Lightning Luke

[MizzouFan01]

Just announced per his insta that he is committed to Penn State. Big get for them. 

[RandolphTJones]

Very big get. Another top 5 recruit to PSU. Very likely a #1 overall recruit as well. 

[Indiana-Hawk-Wrestling-Fan]

Someone is going to ride the bench out of Mason Gibson, Luke L., and B. Davis. Good problems to have though! 

[RandolphTJones]

Mason and Davis will be true Freshman this season and Luke a HS Senior?

[VakAttack]

12 minutes ago, RandolphTJones said:

Very big get. Another top 5 recruit to PSU. Very likely a #1 overall recruit as well. 

I think he's taken a couple of losses recently, so I'm not sure if he will, in fact, be the #1 overall recruit, but either way, very high level kid.

[Dogbone]

Luke Smith still has eligibility??   Man, these extra Covid years are crazy.  

[RandolphTJones]

15 minutes ago, VakAttack said:

I think he's taken a couple of losses recently, so I'm not sure if he will, in fact, be the #1 overall recruit, but either way, very high level kid.

Who would your top 3 in that class be right now Vak?

[BlacknGold]

With Nagao on the verge of transferring, the timing of this commit is interesting

[Nittanychris]

14 minutes ago, BlacknGold said:

With Nagao on the verge of transferring, the timing of this commit is interesting

Why? Lilledahl is 125 and Nagao is 133.

[Indiana-Hawk-Wrestling-Fan]

36 minutes ago, RandolphTJones said:

Mason and Davis will be true Freshman this season and Luke a HS Senior?

No, Mason Gibson is in the same class as Luke

[BlacknGold]

And Gibson? Whos sitting the bench for 3 years?

[BlacknGold]

10 minutes ago, Nittanychris said:

Why? Lilledahl is 125 and Nagao is 133.

 

[nhs67]

Didn't he just try to Muay Thai knee ths shit out of Mason Gibson's cousin (Bassett a HS frosh next season) who just beat him soundly via a 4-1 Decision? 

[nhs67]

Per Minnow it was a life-ender.

[VakAttack]

43 minutes ago, RandolphTJones said:

Who would your top 3 in that class be right now Vak?

I dunno.  I'm certainly not a ranker. To my eye, I think Ferrari and Sealey are the best guys in the year, but that's all gut feeling.

[MizzouFan01]

@VakAttack Luke mentioned his top 7 in no particular order. Penn St, Michigan, Mizzou, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa St and Arizona St. With Iowa not being mentioned and being light weight U, as a Hawk fan did you think you guys had a chance at landing him. Generally interested on how other fan bases feel in regards to blue chip recruits. Mizzou, even though Mo is his home state, I felt we had about a 15% chance of landing him. 

[Gus]

8 minutes ago, VakAttack said:

I dunno.  I'm certainly not a ranker. To my eye, I think Ferrari and Sealey are the best guys in the year, but that's all gut feeling.

I would add Koy Hopke to that list. He is a stud.

[Gus]

3 minutes ago, MizzouFan01 said:

@VakAttack Luke mentioned his top 7 in no particular order. Penn St, Michigan, Mizzou, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa St and Arizona St. With Iowa not being mentioned and being light weight U, as a Hawk fan did you think you guys had a chance at landing him. Generally interested on how other fan bases feel in regards to blue chip recruits. Mizzou, even though Mo is his home state, I felt we had about a 15% chance of landing him. 

I wonder if they did not initially recruit him hard because of the Nate Jesuroga commitment and missed the boat.

[VakAttack]

11 minutes ago, MizzouFan01 said:

@VakAttack Luke mentioned his top 7 in no particular order. Penn St, Michigan, Mizzou, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa St and Arizona St. With Iowa not being mentioned and being light weight U, as a Hawk fan did you think you guys had a chance at landing him. Generally interested on how other fan bases feel in regards to blue chip recruits. Mizzou, even though Mo is his home state, I felt we had about a 15% chance of landing him. 

I'm not truly an insider, so I would say no based on the fact Iowa wasn't mentioned in his top 7.

[MizzouFan01]

3 minutes ago, Gus said:

I wonder if they did not initially recruit him hard because of the Nate Jesuroga commitment and missed the boat.

That could be correct as well. I personally just found it intriguing that Iowa who’s known for good light weights wasn’t included but Illinois and Wisconsin were. Illinois I kinda get, close to Mo, and a young energized staff. Wisconsin was because of Reader who he said to have a good relationship with from the World team. Luke’s interview on the money round was pretty good. Lots of info on the background of his choice and why he made said choice. 

[DocBB]

35 minutes ago, VakAttack said:

I dunno.  I'm certainly not a ranker. To my eye, I think Ferrari and Sealey are the best guys in the year, but that's all gut feeling.

Sealey took 3 losses in the offseason, 2 to non-elite guys and Angelo just destroyed him at WNO. Anyone not ranking Angelo #1 is disingenuous IMO. I would go Angelo, Davino, Hopke. Lilledahl would have been in the running for #1 or #2 except for his recent struggles. You could argue he still belongs up there as I think both his recent losses were in freestyle but he didn't look good in either match to me.

Edited April 10, 2023 by DocBB

[nhs67]

Ellinelle could very well end up at 141 for all we know.

Penn State has been known ti have gents defer a year as well.

[buckshot]

Embarrassment of riches is a huge understatement at this point. In the preseason I said they should redshirt Haines because they wouldn't need his points and I was right, they would have still won going away even w/o his 2nd place finish. i have a feeling this will be the case w/ LL as well. They're going to be fine with Robby Howard until 2026 so by the time LL steps in he'll have had an entire year in the room turning into a beast. In three years the premier tournament is going to be the Black Knight Invite because it will be the only chance people get to see PSU's hammers wrestle each other

[Pinnacle]

15 hours ago, DocBB said:

Sealey took 3 losses in the offseason, 2 to non-elite guys and Angelo just destroyed him at WNO. Anyone not ranking Angelo #1 is disingenuous IMO. I would go Angelo, Davino, Hopke. Lilledahl would have been in the running for #1 or #2 except for his recent struggles. You could argue he still belongs up there as I think both his recent losses were in freestyle but he didn't look good in either match to me.

After seeing what Sealy did this past wknd at Journeyman and knowing he won a cadet worlds, I am guessing Sealy wasn't 100 percent for those prior matches. No worries about him at all. 

[RandolphTJones]

15 hours ago, DocBB said:

Sealey took 3 losses in the offseason, 2 to non-elite guys and Angelo just destroyed him at WNO. Anyone not ranking Angelo #1 is disingenuous IMO. I would go Angelo, Davino, Hopke. Lilledahl would have been in the running for #1 or #2 except for his recent struggles. You could argue he still belongs up there as I think both his recent losses were in freestyle but he didn't look good in either match to me.

Sealey has dropped a bit, IMO. I don't think you can fault Lilledahl for losing to another elite wrestler in Bassett. I feel like Hopke has come along late, and really don't know much about him.

1) Ferrari

2) Davino

3) Lilledahl

4) Hopke

Sealey: 7-8 right now.