MattM

Wouldn’t be the first time they had the other preliminary all-star weekend events in a separate nearby arena (i.e. Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse) then have the main game inn sunday in the larger venue. I guess it depends on Hinkles seating compacity when compared to the average attendance of events like the Slam Dunk contest. So we could still be good for the Friday and Saturday at Bankers Life. The other alternative would obviously be to shift the state series a week later than the normal spot. Can’t imagine the IHSAA moving it to a smaller venue with less seating if they could help it.

I'm stuck behind this year watching my kids and then running youth practice those days, so you may have another rain check on that one. I'll see if I can search one down though.

If the current owner of the Pin Chain gets pinned does he hand it over to the other team. Seems only fair.

Not to hijack the thread, but it's a double edged sword with that. Problem with that is small schools mostly wrestling small schools it that it often ends up resulting in trading FF with few actual matches occurring. Wrestlers also lose interest much quicker when they work hard all week, put the work in to make weight, wake up early, travel far away, and spend most of the morning not getting any actual competition in. At least when you wrestle most big teams and some V2 teams they have a full roster which means your getting matches in individual even if at the end of the day the teams record hurting due to some FF's in the lineup.

The recent change to a Open enrollment education system could also be a small factor if the number keeps trending up. As students more easily moving to new schools, even if its really for academic reasons, they are often enrolling in a school that has the ability to offer a larger selections of extra curricular activities, including wrestling. Again we will have to wait an see if its an a trend or just a blip.

As mentioned about its probably several factors, including possibly some errors in counting or a different method in count (start of season vs. end of season numbers) that in previous years. I'm sure a big factor is still IN continuing to improve on the quality of HS coaches who are also great recruiters for their programs. Another factor maybe the retention of kids in the youth programs. When many of these HS kids were young their areas were just starting to develop a true youth program rather than just a off season travel opportunity. Retention is a heck of a lot easier way to fill most of a squad rather than trying to recruit new kids. An additional small factor could be the change in the Freestyle rules. Again many of these HS kids were in their youth when the US Wrestling finally decided to give up on the 3 separate match, ball grab sudden victory, confusing rule set. That rule set drove many people way from participating in youth events and likely some of them found other avenues other than wrestling. The new rule set has been more accepted and translates more with those already trying folkstyle. As a result participation in USA Wrestling events is rising some, which mean some more kids are gaining experience that will lead them to trying wrestling in MS/HS instead of looking for other avenues to fill their time.

With it just stating to be noticed I don’t think it has a lot to do with it yet. But even a little bit more participation helps the overall number. Well see over the next few years of the number stay or go up as the new uniform gets more exposure.

It should somewhat change. They basically tally the tournament team race off the individual state rankings. Scoring each wrestlers ranking position as their predicted state placement and the points that go with it.

Says Dual at the top of the link, so I’m going with that.

1 Gold, 2 Bronze, & a 5th. Decent showing considering the earlier results.

Well last day of U23s and all 4 US guys make it to a medal placement match (1 finals, 3 bronze). Good finish for what was a disappointing trip for the tram.

U23 is definitely the black sheep of our 2017 International Tournaments.

Much better start than our Greco team had. Hope she and the rest of the squad can keep it up.

I know you have to sync/upload the videos from MatBoss back to their cloud data base. Depending on the number of matches that may take a little time and they recommend you plug in the iPad while the process is going. There is a video tutorial section on MatBoss which can help with some of this if your still not sure what you may have missed.

Well I’m not thinking he’s isn’t going to. Most freshman tend to progress from their first matches rather than regress. As he gets more matches in against top guys he’s bound to get a better feel for their style and his coaches are more than capable of helping him make needed adjustements for a rematch. One area he could definitely find improvement against Meridith is in neutral. He only took 1 shot this entire match and much of the time did more fiants/fakes than actual hand fighting. That gave Meridith an opportunity to get in on a few good shots by, as well as, it didn’t really make Meridith feel threatened on his feet for much of the match. The 1 shot Red had with less than 1min left was the one he scored on. Not saying that he will score every time but by being more offensive in the rematch it keeps Meridith off his own offense and it could leads to an earlier takedown that would build his confidence sooner. After seeing how the match played out I would think his coaches would push him to hand fighting and be in attack mode earlier. You can tell he was hesitant with his neutral opportunities for most of the match. I’d say that hesitation won’t be there as much as he get more big match time in. That takedown had to give him some confidence but with less than 1min left there wasn’t much time to use it. Clearly it threw Meridith off his game a little, since things escalated right after that. Not sure he’ll be able to do much more different on top or bottom next time, but while he lost some riding time he wasn’t really turned. So I can’t see him giving up additional points that would widen the gap more. I didn’t say he would win the match next time or be in the hunt for a national title this year, but I’d think there is more to indicate the possibility of a closer match next time than there is to show it wouldn’t be.

