Wyoming
- Thread starter Mrgrapple
- Start date
Not off to a good start. Down 9-0 after losing the first three. Dual started at 149 and will end with Heil-Meredith.
They looked like a team on the second day of a tough long road trip who got in a hard workout this morning.
Heil gassed after nearly getting the winning TD in SV and an argument of a danger call could have won it for him as well at the end.
Gives the coaches a good reason to tear into some butts the next few weeks.
Weigel looks even better on top and Pic and White were also impressive. Moore gutted out a nice win as well.
I think we will see Boo soon as well as Mardsen.
Well there has to be a reason to not start Boo. No coach in their right mind (OSU coaches included) would not start the guy who won two head to head ranking matches and tech falled his opponent three days prior without a good reason. Sure am looking forward to seeing Boo wrestle in the lineup. Disappointed it wasn’t tonight but soon enough, I hope.
Guys I think the plan all along was to not start boo until after road trip. Boo needed matches so he was at Reno. No games are being played
not sure its a chess match. john indicated prior to this match that he will take the guys who have been in the line up with the exception of preston. this weekend duals were like a closing to the first semester which boo was ineligible. if boo was eligible in the first semester their wouldn't be a problem. i am sure after reno boo will be going all the way.
Without the Scuffle for the starters, John was probably looking for a way to get back to back weigh-ins on the schedule. Between making weight, the travel and the elevation, the risk was there for a rough road trip potentially. I think we saw some of that. Dean really looked exhausted at the end, but he'll get a crack at Meredith at Big12s.
The wrestling for us was sad tonight. Piccinni and White seemed to the only wrestlers who wrestled well showing skill, good judgement and determination. If anyone would have told me that Wyoming would win 5 matches against us tonight I would have thought they were crazy. I know we are looking towards next year but we need to have wrestlers improving as wrestlers and moving up in the rankings instead of losing to Wyoming. Lewallen needs to wrestle 49 and Martinez( I'm sure he is doing his best but he has not developed a bit since his transfer which surprises me) has disappointed as a wrestler for 2 years now. Kaid Brock is in a slump this year. We were lucky Heil didn't die on the mat because he obviously was totally spent and had nothing more to give in his match with Meredith. I don't believe we have better than an okay answer at 84. Smith has not been impressive either at 74. Hopefully this is our bottom and we build as a team from here.
Don't want to make a mountain out of a mole hill but if Boo was ineligible, he couldn't have been dressed out on the bench nor weigh in with the team at the dual today. He was eligible for the dual in Wyoming. Regardless, I agree with you, Boo hopefully will step in and perform well as expected. Just frustrating to watch us get beat up by a team and see a guy in warm-ups that could have gotten us off to a much better start.
To Harley's point, the bigger picture (because I don't think we thought this dual was ever really in jeapordy) is kaid and chandler bouncing back. 174 needs to continue to improve and I think he will. Heil will be fine as he was gassed at the end, won't be an issue in march. Blalock was game just came up short. 184 and 149 will probably see changes.
boo was eligible this past friday but i was assuming john probably looked at the last two matches (n coloraldo and wyoming) as like landmark matches for the first semester. but anyways he will have his time. maybe its a strategy to bring the best out of boo or martinez. competition has a way of doing that. who knows.
so glad you joined us, to encourage someone to leave with your first post. Several things wrong with that post, though. It is wrestling, not chess. Games are played, and wrestlers don't play, so there aren't any games going on. And if he is too good to stay, then he is too good to leave!
mustangwrestling-Do not know what you are intimating. No games being played and John told us before the trip that Boo would be in Reno and Geo would be at the two duals. I was at Reno. The starters were not at Reno. Geo is a good wrestler but Boo is better.
I vote we allow Harley to address the team post match going forward. Seriously though, I always enjoy reading Harley's posts and his views on the team Taking a cue from him and BigD, here's my big picture take on the first 5 weights (I'm sure no one wants to read about all 10).
125: Picc appears to have jumped levels to me. Still see him as a serious title threat. Wish he hit NaTo/Suriano during the regular season.
133: Kaid has been up and down. Is the weight cut affecting him? (for example, he controlled the Lehigh wrestler at Journeyman when he had several hours to recover post weigh-in). Still think top 3 come nationals.
141: Dean is still the favorite to win the title, even if his style makes us all nervous. He was exhausted against Meridith at the end. Also, Meridith was battle tested for that match having already faced Yianni, Eierman and Jack this year.
149: I think Geo was affected by the weight cut and elevation last night. Discounting ranking matches against a teammate (Boo) his only lose is against the #4 wrestler in the country. If he gets the nod, I think he is a very strong AA candidate, possibly top 5. That said, I think Boo has an even higher ceiling - if he wrestles aggressively, which he doesn't always do (see his earlier round match against NC State at Reno). Boo could be top 3 IMO.
157: Jonce is a battler with a good gas tank. I would like to see him attack even more to use his conditioning as an advantage (kind of like when Collica would attack relentlessly). He is potentially a R12 candidate. If he gets the nod next year and lifts into the weight class, he is a possible AA.
125: Picc appears to have jumped levels to me. Still see him as a serious title threat. Wish he hit NaTo/Suriano during the regular season.
133: Kaid has been up and down. Is the weight cut affecting him? (for example, he controlled the Lehigh wrestler at Journeyman when he had several hours to recover post weigh-in). Still think top 3 come nationals.
