No One Famous

This is an incredible pick up to keep the best IN kids.  I love the addition. 
Now, can he coach?  Lol

Fans at IU matches better strap in for a long day, where every match goes to tiebreakers at 1-1. 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – IU head coach Angel Escobedo has announced the addition of three time All-American and NCAA Champion Jason Tsirtsis as a volunteer assistant coach.
Tsirtsis, a native of Crown Point, Ind., where he won four state championships in high school, started his college career at Northwestern where in his redshirt freshman season he won the NCAA Championship at 149 lb. That year, in 2014, Tsirtsis also was the Big Ten Champion, Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Intermat Freshman of the Year and Midlands Champion.
Tsirtsis concluded his collegiate career in 2017-18 with Arizona State as an All-American with a seventh-place finish at NCAAs. He was named the Comeback Wrestler of the Year at the NCAA Championships by FloWrestling.
I'm very excited to add Jason Tsirtsis to our staff,” Escobedo said.  “Since day one, our focus has been to keep the best kids in state and I believe having an Indiana legend like Jason will help achieve this goal. He will work directly with our middle weights (149-165) and we are excited to have him join our program.”
“I am extremely excited to join the wrestling family down in Bloomington,” Tsirtsis said.  “Angel has done a great job at changing the culture within the program and I'm thrilled to help further the growth & development of our wrestlers. I can't wait to get down to Bloomington!”

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Jesse will be defending his #1 ranking... hopefully in Carver Hall.  The Viper pit looked like a cool venue, but I think Hawkeye nation will have way better attendance... plus are family and friends won't have that far to drive.  We are so pumped about this.  

Mt Vernon took a team for the first time, all MV kids. We forfeited 195 all tourney. Went 6-4, loosing 3 duals by 3 points and 1 by 6 I think. Had 2 8th graders and 5 freshmen in the lineup. After loosing all those heartbreakers in our pool, we bounced back and won the bronze bracket.  Finished with 8 AA’s! Had a blast, learned a lot! We’ll be back!

More people from Indiana have Googled Estonia over the past few days than ever before and with good reason. After this weekend Indiana will have four representatives at the Junior World Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. For those of you that want a little geography lesson, Tallinn is the largest city and capital of Estonia. Estonia is a country that has about 1.3 million people and is about half the size of Indiana. It is a very historical city and sits on the Baltic Sea.  Wikipedia has a lot of great information Tallinn and Estonia, just click here for that info.
Now onto the wrestling part, which is why you’re here. Last week Alara Boyd was dominant in her quest to make her first Junior World Team at Women’s Nationals in Texas. After medaling twice as a cadet she is looking for her third world medal in as many tries this year.
The men duked it out this weekend in Raleigh this past weekend looking to join Boyd in Tallinn. Lucas Davison had an immense advantage sitting out until the second day already in the best of three finals. Brayton Lee was the top seed in the challenge tournament in an extremely deep weight class. Lastly, Mason Parris decided a couple weeks ago to start training for the event and with his Fargo placement last year was given the three seed. The tournament brackets were small due to a limited number of qualifiers. Most brackets were 8 man or less with a couple that had around 10 competitors.
Parris’ path to Estonia was quite unique to say the least. Not only was entering the trials a late decision, the top two wrestlers from the Junior Open did not come to the trials. That left the weight wide open as Anthony Cassioppi was considered a big favorite to win the weight.
Parris had one match on Saturday where he defeated Virginia Tech’s John Borst 7-4. That put him in the best of three finals against Wiconsin’s Trent Hillger with whom he defeated during the NCAA season. In the first match of the best of three series Hillger topped Parris 7-6 after a late flurry of action that almost gave Parris the win. The second an third matches were quite different as Mason go after it early with a tech fall in the second match and a pin in about a minute in the last match.
Lucas Davison saw North Carolina’s Brandon Whitman in the finals. Whitman was an NCAA qualifier last year for the Tar Heels as a true freshman. Davison dominated the first match 9-0 with a big 8 point first period. In the second match he wrestled a little more conservatively and won 5-0. Not only will Davison have Indiana friends on the Junior World Team, his Wildcat teammate Yahya Thomas is also on the team.
Brayton Lee had quite the weekend to say the least. Brayton employed quite a unique strategy all weekend long and while it took a few more hairs off his dad Brett’s head it worked out well in the end. He started Friday out with a late tech fall of Justin McCoy who wrestles for Virginia. After that match the drama began. In the challenge bracket semi-finals he faced off with rival Jacori Teemer. They have wrestled three times before and every match was pure pandemonium. This match would be no different. Teemer raced out to a 7-0 lead in the first period on a couple snatch singles and pushout. At the start of the second period something changed…that being Lee broke the ice. He scored 12 straight points to take the lead and ended up winning 12-9.
In the bracket finals Lee had Peyton Robb who was a redshirt for Nebraska last year. This time Robb raced out to an 8-2 lead late in the first period before rattling of four late points to close the gap to 8-6 at the break. The second period once again was all Lee as he racked up 11 more points to win 17-6.
Next up for Lee would be Ohio State’s Sammy Sasso who made quick work of him in Vegas. Lee was prepared to not give up a leg lace, but early on may have forgotten about leg defense. Sasso came out hungry and was up 6-0 after the first period. Another early score in the second period it looked like the match would be cut early due to a tech fall. However, Mr. Lee had other plans. He kept the pressure on and started to crack the ice with constant pressure and heavy hands. Lee started with one takedown, then another with a turn, then a pushout and for good measure two more takedowns to eventually break Sasso. The final score was 11-8 after 11 straight points by Lee.
The final match had a little less drama as you could tell Sasso was still tired both mentally and physically from the first one. Sasso got an early push-out, but Lee rattled off another 8 points to win convincingly 8-1 and earn his trip to Tallinn. On the weekend Lee scored 47 points in the second period while only allowing 7(3 to McCoy and 2 each to Teemer and Sasso).
This year is the third time we have had multiple representatives in the same age group and style at a World Championships. The two other times were when Angel Escobedo and Reece Humphrey both represented the USA at the University Championships in 2010 and the Senior Championships in 2013. Before this weekend Indiana has had six others qualify for the Junior World Championships: Leroy Vega(1999), Matt Coughlin(2006), Angel Escobedo(2007), Andrew Howe(2009), Jason Tsirtsis(2013), and Stevan Micic(2015). Micic and Howe both brought home bronze medals.
On the senior side of things three Indiana natives had solid days on the mat. Kayla Miracle fresh off claiming her third straight spot on a U23 team made quick work of Desiree Zavala spending less than two minutes on the mat total in two matches. She pinned Zavala in 1:10 in the first match and almost broke a sweat in a 34 second tech in the second. She clinched a spot in Final X where she will face Mallory Velte in the best of three series for a spot on the senior world team. Last year Velte won the series in three matches and went on to win a bronze medal at the World Championships.
On the men’s side of things Riley Lefever and Ben Harvey came into the challenge bracket as a 5 and 7 seed respectively. Both exceeded seed expectations and placed 3rd and 4th. For Lefever he lost to Ohio State’s Kollin Moore in his first bout. He beat three-time All-American Tim Dudley in his first consolation match then avenged his loss to Moore for 3rd place.
Harvey faced Mark Hall first round and dropped that match. He defeated Stacey Davis and Geno Morelli in the consolations before falling to Nick Becker in the 3rd place bout.
Overall Indiana had a great few days on the mat and will be well represented at the world level. Currently we have five representatives on teams with the cadet teams determined in a couple weeks and both Hildebrandt and Miracle two wins from earning their spots at Final X. Both girls will be at Final X in Lincoln on June 15th.

