Trending Up, Trending Down?

[Natty Boh Army]

Considering where the UMD Terps were 2-3 years ago, they could only trend upwards; however, to see them go from one of the worst teams in D1 to a borderline top-25 team during this time is pretty remarkable.

The good news: MD has a nucleus of 6-7 competitive guys, all of whom have at least two years of eligibility left

The bad: They have no depth, nobody in development, and will be handing out points in at least 3 weight classes next year.

I am excited to see the continued development of Smith, Brown, and the Millers; I also hope that Solis and North can put together breakthrough seasons. But I am worried about the aforementioned holes in the lineup, and I am fully aware that Big 10 wins will remain few and far between for this team.

[Plasmodium]

Wyoming went into a steep dive, really quickly.  They need a couple of dudes in the WRTC and a big name assistant to change that trajectory.

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

The ILLINI had a beautiful first day of the NCAA tournament, then a very rough second day, but they are trending way up overall. Dual season was a lot better, and all of the qualifiers are back. ILLINOIS will also return bigger and stronger versions of Luke Luffman, Justin Cardani and Joe Roberts from redshirt, and that's on top of a top-notch recruiting class. 

Since the hiring of Coach Poeta, all of the major program-changing decisions have been bullseyes. STAFF: Added Ed Ruth, IMAR and retained Jeremy Hunter. NIL & STIPENDS: Have elite programs in both of these areas. RECRUITING: Have landed two Who's #1 wrestlers and a bunch of other blue chippers for next season. IRTC: Had a huge year with Zane Richards in Freestyle; Max Nowry, Kamal Bey and Tanner Farmer in Greco. FACILITIES: State of the Art facility is going to go up right about where Emery Parker is standing--

 

[Tigerfan]

18 hours ago, Laxhawk174 said:

ISU should be happy about how Swiderski finished the season. His start and finish were good, but based on that whole middle part, didn't look like he would win more than a match or two. Have to figure it out with Paniro. I didn't see how he got bounced on the backside, but that was pretty surprising. Need him to rebound with a strong year. However, 149 is going to be pretty bonkers next year. Not the stacked high end talent (in terms of champs) as 165, but just look, pretty impressive list I'd say:

Sammy Sasso - Returning 3X AA, 2X Finalist

Shayne Van Ness - Returning Freshman AA

Kyle Parco - Returning 2X AA

Austin Gomez - Returning 2X AA, Many thought he would be in the finals opposite Yianni if healthy. 

Caleb Henson - Returning True Freshman AA

Brock Mauller - Returning 2X AA

Ridge Lovett - 2022 NCAA finalist

Meyer Shapiro -  Top 3 P4p recruit - replacing Yianni after doing the Cornell Greyshirt system

Cody Chittum -  #1 p4p recruit - graduated HS early and spent the last year training with HWC)

Paniro Johnson - 5 Seed as a FR for ISU

Michael Blockhus - Returning AA 

 

 

Nitpicking, but Mauller is a 4x AA if you count his “first team” selection during the canceled year. 

[HungusMungus]

As a Wisconsin fan, I am disappointed to say I feel that the Badgers are flat lining. 5 years after replacing Barry Davis, we are not better off now. I believe that Bono and Reader are great recruiters, but developing great wrestlers, that's where they lack in my opinion. I firmly believe that Bono has 2 more years to right the ship or The AD will be looking to make a move. 

Also when the premier club in the state will not encourage their athletes to attend there, there is a major problem. 

Bono has brought a lot of hype to Madison, but that has started to fizzle with the lack of results. 

