Westforkwhite

What an absolute clusterF all around. The ihsaa to wrestling 

This weekend the WHAC hosted there conference tournament. It came down to the wire as Indiana Tech edged out Marian. Both teams with several national qualifiers. 
 
 
Indiana Tech
Elijah Anthony
Matt Gimson
Kyle Kantola
Corey Cavanaugh
Nick Gates
Nate Wheeler
Eric Vermillion
Nathan Critchfield
Jacob Brandt
Cameron Mayes-Butler
Braydon Erb
 
Potential At Large Bid 
Elijah Chacon
 
Marian
Blake Mulkey
Asa Garcia
Logan Wagner
Bailey Moore
Elliott Rodgers
Noah Hollendonner
Sam Osho
Jack Servies

Agree 100%. He was one of the most exciting Hwt to have ever laced them up in IN. His ability to throw much heavier opponents was awe inspiring. Hummel ran into a beast in Schneider from Mt Vernon, (who had him by 60+ lbs). He would have won Hwt in a lot of years, despite giving up all that weight

Nick Lee Career Wrap - via PSU Wrestling
 
CHAMPION SPOTLIGHT /
Nick Lee - Sr. - Evansville, Ind. /
2X NCAA Champion (2021, 22) /
5X All-American (2018, 19, 20, 21, 22) /
B1G Champion /
3X NWCA First Team All-Academic /
3X Academic All-B1G /
22-0 this yr. - 6 MD, 4 TF, 2 F /
118-13 career - 40 MD, 27 TF, 18 F /
#PSUwr 
 
Not too shabby

B Lee going to have a big season next year!
 

Sadly, no he does not. We have seen the last of Nick in folkstyle. Here is hoping he opts for freestyle as he has the potential to represent the US at 65kg.
 
Also in 141, Stevan Micic and Chad Red completed their eligibility this year. Those three represented quite a strong trio of Indiana's finest over the years.

Remember when freshman Red cement-mixed a two time defending national champion in the blood round and All-American’ed four years straight in college? He comes back for a fifth year and in my opinion gets screwed against the 3 seed (a guy who has multiple wins over one of the best Folkstyle wrestlers of all time)  which would have set him up to make the finals. 
 
Indiana wrestling and USA Wrestling are hitting all-time heights. If Yianni D was from Indiana, some people would say he has underachieved in college since he doesn’t have a senior world medal and came in as a cadet world champ. 
 
For Red to win NCAA’s he would have needed to beat Eirman who beat a world champion while in college (Stieber), Yianna who made the world team in college beating an all time great (Retherford), Lee who beat Yianni and many others, and countless other guys. 

He didn’t quite get an NCAA title. He was a 4x All-American. That is statistically just as hard to do for the weird stat angle this discussion took. 

I agree with your sentiment, since you're putting a lot of stock in HS credentials we have to acknowledge Lee was 2x National FS champ and runner up during HS and placed 3rd at 16U as an 8th grader and 127 Fila Runner up.. Also let's not forget he wrestled Micic as freshman in semis who was #1 kid in the country only to tech Future Natty Champ/runner up Enrique Early for 3rd, won it as sophmore with all Bonus point wins all through his title run including 2 pins,major,and blowout win in the finals of state with 9 points being his closest match all year..
 
Then as you're fully aware was part of the biggest State finals match in state history and one the biggest at the time, in the country which is still talked about, where he was winning until the #1 p4p wrestler in the country stormed bk to defeat him.. Then didn't even wrestle senior HS season..I can't fault him or hold it against him that he knew he wasn't going to be challenged his senior season and made what turned out to be the right choice in getting his College career in gear moving to PA..
 
And to your point about 5x AA, Penn State and the the NCAAs have declared him 5x AA under the circumstances... His overall career is neck and neck with Angels rightas we speak, yes Angel won more state titles, and a natty but the last 2 years of Lee's career, he's had arguably the best overall success ever seen by any of our Indiana guys.. We need wait another 5 years and three revisit this subject and we'll have a lot more clear answer or Unanimous agreement on who is the modern G.O.A.T..Howe,Lee,Reece and Angel are def up there..
 
Also can't forget We still have to see what Allred ends up doing as well.. He's a very credentialed Guy as well that is coming along nicely under Manning  Nebraska, going 7-0 with 6 pins and a tech this redshirt season.. And that includes pinning Bastida of Iowa State who beat Iowa's 97 runner up Warner, All Americans Norfleet,Bulsak, Woodley,Elam twice, and pinned Hoffman for 5th place at the NCAAs also beatb jr FS world Champ and highly regarded Braxton Amos Bastida ..Bastida is an accomplished world class FS wrestler as well.. This speaks volumes about the development of Silas and I know his father is smiling down proud.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

From what I am hearing the entire lineup up is coming back next year.  I have also heard that they want to go with Jesse and Nic right away, but that was when they thought Jesse would be a full sized 141.  Jesse is closer to 133 then 141, so I think the summer will dictate next year.  The plan for Jesse this summer is Senior open and Junior Trails at 61 kilos(134.5).  Either way we will see a Mendez/Bouzakis back to back in some form.
 
