IU89

Another great match for Sollars and Mater Dei. Gabe has wanted this since his freshman season. He watched Matt Lee win his freshman year and Blake Boarman and Eli Dickens get one of their own last season. I think he decided it was his turn. He is alot of fun to watch. 
 
CONGRATULATIONS GABE!!!!!

I agree with every match except 160, Baumann has been on fire in the post season, and that is an understatement. All with be great matches though!

Agree but flip flop Baumann 

Wildcats all the way!!!!

I’d say he stuck him, not had him stuck... 
 
GREAT match last year!

Not all the way true... last time I saw him wrestle Matthew Koontz had him stuck under the lights. 

True but EMD kids are BLESSED with a plethora of great coaching. If they can't hack paying for a wrestling academy they have a bunch of coaches at school and teammates that wrestle with MCWC. Not to mention family members at home or uncles who will drop everything for a wrestling match or question or "hey let's try this". When you see the same names year after year or can tie these kids to those names it is apparent that you don't need a ton of money to to find a good coach or wrestling partner on the Westside of Evansville.

Yup! I  hear you there!

I went to EMD and both my parents made a combined $27,000.  85% of the kids there were just good ole west side, St Phillip's, and St Wendell middle class people.
 Maybe 5% of the kid there were filthy rich

I'd take that bet if you're giving me the field

We are talking with small schools in our area all the time. Not only about what they are doing but about how we can work together...rising tide lifts all boats kind of thing. Our school is purchasing two new mats, and we plan to put them to use at as many levels as possible as quickly as we can. We extended our middle school season and (until this weird COVID season) have been steadily increasing our youth numbers over the past few years.
 
Understand, I am not simply concerned about my school, my kids, my program. When we go to invitationals, it is clear that wrestling is down. Way down in smaller schools, and this is my concern. Wrestling participation has grown nationally the last several years, yet in Indiana it is falling. And it is falling most at small schools. This sport is not one that I have always loved the way I do now. As I grew and matured, I came to fully understand and appreciate what this sport has to offer - things that no other sport reasonably accessible to a high school student can offer.
 
Wrestling in Indiana is not going to die from the top down. It is going to die from the bottom up. That scares the heck out of me, and I believe class wrestling is a way to at minimum buy us some time, if not turn things around.

People don't want class wrestling because they value pageantry over the health of smaller programs. 
 
 
"But muh spotlight" 🥴

Dickey vs Billerman (Dickey wins)
Cottey vs Ruble (Cottey wins)
Lemely vs Frazier (Lemely wins)
Seltzer vs Scheoff (Seltzer wins)
Heath vs Torres (Torres wins)
Mendez vs it doesn't matter
Reynolds vs Chacon (Reynolds wins)
Koontz vs Anderson one more time ( KOONTZ gets the win in this one)
Major vs Baumann (Major wins)
Hall vs Morrill (Hall wins)
Warren vs Buchanan (Warren wins)
Filipovich vs Demarco (Filipovich wins)
Bates vs Streck (Bates wins)
Shafer vs Jones (Shafer wins)
 
My 🔐 are Cottey, Seltzer, Mendez and Bates

Sollars isn’t being stopped this year. Kid has absolutely dominated all year.

I wonder if Indiana had wrestle backs - would the small school kid who got the best draw possible get knocked out ? Would wrestle backs hurt participation?  For instance say there’s a death draw in the ticket round between 2 great wrestlers - wrestler A loses to wrestler B and now Wrestler C who was let’s say from “Wheeler” won his quarterfinal - loses in semi final - then gets knocked out by Wrestler A on the backside.  I bet this would happen more often than not - it’s hard to get kids in the room when you only have 570 students- if you never get kids going to state - it will be that much harder.  Having those announcements of kids placing in state or going to state is a big deal. 
I am a proponent of wrestle backs btw. I just think there could be a negative effect on smaller programs ? 

 
 

Wildcats all the way!

As stated in another thread, at what point do we trash tradition?

Would losing 25 programs do the trick? How about 50, 100, more?
 
Would participation levels at an all-time low do it?

Agreed. Absolutely ridiculous that we don’t have wrestlebacks.

It was a really BAD no call. Two feet, one hand on the mat for like two full seconds. I hate that for Deckard. He’s an amazing kid! Just a really terrible, terrible no call.

Welp, this aged well for you, Sollars pinned Buchanan today after Buchanan has looked untouchable all year. I can't wait to see the results of next weekend.

Sleep on Gabe Sollars at 182 at your peril. He destroys whomever is in front of him. We’ll see him under the lights on Saturday night in a couple weeks in Indy.  

There were only two freshman in that bracket haha... I also didn't call individuals weak. I know which freshman you are referring too, but also didn't say anything about him in the post. I bet fw goes 0-4 at 220 next week.

I am too really but seeing my boy hit the sweetest shot and come out like that vs Pierson only to be robbed of the chance to compete, really makes me sad.. The entire gym was BOOING like I've never heard.

I've never seen a weaker SLAM CALL in my life.. Pierson a great Wrestler but I'm sick over this, entire gym was BOOING

If he can stick Buchanan like that he has the ability to beat anyone. I know when I do my pickems that Gabe Sollars will be the state champ on my picks.