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HS Recruiting News

Very nice. I'd imagine we have a great shot.
Super 32's is coming up next weekend and Heeg and Thompson are at 182, Lockett is at 152, Forrest is at 120, Hughes is at 132, McComas is at 126, Voinovich is at 145. Thompson looks like a top recruit. We need Hughes to show he is a top recruit because 2 guys rated ahead of him are at Super 32's. Him not wrestling well at all in fargo raised concerns at least on my part. We need him to be a real good wrestler. We have lots of good wrestlers but we need a lot more real good wrestlers if we are to win number 35. We don't have anywhere near enough real good wrestlers currently. Still waiting to get some real good news from Stillwater but waiting seems to be the norm for real good news. With losing AJ and Anthony we should have a lot of financial aid available. I have expressed what a loss Angelo will probably end up being especially considering when I look at the roster I don't see a young 165.
 
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Super 32's is coming up next weekend and Heeg and Thompson are at 182, Lockett is at 152, Forrest is at 120, Hughes is at 132, McComas is at 126, Voinovich is at 145. Thompson looks like a top recruit. We need Hughes to show he is a top recruit because 2 guys rated ahead of him are at Super 32's. Him not wrestling well at all in fargo raised concerns at least on my part. We need him to be a real good wrestler. We have lots of good wrestlers but we need a lot more real good wrestlers if we are to win number 35. We don't have anywhere near enough real good wrestlers currently. Still waiting to get some real good news from Stillwater but waiting seems to be the norm for real good news. With losing AJ and Anthony we should have a lot of financial aid available. I have expressed what a loss Angelo will probably end up being especially considering when I look at the roster I don't see a young 165.
Montalvo & Boone also moved on, so we should have a ton of scholly $ available. Plus the Pokes With A Purpose NIL collective launched in June and the RTC has been fundraising for over a year. I thought we would hear a couple of major announcements by now (transfer, flip, verbal), but it's been very quiet. Around this time in 2017, news broke about Kerkvliet & Wittlake within days of each other. Hoping we hear something soon. PSU, OhioSt & Iowa have been killing it on the recruiting front. We really need at least 2 more top 10 PFP guys to get back in the mix.
 
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We are filling the roster up with recruits and RS at the middle and upper weights, but IMO we are missing a top recruit at 125/133. Hopfully Hughes will have a impressive year and be one of those guys, but I think landing a top 125/133 guy would give us strong options up and down the roster.
 
Blankenship may be a 125. If he ends up at 133, then Beric Jordan might be an option. I thought maybe we'd see Jordan at the Elite 8 duals, but he didn't wrestle. He's also not registered for Super32. Could be banged up.

We were going after Sonny Sasso for 197, so it's possible the coaches project Heeg, Thompson & Robb all to be 184 & below. It that's the case, then we might still be in the market for a 197 & heavy. Merrill, Carroll & Mullen remain possibilities.
 
Flow reported that Cael Hughes will be part of an all star team wrestling in Arizona. Cael hopefully will wrestle who he is scheduled to wrestle ( 8th ranked at 132 Kyler Larkin). This will be Saturday night.
Hughes will wrestle Larkin and Guanajuato. McComas will have Meza. Larkin will also wrestle Fuggitt
 
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I also heard Flo say LaDarion Lockett will be wrestling PJ Duke next month. Duke is a beast, but he dominated Super32 at 138, so he would be going up multiple weights for a potential super match.

Loosely related, but it appears OK is changing HS weights. They will now include the new 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190 & 215 classes. Lockett made 165 for certification purposes, so he will probably go either 157 or 165 this season. AJ Heeg made 190 for certification. If he stays there, it could set up a potential showdown with Jersey Robb at state.
 
I also heard Flo say LaDarion Lockett will be wrestling PJ Duke next month. Duke is a beast, but he dominated Super32 at 138, so he would be going up multiple weights for a potential super match.

Loosely related, but it appears OK is changing HS weights. They will now include the new 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190 & 215 classes. Lockett made 165 for certification purposes, so he will probably go either 157 or 165 this season. AJ Heeg made 190 for certification. If he stays there, it could set up a potential showdown with Jersey Robb at state.
This will be at the Journeyman college event in PA. Scratch 152. I love that KD had the thought of challenging PJ and bumping up.
 