[killdozer]

29 minutes ago, Tigerfan said:

Nitpicking, but Mauller is a 4x AA if you count his “first team” selection during the canceled year. 

and Parco is a 3x AA

[Xmas32]

I think you could say Nebraska is still trending up. Their team finish dropped a bit from last year but they still scored the same amount of team points and if Lovett wrestled at 149, there is a reasonable case to be made that Nebraska would've finished 4th in the team race. With Ridge coming back next year, there is a solid core of Hardy/Ridge/Robb/Pinto/Allred where it wouldn't be unreasonable to see all 5 of those guys AA. Losing Labriola and Cronin stings and those guys will be missed. They appear to be in pretty good shape at 165 between Wilson and they have 2 promising young guys behind him in Taylor and Condomitti. If I remember correctly, Condomitti was going to be the guy at 165 before he got hurt. As with most Nebraska teams, there will be a black hole at HWT. Andrews looked really undersized out there in the limited action I saw from him so he'll definitely need to hit the weight room. There are some interesting pieces at 125/133 between existing guys and incoming recruits but I wouldn't be shocked to see Nebraska try and hit the portal at 133 because the ceiling for guys like Burwick/Thomsen and others appears to be capped at NQ. Lastly, I have no idea what Pinto walks around at but I wonder if he potentially cuts to 174 and Nebraska also hits the portal to snag a guy at 184.

I have no insight but I have to think Manning is going to want to stick around for at least a few more years. He's got kids in HS still so you'd think he'll want to coach until they are out of the nest so to speak. I'd imagine he and Snyder have some kind of coach in waiting thing but again, that's just speculation on my part.

[MPhillips]

OSU Buckeyes

Projected ninth, finished fourth.

Lost their 125 a week before NCAA. Lose Smith 174, Romero 184, Orndorff 285.

 Recruits - 125 Kilkeary, 141/149 Herman, 165/174 Welsh, 174/184 Rogotzke

125 - Gonzales/McCrone/Kilkeary - 
133 - Mendez/Bouzakis - Talk of a RS for Mendez?
141 - D’Emilio/Decatur - Talk of D'Emilio at 149?
149 - Sasso - Talk of him at 157?
157 - Paddy/Wilcox - Someone gets left out between Paddy, Wilcox and Hepner.
165 - Hepner - Someone gets left out.
174 - Kharch - Appears tired. Hopefully the move helps him.
184 - Shumate - This will be his chance with Welsh and Rogotzke coming.
197 - Hoffman/Geog/Stein - I want Geog. 
285 - Feldman - Hopefully he's healthy and puts on some weight.

Edited March 22, 2023 by MPhillips

[ionel]

10 hours ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

The ILLINI had a beautiful first day of the NCAA tournament, then a very rough second day, but they are trending way up overall. Dual season was a lot better, and all of the qualifiers are back. ILLINOIS will also return bigger and stronger versions of Luke Luffman, Justin Cardani and Joe Roberts from redshirt, and that's on top of a top-notch recruiting class. 

Since the hiring of Coach Poeta, all of the major program-changing decisions have been bullseyes. STAFF: Added Ed Ruth, IMAR and retained Jeremy Hunter. NIL & STIPENDS: Have elite programs in both of these areas. RECRUITING: Have landed two Who's #1 wrestlers and a bunch of other blue chippers for next season. IRTC: Had a huge year with Zane Richards in Freestyle; Max Nowry, Kamal Bey and Tanner Farmer in Greco. FACILITIES: State of the Art facility is going to go up right about where Emery Parker is standing--

 

I'm wondering about the Death Star.  Is the plan to destroy Planet Happy Valley?  Was this Poeta's plan for bringing in Ruth?  I like it when a good plan comes together. 

btw:  hoping Luffman comes back as a full grown Wookie. 

Edited March 22, 2023 by ionel

[Le duke]

ISU should be happy about how Swiderski finished the season. His start and finish were good, but based on that whole middle part, didn't look like he would win more than a match or two. Have to figure it out with Paniro. I didn't see how he got bounced on the backside, but that was pretty surprising. Need him to rebound with a strong year. However, 149 is going to be pretty bonkers next year. Not the stacked high end talent (in terms of champs) as 165, but just look, pretty impressive list I'd say:
Sammy Sasso - Returning 3X AA, 2X Finalist
Shayne Van Ness - Returning Freshman AA
Kyle Parco - Returning 2X AA
Austin Gomez - Returning 2X AA, Many thought he would be in the finals opposite Yianni if healthy. 
Caleb Henson - Returning True Freshman AA
Brock Mauller - Returning 2X AA
Ridge Lovett - 2022 NCAA finalist
Meyer Shapiro -  Top 3 P4p recruit - replacing Yianni after doing the Cornell Greyshirt system
Cody Chittum -  #1 p4p recruit - graduated HS early and spent the last year training with HWC)
Paniro Johnson - 5 Seed as a FR for ISU
Michael Blockhus - Returning AA 
 
