FARGO, N.D. — The favorites held serve on the opening day of women's freestyle competition at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals held at the Fargodome. Three incoming Lady Tiger wrestlers are making noise as McKayla Campbell, Katlyn Pizzo and Alexia Foca are all still alive in the championship brackets.

Campbell and Pizzo are both competing at 106-pounds, while Foca is at 152.
 
Campbell, from Wasuseon, Ohio, who is coming off a Folkstyle Junior National Championship, is a two-time Junior World Team member, eight-time national champion and also finished fifth at the 2015 Cadet Worlds. She has shined yet again in her first two bouts.

She scored pins over Colorado's Naliah Rosales and Virginia's Lakshita Dey to start her run in Fargo. Campbell won the Junior Nationals in 2015, but found herself in third-place last summer. Looking to challenge Campbell for the top spot at 106 pounds is two-time Cadet World Team member Vayle Baker of Pennsylvania.
 
Pizzo, from Madison Heights, Mich., has also rolled through her first three matches. Earning three pins early on, Pizzo took down Elexis Kalar in 47 seconds, Jaumie Pratly in 27 seconds and Anayka Besco in 1:03.

Pizzo finished second in the UWW Cadet Nationals in 2016, fifth in the UWW Juniors this year and placed sixth at the Senior Women's World Team Trials in April.
 
Foca is only one match in entering Thursday but earned a 10-0 tech fall victory over Maine's Sierra Fonger. Foca is seeking to be the highest placing Girls Junior Wrestler from her home state of New Jersey. As a Cadet, she finished sixth 2015 and third in 2016. But she will have to go through 2016 Junior Nationals champion Kayla Marano of Georgia and Hawaii's Kelano Corbett who won UWW Cadet Nationals earlier in the year, and followed with a Cadet Nationals title earlier this week.
 
The women's freestyle U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals resumed at 9 a.m. ET on Thursday. All the action can be viewed live on Flowrestling.com. Complete brackets can be found on Flowrestling's FloArena platform.


Information provided by USA Wrestling