Nainten

Replying to some of the original posts on the thread.  Agree it doesn't water down anything.  It's just another way to recognize the kids who excelled.  All-American, All-state, All-conference, All-region, All-Metro...etc.  All good.  In theory it's just more recognition for a job well done.  And for those laughing at the DI reference.  It's arguably true.  Another way to state the same argument is that the gap between the "average" D1 wrestler and the elite top-8 wrestler is way, way smaller than the gap between the average TN wrestler in any division and the top 4 in those divisions.  I am inclined to agree.  

I thought about this angle and have settled on the notion that wrestlers on this level aren't quitters.  Assuming he is not actually injured, I would say that that I don't know what I would do if put in his same situation.  This was way more than just another regular season tournament; more than the Big Tens; more than Midlands, The Scuffle, or even every other NCAA tournament he has wrestled in.  This was a legacy defining tournament.  These kinds of outcomes can break a person, and if someone as hardcore as Spencer Lee can be broken by this then I have to assume 99% of us would be as well.  The only person who can probably relate to Spencer is Dan Gable.  Hopefully he has been there to offer encouragement.  Also I think Penn State had pretty much put any doubts to rest on who was going to win the team title by Saturday morning, so nothing Spencer could do on that day was going to make any difference.  Maybe if the team race was in the balance we would have seen him wrestle for third.  I would like to think so.  Bottom line is that he gets a pass from me on this one.  

Interesting.  Samuel Everett School of Innovation lists 122: the smallest school on the list to have a wrestling program.  Compare that to Collierville at the other end of the spectrum with 2827.  Just an interesting contrast.  

What a tournament Arlington is having.  They only qualified 5 guys but all five are in the placing matches (3 finalists, 2 going for 3rd) and they are 4th in the team race going into the final day.  Both Blackman and Wilson Central have more wrestlers still alive, but just to be in the hunt for 3rd place with only 5 guys is pretty awesome.  Coach Simpson has them peaking at the perfect time.  

1         Summit                 143.5
2         Arlington               106.5
3         Brentwood            100.5
4         Nolensville             98.5
5         Franklin                  90.5
6         Ravenwood           77.0 
7         Collierville              70.0
8         Independence       58.5
9         Houston                 53.0
10         Bartlett                 51.0

S-4

195
Guaranteed Places
1st Place - Zach Sinner of Nolensville
2nd Place - Colin Jackson of Franklin
3rd Place - Brandon Powell of Germantown
4th Place - Cannon Roberts of Independence

220
1st Place - Timothy Bosby of Cordova
2nd Place - Patrick Styblo of Centennial
3rd Place - Dominic Green of Franklin
4th Place - Nathan Montpool of Nolensville

285
1st Place - Ryan Smith of Summit
2nd Place - Noah Dixon of Brentwood
3rd Place - Caden Kellow of Ravenwood
4th Place - Alec Allen of Franklin

S-4

145
1st Place - Finley Jameson of Summit
2nd Place - Brock Wittman of Franklin
3rd Place - Chase Mayes of Nolensville
4th Place - Derek Corbin of Collierville

152
1st Place - Cameron Cook of Collierville
2nd Place - Jacob Roaten of Arlington
3rd Place - Charles McTorry of Nolensville
4th Place - Ceron Campbell of Centennial

160
1st Place - Dylan Cockman of Arlington
2nd Place - Drew Dodson of Ravenwood
3rd Place - Aiden Miller of Collierville
4th Place - Jalen Boyd of Cordova

170
1st Place - Luke Krepela of Arlington
2nd Place - Wyatt Gibbs of Brentwood
3rd Place - Henry Tate of Houston
4th Place - Jensen Schreiber of Summit

182
1st Place - Jose Fernandez of Arlington
2nd Place - Luke Justice of Summit
3rd Place - Sawyer Robinson of Franklin
4th Place - Hayden Sinner of Nolensville

S-4

120
1st Place - Jarvis Little of Summit
2nd Place - Hunter Heflin of Arlington
3rd Place - Jack Anderson of Bartlett
4th Place - Alex Lockhart of Collierville

126
1st Place - Steven Dindl of Bartlett
2nd Place - Brayden Leach of Summit
3rd Place - Arash Yazdani of Brentwood
4th Place - Riddeck Romano of Independence

