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Post by ricoswaff on Jan 1, 2020 13:04:26 GMT
Anyone watch the Midlands? Thoughts? I have a ton of thoughts... hell I’ll post a couple of my articles from it.
Bill Akers took awesome pics for us there.
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Post by ricoswaff on Jan 1, 2020 13:05:46 GMT
125: Nolan Hellickson (Harvard) vs. Kyle Biscoglia (UNI) was a very interesting match to see, for I always considered them to be Iowa High School’s Class of ’15 and ’18 versions of each other. Both won several AAU titles coming into HS, Hellickson won 6, and both had to sit out from varsity competition their Freshmen seasons, for they were both undersized and both were behind a couple of the top guys in the state when they were Freshmen who had already grown into the weight. I believe Hellickson was at Dowling and was behind Tanner Rohweder at 106 that year (or maybe he was behind Meyer from SEP as a Freshman?) Biscoglia was behind Jakob Allison, I believe as a Freshman at Waukee. He could have wrestled some varsity at 113 that year, but would have been incredibly undersized. Anyways, those two met up. Hellickson won by a MD or almost an MD, but the entire match was pretty hard-fought and it was fun to see both of them wrestle again. 133: Ranked #1, Austin Desanto scored, what, 5 TD’s first period, and then was slowed down by Hernandez. That’s the only way I can explain it. He didn’t stop wrestling, he didn’t seem to slow his intensity down, he kept pushing the pace… Hernandez just seemed to slow things down for a while there. Desanto was up 11-5 late, but with a riding point and I believe another TD at the end, he secured a 14-5 MD. 141: #12 Ranked Michael Blockhus (UNI) won with 2 seconds left vs. Purdue opponent, #25 ranked, Parker Fillius. Fillius was ahead at one point in the 2nd period by 2-3 points and Blockhus began tacking on the points and secured that final TD to win with, as mentioned, 2 seconds left. Blockhus pointed at his head at the end in what appeared to be a little, “keeping my head in the game” celebration and it was perfect, for his presence of mind is what won the match for him. 133: #5 ranked, Sebastian Rivera of Northwesterm was slowed down a bit as well against Marten from Central Michigan for a couple minutes there. I say slowed down, for it seemed like he scored his first takedown in a millisecond. Rivera did end up pulling away with it, however and ended up winning the match, 13-2. 149: Jacob Butler from Oklahoma had the place on alert for a potential upset against #1 Ranked Austin O’Connor from North Carolina. O’Connor from UNC started tacking on a lead with about a minute left in the 2nd period. I want to say that Butler held a 1-2 point lead until that point, though. O’Connor ended up winning big, 20-8. 141: Carter Happel from Iowa took #11 ranked Josh Heil from Campbell into OT and was in deep on a shot, but looked like his hands slipped…Happel’s frustration was very evident at the end. He is just..right there…
Kendall Coleman- Purdue 157: #6 ranked Kendall Coleman of Purdue looked great against Paden Moore of UNI… put him to his back a couple few times in the first minute when he was awarded the pin. The kid looked unbelievable, really.
Markus Hartman of ARMY 157: #4 ranked Quincy Monday vs. Markus Hartman of ARMY. Quincy took him down smoothly, got ridden out in the 3rd and almost turned with a plethora of turks, etc. from Hartman’s legride. In OT, Monday was in deep on a shot and Hartman kept funking out of it…Hartman even went as far as jumping over Monday’s whizzer, which is usually asking to sign your own death warrant and Monday almost put him away. Hartman was awarded the 2 at the end with a cradle defense to a Monday shot… was challenged, but not overturned. This Markus Hartman has a pretty unique style. He would be frustrating as hell to wrestle against. 165: #26 Danny Braunagel (ILL) vs. #23 Shayne Oster (Northwestern). Hard fought win by Braunagel. Wasn’t anything flashy about this one. Just a good, basics-heavy, solid win by Danny Braunagel, out of Althoff Catholic in Illionois. Abe Assad (Iowa) vs. #26 Travis Stefanik (Princeton)…Assad initially lost this one in regulation, but the call was overturned. Assad bounced back in OT and had a nice shot defense-to reshot TD in OT. Everyone was pretty pumped up about this one.
184: Nelson Brands has solidified himself as a crowd-pleaser/crowd-favorite because of his style and his motor and I think this will remain consistent throughout what ends up being the entirety of his career. Goodness, it’s like the dude was created in a test tube in some sort of wrestler-manufacturing lab. He is wrestling at 184, but is smaller for the weight. Still looks like he has the ability to fill in to the weight eventually. Combine that with the fact that he is able to wrestle like a 125 lber. Well, I mean… the kid did wrestle 125 lbs at one point in time, but that was his Freshman year…of HS…5 years ago… Iowa fans are going to have fun watching him do his thing in the future. Nelson Brands vs. Caleb Hopkins of Campbell was close until Brands scored that backdoor reversal on Hopkins. Then Brands started tacking on the points. He was a half second away from getting major, but time expired the moment he finished what would have been a final TD. He won 15-9. 184: Zach Braunagel (Illinois) vs. Nelson Brands (Iowa) next round. This is pretty fun, because I swear these two are building what seems to be a fun little rivalry that has spanned since Braunagel was in HS at Althoff Catholic and Brands was at IC West. For some reason, I am thinking that Braunagel and Brands met up at Fargo and then once last year at an open? Both will really want this one, I can guarantee that! This keeps up, we will have to name their rivalry, “Brandsagel.” Or is it Danny Braunagel (165) that Nelson always ran into? Maybe Zach Braunagel is the one that used to meet up with Joel Shapiro? Either way, Brands and Braunagel…always a good one with those two last names. #15 ranked Jay Aillo (UVA) vs. JT Brown (ARMY). This match was hard fought and I thought there would be fireworks towards the middle of the match. Aillo ended up pulling through and looked good.
