Stock up stock down after 2 days of the open

[Truzzcat]

Stock up:
Marcus Blaze: Recency bias always clouds a lot of judgement but this kid is absolutely surgical in freestyle he holds center as well as anyone and is constantly keeps you under his chest. As I am sure everyone knows Jax is my guy so hoping he gets it back against Ben at trails and takes the spot but I think he is going to need to get in the lab and figure out how he is going to open both of them up enough to give himself opportunities.

Bo: I am often pessimistic about how his style translates against the best guys and while I would have liked to have seen Joey healthy in the match I still think Bo would have gotten it done. He has grown in his ability to get to legs much cleaner and added a really nice series where he almost standing singles the leg after really crowding one side when he circles its really impressive. Still a bit worried about how his style transfers against the Japans/ Russias/ Inida etc oversees but I think its clear he is our best guy right now at 65kg.

Chance: 79kg is his weight and I am so happy he is back down. Not sure he is going to beat Levi but I think it will be an incredible series and whoever comes out on top is going to be a medal favorite.

Joe sealey: I am not sure if its a matter of he is better at free or 157 is just too much of a cut for him, but whatever it is man did he look good. It will be painful to see him lose another year of eligibility next year so I hope he can get himself in a lineup weather its at psu or somewhere else.

Ridge and Henson: I thought both guys looked absolutely incredible all weekend and if you are a Nebraska or V-tech fan you should be very excited with both of those programs overall. I think from an international perspective I like what Ridge brings a little bit more but both guys will be good options but medaling will be hard 70 is tough.

Dake: Hilarious to think of Dake as a stock up guy but he looked stellar. What is most exciting is he should be back in his prime by 2028 given the rate at which is he de-aging.

Luke and Spencer: So I thought Luke wrestled a great match he did not let himself go under spencer and put himself in a spot to sting him late which for him I think was the perfect gameplan. I thought Spencer looked awesome all weekend though until the final 2 minutes of that match, and I wonder what the match looks like if that out of bounds sequence gets stopped after both of Lukes feet go out (honestly with the new rules not sure how that is supposed to be called) but the visuals of 5-0 vs 4-1 is extremely different.

 Coby Merill: grown ass man.

Seth shumate: Third place in a very deep 92kg I thought he looked awesome and truly would have never seen this tournament coming from him.

Arno Vardanyan: This kid appears to be an absolute problem and I think he may give Ronnie a run for his money in the quarters today.

Haakon Peterson: Haakon wrestled 99lbs for what felt like 3 years, well now hes up at 74kg and he beat Will Denny.

Hayden Schwab: I was really impressed with his tech over Botero. Botero is a 3 or 4 time Fargo AA and while he did not have a great season this year in college, I think he would have been around NQ caliber at 125 rather than 133.

Davino: Was back and fourth about putting him on here but I thought he wrestled a perfect match against Jax and also looked great against Desanto who is probably our fourth best guy at 61kg. More of a feather to Marcus for getting it done.

Stock down:
Note: Despite losing at u20's will not be putting Melvin miller on here, I am chalking that 100% up to wrestling so many matches and a bunch of them being absolute dog fights.

Vito: I did not expect him to be big by any means for this weight but I thought his speed would be even more of a factor and it does not appear to be. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt that as he has more time to acclimate he will get better but as of right now given two showings at 65kg I tihnk come 2028 this version is not a top 6 guy on our ladder.

Carr: Very curious as to whats going on here. Everyone has bad tournaments and David is not stranger to variance but he beat Salk and Aoyagi last year and was seconds from beating Valiev and Sidakov and just lost to Amine and Sealey. 

Hamiti: Absolutely love his style so was hoping to see some tangible improvements, but he quite frankly did not look good this weekend.

Mendez: Probably an overreaction here, but he was on the ropes in the Hardy match and truthfully got outwrestled for the entirety of the Mckenna match I believe he was fortunate that it was that close. The handfight and output just seemed far less than we are use to seeing. 
 

 

 

[ionel]

1 hour ago, Truzzcat said:

Stock up:
Marcus Blaze: Recency bias always clouds a lot of judgement but this kid is absolutely surgical in freestyle he holds center as well as anyone and is constantly keeps you under his chest. As I am sure everyone knows Jax is my guy so hoping he gets it back against Ben at trails and takes the spot but I think he is going to need to get in the lab and figure out how he is going to open both of them up enough to give himself opportunities.

