maligned

He's not a huge medal favorite. He'll come in as the 4th best guy and capable of beating anyone--but if brackets work out with him on the same side as 2 of the Big 3, he has to get an upset to medal.
 
AMENDMENT: I just researched and saw that ranking points should be locked in with Mason and the Big 3 as the 4 seeds. That will mean he can medal without beating one of them and that he's a clear medal favorite. I disagree that a loss would be a "huge" upset because the rise of new, young monsters, along with upsets by savvy vets, are commonplace internationally--but him not medalling would be an upset if the draws hold.

IU picks up 2023 Columbia 133-lb national qualifier, Angelo Rini. He's a grad transfer who was out much of this season with injuries. 
Avon's own Cheaney Schoeff (IU redshirt at 133 this year) enters the portal in a possibly not unrelated move.

Wow, so sorry! Get well soon!

Wow, so sorry! Get well soon!

Team sports vs individual sports are very different. If you aren't winning titles eventually as an individual, you're losing matches and can't be considered the best. In team sports, you could lose games but still be clearly the best individual. 
 
I do agree that being a 4-timer or being undefeated for a career is overrated. Mason Parris losing a match as a freshman at a big guy weight or Howe losing early to a fellow all-timer shouldn't mean anything when compared to 4-timers that were at low weights and/or didn't face royalty as freshmen. 

Team sports vs individual sports are very different. If you aren't winning titles eventually as an individual, you're losing matches and can't be considered the best. In team sports, you could lose games but still be clearly the best individual. 
 
I do agree that being a 4-timer or being undefeated for a career is overrated. Mason Parris losing a match as a freshman at a big guy weight or Howe losing early to a fellow all-timer shouldn't mean anything when compared to 4-timers that were at low weights and/or didn't face royalty as freshmen. 

Team sports vs individual sports are very different. If you aren't winning titles eventually as an individual, you're losing matches and can't be considered the best. In team sports, you could lose games but still be clearly the best individual. 
 
I do agree that being a 4-timer or being undefeated for a career is overrated. Mason Parris losing a match as a freshman at a big guy weight or Howe losing early to a fellow all-timer shouldn't mean anything when compared to 4-timers that were at low weights and/or didn't face royalty as freshmen. 

Iran 190 (5 gold, 8 medals)
Japan 130 (2, 5)
Kyrgyzstan 121 (1, 4)
Kazakhstan 118 (1, 4)
Mongolia 92 (0, 4)
Uzbekistan 85 (0, 3)
India 84 (0, 3)
Bahrain gets the 10th gold and 3 other medals...4 for 4 in medals from their import participants.

CP alum Frazier hits the portal out of Va Tech.. Wrestlestat has him at #49 among all 133s on D1 rosters. He'd have immediate national qualifier potential in the right spot.

CP alum Frazier hits the portal out of Va Tech.. Wrestlestat has him at #49 among all 133s on D1 rosters. He'd have immediate national qualifier potential in the right spot.

I agree with the sentiment of narrowing the gap between 197 and 285, but I would be disappointed if we narrowed the low-middle weights, where the highest numbers of guys naturally fall. The international weights don't make sense at all. They were created by choosing the 6 weights we wanted most--and then trying to squeeze 4 additional ones in somewhere (and accidentally skewing way too heavily toward big guys). They would be structured differently if we were allowed 10 weights at the Olympics.
 
Something like this would include bigger guys better than we currently do, while catching as many college wrestlers' natural sizes as possible, in my opinion. Including KGs for your benefit, @SIACfan  :
126 (57kg)
134 (61kg)
142 (64.5kg)
150 (68kg)
158 (72kg)
167 (76kg)
177 (80kg)
190 (86kg)
210 (95kg)
285 (129kg)

He will be at 197 for sure next season 

D1 Qualifier data is a limited way of evaluating who produces the top talent, but it's a decent starting point. 
 
Top 20 D1 Qualifiers, combined 2023 & 2024:
 
1    pa    89
2    il    54
3    oh    50
4    nj    49
5    ca    39
6    ny    33
7    ia    29
8    mn    28
9    mi    24
10    ok    23
11    wi    21
11    fl    21
13    mo    18
14    in    17
15    va    16
15    ga    16
17    co    13
18    nc    10
19    id    8
19    ks    8
 
Top 20, per capita (Qualifiers for 2 years, per 1 million residents):
 
1    ia    9.0
2    pa    6.9
3    ok    5.7
4    nj    5.3
5    mn    4.9
6    il    4.3
7    oh    4.2
8    id    4.1
9    wi    3.6
10    ne    3.5
11    mo    2.9
12    ks    2.7
13    in    2.5
14    mi    2.4
15    co    2.2
16    va    1.8
17    ny    1.7
18    ga    1.5
19    ct    1.4
20    al    1.4
(no CA or FL)

Interesting. There have been so many successful smaller heavies the last 25 years, I would have thought he'd push through and make a run at getting elite against big boys. It'll be fun to see how he evolves.

That's true. I agree that we shouldn't put much value on populations or enrollments to evaluate relative success. 😉

Congratulations to Chase Leech Congratulations to from Garrett for signing with Indiana. Projected to wrestle 165, 174.
View full signing

The word "battles" might be a bit overstating the resistance he got from us his senior year (below). But Sollars did get him when they were sophomores.

125- I was going to pick Figs at whatever seed they gave him .
Reasons … He came back from a loss to Provo from Stanford in OT 13-8, in early February to beat Provo 4-1 at PAC 12 Championships . 2 of his loses was injury defaulted and was giving a loss to Volk at Cliff Keen which is debatable. You can check that match out on Flo. Flo even did a story on that match . His only real loss match was to California and Oregon State Rival Maximo Renteria . Wonder why Maximo didn’t wrestle in NCAA’s cause he would have AA if not a finalist . Both know each other very well . 
 
As stated earlier Rich is Family . Asa wrestled with him on Team Shutt a few times while in High School . Super Proud of him . 

One of those Little Rock AA's used to wreak havoc at the Mater Dei Holiday Classic and had some battles with some of our best. 

In case you missed it on X or the college thread: Christian Mejia from Elkhart Memorial, Derek Blubaugh from Bloomington South, and Shawn Streck from Merrillville all picked up D2 national titles last night.
 
Mejia had finished 5th twice before, was seeded only 3rd, and was in his final year of eligibility. 
 
Blubaugh had twice been national runner-up to his finals opponent, and had lost to him 5-0 two weeks ago, but finally got over the hump.
 
Streck picked up his second consecutive title. 
 
Congrats, guys!!
 
 

That match was SCARY as a Mendez fan. I hadn't seen Echemendia. That dude is physical and on you. He wore Mendez down in a way that I haven't seen. I can't believe he took 5 losses coming into nationals.

Final Standings are below. Congratulations to TeamGarcia!
 
Click a couple times to zoom in:

Final Standings are below. Congratulations to TeamGarcia!
 
Click a couple times to zoom in:

Final Standings are below. Congratulations to TeamGarcia!
 
Click a couple times to zoom in:

In case you missed it on X or the college thread: Christian Mejia from Elkhart Memorial, Derek Blubaugh from Bloomington South, and Shawn Streck from Merrillville all picked up D2 national titles last night.
 
Mejia had finished 5th twice before, was seeded only 3rd, and was in his final year of eligibility. 
 
Blubaugh had twice been national runner-up to his finals opponent, and had lost to him 5-0 two weeks ago, but finally got over the hump.
 
Streck picked up his second consecutive title. 
 
Congrats, guys!!