Dingo's Den #1

This week in Hoosier collegiate wrestling, Article 1

Hey everyone. It's your faithful narrator Dingo here. This past week, there were some interesting developments in the world of D1 wrestling concerning some of our former Indiana high school wrestlers.

The most notable, obviously, involves Alexander Tsirtsis, or T-shirts as some of our lazier friends on the national sites call him. Coming off a redshirt year, a heated competition for the 141 spot with 4-time Iowa high school state champ Dan LeClere and a 'bunged up' shoulder (thanks, Kentucky Mudflap), Alex has firmly established himself as a strong candidate for the current number one ranked wrestler in the nation at 141 pounds. Alex followed up wins earlier in the season over #11 Chris Drouin of ASU, #17 Alex Krom of Maryland and #19 (Intermat) Eric Kruger of Central Michigan with a stirring, last second (literally) win over then-top ranked Nick Gallick of Iowa State. Alex reversed Gallick with 1 second left in the match. Cael and company protested vigorously, but the replay seemed to confirm that the correct call was made. Alex has grown some pretty girthy locks this year and, so far, he has responded like Samson. The current themat.com Wrestler of the Week, the Griffith HS product looks physically stronger than ever, and he actually chose the down position in the third period of his match with Gallick, showing that he has improved on a long-standing weakness and is unafraid of working from the bottom, even in crunch time. It's a long, long season, but Alex has started his senior campaign undefeated and looking like a strong contender for a national title.

Another wrestler from Indiana having an outstanding start to his season is Kurt Kinser, formerly of Bloomington South HS. Competing so far this season at 157, a position he earned by knocking off former All-American and Evansville Mater Dei wrestler Matt Coughlin, Kurt finished 7^th at this past week's Cliff Keen Las Vegas Open. Kinser won his first two matches, including a nice win over Penn's Matt Dragon. However, last year's national champion at 157, Jordan Leen of Cornell, was his next opponent. Kurt kept it respectable versus the senior, but ultimately fell to Leen in their quarterfinals match 6-1. Kinser won his first match in the consolation bracket, then fell to 5^th seeded Chase Pami of Cal Poly. Kurt finished his day by beating 6^th seeded senior Jason Johnstone of Ohio State. A very tough draw kept Kurt from finishing higher, and he absorbed his first losses of the season. Earlier this season, Kurt pinned national #1 recruit Jason Welch of Northwestern and defeated #9 Matt Moley of American. Moley was also an All-American last year. Kurt has shown that he can hang with the big dogs at this bigger weight class.

Andrew Howe had a pretty successful outing for a true freshman competing in a stacked tourney, finishing 5^th above some notable wrestlers. The Juggernaut won his first two matches, including a nail-biter over highly regarded 8^th seed Mike Galante of Lehigh. Like Kinser, Howe had a very tough draw in the quarters; top-seed and returning AA Mack Lewnes of Cornell. Like Kinser, Howe kept it respectable, dropping a 6-2 decision. Andrew won his first consolation match, then received a forfeit, then dropped a surprisingly lop-sided match to returning AA Stephen Dwyer of Nebraska.

Obviously, space and time constraints prevent me from detailing other significant results by former Indiana high school wrestlers, but fear not, for I'll have another piping hot serving of recap coming down the pike next week.

In closing, the following former Indiana high school wrestlers are ranked:

RevWrestling rankings:

125 #2 Angel Escobedo IU (#2 really????)

133 #9 Reece Humphrey OSU

141 #1 Alex Tsirtsis Iowa

157 #14 Kurt Kinser IU (behind Matt Dragon and Matt Moley????)

165 #9 Andrew Howe Wisc

AWN rankings:

125 #1 Escobedo

133 #10 Humphrey

141 #4 Tsirtsis

141 #13 Andrae Hernandez IU

157 #17 Matt Coughlin IU

Intermat rankings:

125 #1 Escobedo

133 #7 Humphrey

141 #3 Tsirtsis

141 #7 Hernandez

157 #9 Kinser

WIN rankings:

125 #1 Escobedo

133 #9 Humphrey

141 #2 Tsirtsis

157 #16 Kinser