Bo: I am often pessimistic about how his style translates against the best guys and while I would have liked to have seen Joey healthy in the match I still think Bo would have gotten it done. He has grown in his ability to get to legs much cleaner and added a really nice series where he almost standing singles the leg after really crowding one side when he circles its really impressive. Still a bit worried about how his style transfers against the Japans/ Russias/ Inida etc oversees but I think its clear he is our best guy right now at 65kg.

Chance: 79kg is his weight and I am so happy he is back down. Not sure he is going to beat Levi but I think it will be an incredible series and whoever comes out on top is going to be a medal favorite.

Joe sealey: I am not sure if its a matter of he is better at free or 157 is just too much of a cut for him, but whatever it is man did he look good. It will be painful to see him lose another year of eligibility next year so I hope he can get himself in a lineup weather its at psu or somewhere else.

Ridge and Henson: I thought both guys looked absolutely incredible all weekend and if you are a Nebraska or V-tech fan you should be very excited with both of those programs overall. I think from an international perspective I like what Ridge brings a little bit more but both guys will be good options but medaling will be hard 70 is tough.

Dake: Hilarious to think of Dake as a stock up guy but he looked stellar. What is most exciting is he should be back in his prime by 2028 given the rate at which is he de-aging.

Luke and Spencer: So I thought Luke wrestled a great match he did not let himself go under spencer and put himself in a spot to sting him late which for him I think was the perfect gameplan. I thought Spencer looked awesome all weekend though until the final 2 minutes of that match, and I wonder what the match looks like if that out of bounds sequence gets stopped after both of Lukes feet go out (honestly with the new rules not sure how that is supposed to be called) but the visuals of 5-0 vs 4-1 is extremely different.

 Coby Merill: grown ass man.

Seth shumate: Third place in a very deep 92kg I thought he looked awesome and truly would have never seen this tournament coming from him.

Arno Vardanyan: This kid appears to be an absolute problem and I think he may give Ronnie a run for his money in the quarters today.

Haakon Peterson: Haakon wrestled 99lbs for what felt like 3 years, well now hes up at 74kg and he beat Will Denny.

Hayden Schwab: I was really impressed with his tech over Botero. Botero is a 3 or 4 time Fargo AA and while he did not have a great season this year in college, I think he would have been around NQ caliber at 125 rather than 133.

Davino: Was back and fourth about putting him on here but I thought he wrestled a perfect match against Jax and also looked great against Desanto who is probably our fourth best guy at 61kg. More of a feather to Marcus for getting it done.

Stock down:
Note: Despite losing at u20's will not be putting Melvin miller on here, I am chalking that 100% up to wrestling so many matches and a bunch of them being absolute dog fights.

Vito: I did not expect him to be big by any means for this weight but I thought his speed would be even more of a factor and it does not appear to be. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt that as he has more time to acclimate he will get better but as of right now given two showings at 65kg I tihnk come 2028 this version is not a top 6 guy on our ladder.

Carr: Very curious as to whats going on here. Everyone has bad tournaments and David is not stranger to variance but he beat Salk and Aoyagi last year and was seconds from beating Valiev and Sidakov and just lost to Amine and Sealey. 

Hamiti: Absolutely love his style so was hoping to see some tangible improvements, but he quite frankly did not look good this weekend.

Mendez: Probably an overreaction here, but he was on the ropes in the Hardy match and truthfully got outwrestled for the entirety of the Mckenna match I believe he was fortunate that it was that close. The handfight and output just seemed far less than we are use to seeing. 
 

No love for Wyatt tech-pin thru the tournament?  

[nhs67]

30 minutes ago, ionel said:

No love for Wyatt tech-pin thru the tournament?  

Given the opponents he had, anything less would have been a 'stock down' performance.

[D3 for LU]

3 hours ago, ionel said:

No love for Wyatt tech-pin thru the tournament?  

 

2 hours ago, nhs67 said:

Given the opponents he had, anything less would have been a 'stock down' performance.

D3

[Spladle08]

5 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

Stock up:
Marcus Blaze: Recency bias always clouds a lot of judgement but this kid is absolutely surgical in freestyle he holds center as well as anyone and is constantly keeps you under his chest. As I am sure everyone knows Jax is my guy so hoping he gets it back against Ben at trails and takes the spot but I think he is going to need to get in the lab and figure out how he is going to open both of them up enough to give himself opportunities.

.....

 

Loved it all Truzz. 

HOLDING CENTER, love that you mentioned that, I'm sure Ono as a partner has helped advance his FS game as well. Blaze looks the part of a world contender, but like you, hoping Jax gets it figured out . 