I was talking about ISU and got a little distracted there. Bastida looks like he might be struggling making the weight and had some injuries, on the clone board some have him penciled in at HWT next year. Schuyler, I really thought he would break through and AA, looked tough all year. Tough matchup, with former multi-AA Hilger in the blood round (I had to laugh during the first 2 sessions, Shane Sparks kept mentioning on the matcast about how Hilger put on 50 LBS this off-season, eating 10,000 calories a day!). Plus 133 lber Redding, who was pretty unheralded and quietly made the R12. All in all they had an incredibly solid dual squad and conference tourney squad. Fell back from the pack in NCAA tourney setting. Only have 1 year left of Carr, and after that - severely lacking in the high end scorer department. 

Given that Chittum was wrestling at 158.4 and couldn’t make 147.7 for a single day, let alone a whole season, I very much doubt that particular 21 year old “early graduate” will be at 149 next year.


And Swiderski and Johnson should each move up a weight. Both were obviously suffering towards the end of the season/postseason.


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[Laxhawk174]

4 minutes ago, Le duke said:

 

Given that Chittum was wrestling at 158.4 and couldn’t make 147.7 for a single day, let alone a whole season, I very much doubt that particular 21 year old “early graduate” will be at 149 next year.


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Okay. There are Hawk fans close to the situation who have stated both 157 and 149, nobody seems to know for sure. Are you talking extra lbs weight allowances for Freestyle or something on those weights? I can easily see why he'd rather wrestle 70KG than 65KG, even if he was wrestling 149. Don't know anything about his age, just that he was supposed to be class of 2023 and graduated summer of '22 and trained in Iowa city this year. Am I wrong on that? 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

24 minutes ago, Le duke said:

 

Given that Chittum was wrestling at 158.4 and couldn’t make 147.7 for a single day, let alone a whole season, I very much doubt that particular 21 year old “early graduate” will be at 149 next year.


And Swiderski and Johnson should each move up a weight. Both were obviously suffering towards the end of the season/postseason.


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Maybe a better possibility of seeing Skinny Siebrecht at 149 than Chonky Chittum

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

26 minutes ago, Le duke said:

 

Given that Chittum was wrestling at 158.4 and couldn’t make 147.7 for a single day, let alone a whole season, I very much doubt that particular 21 year old “early graduate” will be at 149 next year.


And Swiderski and Johnson should each move up a weight. Both were obviously suffering towards the end of the season/postseason.


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I could be wrong, but I feel as if Chittum doesn't turn 21 until after the season next year! Not that it will make much of a difference.  He is "old" regardless.

[Gus]

2 hours ago, Le duke said:

 

Given that Chittum was wrestling at 158.4 and couldn’t make 147.7 for a single day, let alone a whole season, I very much doubt that particular 21 year old “early graduate” will be at 149 next year.


And Swiderski and Johnson should each move up a weight. Both were obviously suffering towards the end of the season/postseason.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

70 kg is a 154 and 65 kg is 143. Another thing to consider is that his teammate at HWC Pat Lugo is at 65 kg. 

[Le duke]

70 kg is a 154 and 65 kg is 143. Another thing to consider is that his teammate at HWC Pat Lugo is at 65 kg. 

But those aren’t the weights they wrestled at.

UWW Ranking Series events were done at +2kg. Which is why I wrote what I wrote.

So, 72 and 67kg.


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[BigRedFan]

On 3/21/2023 at 3:41 PM, Laxhawk174 said:

 

Meyer Shapiro -  Top 3 P4p recruit - replacing Yianni after doing the Cornell Greyshirt system

For accuracy, Shapiro is spending his senior HS year training with Spartan Combat.  He will be a true freshman in every sense of the word next year at Cornell.

[Kov88]

7 hours ago, MPhillips said:

OSU Buckeyes

Projected ninth, finished fourth.

