maligned

Don't stress too much. We're all fallible.

Will we see an Evansville semi-state special--Boarman vs. Rooks--at 133?

Haines seems to be peaking, with the demolition of #5 Franek and #7 Robb. Generally, though, that 157 weight seems so wide open. Haines deserves to be ranked #1, but he's had some really tight coin-flip matches. Zerban at #2 is undefeated but has really only wrestled #8 Cardenas and it went to overtime. Teemer at #3, Blockhus at #4, and Franek at #5 all have bad losses on their resumes. Anyway, you get the picture. Wide open. I'd actually pick #6 Meyer Shapiro after Haines. He's a freshman just coming into his own with massive pre-college credentials. He lost twice over the holidays and hasn't lost since, controlling everyone he's faced and mostly getting bonuses against good guys. I saw him whitewash Top 10 Paddy Gallagher, 15-0, before Gallagher later went down with injury. Shapiro will be a handful at NCAAs. WrestleStat has him at #1 now.

Yeah, our past way of discussing "greatest ever" where we put Tsirtsis over Escobedo because Escobedo had a loss (out of state to a kid highly ranked in the nation)--has to get completely thrown out the window now. I mean Hockaday, our #1-ranked pound-for-pound kid, got a DNP at the Iron Man. If he goes on to win a 4th title, continues to improve nationally, and ends up a multiple-time college All-American--do we put him behind historical guys who had only 2 or 3 career losses but didn't compete out of state, just because of the record in the state finals program? It's definitely a new era.

True...my mistake.

I guess these IndianaMat rankers that had him #1 pound-for-pound know what they're talking about after all.

Boe's wrestling in Illinois. Veazy was ruled ineligible. According to an article I read, he was formally adopted by a family in Colorado that his parents in FW felt could provide a solid family situation for him away from some things in FW. But the Colorado HSAA felt, according to their rules, that there were ties too close to his coach's wrestling club for the move not to have been for athletic reasons. So they made him sit out a year.

This was a year or two ago , but Hardy-Princeton over Williams-Ev Harrison always comes to mind. Undefeated Williams had 3-loss Hardy's number until they were under the lights.

The only thing I'll say about that is that we've only seen Veazy as a sophomore, too, and his jump up from already having been in tight matches with a killer like Orlando Cruz a year ago would be significant. And...the power output from Weaver that was a problem for McConnell and Henry might be slightly reduced against a fellow uber-athlete like Veazy. I'd consider dropping another $15 to watch Veazy-Weaver, though, I'll tell you that.

What about Bradbury/Ramos? I think they saw each other 7 times in one year? I can't remember about other years?

Past matches with Weaver wouldn't have mattered much since Noah's had such rapid recent physical and skill growth into what he is now. Still, it would be tough not to pick Veazy as champ if these 3 wrestled each other.

After the last regular, "still in school" Saturday of competition in December. Or that's how it's worked out the past couple of years.

Now that the IHSAA has settled into the all-day Friday schedule for state finals, has there been any push to add semi-state 5th or 5th/6th to the state finals? I know many have proposed this in theory. That's 20 or 24 per weight, Opening Round 3v6 and 4v5 matches Friday morning, Round of 16 in the afternoon. More butts in seats, more concessions bought all day. More money all around. Plus no need to continue the endless discussion of wrestle backs at semi-state. (At semi-state, QF losers wrestle each other same time as semi-finals, 5/6 placement match same time as other placement matches)

Here is the final Team State qualification leaderboard for 2024. Teams highlighted have earned automatic bids into the event next year. That's the 3 best semi-state winners plus the next 3 best scores in 4A and all 4 semi-state winners plus the next 4 best scores in 1A, 2A, and 3A. (Note: The final 2A spot came down to the 3rd tiebreaker (most underclass ticket rounders) after points, most underclassmen, and most underclass state qualifiers were equal.) The final 2 berths in 4A and the final 4 berths in 1A, 2A, and 3A will be voted on in December. Teams with a star (*) next to their school name had injury points added in. File with all 4 weeks' updates plus enrollment and classification numbers: Team State Classification & Leaderboard 2024.xlsx Image of the final leaderboard (click on it multiple times to zoom in):

Boe's been at 157 this year and even wrestled down at 152 for Powerade.

