hammer

Thomas Hammock - Bishop Luers

3rd - 171 Junior

3rd - 189 Senior

Senior year he lost in the semis when an obvious stalemate was never called.  He was as quick/slick on his feet as you will see at 189lbs.

At Carroll-Raypole (CA) over previously unbeaten Siddons(CH) in the semis.

103-10

112-11(Phillips)

119-11(Ayersman))

125-10

130-10

135-11(Kieffer)

140-11(Tsirtsis)

145-11(Roach)

152-11(Welch)

160-10

171-11(Bratcher)

189-11(Sliga)

215-10

275-10

Someone else probably has better specifics on this, but I remember that Colin Warner(Tipton) beat Deron Wynn from Missouri the year before Wynn would win Fargo at 215.  

Snider Hwt. Greg Wagoner was All-State in Football and Track, winning a State Championship in Wrestling.

I would imagine that Blake Maurer would have to just about have as many blue rings as anybody..

 

4 individual state titles

multiple team state titles (anybody know how many?)

possibly multiple football state titles as well? (again, need someone in the know to bail me out)

Mauer should have 3 Team State titles, and one football state title. 

  Hector Mendez  5 losses, Tshisrt beat him the year before for 1st place.

 

Jake obrien 215  had 4 losses his junior year and i think they all came from Nate Moore 189

O'Brien lost to Moore, twice.  The other 2 losses were SS defaults.  I think I remember him being sick or having mono.  It set up a match up on Friday night with Bauhman(sp?) of Portage, who was the next best kid in the weight class.

Maurer vs. Dolly!

I would agree on Mauer vs. Dolly.  Another one that comes to mind is Carr vs. Harper.

Good for AJ what a showman and a coach

I agree.  Glad to see my old coach get in! 

That is not the way the IHSAA has interpreted it.  They would make a coach sit if his 112 lber. weighed in at 114 at sectional, 121 at team regional and then back at 114 for individual regional.

Here in lies the problem.  The IHSAA wrote the rule one way, and chose to interpret it another way.    On how it is worded, ACComputer is correct.  However, the IHSAA gets the final say on it, and they choose to disagree with their own rule that they wrote.

The rankings look solid, as usual.  I do have a question for the Rankings Guy.  You have the HN HWT. ranked, who hasn't wrestled all year, but will be returning.  Would you rank the backup, too, if you felt like he was one of the 16 best(not saying that he is) in the state?

only if you are all bout change and hope.

That deserves a Wahoo!

He lost via injury default when he illegally slammed a Michigan kid.

Wouldn't that be a loss via DQ?

The highest level wrestlers that I have coached all had much better offense than defense.  More often than not, great offense will be harder to stop.  I used tell one of them, who placed 3rd at State 2X, that his best defense was his offense.  A good offensive attack could take him down, but a good defense couldn't stop his great offense. 

I wasn't aware of that, but I am glad to hear that he is back on the mat.

I thought Brooks was sitting out the whole year.  Was it only the first semester?

I am pretty sure the Big 3 Holiday tournaments everyone compares are the Al Smith, Mater  Dei, and Connersville.  I have been to 2 of the 3 (Al Smith and Mater Dei) and wrestled in 1 ( Al Smith).  I would say that the caliber of teams overall has to go to Al Smith.  Mater Dei is tough tourney but I just did not feel the same atmosphere down there that the Al Smith provides.  There are always great suprises, big upsets, breakout wrestlers, and possible previews of State Final matches at the Al Smith.  I believe there are less wrestlers who have won the Al Smith 4 times than wrestlers have won State 4 times!  32 Teams, full wrestlebacks, and usually an excellent run tournament getting out of there at a decent hour on the second day.  Wrestling fans could not ask for much more that the Al Smith provides for two days.  I guess if I had one complaint it would be the split gym format on the first day, but that is nit picking.  Looking forward to making it out there and observing some great wrestling for the first time this year.

I may be incorrect on this, but I believe that Randy Baker(Bellmont) might be the only 4 time Al Smith champ, and he didn't win state.

