Truzzcat

In the case of Facundo just because he may never be able to wrestle otherwise. I agree though Ryder could AA this year and you would think will only get better but I don't know that he can make the lineup at 184 if Barr is there after this year will be interesting to see if some of the guys transfer out or just stay there to improve for their freestyle careers.

Haines looked super strong against KOT but Keegan allowed it to be a lot of hand fighting where Carr did not really. It was enough for me to have Levi as the favorite this year seems like the size will not be an issue will be interesting to see if he red shirts it may be harder to convince him after this tournament.

Predictions for semis: Blaze beats Nashon Desanto beats fix Duke beats Pantaleo Green beats JO I was picking KOT to win the entire thing but chance looks awesome going chance Ringer over JB (I hope I am wrong) Dt over Mike mach Hidlay over Aiello Challenge tournament finals winners: Desanto over Blaze DT over Trent

Sinclair appears to still have Mirasolas number.

Chance,JO,Forrest probably the most impressive r1's to me given their opponents

Per Basch and Willie David told the team a few weeks ago he was doing this. I assume its been on his mind for at least a month or longer.

We could in fact get DT vs Sadulaev... what a time to be alive.

The Radamacher win has aged like fine wine other than the brooks loss that may stand out the most to me. Obviously, dean is more accomplished but hard to say how hard he was training. I think he probably falls right behind Aiello and mike mach in the pecking order for me.

I'm excited to see what connor can do, Levi does not move the needle a ton for me but its exciting to get a sneak peek of him at 174.

Hes from Johnstown PA I know when he was in middle school he trained with their 125 at the time a lot. Probably feels like its bringing recognition to the program.

I like Gaitan a lot at 165 I may put too much weight into that super 32 win over haines but I always have high expectations

Feels like both Blaze and Forrest can make the semis with those draws. I know Jax and desanto have wrestled but Desantos style could play right into jax's game. Desanto could just straight overpower him. I think Blaze beats gross. Sign me up for an early round Larkin vs Duke Very bad draw for PD3 Seems like a great spot for JO

really hope flow finds a way to get the match done as much as I do not like either guy, I think it's really good for the sport in terms of eyeballs. I'm sure one or both parties will fail to get their needs met to justify their egos potentially getting hurt, but we can hope.

this is a c&p with edits 61 KG Tier 1 Vitali Arujau, New York - SPARTAN COMBAT RTC/TMWC Tier 2 Daton Fix, Oklahoma - COWBOY RTC/TMWC Nahshon Garrett, Pennsylvania - LVWC/TMWC Tier 3 Seth Gross, Minnesota - Wisconsin Regional Training Center Austin DeSanto, Pennsylvania - HWC/TMWC Marcus Blaze, Ohio - Perrysburg Wrestling Club Jax Forrest, Pennsylvania - Young Guns Tier 4 Nasir Bailey, Illinois - Arkansas Regional Training Center Tier 5 Liam Cronin, Nebraska - Nebraska Wrestling Training Center Tier 6 Nico Provo, Connecticut - Connecticut Michael Tortorice, Illinois - Team Tortorice Wrestling Club NO TIER Devan Turner, Indiana - NYAC/Indiana RTC Kyle Burwick, North Dakota - Bison Wrestling Club -if any of the tier 3 guys beat one of the tier 2 guys I would not be shocked, Garret vs fix was not all that close last year. I think Blaze has an oustide shot of making the finals but I dont think anyone is touching vito. 70 KG Tier 1 Jordan Oliver, North Carolina - NYAC James Green, Nebraska - Nebraska Wrestling Training Center Alec Pantaleo, Michigan - CKWC/TMWC Tier 2 Andrew Alirez, Colorado - NCWC/TMWC Bryce Andonian, Ohio - SERTC/TMWC Kaleb Larkin, Arizona - Atreus Wrestling Club Jarrett Jacques, Missouri - Tiger Style Wrestling Club Tier 3 Yahya Thomas, Illinois - NJRTC/TMWC Evan Henderson, Pennsylvania - LVWC/TMWC Daniel Cardenas, Colorado - Bear Cave Wrestling Club PJ Duke, New York - KD Training Center Paniro Johnson, Pennsylvania - Cyclone Regional Training Center C-RTC Vince Bouzakis, Pennsylvania - Wyoming Seminary Tier 4 Ian Parker, Virginia - Cavalier Wrestling Club Ryan Jack, North Carolina - WOLFPACK WC/TMWC Jackson Arrington , Pennsylvania - WOLFPACK WC/TMWC Jakob Bergeland, Minnesota - Gopher Wrestling Club Tier 5 Jaden Abas, California - California Regional Training Center (CA RTC) Wyatt Sheets, Oklahoma - COWBOY RTC/TMWC NO TIER Dayne Morton, Minnesota - West Coast Regional Training Center Isaiah Delgado, Utah - Brunson UVRTC Jacques beat monday at OTT and made the semis and I think he is better suited for 70kg he could make a deep run. Bouzakis is a similar case that I think he is better suited for 70kg than 74 and gave Lockett some tough matches. 79 KG Tier 1 Jordan Burroughs, Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania RTC Chance Marsteller, Pennsylvania - NJRTC/TMWC Keegan O'Toole, Missouri - Tiger Style WC/ TMWC Tier 2 Alex Dieringer, Oklahoma - CKWC/TMWC Tier 3 David Carr, Iowa - Cyclone RTC/TMWC Tier 4 Evan Wick, California - SoCal RTC/TMWC Tier 5 *EMPTY Tier 6 Clay Lautt, North Carolina - Tar Heel Wrsetling Club Kennedy Monday, North Carolina - NJRTC/TMWC Joey Lavallee, Pennsylvania - Brunson UVRTC/TMWC **Hunter Garvin, Iowa - Iowa Joey Bianchi, Wisconsin - Arkansas Regional Training Center Tier 7 Matthew Bianchi, Wisconsin - Arkansas Regional Training Center Noah Mulvaney, Wisconsin - Buffalo Valley Regional Training Center Demetrius Romero, Idaho - Brunson UVRTC NO TIER Sam Beckett, Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania Andrew Dickson, North Carolina - George Mason University Justin Grant, Florida - McDoubles Wrestling KOT is my pick to win this weight. I know its weird to put him two tiers above Carr but I think he is a true 174 now and I think Carr will be undersized. Chance essentially beat JB 3-0 last year and I dont think hes getting better at 36 but I would love to be wrong. Chance also had some great international success at 86 which imo he is way too small for. 92 KG Tier 1 David Taylor, Oklahoma - COWBOY RTC Zahid Valencia, Arizona - Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club Tier 2 EYMPT Tier 3 Trent Hidlay, North Carolina - WOLFPACK WC/ MWC Tier 4 Pat Downey, Maryland - NYAC Tier 5 Jonathan Aiello, Virginia - PENN RTC/TMWC Eric Schultz, Illinois - Nebraska Wrestling Training Center Michael Macchiavello, Pennsylvania - LVWC/TMWC Tier 6 *Aeoden Sinclair, Wisconsin - Tiger Style Wrestling Club Marcus Coleman, Iowa - Cyclone Regional Training Center C-RTC Tier 7 Maximus Hale, Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania RTC Zane Mulder, Iowa - Burg Training Center Eze Chukwuezi, New York - Spartan Combat RTC Cameron Caffey, Illinois - Michigan Wrestling Club Nick Stemmet, Illinois - Illinois NO TIER Aidan Brenot, Tennessee - Bison Wrestling Club Luke Duthie, Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania I agree on Sinclair being too small, Pat had lungs at the BJJ thing and had he had them at trials would have beaten carter Imo. If we get motivated DT and the weight cut proved to be part of the issue at trials I think he wins. Zahid did beat Azarpira last year at worlds and Azarpira went on to beat snyder twice this year and had he not died could have beaten Taz so to me that match is a toss up.

