Scariest Performance at State

[Caleb Spires]

Paul Petrov’s semi-finals win over returning champion Mason Todd. 0-0 through the first period, Petrov opened up the period with an escape and eventually got a takedown catching Todd on his back for a few swipes to go up 5-0. They got a late restart, and Petrov immediately tripped him to his back again for the fall. He’d then go on to beat Brendan Campbell in an absolute classic for the championship.

 

In retrospect, Paul had a fantastic career so maybe others weren’t quite as surprised by his run like myself. But he came out firing and showing no intimidation against two incredible seniors.

[Ahawkeye]

On 1/17/2023 at 3:20 AM, tonyzirkle said:

Lance Ellis with his lateral/whip over (and cradles) is the correct answer in my book. If anyone has ever mastered their timing better on their throws, I haven’t seen it. 
 

 

4:22 and 6:08 show his laterals

I heard a story once, the year was 1991 or 1992. I was eating lunch between rounds at the MD Holiday Classic, a few friends and I were at a BBQ place nextdoor to MD, really small dining room, a guy in there eating recognized us as MD underclassmen and he told us the following story:

Lance Ellis ALMOST lost his undefeated record due to some antics at a no name match his sophomore year, whoever he was wrestling actually scored a takedown on him. Lance was so unbelievably mad that he reversed the guy, put him in a cradle, picked him up, walked over to the scorers table, and set the kid on the table. Ref almost disqualified Lance for that stunt.

 

Can anyone here confirm this story?

Edited January 18, 2023 by Ahawkeye

[Coach Coop]

little brother bias here but..

 

Chris Cooper 160 Whiteland Set the state record for fastest tech fall @ the state finals (at the time) friday night, broke that record saturday morning, then finished the day off with beating alex dolly and double fargo champ Dan Bedoy in the finals.  Not bad for an underdog. 

[ILUV2PIN]

Leo's Justin Woods in 2007-2008, 215 LB state champ, just annihilated every single person that year. 

Edited January 18, 2023 by ILUV2PIN

[busstogate]

2 hours ago, ILUV2PIN said:

Leo's Justin Woods in 2007-2008, 215 LB state champ, just annihilated every single person that year. 

The upset of Malone from Riley was big.  Shire from East Noble in the finals was also big news.  

Edited January 18, 2023 by busstogate

[tonyzirkle]

On 1/18/2023 at 1:27 PM, Ahawkeye said:

I heard a story once, the year was 1991 or 1992. I was eating lunch between rounds at the MD Holiday Classic, a few friends and I were at a BBQ place nextdoor to MD, really small dining room, a guy in there eating recognized us as MD underclassmen and he told us the following story:

Lance Ellis ALMOST lost his undefeated record due to some antics at a no name match his sophomore year, whoever he was wrestling actually scored a takedown on him. Lance was so unbelievably mad that he reversed the guy, put him in a cradle, picked him up, walked over to the scorers table, and set the kid on the table. Ref almost disqualified Lance for that stunt.

 

Can anyone here confirm this story?

I never heard that story. I did see Lance stick his knees out at state from the neutral position once. It looked like he was taunting the other wrestler to shoot on him. The other kid called his bluff and did indeed get a brief takedown. Ellis quickly escaped then lateral dropped him for a pin. 
 

I was on deck at a tournament (maybe at Delta?) in 1985 or 86 waiting to wrestle when I saw Ellis launch some kid to outer space half way across the mat. Fortunately, I had enough common sense to not adopt a Vision Quest, drop 2 weight classes and get myself embarrassed. 
 

We did the middle school winter tourny series in 2014-16. All the ISWA meets we attended including CP and RWA practices were folkstyle except freestyle and Greco state. I heard of one practice at Hanover Central where you could learn freestyle and Greco moves, so I just gave my son a few tips and told him to have fun and chalk it up for experience. 
 

Back in the 80s, AAU ran the meets and they were often freestyle and Greco. We practiced gut wrenches, alligator rolls, laterals (we called them whip overs), ankle laces, under arm spins and headlocks with defenses (we called it a snake) at every winter season practice it seems. The gut wrench alone may have an hundred different technical details. If you don’t know how to crawl forward or grab an ankle, for example, you may be lucky to last a minute with 10 points being a tech in freestyle now. At least with 15 point techs in the 80s, you had some reasonable time to invent a defense to a move that surprised you. 

 

I think this may be part why Ellis got so good with his throws since he was using them at maybe every meet when freestyle tournaments were more common. 

[FCFIGHTER170]

On 1/18/2023 at 1:29 PM, Coach Coop said:

little brother bias here but..

 

Chris Cooper 160 Whiteland Set the state record for fastest tech fall @ the state finals (at the time) friday night, broke that record saturday morning, then finished the day off with beating alex dolly and double fargo champ Dan Bedoy in the finals.  Not bad for an underdog. 

 

Your brother was a treat to watch. 

When I bumped to 171 and wrestled you in an instant classic, you beat me 8-7 iirc

 Was was the same day you beat #1 ranked Mosier at NC. 

Edited January 20, 2023 by FCFIGHTER170

[1prouddad]

On 1/18/2023 at 12:27 PM, Ahawkeye said:

I heard a story once, the year was 1991 or 1992. I was eating lunch between rounds at the MD Holiday Classic, a few friends and I were at a BBQ place nextdoor to MD, really small dining room, a guy in there eating recognized us as MD underclassmen and he told us the following story:

Lance Ellis ALMOST lost his undefeated record due to some antics at a no name match his sophomore year, whoever he was wrestling actually scored a takedown on him. Lance was so unbelievably mad that he reversed the guy, put him in a cradle, picked him up, walked over to the scorers table, and set the kid on the table. Ref almost disqualified Lance for that stunt.

 

Can anyone here confirm this story?

Later identified as @Y2CJ41as we now know him