Lost their 125 a week before NCAA. Lose Smith 174, Romero 184, Orndorff 285.

 Recruits - 125 Kilkeary, 141/149 Herman, 165/174 Welsh, 174/184 Rogotzke

125 - Gonzales/McCrone/Kilkeary - 
133 - Mendez/Bouzakis - Talk of a RS for Mendez?
141 - D’Emilio/Decatur - Talk of D'Emilio at 149?
149 - Sasso - Talk of him at 157?
157 - Paddy/Wilcox - Someone gets left out between Paddy, Wilcox and Hepner.
165 - Hepner - Someone gets left out.
174 - Kharch - Appears tired. Hopefully the move helps him.
184 - Shumate - This will be his chance with Welsh and Rogotzke coming.
197 - Hoffman/Geog/Stein - I want Geog. 
285 - Feldman - Hopefully he's healthy and puts on some weight.

I see Gonzales at 25 even though he didn’t look good at big ten’s, I get it was a last minute shift. At 33 I seeBouzakis, I could see Mendez at 41 if he doesn’t RS but I have heard rumblings that he might RS. At 49 is a Sasso if he doesn’t bump up to 57, if he does will D’Emilio or Decatur try to take 49? If Sasso doesnt bump I’ll be Gallagher’s spot. Wilcox is a fun backup to root for when he fills in but I don’t think he’s the year long answer. At 65 I see Hepner there after he red shirted this past year, he beat Cam Amine in an open tournament during his RS year. I’d like to see Kharchla here, he looked too sucked down at 65 and I feel like he’ll be more explosive and have more energy at 74 even though he’s shorter for the weight class. 84 I think is Shunates spot. 97 will be a good competition between Hoffman and Geog. I’ve heard good things about Geog and Hoffman didn’t replicate the previous year. Does he improve? Idk. Heavyweight is Feldman, just has to stay healthy. I think they RS all Kilkeary, Welsh, and Rogotzke

[TexRef]

On 3/21/2023 at 11:52 AM, CTV4ISU said:

I know it has taken a little time, but Dresser and Co. at Iowa State seem to be tredning in the right direction. Every year the place higher at NCAAs, and the recruting is moving in the right direction. Lot to be optomistic about. 

How soon before Kevin calls another Hawk to join them? 

[Idaho]

4 minutes ago, TexRef said:

How soon before Kevin calls another Hawk to join them? 

Tom? 

[TexRef]

1 minute ago, Idaho said:

Tom? 

Great response @Idaho! 

When Cael left for PSU I wanted Terry to get the ISU job. I thought he would stir it up and develop a rivalry with PSU. But Kevin getting the job ISU was far better! 

[Idaho]

23 hours ago, Xmas32 said:

I think you could say Nebraska is still trending up. Their team finish dropped a bit from last year but they still scored the same amount of team points and if Lovett wrestled at 149, there is a reasonable case to be made that Nebraska would've finished 4th in the team race. With Ridge coming back next year, there is a solid core of Hardy/Ridge/Robb/Pinto/Allred where it wouldn't be unreasonable to see all 5 of those guys AA. Losing Labriola and Cronin stings and those guys will be missed. They appear to be in pretty good shape at 165 between Wilson and they have 2 promising young guys behind him in Taylor and Condomitti. If I remember correctly, Condomitti was going to be the guy at 165 before he got hurt. As with most Nebraska teams, there will be a black hole at HWT. Andrews looked really undersized out there in the limited action I saw from him so he'll definitely need to hit the weight room. There are some interesting pieces at 125/133 between existing guys and incoming recruits but I wouldn't be shocked to see Nebraska try and hit the portal at 133 because the ceiling for guys like Burwick/Thomsen and others appears to be capped at NQ. Lastly, I have no idea what Pinto walks around at but I wonder if he potentially cuts to 174 and Nebraska also hits the portal to snag a guy at 184.

I have no insight but I have to think Manning is going to want to stick around for at least a few more years. He's got kids in HS still so you'd think he'll want to coach until they are out of the nest so to speak. I'd imagine he and Snyder have some kind of coach in waiting thing but again, that's just speculation on my part.