I have been deep diving on Ono just because I thought he was the OW of u20's he won the dogu this year teching uulu 11-0 who was last years world bronze at 61kg and beating atri 4-0 who was silver in 2022. I am not saying his match with Blaze was competitive but this is a guy that could legit win worlds this year and Blaze was able to stay on the mat with him. Really puts into perspective that Blaze could be senior world level right now and was wrestling 121 not even a full year ago.

given the age of our team I lean the top because I think the gold will come in the next two years. If our team was all 20-year-olds I would pick Iran's medal count. The kid from Iran at 65 kg felt like a spitting image of amouzad.

I was more so inquiring as to why that is. How they are able to develop such elite talent at the lighter weights but really nothing at all in the upper weights. Unless it literally just comes down to them not having a large enough population of heavier people.

overall take aways I thought everyone looked great. Medals shook out relatively how I predicted I knew the kid from Japan was good at 61kg but I was not aware he won their senior nationals in December and made the finals at 65kg to qualify for the olympics against Kiyooka. Overall I think the guys that impressed me the most did not even win gold. Keuter did better than any american that has wrestled Masoumi which includes Parris and Feldman. Blaze kind of dismantled Abbasov who is a 2x euro champ and 3x finalist and had previously beaten Davino 5-0. Barr was able to go 6 minutes with a russian nats champ who beat the world champ from last year in the finals. Whats potentially most impressive about this team is that I believe 7 of our 10 guys still have at least 1 year of junior eligibility left and most have 2. As far as the other nations go when Japan has someone who is good they seem to be really really really good. Its interesting to me how they either seem to win gold or not place. Russia is still very good but we really seem to have an edge over them at the age levels at least over the last few years and I think that is a great sign moving forward. side bar I saw Bassett catching some heat for his semi loss. He wrestles at an insane pace and definitely lets guys get in on his legs. However he just won bronze in his first juniors and has two years left, if he were anyone else people would be talking about how amazing an accomplishment that is. I do think he will struggle a bit with very technical wrestlers who finish quickly at the highest level but if guys don't build a substantial lead on him early they are going to get chased down and he's going to get more physically mature which is only going to help his style.

he's the senior rep for Japan at worlds in October

This happens in every other sport; you recruit and now pay to put your best lineup possible out there. Iowa wrestling is in and of itself a business. Was what they did morally the best thing I don't know but I know it made them a much better team. At the end of the day their job is to put the best product they can on the mat.

I admittedly only watched Belton against Bartlett and at NCAA's but it seemed like closing matches was an issue for him. I can't really imagine being sucked out is going to help with that but maybe the size advantage will allow him to manage the match better.

I thought you meant develop kids in regards to folk I guess I was not looking at this in the context of greco which I should have been considering hes in the u20 finals.

I would argue Nc state and Northern Iowa but for sure really strong room between the RTC and college team around that weight too.

I think Vega may be the most underrated kid in the 2025 class Im guessing their lineup could feature a TF from 125-149 in 2026 Knox, I. Cortez, E. Cortez, Vega Dejesus is very good and could mix things up at 133 as well. Perentin seems really stock for 174 but hes a stud as well I think 3 of these dudes will be at who's 1.

he is incredible at greco but he lost to Thomas Verrette at junior nats and Thomas is like a 15-25 type guy in the nation I would not expect huge things from him in folk at least not right away.