MattM

113: 9 - Dickman

126: 12 - Schafer

132: 18 - Hockeday

175: 11 - Veasy (IN gonna still claim him)

The former Yorktown standout looking to take another national title.  She worked her way back from a prior season ending injury and has transferred to North Central.  Hopefully she can get it done one more time in her final season of eligibility.  

While these other guys sure are entertaining and keep us on our toes I'm sticking with my original nomination for this first round and honoring those who had or have continued to bring a wealth of Indiana Wrestling knowledge and history this this board.  As Team Garcia said @grecoref and @TheAncientElder deserve a ton of credit in that department.  Plus, @hook and half continues to be a wealth of historical information for one of Indiana's best programs and the competition they faced.  I'll cast my vote for the entertainment portion of the crowd next year, as you guys really liven up this place way more than I do.

Lots of solid posters throughout the years.  Many are still very active today and continue to bring great content.  I’m especially appreciate to those who in recent years have helped grow the College Board from its basement dwelling to the useful resource it has become.  

But, as a historian at heart I have to give my original shoutout for great posters past posters like  @TheAncientElder and current posters wrestling historians like @hook and half, as well as, elder statesmen like @Coach Peck.  And @Y2CJ41 over the years has taken to collection and preserve many pieces of historic information, much which has became searchable on this website.  feel it’s essential to show acknowledgement to those great individuals, teams, and moments that have made Indiana wrestling what it is today and those guys have been here to help ensure we keep that alive. I’m sure I’ve missed several other like them who have contributed a lot to the historical knowledge of this site, so hopefully some other posters can put them up as nominees. 

The other thing that would help is wrestlers starting their weight management plan during the preseason.   Much easier to make a gradual drop that your body can handle over the course of a few months than trying to push to make a drop way into the season. 

1 hour ago, Bulldog89 said:

.... just eating better....

And that is part about managing your weight that I think many HS kids and their parents don't get or at least aren't willing to fully buy into.  Some kids can eat 3 decent meals regularly, have occasional cheat meals, and even get stronger as the season progresses all while maintaining or even losing weight. But that's because they and their parents have made the effort to ensure they are eating better and continue to work hard during practice.   But, that's the off-the-mat dedication and mental game that some kids and parents have made the choice to buy into. 

We all hear about kids who say they can't make the weight though, but in some cases, I don't see that as a cutting issue, its poor off-the-mat decisions and lack of a buy-in to themselves, their team, and the sport.  We all have some kids who are choosing to routinely make poor food choice decisions, sometimes overindulge, and then trying to over-exercise and starve a day or two before weigh-ins.  We then often hear that same kid or parents say as the season progresses that they can't make the weight cut with most pointing out they are barely eating the last couple of days. To me, that is not a cutting weight issue it is a poor weight management issue.  We often have to concede this routine isn't going to change and tell the kid and parent they will need to move up a weight class.  But then low and behold most of those kids will balloon up close to the top of that new weight too and are still sluggish on the mat due to more bad eating habits. 

You can throw all sorts of nutrition talks and guides at them to help show that making better eating choices will improve their performance on the mat and make maintaining their weight all season possible.  You can even point out that this isn't about eating small portions or only choosing to eat "twigs and leaves" every meal, but about pre-planning food decisions to ensure you have good options available on a routine basis.  However, until the kids and parents (since they do provide some of those food choices to their kids have a better buy-in on the value of nutritious eating we will still hear some kids and parents talking about cutting too much weight and/or eating little days before the meet.   I also believe there are some effective ways to promote healthy eating habits and removing some of the extreme cutting, but part of that also comes from developing a culture where the other teammates and family understand what supporting each other really means.  

TP & Esco what niche wrestling market blast from the past!  Now where are the FlipHeadphones and ProPower Shirts at????

18 hours ago, SunDevils said:

Steven Bradley (people forget how dominant he actually was) 

I have a first hand experience of it. I’m not sure how much he sucked down or how he even managed it, but he felt every bit of a  a 150lber in a 125lb weight class.   Definitely wouldn’t meet todays weight certification requirements. 

If you held it now, and pulled in all the top guys, the 317 Indy area just got 9 of the 14 state champs.  It may take some “gerymandering” like IN’s 9 House district to somewhat evenly split that cluster up. 