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Flow reported that Cael Hughes will be part of an all star team wrestling in Arizona. Cael hopefully will wrestle who he is scheduled to wrestle ( 8th ranked at 132 Kyler Larkin). This will be Saturday night.
Cael Hughes dominated Kyler Larkin 11 to 3 with 4 takedowns, a 2 point near fall and an escape. Larkin could only manage 3 escapes. Good match by Hughes.
 
Cael Hughes dominated Kyler Larkin 11 to 3 with 4 takedowns, a 2 point near fall and an escape. Larkin could only manage 3 escapes. Good match by Hughes.
Cael Hughes beat 6th rated at 132 Zan Fugett 9 to 3 getting 4 takedowns and just giving up escapes. Hughes wrestled good and aggressive. In the last 10seconds Cael scored on a strong double leg takedown.
 
PSU lands yet another top 5 Big Boarder in Joe Sealey.

At one time, I thought (hoped) we would land 2 of Mullen, Carroll & Sealey. Now it appears we'll get none.

With AJ, Anthony, Montalvo & Boone gone, we must be swimming in scholarship $.

 
PSU lands yet another top 5 Big Boarder in Joe Sealey.

At one time, I thought (hoped) we would land 2 of Mullen, Carroll & Sealey. Now it appears we'll get none.

With AJ, Anthony, Montalvo & Boone gone, we must be swimming in scholarship $.

Not even in the top 5 for Sealey.
 
PSU lands yet another top 5 Big Boarder in Joe Sealey.

At one time, I thought (hoped) we would land 2 of Mullen, Carroll & Sealey. Now it appears we'll get none.

With AJ, Anthony, Montalvo & Boone gone, we must be swimming in scholarship $.

Blaze just beat Sealey at super 32 . You sure he is still top 5 on the big board?
 
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Blaze just beat Sealey at super 32 . You sure he is still top 5 on the big board?
I dropped Flo & Rokfin, so I can't check the rankings. Not going to renew those subscriptions until the college season starts up again. But the Flo & Intermat articles said Sealey was #1 in the 2024 class. He might drop some after that Blaze loss. But he did win a U17 world title this summer, so it's hard to imagine him not remaining in the top 5.
 
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Cody Merrill, the Bixby kids, and Kael Voinovich need to be the big priorities in the 2024 class, in my opinion. Merrill is #3 on Matscouts, #18 on Flo who hasn't updated their 2024 big board since April. #1 in their updated 22-23 high school rankings at 195.
 
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Thinking of some options for 165 and 285 now that Joe Sealey and Jimmy Mullen are no longer available...

Brayden Thompson is a possibility, but he could end up at 174. Lockett is only a soph, so hard to say about him. Giddens has been mentioned on here recently. I watched some of his matches, he's pretty good. Placed at both Fargo & Ironman in 2021. Just made 165 for certification so he's starting to look like a college 165. Think we should go after him. He's likely to get some academic $ too which would help.

285 is tougher. Kruz Goff and Gunner Wilson are only sophs, so they are a long way off. Flipping a commit would be nice, but Carroll is the only impact guy I can think of. Then there's the transfer portal. Nevills is blocked by Kerkvliet. Hunter Catka will soon be blocked by Mullen. And bringing Harley Andrews back home would make a lot of sense.
 
Thinking of some options for 165 and 285 now that Joe Sealey and Jimmy Mullen are no longer available...

Brayden Thompson is a possibility, but he could end up at 174. Lockett is only a soph, so hard to say about him. Giddens has been mentioned on here recently. I watched some of his matches, he's pretty good. Placed at both Fargo & Ironman in 2021. Just made 165 for certification so he's starting to look like a college 165. Think we should go after him. He's likely to get some academic $ too which would help.

285 is tougher. Kruz Goff and Gunner Wilson are only sophs, so they are a long way off. Flipping a commit would be nice, but Carroll is the only impact guy I can think of. Then there's the transfer portal. Nevills is blocked by Kerkvliet. Hunter Catka will soon be blocked by Mullen. And bringing Harley Andrews back home would make a lot of sense.
Any help would be several years off, but an international heavyweight might be an option. Smith reportedly spoke at a football booster event in August. The same event where he first talked about Surber going to 197. He also stated that he would be heading overseas to scout/recruit (not sure what word he used as this is third-hand info) a couple of international heavyweights. Even if this potential recruit were talented enough there would be the freestyle to folkstyle learning curve, e.g., Gelogaev.
 
