SWINfan

For Penn State fans that was a huge celebration, only to exhale and get kicked in the nuts!

One note I thought was interesting... In the morning round of consolations, there were 8 Big Ten wrestlers!

Day 3 125 - Luke Welch picks up a win by fall and faces Sean Russell of Edinboro next. 125 - Brock Hudkins couldn't avoid ethan Lizak's tilts and falls 7-2. Hudkins eliminated. 133 - Stevan Micic dominated Austin DeSanto 13-1 in a match that got chippy at the end. Micic leaves the mat smiling. How DeSanto won their first meeting 22-10, I have no idea. Micic struck first and never let up. He's looking REALLY good! 141 - Nick Lee with a workmanlike 5-0 win over Mason Smith. I saw less aggressiveness from Nick, just enough to make sure he controlled the match. He has Cole Weaver of IU next. 141 - Chad Red wins 8-3 over Ryan Diehl of Maryland. He'll face Vince Turk of Iowa. Turk beat Red at the B1G Tourney 149 - Jason Tsirtsis falls to Ronald Perry of Lock Haven, 7-4. He drops to the blood round in the consolations.

Consolation Round 125 - Brock Hudkins wins by Fall over Ibrahim Bunduka of George Mason. He'll face Ethan Lizak in the morning. I think if he can keep Lizak from owning the top and stay away from his tilts, he has a shot. Lizak hasn't been as good as he was last year when he finished 2nd, but this would be a really nice win for Brock. 141 - Nick Lee guts out a nice 7-3 win over Northern Iowa's 9-Seed Josh Alber. I actually like Nick's potential patch to AA status. He faces 10-Seed Mason Smith of Central Mich in the morning. If he advances he'll get the winner of Cole Weaver and Eli Stickley. Lee handled Weaver earlier in the year. Weaver and Stickley have split matches this season. Get past those two matches and he'll have the loser of Tyler Smith and Joey McKenna in the All-American round. He's gotta win them, but it looks doable. 141 - Chad Red beat Minnesota's Tommy Thorn 8-3 and faces Ryan Diehl of Maryland, who defeated Lee this morning. Red has 3 wins over Diehl this season, including one at the B1G Tournament. A win and he faces the winner of Vince Turk/Nate Limmex. Chad has lost to both this year, Limmex twice. But all were 1 or 2 point matches and are certainly winnable for Chad. The blood round for Chad would be a big hill to climb, facing the loser of Dean Heil or Yianni Diakimaholis. 174 - Brian Harvey won two matches this evening, starting with a pigtail win over Will Schany of UVA, 7-5. He follows that up with a 6-4 win over Hunter Bolen of Va Tech. He'll face 9-Seed Keaton Subjeck of Stanford in the morning. So in summary, none of the Hoosier 9 have been eliminated, but only 2 - Stevan Micic and Jason Tsirtsis - are still in the hunt for the title. Wrestling Friday begins at 10 am central time. All matches can be seen free on espn3 and TV coverage is on ESPNU.

2nd Round Results for Hoosiers in Cleveland Championship Round 125 - Luke Welch loses by TF to Spencer Lee, 18-0. Will face Kyle Norstrem of Va Tech in the morning. A win likely gets him 11-Seed Sean Russell of Edinboro. Russell beat Welch 8-5 at The Midlands. 133 - Stevan Micic Major Dec 12-3 over Anthony Tutolo of Kent. He faces Austin DeSanto of Drexel in the Quarterfinals. DeSanto is responsible for one of Micic's 2 losses on the season, a 22-10 defeat at the Cliff Keen in Vegas early in the year. Micic avenged his only other loss (twice) to Luke Pletcher, which also happened at the Cliff Keen. Should be one to watch. 149 - Jason Tsirtsis does what he does. Squeaks out a 4-3 win over Ryan Deakin of Northwestern. Tsirtsis has a doable path to the finals, with 15-Seed Ronald Perry up next. 3-Seed Grant Leeth of Missouri or 11-Seed Michael Kolodzik in the Semis if he can get by Perry. Doing so would land him in the finals and mark a great comeback story, but also be the end of the Tsirtsis magic facing Zain Retherford in the final. 174 - Dylan Lydy fell by TF to Penn St.'s Mark Hall 21-3. It started out badly and never turned around. He gets Duke's Matt Finesilver next. For those not watching on ESPN, the Finesilver family makes up 80% of Duke's Finals contingent. Four Finesilver brothers - two sets of twins - qualified for Nationals, all wrestling for Duke. 285 - Shawn Streck lost a heartbreaker to 4-Seed Jacob Kasper of Duke, 4-2 SV1. He'll drop to the consolations and face Stephen Suglio of Kent.

