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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Mark Niemann added to this discussion on April 8, 2011
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If you have some (ANY!?!?!?!), please post them here. ...well, below.
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
DJ Vondruska added to this discussion on April 8, 2011
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
John Ice added to this discussion on April 8, 2011
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Just random people I heard of.
Pflug won 1 lost 2
Heflin won 2
Maqrum 2-1
Kolat 1-0
J Humphreys 0-2
Gillespie 2-0
O'Conner 2-0
Kevin Hardy 1-2
Honeycutt 0-2
Keddy 3-0
Magrum and Heflin both beat Hudson Taylor
The live feed is not going well.
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
John Ice added to this discussion on April 8, 2011
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Antony Sharples added to this discussion on April 8, 2011
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Drew Schaefer looked really good. He is also gigantic. Anyone know when he last competed?
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
John Ice added to this discussion on April 8, 2011
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Triggas wins twice, faces Mango next.
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Grant Varnum added to this discussion on April 9, 2011
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okay - is anyone else thinking "Ali vs. Tyson" looking at the brackets? Metcalf vs. Colat ???
WOW...that would be fun to watch....
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Jack Muni added to this discussion on April 9, 2011
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Metcalf lost to Ware. Humphrey/Zadick match could be interesting.
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Mike Hojnacki added to this discussion on April 9, 2011
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Humphrey beat Zadick in a very smart match. Will wrestle teammate Bunch in finals.
D. Schlatter injury defaulted out... again (beat Gregor Gillespie 1st round). C.P. Lost in the semis and is going for 3rd.
Rowlands wrestling Trice for 3rd.
Kilgore had a tough tourney (1-2).
Lester in the finals against Garrison.
Dlagnev wrestling Mocco in the finals.
Mitcheff wrestling Blanc for 3rd.
Heflin and Magrum 0-2.
Hrovat 1-2.
Triggas takes 5th.
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on April 9, 2011
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Spent the day watching the action. Some thoughts:
--Reece Humphrey wrestled a superb match against Zadick in the semis. Smart, controlled, and created opportunities to score when he needed them.
--Cary Kolat is the story of the tournament. His semis win over Ryan Churella was brilliant. He doesn't waste an ounce of energy (he's 38) and is equally good on defense or offense. I stood and applauded when he won.
--Hate to say it but Steve Mocco looked great. He looked like he was still in his prime in wins over Rowlands and Sigman. Sigman did get hurt but Mocco appeared to be in control of the bout. Mocco vs Dlagnev tonite will tell us a lot about the future of this weight class in 2012. Rowlands won 3 other bouts I saw. He's still very good as well but I have no idea how he can beat Mocco. Stylistically, Mocco is a nightmare.
--Dustin Kilgore has no idea how to wrestle freestyle. He went 1-2 in 3 wild bouts that all featured a lot of scoring. Dustin was in on shots in all his matches but gave up back exposures due to inexperience. He was, however, a lot of fun to watch.
--Big upset at 145.5 when Teyon Ware beat Brent Metcalf. Metcalf is not ideally suited to freestyle in my opinion. He's also cutting a lot of weight to wrestle at 145.5 and that may hurt him as well. This weight class needed Darrion Caldwell because it's lacking a star competitor. Kolat is easily the best wrestler at the weight from a freestyle knowledge point of view. In fact, he's probably the best USA wrestler in terms of understanding how to compete in freestyle.
--First match I watched was Dustin Schlatter over Greg Gillespie in 3 periods. Great bout and it went to the tiebreaker. Poeta over Gillespie in the cons was another terrific match. Gillespie gets pissed when he loses.
--Loved seeing Jordan Burroughs make the finals. He is well suited to freestyle but he needs to be trained by Kolat. Someone needs to show him how to conserve his energy better because he was almost worn into the ground during his battle with Kirk White.
--Shawn Bunch is another excellent competitor. You can tell he's been at it awhile because he understands how and when to score and when to conserve. Jake Herbert is similar in this regard. Herbert does a nice job of scoring from top.
Looking forward to the finals tonite. Anyone going?
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Lou Demas added to this discussion on April 9, 2011
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Mark Niemann added to this discussion on April 9, 2011
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Quote from Hank Kornblut's post:
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"...
--Hate to say it but Steve Mocco looked great. He looked like he was still in his prime in wins over Rowlands and Sigman. Sigman did get hurt but Mocco appeared to be in control of the bout. Mocco vs Dlagnev tonite will tell us a lot about the future of this weight class in 2012. Rowlands won 3 other bouts I saw. He's still very good as well but I have no idea how he can beat Mocco. Stylistically, Mocco is a nightmare."
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Not cool, Hank! Not cool at all.
Thanks for the updates though.
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on April 9, 2011
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My pleasure. Had my older brother to keep me company during the day. Anyone going down tonight for the finals? I'll be there.
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Al McIntosh added to this discussion on April 10, 2011
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Hank, I was there sitting next to my son, Damion Lester and Don Lorence for the finals. I should have check this site and given you a call. It would have been fun to sit next to you and Russell and talk wrestling.
