500 wrestler

Vega also beat Brock Hardy 3x last year. Hardy was close to winning it all the year prior, and he game Braeden Davis a tummy rub, that’s gotta be worth something.

125: 75% Lilledahl. If you add prior champ Robinson, up to 85%. 133: 45% Jax 141: no returnee 149: 2 LY returnees, 60% likely (40/20 Vega/Valencia). Add prior champ Henson, 80%. 157: 40% Robideau 165 or 174: 99% MM 184: 35% MM 197: 90% Barr HWY: No returnee

125 - Robinson 133 - Crookham 141 - Mendez 149 - Joy 157 - Cannon 165 - Mesenbrink 174 - Haines 184 - Sinclair 197 - Elam 285 - Bastida

I wonder what the biggest year to year true weight jump was in hs or college. Around 1983 I went to the navy wrestling camp and I vividly remember one of the counselors saying that over 3 years in hs he went from 101 to 150 to Heavyweight and won state at all 3. All I could think was if he was on such a multi-year growth spurt how did he make those weights the first 2 years.

HS: 115, 122, 129, 135 (jr year cut was terrible) college intramural tournaments: 145, 155 now: 157 - but not all good weight like in college

I thought about posting this very topic and never got around to it. My top three are: 1) Moore 2) Seabass 3) Pletcher with honorary mention to the Hawkeyes (entire team) In retrospect, the right thing to do would have been to grant an extra year of eligibility to everyone who competed in 2020. Or at least all qualifiers. Or maybe just senior qualifiers. What they did at the time ended up helping the wrong people.

And another thing: why did they have a 6'4'' guy interviewing the winners, and making even Gable look tiny? Perfect job for Shane Sparks! Or the guy that used to do the interviews.

I wrestled in New Jersey back in the 80s and I went to Cornell, so I suppose that I am entitled to an opinion on this topic (keeping in mind that opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one). I can't recall seeing anything close to a brawl during my high school wrestling years (and we went to some pretty tough high schools) but I have seem near-brawls between parents in my sons' youth and high school soccer games. Maybe people are a little less civilized now than back then? Certainly parents have gotten worse. If Knox is found guilty of assualt, he probably won't serve any time because (presumably) he has no priors. I do think that Cornell would then revoke his admission, and that would probably be the right call. However, I think that he should be allowed to wreste in the state tournament. The old 'innocent until proven guilty' thing. Better to strip him of his title after the fact (which does not erase anyone's memory, but does crown another champion) then deny him the opportunity to win on the mat.

On the topic of best wrestlers not to win in last 20 years, honorable mention to Kolin Moore. Solid 4 year career, but after Bo Nickal graduated he was unstoppable his senior year and I thought would have been gauranteed to win if tournament was not canceled. But I also thought Myles Martin was a sure thing the year before, before Dean (I think) upset him.

I see there are a lot of different ways to interpret what I wrote. What I meant was first time champ with two other returning (not future) champs in the same bracket. But even more impressive than that would be beating each of those 2 returning champs on the way to winning the championship.

Sorry posted to wrong thread! Ignore

Maybe a better name would have been Undefeated JV Wrestler as I was 3-0 at JV my freshman year (my coach took pity on me and had me duck a few senior studs)

I think I explained this a while back in another thread. I started wrestling as a freshman in high school, and I was thrown to the wolves right away as I was the best option at varsity. I won a few but lost many. Then steadily got better, finished over .500 for my 4 years but first season skewed my winning percentage

There are four seniors (among others) who have an opportunity to win their first championship if they can outplace two returning champions. In order of likelihood: Bartlett, over Menendez and Allirez (possible) Hamiti, over Haines and O’Toole (possible, I think) Hendrickson, over Steveson and Kerkvliet (very unlikely) Plott, over Starocci and Keckeisen (not really a possibility) Two questions: I’m sure there have been a bunch of wrestlers who have won over two returning champions, for example Starocci last year. But has there ever been anyone who has won their first title over two prior champions? If one of the above were to run go undefeated, continue/improve their high bonus %, and take out both previous champions in the semis and finals, would they be a frontrunner for the Hodge? Note: although I give Bartlett a higher chance because he was one scramble away from being a returning champion, my gut tells me that Hamiti has jumped levels and could take out both Haines and O’Toole. Please forget this prediction in the likely event that this does not happen.

Some very dumb predictions that I don't fully agree with: 125: Ramos over Ayala 133: Fix over Arujau. Arujau figures out Crookham but Fix finally gets it done 141: Mendez over Bartlett. Similar to B10 finals match. 149: Lovett over Parco. Chalk. 157: Haines over Teemer. Shapiro loses a close one in the semis. 165: Carr over Messenbrink. Nothing in the B12 finals showed me that Carr is able to do beat KOT, but just a hunch. 174: Starocci over Devos. Starocci majors his way through the field. 184: Keckeisen over Truax. 197: Hidlay over Brooks. This is just a dumb, dumb prediction. But if I am right I look like a genius. Hwt: Kerkvleit over Hendrickson. Much closer than all star match