2023 championships

[BigBadBob]

Round 4 (Friday - 7:00 PM)

We only have two guys left, can't remember a worse showing for the Pokes, which I am sure there has been one.

Championship Bracket

NOTE: The world is shocked by Spencer Lee getting pinned as time expires. Just wild stuff.

133: (2) Daton Fix v. (3) Vito Arujau (Cornell): Daton gives up a takedown with 32 second left in 1, can't get off bottom. Not a great start down 2-0 after 1. Daton gives up a reversal to do down 4-0, then finally gets the escape to be down 4-1. Still within reach. Gets the escape to close it to 4-2, then all hell breaks loose. Gives up 2 takedowns and a quick nearfall to get MAJORED 11-3. WTF???? Just an absolute ass whipping that cannot be explained.

Consolations:

174: (5) Plott v. (15) Demetrius Romero (Utah Valley): Romeo strikes first with the early TD in 1. Gets more than a minute of RT before the escape. 1-2 headed to 2. Plott gets the reversal early in 2 and gets a late TD and rideout to be up 5-4 headed to 3. Romero ties it up with the quick escape but nothing else for 3rd to go to SV. Plott gets the quick TD for the 7-5 win. Thank goodness.

RD 2:

174: (5) Plott v. (6) Ethan Smith (Ohio State): Plott comes out firing and gets two takedowns to go up 4-1, but gives up the late reversal to only be up 4-3 going into 2. Not much in 2 - Plott up 5-3 after the quick escape. Plott adds to his lead with another TD in 3 and gets the 8-4 win. Good win here.

Can't say much. Gotta appreciate Plott battling back and getting two wins but if it wasnt for the Lee loss, the Fix butt whoopin would have been the story of the night.

 

[BigBadBob]

Round 5 (Saturday - 10 am)

Consolations Semis:

133: (2) Daton Fix v. (8) Aaron Nagao (Minnesota): Fix dominated The RD Freshman Nagao in December 10-3 in their only other match. Fix barely makes it out of this match. Took 2 stalling points and a very late reverse for him to pull out the 6-4 win. Was deep in 3 seperate shots but couldn’t finish which is extremely rare for him. Will wrestle for 3d.

174: (5) Plott v. (3) Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech): They have never faced each other. Lewis finished 2nd in last year's tournament and is 21-2 this year his only 2 losses coming to Michael Labriola. Lewis gets the first TD with a minute left in 1. Plott able to escape very late for a 1-2 score headed to 2. Lewis out quick. 1-3. Lewis immediately back in for a TD. 1-5 plus RT now headed to 3. Plott out quick in 3. 2-6 (RT locked). Gives up a TD as time expires. 2-8. Plott will wrestle for 5th

 

[MustangPokeFan]

If he chooses to, can Fix come back for a Covid year? I would sure like to watch him one more year!

 

[BigBadBob]

If he chooses to, can Fix come back for a Covid year? I would sure like to watch him one more year!

Yes, he has a year left.

 

[MustangPokeFan]

Round 5 (Saturday - 10 am)

Consolations Semis:

133: (2) Daton Fix v. (8) Aaron Nagao (Minnesota): Fix dominated The RD Freshman Nagao in December 10-3 in their only other match. Fix barely makes it out of this match. Took 2 stalling points and a very late reverse for him to pull out the 6-4 win. Was deep in 3 seperate shots but couldn’t finish which is extremely rare for him. Will wrestle for 3d.

174: (5) Plott v. (3) Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech): They have never faced each other. Lewis finished 2nd in last year's tournament and is 21-2 this year his only 2 losses coming to Michael Labriola. Lewis gets the first TD with a minute left in 1. Plott able to escape very late for a 1-2 score headed to 2. Lewis out quick. 1-3. Lewis immediately back in for a TD. 1-5 plus RT now headed to 3. Plott out quick in 3. 2-6 (RT locked). Gives up a TD as time expires. 2-8. Plott will wrestle for 5th

Plott pretty much was dominated, Lewis was just quicker but Dustin fought hard to the last second. Can’t fault a guy who gives it his all and just runs into a better wrestler. He’ll wrestle for 5th which is where he was seeded.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[MustangPokeFan]

Yes, he has a year left.

I wonder if he could cut to 125lb and win it all next year? The dude that beat him 11-3 will be back next year and RBY might have a Covid year as well. He deserves to have a title. He seemed to wrestle a bit unmotivated or dejected as the team tanked this year. He’s better than he wrestled the past few matches.

 

[P4L]

Round 4 (Friday - 7:00 PM)

We only have two guys left, can't remember a worse showing for the Pokes, which I am sure there has been one.

Championship Bracket

NOTE: The world is shocked by Spencer Lee getting pinned as time expires. Just wild stuff.

