JensenS

I know we don't have as many Big 12 fans here that we do Big 10, but since the Big 10 thread wound up as such a success I figure I'll take a shot at the Big 12.

While there are fewer teams here, I don't know them as well so these may take a little while to get going while I work on figuring out who is who for which team.

JensenS

Not really going to do any superlatives here. I'll post the rankings and then short explanations about each guy and why they are where they are...

125
1. Andrew Long (Iowa State)
2. Chris Notte (Oklahoma State)
3. Justin Forrest (Oklahoma)
4. Troy Dolan (Missouri)
5. Andy Pokorny (Nebraska)

Andrew Long looks like he's going to be the heavy beneficiary of Joey Fio's fall out with OU as I like him to become the guy here in the conference as a redshirt freshman. He had a nice redshirt year last year, and then has wrestled well so far this spring.

Notte had a solid season up at 133 last year, and I think he winds up having another solid year down at 125 now. People have mentioned concerns about how he would handle the weight cut but I think there are two things working in his favor. He is very short, and its been pretty obvious that he would have to do this or not be in the line up again since last year so he's had plenty of time to prepare.

Forrest is going to have some big shoes to fill in replacing last year's Big 12 champion in Fio. Like Long, he had a good redshirt season last year and has competed well in freestyle. He's also got the advantage of being in the room with Sammie Henson, and that may not pay off this year but as a young guy it will be very interesting as to what he looks like a year or two from now.

Dolan is a guy that had a rough year last year, and I've read that that may be attributable to weight issues and if that is in fact the case he may not be here in this spot this year. His best position is probably top with his leg riding, problem was last year he had a lot of trouble getting top position against guys so he could use his legriding.

Pokorny had a really tough year last year as a true freshman. With the way this weight sets up though I think 3-5 are kind of up in the air as to how they go down so depending on how he's improved this offseason he's got a shot to move up a little bit.

mhs189

Iowa State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Nebraska

__________________
"It ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving foward, how much you can take and keep moving foward. That's how winning is done!"

JensenS

Texas doesn't have a wrestling team...

Herkey#1

With regards to Pokorney and Forest. Is it out of the realm of possibility that David Kingsheim is the man for NU and Jarrod Patterson wrestles for OU instead of Forrest? Those are all young fellas and I would think that the level of competition should be close between them, especially between Pokorney and Kingsheim.

grapplefan

What's the latest on Joey Fio?

mhs189

I meant to say Missouri. I don't know why I was thinking Texas....

__________________
"It ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving foward, how much you can take and keep moving foward. That's how winning is done!"

OMatches

I don't post much, just curious about Joey Fio not being at Oklahoma anymore. What happened?

JensenS

Don't really know much of anything about Patterson so I can't comment as to whether or not he'd win the spot over Forrest.

If Klingsheim doesn't redshirt I think he has a VERY good shot at snagging that 125 spot. I went off the assumption though that he was.

Pretty sure he's transferred or is in the process of trying to transfer to Boise State.

JensenS

133
1. Jordan Oliver (Oklahoma State)
2. Nick Fanthorpe (Iowa State)
3. Todd Schavrien (Missouri)
4. Alex Ekstrom (Oklahoma)
5. Ridge Kiley (Nebraska)

Anyone who has been around this board since the spring freestyle season started up should know by now that I am very high on Jordan Oliver. He absolutely obliterated the field at both Juniors and Universities this year, and then came out and won a bronze at Junior Worlds. He was 23-1 last year as a redshirt with his only loss coming to Cody Garcia (and he later avenged it). Just ridiculous on his feet, and after spending over a year working off the bottom against Coleman Scott and others I don't see that as a problem for him.

Fanthorpe was a guy that came out guns absolutely blazing last year highlighted by his early season beatdown of Joey Slaton in the dual against Iowa. He had several nice wins at Midlands en route to making the finals there as well. He missed around a month of the season though and that kind of hurt his momentum a little bit. Still wound up winning Big 12's last year (I believe) but then got done in by the craziness of the bracket at NCAA's. I think Kennedy was the one who sent him home in either the round of 12 or the round before the round of 12.

Schavrien is a guy who is just solid. He came out last year as kind of an unknown looking to fill some decent sized shoes left by Tyler McCormick and he did well for himself. Spent most of the year ranked in the teens, and then was an NCAA qualifier to finish his year off. Read rumors I think that he may not wind up being able to hold this weight so like with Dolan maybe you see him wrestling up a weight this year.

You would probably like to give Ekstrom a redshirt in an ideal world but looking at the line up situation at Oklahoma this year he may not get the privilege. He's a guy like Forrest that I think benefits a lot from having Sammie Henson in his life from the start of his career.

I flip flopped between Ekstrom and Kiley here in these 4 and 5 spots for a little while. Kiley is a guy who came out last year and had a pretty solid redshirt season. The only result that I remember in particular was that he won the Kauffman Brand 20 and Under bracket with a fall in the finals. In the end I wound up going with Ekstrom because of the higher pedigree and the Sammie the bull effect. Kiley beating him out next year wound not surprise me.