Nainten

Houston's lineup took a huge hit this season. These are the projected starters for this year that qualified for states last year yet missed all or most of this season. 106- Ewen, 113- Smolin, 132 - Jones, 138 - Jones, 145 - Young, 170-Sanders. That would have been half their starting lineup. Only Young at 145 has made it back just recently. I won't go into or speculate about the reasons for the absences but it's just a shame to see a program go through that.

I don't have any predictions per se but I am interested in a couple weights like 145 where Kris Bledsoe has wrestled once or twice this season and Grayson Young has been wrestling since coming back to the mat in January. That should be a good finals match should they end up at that weight. At 160 Chris Cara and Sean Srock will probably meet in the finals in a rematch of their earlier meeting. That should be good too. Dave Thomas and Travis Arthur should meet at the 126 final. Thomas has been wrestling really well as late so I am hoping it will be close. At 182 Dowell and Johnson have had competitive matches despite both meetings ending in pins by Dowell. A third meeting in the finals should be fun to watch again. At 120 I'd be interested in watching Briant and Cockman go at it. I don't know if they've wrestled already this season. It's hard to see anyone mounting a serious team challenge to Arlington, but I think Bartlett and Houston will have a good battle for second overall. I'd like to include Cordova but the team they have matted in January resembles nothing like the team they started out with this season which is too bad. Don't know what happened there.

Shout out to Arlington for putting in a nice tournament performance. Don't hear much about them throughout the season because they are out in the southwest corner of the parallelogram, but Coach Simpson is working hard to build a team that can contend every year. They were one of the last eight teams standing again this year and just like last year they fell to a super tough Tennessee High in the consolation quarters. Great job to all the Tigers on an excellent "dual" season. Looking forward to coming back again next season to finish even stronger. Now it's on to individual regions and states. Go get'em Tigers!

Maurice Patton tweeted a picture of the brackets at: @https://twitter.com/mopatton_sports That's all I've seen. **My link isn't working but search for mopatton on twitter and you see it in his feed. Here are the pairings on his tweet. I don't know how official these are. Wilson Central v Knox Halls Stone Memorial v Tenn High Indy vs Soddy Siegel v Arlington Heritage v Beech Science Hill v Blackman Gibbs v Centennial Bartlett v Bradley

Arlington and Bartlett are it for Region 8. Bartlett pulled it out for 2nd over Houston in a dual that went down to the last match.

Arlington and Mt. Juliet faced off in the finals with the Tigers coming out on top 41-33. This is the second year in a row that Arlington wins Slamfest.

I don't know if anyone is aware or mentioned it already on this board but Father Ryan has made it into Intermat's Fab 50 ranking. I think they rank the Irish 46th nationally if memory serves me right. The only TN team in the rankings. Doing something right.

Much thanks! Didn't know it was going to be carried by ESPNU. Will definitely catch it.

Let me state an obvious qualifier. Region 8 is behind most the other regions when it comes to wrestling. In the last two years the region has had exactly one individual placer (6th place, Nathan Enzor) who graduated last year. I don’t even know the last time the region had a team place at state. They say the best predictor of future performance is past performance. In that case the outlook isn’t rosy, but I’ll indulge and give it a shot. Collierville had a surprise freshman in Jared Briant (sp?) who came on really strong at year’s end and won some matches at state. I would expect if he progresses on schedule he could challenge somewhere for a low placing in his sophomore year. Houston returns a host of state qualifiers but they did not get a lot of points at the tournament as a group. Travis Arthur, and Keaton Jones are the top returning point getters for that group. It remains to be seen what happens with Grayson Young this season. If healthy and on his feed, he has an outside shot to place in the low-middle weights. Arlington returns Caleb Morgan and Mike Mowery as the best prospects to medal. Like Briant, Morgan is expected to better his performance at 106 this year. He has grown into that weight now and is a full-fledged 106. I think he has a great chance to be top 6. In fact I think I expect him to be. Mowery wrestled 152 all season walking around between 144 and 147. This year if he gets his weight up he will be a definite medal contender. Bolton’s talented Kris Bledsoe will get another shot this year to place. He did not have a great tournament last year but he is a dangerous wrestler and it would not surprise me if he managed to place. I think things have to break his way but definitely doable. Bartlett has a Dawson Johnson who has a shot at 182. David Thomas is also good and has a wide open style but I am not convinced he is consistent enough to hold up until the medal rounds at state. Those are the ones that jump out to me. There are other good wrestlers like Mullins and Costner in Cordova and Scott-McCabe in Collierville but they will have to make major leaps from last year to have any chance at placing. Rayveon Hardin had a breakout season last year at 195 but underperformed at states so it remains to be seen what kind of advances he made in the offseason. It should be fun to follow and I hope we do much, much better than one 6th place come February. If I left anyone out please feel free to add them.

