Soldier Salute Positives

[UndercoverHawk]

Let’s get this away from whatever that other thread turned into.
The ladies were all killers. It’s a shame what happened to Welker. Hopefully she makes a full recovery next year for her first title and Olympic title. Also they are a tight knit team. Seemed like the whole team was in the corner for every match and were all really into it. Good group. Excited for the future.

Guys
Spencer looked great
Ayala looked great
Schriever looked solid
Rhodes looked solid. Lost to the same guy twice and took 4th. Been a pleasant surprise to me
Real is the best/most complete guy on the team at this point in time
Bennett with a solid showing
Murin looked really good
Rathjen looked really good
Joel J looked solid. Really hard guy to take down. Needs to find a go to shot
PK looked solid
Rhodes looked solid. Becoming a fan favorite of mine. Reminds me of a Glosser
Riggins has a little bit of work to do but a solid showing
Swafford looked solid
Abe looked solid
Griffith had a solid showing. Hope his elbow is ok. Looks like a guy that could grow into 197. The matches he won he looked really good.
Warner looked solid
Franklin looked solid
Glazier looked solid. Probably had the best match of the tournament with his dismantling of Voelker.
Cass looked great
Hill looked solid

Lots of things to build on. Tom said it best, we gotta be healthy

 

[IAChief32]

Glazier took it to Voelker who I have a lot of respect for and think is going to be damn good.

 

[jrod65]

Solid post

 

[Boomhawk52]

I want voelker

 

[McUSA]

Biggest take aways…

1. The fire in SL was reignited meaning scorched freaking earth from here on out. Can thank DA for that. Love his competitiveness.

2. If you go to this event next year, a FF isn’t happening. At least not from a Hawk. How freaking refreshing is that.

 

[Scruddy]

Is there bad blood between Lee and Ayala? That was a brutal match lol

 

[A Fist Full of Hawkeyes]

The biggest positive is that Spencer Lee went exactly 1:24 longer in the finals than we thought he would.

The gas tank is filling up.

 

[pacnorthhawkeye]

Solid post

 

[SPOONER]

Biggest take aways…

1. The fire in SL was reignited meaning scorched freaking earth from here on out. Can thank DA for that. Love his competitiveness.

2. If you go to this event next year, a FF isn’t happening. At least not from a Hawk. How freaking refreshing is that.

There were MFFs, including from Hawkeyes.

The OP is an easy grader. 😉

 

[sdvike]

Lee was encouraging. He isnt 100 yet and may not be but he looks every bit of Natty champ.
Ayala reminds me of Desanto, go go go. He is coming back from his injury. Cant wait to watch him next year.
Schreiver does real good with his limitations of the right arm. He is one of those taking one for the team guys wrestling through the injury and once healthy may very well be better than Teske.
So glad Woods transferred in, enough said there.
Murin is bouncing back from the setback against ISU. He looks AA to me.
Jesoroga surprisingly better than I thought. Wrestled tough in Chatanooga and again this weekend.
Rathjen should never go up to 57 again. He is looking like heir apparent for Max.
Hope Cobe is alright.
PK is tough man. Best ankle pick Ive seen in awhile. Needs some conditioning but never in danger.
Wanted to see more of Swaff but understandable.
Without the knee issue, he likely majors his way through this tourney. But great final gritting it out in ot.
Warner just seems better this year. I think he gained some confidence last year and has better conditioning than any other previous years.
Glazier for sure improved in Hawk room. Kolby does not back down.
Cass, Im calling it now he is Natty champ in March.
The best part of the tournament was no challenges or replays. That is how it is done.

 

[SPOONER]

Lee was encouraging. He isnt 100 yet and may not be but he looks every bit of Natty champ.
Ayala reminds me of Desanto, go go go. He is coming back from his injury. Cant wait to watch him next year.
Schreiver does real good with his limitations of the right arm. He is one of those taking one for the team guys wrestling through the injury and once healthy may very well be better than Teske.
So glad Woods transferred in, enough said there.
Murin is bouncing back from the setback against ISU. He looks AA to me.
Jesoroga surprisingly better than I thought. Wrestled tough in Chatanooga and again this weekend.
Rathjen should never go up to 57 again. He is looking like heir apparent for Max.
Hope Cobe is alright.
PK is tough man. Best ankle pick Ive seen in awhile. Needs some conditioning but never in danger.
Wanted to see more of Swaff but understandable.
Without the knee issue, he likely majors his way through this tourney. But great final gritting it out in ot.
Warner just seems better this year. I think he gained some confidence last year and has better conditioning than any other previous years.
Glazier for sure improved in Hawk room. Kolby does not back down.
Cass, Im calling it now he is Natty champ in March.
The best part of the tournament was no challenges or replays. That is how it is done.

