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U23 AND JUNIORS

Ryno53

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Jan 28, 2013
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Lots of panthers wrestling at UWWs. Finally some live action! Will update at some point.
 
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In U23's Mackey, Harvey and Nino are into the quarter finals. Jake lost a tough 1st round match 6-5 to Teemer and Meech lost innthe 2nd round both guys still alive in the consi's
 
Juniors about to kick off at 4pm and we have a bunch of young guys going
 
Wasn't able to watch every match but a great day of wrestling nonetheless. Quick thoughts:

U23s
Wentzel had Jacori Teemer (this guy is as talented as they get) beat all match but lost it in the last couple seconds. Honestly wonder if he forgot it was freestyle for a second because he won the scramble but exposed himself and that cost him the match. Still alive in the consis, cruising so far
Nino/Micky in the quarters- nothing notable but they looked good
Kemerer also in the quarters, beat a solid guy (Turner) who is an NCAA qualifer
Harvey also in the quarters, none of the guys he beat stuck so Sunday will be a better indication
Meech is out I'm guessing he got hurt, no longer eligible to wrestle but is at the RTC. I thought his style would translate well to freestyle (his double would be 4 points a lot of the time) but so far results haven't been similar to how great he was the past two seasons

Juniors
Mathews in the quarters, very excited to see his match his Hillegas
Newell beat a solid kid but then lost to two studs
Burnett was solid, enjoyed watching him I can see him doing big things in the future, he is out now after losing to very good competition
Badgett in the quarters, beat a very solid kid from Lock Haven (Myers). He is probably the biggest takeaway from me from day one. I think we got a good one here
Michaels is out. I liked how he competed though
McGill still alive in the consis, not sure if freestyle suits him the best but i am looking forward to him if he can crack the lineup like i expect him to
Camacho is out, lost to a kid that Newell beat
Slinger certainly looks the part still alive in the consis, he got beat handily by Oklahoma kid
I didn't get to watch Cooley but he is in the Consis as well

There were a few more guys that I didn't touch on but that was the main points. For those who are not aware freestyle results don't necessarily translate over to folkstyle (for example Micky's riding ability is pretty much useless) so don't be alarmed at some results and also don't get too hyped over the positive news either. Was cool to see cool to see Pletcher coaching. Real big variance in talent as well. Lots of d2/lower level D1 guys and even some high level high school kids in this
 
Agreed that Badgett has looked really good so far. I am really excited to see him this year. He looks like he could be pretty good. Cole Mathews looking very good this weekend as well but Hillages is a tough tough match very interested to see how that goes. But its a good sign that we have multiple guys still alive intonthe quarter finals these are mostly very tough brackets. Actually been quit impressed with the young guys seems like Gavin and crew have been doing a really good job with the guys
 
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Agreed that Badgett has looked really good so far. I am really excited to see him this year. He looks like he could be pretty good. Cole Mathews looking very good this weekend as well but Hillages is a tough tough match very interested to see how that goes. But its a good sign that we have multiple guys still alive intonthe quarter finals these are mostly very tough brackets. Actually been quit impressed with the young guys seems like Gavin and crew have been doing a really good job with the guys
This is all great news. HAIL TO PITT!
 
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Mickey, Cole, Harvey, and Nino into the semis.

Interesting notes that havent been mentioned:

Cole is wrestling at 61kg (134lbs) instead of 65kg (143lbs) which suggests that he is wrestling up a weight at 141. Thats not something I had considered before. His strength and explosiveness is probably extremely tough to deal with at 133 compared to 141. That also explains why it seemed that he gassed out a lot in the 3rd period last year.

Nino is a 92kg (202lbs) instead of 86kg (189lbs). If there was any question as to how Nino was doing making the transition from 184 to 197, then this should put that to rest. He must have really packed on some muscle since March. Will be really fun to watch him at 197. His offensive output and tenacity should be really difficult for his opponents at 197.
 