Yes, 10-5 But, keep in mind Meredith is a Senior returning NCAA Runner-Up who lost a close 3-2 decision in the finals. Reds a Redshirt Freshman in his first college dual match. You have to think he can close that scoring gap some if they meet again later on. Here is the video, although its currently behind the Flo pay wall. https://www.flowrestling.org/video/6046831-141lbs-bryce-meredith-wyoming-vs-chad-red-nebraska

Yes they have a video on Flo. I don't have time to get to it at the moment, but I watched it yesterday. Red likely was growing increasingly frustrated at his inability to get offense going and Meredith scoring several time on him. Near the end of the match Red scored a out of bounds takedown off a great double leg. At some point during the finish of takedown and the stoppage something was either done or said which upset Red enough to at least bump into Meredith. Something was likely said by one of them which caused Meredith to confront Red. CJ didn't back down walking towards Meredith. Meredith grabbing Reds throat. Red threw a punch, though not a big bomb, likely to get Meredith off his throat than to go for the KO. Coaches rushed in at the same time to break them up. 1 penalty point was awarded to each wrestlers for the others misconduct. I agree that it really didn't look like it needed to escalate to that level but when neither wanted to back down something was bound to occur.

Great school and great area, he’ll love it.

Great they did get my nomination for "National Super Smile of the Year!" Way to go Brayton, with a little time developing those cheek muscles you can bring the title back to Brownsburg.

Yes, overall the Fresh/Soph Brackets got done within a reasonable time. For a first year event, those putting it on did well considering they had little clue who would show. 16-24 man brackets are workable, although it still makes for a long day. But under your combined plan I’m not sure it would get done at a decent time if the same number of F/S qualifiers showed and then add just as many for each of the 17 MS weights. I like the combined idea since it helps wrestlers, coaches, parents, fans, etc. get a great display of our young talent. I’m sure it could be built up to feel like a true state finals experience too. But for that to occur and to get people cleared out before its super late they would have lower the number of qualifiers so the brackets are within reason for a 31 weight class event. And yes you could double or triple the competitor numbers, find a location where you can spread out between 2 gyms and a large fieldhouse, then run the finals like they are just another match on one of the random mat. Things get done before midnight but I’m not sure that a state finals worthy format. I’m talking about a state finals event where at least the semi-finals and finals get a little more “main gym” attention like the competitors deserve and more fan would be willing show see (in person or at least paying online). Sure it’s not going to be a HS State Final type thing, but I think thing can be organized finish at a decent time and still highlight the best MS and Fresh/Soph wrestling in the state.

That would work great as long as the system was set to limit the number of qualifiers to the state competition. As it stood last year the large number of fresh/soph qualifiers that got invited to state causes for some decent size brackets and a long day too. Hopefully after year one the qualification process get more streamline so the state brackets are manageable, state feels a little more prestigious, and we can add something like MS state to the same date.

Guessing Lydy doesn’t choose down.

Yes the NCAA adjusted their ruler to allow HS wrerlers to compete against college athletes at these Open events. I would fully expect Joe to take advantage of this rule in order to get some added competition. As for Nick I’m sure he’s chomping at the bit to help his team out, but taking the redshirt is useful too. A redshit should lets him get more of the class load out of the way, build more college level strength, and develop more as a wrestler in order to make a great 4 year run in the future. Plus, with PSU being this stacked he will be helping his team make a title run for several years to come. But if they do pull his red shirt I’m sure it’s will be very similar to Mark Hall where Sanderson realized he needed someone else to ensure the team title also knew that’Hall was capable of winning an individual title.

Lefever takes 3rd.