First time champ over two returning champions

[BruceyB]

Just now, Caveira said:

Jon trenge?

TBH, I didn't start watching college wrestling until 2007. I shamefully admit that although I've watched a lot of wrestling that happened before 2007, I have never watched Jon Trenge.. I just know if him from talk. Care to provide a link to a match showing how good he really was? I'd love to watch.

[Caveira]

6 minutes ago, BruceyB said:

TBH, I didn't start watching college wrestling until 2007. I shamefully admit that although I've watched a lot of wrestling that happened before 2007, I have never watched Jon Trenge.. I just know if him from talk. Care to provide a link to a match showing how good he really was? I'd love to watch.

I’d have to look.  In the early / mid 2000s fox sports affiliates start broadcasting wrestling.   There was one I subscribed to out east that showed basically many/ all Lehigh and a lot of psu duals back then.  They sort of turned me into a closet Lehigh fan.   Troy letters.   Brad Dillon.  Mario Stuart.  Jon trenge were all pretty fantastic.  He (trenge) hurt his eye and had to wear goggles.  I don’t recall the specific injury but it was very serious.  Letters won a title and maybe made a second final.  I’m not 100% sure.  Dillon had the worst (imo) poor reffing job in the semis one year.  I think it’s why ot and riding rules have changed. 

[11986]

Just now, Caveira said:

I’d have to look.  In the early / mid 2000s fox sports affiliates start broadcasting wrestling.   There was one I subscribed to out east that showed basically many/ all Lehigh and a lot of psu duals back then.  They sort of turned me into a closet Lehigh fan.   Troy letters.   Brad Dillon.  Mario Stuart.  Jon trenge were all pretty fantastic.  He (trenge) hurt his eye and had to wear goggles.  I don’t recall the specific injury but it was very serious.  Letters won a title and maybe made a second final.  I’m not 100% sure.  Dillon had the worst (imo) poor reffing job in the semis one year.  I think it’s why ot and riding rules have changed. 

Trenge had a torn retina.

If you can find it, Veritas is an excellent documentary on Trenge.  

[headshuck]

A couple active coaches came close but no cigar. Eggum and Kish.

[scourge165]

On 12/23/2024 at 4:50 AM, Truzzcat said:

I would throw in both Hidlay brothers. I to this day think Hayden got hosed a bit against Nolf and Trent just had one of the best to ever do it at his weight for 4 years. 

Lance Palmer is another guy thats probably worth a mention and if Beau were to not win it this year I think he would be up there too.

There are a lot of guys who can be on this list.

There are guys like Moore and Pletcher who almost belong on another list. Guys who got screwed and lost the '20 season to end their careers. 

I'd give the benefit of the doubt to Hayden as he lost that '20 season as well...plus, Deakin seemed to...tighten up in the NCAAs(nearly got stuck the year he won it) but he still would have had to go through Carr to get there. He also got beaten by guys like Teamer...which isn't the worst loss, but it was Teamer's first year as an AA. 

Trent, he got 5 years. He was one of the best over those 5 years, 2 times he lost to Brooks in the finals...but also those losses to guys like Hunter Bolen...

Eh, I guess if you're on the "best to never win it," list, you're going to have some bad losses. Sometimes it's just brutal matchups like Jordan Burroughs in the finals or Aaron Brooks and sometimes it's just not Wrestling your best in March and I'll throw Deakin in there since he did win one and I don't wanna call anyone else out.

 

 

[flyingcement]

On 12/23/2024 at 8:51 AM, BruceyB said:

TBH, I didn't start watching college wrestling until 2007. I shamefully admit that although I've watched a lot of wrestling that happened before 2007, I have never watched Jon Trenge.. I just know if him from talk. Care to provide a link to a match showing how good he really was? I'd love to watch.

I was lucky enough to call Trenge a teammate my very first year of wrestling in 1992.  This is one of his most famous matches.  

 

Here is an old highlight video:

 

[scourge165]

On 12/23/2024 at 9:00 AM, neweruser69 said:

Always felt like Poeta got jobbed by the ref in his finals against Leen as well.

Yeah, a little bit. 

I have no particular reason to be a Poeta fan, but re-watching the matchup with Burroughs was extremely frustrating. Burroughs was backing up the whole match...and I get that was part of his style then, get guys to step and hit that double. It was even a bigger part of his style for his first title as he really was more versatile and his hand fighting was pretty damn tough as he moved on. He had more than just a blast double.

But the WHOLE match he's backing out of bounds. Again though, you can do this for anyone.

 

On 12/23/2024 at 10:47 AM, Caveira said:

Jon trenge?

Yeah, he was a stud as well. Running into Cael going for that 159th win was...pretty tough to overcome. 

I was also a fan of the Lehigh team when they had Letters and Trenge and some of those other horses. They usually looked like they were about a weight class or two bigger than what they wrestled.