You’re more optimistic than me. Murin and Warner look like the same guys to me. One upset in the 149 bracket and Murin will be challenged to place. Warner lost to Bastida again, lost to Elam, manhandled by a no-name from Penn, and has to deal with Beard and Laird in the bracket. He’s 2-8 on the podium as he has been, IMHO.

 

[uncle jim 62]

who did Cass beat in that Exabition that impressed you so much?

 

[MVPFAN]

You’re more optimistic than me. Murin and Warner look like the same guys to me. One upset in the 149 bracket and Murin will be challenged to place. Warner lost to Bastida again, lost to Elam, manhandled by a no-name from Penn, and has to deal with Beard and Laird in the bracket. He’s 2-8 on the podium as he has been, IMHO.

Yeah, I'm seeing likely AA at 125, 141, 197 and 285 and Warner going to have to bring it to match last year. Murin and Kennedy are on the edge.

 

[Spoons]

Yeah, I'm seeing likely AA at 125, 141, 197 and 285 and Warner going to have to bring it to match last year. Murin and Kennedy are on the edge.

While I agree with what you’re saying think about this all 4 have legitimate chance to win it all. I wouldn’t count out PK and Murin just yet. I want to see more of Seibrect also love how he wrestles.

 

[hoythawk]

By far the biggest positive was Spencer Lee feeling good enough to wrestle a full tournament. We didn't learn much at any other weight due to the competition.

 

[sdvike]

You’re more optimistic than me. Murin and Warner look like the same guys to me. One upset in the 149 bracket and Murin will be challenged to place. Warner lost to Bastida again, lost to Elam, manhandled by a no-name from Penn, and has to deal with Beard and Laird in the bracket. He’s 2-8 on the podium as he has been, IMHO.

Your right Spooner, Im being optimistic. I said it for 3 years on Warner that he could be wrestling Sat night and last year he did. He can beat any of the top 8 in his weight class or could lose to any of them. I think he is better conditioned and more aggressive this year. Murin wrestles hard. He is the AA that has never been an AA, one of the guys Im really pulling for this year.

 

[DonHawkeye]

Seems like all parties are committed to this tournament at this time of year. I hope it turns into the go-to xmas tournament. It is a great spot and it has the team at that arena to pull it off.

 

[here_for_the_hawkeyes]

Let’s get this away from whatever that other thread turned into.
The ladies were all killers. It’s a shame what happened to Welker. Hopefully she makes a full recovery next year for her first title and Olympic title. Also they are a tight knit team. Seemed like the whole team was in the corner for every match and were all really into it. Good group. Excited for the future.

Guys
Spencer looked great
Ayala looked great
Schriever looked solid
Rhodes looked solid. Lost to the same guy twice and took 4th. Been a pleasant surprise to me
Real is the best/most complete guy on the team at this point in time
Bennett with a solid showing
Murin looked really good
Rathjen looked really good
Joel J looked solid. Really hard guy to take down. Needs to find a go to shot
PK looked solid
Rhodes looked solid. Becoming a fan favorite of mine. Reminds me of a Glosser
Riggins has a little bit of work to do but a solid showing
Swafford looked solid
Abe looked solid
Griffith had a solid showing. Hope his elbow is ok. Looks like a guy that could grow into 197. The matches he won he looked really good.
Warner looked solid
Franklin looked solid
Glazier looked solid. Probably had the best match of the tournament with his dismantling of Voelker.
Cass looked great
Hill looked solid

Lots of things to build on. Tom said it best, we gotta be healthy

Any word on Welker’s injury? Was it ACL?

 

[UndercoverHawk]

Any word on Welker’s injury? Was it ACL?

No word but it has to be. The way they were working on it during injury time looked like ACL.

