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Brownsburg/Mater Dei go for Grappler Gold - Dec 15


SWINfan

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Brownsburg and Mater Dei head to Michigan this weekend to test some of the best Michigan has to offer.  Ten of the 14 Michigan teams represented are ranked.  Mason, OH and Toledo Whitmer, OH are the final two teams rounding out the field.  

Ranked teams from Michigan
D1 - largest class
#2. Davison
#3. Brighton
#4, Clarkston
#8. Grand Ledge

D2
#2. Warren Woods Tower
#3. Dewitt
#4. Eaton Rapids
#8. St. John's

D3
#1. Dundee

D4
#3. Clinton

Notes:
Brighton beat Davison this past weekend so those two will likely flip.

Dundee was the D3 Team State Champ in 2018, qualifying 14 wrestlers.  They have 8 ranked wrestlers returning with 1 Champ, 6 Placers and 1 SQ.  Casey Swidarski is ranked #14 Nationally by Intermat and #18 by Flo.  Soph. Stoney Buell was the State Champ at 135 last year.  He returns at 160.  A quick reference, Buell lost to Avon's Mason Miranda 7-5 last year at the Brecksville OH Invitational.  He's currently ranked #1 at 160.  

Brighton was the D1 runner up in 2018 and return 10 ranked wrestlers, 8 Placers and 3 SQ. 
- River Shettler @171 is Nationally Ranked at #20 (Intermat) and #18 (Flo).  He placed 5th at Super 32 at 160.  He has some history with wrestlers from Indiana.  He lost to Nick South at the Super 32 6-3.  He has split 4 matches (that I found) with Joseph Walker of Mishawaka and lost to Graham Calhoun 8-3 at Disney.  He finished 2nd at the Michigan State Finals at 160.  

Davison was a semifinalist last year losing to National Powerhouse Detroit Central Catholic.  They return 2 State Champs, 4 other Placers and 3 SQ.  They currently have 7 ranked wrestlers.  Andrew Chambal won State at 112 last year and has wrestled at 130 so far this campaign.  He's ranked #1.  Wrestling @160 is Nationally Ranked #1 Alex Facundo.  Facundo won State at 152 in 2018, was the Champ in both 2017 and 2018 at USAW Folkstyle Nationals, the 2018 Super 32 Champion and a 2x Grappler Fall Classic (GFC) winner.  Alex beat Nick South 7-3 at the Super 32 and has wins in the GFC over Jodan Slivka (3-2, 2017), Jacob LaPlace (5-3, 2018) and Donnell Washington (14-8, 2018).

I'll do a little more digging and post more in the next day or two.  Hopefully, I can dig up enough info on more ranked wrestlers and on any weight classes that may been really deep.  

Lastly, note that Michigan does not use the standard HS weight classes and still use the old group that starts at 103.  My understanding is this tournament will use the current standard, but that makes it a little harder to guess at what weights some of these guys will go.  I can't find full Michigan individual rankings without paying, so I am piecing things together.  So what rankings I do have may not be the most up-to-date.  The team rankings are as of 12/10/18.

 

 

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The two Ohio teams are Mason and Whitmer.  I can't find much info on Whitmer.  I believe they scored one point at the State Finals last year.  Mason finished 11th at the State Meet last year and has been active so far this year.  They have faced and lost to both Brownsburg and Perry Meridian (and Warren Central's JV team?).  They have one nationally ranked wrestler, Chris Donathan.  He's ranked #15 by Flo and 11th by Intermat.  He didn't wrestle against Perry and wrestled at 160 against Brownsburg beating Peyton Asbury 10-7.  They FF at 145 in that match and FF at 152 against Perry, so not sure what is going on there.

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43 minutes ago, SWINfan said:

The two Ohio teams are Mason and Whitmer.  I can't find much info on Whitmer.  I believe they scored one point at the State Finals last year.  Mason finished 11th at the State Meet last year and has been active so far this year.  They have faced and lost to both Brownsburg and Perry Meridian (and Warren Central's JV team?).  They have one nationally ranked wrestler, Chris Donathan.  He's ranked #15 by Flo and 11th by Intermat.  He didn't wrestle against Perry and wrestled at 160 against Brownsburg beating Peyton Asbury 10-7.  They FF at 145 in that match and FF at 152 against Perry, so not sure what is going on there.

SwIN

 

is there a webcast of this?

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19 minutes ago, hook and half said:

is there a webcast of this?

This article from last July announcing the tournament said there would be a live stream via TrackCast.  At this point TrackWrestling only shows the participating teams, so no video is indicated.  But it's early in the week.  I'm hoping they add a video link and it is available.  If not, you can definitely follow on TW if you don't mind watching the little red and green men.  This is a new tournament so can't look back to see what has been done before.  Will definitely update as more info comes available.

Grappler Gold Invite set for next season

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Can anyone familiar with Michigan HS wrestling tell me how a school can have more than one wrestler in the State Tournament at the same weight?  There were a couple of weights where individual schools had two state qualifiers, at least one instance where both placed if I recall correctly.  

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Just now, SWINfan said:

Can anyone familiar with Michigan HS wrestling tell me how a school can have more than one wrestler in the State Tournament at the same weight?  There were a couple of weights where individual schools had two state qualifiers, at least one instance where both placed if I recall correctly.  

They are allowed 14 entries and can double up in weight classes, not sure the exact rule but I know they can do it in at least one weight.

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9 hours ago, FCFIGHTER170 said:

Never thought about it this way... that is pretty interesting! 