Bo has as good a shot as anyone we could send at 65kg, Woods has looked pretty bad in RAF, whoever he ended up facing here, I was hoping he'd be dethroned, and the excitement behind what Bassett brings to the table is enough for me. 

Not sure Chance should be stock up, I've thought he was the best we could throw out there at 79kg and I'm confident he'll get it done against Haines. 

You made some great other observations, but I gotta reference the Dake one. You're right, he looked GREAT, I was over here going "Damnit is he good again?" because I'd like Zahid to go crush the field again, but I think the version of Dake we just saw beats him. 


Vito and Suriano being too small was expected, I know the dream is olympics but would've liked to see them just stay down and attempt to qualify for Worlds. 

No clue on Carr, he's definitely our best guy hope to see him snap out of it. 

Oh and I expect whatever happens at Final X to be definitive between Lee and Lightening Luke, 
Either LL takes the approach of "you're not scary anymore" 
Or Lee comes out with 2 dominant victories, I don't think there's any place for 2-3 close matches. 

[SweetButteryLou]

For me personally I’ll go stock up 

basset , Lovett , dake still doing it at this level vs naturally bigger guys . I thought he was crazy to do it back 2016 trying to get the spot off of cox .. I think he could win worlds at 79 this year but I’m guessing Olympic weight is what he cares about .. green still doing it . Chance still doing it 

stock down 

Spencer Lee 

Buchanans gas tank - & therefore chances against Snyder ( which I thought he had a good shot before ) 

Jax forest thinking he could goof around at the beginning of the davino match 

[ionel]

5 hours ago, nhs67 said:

Given the opponents he had, anything less would have been a 'stock down' performance.

 Could you have walked thru the 125 field this year? 

[Eagle26]

In regards to Dake being stock up, I agree. It’s the best we’ve seen him in a while. I thought he looked a thicker and maybe he’s grown into a full sized 86. Anyone have any insight on if he’s actually have to lose a few pounds to make 86? I think that’s something he needs against Zahid who seems huge for the weight. 

[Gantry]

It was reported Dake weighed in at 187, so still not full sized. 

[ionel]

1 minute ago, Gantry said:

It was reported Dake weighed in at 187, so still not full sized. 

Gonna be hard for him to keep his weight up as he gets younger dont ya think?  

[nhs67]

1 hour ago, ionel said:

 Could you have walked thru the 125 field this year? 

Yes.

[GrandOlm]

Coby Merill looks like he could be in his 30s. 

[Hilton Head Joe]

1 minute ago, GrandOlm said:

Coby Merill looks like he could be in his 30s. 

WWE guy in his 30s easily. Absolutely humongous. Just grabbing Mocco and sumo wrestled him all match and dominated him with just pushouts. He is short though. What is he 5 10? That could be a problem with a big tall full sized heavy. 

[ionel]

5 minutes ago, GrandOlm said:

Coby Merill looks like he could be in his 30s. 

He just eats like he is.

[juniorvarsity]

Shumate beat Merrill. Very surprised by that result. Merrill is a tactician in folkstyle. Hasn't figured that out in freestyle yet. 

Joe Sealey may be vying for the 157 spot if Kasak is dealing with concussion issues again. Not good for Kasak. Seemingky all you can do is rest for head injuries. Timeline for that is weird, and with a history of it you usually gotta tread lightly. Maybe Sealey isn't so dumb for staying at Penn State. Shit happens.

Cole Mirasola obviously not on Josh Barr's level. He lost to Aiello and didn't look like he had a shot at scoring. Again, maybe not so dumb for staying at Penn State if Barr is hurt. Shit happens. But then again, it's still dumb. Can't convince me otherwise(same for Sealey).

Mendez could not get a thing going in his match with McKenna. He stood in front of him and the fakes and movement of McKenna didn't let him get ahold of him or get a shot off. Reminded me of how Zahid wrestles in a way. Mendez lost to McKenna in 2025. Really wanted to see him against Bassett. 

Suriano cannot be serious. Manville, I had thought was a R12 guy this year. Didn't turn out to be right. But I saw potential in him early in the season. It's a bad loss for Suriano. Hopefully he goes 61kg at Trials if he is serious about making a team.

Vito has the offense but not the defense. I didn't watch the David Evans match, but that's not a loss he should ever take. Backslide losses can be taken with a grain of salt, but this one is too bad to see in that light. Another year of frustrations like this would make me wonder if continuing to train is worth it for him. 