The Not Top 10 as ESPN portrays it generally consider to be embarrassing blooper and ridiculous errors of well paid adult professional athletes. Most of yours is call out kids who already had an off day and give no credit to their opponents rising to the occasion and finding their own moment. Just because top CP wrestlers, and a few others,  didn’t win a tough match doesn’t mean it should fall into this type of Not Top 10 embarrassing type call out.  In my view most of your 10 are not good takes.  Heck some of them aren’t even big upsets ranking wise. Your own picks may not have been Top 10 calls but no need to call any of these kids to task just because they didn’t live up to your picks. If this was a joke it was done way too poorly in taste.  Get some sleep, you’ve had a long day. 

The following take (posted below) is more along the lines of the type of Not Top 10 criticism of this years state event that is worth pointing out.  I can at least respect those thoughts cause it’s about the process and someone could actually consider those ideas when planning future events.  

I feel the refs give you a little more leaway when you win a state title than they would after other matches.  That being said they likely don’t come out and say that and the narrative all year via the IHSAA has been to watch sportsmanship, including not over doing any post match celebrations.  I feel some kids cautioned on the said of ensuring they didn’t cost their team a point after having heard that all season. There are a few wrestlers that let a little added emotion fly.   If you  look at all the post game celebration of this years state championship team sports I’d say letting backflip or would be right in line with how others had celebrated.  Most refs also get the magnitude of the situations too, they just aren’t going to say ahead of time we will let you get by with 30sec of acrobatics if you win the state finals. 

2 minutes ago, Beamaker said:

 at least pretend like wrestling matters as much as basketball!

11 minutes ago, Spladle Nation said:

3 of the top 5 teams are in the mooresville regional.

Five of the Top 7 are in Evansville SS.  With only 4 individual spots for the taking as usual managing to get wrestlers out of there, especially not in 4th, is a battle in itself with those squads taking up several spots (almost 60% this year). 

16 minutes ago, HWTDAD said:

Just an incredible race. I am sure there has never been one with 3 teams that tight.

Definitely not in the recent history of State.  Two yes but three nope.  

Congrats to Waylon Cressell.  Several out of state studs have come into Indiana over the past several decades, but most don’t win out single class state title.  If you take away Sergio Lemley’s Covid Year (and he’s actually a IN born and raised that jumped borders for school) I’m not sure we can find too many out of state studs that won a title here. Especially year one. 

I think the team race proved you have to show up in numbers, have your head on right, and survive a gauntlet of tough competition if you want to win it.  Crown Points a heck of a team but it just wasn’t the weekend most envisioned they would have.  No knock on Crown Point as they may have had a couple bad beats but are still a crazy good team. This should really be about putting more respect on just how impressive many of or other individual wrestlers are in this state.  Some have been overlooked due to the shine of these “super teams.” There are lots a land mines to run into at state and Crown Point unfortunately hit a few today.  When the competition is good enough to make matches razor thin then you have to be close to perfect on the day or you are done. Also gotta say I’m very impressed that Brownsburg and even Center Grove never lost faith. They kept grinding and let the energy build for them as the tournament progressed.  CP deserves the Team Dual State Championship, but when thrown in an event against all the individual talent our state has they just couldn’t find a smooth path through in this particular weekend.  The state of Indiana wrestling has shown once again that it is growing stronger. 

If I noticed correctly there were first time school champs tonight.  That’s awsome for their programs. 

Now that State Final are all in the books what’s on your mind.  

Kevin Whitehead he is not but the announcer seemed to do a decent job trying to keep some respect on the position.  At least as far as what I could hear on the stream.  

6 minutes ago, markio said:

t was either this or wrestle with all of the sports lights on, and it doesn’t quite have the same feel as lights out wrestling.

Based on last year at State with the bright advertising ring on as well as other lights this is definitely true. 

2 minutes ago, oldfat119 said:

where did u find it??

https://www.ihsaatv.org

Upcoming and Live Events  the 7th video over. 

At lear tell the camera people to stay with the on mat views or keep the long view cam on zoom.   The long shot cam is definitely too dark for good viewing. 

If I was a ref I’d like a little more lighting on the mat.  There are some shady spots from the view we are seeing.  Need to invest in some dimmable lights somewhere focused on the mat.  That way it’s not as bright as last year’s issue but still give a little more lighting to help refs out.  

Just a heads up the Live Broadcast is about to start at 8 and it looks like they maybe running Face-Offs before the previously stated 8:30 Finals time.