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I'm Eric Allred....#3 at 182 Silas' dad. First off, really appreciate your support and confidence in my son @wchew20. He's undoubtedly turned a lot of corners and distanced himself from a lot of guys. The extra training, national competitions....and quite honestly just no longer being 14 has really allowed his strength to catch up to his athleticism and technique. In regards to Elijah Mahan cutting to 170lbs. There's a lot that went into that decision. I stay in periodic contact with Elijah and his family due to my line of work (Evangelism/mentoring/etc). Elijah was a little discouraged after losing to Walton 10-0 and then Silas 20-2. However.....those are his only 2 losses this year, and much more than just those tough matches went into his decision making. In fact.....no disrespect to the other 182's that will be in NC in a couple weeks.....but he likely would've punched a ticket had he stayed put. He's already won matches against a couple of really solid wrestlers in the rankings at 182. Fact is.....I have full confidence that he'll get the job done at 170 as well. Outside of #1 Warren.....I don't think Elijah has an unwinnable match there. Where he lacks the overall strength to compete with top tier 182's.....he'll actually have a strength advantage in a lot of cases at 170 in my opinion. He's an unbelievably great kid on and off the mat. Has a tremendous future in his first love (football).....and in full confidence I can assure you it's not a matter of him dodging anyone. He just wants to place himself in a position that he feels is best for "him". The Allred's are fans of Elijah's and a couple other of the Roncalli wrestlers whose been offseason teammates of Silas'. Great kids, great program, and great parents. We wish them all good health and the best of luck in their pursuit of their goals.

Update: surgery went as well as expected. He has lost movement on the left side of his body. He is in bad shape but still kicking! Long road ahead. It really sucks. Michael was Peyton's first round opponent this Saturday. The Irony is them two plus my nephew were Steve Livingston's first kids in the club 11 years ago at Cloverdale. Please keep Michael and his family in your prayers.

This made me chuckle, well done @grappleapple

Joe (Y2) usually creates a great database including numbers by weight class, school, enrollment size, etc etc etc. It's impressive - maybe he is working on it now in #DaCountyPitOfMisery

This does not seem that surprising to me Basketball is very boring.

We promise to use a better picture of Mike also.

If i want nuance i'll watch a French art film, but when i go to a wrestling meet i prefer to see wrestling rather than pushing and the nuances of drawing stall calls.

Guys, we can settle who has the best and worst sectional fairly easily. Who offers the best hospitality room, and who offers the worst? There must be a correlation between the two.

Yeah I had my name on waiting list. Just got the call today that they are sold out. Guy said they sell more suites for wrestling than they do for the pacer games.

I will say it again, we've worn 2 piece uniforms with the shorts being "Fight Shorts" pretty much all year. Have yet to have one problem with fingers getting caught in the shorts.

It's always nice to hear the sport promoted, nice job mike, look forward to next week

My team is in that sectional and it is night and day to previous years. We have VERY few kids or weight classes that would be considered "top tier", but there are a few good wrestlers that know what there doing (and yest will most likely struggle at the regional), but I do look forward to seeing several weight classes that have kids who are very competitive at this sectional (126, 160, and 285 come to mind quickly) and most of those kids are just as nervous and anxious as those kids preparing for the Avon sectional. More importantly though if you are only looking at the top tier kids, how they do competing with each other, you may be missing a piece of the sport that makes most of us smile especially at sectional. It is the kids seeded 6th or unseeded at sectional who overcomes all odds and their own doubts to place 4th and get to wrestle at regional. Some of them will have achieved their only goal in wrestling after 4 years taking a beating in practice, never even believing they could do it because they wrestled behind a stud or had 5 studs in the sectional. That kid will ll be just as happy (and most likely or more so) than most of the wrestlers who lose in the go round or on Friday night. Weak or strong there is a lot of happiness and tears getting ready to happen on Saturday, but that is what make sectional entertaining and brings a lot of smiles.