This is going to be an incredible battle of contrasting styles!  I am pulling for Howe, and  have little doubt that he'd beat Burroughs in freestyle, but I could see folkstyle going either way.  I was originally picking Howe, because of Burroughs coming off a major injury, but it looks like he's back to his pre-injury form. 

Back when I coached at Bishop Luers, this was the springboard for a lot of our wrestlers to making the jump to state.  We always looked at it as if you can place top 4, you should get out of FW SS.  It probably varies based on which SS you are coming out of, but a lot of the stronger teams from the FW SS used to compete there.  That has changed in recent years, as less FW area teams are there, and other FW area teams like Yorktown have become a powerhouse.

False, Angel had one loss. He lost to Gomez from Illinois.  He was undefeated in Indiana, yes. But not his career.

Mauer lost twice in HS.  Once to JD Bergmen (OH),  as a Junior, and  to an Indiana wrestler as either a Freshman or Sophamore.

Good article.  Thanks for posting it!

Why?

Because the "true champion" used to have to be a champion along the way at every step.  How is the guy that can't beat someone in his weight class, and not only can't beat the guy, but also loses to him in the state tournament, but ends up beating another guy that beat that guy the "true champion"?

I know the rules on forfiets...the coach has the luxury to forfiet just before the match, however I am curious as to why they do that and why doesn't their athlete take a loss?  It is my understanding that the wrestler recieving the forfiet gets a win and the team gets the points but, the wrestler forfieting isn't penalized.  Seems to me that this "strategy" is only there to protect records, which is a poor excuse.  If a team has capable wrestlers (capable being not injured, and has wrestled previously in the meet or in rest of the meet) and  they choose not to wrestle them in one duel then shouldn't there be a penalty to the team giving the forfiet?

 

Basically, if a team wrestlers a weight class at a meet and has healthy wrestlers, then decides to not wrestle a weight class  (in which they have wrestlers on the roster at that weight class who are healthy and continue to compete in the meet) then the individual should take a loss.  I also believe that if a weight class is forfieted early in a meet, then they have to forfiet that weight class the rest of the meet.  

 

Just seems like a bunch of crap to me.  I know some of you call it strategy, but I call it crap.  Not all, but most wrestling teams have a second for each weight class on Varsity or JV team that can stand in if there is an injury.  There is just no excuse that I can think of... Looking forward to this feedback.

Forfeiting a given match is all about strategy and it it no one's business but the coach's as to why he chooses to.  I know that you have to take into account that when you have a young team of inexperienced wrestlers, sometimes you sit a kid because of injury, and sometimes you sit the kid who you know won't last 30 seconds, and may very well get injured in the process.  You also need to be careful not to set new kids up for failure before they develop a love of the sport, because they will often end up hating it and quit if you throw them to the wolves.  That being said, different kids will handle things differently, and as a coach, it is your job to figure out who will and who won't be able to handle given situations.

Stop it Y2.  I just punched my computer again.  Personally, I don't mind a classed individual, but just to get you going again I can argue.  Winning state at a small school class is not "equal".  For example, Lets say there were 3 classes.  Each class had a 100 teams.  The average school population for the 3 classes are 400, 800, and 1200.  That means there are 40000 kids in the small class, 80000 kids in the med. class, and 120000 kids in the large class.  The large class individual has to be better than a lot more kids. 

I still can't figure out why those people that are completely against a classed individual tournament get ticked off when someone mentions only advancing champions on each level.  If someone was a Sectional runner up and went on to win State, how would we know that they were the real champion?  If classing is so bad, let's go back to only winners advancing.  We could eliminate a round of the tournament, too, and then we could advance Regional champs to State.

I have seen far too many wrestlers that are prime examples that being from a small school hurts them every bit individually just as it hurts their team when competing with teams from bigger schools.  Practice partners matter a lot more than a lot of people on here want to admit.  Competing in a Spring and/or Fall sport, as athletes at most small schools have to do, does adversely affect those individuals more so than it affects big school athletes.  If anyone can't understand that, then they never competed/coached at a small school.