 

[AFHawk86]

Your right Spooner, Im being optimistic. I said it for 3 years on Warner that he could be wrestling Sat night and last year he did. He can beat any of the top 8 in his weight class or could lose to any of them. I think he is better conditioned and more aggressive this year. Murin wrestles hard. He is the AA that has never been an AA, one of the guys Im really pulling for this year.

I don’t see anything different from Murin so far this year. I hoped for more offense from a 6th year senior but it looks like more of the same.

 

[here_for_the_hawkeyes]

No word but it has to be. The way they were working on it during injury time looked like ACL.

Bummer

 

[Exo]

I don’t see anything different from Murin so far this year. I hoped for more offense from a 6th year senior but it looks like more of the same.

Yeah if he ends up 8th on the stand this year we should be thrilled.

 

[choosenuetral]

Take a nice idea (this thread), dip it in the cesspool, let whiny old men chew on it annnnnd this is what you get. Good effort anyway undercover.

 

[js8793]

125: drama aside, the finals was the first time spencer truly looked like spencer. went out there with violence on his mind. still needs matches to shore up the tank, but he's moving like his old self again and that's the most important thing that happened this weekend.

133: schriever is scrappy. on most D1 teams, he's a solid starter. on iowa, he's a hole. he'll lose a bunch of one-sided decisions to top 15 guys and be a toss up with everybody else at the NQ level.

141: looked outstanding.

149: murin is murin. very good. could place, but probably not favored to. one of my all time favorites. rathjen's 157 days should be over. he looked way better here. feel better about some combo of him, chittum, and siebrecht at 149/157 next year.

165: kennedy is a fringe aa. worried about his tank a little. not an isolated incident. he wears himself out a lot with his early exertion. don't love the match ups against the field. love that he attacks though.

184: abe is good at everything except finishing. if he figures out those finishes, he's an AA imo. he gets to everybody's legs. unfortunately, it's usually a messy low ankle situation. i'd like to see him make the adjustment murin did a couple years ago. more to the corner and emphasis on getting to his feet on a single instead of the backdoor finishes. guys are so good there now. it's a low percentage finish.

197: looked like warner. franklin has a lot of room to grow into 197. while i didn't love what i saw, he's got skills and clearly has room to get stronger. needs to live in the weightroom this summer.

285: credit to the navy kid for going after him. cass is cass. monster.

 

[Tcalumet]

Biggest take aways…

1. The fire in SL was reignited meaning scorched freaking earth from here on out. Can thank DA for that. Love his competitiveness.

2. If you go to this event next year, a FF isn’t happening. At least not from a Hawk. How freaking refreshing is that.

1) 125s thinking - if he did that to his teammate, what is going to happen to me…

 

[PinDoxRico]

I think this tournament has potential of outgrowing the Midlands and Scuffle in time, for the simple fact that everyone that I encountered there just had an absolute blast being there. Something about it.

People are razzing the tourney on various platforms or whatever stating that the tourney lacked competition and/or was a place for Iowa to “Dodge” competition they would have otherwise faced at the other tournaments… These people don’t get it. This was an inaugural tournament for Iowa. Generally, tourneys like this don’t become what they ultimately become in their first year… And the vibe I get from this one is that it won’t by any means regress from here. It’ll keep growing. Even if you PSU’s, ASU’s, etc. don’t compete in it, it will still always receive attention from the entire wrestling community simply because Iowa is not only there, but the tourney is “their’s.” And whether people love or hate Iowa, one thing is undeniable for both groups and that’s the fact that people can’t and likely won’t ever stop paying attention to what Iowa is up to.

Plus, I wrote in depth pre-tourney summaries for almost every weight before this tourney began…. I don’t think certain people are giving the tourney enough credit as far as the talent that was there… It’s tougher than people give it credit for… way tougher than what I expected it to be before I broke it down… Squads like Columbia, Bellarmine, AWP, etc. had some under the radar hammers who have done some sneaky good things this year. Columbia especially surprised me when I broke down their depth. I mean, chances were at every weight that squads like Columbia, Army West Point, Wyoming, UNC, UNI, SD State, etc. who were competing there would have at least 1-2 decent guys who have had their moments at one point or another and I thought it was cool to see some of these matchups unravel.

It ain’t “peak Scuffle” quite yet and nobody would argue that, but it’s off to a good start, IMO. If for no other reason that people seemed to really enjoy their time there.

I had a blast and can’t wait to promote the hell out of it next year.