Caleb Spires

BREAKING NEWS: Mason Parris’ application with the Iowa adoption agency has gone through! As of March 17, 2023, Mason Parris is officially Tony Cassioppi’s father.

S/O to the Ohio State coaches for throwing a brick and getting me those 5 bonus points and S/O to Jesse for just being a fantastic wrestler and representing Indiana wrestling wonderfully.

Too bad your other Smith is well below 100% from the looks of his last match…

Yep. That will move Gomez up to #14 and prevent a second round match with Sasso.

125 - #1 Spencer Lee (Iowa) 133 - #13 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) *Wildcard 141 - #6 Beau Bartlett (Penn State) 149 - #14 Austin Gomez (Wisconsin) 157 - #7 Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech) 165 - #9 Shane Griffith (Stanford) 174 - #1 Carter Starocci (Penn State 184 - #3 (<—— HAHAHA) Aaron Brooks (Penn State) 197 - #8 Silas Allred (Nebraska) 285 - #3 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State)

Bethel wins the “best to never place” battle, but it pretty difficult to put a “never placed” wrestler ahead of guys who made the semis 3+ times.

I may be biased, as I’m part of the Gorilla Crew and have only frequented college wrestling boards otherwise, but there’s a reason this website has an award-winning reputation. Joe has made this forum better and better over time, and it’s still easily standing the test of time against the social media era, which as Joe said above, hasn’t been great for message boards. But yet I, and many others, are still daily-or-near users even in the off-season. Simply put, we are absolutely blessed with this board. Joe and the other OGs have built something that just keeps getting better. All of our rankers work their asses off to try and give an accurate product. And all the regular users just coming on to hype up their kid or school, or even just discuss wrestling because they love the sport, make for a great experience. In my time on the IM staff(roughly 7 years), my ranking position has progressively transformed from “this is a cool side-job, hope I do well” to “this is something I take a lot of pride in, and I want to do a good job for myself, the website, and the kids who look forward to them.” I’ve been recognized out at a bar before because I was wearing Indianamat gear. Indianamat has surpassed a normal forum at this point, we’re a full community.

Oh, and a very recent one including four 4x placers with 7 titles and 10 total trips under the lights; 2019 126 lbs. 1. Jesse Mendez of Crown Point - (1st, 1st, 1st, 1st) 2. Ray Rioux of Avon - (6th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd) 3. Hunter Watts of Jimtown - (6th, 2nd, 1st, 3rd) 4. Brayden Curtis of Yorktown - (7th, 1st, 1st, 4th) Sixteen individual seasons with only three of them failing to make the semi-finals.

2011 112 lbs. 1. Mason Todd of Pendleton Heights (157-9) - (Q, 5th, 1st, 3rd) - Gave Cody Phillips his first loss in 3 years of high school wrestling at semi-state a week prior, defeated Brenden Campbell twice the following season, and was a 2009 Fargo AA. Also defeat d future (160 lb.) champion Brian Harvey twice as a sophomore. 2. Jarred Brooks of Warsaw (139-6) - (DNQ, 5th, 2nd, 1st) - Responsible for another of Phillips’ only three career losses in the semi-finals, was a Fargo runner-up that summer and won Super 32 as a senior over future NCAA champion NaTo. Spent most of, if not his whole senior season as the #1 113 in the nation. And it’s maybe marginal to mention, but Jarred’s 5th place as a sophomore was likely a case of “he would have been 3rd if he didn’t have the runner-up at semi-state and then drew into the champion’s quarter-bracket.” 3. Cody Phillips of Union County (169-4) - (1st, 1st, 3rd, SQ) - Took 124 IHSAA sanctioned matches for him to finally lose. Had positive career records vs. Brooks and Petrov who finished their senior seasons as champions, while unfortunately Phillips injury defaulted out of the tournament after a semi-finals loss to future 2x champion Cody LeCount at semi-state. Technically only lost 3 matches that he actually started his whole career. Was definitely ranked #1 in the nation at 103 lbs. (maybe even 113) for some time. 4. Paul Petrov of Hanover Central (180-13) - (DNQ, 2nd, 4th, 1st) - Went 142-4 following his freshman season, losing only to the guys ahead of him on this list. Finished his senior year strong with a fall over returning champion Mason Todd in the semi-finals and an all-time-classic with my personal “best to never win it” Brenden Campbell. Since the four were in the same graduating class, they met up multiple times over the years. From their sophomore years on up, they had a combined: 481-15 record, with 10 of the losses coming amongst each other, and the other 5 coming from champion Brian Harvey, runner-up Paul Beck, “best to not win” Brenden Campbell, and 2x champion Cody LeCount.

There are a lot of guys with a good case this year. Hockaday prevented a senior from getting his third straight championship. Thrine had potentially the best overall tournament run, while interestingly only having a 23-16 overall point difference. Torres had a great tournament, and capped off probably the best overall season of anybody in the field in the process. Goin may have looked like the most dominant champion vs. his field, and was without question the most dominant in the championship round. Cruz picking up three falls leading to a win in a nationally ranked showdown. By some national publications, I believe Cruz is(or has been before) the top ranked Indiana guy. Gun to my head, I think I’m picking Goin with Cruz close behind. Though any of these five(and heck, a couple others) have a great case.

Wrestling is a sport for little and big men of all sizes, that’s part of what makes it so great.

No Brenden Campbell mention yet? 2x runner-up, third place finish, and an injury default out of the tourney as a freshman while ranked first. Only losses in his career at 201-6 were to runner-up Paul Beck, 3x champion Kyle Ayersman, champion Mason Todd(2x), champion Paul Petrov, and sadly one more as a sophomore I can’t track down.

Kaden McConnell, too. Center Grove must have had one hell of a game plan at practice this week.

This weekend, the most important lesson I’ve learned is that if you have a lead of any kind and don’t take a shot every three seconds, “YOU’RE STALLING!!!”

If FW draws into any other semi-state than EV at 106, they probably have the second most placers.

Always been a big fan of him as an announcer, now a fan of him as a person after reading this thread. The state finals will definitely miss him next year.

Rye? Honey wheat? PUMPERNICKEL??? The other three semi-states are toast this weekend.

This is a cruel universe payback for all the times we complained about waiting in long lines for our tickets at Gainsbridge.

Whoa, deja vu.

Quick, everyone boo the bracket gods for pairing Fort Wayne and Evansville at 106. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO

From da Wayne: 106 - Julianna O’Campo vs. Joey Cline ticket round. It was incredibly tight, went into overtime and then the ride outs, and Cline left it all out there. I think a majority of the arena thought he was gonna be moving on late in the match. 126 - Keegan Schlabach vs. Hayden Brady championship match. Another overtime match. Back and forth the entire way through, you had no idea who was going to win until it was finally over. Two seasoned seniors fighting for their first semi-state title. 138 - Brock Hagewood vs. Robert Dinn ticket round. Another very tight match, but a lot of action. Hagewood trailed 6-2 heading into the third, stormed back and tied it at the end with a takedown, and then overtime… just watch the overtime if you have the chance.

Hinton looked awesome all day.

hOw ComE bOLliNgEr iS rAnKEd fIrSt In tHe seMi-StaTe BuT nOT tHe StAte RaNkIngS???

Great work as usual!

Looks like the Caleb v. Caleb battle is far from over.