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WEST POINT.  We are proud of you #SETL

Congratulations to Clayton Fielden from Garrett for signing with Army West Point. He is projected to wrestle 174.
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Congratulations to Jayden Williams from Avon for signing with Marian. He is projected to wrestle 197.

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Surprising not to see Donahue on there since he was #3 on Flo’s big board last summer.

Tallinn Open FS update! Nate Rioux finished 6th, Ray Rioux finished 4th and Cheaney Schoeff won the tournament! Great showing by #WestsideWingmen in Estonia!
Avon boys getting that international experience! Proud of them dudes! 

I am beginning to agree that a 3rd official should do the review at the NCAA.  I know they won't do that in dual meets, but for conference and national tournaments, it should done that way.  Very few calls are overturned.  I think the referees that made the call have it in their head and aren't looking at it from a fresh perspective.  JMO

Also, anyone else fill out brackets for NCAAs? I went and made my picks, and there’s a real possibility Lydy and Brunner both place. In my picks, I have Lydy hitting Skatzka in the ticket round who he’s never lost to, and Brunner hitting Traxler, who he’s split with. Really hoping for Ersland’s first AA this weekend. 

I promise..... kids are begging to come in and learn Asa’s stuff!!!! Come check it out after spring break!!! 
Solid room tonight!!! I legit walked in the room and saw this!!!

We are ready to roll again next Thursday at 6pm in the #BoneYard!  It has been packed every week and we expect the same this week.  We have another UNDEFEATED STATE CHAMPION coming in for you:
Carson Brewer 
Placed 3rd at Flo
Ranked 14th in the Country
Come see some elite technique.  Then, the gloves come off with lots of live.  There will be plenty of hammers of all weights.  
#PainTrain
Snyder 

Congratulations to Jacob Burford from Crown Point for signing with Wisconsin-Parkside. He is projected to wrestle 149.

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Coach Mayabb ! The Man, The Innovator . The Legend. Came into Avon room last year and changed my sons perspective on Winning & Learn. Changed Avon Program I think . Made practices fun . Made Greco fun. Coach knows a lot . Big Fan !

Coach Mayabb has this big book that is just full of knowledge. He came into our room and got through about 3 of 1,000 pages! Seriously, one can only imagine the wealth of knowledge and technique in his book / binder. Super impressive man. 

A board without a @TeamGarcia is not a board I wish to post on...amirite??

285 Jamichael Watts from North Central has accepted!

The only thing to dislike about Asa is his choosing IU over ASU. Not that I am biased or anything...

132 Asa Garcia from Avon has accepted!

Don't like the idea of high school replay. One of the reasons I want kids that I care about to participate in sports is learning the lesson that sometimes it just isn't fair. Bad calls get made against you. It's a tough lesson to learn, but sports is a great vehicle for learning it.

I should have prefaced this thread by stating that my intention wasn’t to take anything away from Asa.  I apologize if anyone took it that way.  
He is clearly a great, great wrestler, and that cradle was a mega eye-popper.  Rooting for him and all the other seniors headed to Bloomington!!  Excited to see that the future will bring!!  Go Hoosiers!!