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PITT VS NC STATE FRIDAY NIGHT @FITZ

Well, I had a long winded response and hit post and it errored me back to square one so you get the cliff notes version.

Im probably overreacting bc I dont follow HS wrestling or recruiting much at all, but I see guys who seemed to be on a relatively close level in HS like Dylan Evans and Tyler Kasak, but one year later and they seem worlds apart. Evans has been solid but obviously still a freshman when facing tourney caliber opponents while Kasak is in the top 10 already. I get that its PSU and Cael but it just feels like our guys' development tends to be much slower.

I also acknowledge that we have 4 redshirt freshmen ranked right now so the its not like we arent seeing success, but it always feels like we are a half step behind.
The comparison between Evans and Kasak isn’t even close. Kasak was an age group World silver medalist before getting to psu. Evans wasn’t even a top 100 recruit.
 
Who are the multiple time pa state champs in the lineup? I count only Matthews and Pitzer. Matthews is all American and Pitzer was high in national rankings right away. I would say they need more multiple time pa state champs. I don’t think they’ve ever had PA triple A multiple time state champ. They have a few guys that have 0 state titles. Bonaccorsi had 0 state titles though too.

Also they’ve been better than Lehigh the last few years. Pitt beat Lehigh 3 years in a row now in duals and have outperformed them at nationals. Comparing to Lehigh and Navy is weird because Pitt has been better than programs like that. But they need to get to the nc state and vtech level.
Dylan Evans is a 2x AAA State Champ and 4x medalist, but as others have noted he still was not a top 100 recruit in his class. This shows in my opinion how state titles are slowly becoming less important to wrestlers and recruiters
 
I’m with you that’s exactly where we need to be. Somehow we’re starting to look at NC State and V-tech like oh well they’re just a better program, We can’t recruit as good as they can but they blow us out of the water with recruiting. and I know we compete against them from time to time but overall when it gets to the final ACC individual tournament, we get smoked, I don’t know I just don’t get it. It’s almost like you never hear about who we are recruiting even though some people on here are insiders, but are we not recruiting top caliber wrestlers, can we not close them? Are we settling for mid-level prospects and just hoping we can develop them into a Keith Gavin type guy which is a lightning in a bottle lol.
All the schools you Mention recruit PA better than Pitt
 
I wanted to look at all the multiple time AAA state champs from the class of 2019
(Last 5 recruiting classes) on:

Class of 2019:
Julian Cheblove: 3x AAA State Champ (missed entire junior year). 6th year at ASU, starting for the first time in his career, ranked in the 20s at this point.
Ryan Anderson: 2x AAA State Champ, 3x Placer. Was committed to ISU, ended up at d3 Centenary for 2 years instead, wrestled 1 year at Binghamton and has not wrestled in college since then.
Carter Starocci: 2x AAA State Champ, 4x Placer. 3x NCAA Champ, going on #4 this year, all time great for PSU.

Class of 2020:
Sam Hillegas: 2x AAA State Champ, 3x Finalist, 4x Placer. Went to VT then transferred to WVU, has started in 2 seasons, never made NCAAs.
Ed Scott: 2x AAA State Champ, 3x Placer. Went to NC State. Took 5th at NCAA's last season as a sophomore. Likely will be a 3x AA.
Gerrit Nijenhaus: 2x AAA State Champ, 4x Placer. Spent two years at Purdue, transferred to OU. 3x NCAA Qualifier who seems to not be the starter for OU this season.
Hunter Catka: 2x AAA State Champ, 3x Placer. Went to VT. Is a 2x NCAA Qualifier who is ranked in the 20s in the country.

Class of 2021:
Wyatt Henson:2x AAA State Champ, 3x Placer (Spent sophomore year in Missouri). At his 3rd school in 3 years, redshirted at Iowa, transferred to OU where he was a NQ, coach was fired then he transferred to LHU where he is ranked 11th in the nation at this point.
Alejandro-Herrera Rondon: 3x AAA State Champ, 4x Placer. Spent 2 years at OU where he never won the spot, transferred to Clarion where he is there starting 157 and just outside the national rankings.
Nate Schon: Greyshirted, then redshirted at ISU, now sitting behind Batisda this season. Only wrestled 25 matches in college career.

Class of 2022:
0 Multiple time AAA State Champs in this recruiting class.

Class of 2023:
Vinny Kilkeary: Redshirting at 125 for tOSU, 20-7 so far this year
Ty Watters: Starting as a true freshman for WVU, ranked #7 in the nation as a true frosh
Dylan Evans: Redshirting here at Pitt, 13-8 so far
Rocco Welsh: was redshirting at tOSU till the starter got season ending injury, ranked 11th in the nation as a true frosh
Sonny Sasso: Redshirting at VT 197, 11-8 in his redshirt season so far.

From the last 5 recruiting classes, there are only two multiple time AAA state champs who have become AA. One of them is Carter Starocci who is 3/3 at NCAA's. Of the rest of the guys on this list only Wyatt Henson, Ty Watters and Rocco Welsh are real AA candidates this season. So even if all those guys AA this year it will be only 5 AA from 5 years of recruiting classes. I feel like this really shows how the state title has been devalued and can also be very misleading. But it also shows how we are getting out recruited pretty significantly in PA if we are not even getting these guys.
 
IMO Jax is the best of the McCort guys but the age gap between Jax and Luke Stanich is not as big as it typically would be for HS sophomore and a college true freshman.
 
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