All Time great riders

[Rameses 0]

Jarid Frayer was tough on top. Used some viscious turns on Percival in the 2002 NCAA tournament to get to the semi-finals and kept Jantzen down on the mat as well. Funny how both Percival and Jantzen have already been mentioned, yet a guy who rode both of those guys out goes unmentioned.

 

Josh Lambrecht was insane on top. His tilt series was as Steve Irwin would say, "Danger! Danger! Danger!". The guy majored and even tech falled quite a few caliber opponents.

 

Jeremy Spates was a monster on top. Often over looked as he was only a 1 time All American, but he was tough to escape from. Rode 4 Time All American Dustin Monotti for over 4 minutes in a match once. Very tough on top.

 

His career was cut short because of injuries but does anyone remember Wade Sauer? He was a heavyweight that could turn about anyone with his power half nelson. A lot of guys made the mistake of chosing down against him and they'd end up getting turned over and pinned.

 

Evan Sola is another name that comes to mind for being tough on top. Nathan Morgan of Oklahoma State made the mistake of chosing down against him in the R12 match at the NCAA's and it cost Morgan an AA award. Sola rode the snot out of him, as he did many people. Guy was just a monster on top.

 

 

Sola's armbar series is why my left shoulder still clicks every time I shampoo my head in the shower... Guy was relentless getting it in and was lethal with a bar and a half. In that same '05 tourney he won the Gorrarian Award and ran Mark Jayne right over the top with a bar and half with so much pressure that you could hear Jayne (who is a stud and great guy) wincing from the first row.

 

Rameses

[JohnnyThompsonnum1 101]

Jarid Frayer was tough on top. Used some viscious turns on Percival in the 2002 NCAA tournament to get to the semi-finals and kept Jantzen down on the mat as well. Funny how both Percival and Jantzen have already been mentioned, yet a guy who rode both of those guys out goes unmentioned.

 

Josh Lambrecht was insane on top. His tilt series was as Steve Irwin would say, "Danger! Danger! Danger!". The guy majored and even tech falled quite a few caliber opponents.

 

Jeremy Spates was a monster on top. Often over looked as he was only a 1 time All American, but he was tough to escape from. Rode 4 Time All American Dustin Monotti for over 4 minutes in a match once. Very tough on top.

 

His career was cut short because of injuries but does anyone remember Wade Sauer? He was a heavyweight that could turn about anyone with his power half nelson. A lot of guys made the mistake of chosing down against him and they'd end up getting turned over and pinned.

 

Evan Sola is another name that comes to mind for being tough on top. Nathan Morgan of Oklahoma State made the mistake of chosing down against him in the R12 match at the NCAA's and it cost Morgan an AA award. Sola rode the snot out of him, as he did many people. Guy was just a monster on top.

 

 

Sola's armbar series is why my left shoulder still clicks every time I shampoo my head in the shower... Guy was relentless getting it in and was lethal with a bar and a half. In that same '05 tourney he won the Gorrarian Award and ran Mark Jayne right over the top with a bar and half with so much pressure that you could hear Jayne (who is a stud and great guy) wincing from the first row.

 

Rameses

 

 

You're making me guess who you are!! I'll keep it to myself in case you don't want the world to know. Hell i may be wrong anyway.

 

With that said, I really feel that if it wasn't for injuries that Sola could've made a run for the title his senior year. However, with the countless number of surgeries that he had to endure, and all of the time he had to spend out of the wrestling and weight room healing up, it really effected his performance on the mat. He's one of many wrestlers who's careers didn't quite turn out as well as it should have due to the unfortunate injuries that plagued it. A healthy 100% Evan Sola was tough to beat. Had he been healthy as a senior, I feel for sure he would have been a title contender.

[fullnelson 119]

finally reach #1000

yesteryear- Tim Krieger - beat Jim Heffernan in the NCAA finals 1-0, because Jim knew he wouldn't get off bottom. (anytime a guy won't take down in NCAA tournament, he knows the other guy is a beast on top)

today- Josh Feming (Clarion)- takes top almost every time when it's his choice (gotta be really good to do that-last yr against Welsh in the 3rd place match, Fleming takes top beginning 3rd pd, down 4-0; 30 secs later he is up 5-4; end up losing because Welsh is as flexible as a snake)

Additionally Dake is great on top (actually great in all positions), but I think of him more as a rider only, whereas a guy like Fleming (Mills, Schalles, M Clark, Moore, Jantzen, Patacill, etc) are far more dangerous on top. For Fleming, top's about all he had.

[MPICK 4]

Gary Steffensmeier from UNI in the early 1990s was a hammer on top. Some matches the bottom man would never get his hips off the mat for the whole match. 3X AA at 150.

