TripNSweep

She didn't realize she was that far along. She figured she was only 3 months in, if she was at all.

I copied it from Track which teams are supposed to enter their matches into. I guess the Sunnyside coaches forgot to add that match for some reason or another. Looks like they got it in the wrong order too, since he wrestled the Faith Lutheran kid in the first round then wrestled Marana Mt. View who was the #2 seed. I wonder why they forgot to add it in there.

It showed that he won by fall vs Faith Lutheran. Here's the results. Champ. Round 2 - ANTHONY ECHEMENDIA (Sunnyside H.S.) over Daivon Lee (Mountain View - Marana) (Dec 9-6) No No 152 Champ. Round 2 - ANTHONY ECHEMENDIA (Sunnyside H.S.) over Dylan Dockery (Faith Lutheran) (Fall 3:30) No No 152 Round 3 - ANTHONY ECHEMENDIA (Sunnyside H.S.) over Baylor Williams (Mountain View Hs (Mesa)) (TF 19-4 0:00) Yes No 152 1st Place Match - ANTHONY ECHEMENDIA (Sunnyside H.S.) over Denen Fernandez (Queen Creek) (Dec 6-5)

None of them have anything on Kristie Marano. Competed while 8 months pregnant (unknown to her), took 2nd at the open, won universities and gave birth 5 days later on her own. Cut the umbilical cord herself and then won another tournament 10 days later. These guys have it easy.

Are you sure it was the final? I just looked at the tournament results to double check because I remember him barely escaping with a 6-5 win over Denen Fernandez from Queen Creek. It could be wrong but it says he pinned a kid from Faith Lutheran in 3:30 in the 2nd round. His first round match was a 9-6 decision over somebody from Marana Mountain View.

I would be very surprised if he came close to AAing at all. I've seen him wrestle live quite a bit and when he came up against college guys he more than had his hands full.

I'm calling it now. If Echemendia wrestles for Iowa State this year he doesn't AA if he qualifies.

Every country has their criteria to decide who gets to be a citizen and what they need to fulfill as far as being eligible to compete for them. Some places have less stringent requirements, and others it's nigh impossible to do. Like if you had a bunch of money burning a hole in your pocket, you could get citizenship by investment in a lot of countries. You could go wrestle for Dominica or St. Kitts and Nevis for about $150k. Processing takes about a week or two until you're a full fledged citizen.

Zaddick is a guy I could see rubbing people the wrong way. But at the same time you know he's a driven competitor who when he wrestled was as mean as they come. Watching the ESPN thing that gives you some idea as to why he was that way.

He could go anywhere and train honestly. Any club would be happy to have him there. What about Hrovat spending a year in Russia? They didn't care. What about Bracken going to Cuba for several months to prep for the Olympics? Nobody cared. It isn't like this is some new thing. Novachkov wrestled for Bulgaria and was part of the Illinois RTC. Ivanov wrestled for Bulgaria too and was US based. USAW even pays for foreign national teams to come and train at the OTC or at least invites them to come and train there. You act as if guys like Amine, Abounader, and Micic are taking up resources that would otherwise go to wrestlers trying to compete for the US. They're not. All the RTC does, unless they have a different arrangment and they could for all I know, is lets them practice there and be coached by Bormet and Beleglazov. If somebody meets the requirements to be allowed to practice at the RTC then they let them in. My friend who is wanting to wrestle for the country his mother was born in was a high school state champion. He never wrestled in college before but wants to keep training since he doesn't like MMA all that much. I doubt ASU/Sunkist/Zeke Jones are going to care about whether he comes to practice or not. They just put him through the same motions and drills as everybody else and that's it. Maybe if he asked them somebody from Sunkist would coach him at a major tournament if he went and they happened to be there. It's a little different because Amine and Abounader have a long standing relationship because they wrestled at Michigan. But most foreign athetes who are at RTCs just come to raise their game for a couple of months and then go wrestle back in their country until it's time to come back to the US and train. Maybe they have family or friends here or something who helps them out, but the RTCs aren't supporting a lot of guys or girls full time.

That's exactly why I picked up a 2nd passport. Also fortunately (maybe unfortunately?) I've only been asked if I was American a few times when abroad. Mostly I get mistaken as being Australian, German or once even Turkish.

How are they spending resources by letting a foreign wrestler in the room to train with them? It isn't like the RTC pays everybody or even most people to be there. Maybe some do, but the majority don't unless it's somebody on the US ladder. Back in Europe a lot of people think Americans get paid so well to wrestle and that's why. They're usually pretty surprised to learn a lot of wrestlers at least need to work part time or find sponsors or have amazing family support in order to do this. RTCs don't spend a lot of recources on foreign athletes, and even if they do, it's not money they get from USAW.

That's a pretty good claim honestly. If you are eligible for citizenship elsewhere and exercise your right to do so, why not? I wish we had more of it. I can think of some wrestlers who have that choice but haven't yet. Pico could choose to wrestle for Mexico and I think that's great. Obe Blanc could choose to wrestle for Haiti and that would be awesome. I know there have been some guys who could have done that and didn't, preferring to try to make the US team. Commendable, but that is their choice. If I wanted to I could do the same thing.

All of those guys have dual nationality. You can't just wake up and decide to compete for another country one day. You have to fill out paperwork and prove that you have an actual legitimate connection that allows you to have dual citizenship. I get that sometimes that's a vague thing, look no further than most of the Greek baseball and softball players in 2004, I think 90% of them were American. A lot of them were given citizenship due to some really far reaching ties. Amine for example, his mother was upon birth a citizen of San Marino. That's pretty direct and not that far reaching. A friend of mine who is going to take a run at the next cycle, his mother was born in the country he's choosing to wrestle for. This isn't some "my great-grandmother was born there but left when she was a kid so now I'm using that to get citizenship."

Honestly I think it depends on his mindset in college. Either he comes in with an attitude thinking he's the best and winds up getting humbled by guys who've been around for a few years and don't have the same accolades but are just tough, or he comes in right away and dominates. He could turn out to be really good, but maybe it's just the level of competition he had in high school wasn't so he was wrestling down or whatever. I hope he does turn out to be decent in college. But all the hoopla surrounding him made him sound like the next Cary Kolat or something.