fwrestler

Let's just make a list of a few basic wrestling skills that apply from 106-285 Neutral: double leg, high crotch, single leg, penetration on your shots, headlock Top: half nelson, cradle, running the wings, arm bars, running the legs Bottom: stand up, sit out, switch, granby Now, put the average lightweight and the average heavyweight in a room together and have them drill these moves, and I guarantee you the lightweight outperforms the heavy in every single category except maybe the headlock and the half. Look at the quality of wrestling at Conseco when considering that basic list of skills (which every state-caliber wrestler should have) and it becomes obvious the heavyweights are actually much worse wrestlers than the lightweights. Can you even name me any "skills" heavyweights have that lightweights don't, besides pushing and shoving a guy to the ground and roling him over? Because there are very few upperclassmen at these weights to start with. It makes sense that a weight that is mostly filled by underclassmen is dominated by underclassmen... and here is what I feel a lot of people fail to understand: JUST BECAUSE A KID IS A SENIOR DOES NOT MEAN HE IS A BETTER WRESTLER THAN A FRESHMAN. Wrestling skill is not based on age, and on average, the freshmen that fill the 106 lb weight class are better wrestlers than the seniors that fill 195, 220 and 285. Like I said before, there are a few exceptions to the rule, and you just mentioned three of them. Obviously there are a few skilled wrestlers in those weight classes, but overall, the majority of their competition is weak. If we're talking about specific individuals, which is worse, a freshman, who's probably been wrestling since he could walk and has won numerous national titles, winning 106 last year, or a second year wrestler stalling his way to a title at heavyweight that same year?

The majority of the wrestling at 182, 195, 220 and 285 is god awful. There is little to no actual technique; either the wrestler who can muscle the other kid into falling down and rolling over wins or, in a heavyweight's case, the one who can stall his way to a 0-0 triple OT victory does. Why do you think an athletic kid can come in and place at state with very little actual wrestling experience? Because for the most part, the wrestlers at those weights don't actually know how to wrestle. Whether the lowest weight is 103 or 106 is irrelevant at this point, because wrestler at the middle weights, where there is the most skill and the largest number of kids, are being squeezed out of the varsity lineup. Change the weights back and keep the lowest weight at 106, if that's the issue.

Why are people in Indiana giving advice on the weights that Idaho should implement? If they think 98 will give more of their guys a chance to wrestle who are we to disagree? Apparently their ADs and coaches agreed that was the best weight to add and I'm sure they didn't just pick the weight out of a hat. I'd imagine there were stats and research consulted. I think it's hilarious folks here aren't supportive of a weight added in another state. I just wish a state like Ohio or PA implemented a 98 lb weight class. Then what would we in Indiana be saying?

Those dummies in Idaho, what do they know?

That's cool.

I'm callin BS on that one Y2 ;D

I can see Tsirtsis returning as a state champ too

And looking at the Fargo results, next year's state tournament might be the deepest it's been in a while from 106-138. Potentially, we could have Micic, Fuqua and now Cottey at 106, Todd, Brooks, Phillips, Petrov and now James at 113, Ayersman and Campbell returning at 120, McKinley back at 126, Molloy and Jackson back at 132 or 138, and Tsirtsis back at 138. That's assuming no one goes up in weight, which won't happen, but that's 14 pretty elite wrestlers (9 of whom own Fargo medals) spread over 7 weight classes.

I predicted we'd have 5 AAs between the Cadet and Junior Freestyle teams and we got 8, not really that far off. I figured we'd get about 3 Juniors on the podium (which we did) but more Cadets AAed than I expected. And I was off on the number of finalists, thinking there would be two when there turned out to be 4. Pretty successful tournament for Indiana, it seems like we're producing more and more kids who can compete and win against the best in the nation every year.

Sounds like some stiff competition.

And Tsirtsis only won because he was at 140, also one of the weakest weight classes. He wouldn't have won 145 : Boston wrestled 103 because that was how much he weighed. Of course he wouldn't have won at 112 because Todd, Brooks, Phillips and Petrov were all way bigger than him.

Talk about passive-aggressive...

I'm only looking at men's freestyle, as greco doesnt have any real bearing on freestyle or folkstyle success, IMO. Last year we had 2 AAs in freestyle in Tsirtsis and Sliga. I agree that we have a great group of guys going to the tournament this year, but I really think you're underestimating how difficult it is to make the finals. Many Indiana wrestlers with better credentials than pretty much everyone on this list, with the exception of Tsirtsis, have never even come close to making it that far. I feel like we have a good shot at 5 or so freestyle AAs, but I would be shocked if we had more than 2 finalists.

No one has a shot at the finals except Tsirtsis and Sliga, IMO. We might be able to get 5 AAs if we're lucky.

So I was looking at the college signings post, and I noticed that Indiana Tech has signed a greater number of wrestlers from the class of 2011 than any other school, which makes sense as they're just starting their program. And since the team will be made up entirely of freshmen, barring any transfers, most of these kids have a shot at wrestling varsity right off the bat. Here's how I see the lineup looking with the wrestlers' projected weights, assuming there are no out-of-state recruits (although I'm sure there are): 125: Lucas Willms (Regional Qualifier @ 125) 133: Travis Barroquillo (3rd @ 130) 141: Alex Gregory (4th @ 135) 149: Josh Ehr (SSQ @ 152) 157: Reece Lefever (3rd @ 152) 165: Connor Lefever (4th @ 160) 174: Jeff Enrietto (SQ @ 171) 184: Jeremy Haskett (SQ @ 189) 197: ? 285: Nick Cooper (Injured last season, I think) So, out of these guys, who do you think has the most success next year? And does anyone know of any out-of-state recruits that can fill in the weaker spots or beat out some of our studs? It will be interesting to see how the program develops, I think it's great that there's an opportunity for Fort Wayne wrestlers to continure their careers at a college that's in the area.

