Certainly doesn’t hit the same as guys I’m more familiar with and nowhere in the same universe as what JB would’ve been but damn always tough to see
"It's the best coaching staff in the country, and I'm very thankful for the way things worked out. For me to be able to train in that environment, they take care of everything for us so that we can take care of what we need to on the mat," Snyder said. "They're the hardest working coaching staff in the country, and I just really appreciate everything they've done." https://www.collegian.psu.edu/sport...cle_d2cb713c-966c-11eb-a083-576181065936.html
Cadet trials this weekend, we could have a good team actually. Some big names competing: 45kg: Bo Bassett 48kg: Aden Valencia (No relation to those Valencias, sry ASU) 51kg: Marc-Anthony McGowan over Vincent Kilkeary 55kg: Mason Gibson 60kg: Not sure who wins but the names that jump out at me are Dylan Gilcher, Emilio Ysaguirre, Beau Mantanona, and Shane Roller's kid Jace (feeling really old rn) 65kg: Angelo Ferrari, Meyer Shapiro, Pierson Manville 71kg: Bunch of contenders here with no one way ahead of the pack 80kg: Gabe Arnold 92kg: Gavin Nelson 110kg: No clue here
Think we have to add a new contender for gold at 74kg, if he can qualify, Salkazanov just ran through Chamizo, Kentchadze, and Zhamalov to make the finals at Euros... Also Taha looked great in a dominating win over Petriashvili as well. Has the young Russian, Kozyrev, for gold tomorrow
It's tough to say on Salkazanov. If he can wrestle like this, or he can wrestle like he did at U23s, or against Burroughs where he came 1/10th of a second away from beating him, then sure, he can compete with anyone. But then he has matches like the one last month where he gets wrecked by a no-name Bulgarian and it muddies the water a bit. But certainly he is another name to watch at by far the deepest weight in the world. He is dangerous.
His history is up and down for sure, but anybody that can run through 3 top 10 guys in a single session has to be considered a true contender... Though there are still solid guys as obstacles at the last chance qualifying tournament like Demirtas(or whoever the Turks send) and Kadimagomedov in addition to Tsabolov, so he’s probably just as likely to not qualify as make at a medal
Russia has to settle for 6/10 golds at Euros as Kozyrev has a full-on melty in the last 10 seconds of his loss to Taha Akgul, cautioned 3 times for hitting the Turkish giant... not really sure that's a man I want to slap after he beat me on the mat. Akgul gets his 8th European championship and looked damn near his peak. I think Gable has the talent to get it done but the step-up in class to even the best of the rest Euros at HW from the bunch in the US is enormous. Let alone guys as big and as good as Akgul and Petriashivili. Will be interesting to see if he can ramp up the competition this summer. Post Euro's Olympic contenders in my eyes: 57kg: 1. Uguev - Probably the 2nd biggest overall favorite to Sadulaev 2. Ravi Kumar - Continued his dominant run at Asians 3. Atli - Seems to be getting better every year, could definitely do it Don't see anyone else that looks like a gold contender, but we'll see how the summer tournaments go. Hoping we get a Yarygin full of Olympic hopefuls. Can't see Gilman medaling absent a gift draw 65. 1. Rashidov - Solid favorite but deeper weight makes it tough to say 2. Otoguro - Still blindlingly quick and scoring from everywhere 3. Tevanyan - Dude has beaten a lot of people since the last official worlds in 2019 4. Bajrang - Always solid, always going to make you work 5. Aliyev - As capable as anyone, but hasn't really looked the same kind of force at 65 Others could join this crew but need to see it from Tobier, Musukaev, etc... 74. 1a. Sidakov 1b. Dake 1c. Chamizo Dake hasn't wrestled Sidakov, have it give to the 2 time defending champ at this weight for now. Chamizo is so crafty and strong in the hips he always keeps matches tight. Bunch of other really tough dudes in this weight, including the guy that just won Euro's and a former Russian world champ(Tsabolov) that aren't yet even qualified 86. 1. Taylor 2. Yazdani - Looked fantastic against the overmatched Asian competition but his two losses to Taylor in this quad keep him down here. 3. Maybe Naifonov - He's pretty damn good but I'd be shocked if he won this thing, can't totally rule it out. 97. 1. Sadulaev - That's it, nobody else, hopefully Snyder handles my dismissal of his chances as well as he did in 2016(when I said he couldn't beat Gayzumov or Boltukaev... whoops) 125. - Kind of a sneaky deep group, contenders remain Geno and Taha, but there are some really good young guys creeping up through the ranks in Iran and the US for sure. Ranked by depth: 74 65 125 57 97 86(it's literally a 3 man weight class, nobody outside the top 3 is a threat to any of those guys)
Agreed all around, with some extra thoughts: Uguev is about to become the most overrated wrestler of the last decade. He has such little competition at 57kg, I honestly believe Spencer Lee could beat him. 65 is pretty deep if Aliev is your #5 and bekbulatov still hasn't qualified....insane depth. 74 is a 5-man weight if Tsabolov and Salkazanov are in Tokyo. 86 you nailed this one, it's Taylor-HYC-Naifonov. 97 Sadulaev then everyone else. Snyder looked really good at trials, though. 125: Taha and Geno are 1-2, but Gable Steveson can beat them, imo.