[BigRedMachine 210]

finally reach #1000

yesteryear- Tim Krieger - beat Jim Heffernan in the NCAA finals 1-0, because Jim knew he wouldn't get off bottom. (anytime a guy won't take down in NCAA tournament, he knows the other guy is a beast on top)

today- Josh Feming (Clarion)- takes top almost every time when it's his choice (gotta be really good to do that-last yr against Welsh in the 3rd place match, Fleming takes top beginning 3rd pd, down 4-0; 30 secs later he is up 5-4; end up losing because Welsh is as flexible as a snake)

Additionally Dake is great on top (actually great in all positions), but I think of him more as a rider only, whereas a guy like Fleming (Mills, Schalles, M Clark, Moore, Jantzen, Patacill, etc) are far more dangerous on top. For Fleming, top's about all he had.

Is Josh Fleming as good on top as Daniel Taylor?

 

I kid, I kid

[lonewolf 19]

Mitch Clark had a book out called "Take Top"

[Fletcher 757]

And it's completely unrelated to the Fifty Shades of Grey series.

[JohnnyThompsonnum1 101]

Mitch Clark had a book out called "Take Top"

 

He has another book called, "Make it Happen" which is a great read.

[BadgerMon 187]

Danny Z from the early 80s was a force/leg riding machine.

 

Randy Bear Conrad from ISU was a big ol' tick on top, too!

 

 

Dang! Someone forward that Mitch Clark video to Danny Zilverberg.

[Al_Bundy259 0]

Ed Ruth seemingly rides every opponent basically for as long as he wants. He just rode Bosak for 4 minutes in the finals didn't he?

 

Ruth has to be on this list as well.

[rda 2]

Dake would ride 90% of all guys on this list and make them his bitch. He proved in finals as Taylor would be a great rider but can be compared to Wade as a great pinner. Whoever you mention never saw 4 guys in the finals being treated like cowards on bottom as he did all 4 years in a row. Who cares about the rest of the season. Saturday night usually the 3rd weekend in March Kyle did his work = end of story.

[JohnnyThompsonnum1 101]

To whoever mentioned the Moore brothers earlier. Here is some footage of Josh's pure domination on top.

 

Vs Evan Sola of North Carolina at the 2003 NCAA's....http://www.flowrestling.org/coverage/24 ... h-Carolina

 

Vs Zach Roberson of Iowa State at the 2003 NCAA's...(it's hard to believe that in spite of the whooping he gave Roberson here, that he would lose the 2004 NCAA title to him)....http://www.flowrestling.org/coverage/24 ... Iowa-State

[oldrules 32]

Mitch Clark has the only first period tech fall for an NCAA finals match. 18-1, how insane is that!

[BigApple 86]

I should have included Cael and a few others.

Steve Blackford changed the thinking of many when the 30-second ride out was implemented. Joe Heskett was undefeated as a redshirt freshman, Steve was a redshirt sophomore. I think the met in the quarterfinals, with only one 30 second rideout period the common wisdom was to take bottom if you won the coin flip. In overtime Steve won the coin flip and chose top, he road Heskett out. The next year in the semis, steve is wrestling Donny Prtizslaff. The score is tied 2-2 going into the 3rd period, Pritzlaff's choice, he takes neutral, doesn't score. Pritzlaff wins with a takedown in overtime. Steve is sitting next to me during the finals. Pritzlaff is wrestling Heskett in the finals. Exact same scenario Prtizlaff takes neutral. Steve said he did the same thing to me. I told him you were the test case, if it works on you it will work on Heskett. I said Pritzlaff knew that only would he not get up from you he had a good chance of getting pinned. He wrestled the match where he was best on his feet.

 

You can add Steve Blackford and Joe Heskett to my list. Eric Larkin, Steve's teammate was also a bear on top.

[xander 346]

No one mentioned Varner because this whole group called him varnish (until he won bronze at world then gold at oly)

[powershouse 92]

Sola's armbar series is why my left shoulder still clicks every time I shampoo my head in the shower... Guy was relentless getting it in and was lethal with a bar and a half. In that same '05 tourney he won the Gorrarian Award and ran Mark Jayne right over the top with a bar and half with so much pressure that you could hear Jayne (who is a stud and great guy) wincing from the first row.

 

Rameses

 

Whenever I think of guys who loved armbars the first name that comes to mind is Ryan Lewis of the Gophers. I'm sure he has his own "lather-rinse-flinch" fan club.

[wrestlingnerd 2,751]

Best arm bars I've seen in 10 or so years are Logan Stieber's. He is so, so tough with them. May be the best I've seen in 20 years or so.