BruceyB

As if they wrestled right now? Or right now in your 2028 projections? If it's the former, then sure, whatever. He's a 61kg high schooler. If it's the latter, then I think we have drastically different opinions on Jax's trajectory over the next three years. I think Jax is the most dynamic wrestler with the most room for growth out of everyone you have listed above. But that's JMO.

I really believe our best option at 125kg in 2028 is likely to be one of the young studs coming up. Mocco, Ross, Merrill.. I think there is potential for one of those three to really emerge with 3 years of growing into a legitimate 125 and developing in a college room.

I'm curious how you'd give Forrest a less than 1 in 20 chance to make the team at 65kg. He just made the world team as a high schooler and 65kg is almost certainly going to be the most natural weight for him in 2028. He's still pretty spindly. That being said, I also think that 65kg is going to be the deepest weight at OTT. I don't know if from 3 years out you can really give anyone more than ~15% chance to make the team. I don't even know who the favorite to make the team would be. Mendez? Valencia? Woods? Jax? Blaze?

To be fair, a large part of the short shelf life for 65kg wrestlers is that they often come onto the scene in their very early 20s and then outgrow the weight while many still go on to have success at a higher weight class. So if you're simply looking at the podiums of 65kg, you are right that not many are around for more than a few years, but there are many that go on to have success at 70kg (Zane for example). It would be awesome if Amouzad could stay effective at 65kg, he is so damn tough that he could definitely be the "GOAT" of 65kg. But I highly doubt anyone will ever be the most decorated wrestler in the lighter weights. They just don't have the longevity.

It will be interesting moving forward. It's easy to love MMA when your getting propped up by whooping some bums that are no where near your class of athlete, but when you have to go to war, it takes something else. I'm not very knowledgeable tbh when it comes to MMA, but I don't understand how Bo is so scared to wrestle with jiujitsu guys. Has grappling improved to the point that wrestling is no longer able to nullify things on the ground? Genuinely asking. It's odd to me that someone would pursue a career in MMA and abandon his greatest fighting skill in the process.

Sorry to quote myself but I wanted to add on to this last part. I can't help but wonder how much of Spencer at this point in his career feels like he has to finish out this quad because if he doesn't win a world and Olympic title, he will look back on his career with resentment and the feeling of failure, despite all of his success. I wonder if he still enjoys the process and competing or if he is doing it simply because he feels like he has to win a World and Olympic title to feel at peace about his career. If any of you haven't watched the Kolat documentary on Flo (you're missing out, it's unbelievable btw), he says when he looks back on his career, he sees failure. He was "only" a two-time NCAA champion when he wanted 4. He wanted to be the greatest international wrestler that ever lived, but he (for various reasons) was never able to win a World or Olympic title. You can hear the disappointment and hurt in his voice when he talks about his perceived shortcomings in his own career. I can't help but think that Spencer knows that this is probably the last quad where he has a chance to achieve everything that he's worked for his entire life, and that after failing to win his 4th state title, and his 4th NCAA title, there are greater internal doubts and feelings of pressure than ever making it extremely difficult to wrestle freely and with enjoyment.

If you recall, when he was on FRL they asked about a rematch with Zahid and he basically talked in circles around the question saying, "sure, I would wrestle Zahid, but we've already done that and I think it would be more exciting for the fans to see me wrestle someone that I haven't wrestled before.." and so on. He does not want to wrestle Zahid right now.

Bo is delusional if he actually wants this match to happen. He only won his last match because Cardenas forced an unnecessary gut wrench when he was leading by criteria with.. like 20 seconds left? I legitimately believe that Trent would tech Bo if they wrestled right now.

This take is, with all due respect, straight bananas. You originally said that the score should have been 20-3. Now you're saying that 20 of the 23 points were scored due to his being offensive. That is two very different things. I am still waiting for you to respond to how I scored the match on the previous page of this thread. I would have scored it 14-12 for Trent, so I actually had the match closer than the final score. Being offensive isn't beneficial if you're "creating" points for your opponent by doing so. Sincerely, please read my breakdown of the scoring and tell me what you believe the score should have been, regardless of whether the sequences were initiated by Trent's offense or not. I am genuinely curious how you would have scored it.