Again region sports will have coverage of the wrestling post season. Starting at the Griffith sectional where I will be announcing and Cp sectional will have @indianmorg on the call. Some very big projected match ups at both locations. Follow along @ region sports nation FB

Wanted to share a fellow wrestler's instagram post. Prayers for Michael!

We might try Facebook Live again, either way I'll post the link as we get closer.

It’s with a broken heart I share that Anthony Eddy died this morning at 10am in a car accident. Eddy as we always called him was a member of the 2010 Mishawaka State Championship Team. Worked his butt off to become a starter as a senior. He did not waste the opportunity. Eddy had the greatest smile and a laugh that filled the room. Love and Prayers to everyone who knew him. We lost a very special person.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2018/01/25/seven-wrestlers-watch-during-state-tournament/1049557001/

You can't just get rid of the good ole foot race at the beginning of each session. That would take away some of the excitement for the fans.

I think Tsirtsis is an amazing wrestler, but I do find his matches rather boring. I don't need to see a Brendan Campbell / Kyle Ayersman each time - with points lighting up the scoreboard faster than Avon posters can type hashtags - but, I do like to see matches that have action throughout and at least some attempts at offense.

What are your thoughts on how Tsirtsis wrestles in College? His goal is 2-1 or 1-0. Is that like taking Nyquill? Hey, let's not get on T-shirts. He's an IN guy. Plus I generally think it is a bad idea to put down Da Region. Hope you're not headed to ECSS How about we use Dean Heil as an example instead.

Attempt at translation: Am I the only one who thinks that the Avon sectional would get blanked against the Westview Sectional? Still not sure what exactly you mean by 'blanked'??? Also, I presume you mean these two sectionals in the reverse order you mentioned them.

It’s going to be a good time

I tend to agree with you, however doesn't it go deeper than that even? Is a sectional really hard if there's only one challenger in each weight class to the favorite? Look at both the Avon sectional and the Southport sectional. Noone would argue that those have a TON of talent at the top two seed lines, but beyond Avon and Brownsburg and beyond Roncalli and Perry, what's the third best team in each? Probably Plainfield and Beech Grove (a team with 4 forfeits of their own). To me, if you are all but guaranteed a spot in Regionals (like most members of those four teams are), then how tough can the overall sectional really be? Again, not arguing the talent at the top is lacking, how could I? I think the 3rd and 4th placers at both will struggle (in most weight classes) come Regional time though against the Sectionals they feed into. Is there a Sectional across the state where they may advance two times as many kids to SS than their partner sectional? That, to me, may be the strongest sectional (or paired with the weakest one). I guess it depends on definition. EDIT: Made the caveat of "most weight classes" in second paragraph.

I wouldn't be on my back....

"On the Carpenter's Local 599 Phone Line"!! Don't get anymore da Region than that. I think Mr Dedelow might have something beside coffee in that cup..my new fave radio guy. Woo..OTR's pic just popped up. WTF? This is priceless....nice closeup of the vacant storefront across the street at the 58 min mark. I can see this getting it's own Sirius channel. Great stuff.

The pic they have of Mike on there right now WJOB on facebook

I thought that the 2 piece uniform was going to drastically cut down on forfeits.

I thought this could be a fun topic. Without knowing the draw who would you put as your final four at each weight pre-sectionals? I'll make it interesting and put a snow-cone at state on the line for the winner. Get your picks in before the opening rounds at sectionals. Fort Wayne semi-state only.

If silas is on he's doing that to a lot of really good wrestlers..if he gets going it's really really hard to slow him down..ManChild

Oh my friend you'd be surprised at my wrestling encyclopedia...I'm not good at a lot of things but compiling information about wrestling is my love.

Good news is the Sectional should be over in time to drive to another one and catch the Semi-Finals and Finals.

