WrestleSBA

Did not place... believe he went 2-2.

Nick Marable got the start at 165 for Missouri this weekend against Michigan State. He has been a backup behind chandler at 157 for a while now (always seems to wrestle him close). Not sure where Mizzou regular starter at 165 Matt Pell was. Either way Nick took advantage of it and beat another well regarded wretler... some of you may remember Cozart. 165: Marable (MU) dec. Cozart (MSU) 9-6 Does Nick intend to move up to 165 next year after Pell graduates? Either way congrats Nick on a very nice win.

The rankings for week 4 have now been posted at: Matman Rankings Week 4 Still not enough information from the DII coaches to complete a ranking. Maybe next week as the matches keep coming in.

Stidham doesn't have to drop to 140. He weighed in at 140 for the tournament (actually 139.2) and bumped up to 145 to wrestle Chris. He is actually eligible to drop to 135 but don't know if he will eventually make that drop or not. And we both know I am not that BIG .

All of you kiddos need to calm down. Knowing both Jeff and Chris very well I think I know exactly what both of them are going to do. They will both continue to work hard in practice and attempt to put on a heck of a match the next time they see each other (and by a heck of a match I mean entertaining because they both can be and to put a bigger gap in the score). Now all of you quit running your mouth on here and say what you have to say on the mat!

I would definitely be lying if I said the gymn wasn't very intense that night. Of course I think the match at Cordova yesterday was even more tense... Thanks Dragon12

FireHouse, I might argue that with you a little bit. Todd Bridgeforth would certainly have as good a shot as the three you have mentioned unless he has significantly lost ability since last year. He lost to the 3rd and th plac finishers in the state tournament and was a region champ. I would say he has a shot. Gipson is a more or less known quantity, already having a medal under his belt (even if it was two years ago, he has the ability). Reynolds is a known quantity: region champ who was a match away last year after an awful draw (for a region champ) and has knocked off lots of the top talent in the state. Matt Craig is the only relatively unknown quantity but he is definitely wrestling well now!

One more to add... Saint Benedict 55 – Briarcrest 21 189 – Garrett Shouse (SBA) pin Jynx in 0:30 (6-0 SBA) 215 – Ben Johnson (SBA) pin Logan Karr in 5:35 (12 – 0 SBA) 275 – Andrew Severson (SBA) pin Nelson Shirley in 1:10 (18 – 0 SBA) 103 – Andy Sturman (SBA) by forfeit (24 – 0 SBA) 112 – Spencer Rushing (Bri) pin Royce Alfred in 5:37 (24 – 6 SBA) 119 – Ryan McKenzie (SBA) pin Joshua Ayer in 2:46 (30 – 6 SBA) 125 – Dwight Bassett (SBA) by forfeit (36 – 6 SBA) 130 – Joel Stark (SBA) by forfeit (42 – 6 SBA) 135 – Steve Mossman (SBA) maj dec Roy Pentecost 11 – 2 (46 – 6 SBA) 140 – Jeff Stidham (SBA) dec Phillip Jackson 3 – 1 SV1 (49 – 6 SBA) 145 – Patrick Johnson (Bri) pin Matt Kurtz in 1:22 (49 – 12 SBA) 152 – Hunter Griffith (SBA) pin Tyler Stone in 4:58 (55 – 12 SBA) 160 – Murray Poole (Bri) dec Houston Russell 6 – 2 (55 – 15 SBA) 171 – Todd Tillman (Bri) pin Steven Liebschwager in 4:19 (55 – 21 SBA)

Isn't that why they call it an emergency meeting?

Soms, It won't be a Baucke this year at least. The little one is at 103.

Indeed that had to be a nice victory for you FES... I bet it brought a small smile of satisfaction to your face. Had a nice convo with your mom the other day too, she sounds very proud of her boys!

Oh come on BCB you should know better than that. You and your crew make sure this board keeps its light-hearted side while still being pretty dang informative. I honestly still mourn the lose of the green Irish of ND to the ranks of DI but it does seem to be a better fit for you so far. I look forward to hopefully bumping into you at state duels again this year!

Hmm this has interesting written all over it...

Jimboy, No time to give you a proper response last night as I was not home and can not afford the time today at work either... but rested assured you will see my reply this evening! And you know us private school kiddos... we like to take the easy road as often as possible so I definitely stick with the picture book types... definitely made it tough getting that engineering degree in college but I at least there were still drawings and prints for me to read!

I am not going to argue with the first and third statements but the second honestly seems a bit ridiculous to me. I am a DII guy and generally stand-up for the strength of the top guys in DII but trust me there is no way that the three mentioned can be stated as being better than Demetrius. All three are excellent wrestlers and made that one tough weight in DII last year but I don't think they would have gone toe-to-toe with Mr. Johnson. I am sure that we can look at a list of common opponents (whether you consider that valid or not) and find some support, heck I know how one of my own wrestlers did against Bailey Whitaker and Demetrius Johnson. However, just take a look at what they did in the state tournament and that should tell you all you need to know.

Thats funny In Hoc, I was just thinking the same thing about John Michael after watching him again this weekend. I think there a few factors working against him here though. The first are exactly what you mentioned and the second is that he is down in the lighter weights. I think that it is just tougher for the lighter weights to get this recognition as "best wrestler / OW" or whatever. I think Demetrius Johnson has the same thing working against him... but he does compete more on the national stage.

