National Title picture: 125: Spencer Lee. No one comes close to beating him. 133: With it looking unlikely that Suriano and Fix are wrestling this season, the door is wide open for Stevan Micic to win his national championship. RBY and DeSanto are next up if Micic decides to take an ORS. 141: Sebastian Rivera, Jaydin Eierman, and Nick Lee are the title contenders here. 149: With Cornell not wrestling, this becomes one of the most competitive weights this season. AOC, Sasso, Mauller, Lewallen are the early favorites. 157: Deakin, Hidlay, and Carr will battle it out again this season. Deakin beat both at Cliff Keen last year, but then Hidlay beat Carr and Carr beat Deakin in FS a couple months back, so who the fuck knows. 165: Mekhi, Marinelli, and Shane Griffith are the main contenders, but Travis Wittlake, Keegan O'Toole, and Carson Kharchla are worth keeping an eye on. Kharchla beat 2019 champ Mekhi in FS this offseason. Don't believe Evan Wick is wrestling or he'd be in the title contender group. 174: I strongly believe this will be a Massa-Kemerer battle, but Starocci and Labriola could work themselves into that conversation. 185: Another really open weight class. Myles Amine is the favorite, but Hunter Bolen, Trent Hidlay, and Aaron Brooks will push him. I think it comes down to Amine and Brooks. 197: This is once again a very weak weight class. Noah Adams is the best of the bunch but how good is he? There's like 7-8 guys that can compete for a title here. HWT: Gable and Mason. And I guess I'll throw in Daniel Greg because we haven't seen much of him in a long time. No one else has a shot, sorry Cassioppi. But realistically it's going to be Gable or Mason. Team championship: Iowa will win it. Iowa could have 10 all americans and 6 guys in the top 3. Michigan could have 4 champs and is their closest competition. But Iowa.
Cody Chittum. Goodness. Also really impressed by Sage Mortimer, but Audrey Jiminez, she seems like a stud in the making. Don't know much about her but a little badass. Seems like a future UFC 115er.
McKenna taking Seth Gross in under 90 seconds is impressive. McKenna is going to be a factor at 65kg I think.
that was not a good match, flo seems to strongly disagree but 5 pushouts, 1 shot clock, and a weird takedown
Magicman beats Burroughs 4-4 on criteria. Burroughs gave up a takedown after it looked like he pulled his groin mid-match, that was the only takedown and put him down 4-0. From there Taylor spent a LOT of time running, Burroughs got 4 stepouts and forced 2 cautions.
I don't know, it seemed pretty good to me. I didn't think JB was going to take down DT, that was about as much as I could have hoped for.
Taylor has best shot at gold I’m pretty sure about Cox was just the terminator at his non-Olympic weight but it’s Olympic year Dake-Burroughs trials will be crazy Cox has Snyder than Sadulaev or vice versa No idea as Burroughs has fought monsters while Dake/Cox/Taylor haven’t faced anywhere close to that I’d go with Cox as best US wrestler the last few years
No, but it's Taylor, Cox, JB, and Dake. Cox or Taylor you can make an argument for #2 P4P in the world behind Sadulaev, JB and Dake you cannot. Based on that alone I'd say it has to be Cox or Taylor. Cox is who I think most would probably put at the top spot but Taylor has two wins against HYC and one against JB. For me that's enough to give him the nod. I don't value Cox's wins against Karimi nearly as high as Taylor's over HYC. But Cox is the one who can most easily ascend to #1 on the list, and Taylor has the most difficult path. A lot of this will be sorted out in April and then this summer. Cox has to beat Snyder (who is not currently considered after losing to Alborov, Magomedov, Sadulaev, Sharipov, and Mohammadian recently) in April then Sadulaev in July. Taylor has to beat HYC/Kurugliev in July. JB/Dake have to beat each other then Chamizo and Sidakov or Zhamalov. If Cox beats Snyder and Sadulaev, he is the #1 P4P in the world, case closed. If JB/Dake beat each other and then win gold in Tokyo they are #2 P4P in the world behind Sadulaev If Taylor beats HYC again he is #3 P4P behind Sadulaev, and the 74 winner. Kyle Snyder obviously vaults up the list as well if he beats Cox and Sadulaev, but not enough to vault 74# gold medalist. TLDR; Basically right now it doesn't matter because it's going to change in April and then again in July. It's probably Taylor atm but Cox or JB/Dake "control their destiny" and Taylor does not; if they win their matches they are #1.
Thanks for the breakdown, between condensing in weight classes and the disjointed nature of competitions and who’s involved I am still learning with who the best guys are at certain weights and just overall.
I mean, as much as anything, it's hard to stay on top when you are not a Sadulaev level destroyer of worlds. His style/techniques, even when he was winning titles everywhere, was always pretty predictable. Top level guys are going to figure that out over time, 97 was also a weight in transition(end of the Gatsalov/Gayzumov/Yazdani era, even if Gatslaov is giving it another go) that now has the best in the world in addition to some more balance in the younger generation. He hasn't been able to just physically impose his will the last couple years and hasn't quite adapted to that reality IMO
It's been tried a few times, I think. I thought they were trying to start one up the year nationals was in Pittsburgh. There were some people involved with it wearing shirts.
Mizzou Iowa St Northern Iowa Arizona St All together in Ames this weekend. Looks like ISU/Mizzou and ASU/ISU matches will be on ESPN+ Sunday afternoon
I would think all those match ups would be streamed. VT had a quad at WVU worth Ohio and Kent State and they had all matches on + for both mats and all extra matches.