Any help would be several years off, but an international heavyweight might be an option. Smith reportedly spoke at a football booster event in August. The same event where he first talked about Surber going to 197. He also stated that he would be heading overseas to scout/recruit (not sure what word he used as this is third-hand info) a couple of international heavyweights. Even if this potential recruit were talented enough there would be the freestyle to folkstyle learning curve, e.g., Gelogaev.
Interesting! That would be a nice surprise.

Since you mentioned FB, I've got a question for the FB insiders. Mullen is doing FB & wrestling at VTech. That was the key to his commitment. Similar situations are planned at Iowa & Rutgers. The other day ISU signed a CA state champ who plans to do both. I read the ISU wrestling coaches actually asked the kid for football film to bring to the football coaches.

Is that something Gundy would ever go for? I know Rodriguez & Martin trained with the team for a few weeks a couple of years ago, but would Gundy commit to it for a full season?
 
Mocco played football after his wrestling eligibility was over. Never started and rarely played. Fun to watch though.
 
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Thinking of some options for 165 and 285 now that Joe Sealey and Jimmy Mullen are no longer available...

Brayden Thompson is a possibility, but he could end up at 174. Lockett is only a soph, so hard to say about him. Giddens has been mentioned on here recently. I watched some of his matches, he's pretty good. Placed at both Fargo & Ironman in 2021. Just made 165 for certification so he's starting to look like a college 165. Think we should go after him. He's likely to get some academic $ too which would help.

285 is tougher. Kruz Goff and Gunner Wilson are only sophs, so they are a long way off. Flipping a commit would be nice, but Carroll is the only impact guy I can think of. Then there's the transfer portal. Nevills is blocked by Kerkvliet. Hunter Catka will soon be blocked by Mullen. And bringing Harley Andrews back home would make a lot of sense.
I thought Giddens was a light weight who got beat soundly by Hughes maybe last year? He was tall and so you must be saying he has continued to get taller and is getting heavier? Also I have been confused when Thompson is mentioned at 165 since he is wrestling 182 but likely doesn't cut much weight and so 174 would make sense. I like hearing that Coach Smith could be looking at international Hwt. We need to do something creative along with hard work or we will not be a contender. We are not gaining on our competition with recruiting because our top classes have not turned out near as good as rated mostly tied to the Ferrari's not here, injuries and wrestlers like Travis Mastrogiavanni not showing much so far. I have to admit when Lee mentioned we should or would focus on the Bixby wrestlers and young Voinovich I was not excited but I agree the California 197 would be big. Penn. St will continue to go big Iowa goes big and Ohio State appears to be going big.
I just noticed Flo has a new board for 2024 class with Beric Jordan rated 15, Merrill rated 9, Voinovich rated 47, Giddens rated 89 at 165( he has really grown as Wrassler indicated) and Roller rated 97 and Burton is rated 62th and apparently he will wrestle 106.
 
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I thought Giddens was a light weight who got beat soundly by Hughes maybe last year? He was tall and so you must be saying he has continued to get taller and is getting heavier? Also I have been confused when Thompson is mentioned at 165 since he is wrestling 182 but likely doesn't cut much weight and so 174 would make sense. I like hearing that Coach Smith could be looking at international Hwt. We need to do something creative along with hard work or we will not be a contender. We are not gaining on our competition with recruiting because our top classes have not turned out near as good as rated mostly tied to the Ferrari's not here, injuries and wrestlers like Travis Mastrogiavanni not showing much so far. I have to admit when Lee mentioned we should or would focus on the Bixby wrestlers and young Voinovich I was not excited but I agree the California 197 would be big. Penn. St will continue to go big and Ohio State appears to be going big.
I just noticed Flo has a new board for 2024 class with Beric Jordan rated 15, Merrill rated 9, Voinovich rated 47, Giddens rated 89 at 165( he has really grown as Wrassler indicated) and Roller rated 97 and Burton is rated 62th and apparently he will wrestle 106.
Harley, at WNO Thompson said he might drop to 170 for the upcoming Elite 8 duals. He ended up going 182, but that probably indicates he could've made 170 if he had more than 2 weeks to make the drop. And if he can make 170 then 165 is at least a possibility.

