mistydawn

This may very well occur because anytime someone steps on the mat anything can happen and both are very good and proven competitors that I respect however, I don't see it. Lee seems to be continually progressing his offense. He once wrestled Suriano a full match without a takedown until he scored one in OT for the win and the last time they wrestled in the NCAA Finals, Lee scored two takedowns in one match. Fix still hasn't scored a takedown against Suriano in about an hour of wrestling. Lee looked more dominant this year in every position than any other year and Fix, for reasons alluded to on this forum, gave up his spot on the Pan Team and his shot at the #1 seed in the Olympic Trials. Again, Fix is a proven competitor, but until he 1) steps back on the mat again and answers the lingering questions that are out there and 2) show offensive progress, I simply don't see him winning the trials--as good as he has been and make no mistake about it, he's been very good. Fanta, Fix and Lee will not meet in the first round, so he's got more to worry about than Lee including getting into the competition. Your comment on the weight thing is laughable, since they changed the weigh in protocols, his being a little light is probably an advantage, while others are having to go to extreme measures to make the weight and then to be able to compete at a high level.... The UWW really did wrestling a disservice by eliminating weight classes. Several competitors that should be at 133 and would do well there are forced to make a hard cut and that's too bad.

Good discussion for a great field at 57kg, but one factor that will "weigh in" this year is the fact that the athletes have to make scratch weight on both days. That variable will loom large for many of the athletes. In the past, in some of the Akron tournaments, guys weighed in once for a two day tournament, so the cutting was crazy and by the end of day two guys were jumping 15-18 pounds. It played a huge factor in matches and the new weigh in procedures take that HUGE advantage away for the guys cutting HARD. When it was a day before weigh-in or two days before--if you didn't cut hard you were at a significant disadvantage. If you have to make scratch on both days, one guy is not going to put enough on to have any meaningful advantage and the guys cutting too much will be at a large disadvantage. Another factor is the influence a hard weight cut has on the preparation leading into the tournament. As one example, Nick Suriano is a great wrestler and extremely hard to score on, but he looked so physical different at Senior Nationals at 57KG than he did in the NCAA Finals. I thought 133 was a great weight for him and I believe 57kg is a little on the smaller side for him, so I think it hurt him on that day. I believe Colon, Fix, Gilman, Vito and Gross are also cutting hard to make that weight. I thought weight played a factor in the last Gilman and Fix series. Both are studs and proven competitors, but I thought the cut took a little out of both of them and I thought it showed.

It's an award for the current year that's given out every year for that purpose. This year was the 90th year of the award being given. The selection process has three criteria: Fan Vote, Media Vote, Committee Vote, so it seems to be a good process. Awesome for wrestling to have one of our athletes win the award!

What is mentioned most often is my point, which takes me back to my second post and proves my point regarding ....

I agree with this post, Vito is tough and has a far better style for freestyle than folk style.

Intellect and wrestling acumen is not and the lack thereof is clearly apparent in your post....

I've never seen folks base so much on one weekend that is 5-years old.... It really is funny and actually sad in a way. It might be the biggest weekend of this kids career...at least that's how so many treat it that are close to him. It really is treated as the highlight of the kids career. Suriano took Fix down and Lee crushed Suriano. Those results were much more recent than five years ago. Things change and one weekend doesn't determine future outcomes. The Fix that wrestled last year would not have been favored against Lee. Actually, I don't think it would be close. Lee has continued to evolve and it shows and Daton simply doesn't have the offense. He's a tough, gritty wrestler with sound fundamentals, well coached, but the fact is that Fix didn't take a single shot in the NCAA finals and had the crowd booing against him. I hope Fix isn't suspended, because I want to see future match ups at 57kg. It's a great weight class with many quality opponents and great match-ups, but there is something telling about continually pointing to a match that goes back almost a half a decade. :-). It's almost sad that you're still living that far in the past.

maybe even lower....

