Budapest Beau: Palm Desert wrestling star Beau Mantanona to compete for Team USA at Cadet World Championships in Hungary
Local wrestling phenom Beau Mantanona has made the USA Wrestling Cadet World Team which will compete in Budapest at the Cadet World Championships in July!
Budapest Beau! Tonight at 6 in sports on @KESQ I’ll have more on local star wrestler @MantanonaBeau who’s headed to Hungary to represent our country! @pdhsofficial @USAWrestling @mantanona98 @LisaMantanona @TroyMantanona1 @PalmWrestling#BeastBeau#MonsterMantanona#BeauShow pic.twitter.com/h6M072hdmf
— Blake Arthur (@BlakeArthur24) June 22, 2021
"It's probably the biggest thing you can do as a youth wrestler - as a high schooler at my age group - being able to make the world team and represent your country is a huge deal," said Beau Mantanona.
Beau Mantanona is a machine on the mat. A 16-year-old, 60 kilogram weighing machine who will represent USA wrestling next month at the Cadet World Championships in Budapest.
"This is the biggest tournament of my life by far. I'm really nervous but I'm also really excited," said Mantanona.
As you can imagine, just making this 10-man team is a major accomplishment. And it certainly wasn't easy. Beau battled his way to win his best of 3 bout with a final score of 12-10.
"Had a tournament in Wisconsin, the world team trials, pretty big division and made it to the finals and had a best 2 out of 3 and wanted to make sure they got the right guy. I won the first match, lost the 2nd and won the 3rd and got the win," said Mantanona.
This will be Beau's first time ever competing outside the US. Kind of scary for a 16-year-old. Luckily he's got the love and support of his family - brothers who got his back, dad who's coach and mom, well, she's mom.
"She raised me really, really good. I love her and she's a good mom. He's coached me since I was a baby, he's coached all my brothers, he's my high school coach and my club coach so it's pretty cool. They're really excited, they're hyping me up, trying to get me ready to go," said Mantanona.
He's also got the support of the valley who helped raise 5,000 dollars for travel expenses and training.
"The support's been crazy. I'm getting donations from people I've never met. It's cool, it's cool," said Mantanona.
So that's the story, at least for now. There's only one thing left to do and that's get a win.
"I hope so. I think so. I'm ready," said Mantanona.
