Shayne Van Ness out
- Thread starter HIWILLE
- Start date
Prayers for a full and speedy recovery Shayne Van Ness. Hope to see you wrestling strong again next year.
Just like they had to suffer with a true freshman at 157 last year. This is no downgrade in talent. They aren’t replacing him with a room guy, like we usually have to when one our top guys go down. He may be a little smaller than Vaness, and has one year less varsity experience. I agree, by the end of the year, he will be a mid to high AA contender.
Here's more on Kasak for anyone who's interested. He only lost one match in folkstyle (other than to Bartlett 4-1 in the Black Knight finals this year) in the last three years, which was in the semis of the PIAA AAA champs in 2022. He was up 1-0 with 0:30 left and got caught and stuck by Pierson Manville, who is obviously no slouch himself. He had beaten Manville earlier in the season in the Escape The Rock finals.
He also beat Ryder Block in the Pittsburgh Classic in a thrilling 3-2 match where Block had several chances to get a TD and looked like the better wrestler for a lot of it.
He skipped his senior year of HS to train at M2/NLWC after committing to Penn State and won the U20 US Open freestyle championship while there.
From these matches, he looks like a great scrambler and quick on his feet, but where he struggled, he appeared to be able to be overpowered and horsed a little bit, which is not a great sign for a true freshman wrestling up a weight when he gets to the business end of the season. Either way, he's not an easy out for anyone by any stretch of the imagination.
He also beat Ryder Block in the Pittsburgh Classic in a thrilling 3-2 match where Block had several chances to get a TD and looked like the better wrestler for a lot of it.
He skipped his senior year of HS to train at M2/NLWC after committing to Penn State and won the U20 US Open freestyle championship while there.
From these matches, he looks like a great scrambler and quick on his feet, but where he struggled, he appeared to be able to be overpowered and horsed a little bit, which is not a great sign for a true freshman wrestling up a weight when he gets to the business end of the season. Either way, he's not an easy out for anyone by any stretch of the imagination.
Drew Roberts of Minnesota beat Kasak 7-5 in SV at the Edinboro Open last season.
Excellent analysis. Kasak is really a good scrambler but I agree horsepower will be his issue this year. This parallels the Bartlett scenario from last year. Its great to have this kind of talent to fill in but SVN's points aren't likely to be replaced.
Carl said his cut to 141 was not easy. He will be pretty much a full sized 149.
I'm with you...this sucks big time. As much as I always want to beat PSU, I never want to see these kids get injured. Hate it for SVN and hope he's able to come back strong next year. Seems like a really classy young man.
Yep, that's the kind of thing we need to strive for. We've got a couple solid backups but as many on here have opined, it sure would be nice to have more solid backups in the event of injuries or Caitlin Clark being all-world.
He also lost a match at whos number 1 to a Mantanona brother before his senior year
