Some thoughts on things that are interesting to me:

Saturday Wrestling That is Already Done:

55kg Greco: Hazewinkle vs. Mango should have been the finals. Both of their periods were very fun to watch and very close. A different ref and they both could have gone the other way. In the second period, Hazewinkle was down 5-0 and threw Mango to his back. He held him there for probably 20 seconds, and Mango very well might have been pinned (by the touchfall standards they use in the international styles). Also, Ryan Mango seems very promising, as he beat Jermain Hodge in straight sets.

60kg Free: Nice tourney by Reece Humphrey! After losing to Valenti in the first round, he faced somewhat of a gauntlet, beating Andy Simmons, Nick Gallick, and then Valenti in the rematch. He fell to Coleman Scott in straight sets in the true 3rd match, but had a solid weekend none the less. It looks like Shawn Bunch wrestled pretty well, and I'm glad he got some revenge against Mike Zadick.

74kg Greco: Looks like Harry Lester is pretty comfortable at his new weight. Can't weight to see how he does at worlds.

74kg Free: This seems like a pretty weak weight overall. I think all but 2 of the wrestlers are still in college. Nevertheless, it seems like a very nice outing for Dustin Schlatter. He did not give up a point the entire tournament, outscoring NCAA runner up Andrew Howe, a tough Ryan Churella, and US National Champ Travis Paulson by a combined 12-0.

96kg Free: I'm pleased that Hrovat is having some success after his injury and wrestling up a weight class (I imagine he would be very small for a 211 pounder). I would have liked to see Bergman a little more solid. I watched one of his matches and he looked kind of rusty, which can be explained because he has only been cleared to wrestle for the last 3 weeks or so after he tore his ACL last year. I think him and Varner could have some very good matches, and I look forward to those once JD gets back to 100%.


Thoughts on the Sunday Brackets:

55kg Free: Logan Stieber seems to have about as pleasant of a trip to the challenge finals as he could hope for. His half-bracket includes Zach Sanders, Michael Martinez, and Cruse Aarhus. He has beaten Sanders and Martinez. I have never heard about Aarhus, but apparently he is from UNI, and I think Logan should be fine against him. However, people have said he has been pretty sick. Maybe this is true, maybe it's not. Hopefully we will see Logan at his best and he will beat Blanc this time around.

66kg Free: On the surface, this looks like it will be one of the most interesting weights of the Trials. You have Metcalf, Frayer, Schwab, Caldwell, Mario Mason, and Brian Stith. There could be a lot of parity in that group; things could get crazy!

84kg Free: There was a lot of talk about why Gavin was not entered in the Trials. Apparently he has bumped up and will wrestle 84kg. I imagine the cut to 163 was pretty hard for a guy that wrestled 174 in college. In any event, I expect Herbert to make short work of this weight again.

120kg Free: This seems to be a 2-man weight. Will Dlagnev beat Mocco again? I would say probably not, but he has shown that he can do it already.

Overall: I imagine the freestyle world team could be pretty good by the time 2012 comes around.

55: Cejudo (if he comes back to wrestling)
60: A lot of relatively young guys here could step up in that time.
66: Metcalf/Caldwell
74: Schlatter
84: Herbert
96: Varner (I think Bergman could challenge him, too, but I'm an Ohio homer)
120: Mocco

I don't know a ton about international wrestling, but that seems like a team that could win some medals with a few years to develop.

Originally Posted by Gold

Overall: I imagine the freestyle world team could be pretty good by the time 2012 comes around.

55: Cejudo (if he comes back to wrestling)
60: A lot of relatively young guys here could step up in that time.
66: Metcalf/Caldwell
74: Schlatter
84: Herbert
96: Varner (I think Bergman could challenge him, too, but I'm an Ohio homer)
120: Mocco

I don't know a ton about international wrestling, but that seems like a team that could win some medals with a few years to develop.

That looks like a darn tough team by 2012. I think shawn bunch could be the man for 60 kg for the olympics and the next few world cycles too.