I don't think anyone would want Rivera to go back down more than Spencer Lee. I wish Rivera had won in the Semis of nationals last year versus getting ridden for 5 minutes in a 7 minute match and losing 8-2 to the guy Lee dominated in the finals. At the end of the day, we all know what matters and what is remembered are those three days in March. It's about stepping up on the big stage and getting the job done. Rivera has been in his bracket at two NCAA Tournaments and never earned the right to wrestle him. Post pictures and results from in season matches where they are 2-2, but at the show, Lee is 10-0 and Rivera .... I hope Rivera does compete for a title at 133 in the future and believe he was in the mix for the title this year and was robbed of the opportunity this year and for that I am truly sad that when he was wrestling very well that he didn't have another opportunity.

The only way Lee doesn't wrestle in any matches next season, at least my prediction is if takes an Olympic Redshirt, takes his normal redshirt that he still hasn't used, or he's hurt, tapering for an event outside of folkstyle or recovering from an event outside of folkstyle, which is either using a year per his right or the coaching being called smart. I haven't seen the schedules next year to know where the teams are going... The whole ducking thing is BS made up by guys that hide behind screen names to throw out negative aspersions. This is a wrestler that has stepped up at all levels, during all age groups and now he's ducking and he's supposedly ducking guys he's already hammered:-). It's called reaching. He wrestled in the Super 32 high school division as an 8th grader, FLO Nationals High School Division as an 8th grader. Give it up. As far as Vito, folk style would be an awful match-up for him against Lee. Vito has a far better chance in freestyle to score off of rolls and counters, like he did at the US Nationals--before he lost 14-4. I think Lee would tech Vito in folk style. It wouldn't be close, but this is just an opinion, but Lee took him down several times in their first match in Texas, which counts in either folk or free and that doesn't bode well for him with Lee given any time on top--remember he scored back points in every match this season. I think Vito is awesome and has a great career ahead of him, but match-ups do matter in wrestling and Lee is an awful match-up, so the best thing Vito can do is to move up to 133--in my opinion. He could win it up a weight next year.

Mokomo - Lee beat Glory in two matches 30-6 and would have technical falled DeAugustino in the first period--I'm not a betting person, but I would go all in on predicting that tech fall--okay if I'm betting I would take the second period or earlier expecting it to happen in the first. DeAugustino had a good season and is a good wrestler, but he lost to Prata, (Lee pinned Prata in the first and it was quick), Schroeder beat DeAugustino 11-2, Schroeder turned DeAugustino with a tilt....(Lee beat Schroader 34-2 this year in two matches), as an example. You're trying really hard to down grade the kids accomplishments. It's really comical, but also noteworthy how hard you're trying. Iowa doesn't wrestle Division III schools to open the season anymore either that assuredly padded the stats in the past for some of their guys. This can go back and forth...season to season, competitor by competitor, why can't you just say, congratulations? Are you related to someone that he beat on in the past? The voters had him something like 53 of 56 votes for the best or the second best margin of victory ever. The fans had him ahead by 8,000 votes--I guess you simply feel that your right and the majority of everyone else is wrong. Could be the case or maybe you have an ax to grind. I think it's probably the latter:-). Take an Advil or two or three, relax, history has been made and he was selected and no one is taking it back--try to let it go, all of this stress is bad for your health:-).

Remember, many of this matches were tech falls in the first and second period, so I'm certain he would have gotten another turn or two to score the same number of points. It's not as if he was getting the final turn as the buzzer hit zero:-).

Makes me laugh that some still want to point to missing a match the week immediately prior to the US Senior Nationals where he hoped to qualify for the US Olympic Trials and he missed matches the week after he won the US Senior Nationals where he blew through a bracket with 6 former NCAA Champions, a World Jr. Silver medalist and a host of other All-Americans. Also, don't forget that Tom Brands announced that he would miss matches on both weekends prior to the season even starting. I guess those of you that hold that opinion are in the distinct minority, since Intermat stated that his margin of victory in the voting was one of the largest margins ever amongst the voting panel and he also won the popular vote by taking 58% of the total votes among the 8 finalists. His bonus point percentage is only second to Caels 95% and he had a bonus percentage of 94%. Rather than try to tear down a young mans accomplishments, I'll just echo what the obvious vast majority are saying today--well done Spencer Lee.