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Post by ricoswaff on Jan 1, 2020 13:06:05 GMT
Blech that didn’t format right
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Post by ricoswaff on Jan 1, 2020 13:06:58 GMT
125: I realize this has nothing to do with the quarterfinal round, for it was in the consolations, but I don’t care. #33 ranked Bryce West, of Northern Illinois, formerly of Highland and Solon HS, had a pretty quick pin in the consoles and it was just like watching him in high school again. Their acrobatic style is still fun as hell to watch.
133: With #1 ranked Austin Desanto of Iowa, it’s like you’ve got this guy who is working as hard as a 3-legged pit bull trying to bury a bone on a frozen pond in intense fashion and while this is taking place, you have opposing coaches who try to puncture the intensity by poking the pit bull in the side with a stick and it often provokes a reaction… I mean, it’s a 3-legged pit bull who is dead-set on burying a bone on a frozen pond, of course there will be a reaction. With that said, opposing coaches try like hell to troll Desanto because they know they can provoke a reaction. I bet 90% of Desanto’s “end of the match” fireworks that we have seen have been mostly directed towards opposing coaches who he hears during his matches. Desanto just looks like he would be a total drag to wrestle against. Like Stevan Micic said about running into him in the consolation round a couple years ago, “I got beat in a match that I was upset about for I should have won, and then I have to wrestle THAT guy a few minutes later who comes at you…” The guy is tough. 141: #12 ranked Michael Blockhus (UNI) lost in OT against the #26 ranked kid from Ohio, Shakur Laney. To be honest, it was a frustrating match to watch, for it seemed like Laney seemed content with doing the circling and circling and fake-half-shot after fake-half-shot game and Blockhus spent a large part of the match trying to figure out how to get that kid to stay in the center and wrestle… wish I had an answer for that. 149: So #1 ranked Austin O’Connor had a minor upset scare in the round of 16 and a HUGE upset scare to Jeren Glosser in the quarterfinals. Glosser was winning with short time and gave up a stalling point with like 10-15 seconds left and a TD to lose by one point. 157: #6 ranked Kendall Coleman of Purdue looked sharp again beating #12 ranked AC Headlee from North Carolina. Kind of had a “spurty” feel to it, but took care of business nevertheless. 157: I’m telling ya, this Markus Hartman from Army West Point. What a run he is on. Had the big win over Quincy Monday in the round of 16 and just picked up a pin in this round over Logan Parks of Central Michigan. And this kid isn’t new to the world of upsets… he upset one of the most coveted HS recruits at his weight, Will Lewan (Michigan) in the state finals as a Senior. 165: #6 Ranked David McFadden (VT) defeated #26 ranked Danny Braunagel (ILL) in a close match. Braunagel seemed frustrated pretty early on, for McFadden was drenched in sweat like 2 minutes into the match and it seemed like Braunagel would get in deep on shots and wouldn’t be able to finish, mostly because of how comfortable McFadden is in those positions…defending the shot and with his legs up in the air countering. 174: Bryce Steiert from UNI looks solid, solid, solid. UNI as a whole is pretty solid. 184: The Braunagel twins and Nelson Brands will probably end up clashing a total of 20 times starting a couple years ago and spanning to whenever it ends. Nice little rivalry…and they wrestle similarly. Nelson was upset because he thought Braunagel was grabbing and holding his headgear. This seems to happen a lot in Brands’s matches. Headgear stuff. Anyways, Brands vs. Wilcke tomorrow, right? 197: I watched the match between #3 ranked Pat Brucki (Princeton) and #28 ranked Drew Phipps (Bucknell), but I don’t really know what to say about it. Brucki notched a 4-2 win. 285: When #4 ranked Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) hits a double, it almost looks like he is hitting a “snatch double,” variation of the “snatch single,” but the guys he wrestles obviously have one less post with an additional leg being snatched and it always puts them in danger. Cassioppi is deadly with that. 285: I saw some of every one of #8 Trent Hillger’s matches today and he progressed as the day went on. Looked tired in a couple instances today. 285: I wish I would have seen #15 ranked Carter Isley (UNI) and will make it a point to tomorrow. 285: #13 ranked Matt Stencel is one pinning machine.
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Post by ricoswaff on Jan 1, 2020 13:12:35 GMT
Lol ol Swaffstradomus called it on Markus Hartman.
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