Agreed on Uguev, 57 has been nothing more than ok during this quad(Thomas Gilman has a silver medal). Just clear that Uguev is a head above the rest. I’d love to see Spencer Lee but those knees make me wonder about his longevity. Aliyev is amazing but his results during this quad have just been ok since going up to 65. Haven’t seen him at his explosive best since he beat Rashidov at 61 in 2017. I have no doubts about Gables talent at 125, it’s just that Gwiz dominated the US and never beat anyone in the top 10, let alone Geno or Taha level guys. Would be the least surprising weight for a winner outside the top 2 ranked, which is hilarious given that nobody outside of those 2 has taken a gold in a world level, or Euro, since 2013. Zare from Iran is a real threat too
That’s what I was thinking. The times I remember him in college struggling was when he went against real big hwts.
I think it's more about depth after this quad. 97 has Cox, Snyder, Moore, and other guys Walz can't/hasn't beat. The incumbent at HWT is very likely to go the WWE route after the Olympics. The #2 in Gwiz has looked susceptible as of late. The #3 is a young guy in Mason Parris who has also taken some losses.
Bo Bassett is HIGHLY skilled for a kid his age and he's going to be major problems for the world and the high school/college kids in the US. Will be world champion imo, and a future NCAA champ. Congratulations nits.
I know there's still a couple days left to register, but Junior WTT registrations make me sad. It's great seeing some big names on there, but.... Where are the other top guns? I want to see Ferrari, Starocci, O'Toole, Keckeisen, Barlett, Plott, Howard, Paddy Gallagher, SVN, Chittum, Nick Feldman..... I don't understand, do these kids just have no interest in age level world medals? EDIT: Bartlett registered yesterday apparently.
I saw where SERTC posted that there was an even this weekend and was wondering what type of competition would be there. Sounds like not that high or is SR level different?
It's Junior and Senior Nationals. It's a big event with high level competition. Winners in JRs make up the JR world team, top 5 in SRs get WTT bids for 2021. There are also implications for Pan Ams but not sure exactly how that works or how much it really matters tbh.
Starocci, O'Toole, and Rocky Elam threw their hats into the ring an hour before early registration closed. 57kg: Lots of big names here, it's maybe the deepest weight in terms of top talent. I've got Richie Figs or Drake Ayala, but there are at least 8-10 other threats to make deep runs if one of them slip. 61kg there's probably 5-6 threats at least to win here, not gonna bother predicting who it will be 65kg Joshua Saunders and Beau Bartlett are not without challengers but it should be their weight to lose 70kg Bryce Andonian is probably a small favorite over the field but it's gonna be a really big bracket with some very familiar names. 74kg is actually really solid with O'Toole, Facundo, Cael Valencia, Julian Ramirez, Sonny Santiago, Chase Saldate, and more. 79kg Starocci should be able to crab walk into the 79kg spot, Trey Kibe might be his biggest competition? 86kg this is where I wish we'd see Keckeisen. Instead it could be Chris Foca, Kyle Haas, Nathan Haas, or maybe Jaxon Smith. 92kg Only guy to challenge Rocky Elam will be Isaac Trumble 97kg should be Braxton Amos. I don't know who Dzhabrail Khurshidov is, but that's a scary name and he trains with Izzy Wrestling. 125kg: Maybe Luke Luffman? He just registered. Wyatt Hendrickson and Lewis Fernandes are his threats.
My interpretation was that was the team he wanted to see for the US, since it wasn’t expected we’d send our top guys against the Russians ? No joke, Kozyrev would tell us a lot about where Gable is. Naifonov and Zahid is a Junior world’s rematch and Nick Lee would be fun to see on that stage. That’s after you get past Cox finally meeting Sadulaev, 5 years after he should have had the chance in Rio