You are right about Giddens, he was at 126 last year. What is McComas ranked? And how did he look the other day at the Arizona event?
 
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Kael Voinovich is projecting at 165. There are a lot of options out there that we are in on.

To the football thing.... Ben Kueter for Iowa is an NFL talent and I don't think he will actually wrestle. Similar to Creed Humphries when he was at OU. Mullen visited OSU but after that conversations stopped on both sides.

I'm pretty confident that Gundy offered a spot to Mason Parris if he had decided on OSU. Gundy is a wrestling fan and likes to recruit wrestlers, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Been told we have a couple of heavyweight prospects visiting and considering us. We will see what happens.
 
Harley, at WNO Thompson said he might drop to 170 for the upcoming Elite 8 duals. He ended up going 182, but that probably indicates he could've made 170 if had more than 2 weeks to make the drop. And if he can make 170 then 165 is at least a possibility.

You are right about Giddens, he was at 126 last year. What is McComas ranked? And how did he look the other day at the Arizona event?
McComas is rated 85th on Flo's Big Board 2024. Adrian Mesa rated 15th at 126 beat him 9 to 8 in McComas's match. MaComas got a takedown to take the lead 8 to 7 with a short time left and gave up a reversal to lose 9 to 8 in the last seconds of the match.
 
Harley, Burton made 120 for certification. I think he goes either 113 or 120 this year.

Lee, 165 for Voinovich is a possibility. But he did go 145 at Super32. That's day before weigh-ins, but even so, he could end up at 157.
 
I thought Giddens was a light weight who got beat soundly by Hughes maybe last year? He was tall and so you must be saying he has continued to get taller and is getting heavier? Also I have been confused when Thompson is mentioned at 165 since he is wrestling 182 but likely doesn't cut much weight and so 174 would make sense. I like hearing that Coach Smith could be looking at international Hwt. We need to do something creative along with hard work or we will not be a contender. We are not gaining on our competition with recruiting because our top classes have not turned out near as good as rated mostly tied to the Ferrari's not here, injuries and wrestlers like Travis Mastrogiavanni not showing much so far. I have to admit when Lee mentioned we should or would focus on the Bixby wrestlers and young Voinovich I was not excited but I agree the California 197 would be big. Penn. St will continue to go big and Ohio State appears to be going big.
I just noticed Flo has a new board for 2024 class with Beric Jordan rated 15, Merrill rated 9, Voinovich rated 47, Giddens rated 89 at 165( he has really grown as Wrassler indicated) and Roller rated 97 and Burton is rated 62th and apparently he will wrestle 106.
Point of clarification: Hughes matched up against Blankenship last year. I could be wrong but don’t believe he faced Giddens…at least not in the high school season.
 
Point of clarification: Hughes matched up against Blankenship last year. I could be wrong but don’t believe he faced Giddens…at least not in the high school season.
That was at the dual I believe. Then Hughes and McComas swapped weights, Hughes 126 & McComas 132.
 
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Harley, at WNO Thompson said he might drop to 170 for the upcoming Elite 8 duals. He ended up going 182, but that probably indicates he could've made 170 if he had more than 2 weeks to make the drop. And if he can make 170 then 165 is at least a possibility.

You are right about Giddens, he was at 126 last year. What is McComas ranked? And how did he look the other day at the Arizona event?
Ironman weights are 175 & 190 I think we see Brayden at 175. He will go 182 in IL so not sure how IL will handle things with the certs. We could see him at 190 if that happens it would be because of the IHSA not that he's that big
 
Ironman weights are 175 & 190 I think we see Brayden at 175. He will go 182 in IL so not sure how IL will handle things with the certs. We could see him at 190 if that happens it would be because of the IHSA not that he's that big
We could see Thompson and Ferrari in the same bracket then. Ferrari made 175 on Track. He probably goes either 175 or 165.
 
There's another heavyweight that could be available - Parker Ferrell. He is a VT commit, but they just got Mullen. Goes to HS a few miles from the campus, so he might want to stay local. Worth a shot though.

Willie has him #49 in the 2024 class, but I think he'll move up at some point. Just won Super32 and took 3rd at the Cadet WTT. Good frame and seems pretty athletic.
 
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