132
1st Place - Landon Desselle of Summit
2nd Place - Damen Pullen of Collierville
3rd Place - Tyler Harris of Bartlett
4th Place - Noah Kang of Ravenwood

138
1st Place - Spencer Kon of Independence
2nd Place - Clark Vaughn of Brentwood
3rd Place - Dakota Pattee of Nolensville
4th Place - Christopher Tate of Kingsbury

S-4

106
1st Place - Colby Baltz of Houston
2nd Place - Sachin Sashti of Ravenwood
3rd Place - Gabriel Ribeiro of Nolensville
4th Place - Joeseph Daniels of Brentwood

113
1st Place - Russell Ford of Independence
2nd Place - Owen Gobel of Franklin
3rd Place - Ammr Albarati of Ravenwood
4th Place - Zach Ordonez of Brentwood

After the 106 placing matches Section 4 looks like:

Summit..............121.5

Brentwood........96.5

Arlington............90.5

Franklin..............83.5

Nolensville downs Arlington.  The score was something close to 50-21.  Nolensville is solid up and down the lineup.  They may get overwhelmed by elite teams but they are a problem for everyone else.  No warm bodies in that lineup.  I can see them as a top eight caliber team.  Kudos!

Kudos to the Arlington School District.  They just cut the ribbon on the high school's new dedicated wrestling facility.  It's an annex to the school building that includes a huge wrestling room.  I don't know the exact square footage but I'd guess it to be in the 4-5K square foot ball park; just an eyeball guess.  It can easily hold two full size mats with room for about 6-7 rows of rollout bleachers.  I imagine home duals will be held there going forward.  It has its own lobby with a concession stand.  It also includes a nice locker room, weight room, coach's office, laundry room, mat storage room and showers.  The school system has definitely committed to supporting its most accomplished sports program.  Maybe the biggest benefactor of the new facility will be the youth program which can now easily mat the 70 or so kids in the program.  Although going through a lean time at the moment, this shows the commitment Arlington has to wrestling and how it bodes well for the idea that the Tigers are well positioned to be a consistently top program for decades to come.  

Yes, MT14, thanks for the correction.  Apologies to Coach McCarter.  His staff did a heck of a job this past season building up to the end of the year.  As for rivalries watch out for C'ville.  

About 5-6 years ago I was bemoaning the state of affairs in Region 8 -- or maybe at the time it was Region 10.  If one were to add up the state placers from the 2014 and 2015 seasons, the region would total a whopping number of...one.    Kudos to you, Nate Enzor!   In large part due to the emergence of Arlington's program, those numbers have climbed to respectability culminating in ten placers and two state champions in the 2019 season.  This season the region once again had ten placers so there is hope that this reflects a true improvement in the overall health of the region and not just one-off year in 2019.  One may be inclined to take dim view of it that there were no state champs this year, but there is reason to remain hopeful that Region 8 will remain competitive in the next few years to come.  

One development is that Collierville is once again on the upswing.  They have a bright, shiny new high school with a dedicated wrestling facility and a third year coach in Brian Loeffler who has a history of developing state placers while at Cordova.  They also have a budding youth program that is already contributing to their HS ranks.  Although they are losing two state placers to graduation this year, they should return 7 state qualifiers next season.   All signs point to the Dragons trending up for the next several years.  

Houston was a revelation this year under Coach Shirley, who became the ultimate successor to Walt Holmes.  He had a very veteran squad this year with five seniors, four of whom who placed at state last week.  It was on the strength of this core that the team reached the final 8 at the state duals tournament knocking off rival Arlington in the process.  They also finished one spot out of the top ten just this past week.  They will be returning only five state qualifiers next season but if Coach Shirley can pull a rabbit out of his hat again it bodes well for the region.  

Speaking of revelations, Munford seems like they are a program also on the upswing.    They had the region's highest state placer in senior Keegan Shultz (3rd), and sent six kids to states.  They will return 5 of those qualifiers.  This is a program that was had shut down until only a few years ago, so definitely another great sign for Region 8.  