Ridge looked good in all his wins. He also scored a lot of points throughout the tournament. I am hesitant to believe he will be good in a tight match against a guy with shut down defense. At least we didn't see anything like that this weekend. Very fun to watch. Not sure how I see him doing at worlds. More action is better for him. 

It's not a surprise Buchanan won, but it sorta reaffirm what we all thought we were seeing. Hard to say if he can win a match against Snyder. I don't think Snyder has really never been challenged domestically. Maybe he will now. That's still unknown.

How can you not like Bo Bassett? Seriously? Is now a good time to start bitching about his age? Dudes an animal. Those quick techs in the early rounds of U20s kept him sharp throughout the day heading into his finals match. 

[Konquest]

One of the most eye-popping results from the weekend was in the consolation of 79kg U20.  The run that Danny Heiser, the 3rd place finisher, went on is absolutely ridiculous.  Loses in the first round and then gets a dozen 10-0 techs in a row, most of them under a minute.

[happyvalet]

16 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

Luke and Spencer: if that out of bounds sequence gets stopped after both of Lukes feet go out ... the visuals of 5-0 vs 4-1 is extremely different.

Not just visually, that would flip the outcome from 5-4 Luke to 5-4 Spencer 

[killdozer]

Heiser actually had 11 wins in a row all techs in less than 1:45 with six in less than :35 seconds. 
 

 Bout 1376 (Mat 11) - Champ. Rd of 128: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Asher Cunningham, NLTM over Daniel Heiser, TSWC (TF 12-2 (1:47) )

 Bout 1865 (Mat 6) - Cons. Sub-Rd of 64: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Xayvion Anderson, VWCI (TF 10-0 (0:32) )

 Bout 2057 (Mat 15) - Cons. Rd of 64: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Luke Hamiti, CORT (TF 15-4 (1:44) )

 Bout 2324 (Mat 20) - Cons. Sub-Rd of 32: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Max Wirnsberger, MTC (TF 11-0 (0:58) )

 Bout 2438 (Mat 10) - Cons. Rd of 32: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Emmitt Sherlock, CWC (TF 10-0 (1:06) )

 Bout 2614 (Mat 16) - Cons. Sub-Rd of 16: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Bode Marlow, PWC (TF 10-0 (1:35) )

 Bout 2693 (Mat 17) - Cons. Rd of 16: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Mario Carini, PHS (TF 10-0 (0:17) )

 Bout 2791 (Mat 24) - Cons. Sub-Quarters: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Brodie Bedford, SMC (TF 10-0 (0:35) )

 Bout 2831 (Mat 6) - Cons. Quarters: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Cody Kirk, CRTC (TF 10-0 (0:28) )

 Bout 2880 (Mat 8 ) - Cons. Sub-Semis: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Elliott Humphries, PERT (TF 10-0 (0:32) )

 Bout 2900 (Mat 10) - Cons. Semis: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Lane Foard, WWRT (TF 10-0 (1:43) )

 Bout 2934 (Mat 4) - 3rd Place Match: U20 Freestyle FS - 79 - Daniel Heiser, TSWC over Sullivan Ramos, RWC (TF 10-0 (0:25) )

Edited April 27 by killdozer

[DocBB]

Michael Boyle taking U20 title  as a HS Junior.

[Hilton Head Joe]

Ross/Merrill are gonna stop each other from being 4 timers! College needs to have a 235 class and increase heavy to around 300-315. Merrill 265 and Ross about 235. I honestly don't know how they exclude the hugh guys. Seems like a very winnable lawsuit. 

[Tyler Perry]

On 4/26/2026 at 6:02 AM, Truzzcat said:

Stock up:
Marcus Blaze: Recency bias always clouds a lot of judgement but this kid is absolutely surgical in freestyle he holds center as well as anyone and is constantly keeps you under his chest. As I am sure everyone knows Jax is my guy so hoping he gets it back against Ben at trails and takes the spot but I think he is going to need to get in the lab and figure out how he is going to open both of them up enough to give himself opportunities.

Bo: I am often pessimistic about how his style translates against the best guys and while I would have liked to have seen Joey healthy in the match I still think Bo would have gotten it done. He has grown in his ability to get to legs much cleaner and added a really nice series where he almost standing singles the leg after really crowding one side when he circles its really impressive. Still a bit worried about how his style transfers against the Japans/ Russias/ Inida etc oversees but I think its clear he is our best guy right now at 65kg.

Chance: 79kg is his weight and I am so happy he is back down. Not sure he is going to beat Levi but I think it will be an incredible series and whoever comes out on top is going to be a medal favorite.