Jesse can not wait to get to Columbus to start training.  GO BUCKS

Good luck to the Indiana squad. 6 pm match time. 

Zeke Seltzer and Jesse Mendez are on Team USA
 
Everything is on FloWrestling tonight. The Indiana vs. WPIAL dual starts at 6pm

On the heals of Marshall Fishback's run... here is a list of the wrestlers who went to state as a senior only and brought back the gold.  Curious if others know how the guys did the previous year before their title. It's impressive the jumps some made in one year.
 


Year Weight Name Year Prior 1992 125 Chris Requejo- Wawasee   1992 160 Roger Blanton- Hanover Central   1992 171 Rico Talamantes- Fort Wayne North Side   1994 103 Matt Deters- Castle   1994 145 Pete Knecht- Huntington North   1995 106 Courtney Duncan- Frankton Lost in Ticket Round to Quiyon Brooks 1995 172 Will Hill- Lawrence Central   1995 185 Darren Happe- Evansville Central   1996 215 Chad Buntin- Frankfort   1997 189 Todd Wright- Carmel   1998 145 Anthony Lapsley- Fort Wayne Snider   1998 275 Dan Spencer- Merrillville   1999 275 Tim LaMar- Wabash   2000 160 Bryce Hasseman- Franklin Community Missed weight during state series? 2000 215 Matt Hasbrook- Indianapolis Cathedral   2000 275 Jason Fryar- Whiteland   2003 160 Sam Wildeman- Evansville Mater Dei Lost at semi-state 2004 275 Chad Ruggeri- Mount Vernon (Posey)   2011 189 Garret Goldman- Bloomington North Lost in ticket round to Josh Boots 2011 285 Jeremiah Harvey- Culver Community Lost at regional to Evan Nixon 2012 170 Sean Mappes- Center Grove Lots in ticket round to Gabe Holt 2013 160 Riley McClurg- Perry Meridian Lost 1st round of SS to Nardi
2015 170 Dylan Lydy- Ben Davis Lost in ticket round via DQ 2017 170 Eli Stock- Monrovia Lost 1st round of regional to Arkee Glover 2022 285 Marshall Fishback- Rochester Pinned by eventual champ in ticket round

As most of us on here know Indiana wrestling is on the rise... but this is really cool. Maybe our best year as a state ever?!?!?
 
Naia--- Indiana tech finished 4th in the country with 2 national champs (coached by Indiana natives)
 
D3 --- Wabash is currently tied for 1st!! With guys in the finals
 
D2 --- Uindy currently in 6th with 2 in the finals. Still in the hunt for a team trophy. (Also coached by indiana natives)
 
Really neat to see our In-State teams have such success.
 

Seabass getting the 3rd seed is interesting after the MFF. Having Eirman and Seabass in the opposite side of the bracket makes a much easier road to the finals for Lee.
There was virtually no negative implications for any of the MFF's. I don't know how to make it happen but what if MFF's were unable to gain higher than 6th seed (I just picked a # maybe 10th seed would be better) do you think it would stop them? Unless we call a MFF a disquisition I don't know if we'll ever see it not being abused. I'd hate to see it go that far though.

https://www.eiwawrestling.org/HOF/Hall_of_Fame/voliva-dick?view=bio
 
It’s looks he had quite the coaching career too. 

How Many Indiana high schools put up more than 4 pts 
Possible schools
CP
ICath
MD
Browns
PH
sure there are some more outside shots 

I agree Micic is not built for 141. But 4th place in big 10's is better than 95% of people.

Zero

- Moran loses to Ayala.  Drops to 9th Place Bracket (B1G Qualifies 10).  Will have to beat Reno (NE) and Drew Hildebrandt to get there.  Tall task
- Hildebrandt lost to McKee.  Gets bye and faces Moran or Reno to guarantee a spot in the NCAA's
- Hudkins dropped a 3-1 SV1 dec.  He'll have a bye and face the winner of King Sandoval (MD) and Kyle Burwick (WI) to guarantee placement
- Red lost 10-6 SV1 to Parker Filius (see recap in previous post) in a helluva match.  Red will need to hope for an At-Large bid
- Micic won by decision over Cayden Rooks 6-5 and Frankie Tal Shahar (NW) 4-3 to advance to the consolation semifinals.  He'll wrestle for no worse than 6th and has earned a spot in the NCAAs. Add: Sebastian Rivera has MFF out of the tournament so Micic will advance to the 3rd Place Match.
- Graham Rooks dropped a 3-2 decision to Michael Blockhus (MN).  He would need an At-Large big.
- Lohrey drops a 3-2 decision and is done
- Washington loses 8-6.  B1G qualifies 12 at 184 so he drops into that bracket and will have to get a win over Jack Jessen (NW) to guarantee a bid
- Penola wins 3-2 and gets a big 4-3 win over Greg Bulsak (Rut) and advances to the consolation semifinal. He'll be in the big dance in 2 weeks.
- A. Davison lost 5-2.  He'll drop down and get a bye.  He'll have to win one of his next 2 matches to finish at least 11th and qualify for the NCAAs
- L. Davison beat Woulfe 9-2 and gets a :46 Fall over Tate Orndorff (OSU) advancing to the consolation semifinals in the morning.  

