Junior Finalists, Ramos Retirement Highlight World Team Trials

RALEIGH --- Two current Tar Heels made the best-of-three finals in the 2019 UWW Junior Freestyle World Team Trials, assistant coach Tony Ramos officially retired from competition and incoming freshman Gabe Tagg earned a spot on the Junior World Team to cap off a competitive and emotional weekend of wrestling at Reynolds Coliseum.

Jaime Hernandez (61kg) and Brandon Whitman (92kg) both earned runner-up finishes at their weights, knocking off multiple highly-touted competitors along the way.

Hernandez's run included defeating Penn State All-American Roman Bravo-Young in a dramatic 10-5 match to advance to the finals. The redshirt sophomore also knocked off Jordan Decatur, a top high-school standout. He dropped the best-of-three series to Tagg, who will join the Tar Heels as a part of the 2019-20 freshman class.

Whitman knocked off Kordell Norfleet (Arizona State) and Jakob Woodley (Oklahoma) on his way to the best-of-three series, where he dropped a pair of matches to Lucas Davison (Wildcat WC/Northwestern).

Tagg's win gives him the 2019 Junior World Team spot at 61kg. He will wrestle in the 2019 Junior World Championships in Estonia in August.

Ramos, after dropping his semifinal match to Nico Megaludis at 61kg, officially signaled his retirement from the sport by leaving his wrestling shoes in the center of the mat before walking off. He was met with a standing ovation from the crowd at Reynolds, capping off one of the most well-respected American wrestling careers of this era.

Chills. pic.twitter.com/9YMf4uZRLb
— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) May 18, 2019

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Junior Finalists, Ramos Retirement Highlight World Team Trials

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Jaime Hernandez

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