Hilton,Burton,Correa scratching and Duke,Blaze,Lockett not being there takes a bit of steam out of the tournament for me. That being said its still my second favorite high school tournament of the year.
one of the weights that stands out to me right away is 125. Dillard is coming off of a cadet bronze, Botero has a stop sign, I am not convinced Joey Bachmann has ever lost a folkstyle match in greensboro but I may pick him to not place top 5 in this field. Castillo is back down to 120 after being 126 for quite some time and is probably my pick at the weight I just think hes far in away the best guy on his feet but I think his toughest match will come in the semi against not Bachmann but Grey Burnett.
outside of 120 the lower weights do not excite me a ton I expect them to be pretty chalk I do think Nate Desmond will give Knox a bout at 126. As for 132 I wish Jax was up at 138 so we could get the vega again now that Vega has jumped levels (jax teched him at cadet trials in 21 or 22). As for 144 I am pulling for Olivarez vs Bassett that matchup intrigues me a bit more I think Olivarez can handle that hand fight I was holding out hope we would somehow get a late Marcus Blaze at 144 entry but ill hold out hope for ironman.
Ive got sonny amato over magro at 150 in the finals thats probably my most off the board final.
at 157 Melvin Vs Rath is super fun, I think Melvin may need to add in an outside step or some sort of straight on shot. Robideau shut down his ability to create angles and that really stifled what is an otherwise very prolific offense.
165 is the last weight that really excites me and 3 weeks ago I would have picked Cunningham, but Bambinelli put it on him at elite 8 duals and Torres showed out up a weight at journeyman. I think Torres is my pick I just really like his neutral game.