Soldier Salute
- Thread starter PoOsKuE
- Start date
Soldier Salute looks a little down this year. Steveson opted out, as did Army.
Here are the pre-seeds:
Here are the pre-seeds:
I posted yesterday in the schedule thread that Merrill, Robb and Sheets would be there. Might be another guy as well but I don't remember his name
Looks like Jersey Rob will Wrestle Gabe Arnold in the Semis and Cody Merrill wrestles Stephan Buchanan in the Semis
The other cowboys are eliminated
The other cowboys are eliminated
Big opportunity to Merrill to show what he can do against elite talent. Anyone know why Cael Hughes and Brayden Thompson didn't make the trip? Decent chance we will be counting on one or both of them next year. Would be nice for them to get the work.
Thompson had a tournament a week or two ago that he participated in, and they may be letting him off to focus on training instead of weight since he’s in redshirt. No clue on Hughes other than they may want/need him in the room if he’s challenging Witcraft for the spot
Of course the flipside could be they ate to damn much during Christmas. BT seeing mainly non D1 guys is not the kind of tests he needs. I feel for Cael, he's a huge 33.
Merill loses to Buchanan 2-0. Apparently riding was the difference, couldn't watch. I hope Merill learns to take more good shots and finishes them.
Merrill looked great on his feet, very stout defensively. He’s going to be a stud next year.
Not a bad result for Merrill considering that Buchanan has teched almost everyone he has wrestled this year.
Agree about Merrill. I expect big things from him.
If you can have a high quality loss those seem to be two of them.
7 out of the top ten at 197 are listed as seniors too
Robb and Merrill both won in consolations, so they will each wrestle for 3rd.
And one of those three non-seniors is due for another felony arrest any day now.
Honestly surprised he’s made it this long without any serious problems. CSU-B has either made sure to keep him on a short leash and/or has covered for whatever nonsense he’s gotten into.
If you've ever been to Bakersfield, it ain't a bad spot to lay low.
Yeah, he's a horny goat weed relapse away from Bill Cosby.
Merrill take it with a late TD over Salazar. 4-2
Buchanan went on to major Aedon Sinclair in the finals 14-5. Overall awesome performance for Merrill, doing that as a true freshman at 197 is real impressive.
If Merrill is beating the #5 ranked wrestler in the nation, it begs the question of whether he should be starting at 197. Might be the case that Surber is beating him in the room or maybe he is just committed to redshirting this year. Either way, huge win for him early in his career.
RS is still a good thing for Cody
Those are serious discussions that go on inside. There are tons of moving parts to a lineup to get the most points, current and future.
Joshua Barr, Rademacher and Cody Merill will be in top 5 at 197 for next few years. Rademacher already beat Cody twice. Will be interesting to see Barr vs Rademacher
Great win for Cody over returning AA. 197 is full of really good young wrestlers. Some really high expectations for Cody. I really feel that a RS year this year for him will do nothing but benefit him. A year in the room with these seniors on the team and with DT, is going to really take him to the next level. The close match with Buchanan and the win over Salazar, is proof of that.
Not near enough difference between the two to justify pulling Cody's RS, not to mention that Surber wins the ranking matches. Wrestling Luke everyday is one of the reasons Cody is doing so well. Besides Id take Surber against Salazar all day and twice on Sunday.
I agree but the ranking matches have been very close and you knew Cody would really improve and grow as the season went on.
Big weekend for him. Surber will at least know he has some pressure behind him which will benefit him this spring IMO.
No way would I pull Cody's redshirt unless Surber gets injured. Surber is an AA contender and a senior who has been completely devoted to this program through thick and thin. The shirt will only benefit Cody as well.
Think its a point thing. How many points would you have to expect to gain to pull a fairly similar guy out of RS? I'd say around 10 tourney points. Now if you had a big dual like Iowa where the match up might win the dual for you plus tournament then maybe. That may be what Iowa is looking at regarding 184 but not really a factor for us at 197.
Leaving him in RS, keeping him ready if an injury is a good plan. That was the situation with Pendleton fr year. Starter got hurt pulled rs only problem was CP injured knee in conf tournament thus disappointing NCAA.
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