I think the "four classes" thing is a bit overrated but in Dake's case he certified at 157 and could be wrestling there this year. He moved up and is facing last year's Hodge winner instead of taking the easy way out. That is incredibly ballsy and commendable...

Well, it seems that the vast majority think Dake will win. If Taylor wrestles the same gameplan as the first time he'll lose again. But I can't believe he won't push the action more this time. At any rate, I'll go on record as one of the few that picks Taylor this time!

It has been a debate for awhile about how guys would do jumping weights. I personally think as you move up weights it gets tougher to win. I think McD for example would have a tougher time winning 33 than 25. Ramos would have a harder time competing against the likes of Maple jumping up a weight and so on... How many times has it been discussed on this forum how McD would do against LS. I think most of us wrestled like myself and in my experience it became harder and harder when I jumped weights. I started as a 45lber and ended my career at 275lbs. The higher weight I wrestled the more physical the it became. In my experience and opinion winning a title at 4 weights is harder than some of you want to admit. Like Zapp stated this is a storied sport and NOBODY ever has been able to win at 3 weights let alone 4. The last I checked some pretty impressive wrestlers have taken to the mat but NONE have been able to do what Dake has done.

It has been a debate for awhile about how guys would do jumping weights. I personally think as you move up weights it gets tougher to win. I think McD for example would have a tougher time winning 33 than 25. Ramos would have a harder time competing against the likes of Maple jumping up a weight and so on... How many times has it been discussed on this forum how McD would do against LS. I think most of us wrestled like myself and in my experience it became harder and harder when I jumped weights. I started as a 45lber and ended my career at 275lbs. The higher weight I wrestled the more physical the it became. In my experience and opinion winning a title at 4 weights is harder than some of you want to admit. Like Zapp stated this is a storied sport and NOBODY ever has been able to win at 3 weights let alone 4. The last I checked some pretty impressive wrestlers have taken to the mat but NONE have been able to do what Dake has done.

Recent NCAA champs are full of people who started out their career at a lower weight.

For certain, types of wrestlers dropping weights seems to help a lot, others it seems to hurt (look at the whole Indiana team).
Personally, I was a strong ploding wrestler without much speed and droppinga weight class my Senior year was the biggest mistake I made. I was still growing so I really felt it as the season went on and I sacrficed muscles in order to face quicker guys who were better athletes.

Winning 4 NCAA titles at any weight class is impressive, whether it is at one or four weight classes.
Junmping up a weight class to face the wrestler there is impressive. I am pretty sure Dave Schultz did this one year to keep a Banachfrom being a 4x champ. Dropping two weight classes to face the best wrestler in there is also impressive like Larry Owings and Louden Swain did.

Originally Posted by ban basketball

Sorry, THIS is my final post! It's the perfect time in this discussion to make this point...

...Oliver may, in part, help us answer this question this year.

Yes, I was going to say that Oliver should benefit by going up. I think you can find examples of wrestlers that would have benefitted by going up as well as examples of wrestlers who benefitted by staying in place or by going down.

Don't stop posting Ban, sometimes I think your postings are off the wall crazy but that doesn't mean you should shut it down. It's just a small website dedicated to a dying sport, why not participate at full volume?