133: (2) Daton Fix v. (3) Vito Arujau (Cornell): Daton gives up a takedown with 32 second left in 1, can't get off bottom. Not a great start down 2-0 after 1. Daton gives up a reversal to do down 4-0, then finally gets the escape to be down 4-1. Still within reach. Gets the escape to close it to 4-2, then all hell breaks loose. Gives up 2 takedowns and a quick nearfall to get MAJORED 11-3. WTF???? Just an absolute ass whipping that cannot be explained.

Just to address the cannot be explained comment, Arujau is really good and beat Fix in freestyle when they met. This wasn't some sort of surprise fluke.

 

[BigBadBob]

3rd Place Match
133: (2) Fix v. (4) Michael McGee (Arizona St.): Fix has faced McGee once (last year) and won 5-1. McGee is a SR who finished 4th at NCAA last year. McGee takes the first deep shot. Fix fights it off with a whizzer. Looks to have hurt his finger. Slick high crotch by McGee but Fix dives over. 0-0 headed to 2 but McGee has been aggressor. Fix gets cut finger taped. McGee down. Almost gets a reverse. Great scramble and back and forth on backs before McGee gets out. 0-1. Fix down, having a tough time getting out. Goes over a minute in RT. RT locked. Maybe a reversal. 3 seconds left-brick thrown. Long ass review. Gives the escape. 1-1 with 3 seconds left. McGee runs for 3 swings. Fix takes 4th. Just bad bad bad.

5th Place Match
174: (5) Plott v. (11) Nelson Brands (Iowa): Brands beat Plott 3-2 a month ago. Brands is Jr who went 14-7 with all his most recent losses coming against the top 3 guys in the weight class. Not much in 1st. 0-0 headed to 2. Plott down. Out after 20, 1-0. Still no committed shots from either. Headed to 3rd. Some good action on the ride. Brands gets a reversal to go up 1-2. Plott out quick to tie it 2-2. Restart with 17 seconds left. Nothing. Headed to sudden victory. Gives up the TD. 2-4 loss. 6th place finish.

 

[P4L]

Spencer Lee announced he was medically forfeiting the rest of the tourney and will place 6th

 

[BigBadBob]

Just to address the cannot be explained comment, Arujau is really good and beat Fix in freestyle when they met. This wasn't some sort of surprise fluke.

Its not the loss that is shocking. Its the way he lost. If it was 3-2 with one TD, fine, makes sense. 3 TD's (more than he's given up all year) and the back points and the complete lack of offense is the story.

 

[BigBadBob]

Its not the loss that is shocking. Its the way he lost. If it was 3-2 with one TD, fine, makes sense. 3 TD's (more than he's given up all year) and the back points and the complete lack of offense is the story.

Put it in perspective. Fix has lost 5 matches in his entire collegiate career (107-5).

2023: Arujau 11-3
2022: RBY 3-2
2021: RBY 4-2
2019: Nick Suiano 4-2
2019: Micki Phillipi 3-1

He had never given up 11 points in a match in his entire career. The closest was a 25-10 tech fall WIN in 2019.

 

[MustangPokeFan]

That was absolute robbery of Fix. That was an obvious reversal or it was an escape and takedown. I don’t know what they are looking at?

 

[P4L]

That was absolute robbery of Fix. That was an obvious reversal or it was an escape and takedown. I don’t know what they are looking at?

I disagree. When they finally came down, they were both out of bounds. Regardless, Fix shouldn't have been dawdling around. He didn't seem interested in this tournament.

 

[BigBadBob]

This was an Absolute disaster for OSU. Currently in 18th place and can't move up any. Worst finish in the history of the program. Fix finishing 4th, Plott finishing 2nd. Not a single one of our guys doing significantly better than their seed which was our only hope for doing what I'd consider "well" for us.

125: (31) Witcraft 0-2 - about to be expected - Push
133: (2) Fix - 4-2 (4th) - Terrible (FOR HIM)
141: (13) Young - 0-2 - Terrible (but hurt)
149: (23) Voinovich - 2-2 - Upset of Abas, so overwrestled his seed a bit.
157: (10) Gfeller - 1-2 - got pinned by a 25 seed in consolations. BAD
165: (31) Sheets - 1-2 - Beat 18 seed in consolations, so slightly overwrestled
174: (5) Plott - 4-3 - Got pinned in semis, by the 4 seed. was 0-2 on the last day finished 6th. Even though he only underwrestled seed by 1, still disappointing.
184: (10) Wittlake - 1-2. Lost to 7 and 8 seed, so not like he was upset (just a bad draw in consi) but still expected more. Push.
197: (15) Surber - 2-2. Slight upset in 1st round, two losses were to higher ranked guys, so about what expected, but man, I had high hopes.
HWT: Doucet - 0-2. Lost to the 29 seed in consolations. BAD

We did not show up. 4 terrible tournaments, two disappointments, 2 pushes, and 2 slight "wins".

