If your measure is 1st or fail, then yep, they failed. However, I like to actually look at each wrestler and who they lost to before unilaterally saying anything like that…
So, here goes:
125: Cruz is simply too small. In a dual where the weigh ins are so close and the dual starts at 125, a lot of that is negated. In a tournament format he simply gets exposed. 5th seed was incredibly generous and there was no way he was meeting that expectation. Still, I would give him a D for the MSU loss.
133: Ayala wrestled very well until he got into a bad position against simply a stronger wrestler. The match was #1 vs #2 in the country and was the true definition of a toss up match. Would rather the loss b now instead of in 2 weeks. Still, easily making the Finals after moving up a weight earns him B.
141: Schriever actually wrestled tougher than I expected. His losses were at least competitive. C.
149: Parco lost to the 2 best guys in the country at the weight. Sadly, HOW he lost was not the encouraging. Hard for me to grade this because a competitive 4th would have been fine with me. I guess a C, but he definitely didn’t lose to someone he shouldn’t have.
157: Teemer is OBVIOUSLY very far from 100%. Just the time he missed alone is enough to justify the performance, but a hamstring injury followed by an obvious injury is a LOT to overcome to still take 7th. Considering that, the performance alone gets him a B-
165: Caliendo deserves an A and I normally wouldn’t give that for 2nd place. But, the guy wrestled as well as anyone could possibly imagine short of maybe his mom…
174: Kennedy did all that could be expected from the 4 seed he got to the semis and then lost to the 2 seed in the consis. 5th gets in a B
184: Arnold at 5th losing 2 super tight matches wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad either. Ruth is a B1G champ and Smith was a50/50 matchup. Avenging his loss to Alred helped redeem his performance. B-
197: Buchanan deserves a very similar analysis to Ayala. He looked great until the Finals, where he wrestled a very tough matchup. To be honest, I hope he doesn’t see him again at NCAA’s. He keeps super low in neutral and is very good on bottom. Styles make matchup and that style, as skilled as Cardenas is, makes for a match I would rather not see again. Still, Finals gets a B.
285: Kueter deserves apologies from a LOT of people on here. The top 3 guys at this weight are WAY ahead of everyone else, but he showed today that he can be the best of the best of the rest. He did a great job towards quieting the haters. B+
As far as the team goes, I would give them a C+. The only bad overall performance was Cruz and I think I did a pretty good job of explaining why Cruz would struggle mightily at this type of tournament. Overall, the rest of the placements I have no issue with whatsoever. But, how Parco and Ayala lost hurts that a bit.
Feel free to come at me hard if you want, but please use facts instead of feelings. Who lost a true upset match? Cruz was massively overseeded, in my opinion, so please don’t use him as the basis of your argument.
Now, fire away…
So, here goes:
125: Cruz is simply too small. In a dual where the weigh ins are so close and the dual starts at 125, a lot of that is negated. In a tournament format he simply gets exposed. 5th seed was incredibly generous and there was no way he was meeting that expectation. Still, I would give him a D for the MSU loss.
133: Ayala wrestled very well until he got into a bad position against simply a stronger wrestler. The match was #1 vs #2 in the country and was the true definition of a toss up match. Would rather the loss b now instead of in 2 weeks. Still, easily making the Finals after moving up a weight earns him B.
141: Schriever actually wrestled tougher than I expected. His losses were at least competitive. C.
149: Parco lost to the 2 best guys in the country at the weight. Sadly, HOW he lost was not the encouraging. Hard for me to grade this because a competitive 4th would have been fine with me. I guess a C, but he definitely didn’t lose to someone he shouldn’t have.
157: Teemer is OBVIOUSLY very far from 100%. Just the time he missed alone is enough to justify the performance, but a hamstring injury followed by an obvious injury is a LOT to overcome to still take 7th. Considering that, the performance alone gets him a B-
165: Caliendo deserves an A and I normally wouldn’t give that for 2nd place. But, the guy wrestled as well as anyone could possibly imagine short of maybe his mom…
174: Kennedy did all that could be expected from the 4 seed he got to the semis and then lost to the 2 seed in the consis. 5th gets in a B
184: Arnold at 5th losing 2 super tight matches wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad either. Ruth is a B1G champ and Smith was a50/50 matchup. Avenging his loss to Alred helped redeem his performance. B-
197: Buchanan deserves a very similar analysis to Ayala. He looked great until the Finals, where he wrestled a very tough matchup. To be honest, I hope he doesn’t see him again at NCAA’s. He keeps super low in neutral and is very good on bottom. Styles make matchup and that style, as skilled as Cardenas is, makes for a match I would rather not see again. Still, Finals gets a B.
285: Kueter deserves apologies from a LOT of people on here. The top 3 guys at this weight are WAY ahead of everyone else, but he showed today that he can be the best of the best of the rest. He did a great job towards quieting the haters. B+
As far as the team goes, I would give them a C+. The only bad overall performance was Cruz and I think I did a pretty good job of explaining why Cruz would struggle mightily at this type of tournament. Overall, the rest of the placements I have no issue with whatsoever. But, how Parco and Ayala lost hurts that a bit.
Feel free to come at me hard if you want, but please use facts instead of feelings. Who lost a true upset match? Cruz was massively overseeded, in my opinion, so please don’t use him as the basis of your argument.
Now, fire away…