One of the most fun things about watching state is seeing those jaw-dropping moments where we realize a kid is WAY better than we expected. You guys know this: if a kid comes from a school that doesn't wrestle a tough schedule, it's so hard to gauge how good they really are or how much progress they've made from the previous season. Most of the time, those shiny undefeated records from a weak schedule get exposed at semi-state and state. But once or twice a year, our jaws drop and we go, "Oh, crap. Kid leveled up. Dude's for real." For me, there were 2 kids like that this year: Easton Doster and Noah Weaver Neither of these guys was new on the scene. And both had some off-season success that could have suggested an upward trajectory. But there were other guys with glossy records like them, too, who turned out to be on a "regular" trajectory of slightly better than last year once they got thrown in the fire. But when Doster hit that insane low single on Courtney that he could have hit on most D1 starters, it was an, "Oh crap. Dude's arrived" kind of moment. Then to see how slick he was both on attack and on defense the rest of that match on through the final against someone like Walker was super impressive. He is SO athletic and sharp and slick. Wow. And Noah Weaver? Holy Andrew Howe, Batman. That kid's got some pace and heavy hands and hips and an engine that do not stop. Geez! To go from getting smashed by fellow underclassmen Cashman and Costello at 170 at semi-state and state in 2023 to being a 190 that runs circles around #2 McConnell and leads wire-to-wire over nationally ranked and Indiana #1 Henry? WOW. "Leveled up" would be the understatement of the weekend. Mad, mad props to these two. It was so fun to watch them this weekend. Can't wait to see what they do next.

And Top 5 placing teams: Evansville: 1 2 5 6 7 New Castle: 4 8 9 17t 17t East Chicago 3 13t 13t 21 22 Fort Wayne 10 12 13t 13t 23

That's the point. We're consistently around 9-12th in overall talent depth nationally--but in terms of winning an individual state title, we're up there a notch higher because of the forced depth of the field compared to other states.

I've always felt open tournament results suggest D2-D3-NAIA all-americans are roughly D1 starter level and D2-D3-NAIA champs are D1 national qualifier level. Using those comparisons, 13 of 14 from 2016 were good enough and stuck with college wrestling to the point of being D1 starter-caliber or better. That's shocking. Reaching that level, even after a good high school career, requires a LOT going right personally and athletically. Amazing group.

He also seemed to misunderstand the question about how meaningful it was to be the second warrior to win it that night. His answer made him come across self-absorbed--but he clearly just missed the question. Again, easy to understand after such a big moment and still getting oxygen back in the brain.

Round by round results of each Semi-State: Friday night: Evansville: 37 - 19 New Castle: 29 - 27 East Chicago: 25 - 31 Fort Wayne: 21 - 35 Quarterfinals: Evansville: 21 - 16 Fort Wayne: 12 - 9 East Chicago: 12 - 13 New Castle: 11 - 18 Semifinals: Evansville: 12 - 9 New Castle: 6 - 5 East Chicago: 6 - 6 Fort Wayne: 4 - 8 Finals: Evansville: 6 - 6 New Castle: 4 - 2 Fort Wayne: 3 - 1 East Chicago: 1 - 5 Number of scoring teams: New Castle: 17 Fort Wayne: 14 Evansville: 13 East Chicago: 12 Total team points: Evansville: 497 New Castle: 314.5 East Chicago: 308.5 Fort Wayne: 237.5

I was way off in my perception of how tight this match might be. Kudos to Hockaday. I thought he'd win and I was right that Thrine would score, but I was on the wrong side of the whole discussion of whether it would be close or not. On paper, Hockaday '24 and Frazier '23 had similar accolades coming into their matches with Thrine--but I failed to give enough credit to how impactful Hockaday's pace and physicality are in matches against guys a little below his level. He simply leaves no doubt when he's better than someone.

Definitely. He looked like he could step into a D1 lineup immediately. I was super impressed.

Not common. Don't know if it ever happened. Andrew Davison losing when he was #2 in the state and nationally ranked is the only other one that comes clearly to mind.

Chicoine definitely had to have a potential Clark rematch in the back of his mind after almost beating him last week and having made it to the final last year. It goes to show once again that upsets don't mean someone was overrated in many cases--anyone can lose.