Look at a team like Penn State -

133: (1) RBY - Finals (Expected),
141: (6) Bartlett - Finishes 3rd
149: (12) Van Ness - Finishes 3rd
157: (2) Haines - Finals (Expected)
165: (13) Facundo - 0-2 (Bad)
174: (1) Starocci - Finals (Expected)
184: (3) Brooks - Finals (Improvement)
197: (9) Dean - 7th (Improvement)
HWT: (3) Kirkvleit - Finals (Improvement)

ONE out of 9 had a bad tournament based on seeding. 5 guys improved their seeds, some significantly. Just really hard to find a silver lining here.

 

[BigBadBob]

Teams ahead of us

1​		Penn State, PA	Penn State, PA (GET)	PSU​	9	127.5​
2​		Iowa, IA	Iowa, IA (GET)	IOWA​	10	82.5​
3​		Ohio State, OH	Ohio State, OH (GET)	OHST​	9	70.5​
4​		Cornell, NY	Cornell, NY (GET)	COR​	7	68.5​
5​		Missouri, MO	Missouri, MO (GET)	MIZZ​	10	60.5​
6​		Arizona State, AZ	Arizona State, AZ (GET)	ASU​	5	55.0​
7​		Michigan, MI	Michigan, MI (GET)	MICH​	8	54.5​
8​		Nebraska, NE	Nebraska, NE (GET)	NEB​	7	54.0​
9​		Virginia Tech, VA	Virginia Tech, VA (GET)	VT​	10	49.0​
10​		NC State, NC	NC State, NC (GET)	NCST​	9	48.0​
11​		Iowa State, IA	Iowa State, IA (GET)	ISU​	8	47.0​
12​		North Carolina, NC	North Carolina, NC (GET)	UNC​	5	38.0​
13​		South Dakota State, SD	South Dakota State, SD (GET)	SDSU​	8	37.0​
14​		Princeton, NJ	Princeton, NJ (GET)	PRIN​	4	33.5​
15​		Minnesota, MN	Minnesota, MN (GET)	MINN​	9	30.5​
16​		Northern Iowa, IA	Northern Iowa, IA (GET)	UNI​	7	29.0​
16​		Wisconsin, WI	Wisconsin, WI (GET)	WIS​	8	29.0​
18​		Air Force, CO	Air Force, CO (GET)	AF​	5	28.5​
18​		Oklahoma State, OK	Oklahoma State, OK (GET)	OKST​	10	28.5​

 

[P4L]

After our poor performance last year, a lot of questions were asked of Smith, and he alluded that they would make changes in the off-season, and nothing changed. We're behind the Big 10 schools in resources, especially with the RTCs. Even the additions to GIA are likely not enough at this point.

It just seems like none of our wrestlers are developing past their talent level when they arrive. We've pulled in top ranked classes, but there's no progress. Something needs to change at the top, or this will be the future for a while to come.

 

[P4L]

Well Arujau's performance against Fix is no longer that surprising as he dominates RBY in the finals

 

[MustangPokeFan]

Well Arujau's performance against Fix is no longer that surprising as he dominates RBY in the finals

That guy was unbelievably impressive. One of the quickest and strongest wrestlers I’ve ever seen. I hope Mr. Fast Twitch was watching so he knows what a fast twitch really looks like. I never thought I’d see anyone manhandle RBY like that.

 

[Cowboyfanatic87]

That dude is going to be a monster

 

[Cowboyfanatic87]

Will be interesting to see what the roster is for next season.

I don’t think mastro is back but that could still be up in the air. Last I had heard neither were with the team.

Hopefully fix is back at 133lbs. Although, moving fix down to 125 and carter to 133 might be better for the team?

Could be a little log jam at 141, 149, 157. I’ve heard good things about Jordan Williams. Teague Travis, Luke Mechler, Victor are all going to be around that area. Will be fun to see how that works out. All American transfer coming in?

165 will be completely open unless wittlake comes back down?

174 Plott returns

184 Hass? Wittlake? Incoming Freshman Thompson?

197 Luke will be back I’m assuming

Hwt. Carroll. I have heard he has been dominating everyone in the room at the upper weights. “AJ like strength and speed”

I think this staff needs a little more time but the seat is definitely getting warmer than it has ever been. Unfortunately the misses with recruiting in either character or not panning out have hurt. Also lack of willing to change in recruiting until recently has set the program back as much as the lack of financial report.

What are everyone’s thoughts for next year?