flyingcement

I lived in Cincinnati for two years as a kid and it made a wonderful impression on me. I still think of it as the perfect place for a kid to grow up. Hope you enjoy it there!

there are Ivy League teams - mainly Cornell - that would have some guys on this list if they had not been subject to a lost year

This was my broken clock moment

Daton Fix (105-6) Mekhi Lewis (105-11) Clay Carlson (104-46) Sammy Sasso (103-13) Brock Mauller (100-14) I only counted five if you go by official D1 matches

Koen Kish from Clarion to West Liberty (DII)

Similar to Ridge Lovett this past year trying to avoid Yianni. One the one hand, I understand the rationale, in the other hand it feels like a year long duck and against the spirit of competition

Nice one

I was with him until the Yazdani comment. Why wouldn't Yazdanis underhooks also be from God. Sorry rhetorical question

I also forgot to mention Spencer Moore coming back from a sophomore year redshirt for the Tarheels. Notably, Moore finished high school earlier than usual so that he could attend college early. He started for North Carolina at 125 as a 17 year old freshman and, while he struggled at times, showed grit and improvement through the year.

Also good for him!

Smart kid and took APs in high school.

Seen this before but never knew the significance - thanks

Big hole for them at 133. Can he start right away?

I want to see this from Little Rock 125: Jeremiah Reno 133: Nassir Bailey 141: Brennan Van Hoeck 149: Kyle Dutton 157: Matt Bianchi 165: Joe Bianchi 174: Tyler Brennan 184: Triston Wills 197: Stephen Little 285: Josiah Hill

I agree though- those facilities are awesome

Sounds like he really went scorched earth

Been a quiet week on thr transfer portal front. One thing I noticed after sniffing around Little Rocks roster is that Cole Minnick has transferred there from Buffalo and will be a contender for the starting spot at 133

125: Spratley as an AA caliber wrestler with NQ level guy in Witcraft as a backup 133: Fix lock for top five and Cael Hughes on RS 141: Alvarez is an AA threat and Carter Young wears the shirt 149: This is going to be a battle between Jamison and Williams. Great problem to have. 157: Mirza could be a good option if he can make the weight. Otherwise Manibog or the loser of 149 165: Olejnik is no lock for AA but as a defending all american with now a higher pedigree room and practice partners, it seems likely. 174: Seems to he gathering consensus that Plott shirts, which would pave the way for a nice farewell season for Wittlake at a proper weight for him. I'm saying if he's healthy enough to step on the mat, he's a lock for AA (same for Plott) 184: Thompson is extremely talented and expect him to be a top guy but then again he is unproven in college. High hopes though if he keeps his off mat behavior under control 197: Surber seems like he's coming into his own. Not sure where he places but could see low AA or round 12 type season 285: Carroll starts from day one and upsets Wyatt Hendrickson in a dual before losing to him in Big12 finals match. Places 7th at NCAAs

Do we have any Little Rock fans in the house? I want to see Dutton and Nassir Bailey both starting this year. Their bigs did well in world team trials this year also. Seems to be a team on the rise

Okay last one for today and thanks for humoring me so far - We are facing a local rival and a teammate of mine (our 145 lber) forgot his wrestling shoes for the dual. Luckily we are the same size shoe, I was the 125 lber, and we were starting the dual at 145, which gave us enough time to switch up. Unfortunately, what I had not foreseen, was that this particular teammate, who had wrestled since he was a kid, was about to complete his last ever match. He was a hot tempered kid - down a point in the third period, and could not get off bottom. Got ridden like a pony and the coach let him have it and yelled at him "you gave up" - the kid says "f*ck you - I quit" and storms out of the gym". Problem was, he was still wearing my shoes. I ran out of the gym to half give him consolation, but mostly to get my shoes back (these were Adidas Mat Wizards in white black and gold). Got them back and then won via spladle

I always kinda thought Gaitan would move down to 165 when Carr was done, but maybe you guys are right and it's actually Chittum who moves up - given the logjam.

Twin brothers on our high school team were Italian kids from South Philly that had never wrestled before. For some reason they didn't like to wear our team warmups over the singlet and both brothers wore matching black leather jackets over their singlet on the way to and from matches

This is a good call. I'm curious how it all shakes out in the following season between Paniro, Chittum, and Swiderski

We had a kid who couldn't make HWT because he was too big. The boy was just shy of three biscuits. One practice coach tells him instead of joining us in practice, he wanted the kid to go upstairs in the large gym and just run and don't stop until two hours are done and then we'll see how much weight he lost. We all resumed our practice. Big Tony comes down and tries to avoid weighing in. Coach insists on it and he is a couple lbs heavier than when he started. Instead of running he spent the two hours by the vending machine.