I am pretty sure they got a weight allotment but i was intrigued by him going 61kg as well
 
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Kemerer beating Carter Hapel is a very nice development. Hapel would be a starter at a lot of big ten schools and has been in some big matches filling in over the years at Iowa. Stock up for Luke!
 
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Mathews
Kemerer beating Carter Hapel is a very nice development. Hapel would be a starter at a lot of big ten schools and has been in some big matches filling in over the years at Iowa. Stock up for Luke!

Yea Kemerer has looked surprisingly solid this weekend
 
Well, Mickey got scraped in the semis and his wrestleback match. Now competing for 5th. Any watching that can give a quick synopsis on what happened? Did he get caught in an ankle lace or something? Those scores dont seem very characteristic for Mick.

Saw Nino and Harvey lost too. Any insights there?

Cole made the finals with a scraping of his own. Hoping we can get one Panther champion!
 
Well, Mickey got scraped in the semis and his wrestleback match. Now competing for 5th. Any watching that can give a quick synopsis on what happened? Did he get caught in an ankle lace or something? Those scores dont seem very characteristic for Mick.

Saw Nino and Harvey lost too. Any insights there?

Cole made the finals with a scraping of his own. Hoping we can get one Panther champion!

In the semis Mickey lost to McKee who is a hammer in freestyle. McKee with a quick takedown and lace went up 4-0. Scored a go behind on a shot from Mickey and a gut to go up 8-0 then hit a double leg with about 15 seconds in the 1st to end it. Dropped his next match to Ian Parker 13-2 then lost the 5th place match for a good ol semi slide to 6th
 
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Nino recovered to take 3rd and had a nice winnover Korbel Norfleet in the consi semi's 7-1. Harvey ended up doing the semi slide as well and ended 6th. Cole Mathews lost a wild final to Ridge Lovett 5-4
 
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@lucac What is your take on Jake Slinger? Super impressive to lose his first match to an eventual finalist then wrestle back for 5th. He stomped his opponent in most of those matches too. I watched a couple of his matches from George Mason last year and he was not impressive in the least. What differences are we seeing now?
 
@lucac What is your take on Jake Slinger? Super impressive to lose his first match to an eventual finalist then wrestle back for 5th. He stomped his opponent in most of those matches too. I watched a couple of his matches from George Mason last year and he was not impressive in the least. What differences are we seeing now?

I missed a couple.of his matches but he did a good job wrestling back for 5th this weekend. Having said that I'm not very high on Slinger honestly I see him as a backup caliber guy. He's an average D1 wrestler at best.
 
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I missed a couple.of his matches but he did a good job wrestling back for 5th this weekend. Having said that I'm not very high on Slinger honestly I see him as a backup caliber guy. He's an average D1 wrestler at best.
He must have improved something to pull off that 5th place though. What I watched of him at GM said that he wasnt very effective on his feet. He had a very nice head inside single but didnt finish well and struggled to be explosive and effective in scramble situations. Perhaps training with Meech and other higher level training at Pitt have helped him take a step forward? I hope some of his matches this weekend show up on YouTube soon
 
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He must have improved something to pull off that 5th place though. What I watched of him at GM said that he wasnt very effective on his feet. He had a very nice head inside single but didnt finish well and struggled to be explosive and effective in scramble situations. Perhaps training with Meech and other higher level training at Pitt have helped him take a step forward? I hope some of his matches this weekend show up on YouTube soon


I'll have to go back and watch his old matches from last year to see his improvements but I'm sure training with more talented guys has helped him and wrestling back for 5th is a solid weekend for sure
 
I did an analysis of Badgett after seeing him in the CA state championships, which finished before the pandemic hit. It sounds like he has gotten even better since then.

I still can’t understand how the kid who beat him in the finals ended up at MSU. He was the best HS wrestler I have seen in years. Almost never had a match go more than a minute. One off the most impressive things about Badgett IMO was that he managed to avoid getting pinned for almost one minute after getting put on his back. Showed a tremendous amount of fight.
(Sorry, no idea why this is in bold.)
 
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