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Recruiting

For potential transfers: At 184 Dean went to Iowa State, hearing Soldano to OU. Bouzakis is registered at the US Open for 61kg, Davino also in that bracket could be an early wrestle-off. Tallmadge in that bracket as well. Gill is the one to watch IMO, simply because he is a WPIAL boy who was a really good recruit, outside of him nobody in the portal I see connections to
 
All of these misses are starting to irritate me.

Either we are happy with our 125 situation or its bad miss
 
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All of these misses are starting to irritate me.

Either we are happy with our 125 situation or its bad miss
I think they are happy with what they have currently, don’t think it would be an actual upgrade. If they’re going to upgrade they will bring in an upperclassman or a grad student. I’m obviously a little biased but they also have other needs. With 3 125’s under some kind of scholarship you don’t want to tie up too much $ at one weight class
 
Missing out on such a perfect 125 fit, only for said wrestler to choose Pitt's little brother, is a real gut punch.
 
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Listened to Gilman interview. Hope he doesn’t become a PWC coach any time soon. Not my type of coach at all
 
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Listened to Gilman interview. Hope he doesn’t become a PWC coach any time soon. Not my type of coach at all
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Gilman as a coach. Look at his success with spratley. The problem is Pitt doesn’t have the $$ for a hot commodity like Gilman.
 
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MatScouts' final senior big board has dropped, will round up Pitt's class.

Facts:
Pitt had 5 recruits in the top 250, same as NC State and Stanford. 1 more than Lehigh. WVU and UNC had 6, UVA and VT had 7.

However, Pitt had 1 top 50 recruit (Bouzakis) which was the same as Lehigh, Stanford and UVA, behind NCST and VT who both had 3 top 50s (VT did have the 51st, 52nd and 55th ranked recruits to be fair, their class is very, very good). WVU and UNC had 0 top 50.

VT and NC State had 2 top 25s recruits each, with Stanford having 1 top 25 and Pitt having 0.

NCST had the only top 10 recruit in the ACC/among our other rivals (WVU and Lehigh).

Ranking:
Pitt's class:
#41 Vince Bouzakis (Major drop from last update, was inactive for a lot of his senior season, which helps explain this)
#65 Bode Marlow (Another big jump for Marlow, who is looking more and more legit as time passes)
#87 Carson Walsh
#93 Evan Petrovich
#181 Nico Fanella (Ranked 81spots behind Willochell who he went 2-0 against this year? but recruiting rankings are projections, not retroactive, so only time will tell).
NR Tristian Steldt

Overall, this is a solid class that has a chance to be much better if Bouzakis lives up to his potential from early in HS and if Marlow continues to make the massive jumps he's been making throughout HS. When compared to the rest of ACC and our main recruiting comparison/rivals (WVU and Lehigh) our class is clearly behind VT's and NC State's. I would place our class around the same tier as Stanford's, UNC's and UVA's but ahead of Lehigh's and WVU's. Obviously we need to be in the VT and NCST range long term but this is a solid class in terms of progression and hopefully 2026 and 2027 are even bigger.
 
One more school I see us being compared to, or referred to as competing with for the 2nd best team in PA is UPenn. They had 7 recruits in the top 250, but only one in the top 100, #90. The rest fell within the 100-250 range. They had #32 Eren Sement committed, but he flipped to Michigan in December. They are a school with a much better RTC than us and with the Ivy League prestige, but we can out-recruit them as we did this year, since they will face the Ivy League challenges that all the Ivies do when it comes to redshirts/cost/getting the kids in and simply not having as well rounded of a team since they can't rely on transfers at all.
 
This has been a rumor for awhile but saw it again today so just bringing it back up; sounds like Nic Bouzakis is going to test the waters at 125 over this offseason, however if he can't make the weight that is when I could see him leaving tOSU and hopefully coming to Pitt.
 
One more school I see us being compared to, or referred to as competing with for the 2nd best team in PA is UPenn. They had 7 recruits in the top 250, but only one in the top 100, #90. The rest fell within the 100-250 range. They had #32 Eren Sement committed, but he flipped to Michigan in December. They are a school with a much better RTC than us and with the Ivy League prestige, but we can out-recruit them as we did this year, since they will face the Ivy League challenges that all the Ivies do when it comes to redshirts/cost/getting the kids in and simply not having as well rounded of a team since they can't rely on transfers at all.
Curious what happens with Penn's RTC with Slay leaving
 
Too bad nc state, Virginia tech, Stanford, unc, and even uva are recruiting better than Pitt lol
The lack of recruiting is killing my interest in Pitt wrestling. I was looking for a continuation of excellence in area wrestling from the high school level to extend through Pitt. Sadly that hasn't happened ever though it did improve more than Peters' reign.
 
I wasn’t expecting Elijah Brown to be ranked 1st at his weight class. I do feel like Karson Brown will creep up into the top 5.

I must have missed the Kyle Scott commitment. Does anyone know anything about him?
 
Brown is built like HS Pitzer but much more athletic. His upside is huge if can carry another 20-30lbs and keep the high end athleticsm

Im not sure who Kyle Scott is either. Looking forward to someone filling us in
 
Scott (like E. Brown) is someone Pitt signed right before/as they made a huge jump. Scott outplaced the kid who won the 172 AA state bracket (Singer) at U17 Trials and beat Hutcherson who is an uber-hyped (and skilled) freshman. Scott took 5th in both styles at U17 trials, he is young for his grade (Jr/rising Sr) and seems to be really apt at both Free and Greco. He might not be as good in Folk, but NHCSAs and Super 32 will be a test to see how he stacks up nationally in Folk.
 
