Forrest Sweeps Arujau to Make 2025 Senior World Team
Thousands of high school wrestlers in Fargo this week will compete for stop signs and national championships. One already has his hardware from Fargo and is aiming even higher. In between rounds of men’s freestyle competition at the 16U and Junior National Championships was the delayed Final X wrestle-off between world champion Vito Arujau and rising high school senior Jax Forrest.
Arujau’s status as a returning world medalist allowed him to delay their Final X series from June 14th to July 14th from Fargo, North Dakota.
Forrest swept the two matches 4-3 in the first and 7-2 in the second.
Back in 2022, Forrest was a U17 World silver medalist and earlier this year he won the Senior Pan-American Championships.
With Forrest on the squad, the 2025 Senior World Team will feature seven first-time world team members. Forrest and PJ Duke will wrestle at the World Championships before ever stepping onto a collegiate mat.
Match one saw Arujau strike first with a takedown off of a picture-esque sweep single. With under a minute remaining in the opening stanza, Arujau looked poised to add onto his lead; however, Forrest scrambled out of a Arujau attack and into a takedown of his own. Early in the second period, action took the pair over to the edge of the mat. Arujau nearly had a second takedown but settled for a step-out point to lead, 3-2.
Despite some quality action, 3-2 is how the score would remain until the final seconds of the bout. With under :30 seconds remaining, fresh off of a reshot, Arujau got in on a low leg attack. Forrest slipped free of the attack and put pressure on Arujau near the edge. Once Arujau shifted his weight to stay in bounds, Forrest spun around and scored the winning takedown with :05 seconds left in the bout. He would hold on to win, 4-3.
Forrest set the tone in the second match with an early takedown and immediately transitioned into a turn for a quick 4-0 lead. Arujau was able to get a late takedown but was never able to seriously threaten Forrest.