Props to 141 for excitement once again!

More props to Cayden Rooks.  Although he dropped a tough 7-6 decision to Stevan Micic, he gave him all he wanted.  Add the win over Chad Red earlier and he most definitely held his own, even though he won't place.  

Chad Red's match with Parker Filius looked a lot like his earlier match with the opposite end result.  Red started fast and held a 5-1 lead going into the 3rd Period.  An escape followed by 2 takedowns, with a Red escape mixed in, made the score 6-6 at the end of regulation.  But the excitement started just before that.  
 
Trailing 6-4 Filius tried a headlock and couldn't quite get it, then hit a throw as time was about to expire.  The referee hit 2 swipes and then slapped the mat for the fall.  Personally, I thought the 2 swipes were enough to get him 2 pts and the win, but the fall would not count.  After review, they ruled the takedown tying it at 6 counted, but time ran out before the back points were earned.  So we go to SV.

In SV, Red gets deep into a shot and Filius grabs his ankles and the scramble. Just when it looked like Red would convert, Filius popped up and locked up a cradle, as Chad had in his previous match.  He turned Red, registered the takedown and it looked as if a fall was imminent, but Chad kicked out and it was 2 and 2, for a Purdue 10-6 win.  Lots of drama in short time.

Red will finish outside the top 8 and along with Cayden Rooks will have to hope for an At-Large bid as the B1G only has 7 allocations at 141.

If we want to bring up a century old name Richard Voliva did pretty good for himself post HS with only earning two state titles.  First Big10 wrestler to become a national champ, also a national runner up and an Olympic silver medalist.  Not sure Indiana has ever had a Olympic gold yet, so he’s the standard bearer there. 

Fair warning, long post with mostly just fluff that we all agree on already:}
 
Today our MS team participated in their conference tournament. My son made the finals battling two really tough kids in the quaters and semis to get there. He wrestled to a tough 2-2 tie in regulation, losing in OT. At first, both of us were really disappointed and let down with the day. After some reflection, it happened again. I fell in love with wrestling. Someone wins, someone loses, that's the way it goes. You can do everything in your power, and if the other wrestler is doing the same, sometimes you just have to tip your cap and say, "good job," and move on. No hiding, no time-outs, no substitutions. Maybe this will always be the way for my sons. Maybe there will always be someone who is a little bit stronger or a little bit quicker, or who is just plain a little bit better. And you know what? That's OK. Climbing to the top of the podium is fantastic. However, climbing to anywhere on the podium can be valuable. This sport teaches things that no other sport does. Someone (non-wrestler, actually) once said to me that wrestling seems even harder than boxing or MMA because, in those sports, you at least get to hit someone. If you are so frustrated you are freaking out, you can (at least attempt to) strike someone to release some pressure in your brain. Not wrestling. Wrestling makes you take it, and take it, and take it. You can't fully promise someone that it will eventually pay off because maybe the other person is in the exact same situation you are. And that's OK. As hard as this sport is, it is probably the easiest sport to clearly define the benefits of participation. In closing, there is honestly no real point to this post except that this is the one place where I know people understand what I am saying. So, thank you to Joe and to everyone on here for creating a community for people in Indiana who love wrestling. And thank you to anyone who read to the end of this rambling post. Typing this out was very cathartic.

Connor Gimson NAIA National Champion!  Congrats!!

On a separate note, I'll repost here....

Congrats to Connor Gimson, NAIA National Champ!

He'll definitely get into the NCAA's.  How it affects his seed remains unseen.  As for the match tomorrow, I doubt it has any effect.  More than likely, the winner gets the #1 seed, similar to Lee - Pletcher in the Covid year.

It's interesting a big in the team race situation.  Both Iowa and Michigan get the equivalent of a fall for Rivera's MFFs.  And I guess Penn St. gets them back with Michael Kemerer MFF the semis.

On another note, Nick Lee kinda looked like he was on a mission today with a combined 32-1 score in his 2 matches.  Looking forward to see if he can create a little distance with Eierman.