Hoosierdad, I can't quote your post for some reason so I will attempt to answer without it. I do believe there are plenty of referee's out there with little to no affiliation to any schools. I can think of several in the Memphis area who show none (not going into whether or not they are good referee's yet). Now this could be due to several reasons: 1) the program they wrestled for could no longer be in existence 2) they have ref'ed for long enough that they are able to put it behind them 3) they are just strong enough to ignore it 4) lots of others I don't feel like typing or thinking about since I should be working. I know for a fact that I would not be able to referee any match in which SBA competed because I do not think I would be sure that my judgement is not clouded in the least bit. Heck there are a lot of kids out there who's matches I would not want to ref because I have coached them in the off-season and know them too well. Does this mean that I would not be a good ref? Quite possibly. I can say this honestly as I have considered becoming a ref if I was not coaching (luckily my desire to coach still wins out). Now I have a question for you hoosierdad. Did I ever say that the Memphis ref's could stand up to the rest of the state? I do not believe I did, and if I did I was obviously impaired when I said it. I think nearly everyone here would agree that our ref's as a whole are not as good as the rest of the state. Do I think we have a couple of good referee's? Yes. Was I very glad to have other ref's at the Black Horse? Absolutley!!!!!!!! I too hope that our ref's took the chance to talk with the other ref's and hopefully improve. I am willing to bet that they did as many of the ref's know they aren't perfect (some do still need to realize this, but that is common for all humanity). I honestly know I was happy and thanked each out of town ref I could find at the conclusion of the tournament for coming down and taking the time to ref in Memphis (you know, the absolute pit of TN Wrestling ).

I agree I thinkt oo often we all make excuses for things. However, I think we have all seen cases where a referee inserts himself too much into a match. But that is still no excuse, you should make sure to take the referee out of the match! To answer your question I think SBA performed well overall. However, I honestly have to say I can take little credit or blame. This time of year I am rarely in the high school room (usually once or twice a week depending on when we have matches) because I am focused on the kids group. Our coaches and wrestlers are working hard and that I am certainly proud of. Finished in 8th place which is without a doubt our highest placing effort yet. I believe we were somewhere around the 4th highest Memphis team... just ahead of Bartlett and a little ways behind Houston, with Christian Brothers and MUS being a whole other level up. We fell apart as a team in the semi's though with five guys in and nobody making the finals. We lost some close matches and won some close matches throughout the tournament. Definitely found some things to work on and that is what is so nice about Black Horse. It is a great measuring stick to see where you are at, where you stack up against everyone else, and what you need to improve on. I would assume you feel pretty good about Collierville's performance as well given what you guys were missing.

CBG, Honestly I thought the officiating was pretty good as a whole. I did not hear of any complaints about the out-of-town referee's specifically... there was certainly the same old complaints about all refs (justified or not) but I didn't see any specific refs beign called out. Actually, I will say that I know some concerns were expressed over the affiliation of a certain referee but I don't think the situation ever came up where this was tested. I actually think the officiating was much better as the tournament organizers made an effort (by bringing in out-of-towners) to be sure that the bottom-of-the-barrell Memphis refs weren't used (and yes we have a couple awful ones, who I luckily haven't seen this year). They also did a good job of having plenty of referee's on hand (I think 8 both days, maybe more the second day) so that the ref's got a break and that 2-man mechanics were in use during the medla matches. I still think stalling as a whole was not called as often as it could / should have been (the out of town officials included). I can not itterate enough how much I hate the way that we allow people to play the edge and use it is a line of defense (yes some of my own kids are probably guilty of this too, ding them if so). But I will say I did see at least one fleeing the mat call and it was a pivotal call in the finals. Bravo to the ref for making the call! The only truly blown call that I can remember seeing was in the 160lb finals when Ryan Prince (Grissom) took Brandon Wright (Houston) down and should have won the match. Supporting points were in bounds more than enough for the people in the top of the gymn to see and everyone in the house knew it was a takedown. This was very evidently a case where the referee was afraid to make the call (and this one was very obvious from my vantage point, not 5 feet from the takedown as I was prepping one of my wrestlers on the side). This didn't surprise me as I had talked with that same referee at a youth tournament earlier in the morning and we talked about how he was reffing (he is very obviously new but doing a good job and most importantly wanting to learn and take advice). It was easily a case where he was just too afraid to make the call. I was honeslty quite surprised to see him as the main referee during that match earlier when I had noticed it. Thankfully (and sadly as I was pulling for Brandon but always prefer to see the right thing happen) Prince completed a beautiful takedown at the restart to secure the win. I think everyone had this match pegged as the Best Match of the tournament before we even got rolling and it didn't disappoint. Those two are extremely slick on their feet! Ok wow that got long. Let me reiterate by saying that I feel like the reffing was good overall from what I saw. Now I will also say I missed 2 rounds of consolations and most of the semi-finals coaching a youth tournament that morning but I would assume my observations from the rest of both day's holds true even during that time span. Hope that answers your question.

Stove, I wouldn't worry about that one, I think the positive rumors you have heard are more along the lines of the correct story. After a long talk with Zach's coach (and knowing the kid pretty well) I won't go into the details of what happened but will give you a quick summary. Let's just suffice it to say that Zach was asking for injury time which the ref refused to give to him. The ref then quickly tossed out the stalling calls and ended the match. I think it all stemmed from a blood soaked tissues getting too deep in Gordon's nose. I believe that the match had been very close until this point...

Now that is a question I am surprised to see someone of your wrestling knowledge ask... CBHS is Christian Brothers High School from right down here in Memphis. I think most folks from around the state know exactly who they are.

I think a lot of people are forgetting about Demetrius Johnson. Hard to argue about what he has done recently.

You can now find Matman's ranking for week 3 at: MatMan Week 3 Rankings There are still no DII rankings. Matman is still waiting on rosters from DII coaches.

Hey Mike, Not sure about finding some tournaments in the area but how abotu you come and coach / roll with the freestyle clubs in Memphis and maybe even Team Memphis. I can assure we will be glad for another helper!

Sounds like we have the same pet peeve.