Arlington and Bartlett took steps back this year, but whereas I am not sure about Bartlett's outlook,  I can say with confidence that Arlington is not going anywhere.  They had a bit of a rebuild this season, having lost three state finalists (two champs) and one other top 6 placer to graduation.  They had a very young squad with 9 starters being freshmen or sophomores.  Even with that they still managed to win both region dual and individual titles and qualify eleven for states.  Of those eleven, 9 will be returning including top four placer Dylan Cockman.  This represents the largest group of returning qualifiers in the region.  Their youth program is also as healthy as it has ever been, and I believe there are building plans that include a dedicated wrestling facility in the very near future.  They will not be going away anytime soon.  

With only three placers due to return for next season one might be tempted to predict a backslide for the region, but we only had 4 returning placers to start the season this year and wound up with ten at the end.  One would assume that having 41 state qualifiers due to return next season also increases the odds of more placers.  Either way, with the fact that Arlington's outlook remains strong and the resurgence of teams like Collierville, Houston and Munford, I am not looking forward to the dark ages of 2014 and 2015 again for a very, very long time.  

5 hours ago, JIII said:

Curious to see what Arlington has this year. They lost Cannon and Antcliff I do believe and they normally have a full team and those kids compete hard.

I think you will see them take a small step back from the team they had last season.  They lost 5 starting seniors.  In addition to Canon and Antcliffe they also graduated Luke Kerns (finalist at 132), Dalton Cockman (previous state placer), and Justin Donahue who made a brief appearance in the rankings last year.  It's  a lot of firepower to replace.   I think they will still be very competitive this year, because they have a fair number of good guys throughout the lineup, but maybe not quite the same firepower as last year's group.  I think they will be led by Dylan Cockman, DJ Ford and Jon Worley this season.    

Super happy to see that Region 8 had ten placers to go along with 2 state champs.  I think it was in '14 they had zero placers and in '15 that they had one.  So they are trending up!  Hopefully that will continue in the coming years.  Certainly Collierville is on the upswing so that bodes well for the region.  Would like to see Bartlett and Houston step up as well.  

Wow...looks like Cleveland was especially salty this weekend.  

Maybe we can start tracking saltiness points at future state tournaments and list it right up there with the team points standings.  Hand out a Saltine cracker award when it's all over with.  Like the Razzies.  

8 minutes ago, Fooseball94 said:

It’s my favorite time of the year, nothing beats watching parents repeatedly bash kids as if they did something wrong.

We assume posters are parents and adult fans but why should that be the case?  Anyone with an email account can post.  Still...I am sensitive to  your point.  

Ahh...okay.  I see TSSAA.org and TSSAASPORTS.com both work.  I wasn't aware of the second website.  Thanks.  

4 hours ago, Bump11 said:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this released ahead of time. But if this is the draw, looks like a very winnable road to the semi’s for Centennial

I don't think it's official.  TSSAA's url is a .org, not a .com.  

5 hours ago, Bump11 said:

Looks like everyone except for 8 are tonight. So we will know 15 of 16 teams tonight, barring a shocker at Arlington. What’s everyone’s thoughts on who will be advancing?

Arlington Houston Collierville and Munford will wrestle for the R8 title tomorrow.  I expect it will be Arlington and Houston advancing to states, but Collierville might give Houston a run for its money.  

No one wins when something like this happens.  Well except Tyler Seeley of course.  

This event should have been cancelled.  Once it was determined that is would go on as planned there was no way to avoid some party from feeling they were wronged given the circumstances.  Looking at this from afar -- a dangerous thing to do -- it seems that the two coaches should have come to an agreement beforehand.  

On ‎8‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 12:07 PM, JSamson7 said:

No way in blue hades is McDaniel tech falling Ivy. I'm not a gambler, but I'd be tempted put up a full month's salary that Ivy wins 106 this year. 

Trae McDaniel (Cleveland) over Brayden Ivy (Morristown-Hamblen West) (Fall 3:47

1 hour ago, BQ125 said:

No Bond, Duffy and Chambers!  They will be ok.  Congrats Wilson Central.

Forgot about Bond.   Yeah, I don't think anyone in that corner of the woods is looking around with raised eyebrows.  That said the separation between WC and Arlington, Beech, Brentwood... is unquestionable.