285 - Shawn Streck defeats 13-Seed William Miller of Edinboro 11-5. Overall, a 5-4 mark for Hoosier wrestlers in the first round. Here are the 2nd round match ups with brief notes: 125 - Luke Welch vs. 3-Seed Spencer Lee of Iowa. Yikes, Lee is good. Really good. 125 - Brock Hudkins vs. Ibrahim Bunduka of George Mason. A win lands him a bout against the loser of Ronnie Bresser (Rios) and Ethan Lizak. Would be tough to get past that spot. 133 - Stevan Micic - vs. Anthony Tutolo of Kent. He should handle this one. His quarterfinal match could be interesting. He'll face either Virginia's Jack Mueller or Drexel's Austin Desanto. 141 - Nick Lee vs. Josh Alber of Northern Iowa. Most people thought this would be a tough battle between two ranked wrestlers in the other side of the bracket. Lee WBF over Alber at the Southern Scuffle with a pin in the final seconds after neutralizing a throw attempt with an inside trip. The match was 6-5 Lee at the time and close from start to finish. This will be a tough one for Nick and one of these guys will go home way too early. A win and he could see IU's Cole Weaver in the next round. 141 - Chard Red vs. Tommy Thorn of Minnesota. Red beat Thorn 5-3 in SV in the first tournament of the year. Thorn, outside of his dominating win over Joey McKenna, really hasn't had a great year. 149 - Jason Tsirtsis vs. Ryan Deakin of Northwestern. I'll make a prediction here. Deakin will beat Tsirtsis unless it goes to SV/OT! First one to 3 points wins?? 174 - Dylan Lydy vs. Mark Hall of Penn St. Looks like Consolations ahead for Dylan! 174 - Brian Havey vs. Will Schany of UVA 285 - Shawn Streck vs. Jacob Kasper of Duke.

More 1st Round results.... 174 - 15-Seed Dylan Lydy with a nice 6-2 OT win over Northwestern's Johnny Sebastian. 174 - Brian Harvey dropped his pigtail match 8-1 to Tyrel White of Columbia

Not a good start for "Team Indiana" in Round 1. 125 - 14-Seed Luke Welch comes from behind in the 3rd to win 10-5 125 - Brock Hudkins drops a 3-2 decision to favored 7-seed Taylor Lamont 133 - 2-Seed Stevan Micic gets a major as expected 15-5 over Zachary Sherman of UNC 141 - 8-Seed Nick Lee loses by Fall to Ryan Diehl of Maryland. Lee had taken him down twice early. Got reversed and lost balance and taken to back. Lee had previously beaten Diehl 22-10. 141 - Chad Red drops a 4-2 decision to 7-Seed Brock Zacherl of Clarion. Red just couldn't get any offense going. 149 - 10-Seed Jason Tsirtsis does what JT does... wins in OT. 2-1 TB1 dec over Dane Robbins of Air Force.

Former Union County, KY wrestler and 4X Kentucky State Champion died from an ATV accident near his home Thursday. Not an Indiana kid, but one who had many matches with some of Indiana's best the past 4 years. Sheffer wrestled unattached at SIU-Edwardsville this past season. Here are some of his results against Indiana wrestlers: 2x IHPO - DNP but wrestled 5-6 matches deep both times. Lost to Brock Hudkins in the quarterfinals in 2014. Defeated Jack Tolin in 2013. 5 Appearances at the Mater Dei Classic (Kentucky allows 8th graders). Finishes at the MD Classic: 2012 4th - Wins: Joel Nawl (VL), Kyle Embry (MD) Loss: Chad Red 2013 2rd - Win: Brian Rassbach (Avon) Loss: D.J Smith (Franklin Comm) 2014 2nd - Win: Alex Johnson (MD) Loss: Chad Red 2015 3rd - Wins: Joe Craig (TC), Tristan Sellmer (FC) 2016 1st - Win: Nathan Conley (Avon) Note: The final of the MD Classic in 2016 was also the State Championship Match in Kentucky. Sheffer defeated Konner Kraeszig of Louisville St. Xavier 5 Appearances in the Kentucky State Finals with 4 Championships and a 7th place finish as an 8th Grader. Wins over Indiana wrestlers in various Scholastic Duals: (no particular order) Christian Hunt Bryton Goering Jeremiah Reitz Austen Laughlin Austin Holmes I'm sure some here on this board are familiar with him or knew him personally, so I thought it was appropriate here.