If Harutyunyan made the finals and pulled Spencer back in and he took a bronze, then I don't think this noise is anywhere near as loud. If Khadi didn't pull Dake back in 2021, everyone would have said that Burroughs should have been the guy at the Olympics. Repechage is a fickle b1tch. At the end of the day, I don't think Spencer respected Harutyunyan enough, and it cost him. You can't take any match for granted at Worlds, and to me it looked like Spencer went into the match thinking he was the better wrestler and would win, and when Harutyunyan gave him more than he was expecting, he couldn't regroup mid-match and it snowballed. IMO it was kind of similar to the US Open match between Mesenbrink and Carr where Mesenbrink won a couple of early exchanges and things just unraveled for Carr leading to a tech. My biggest question with Spencer is whether or not he still loves wrestling. After being denied his 4th HS state title, the battles with knee injuries from his senior year of high school in 2018 until preparation for the 2024 Olympics, the pin in the NCAA semis to stop him from being a four-time NCAA champ.. you have to imagine he has some demons to battle after giving so much to the sport and feeling let down by shocking losses when all eyes are on him, and by his own body when just as he's feeling fully healthy again, another heartbreaking injury and long road of recovery takes place again.

Kellen Wolbert has flipped from Oklahoma State to Michigan. I know many thought he was likely to flip his commitment as he had originally committed before the absolute logjam existed with Tagen, Swiderski, Raney, Robideau, Rutledge, and company.

Is the Oklahoma State commit is spending a lot of time in the Hawkeye wrestling room?

In real time I didn't think Greece did anything wrong at the end of the match other than stop wrestling a second too early and instead of giving 1 point on a step out, gave up two and looked like he was could have been sucked back for 2 more if another second was on the clock.

I'm rewatching now I'll score it.. Trent took a shot off his underhook, got stopped and taken though for 4.. and then Gad is on top and guts him to go up 6-0. Hidlay with a nice edge takedown 6-2 Then Gad gets the controversial 4. I would have scored it 4-2 in favor of red. So 8-6 for Gad Then the next controversial position where they gave 2 to Hidlay where I thought it should have been 2 for blue (thank God it wasn't or it would have been a tech). 10-6 for Gad 2 takedown for Hidlay to make it 10-8. another 2 for Hidlay to make it 10-10. The last four probably could have easily been called 4-2 for Hidlay to make it 14-12. It's freestyle, sure, Trent initiated every attack, but you can't get chest wrapped and expose your own back as you go for the takedown and not give up points in the process.

I'd say that the guy that was leading 10-2 probably wrestled him tougher.

I got f'king chills right now. Unbelievable.

Hidlay is an absolute MONSTER for that comeback. They tried to hose him.

lmao. how was that situation any different than the last time?! but now hidlay gets 4? this ref should be canned.

LET'S GO!

This is going to be a hard loss to accept if Trent can't make the comeback here. That first 4 blue 0 red was mind boggling IMO.

I don't have any knowledge off the top of my head, but I would almost have to think that Blair had some teams in the early 2000s. Were Esposito, Perry, and Mocco at Blair at the same time? Edit: Logan Stieber, Hunter Stieber, Jamie Clark, Collin Palmer and Cam Tessari were all at St. Eds together as well.. right? SPG also had Bo and Micah, and a handful of other future AAs on the same high school roster IIRC.

It was 149. I'm very curious to see how those lower weights play out for OKST. There is a lot of talent in those first 5 weights.

I think most would agree if we were doing subjective ranking. But you can't rank the guy who took 3rd in a tournament above the guy who won it. Just like at 125, I think Lilledahl is the favorite at 125, but I don't think he should be ranked above Robinson or Spratley. They're just rankings. It's not that big of a deal.

They have Cael Hughes at 141 ,Tagen Jamison at 149, and Teague Travis at 157 for the pokes. Do they know something we don't know, did they forget about Swiderksi, or are they just guessing?

Ah. I misunderstood your previous post. My apologies. I agree with your sentiment. It's frustrating when you have guys like Sealey, Mirasola, Davis/Nagao, Sakamoto, McComas, Thompson, Hughes, etc. all on the bench losing a year of eligibility when they would be a great addition on so many other teams.