BloodRound Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 I have seen the threads on here that discuss the highly touted athlete that flames out and underperforms tremendously throughout their college career, which, while interesting, is really a sort of negativity I am not in the mood to discuss here. Instead, I would love to hear more about those who defied the odds of their recruitment stats & achieved greatness in the sport. The less accolades, the better. And before anyone says them, I am very aware of both stories of JB and Cassar. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedFan Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Gabe Dean was the #73 ranked recruit in Flo's rankings. Finished 3,1,1,2 at NCAAs for Cornell. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truzzcat Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 drew foster was never a HS state champ 2x AA 1 time champ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloodRound Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 8 minutes ago, Truzzcat said: drew foster was never a HS state champ 2x AA 1 time champ 14 minutes ago, BigRedFan said: Gabe Dean was the #73 ranked recruit in Flo's rankings. Finished 3,1,1,2 at NCAAs for Cornell. Love both - anyone got anyone older examples though? I am looking to hear about some older stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrestleknownothing Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 18 minutes ago, BloodRound said: Love both - anyone got anyone older examples though? I am looking to hear about some older stories. @cowcards is your man. He has amassed an amazing database of biographical info to go with results. Drowning in data, but thirsting for knowledge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunaticfringe Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Honestly a great program example of this overtime was Minnesota in the JRobinson era. Identifying the type of recruit who works in your system. Lots of guys from Minnesota class A(schools under 400 enrollment) have done well and AA’d or won titles. Kevin Steinhaus, Brett Pfarr, Brad Pike, Owen Elzen, Jacob Volkmann, Chad Kraft, Brad Gibson, Matt Nagel, Tyler Safratowich and Zach Sanders all made the awards stand from small town Minnesota. In addition to that you brought in Tim Hartung and Cole Konrad from Small town Wisconsin. These guys all way out performed recruiting rankings, that is if they were even ranked and many of these guys were not. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NM1965 Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 (edited) Derek Moore never finished higher than 5th at the California HS State Championships, but he was an undefeated NCAA champion at 141 for California-Davis in 2007, techfalling the heavily favored #1 seed Ryan Lang from Northwestern 17-2. He also got the Outstanding Wrestler award. Edited March 4 by NM1965 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ugarles Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Travis Lee 4x AA and two nattys out of Hawaii. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHROMEBIRD Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 (edited) Was Mekhi Lewis highly recruited? He seemed to take many by surprise his first year Edited March 4 by CHROMEBIRD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHROMEBIRD Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 32 minutes ago, ugarles said: Travis Lee 4x AA and two nattys out of Hawaii. Good pick. I remember Travis Lee saying in an interview that he didn't get much attention from D1 programs at first (except for Cornell) but was highly recruited by the likes of Iowa and Oklahoma by his senior year. He chose Cornell because Koll was the first to believe in him. Interestingly, a reason why Lee was such an unknown early on was because he only picked up wrestling going into high school. He wasn't without his accolades, though. That dude competed in Judo since age 5 and won multiple national championships. Many thought he'd be an Olympian before he moved on to wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrestleknownothing Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 3 minutes ago, CHROMEBIRD said: Was Mekhi Lewis highly recruited? He seemed to take many by surprise his first year He was #19 on the 2017 Big Board 1 Drowning in data, but thirsting for knowledge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PortaJohn Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 (edited) Daniel Cormier gave up a scholarship to play football at LSU (some reliable sources say it's because he didn't have the grades) solely to continue wrestling. Spent 2 years at a community college before getting the opportunity to wrestle at Okie State. Edited March 4 by PortaJohn I Don't Agree With What I Posted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NM1965 Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 25 minutes ago, PortaJohn said: Daniel Cormier gave up a scholarship to play football at LSU (some reliable sources say it's because he didn't have the grades) solely to continue wrestling. Spent 2 years at a community college before getting the opportunity to wrestle at Okie State. The only shocking revelation from that story is that he had to go to community college to get his grades up for Okie State 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idaho Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Dan St. John .... never won a HS state title and won 2 NCAA titles Chris Pendleton.... Won one state title....not highly recruited...struggled his first year at OSU and ended up a 2x NCAA champ Idaho... never won a state title or NCAA title... but won a couple of the days here on the board. BOOM! 3 3 Sponsored by INTERMAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrestleknownothing Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 32 minutes ago, Idaho said: Dan St. John .... never won a HS state title and won 2 NCAA titles Chris Pendleton.... Won one state title....not highly recruited...struggled his first year at OSU and ended up a 2x NCAA champ Idaho... never won a state title or NCAA title... but won a couple of the days here on the board. BOOM! You have your priorities straight. 