Originally Posted by Gold

Some thoughts on things that are interesting to me:

Saturday Wrestling That is Already Done:

55kg Greco: Hazewinkle vs. Mango should have been the finals. Both of their periods were very fun to watch and very close. A different ref and they both could have gone the other way. In the second period, Hazewinkle was down 5-0 and threw Mango to his back. He held him there for probably 20 seconds, and Mango very well might have been pinned (by the touchfall standards they use in the international styles). Also, Ryan Mango seems very promising, as he beat Jermain Hodge in straight sets.

60kg Free: Nice tourney by Reece Humphrey! After losing to Valenti in the first round, he faced somewhat of a gauntlet, beating Andy Simmons, Nick Gallick, and then Valenti in the rematch. He fell to Coleman Scott in straight sets in the true 3rd match, but had a solid weekend none the less. It looks like Shawn Bunch wrestled pretty well, and I'm glad he got some revenge against Mike Zadick.

74kg Greco: Looks like Harry Lester is pretty comfortable at his new weight. Can't weight to see how he does at worlds.

74kg Free: This seems like a pretty weak weight overall. I think all but 2 of the wrestlers are still in college. Nevertheless, it seems like a very nice outing for Dustin Schlatter. He did not give up a point the entire tournament, outscoring NCAA runner up Andrew Howe, a tough Ryan Churella, and US National Champ Travis Paulson by a combined 12-0.

96kg Free: I'm pleased that Hrovat is having some success after his injury and wrestling up a weight class (I imagine he would be very small for a 211 pounder). I would have liked to see Bergman a little more solid. I watched one of his matches and he looked kind of rusty, which can be explained because he has only been cleared to wrestle for the last 3 weeks or so after he tore his ACL last year. I think him and Varner could have some very good matches, and I look forward to those once JD gets back to 100%.


Thoughts on the Sunday Brackets:

55kg Free: Logan Stieber seems to have about as pleasant of a trip to the challenge finals as he could hope for. His half-bracket includes Zach Sanders, Michael Martinez, and Cruse Aarhus. He has beaten Sanders and Martinez. I have never heard about Aarhus, but apparently he is from UNI, and I think Logan should be fine against him. However, people have said he has been pretty sick. Maybe this is true, maybe it's not. Hopefully we will see Logan at his best and he will beat Kjar this time around.

66kg Free: On the surface, this looks like it will be one of the most interesting weights of the Trials. You have Metcalf, Frayer, Schwab, Caldwell, Mario Mason, and Brian Stith. There could be a lot of parity in that group; things could get crazy!

84kg Free: There was a lot of talk about why Gavin was not entered in the Trials. Apparently he has bumped up and will wrestle 84kg. I imagine the cut to 163 was pretty hard for a guy that wrestled 174 in college. In any event, I expect Herbert to make short work of this weight again.

120kg Free: This seems to be a 2-man weight. Will Dlagnev beat Mocco again? I would say probably not, but he has shown that he can do it already.

Overall: I imagine the freestyle world team could be pretty good by the time 2012 comes around.

55: Cejudo (if he comes back to wrestling)
60: A lot of relatively young guys here could step up in that time.
66: Metcalf/Caldwell
74: Schlatter
84: Herbert
96: Varner (I think Bergman could challenge him, too, but I'm an Ohio homer)
120: Mocco

I don't know a ton about international wrestling, but that seems like a team that could win some medals with a few years to develop.

Thank you for the breakdown, sounds pretty good. Only complaint is you calling winning in straight periods, "winning in straight sets". This isn't tennis buddy and those aren't sets. Next you'll be telling me the competitors played well.

Originally Posted by arm-spin

According the the other site, Dustin Schlatter won 4 clinches in a row over Paulson. That's kind of funny and kind of awful at the same time.

That's a horrible situation for Paulson if it's true.

Originally Posted by Adolf Oliverbush

Thank you for the breakdown, sounds pretty good. Only complaint is you calling winning in straight periods, "winning in straight sets". This isn't tennis buddy and those aren't sets. Next you'll be telling me the competitors played well.

Forgive me for this unacceptable breach of proper jargon. It will not happen again! Or at least it might not happen again...

I'm a bit surprised to see Sanders lost in the first round to Michael Martinez.