base

Wow! didn't realize he was a native hoosier! That is a fantastic bit of trivia - and I bet some former Cavemen on this forum might remember him from school. What year did he graduate?

Really makes you realize that even if it seems like two people meeting at semi-state or state would know nothing of each other, between events like middle school state and ISWA competitions many of them have been wrestling for years!

Purdue had a great showing at the tough Midlands tournament this past weekend. The Boilers finished 8th overall including 2 champions - Dylan Lydy @ 174 and Christian Brunner @ 197. Kendall Coleman also finished 4th IU was also in the Midlands, finishing 17th in the team race. Donnell Washington placed 5th at 174, Jacob Covaciu finished 6th at 174 and Brock Hudkins placed 6th at 125.

Rest in Peace, coach Ihnat. 4:36 in the mile as a high schooler in 1957 - WOW

Thank you Joe and the Gang for making this a home for Indiana wrestling fans!

Great article! Don't know the young man or his family but I enjoyed reading about his auction interests and highlighting that he is a hard worker. I will be cheering for him this season at the state finals!

Andre - have you spoke with Nick Hull from Pride Wrestling Academy?

IU should be on the way up with Angel at the helm and some of the big recruits they are getting lately. Purdue and Ersland are quietly building solid lineups - they don't seem to land as many of the big in-state names, but he is definitely filling in the gaps. I would just love to see both teams realistically in the upper-mid standings in the Big10 and some wildly competitive duals for the in state rivalry

Great job by Chad Red Sr and relatives to encourage CJ to see the sports psychologist. I am very happy to read about his overcoming this struggle. I hope to see a NCAA finals match of Red vs Lee in a few months!

What about a logo on both sides of your SHOES! Hit 'em with the marker too?

Add Cooper Noehre to Purdue's class of 2020!

Why no mention of Asa Garcia or Nick South?

Galagore you need to bring back small school wrestling by sporting the polo/singlet look

The wrestling community is not huge, but it is loyal. To me, it sounds like the ISWA needs a dedicated person to sponsorships. In my opinion, being asked to be on the state team should carry zero, or very minimal costs. I am POSITIVE that there are company-owners, executives, and retirees with deep pockets and a love of the sport of wrestling out there. The sponsorship coordinator needs to be able to show that the money is being managed sensibly, and market the heck out of the success that would come from full sponsorship from trips - and I think the money would roll in.

A couple ideas for youth programs 1. Get the parents together. Hold a cookout, or maybe during your youth practice have a coach take time to do a "parent clinic". Figure out who the most "likeable" parent is and ask them to be the ambassador for the other parents - do NOT pick the parent that wants to run everything but not many people like cause that will drive people away. The more the parents become friends, the more likely it is that their young wrestler will be back next season. If they enjoy spending time with each other, it's also more likely that one wrestler going to a weekend tourney in the spring will bring more along with them. 2. Early in the youth season get an inexpensive package of cool-looking clothes together and see if the parents will buy it or get sponsors to help cover costs where parents cant. When a little kid gets a "pro headgear" or "real wrestling shoes" they are now a real wrestler. If the tshirt you get them is super cool, it might be their favorite shirt they wear every other day to school and other kids see that stuff especially if a bunch of them are wearing them 3. Communicate! Let the parents know ahead of time what is coming up, what the kids are working on, etc. Seems like every other youth sport has practice on specific nights every week with a game on saturday. With youth wrestling, try to get with other clubs in your general area and set Monday, Thursday or whatever night as your "meet nights" where clubs can get together and do some round robin wrestling with no pressure just get a lot of matches against some new faces. Wednesday night is bad because that is youth night at many churches. Make those meet nights fun. Don't know if its possible, but try to get the screaming parents away from the mat and into the stands as much as possible so its more of a kid-friendly environment 4. Stress to the kids that the focus is not on winning, but trying the moves that they have been working on. As a parent, it doesn't get much more frustrating to practice double legs all week long, only to get to a match and watch your wrestler dance around and never try a double leg! Reward them for trying moves, not just for winning. In football we used to give helmet sticker awards - not sure what could work for wrestling but try to have someone (maybe the kids parents) keep a tally on how many times they attempt a move even if it doesn't work, then make a big deal out of the counts at the next practice - maybe ask the kids really trying to talk about what they were thinking and if the moves worked for them or not

Austin Boone (Lowell) over Alec Viduya for the championship? Austin Boone isn't a familiar name - was he at state last year?

