silver-medal

Binghamton and Little Rock are doing nice work under tough circumstances.

Myles Martin's senior season. It was his weight and he dominated all year then just blew it in the semis against Max Dean.

Bucks don't match up well with UM but they've had a habit all season of wrestling better than expected. Still, I think this is one where the Wolverines settle down and control a majority of the matches. Hepner did beat Amine last year at the CSU Open. Does that matter?

Back to the original question.... There are less than 80 D1 Wrestling Programs and Iowa stands alone in terms of what it can offer in terms of attendance and state wide enthusiasm. Only Penn State even enters the conversation. The team is coached by an Olympic Gold Medalist and 3 x NCAA Champ with a history of coaching AA's and team titles. When it comes to landiing elite level talent, Iowa may lose a kid or 2 due to some shenanigans. But any notion that they are going to struggle--in a real sense of the word--is silly. They're Iowa. Personally, I think the Brands are often immature. But I also don't think it matters nearly as much as people want to think it does. Remember, Spencer Lee went to Iowa. He's as great as it gets.

Classic example of an under the radar stud who'd have received HUGE Nil Bucks to transfer if he were around today. #OUWrestling

How about a question where we identify a wrestler who won 2 or more NCAA titles yet lost the most matches to guys who never earned AA. Without doing any research, I'm going to assume the answer is J. Jaggers.

Wouldn't Lee and Bartlett be familiar with each other? Or is Lee not training at NLWC?

I do want to mention that Mendez beat a very tough Ryan Jack (who had just beaten a very good Lachlan McNeil) by snapping his head so hard that it bounced off the mat like a PSU dodgeball. He used it to set up his go behind.

True but I do want to mention that Romero was also a fantastic student. Pretty sure he had straight A's all through high school and mostly through college as well. I don't think his major was Kinesiology.

Kaleb Romero looked awful for two years. Got healthy...moved to the right wt...made adjustments. I see Bouzakis figuring it out quicker.

The cut isn't the problem. It's tactics. He has to stay fundamental. He's a talent. But he has a ways to go.

Mendez....Woods....Bartlett...Jack....Hardy...McNeil I say Mendez...at this point in time. He's jumped a few levels since last season in terms of defense and top game.

Kyle Snyder

I'm not ragging on Lee. I won't pretend to understand how he felt. There is no question that he came back this season at far below 100% for the sole purpose of winning his 4th. But I do want to remind people about Nate Tomasello and the fact he was as determined a competitor as ever took the mat.

Nate Tomasello won NCAA's as a frosh and went on to only lose three National's matches over the next three seasons. Each loss was in the semis. Each time it was to an Iowa wrestler--Gilman, Clark and Lee. Each time he came back to take third. That takes balls.

They had brutal draws and wrestled well in their first matches. Also, based on the season they had, 4 qualifiers was a strong finish.