Cliff Keen-Thoughts on Results

[MJM]

Ok, first the good news. Olejnik, with win (and All Star win) looks to have improved and is one of top 165 guys. Number 2 after O'toole.

Plott took 3rd, but should have never lost to Pinto the first time.

Jamison looks good. Looks like he will contend for AA. Maybe gets better and becomes high AA (after all, he is freshman).

Next, questions. Why didn't Fix come? Are the injuries to Surber and Doucet minor so willnot impact their season.

Last question Spratley. Hoping for better, but wide open class, so even slight improvement may mean AA. But he could not place at CK (thought got close), sohe has got to improve.

The bad. Williams got beat in 2 matches. First was against guy ranked 7th. Second one was against guy he should have beaten. But at least he won 2 matches.

Thompson got beat in his first 2 matches. 157 pounder was overmatched.

I might think about moving Williams to 157. Big 149 guy and may have run out of juice from cutting. Put Travis at 149. At 174 hope Thompson just having growing pains.

 

[JAY45]

Completely agree with the Good…

We know now Fix is hurt, and it sounds like it will be a while.

Agree on Spratley. He’s not as far along as we would hope but should be fine long term.

149 and 174 are both highly concerning right now. Like your idea of bumping JW up. Plus, might give Alvarez a spot at 149.

At 174, should be a short leash, with Heeg on standby.

157, great kids there…hope OSU gets to a position where they don’t have glaring holes like this in the future.

 

[Lee C.]

The good news is there is time to put the wheels back on and make adjustments, get healthy, and come back better later.

Plenty of returning AAs didn't place in this tournament, so I'm not as concerned about Spratley. He did struggle to get off bottom, and if he doesn't get that sorted out he will have the same issues that Mastrogiovanni had. Fortunately he likes to score fast and score a lot so he might be able to avoid going on bottom in the future. The guy from SDSU that he lost to, Jordan, is tough. So we will see how Spratley responds.

Thompson is a head scratcher. He was walking around at 186-ish this summer and weighed in under 189 at all of the summer tournaments. Asking him to get down to 174 really shouldn't have been that much of an ask, but maybe so? Idk. Wish we had been able to retain Wittlake so that Thompson could redshirt. Is what it is. He's got two events left before he loses his redshirt. Mower and Heeg should absolutely be ready to fill in.

I think Surber would've won the thing if he hadn't been hurt, and I think Doucet would've placed top 5. Hopefully they're back soon.

 

[MJM]

Lee, any thoughts on Williams? To me he is most troubling.

Thompson's losses were against tough guys. The first guy he lost to beat Griffen, a past national champ. The guy for Ohio U he lost also placed. Maybe just time to get adjusted. But I don't think he lost a high school match and is 0-3 to start his college career.

197 had Sloan who placed 3rd and guy from NC ST who was up from 184 and past AA. Surber has never even wrestled Sloan close. And guy from NC St is really good. Maybe Surber could have gotten 4th.

Doucet beat guy who placed 4th. So would have placed 3rd/4th if healthy.

Any news on Fix/Surber/Doucet against Lehigh? Lehigh has freshman who beat guy from Cornell who was nat champ (and beat Fix). Lehigh 197 is transfer from PSU who is past AA (and beat Surber last year.

 

[Lee C.]

John said Surber and Doucet should be fine on his radio show last night.

I'm a huge Luke Surber homer so I think he would've won it. I'm unable to be objective on this.

Jordan I think he's just streaky and struggles with focus. When it comes down to it I think he will perform. We will see how he does against McDougald on Sunday.