Thankful I didn't purchase the PPV on this one

A regional tournament could be nice - not necessarily as a qualifier, but possibly treated similar to semistate in HS and used for seeding purposes (and potentially avoiding early matchups against local wrestlers) at the state tournament

As to the 12 weight classes - hard to believe that a wrestling-focused state like Pennsylvania is proposing this change. With 14 weight classes, there is a better chance of having more wrestlers close to their natural weight. Other than opportunities for 2 additional wrestlers in tournaments, the only event that I can think of that would be affected is the dual meet. Now, it is nice to win some dual meets, but at the expense of losing 2 additional spots for kids to be varsity wrestlers?? Doesn't make sense to me. I do like Joe's proposal to allow teams to enter more wrestlers at the sectional level

I have really enjoyed the format that USA wrestling has setup with the US Open, WTT Challenge tournament, and FinalX This weekend's WTT tournament had some great matchups and also some surprising results. The winners have earned the right to challenge the "favorites" (either world medalists or winners from the US Open) at the Final X matches. Who do you have winning at each of these weights? June 8 @ Rutgers 65kg Yianni Diakomihalis (US Open Champ) vs Zain Retherford (WTT Champ) 79kg Kyle Dake (World Medalist) vs Alex Dieringer (WTT Champ) 86kg David Taylor (World Medalist) vs Pat Downey (WTT Champ) 92kg J'den Cox (World Medalist) vs Bo Nickal (WTT Champ and US Open Champ) 125kg Nick Gwiazdowski (US Open Champ) vs Gable Steveson (WTT Champ) June 15 @ Nebraska 57kg Daton Fix (US Open Champ) vs Thomas Gilman (WTT Champ) 61kg Joe Colon (US Open Champ) vs Tyler Graff (WTT Champ) 70kg Ryan Deakin (US Open Champ) vs James Green (WTT Champ) 74kg Jordan Burroughs (World Medalist) vs Isaiah Martinez (WTT Champ) 97kg Kyle Snyder (World Medalist) vs Kyven Gadson (WTT Champ)

How impressive was Cornell sophomore Yianni Diakomahalis at the US Open? He runs the a murderers row of Frank Molinaro, Jordan Oliver and Zain Retherford to win the title. His ability to turn an opponents attack into a scoring opportunity was just incredible. Now the question becomes who will fight their way back to challenge him at the WTT? After the match against Oliver, I gave him a chance against Retherford, but thought Zain would have too much - I was definitely proven wrong! Also impressive was Daton Fix taking out Thomas Gilman, Bo Nickal winning his weight class, and Northwestern wrestler Ryan Deakin beating world team member James Green on a last second score The World Team Trials are May 17-19 in North Carolina. Should be some excellent rematches!

One thing that might resolve some issues is expanded sponsorship of ISWA teams. If ISWA can line up sponsors so that "Team Indiana" events are virtually free for the wrestlers and their families, then you would take away the cost argument and may start seeing some families that have earned a spot but can't afford the trip begin to participate more. Wrestling has a lot of successful, extremely loyal alumni. I think it would be appealing to know you are sponsoring the official "Team Indiana" and be able to show a lineup of events they are raising money for.

Wow that first one is really big news - but I'm not sure it really translates to "no travel restrictions" What does the line "shall be sponsored or co-sponsored by a member high School" mean? Also, great for girls - let's hope they can surpass that minimum number and launch a true state championship!

Excellent to see these young men achieving on and off the mat!

Beat the Streets event has announced this may be a possibility. Also discussion about a Burroughs vs Askren matchup. Would there be any close matches?