2 1 Drowning in data, but thirsting for knowledge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowcards Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 4 hours ago, PortaJohn said: Daniel Cormier gave up a scholarship to play football at LSU (some reliable sources say it's because he didn't have the grades) solely to continue wrestling. Spent 2 years at a community college before getting the opportunity to wrestle at Okie State. Here's one a lot of people don't know: Shelton Benjamin who went 5 & 3 at MN (and WWE fame) originally went to NC State for football. Other AAs who started playing football and transferred to wrestle: - Adam Chalfant - Indiana - Jimmy Lawson - Penn State - Airron Richardson - Michigan - John Wise - Illinois 5 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said: @cowcards is your man. He has amassed an amazing database of biographical info to go with results. Unfortunately, I don't have all that together yet to be able to give some good insights right now. I'm working on the state tournament placers though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ugarles Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 5 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said: He was #19 on the 2017 Big Board Mekhi Lewis had also just won a world juniors gold. i don't think his being an impact wrestler was a surprise; i think making a run to the title from the 8 seed as a freshman was a surprise. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingcement Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 In elementary school, Sammy Sasso was JV to Jarred Papcsy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrestle87 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 Hard to beat James English in this category. https://medium.com/wrestling-stories/james-english-s-wrestling-story-56afbc7bebf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 Tanner Sloan had only two opportunities to wrestle in college: COE College and SDSU. Brock Lesnar’s best HS finish was 3rd in SD. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyhoyle Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 Kollin Moore was a 1X state champion and not highly ranked as a recruit. Jesse Delgado was also not highly ranked either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPhillips Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 5 hours ago, ugarles said: i think making a run to the title from the 8 seed as a freshman was a surprise. Agreed. It was a surprise, but it probably shouldn't have been. He was on a tear. RS year, Junior Worlds, then the NCAA tourney... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLCarnegieTech_1969 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 17 hours ago, BloodRound said: I have seen the threads on here that discuss the highly touted athlete that flames out and underperforms tremendously throughout their college career, which, while interesting, is really a sort of negativity I am not in the mood to discuss here. Instead, I would love to hear more about those who defied the odds of their recruitment stats & achieved greatness in the sport. The less accolades, the better. And before anyone says them, I am very aware of both stories of JB and Cassar. Great Topic: I can only leave two names b/c I am at work and this would take up too much of my time. But here is my start. 1998: Kurt Angle: 285 (undersized) Clarion U. Did not go to a 'big name school' b/c he wanted to wrestle for Coach Bubb and play football. You know the rest of his story. 2009: Ryan Williams: 141 lbs. Old Dominion U. runner up; 137 career wins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloodRound Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 15 hours ago, CHROMEBIRD said: Was Mekhi Lewis highly recruited? He seemed to take many by surprise his first year He had a pretty high stock, but I remember that many saw his teammate, Stefan Glasgow, as the one with a higher ceiling. He had just beaten Shane Griffith for a state title that year. Goes to show you that it's not a sprint, but a marathon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JVStateChamp Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 Mike Macchiavello comes to mind when discussing wrestlers that "overachieved". He was a one-time state champ from North Carolina which is not exactly known as the toughest state. I believe I remember in an article that he had a negative record as a freshman in college. Either way, it was an impressive progression from HS to College. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Slack Wasatch via Snow College, Utah Class of 2024 Committed to Utah Valley Projected Weight: 197
Kasey Curtis North Sanpete via Snow College, Utah Class of 2024 Committed to Utah Valley Projected Weight: 133
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