I think this might be helped by the IHSAA changing the rules to allow programs to compete in any out-of-state tournament during the regular season. Having a program like Mishawaka or Crown Point at the Ironman or Beast of the East would expose wrestlers to different competition and might make kids around the state think twice about going out of state to wrestle during the offseason. I wish I would've had the chance to wrestle in more national competitions than I did, as styles of wrestling really do vary from state to state. It's a great way to test your strengths and weaknesses, and you can definitely pick up a couple moves from wrestlers from other states that will come in handy back in Indiana.

So exercising in practice to lose weight is the wrong thing to be doing...? I know I lost around 2 lbs during a two hour practice without sweats or plastics while I was cutting weight during the season. What's the difference between dieting and working the weight off in practice or running, like you did? I feel like drilling and wrestling is the best and most natural way of losing weight, and you get the added bonus of improving your wrestling skills. No matter what your intentions are, drilling moves will help your wrestling.

So basically all this is is a class wrestling post disguised as a discussion about wrestling in Fort Wayne... and I actually thought we could have a discussion that didn't revolve around this. You guys are right, it is truly incredible that these schools with smaller enrollments can still produce quality wrestlers with such a severe handicap, we definitely need to class the team state tournament so they can get the recognition they so richly deserve. Can we please stop talking about it now? The funny thing is, I was talking to a woman at work the other day who was a big Bellmont wrestling supporter back in the 90s and early 2000s, even though none of her children were actually wrestlers. Unprompted, she told me she was disappointed when the team state tournament went to a dual meet format, and said she was happy when she heard that it was being changed back to being decided at the individual tournament. Interesting to hear that opinion from a casual fan.

Carroll was a good, not great, team last year, however, unfortunately they are in the same team regional as Bellmont and Yorktown, two perennial state powers as of late. And two years ago there was no way Carroll was the best team in Fort Wayne, as they were beaten in their sectional by Whitko, another Fort Wayne team that was obviously better than them. I witnessed both of those schools in action that season and Whitko was clearly the better team. And it was only about 7 years ago that Columbia City was a state power. Like I said before, these things go in cycles. While the city of Fort Wayne certainly isn't producing many great teams right now, it hasn't been that long since it was, and it won't be too long until it does again. Oh, and I can tell you that "crappy" Fort Wayne schools in the NHC like Carroll, Homestead and Dekalb pound lumps on all those "great" small school you listed off earlier. Just because those small school teams would be able to compete in a fictional classed team state tournament doesn't mean they should get more credit than bigger schools that are consistently beating them, badly.

Isn't Indiana Extreme associated with Snider? I thought it was, but maybe I'm mistaken. And yes, every NHC feeder school has a wrestling team. Some schools, like Homestead and Carroll, even have two middle school teams.

So even after you "told him I would stop posting so im gonna do so," you made another post bragging about him literally three minutes after you made this one... please just shut your mouth, this isn't doing your kid any good.

You just proved with that post that you have absolutely no knowledge of wrestling in the Fort Wayne area whatsoever. With the exception of Belmont, Yorktown and probably Jimtown, none of the teams you listed are remotely close to being a top team in the area. South Adams is somewhat above average and Prairie Heights only has a few good individuals. Dwenger and Fairfield routinely get smashed in the area. But I guess I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about. When you say "Fort Wayne," if you're only talking about the inner-city SAC schools, then you're actually right, the schools you listed would most likely beat most of those teams (although Dwenger and Fairfield would definitely not "walk all over" them). But if you're including the rest of the teams in the area, including those in the NHC and ACAC, you're retarded. And, you also just proved my point about a classed team state tournament. Even though I'm a supporter of Fort Wayne wrestling, I'm not for a team state tournament that allows "a spot for a big crappy Fort Wayne school." Why should any crappy team deserve a spot in the state tournament?

Let me guess, you live in Decatur but aren't a Bellmont fan, right? I love how you guys have this inferiority complex and like to pretend that anyone outside of the Fort Wayne area cares about any Decatur team that isn't Bellmont. Don't get me wrong, Adams Central and South Adams have some great talent for the size of their schools, but they really are not as good as their fans like to think they are. Your post also makes me realize that a classed team state tournament would be an absolute joke at the 1A level, and not that much better at 2A. No offense to any of these programs, but if Woodlan and Churubusco are in the top ten in 1A and Fairfield, Dwenger and Leo are in the top ten in 2A, the competition in these two classes will not even come close to comparing to the the 3A competition. It sure would make the Fort Wayne semi-state look good though! Like Y2 said, these things go in cycles. Fort Wayne used to be a stronger force than it is now, and I'd be willing to bet that it will eventually improve once again. But it is definitely true that middle school programs are the most important thing for improving Fort Wayne area wrestling. Four years of high school wrestling just isn't enough experience to compete at a high level within the state anymore.

I think you mean 113

I must be blind then