Brackets now available on Track Wrestling 2018 NCAA Division I Championships - Track Wrestling

Sorry to interrupt the "Where is the Region?" discussion. But NCAA seeds and brackets are out. Info on the college board.

Here is a quick summary. I may have missed some and if so, my apologies: 125 Luke Welch - Castle/Purdue 14 seed - will face Connor Brown of SD St Elijah Oliver - IU Unseed - faces #9 Ronny Rios (Oregon St?) Brock Hudkins - Danville/NIU Unseeded - faces #7 seed Taylor Lamont (Utah Valley St) - Lamont is a RS Frosh who has had many battles with Chad Red the past few years in the off season, and one against Nick Lee 133 Steven Micic - Hanover Central/Meechigan #2 seed as expected. Could see a 4th match vs Luke Pletcher in the semis. Micic has taken the last 2 after a loss early in the year 141 Nick Lee Mater Dei/Penn St #8 seed - faces Maryland's Ryan Diehl. Lee majored him 22-10 in their only match this season. Could set up a rematch with Josh Alber where Lee won by fall at the Southern Scuffle, late in a very close match. Chad Red - New Palestine/Nebraska Unseeded (this one puzzles me a bit) - faces #7 Seed Brock Zacherl of Clarion. Zacherl is 28-1 and beat Nick Lee in his 2nd match of the year 6-4. Wrestled a defensive style against Lee. Cole Weaver - IU #16 Seed - faces a pigtail winner between Kyle Shoop of Loch Haven and Vince Turk of Iowa. Other Big Ten notes: Illinois Michael Carr who beat Nick Lee at the B1G Championship is seeded #11. I really thought he would jump Lee. Tommy Thorn of Minnesota was unseeded. Thorn should provide a tough opener for #10 seed Mason Smith of Central Michigan. 149 Jason Tsirtsis gets the 10 Seed and will face Dane Robbins of Air Force in the first round. This would set up a match against Northwestern's Ryan Deakin who got the #7 Seed. At least he stays away from top seed Zain Retherford. 157 Lots of Big Ten focus here, but didn't see any Indiana connections. The B1G got seeds 3, 5, 6, 7, & 8. Penn St.'s Jason Nolf gets the 3rd seed. Nolf has only lost once this year to injury default. He wrestled twice at the Big Ten and then MFF to 6th. Seems like a tough penalty to drop the defending champ due to a couple of MFF's that carried the intention to make sure he is healthy for Nationals. The 2 seed is Missouri's Lavalee, who Nolf destroyed in the National Championship last year. Bottom line, if Nolf is healthy and his knee can hold up, no one here will beat him. Though an interesting quarterfinal matchup could loom with Nolf vs. Iowa's Michael Kemerer who got the #6 seed after being ranked #2 most of the year. He also MFF'd to 6th place at the Big Tens after winning 2 matches. 2nd Half coming shortly....... 165 This could be one of the most interesting weight classes (along with 125 and 141 IMO) and is definitely Big Ten heavy, which has 9 of the 16 seeded wrestlers. IMAR gets the #1 seed with McFadden of Va Tech #2. Followed by Joseph (PSU) at #3, Alex Marinelli (Iowa) #5, Richie Lewis (Rutgers) #6, Logan Massa (Michigan) #7, and Evan Wick (Wisky), Isaiah White (Nebraska), Nick Wanzek (Minny), Te'shan Campbell (OSU) seeded 10-13. Keep an eye out for Chance Marsteller (Loch Haven) who is 40-2 on the year and drew a #9 Seed. 174 Ben Harvey - Cathedral/Army Unseeded - Drew into a pigtail match and faces Tyrel White (Columbia? Cornell? Colorado?). The winner faces #5 Seed Myles Amine of Michigan. Dylan Lydy - Ben Davis/Purdue #15 Seed - faces Northweatern's Johnny Sebastian. Sebastian is 2-1 vs Lydy this year. The weight is most likely to be a showdown between Penn St's Mark Hall and Arizona St's Zahid Valencia. Both undefeated, they faced off in the semifinals last year with Hall pulling out a squeaker which included a penalty point for grabbing the headgear. Hall is the defending champion, but the #2 Seed. Valencia beat Hall in a pre-season exhibition, in another tight match. 184 IMO, this class is a battle to see who will face Penn St.'s Bo Nickal in the final. Nickal, last year's champ seems to have solved Ohio St.'s Myles Martin (3 in a row, I believe) but Martin has won before, including in the 2016 NCAA Final. No Indiana ties that I saw here. 197 May be the most wide open weight in the tournament. I'm sure Ohio St fans would disagree, but I don't see Kollin Moore as a heavy favorite, yet he is the favorite. Jared Haught of Va Tech, Ben Darmstadt of Cornell , NCSt.'s Mike Macciavello, and Penn St.'s Shakur Rasheed will battle to try and knock Moore off. 285 Shawn Streck - Merrilville/Purdue Unseeded drew #13 seed William Miller of Edinboro. Like 174, this weight seems to be all about the top 2 and Round 3 between Kyle Snyder and Adam Coon. Coon is a beast and pushes every bit of 285, but moves very well. Many consider Snyder the best in the world but gives up a ton of weight choosing to wrestle closer to his Freestyle weight. Should they make the final like most expect them to, it should be MUST SEE TV! Wrestling begins Thursday the 15th, if I looked at my calendar correctly! Sorry if I missed anyone with Indiana ties!