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2027 Big Board Update (MatScouts) AKA June 15th List has dropped. Will add some thoughts/Pitt connections, I did something similar in the winter that I will reference in this.
Removed From Winter Thoughts:
#1 Miller (Iowa 99% Lock) #2 Bachmann (No connection, Lehigh or Penn connections if he wants non B10/12) #8 (was #5) Tsarni (Cornell connection, super big into Free which we don't have enough support for)

Targets (Bold is Priority, Italics is new to my list)
Can't find the past rankings so any "Was" not posted is due to that

#4 (Was #17) Landon Sidun (PA, Norwin)- 120 (projects 125) see the last update (Page 2 of this thread) for my longer thoughts, but to update he went 30-0 this season, winning Beast (beat Bachmann), Powerade and Doc B. Missed end of the year with an injury, did not compete at US Open, hope to see him lift a stop sign this summer.

#18 (Shamus Regan (PA/SC, McCort)-120 was at SEM, now a McCort guy it appears. Fargo Champ, National Prep Champ, Cadet Trials 5th this year. Not from PA originally but he is in Johnstown now and he is someone we should look into.

#20 Brock Rothermal (PA, Line Mountain)-126 3rd and 5th at States in his career, Fargo Finalist, from PA, Steller Trained guy, has many very good wins in his career, another lighter guy that should be pursued.

#22 (Was #31) Gabe Ballard (PA, Northampton)-138 see the last update, since last year he moved up in weight, performed very well and made the state finals. Has moved up another 2 weight classes since then, could see him in the 141/149 range in college.

#27 (Was #34) Nick Singer (PA, FCA)-175- see last update, won a state title this year in AA, performed well at all the majors, disappointing cadet tournament on backside after losing a close match to eventual champ.

#30 Lucas Zalota (PA, Malvern)-285 Sophmore heavyweight with some good results and is highly ranked, he is in state and a good option if Brown projects as a 197, if he projects as a HWT then we don't need to worry about HWT

#34 (Was #21 )Greyson Music (PA, McDevitt)-138-see the last update, him and Ballard have had similar weight trajectories and have swapped in ranking as Ballard has seemed to have progressed past Music as of now. Both are very good and will probably be rivals if they continue along this trajectory.

#43 (Was #37) Zach Acquila (OH, Brecksville)-165 see last update, missed time with injury, is a not-that-often mentioned kid not far from Pitt who is in a weight area of potential need (always need more middleweights/upper-middleweights)

#60 Braiden Loiter (PA, McDevitt)-120 Loiter went 0-2 as a freshman at states, then as a sophomore came back and won a state title. He seems like he could be a 125 long term and is a PA guy that has made a large jump from year 1 to year 2.

#70 Brady Brown (PA, Derry)-190 Took 5th at AA States this year, but went out and made cadet finals at 92kg. That performance and the fact that he is a WPIAL guy really pushed him up on my list in terms of priority. He seems like another guy set to make an Elijah Brown like jump.

#80 Luke Knox (PA, Perk Valley)-165 - Went from not making states as a freshman to taking 3rd as a sophomore. Legit state champ threat next year, has 54 falls through 2 HS seasons. Real candidate for the 100 Fall club. If he makes another year to year jump like he did from freshman to sophomore he will be very dangerous next year and higher on this list.

#84/#85 ( )- Brandon and Austin Bickerton-113/120 (Highland, Ohio) Two brothers, thats been Pitt's recruiting recipe for a few years and we can continue it here. Further, they are Ohio guys with some good results at US Open and Fargo. Both look like they will be small but definitely should look into them.

#87 Kavin Muyleart (PA, Sem)-120 State finalist as a sophomore this year, it appears as if he is moving to SEM with Regan moving out. Has very up and down performances but when he is one he is dominant and can put up points from top.

#88 (Was #48 ) Dom Morrison (PA. Hatboro Horsham)-120. see last update, had a let down of a state tournament as he did not repeat, however he is someone who still has room to grow and improve, I think he could be back in the finals next year. Curious to see his performance in offseason events.

#116 (Was #63) Kai Vielma (PA, Connellsville)-132 see last update. Took 3rd at States this year. He is really solid, brother going to WVU so I don't think we get him. But he is definitely very good and a state title candidate next year

#118 (Was #89) James Whitbred (PA, State College) see last update, took 6th at states in a disappointing end, would be ranked higher if not for that. Placed at Cadet trials, is someone who has made major gains year to year, look for him at Fargo this summer. If he makes another jump he could be a very serious threat.

#120 (Was #76) Hunter Snyder (PA, Greater Latrobe)-190 see last update, Took 3rd at 189, winning 5 straight on the backside. Had some up and downs this season but is still a WPIAL guy who has some very good results throughout his career. Curious to see how Fargo goes for him this summer.

#133 Ray Fitzgerald (PA, Malvern)-150 Fitzgerald Took 6th at National Preps this year, just a solid kid who could make a jump, but if he doesn't would still be a reliable hand.
 
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