Here is my take on the finals.
Freestyle
121 lbs.
Hazewinkle demolished Nickerson in the finals. I felt the Nickerson went in there with the wrong strategy. He tried to go upper body on a 2x U.S. National Greco Roman Champion, which was a big mistake. Nickerson clearly has better lower body attacks and shots than Hazewinkle as evidence when he began to mount a serious 2nd period comeback, but I got the impression I was watching a Greco match when Hazewinkle went behind Nickerson and hit him with a beautiful back arching throw. What’s scary is that a year ago, Logan Stieber beat Hazewinkle at this tournament. Also you have to wonder if Cejudo’s first tournament will be at the World Trials. Mitcheff placing 3rd was awesome. He secures a spot on the U.S. National Team, and will receive a monthly training stipend from USA wrestling. Having Mitcheff there has got to be a big boost for Kent State's light weight recruiting efforts.
132 lbs.
This match was not without controversy, but in the end Reece did in Freestyle what he could not do at the NCAA level, and became the best wrestler in the United States at his weight class. Reece is clearly better at freestyle than folk and he wasn't that bad at Folkstyle. I think it is safe to say that the next World Team member, and perhaps Olympian representing the U.S. at this weight will come out of Columbus as both of these wrestlers are training partners at the Ohio Olympic Regional Training Center. I have know without a doubt that these two wrestlers training at Ohio State have contributed in a major way to helping bring in some of the best high school wrestlers in the nations, at the lower weigh classes, to Ohio State.
145.5 lbs.
I did not expect Cary Kolat to look that good. He was a ‘push out’ away from winning it. He looked completely solid, Teyon Ware, just wrestled a brilliant match. The next time they wrestle the outcome could easily go the other way. Kolat is a very serious threat to make a U.S. World Team. My son attended a camp with Teyon Ware this past summer and got a chance to really get to know him, so it was cool that he was able to talk with both Harry and Teyon before the tournaments on a more personal level.
163 lbs.
Jordan Burrough’s hasn’t wrestled freestyle in 3 years and wins the U.S. Nationals the first time through, securing the number one seed at the World Trials. Burroughs is truly is one of the USA best young stars.
85 lbs.
Jake Herbert and Keith Gavin right now are the USA’s top two. Not sure what happen to Hrovat. He could have been wrestling injured, but I think it is fair to say that I am sure he is not pleased with his performance.
211.5 lbs.
I would have loved to see a J.D. Bergman vs. Jake Varner final at the U.S. Nationals, but that will have to wait until the World Team Trials. Hopefully J.D. is 100% by then.
Is it true that Tyler Lehmann is coming to Ohio State, or was that just a rumor? He is tough, and had some big wins over Yohn and Michalek.
264.5 lbs.
Tervel Dlagnev, wins the National title over Mocco. While Tommy Rowlands takes third. This is a very interesting training situation. You have Rowlands trying to make a comeback, while Glagnev is trying to make his second world team in three years. Like Humphrey and Bunch, both Rowlands and Dlagnev are training partners at Ohio Regional Training Center in Columbus. I'm sure this adds to tension in the room and i wonder if they make different training arrangements as they get closer to the World Trials since their long time training partners are now competitors. Not sure how that works.
Greco Roman
55kg. Spenser Mango - absolutely manhandled his opponent in the finals. No wonder Hazewinkle switch to freestyle.
66kg. Harry Lester, I received some clarification on the name issue. Since Harry is now in the US Army he has to enter these tournaments with his real given name, Justin Lester. Everyone still called him Harry at the tournament. Harry looked great at 145. He go down the right way and looked strong all tournament long. He looks totally on top of his game. As he is poise to make his 5th World Team.
I thought C.P. Schlatter looked very good in placing 3rd also securing himself as a member of the National team, and will receive that USA wrestling training stipend.
264.5 lbs.
Dremiel Byers. I don't think Byers has lost a match to an American wrestler since he wrestled Rulon Gardner in the 2004 Olympic Trials.
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Discussion Topic: Updates on the U.S. Open in Cleveland
Rex Holman added to this discussion on April 11, 2011
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Hank-
Regarding Mocco, He is an absolutely excellent counterwrestler and his handfighting is excellent.
Both of his scores on Tommy were off Tommy's shots.
Tommy can go 0-0 in every period that he wrestles him. If your shot leaves you in bad position from which you can't recover, then it was an error in judgment and preparation.
Freestyle wrestling has evolved into a set of rules which demand highly specific strategy which is inconsistent with folkstyle mentality. Becoming expert and efficient at a couple of positions is the name of the game. One problem with this is how we have become conditioned to always attempt scoring even when the opponent is still in great position and for that matter is already engaging as a counterwrestler. IMO, this is what Tommy is doing against Mocco.
Some guys are terrific at creating offense even when their opponent is in great position. Those are the guys who make an "easier" transition to freestyle. i.e Reece Humphrey, Jordan Burroughs.
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