suleyman Atli and Selihattan Kilic won titles. They are currently ranked 1st and 4th in the world. This was the year Alireza Karimi (Iran), who would win JR Worlds the next year, forfeited to Ophir Bernstein (Texas / Israel) in the semifinals, for which he was disqualified for.

2014 - Zagreb, Croatia - SILVER

Team Race: Sensational performance by the US. Watch THIS 3-PART DOC. Iran edged us out. They had 3 champs, a Silver, a Bronze, and a 5th to our 2 Silvers, 4 Bronze, a 5th and a 7th. 

US Highlights: Everyone on our team wrestled for a medal except for Anthony Valencia who looked like the best guy at the weight until going for a big move and getting pinned in the quarters. 

McKenna lost to Iran's Iman Sadegh, who would win JR's the next year as well. Pico lost to Charati. Snyder lost in semi's to Giorgi Gogaev in quarters. Adam Coon won Bronze in both styles.

World Highlights: Canada's Amaveer Dhesi was later awarded the Gold when Petriashvili tested positive for a banned substance.

2015 - Salvador, Brazil - 4th Place

Team Race: Azerbaijan flexed its muscled. They won half the weights and had a Bronze as well. Iran was 2nd as Russia had a 'down' year with 1 champ and 4 Bronze.

US Highlights: Oh what could have been. The US was right in the thick of a medal race with 1 champ and 3 Bronze. What the stats won't show you is 1) returning World Finalist Joey McKenna missed weight, 2) Anthony Cassar was looking like a sure-fire medalist and separated his shoulder and 3) some would say Aaron Pico got hosed, and all would say he let a match get away. 

World Highlights: It was the second year in a row Rashidov (last year's World Silver and currently ranked 3rd) had to settle for Bronze. 

2016 - Macon, France - 5th Place

Team Race: Russia was on tilt once again, medaling in 7 of 8. Iran and USA tied them in champs with 2 each. 

US Highlights: This made back-to-back JR titles for Spencer to go along with his 2013 Cadet crown. Daton beat 2x Cadet World Champ Yatsenko in the Bronze bout. Hall had an early scrap with Murad Suleymanov who went on to win Bronze at U23's last year. 

2017 - Tampere, Finland - WORLD CHAMPIONS

Team Race: The best JR performance in US history. Six of eight in the finals and they matched 2014 with seven of eight wrestling for medals. And yet, they only narrowly beat Russia who had four champs, five finalists, and seven in the Top 5. 

US Highlights: Hall went back-to-back. Steveson, who was still Cadet eligible, won his first JR title, making him a World Champ for the third straight year.

World Highlights: Harytunyan, who was Bronze in Daton's bracket, just won SR Euro's. Naifanov, who beat Zahid in the finals, was last year's U23 World Champ. Baev, who beat Deakin, was U23 Runner-Up. Shamil Musaev, the winner of Moore's 96 bracket, won Yarygin this year. 

2018 - Trnava, Slovakia - SILVER

Team Race: American fans had their dobbers down after this. Spoiled. We came up just short, but it was a fine performance with six medals. On one hand Fix lost a winnable bout, Warner underperformed, and Gable pinned himself against a guy he was exponentially better than. Russia was nearly spotless with five champs, seven medalists, and nine of ten 5th or better.

US Highlights: Daton medaled for the fifth straight year. Mekhi Lewis came out of nowhere to win a title. Just a few months prior, he was 5th at the JR Open.