And then Bartlett has a second period like that and you wonder why he isn’t the aggressor more often
U20 and U23 Trials Thread
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Hopefully, Robbie is accurate with his prognosis.
so true he has to be more active and agressive we all know he can wrestle just do it and quit messing around!
Bartlett beating Saunders 12-6 is a great result as well. Like I said earlier, Saunders had limits in folk but he is a very good freestyler. Losing to Lovett isn’t a surprise. I’m sure he would like to have the match with D’Emilio over but he’s shown that he is much improved. Overall, I think it was a decent tournament for Beau. Beat some really good kids. I think he AA’s next year. I’m not sure he will ever be a PSU hammer putting up huge points and winning national titles but I think he will be a multiple time AA
Facundo is the real deal. Can’t wait to watch him the next few years. Let’s go
Kennedy looked good. Peyton Hall is tough and Kennedy completely shut him down. I would’ve loved to see him and Facundo wrestle this weekend. I know how it went last time and maybe I’m just a homer but I think Alex would win especially in freestyle. Kennedy is a bull and might get a couple step outs but Facundo is more dynamic. Hopefully we will get to see it during the folkstyle season
Totally agree and he is a really great kid to boot. His strong but less than stellar results last year worry me, not a bit.
I've never seen so many Championships on a board so doomed by pessimism. Ffs.
If you want to be a great PSU rasslin fan, come to BWI. Pessimism, it is what we do!
Lock Haven's Anthony Noto had a good tournament
I literally, and I hate that word, just got a call from a client. She's the head of legal at Duke. Was on vacation at Yosemite, had a great time. Tried to get back early, because her mom had a stroke. Took 2 days. Meanwhile, her husband is battling cancer. Her horse has serious pain issues, and a million miles. She calls me crying. Jason, I am so thankful my horse is sound. I needed one positive thing in my life, and you gave that to me. I'm reading this board, and it's depressing as hell. Ffs. How many Championships do we need to be happy? Anyway. The season, any season, cannot get here soon enough.
IIRC I thought your comparison was Nelson Brands? Wrestling up at 184, he is competitive and even beat some very good 184s (majoring Venz) but his game will always be reattacks and that's more or less what he did at 174 (had a lot of 3-1 wins last year against non NQ guys)
I couldn't have been more encouraged by Levi and Josh this weekend. As it's been mentioned, Barr might actually be pretty raw in free and he lost on a free scramble. Singleton and Rowley are both elite recruits who are the class ahead of him also.
You know Levi was beat when both Flo guys openly noted how slow he looked in the finals compared to earlier in the day. It's perfect for their narrative that their guy (Ben Askren) develops and outcoaches future Penn Staters and they could have just glazed over the "freshness" factor and just said "You see how much better Mesenbrink is?" Bottom line, Levi wrestled the 3 elite recruits around his weight in his class (Caleb Henson, Jordan Williams, Hunter Garvin) and tech falled all 3 of them. He's definitely a better folk wrestler than free IMO. PA kids tend to be.
You know Levi was beat when both Flo guys openly noted how slow he looked in the finals compared to earlier in the day. It's perfect for their narrative that their guy (Ben Askren) develops and outcoaches future Penn Staters and they could have just glazed over the "freshness" factor and just said "You see how much better Mesenbrink is?" Bottom line, Levi wrestled the 3 elite recruits around his weight in his class (Caleb Henson, Jordan Williams, Hunter Garvin) and tech falled all 3 of them. He's definitely a better folk wrestler than free IMO. PA kids tend to be.
This might get me some heat but I still can't evaluate much about Alex after this weekend and the US Junior Open... how he does at worlds will be very very telling. Medal (or obviously win) and I think it's a sign for a very good NCAA season coming. That tends to translate big time.
Alex was sitting in the finals and 10-0'ed a guy who he should have twice. Similar to the US Junior Open, he ran through opponents that shouldn't have been competitive with him. We've known he can do that for a while. He was dominating lesser opponents all NCAA season.
Alex was sitting in the finals and 10-0'ed a guy who he should have twice. Similar to the US Junior Open, he ran through opponents that shouldn't have been competitive with him. We've known he can do that for a while. He was dominating lesser opponents all NCAA season.
The good news: Facundo will absolutely be ready to go and I don’t imagine he’d lose to either Lee in wrestle-offs.
The bad news: 165 is an incredibly brutal class, the toughest of all the weights with O’Toole, Griffith, Carr, Hamiti, Kharchla, C Amine and others.
I previously said I think Kennedy was a bit overhyped by Iowa fans. Mainly because they said he's basically a sure finalist level guy last year because he wrestled Marinelli to a 3-2 loss. I still don't see that level (KOT, Griffith, Carr) but I'm definitely ready to throw him in that second pack with Hamiti, Kharchla, Amine. Peyton Hall was an AA last year and had absolutely 0 for him this weekend.
4 returning champs + Kerkvleit is 5 top-2 guys. MAJOR upgrades at 165 and 149 w/ Facundo and SVN and BB wrestling at his best weight is markedly better than any other lineup in the country. I don't even know who the #2 team is at this point. Iowa lost a TON, OSU will be a little better but still not in PSU's league and OklaSt is still rebuilding IMO. Is ASU #2?
How he does at worlds is gonna give you better intel than how he JUST DID against guys who he will actually BE FACING IN COLLEGE?
TTMYGHmmm
Because the guys he beat (no dominated) to make the team the last few weeks were mostly non NQ level guys who we KNOW he can dominate already, especially in free, Alex's better style. Junior worlds (especially 74KG) is a deep field with a bunch of elite wrestlers from every country, guys who perform well there (David Carr, Mekhi Lewis, Keegan O'Toole) ALWAYS come back dominating NCAA competition. I have absolute faith he can win it all for the record and that he'll be great next year, we can't extrapolate off results right now, that's why I'm calling it faith.
I’d still like to see more from Facundo in terms of setups. His reattacks agaisnt Thomsen were crisp, but his own offense was a lot of straight on shots where he got extended. Now, he was able to pull them in and finish against Thomsen, but not sure that’ll be the case against elite competition. It’s also not really ideally for your shoulders long term.
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Roar has repeatedly told me to not use "never", but Joe Lee beating Alex is as close to a "never" happening as you can get without using "never" as an absolute.
He is being prepared in the Iowa room. I would expect him to initially be pretty good, but eventually he will begin to wrestle for those push outs and stall calls. Marinelli was a beast, and if he had wrestled for PSU or even Ohio State he would have been a champ and multi time finalist. Not an annual 6th placer.
Looks to be right on schedule for ANOTHER National Championship to me...
You mean like Spencer, Desanto, Kemerer and Cassioppi do? Even include Ayala. Lets be fair.....10 years ago maybe. Now.....too many examples that show that is not accurate. Not that I don't hope you are right
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