106-Flores(Gosh) Johnson(EC) Funderburk(JT)Peiffer-Laguerr(Con) 113-Puckett(NR)Bonds(Gosh) Garcia(EC)Yoder(FF) 120-Watts(JT)Beasley(NR) Walters(FF)Cruz(Gosh) 126-Mejia(EM)Whitman(JT) Rodriguez(Gosh)Miller(FF) 132-Gimson(JT)Martinez(EC) Flowers(NW)Hooley(NR) 138-Gimson(JT)Goering(EM) Fletcher(Gosh)Warren(NW) 145-Eveler(NR)Chupp(NW) Werts(JT)Caouette(Gosh) 152-Stroud(EC)Graber(NR) Lundy(EM)Eaton(JT) 160-Norment(JT)Acosta(Con) Gutierrez(Gosh)Miller(NW) 170-Lone(NW)Lundy(EM) Freel(NR)Ramirez(Con) 182-Graber(NR)Moon(Con) Fitzgerald(Gosh)Palomino(EM) 195-Lucius(EC)Wickersham(NR) Powell(Con)Navarro(Gosh) 220-Contreras(NR)Miller(Con) Thomas(JT)Perez(EC) 285-Yoder(FF)Conner(EC) Worlds(Gosh)Perkins(JT) I think it will be a very close two team race between Jimtown and Northridge

Going on a limb and predicting that half or more of the state champs are coming from three sectionals.

Mahan dropped to 170...Allred is a savage regardless

The 2 mentioned Shenandoah kids should both be state qualifiers. Lohrey was 2 years ago and I will be shocked if anyone beats Allred this year. A few weeks ago he tech-falled State ranked #8 20-2, and he was his top competitor in his semistate.

What The ......

I feel like they will at least be in by Feb. 10th for SS and Feb. 17th for state.

That’s a shape, but not wrestling shape. I am sure you know how lineman eat to be heavy and it’s not always healthy. Health and safety were two of the factors unlimited was changed to 275 at the time. Again, I enjoy the big guys at state too. Just leave the light weights alone unless the heavier weights are changed as well. Most matches and local tourny’s have lots of “out of weight class” atheletes between 182-285.

The sold out ones may well be just the upper level general purchase suites. Most of the lower ones are owned by corporations and I'm not sure I've ever seen them full. To get one though you have to know someone at that business who can get it, and many times the company requires someone working for them to be there as a representative (i.e. be liable for those using it). If anyone got one of those connections I'd be more than willing to take up a spot in those the corporate suites. I really miss the days when I used to have a connection to one.

Or like the B1G and NCAA do for their wrestling championships - sell blocks to the schools that want them.

If your naïveté results in inability to appreciate the fine art of heavyweight wrestling, it's your loss. Some folks can discern and appreciate fine French wines and other drink Boone's Farm.

Awesome job Mike! We definitely need to see more of this, just with a better picture next time!

I'm not sure if it's an issue when there haven't been many, if any, reports of it being an issue. There have been "opinions" based on looks, but very few issues that have had an impact on the actual wrestling

Prayers!

Mike is quickly becoming a legend!!! And the face and voice of Indiana wrestling...

Good vibes sent!

Praying...

Wasn’t all that long ago one had to win their first 2 matches to move to semi-state. Took only top 3.

How about considering what gets the most kids to participate in the sport? I would think eliminating weight classes would ultimately result in less participation - like a 95 lb freshman not seeing a good path to getting to compete if the first class is 113. If we want the sport to become more than it is today, we need more people to at least try the sport. This gets more family and friends actually seeing a high school or middle school match and increases your chance of recruiting / getting more kids to try it. It may not even be this generation that pays off. I am taking a long term approach. I figure if I get some kid to even wrestle a year or two in middle school, their kids will be much more likely to try it. Every father or uncle who wrestled in middle school was a state champion according to their kids.

You have sectionals like the ones listed above, then some that only have 4 kids in a weight class and all kids advance to the regional. Amazes me every year.