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So this year's state tournament was "fine" and you are no less a state champ, placer, or qualifier if you went to this one than if it was held at indy or somewhere else. However blindly acting like it was all sunshine and roses is silly. Evansville as a city did great. Most people found criticism with the IHSAA leadership. They could have moved the state tournament. Do it the same time as swimming. Ncaa does it all the time especially at the D2 level. It's a great atmosphere. . . It's also cheaper for most schools. 1bus, better hotel rates, AD only has to be in one place. Communities love it. Ihsaa leadership wanted to be at all the state events. Even came out and stated travel to and from the different sites on competition day was not something they were interested in doing. I think some of you would feel differently if your loved one was competing in this tournament for possibly their first and/or only time. Easy to blow off poor planing and tickets problems if you already have a "hookup" or you don't mind spending $102 on tickets. moving wrestling was the path of least resistance. Wrestling is a second class citizen in Indiana. It probably won't change until we get a "wrestling guy" on the ihsaa staff. So was this year's state tournament perfect? ? ? No... is it time to move on? Definitely Ps. Shout out to this 2024 class, Guys like May, Leavell, Ison, and Myers only got one "normal" year 2021- no fans present 2022- split parade of champions 2023- Normal year**** 2024 moved tournament

That was clutch! Congratulations Jesse!

Mendez gets it done! Awesome scramble at the end! Great match

Lucas Davidson of Chesterton and Jesse Mendez -CP in the finals! A good day for NWI wrestling. Let’s add to our national championship count for The Region and Indiana.

Can’t lie… we liked it too. Evansville did great.

Davison definitely deserves some love. That was one heck of a tournament run. Unfortunately Kerkvliet stood in the way of a story book ending. But hey he gave us Indiana boys two NCAA D1 finalists & fun ride. Hats off to Mr. Lucas Davison!

That would be impressive. Not placing at Sectional this year but makes the jump two months later to win a DII national championship.

Actually the Doster family kind of enjoyed Evansville this year!!!

Just spoke with a friend of mine who informed me that the IHSAA Basketball State Championship is postponed until next weekend because of the NCAA having games on Friday and Sunday in Indianapolis. Why did they make us go to Evansville this year? We could have waited a week while the NBA All Star Game was over to have our State Championship in Indianapolis.

For those who didn't see Mendez got a shout out on the McAfee show:

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.

A very smart young man! Congratulations and good luck moving forward!

Coach Brown used to help out with the Humphrey family wrestling clinics - he was a wonderful person and the kids really gravitated to his gentle, laughing personality. We would run into him years later at wrestling meets and he was always quick with a greeting and would want to know how things were going for our wrestlers. To read that he was caught up in such a senseless act of violence is just so heartbreaking. I am glad they have caught the perpetrator although no justice can offset this loss. Rest in Heaven coach Brown - you were a great man!

Not sure that 41 & 57 were that wide open, especially 157 as Haines had been #1 there all year. I think it had more to do with the fact that you can only pick two #1's or #2's & most people had more faith elsewhere. Brooks was by far the most popular #1 as 24 out of 29 contestants choose him. Kirkvliet was the next most popular #1 followed by Keckheisen. 19 of the 29 contestants had Brooks with either Kirkvliet or Keckeisen, and one person had Kirkvliet & Keckheisen as their top picks. So 20 out of 29 had some combination of those 3 as their top picks. But I will say that after the top guys at 41 & 57, it was wide open & most of us didn't do a very good job of handicapping those weights. I would also say the scores this year far exceeded those from last year, because of Starocci, Vito & Carr being seeded 9, 6 & 4 respectively. Those to me were 3 very obvious picks outside of the top 2 seeds, and 20 of 29 contestants had all 3 of them. And the top 16 finishers had all three. If you didn't have all 3 of those guys you had zero chance of winning. Heck, I had all three of them & Brooks & Keckheisen & still only managed to finish 11th. One last thought, Starocci was clearly the easiest pick of the contest as 28 of 29 people had him and 23 took him as their wildcard.

If they move the weekend then you also have to try to get venues like the coliseum or Ford Center for a different date. On top of that moving the season to one less week would cause lots of other scheduling issues with 300+ schools. Do you understand what kind of undertaking that would be for the season? Do you think 300+ athletic directors want to fix their wrestling schedules for one off year? Keeping the date and moving the event was the most logical and easiest thing to do with the season.

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

Congratulations Brenton. I have enjoyed watching yuour career.

yes

That roll to turn Barletts takedown into his own was insane. JESSIEEE MENDEZZZ!

Two 800lb Gorilla's in the room.

Jesse is becoming an "out of the hat" dude in any position. So happy for him!

Echemendia is every bit as physical as Mendez, wrestles a very similar style and is perhaps just as quick as Mendez. Watching that match as a Mendez fan myself, that 3rd period was bad for my health; but boy was it something to behold as a fan of the sport. That match literally could have gone either way in an instant. Just glad it went Mendez way this time.

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.

Angel is baaaaaaadddd!! gezhhh terrible look at that high level

Glad you brought this up. Makes qualifying or AA’ing at D3, D2, or D1 all that more impressive for those that graduated high school in 2021 or after. They have had to deal with this extra Covid year their entire college careers if they were not red-shirted.

Frustrating that schools like Rider, Little Rock (x2), Campbell, and Columbia can put people on the podium, but both our B1G schools are shut out again. I know IU is getting better, and Purdue had success last year, but still frustrating nonetheless.

2 DAC in the NCAA Finals, just saying

Davison really opened up the offense in the semi.. been waiting for that kind of action from him, so capable…off to the finals! Well done!

Mendez to the finals. Hard fought win to get there. B1G championship rematch here we go.

Vito just looked like last year's Vito again.

Why’s the ref reviewing on a land line? Why’s it take so long? Takedown for godsake

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!!

Holding it down for #TheCounty Jones!!! Coach Jones doing things at Plainfield guys.

What a match for Lucas Davison! On to the semis!

Castle High School will be hiring a new wrestling coach after Bob Harmon retires after 40 years of being at the school.

Prayers from the Tonte family and Franklin wrestling.

Clinician: Nick Hull ISWA Olympic Developmental Director USAW National Developmental COY UWW International Freestyle Certified UWW Masters Bronze Medalist US Open Masters Champion Collegiate All-American IHSAA State Champion 3x placer Has developed and trained numerous men's and womens state and national champions at all levels. enter door 21. 6-7:30 pm this Wednesday. lots of great freestyle technique and freestyle live. The rooms been popping. Let’s keep it going.

Congratulations to Cameron Crisp Congratulations to from Merrillville for signing with North Central. Projected to wrestle 174. View full signing

No rules, just be glad your high school coach is in the room, many programs only have "DAD" Coaches that do the "CLUB" season. Consider yourself lucky if u have a coach wanting to improve the program!!

Alex Tsirtis vs. Jesse Mendez Blake Maurer vs. Alex Dolly "The rematch" Reece Humphry vs. Steven Micic Darren Elkins vs. Josh Holden Craig Weinzapfel vs. Brayton Lee Mason Parris vs Jake O'Brien Chad Red vs. Angel Escobedo Nathan Moore vs. Noah Weaver

Little Rock with more All-Americans than IU and Purdue combined?