141: Dean is still the favorite to win the title, even if his style makes us all nervous. He was exhausted against Meridith at the end. Also, Meridith was battle tested for that match having already faced Yianni, Eierman and Jack this year.
149: I think Geo was affected by the weight cut and elevation last night. Discounting ranking matches against a teammate (Boo) his only lose is against the #4 wrestler in the country. If he gets the nod, I think he is a very strong AA candidate, possibly top 5. That said, I think Boo has an even higher ceiling - if he wrestles aggressively, which he doesn't always do (see his earlier round match against NC State at Reno). Boo could be top 3 IMO.
157: Jonce is a battler with a good gas tank. I would like to see him attack even more to use his conditioning as an advantage (kind of like when Collica would attack relentlessly). He is potentially a R12 candidate. If he gets the nod next year and lifts into the weight class, he is a possible AA.
Weigel also wrestled very good Tuesday. I hope that Heil hears the interview of Meredith where he talks about knowing he could break Heil and then actually breaking him. The truth is he did seem to break Heil that match but I suspect that Heil's motivation this year has increased.
A big part of that and Meridith mentioned in he interview is that he just came off grinding in a big tournament against a bunch of tough guys already. Heil hasn't had that this year. He was also coming off back to back weigh ins, a dual the night before, and a tough morning workout.
I wouldn't worry about Heil "breaking" when it matters.
Harley, not sure, maybe this post was in response to mine? I hope you don't think I was taking a shot at you. I was just trying to inject some humor (and failed possibly). I genuinely like your posts. Some I agree with and some I don't, but I think it's fair for us to critique the team and the wrestling as long it doesn't become personal. Heck, I've ranted myself about our recruiting and marketing.
Here is the recap posted on the okstate wrestling page with some comments from John.
http://okstate.com/news/2017/12/19/wrestling-cowboys-overcome-slow-start-to-edge-wyoming.aspx
http://okstate.com/news/2017/12/19/wrestling-cowboys-overcome-slow-start-to-edge-wyoming.aspx
Today's Flo Radio Live devoted a good amount of time discussing the dual. They brought up a lot of the points mentioned in this thread - the back to back duals, the travel, the elevation. They also mentioned that John had 2 wrestlers fly out to join the team after the uNC dual. Said one was Boo, and I'm guessing the other was Hestin in case Keegan was injured. They also said they would now rank 141 as 1) Meredith 2) Dean 3) Yianni, and that Yianni could be the 1 seed at nationals if he wins out. Don't think it will matter to Dean since he will have tough matches from the quarters on regardless of how they seed it.
2x NC not getting a one seed
cause he lost at 7200ft breathing thru a straw
ya right lol
cause he lost at 7200ft breathing thru a straw
ya right lol
My opinion we should not be using altitude or anything else as an excuse. Dean and Bryce have been close every match so the inevitable happened and hopefully will not happen again. Kaid has not been his usual self all year and he got caught in a 6 point move and used all his energy to get back even. I predicted on this board that Chandler would have all he could handle with his opponent at 165. Ashworth looked strong last year and this year at Reno he looked outstanding. I do not know what happened to Geo but that may be a moot point from here on out.
My feeling is the elevation and the back to back weigh-ins were a factor in certain matches. I say that because I've never seen Dean so tired that he couldn't even stand up. And Geo was the first bout of the dual, meaning he wrestled only 1 hour after weigh-ins. He also looked like he had very little energy to me. Maybe John had Boo fly out because he thought Geo might not even be able to make weight. In fact, I can't think of a reason for Boo to fly out and not wrestle unless there was some type of injury, which doesn't appear to be the case. Regarding Kaid and Chandler, I'm not sure. Kaid seems like he is struggling with the weight in general - he only won on RT the night before. With Chandler, I was hoping he would entrench himself as #4 in the country and possibly threaten the top 3. But he hasn't demonstrated separation from the 4 - 10 guys.
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I’m not using altitude as an excuse, I don’t believe that it’s right to throw Dean away because of this loss like several national people are doing. Heil’s match in Tulsa with Merideth was a barn burner last year and it will be the same this year.
Of course it was all a factor which is exactly why Coach Smith scheduled it this way and also put them through a tough workout the same day as the second dual.
He wanted to stress them and test them. He knew exactly what could have and in some cases did happen up in Wyoming.
I would say every one of those matchups will be revered come March (exception being Geo as I think the spot is Boo's very soon). Good learning and training couple of days for the team.
Well I agree John planned the trip accordingly (posted that earlier) and I agree it affected some of the wrestlers/matches, but I can't say all because we saw blowouts by Picc, Preston and Derek. And I think you're right about Kaid and Chandler reversing the outcomes at Big12s. But again, looking at the bigger picture, I have some concerns.
Consider when Kaid wrestles 1 hour after weigh-in vs 3+ hours. Against Northern Colorado (1 hour) he faded in the 3rd and won on RT. Against Wyoming (3 hours) Kaid had the energy to get 4 takedowns to none against Bridges (who's very good, props to him) after the opening sequence. That first dual against UNC (1 hour) Kaid struggled to score. Against McKee and Parker (3 hours) Kaid completely controlled them. I could certainly be wrong that the inconsistency is because of the weight cut, but if it is, I hope Kaid gets it under control. When he is wrestling his best, he's a title contender (even against Gross).