Joe sealey: I am not sure if its a matter of he is better at free or 157 is just too much of a cut for him, but whatever it is man did he look good. It will be painful to see him lose another year of eligibility next year so I hope he can get himself in a lineup weather its at psu or somewhere else.

Ridge and Henson: I thought both guys looked absolutely incredible all weekend and if you are a Nebraska or V-tech fan you should be very excited with both of those programs overall. I think from an international perspective I like what Ridge brings a little bit more but both guys will be good options but medaling will be hard 70 is tough.

Dake: Hilarious to think of Dake as a stock up guy but he looked stellar. What is most exciting is he should be back in his prime by 2028 given the rate at which is he de-aging.

Luke and Spencer: So I thought Luke wrestled a great match he did not let himself go under spencer and put himself in a spot to sting him late which for him I think was the perfect gameplan. I thought Spencer looked awesome all weekend though until the final 2 minutes of that match, and I wonder what the match looks like if that out of bounds sequence gets stopped after both of Lukes feet go out (honestly with the new rules not sure how that is supposed to be called) but the visuals of 5-0 vs 4-1 is extremely different.

 Coby Merill: grown ass man.

Seth shumate: Third place in a very deep 92kg I thought he looked awesome and truly would have never seen this tournament coming from him.

Arno Vardanyan: This kid appears to be an absolute problem and I think he may give Ronnie a run for his money in the quarters today.

Haakon Peterson: Haakon wrestled 99lbs for what felt like 3 years, well now hes up at 74kg and he beat Will Denny.

Hayden Schwab: I was really impressed with his tech over Botero. Botero is a 3 or 4 time Fargo AA and while he did not have a great season this year in college, I think he would have been around NQ caliber at 125 rather than 133.

Davino: Was back and fourth about putting him on here but I thought he wrestled a perfect match against Jax and also looked great against Desanto who is probably our fourth best guy at 61kg. More of a feather to Marcus for getting it done.

Stock down:
Note: Despite losing at u20's will not be putting Melvin miller on here, I am chalking that 100% up to wrestling so many matches and a bunch of them being absolute dog fights.

Vito: I did not expect him to be big by any means for this weight but I thought his speed would be even more of a factor and it does not appear to be. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt that as he has more time to acclimate he will get better but as of right now given two showings at 65kg I tihnk come 2028 this version is not a top 6 guy on our ladder.

Carr: Very curious as to whats going on here. Everyone has bad tournaments and David is not stranger to variance but he beat Salk and Aoyagi last year and was seconds from beating Valiev and Sidakov and just lost to Amine and Sealey. 

Hamiti: Absolutely love his style so was hoping to see some tangible improvements, but he quite frankly did not look good this weekend.

Mendez: Probably an overreaction here, but he was on the ropes in the Hardy match and truthfully got outwrestled for the entirety of the Mckenna match I believe he was fortunate that it was that close. The handfight and output just seemed far less than we are use to seeing. 
 

 

 

Great write up. Who is Vardayan?

[Le duke]

Everyone already knew how good he was but Jayden James destroyed the U20 field as a first year U20. 

Also, apparently he's light enough that he could be in the 157 conversation for Penn State this year. 

[bnwtwg]

34 minutes ago, Le duke said:

Everyone already knew how good he was but Jayden James destroyed the U20 field as a first year U20. 

Also, apparently he's light enough that he could be in the 157 conversation for Penn State this year. 

Yeah but he's not going to beat out Joe Seeley for the starting nod

[GrandOlm]

8 hours ago, Hilton Head Joe said:

Ross/Merrill are gonna stop each other from being 4 timers! College needs to have a 235 class and increase heavy to around 300-315. Merrill 265 and Ross about 235. I honestly don't know how they exclude the hugh guys. Seems like a very winnable lawsuit. 

Not sure if this post was a joke or not. 

Very few people on the planet weigh 300 lbs without carrying copious amounts of excess, unhealthy boy fat ( or large amounts of PEDs). Even fewer weight that much in their late teens and early 20s.

There might be a couple Chris Taylor esque wreslters with very high body fat percentages, but it's still a tiny amount of competitors. At greco seniors I don't think any of the top wrestlers weigh 130 kg (since Lopez retired.) Plus, anyone that large and actually athletic would be in football most likely (money). 

[LJB]

wanting another weight for the fat boys is silly...

weakest weight on this planet...

consistently...

the mcdonalds crew hates that but it is 100% true...