Nobody wants Kentucky!

Malik Johnson won by TF 23-8 over Clay Egli in that same dual

To add a point of reference, albeit not a recent one.... Severado beat Mater Dei frosh Kane Egli 13-4 during the 2016-17 season.

Dylan Lydy picked up a 5th place finish

Not mathematically dead, but PSU is pretty much out of it, but locked into 2nd. May be mathematically out of it after the Joseph loss.....

Nick Lee with a 3rd place Big Ten finish with a 15-5 clinic against Purdue's Nate Limmex. All 5 Limmex points were Lee letting him up so he could take him down again. 7 take downs + a riding time point.

Stevan Micic wins a Big Ten Title at 133, with a 7-4 dec over Luke Pletcher. Chad finished 7th earlier, not sure that was mentioned. - I've seen Red in several matches this year and don't see the explosiveness I used to see from him. Don't see him being a hammer on top or even the scrambling ability. I know the competition is different and I don't want to call him ordinary because he is still a ranked wrestler with a shot at being an All-American, but I used to watch him and see extraordinary.

Sliga wrestling for 9th at 184 now. Not sure how many allocations the B1G has at that weight, so he has either already qualified for Cleveland or is wrestling for a spot now Sliga falls to 10th, in placement and in the match. Note: I checked and the B1G only gets 8 allocations from 184 so I guess wrestling to 9th was for an alternate? Same at 141 & 157

Streck with a nice 10-3 win to earn 7th and a bid to Cleveland

interesting note: Based on Intermat's rankings, the B1G has 8 of the top 11 165#s in the country and 9 of the top 14. Serious meat grinder!

For Purdue fans, Ben Thornton drops an 11-3 major to Penn St.'s Corey Keener to finish 8th. I believe the B1G only qualified 7 at this weight to Thornton will have to hope for an at-large. Maligned, please correct me if I am wrong on the # of qualifiers at 133.

Technically, 125 had to wrestle to 10th place because of NCAA qualifiers, so they weren't wrestling for last. Just a technicality.... ha ha Oliver tied 6-6, tried a cement mixer (?), missed and got taken down with about :10 left and lost 8-6

college board been updated all day.....