Nor did I.  And at first thought, I hated it.  But the more I think about it, it's allowed in college tournaments (not NCAAs) such as the Southern Scuffle.  Obviously open tournaments allow unattached wrestlers, but even non-open tourneys like the Keystone Classic allow a certain # of entrants, though the # of wrestlers that count toward the team score is less.  Penn St. had more than one wrestler in several weight classes at the Keystone, including 149 and 285 where they used the tournament as a psuedo wrestle-off.  Brady Berge beat Jared Verkleeren 3-2 at 149 and Anthony Cassar dec 2x All-American Nick Nevills 7-3.  Still not sure if I love it in the state series, but if 2 guys from the same class can make it all the way through sectional, regional, Semi-State why shouldn't they be able to wrestle for the title?

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I did find two quick examples from last year's tournament from teams in the Grappler Gold.  

@112 Davison had both the Champion and 7th Place finisher.  They are wrestling 125 and 130 this year.

@125 Brighton had the 4th and 5th Place finishers, which included a match between the two in the consolation semifinals.  They are both back at 135 and 140 this year.

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13 hours ago, maligned said:

I like it. Duals require 14 weight classes. Tournaments allow whichever 14 guys you want to enter. It would make the state series very, very interesting.

i love it.  about 95% of the teams that had a full lineup would pull their 285 in favor of another wrestler.

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2 hours ago, hook and half said:

i love it.  about 95% of the teams that had a full lineup would pull their 285 in favor of another wrestler.

 

1 hour ago, Y2CJ41 said:

We have a sophomore that was a regional qualifier at heavyweight as a backup this year. We'd enter two of them.

Top 5%er!

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A quick team rankings update on the teams participating:

Ranked teams from Michigan
D1 - largest class
#2. Brighton (3)
#3. Davison (2)
#4, Clarkston (4)
NR Grand Ledge (8)

D2
#2. Dewitt (3)
#3. Eaton Rapids (4)
#5. Warren Woods Tower (2)
#8. St. John's (8)

D3
#1. Dundee (1)

D4
#3. Clinton (3)
#10. Onaway (NR)

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A couple of interesting weights, followed by a general preview from michigangrappler.com, which promises in-depth previews later this week.....  Note: I don't have full access to MI individual rankings, so there may be some wrestlers I missed.  

106
Alec Freeman (MD - 9th)
Logan Miller (BRB - 13th)
Adam Sprague (Clarkston MI - D1 #1)
Casey Swiderski (Dundee MI - D3 #1 and #14/#17 Nationally)
Jacob Byra (St. John's MI - D2 #2)
Jay Shaull (Eaton Rapids MI - D2 #10)
Note: Byra won by fall over Shaull in a dual last week.

145
Matt Lee (MD - 1st)
Drew Kreitzer? (BRB - 4th @ 138) or Griffin Ison
James Whitaker (St. John's MI - D2 #1 and #7/#6 Nationally) Returning State Champ at 140.  Whitaker dec Matt Lee 8-4 for the Grappler Fall Classic Title in October. 
Chris Donathan (Mason, OH - D1 #3 and # 14/#20 Nationally)
Christian Killian (Dundee MI - D3 #2)
Conor Donahue (Clarkston MI - D1 #6)
Aiden Brown (Brighton MI - D1 #9)

152
Eli Dickens (MD - #7)
Jacob Cookerly (BRB)
Caleb Fish (Eaton Rapids MI - D2 #1) - State Runner up to James Whitaker at 140.  Beat Whitaker in a dual last week.  Whitaker wrestled up from 145.  Match went to OT and Fish won by fall in TB1. Fish dec Jake Schoenegge 6-4 TB1 at the Grand River Rumble in July.
Jake Billette (Clarkston MI - D1 #2)
Brian Case (Davison MI - D1 #4)
Grant Ott (Dundee MI - D3 #5)

I'll add more as I gather more info and will post a link to the in-depth preview from michigangrappler.com later this week.

 

 

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26 minutes ago, SWINfan said:

A couple of interesting weights, followed by a general preview from michigangrappler.com, which promises in-depth previews later this week.....  Note: I don't have full access to MI individual rankings, so there may be some wrestlers I missed.  

Paying for rankings?

giphy.gif

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Just looked at the event on Track Wrestling and it shows the cost is $14.95 for archived video only.  Clicking on Live Video takes you to a screen with Mat 1 and a dropdown for the other mats.  Could live video be free?  Guess we'll figure it out tomorrow morning at 9:00 CT.

Edited by SWINfan
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1 hour ago, Alias said:

Nice level of respect for Indiana in their predictions....

Mater Dei
106 - Freeman 3rd
113 - Ross 1st
120 - Boarman 1st
145 - Lee 1st
182 - Jacob Pierson 4th (I believe Dakx Lannert is the guy here for MD)

Brownsburg
113 - Nelson 3rd
126 -  Lawhead 4th
132 - Campbell 1st
138 - Drew Kreitzer omitted from their preview.  Think that was an oversight.  Based on the rest of their preview, definitely think he would have been in their top 4.
215 - Aiken 2nd
285 - Keys 3rd

152 looks absolutely loaded.  If nationally ranked James Whitaker enters at 152.  He's their favorite even though he lost to Caleb Fish (their 4th place prediction) last week.  Whitaker beat Fish for the 140 State Title last year.  The weight could also include: Nationally ranked Chris Donathan (OH), MI 3A State Champ Stoney Buell, 3x State Placer Brian Case, 2x State Placer Quenten Hall, and SQs Jeffrey Konz and Victor Grabowski.  MD's Eli Dickens was almost an afterthought in their preview.  Will be interesting to see if he can crack through the top talent in this class.

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