Nebraska has a bright future.... that lineup looks good next year.  Even though they dropped a bit the team is trending up. You care correct on Condomitti -He was the guy and Wilson still ended up at the NCAA tourney. With a transfer or two and Lovett back in the lineup - way to go Idaho -  they are going to be formidable. 

[poorwrestler]

The gophers… ugh. Heavily impacted by injuries this year after losing Gable. Brayton Lee was a shell of his former self, Patrick McKee and Bailee O’Reilly wrestling with 10 pound knee braces, etc. There were a couple bright spots in Aaron Nagao and Isaiah Salazar (who I’m still shocked didn’t AA).

This team has been heavily impacted the last few years by getting next to no production out of the classes of 2016, 2017 and 2019 while other teams like Michigan and Iowa had all stars going at their 6th and 7th year. The 2018 class of Gable, Brayton, and McKee was the only thing keeping the team afloat.

I think this current gopher staff is proven to be good at developing kids to a high potential, Jakob Bergeland and Bailee O’Reilly being as good as they are without being ranked in the top 150 as recruits is a good indicator of that. HOWEVER, the issue for the years following the Xanax scandal was clearly recruiting.

It seems that they’ve gotten a little bit out from under the shade of that by landing top 15 recruit Troy Spratley, Cadet world team members in Max McEnelly and Gavin Nelson, Fargo champ Tagen Jamison, and are heavy in the mix for double style world champ Koy Hopke. They need to keep the momentum going on that front and try to land some transfers as well.

They’re also now running the risk of bottlenecking the program with guys like McKee, Blockhus and Brayton coming back for 6th years and taking spots from recruits of the classes of 2021 and 2022 they’ve spent a lot of time and money on that could transfer if they have to sit again. COVID year could strike again on that front.

End of rant


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[HungusMungus]

8 minutes ago, poorwrestler said:

The gophers… ugh. Heavily impacted by injuries this year after losing Gable. Brayton Lee was a shell of his former self, Patrick McKee and Bailee O’Reilly wrestling with 10 pound knee braces, etc. There were a couple bright spots in Aaron Nagao and Isaiah Salazar (who I’m still shocked didn’t AA).

This team has been heavily impacted the last few years by getting next to no production out of the classes of 2016, 2017 and 2019 while other teams like Michigan and Iowa had all stars going at their 6th and 7th year. The 2018 class of Gable, Brayton, and McKee was the only thing keeping the team afloat.

I think this current gopher staff is proven to be good at developing kids to a high potential, Jakob Bergeland and Bailee O’Reilly being as good as they are without being ranked in the top 150 as recruits is a good indicator of that. HOWEVER, the issue for the years following the Xanax scandal was clearly recruiting.

It seems that they’ve gotten a little bit out from under the shade of that by landing top 15 recruit Troy Spratley, Cadet world team members in Max McEnelly and Gavin Nelson, Fargo champ Tagen Jamison, and are heavy in the mix for double style world champ Koy Hopke. They need to keep the momentum going on that front and try to land some transfers as well.

They’re also now running the risk of bottlenecking the program with guys like McKee, Blockhus and Brayton coming back for 6th years and taking spots from recruits of the classes of 2021 and 2022 they’ve spent a lot of time and money on that could transfer if they have to sit again. COVID year could strike again on that front.

End of rant


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Does Hopke go there knowing Nelson is there? I don't believe either one of them would be able to make 197! My money is on Koy heading to Happy Valley 

[poorwrestler]

Does Hopke go there knowing Nelson is there? I don't believe either one of them would be able to make 197! My money is on Koy heading to Happy Valley 

The long term plan is for McEnelly and Nelson to be 184 and 197. They anticipate making that work fairly easily. I think Hopke’s decision is coming down to Wisconsin or Minnesota but you can never rule out Cael.


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[Fudge Tunnel]

On 3/22/2023 at 7:50 AM, Tigerfan said:

Nitpicking, but Mauller is a 4x AA if you count his “first team” selection during the canceled year. 

Same goes for Sasso