mistydawn

Keeps getting better and better. This is a great stylistic match-up--DeSanto vs. Meredith. The guy with a motor and total neutral offense versus the scrambling defensive wizard! Meredith was tough to finish on. Has DeSanto wrestled much freestyle? I don't care who they match up with next, the card is already awesome.

I love the match-ups thus far and I miss watching wrestling. I'd pay $50 to watch a quality wrestling event. I am so glad they are doing this and I love the early match-ups.

Great match-up of contrasting styles in Marinelli versus Green. I'm looking forward to that one.

He's a great wrestler and he's also very lucky. Had the Olympics happened on time he was out and now he gets another shot. He popped for Ostarine. It's a drug, I'm told, that is used to lean out while maintaining muscle mass. He was always one big guy for the weight.

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.