Registration is still open for this great opportunity taking place on October 3rd.

...for a one-day clinic. Come spend the day with a returning two-time NCAA champ and this years's Hodge trophy front runner! Register: www.arlingtonbobcatwrestling.com Registration Deadline: September 20, 2015 No Walk-up Registrations will be accepted Submit Questions to: arlington_wrestling@yahoo.com Or Contact Zach Shoemaker at 901-338-7463

This is the my last bump on this. Just reminding all that the Nailen will be this coming Saturday.

Arlington took five up officially. Three placed. Andrew Zarshenas took 1st at 143 (12th grade), Nathan Enzor took 6th at 163 (12th grade), and Caleb Morgan took 7th at 106 (9th grade).

Fantastic milestone. Best of luck at UT-Chattanooga!

Bump

The Pat Nailen Classic Freestyle / Greco-Roman Wrestling Tournament Date: Saturday April 11th, Germantown High School, 7653 Old Poplar Pike, Germantown TN Weigh-ins: Administrative Weigh Ins at your Practice Site Check in at 8am on the 11th. Pre-Registration: Pre-registration will be done on Track Wrestling. Go to unapproved website Registration opens on March 20th & will end by Friday April 10th at 12:00 pm. REGISTER EARLY! NO LATE ENTRIES WILL BE ALLOWED! Entry Fee: $10.00 (The Greco tournament is included in this fee) Wrestling Begins: Freestyle: 9 am, Greco: will begin after Freestyle USA Wrestling Age Divisions Bantam Intermediate Novice School Boy Cadet Junior Open Tournament Information: • All participants & coaches must present a current USWA membership card at registration. • Reversible red / blue singlet is preferred. No school uniforms are allowed. The use of headgear is strongly encouraged. • For more information go to: Tony Bradley abradley@scsk12.org or Trey Hamilton rhamilton@bartlettschools.org

I don't see that USAW has updated their rule book for 2015; at least it's not updated on their website. If you are talking about match rule changes; don't know where those are published. I know referees will often meet with wrestlers and coaches before a tournament and go over new rules or points of emphasis. Someone who is a FS/GR ref may want to chime in.

This is not on the TWF schedule so I thought I'd put the word out now that the Nailen Classic is currently scheduled for April the 11th in Germantown. The flyer is not out yet but as soon as that info becomes available someone will post it here. This is a freestyle/Greco tournament. Save the date.

"...Moves BACK to one of the toughest..." Oliver could have won states here in TN as an eight grader when he came here from Chicago.

Here are wrestlers to watch from some of the teams: Houston Travis Arthur, Grayson Young, Colin & Keaton Jones, Kameron Ewen, Smolin Arlington Mike Mowery, Ray Hardin, Bryce Dodson, Caleb Morgan, Bailey Hulley Cordova Matthew Mullins, James Costner, Salvador Martinez Collierville Jared Briant, Alex Connell, Diego Scott-McCabe Bolton Kris Bledsoe, Dalton Ridling, Jonathan Abel Bartlett Dawson Johnson, Christian Cara, David Thomas I am not as familiar with any impact wrestlers coming back from Millington, Brighton, Ridgeway, Southwind, East, Kingsbury, Munford, or Germantown. I think Caden Young might be a freshman next year for Houston. He should be pretty good right out the blocks similar to what the Jones brothers did this season. Arlington will also have a few good freshman who will do well out the gait next year as well. The benefits of healthy feeder programs. I don’t know what is coming out of the Collierville youth program next season but I am sure they will get some solid kids too. Bartlett doesn’t have feeder program per se but they will get at least one good kid from the Elite Wrestling Academy. I think he is Coach Longo’s nephew. In terms of who has a decent chance to place at state next season…I’d say Bledsoe, Mowery, Morgan, Arthur, Mullins, Briant and Hardin are your best bets to medal.

Some numbers I compiled. I don't think there are any surprises at the top. Placers by region: Reg 4 22 Reg 7 17 Reg 5 14 Reg 6 13 Reg 1 6 Reg 3 6 Reg 2 5 Reg 8 1 Champions by region: Reg 4 6 Reg 5 3 Reg 6 2 Reg 7 2 Reg 3 1 Reg 1 0 Reg 2 0 Reg 8 0 Finalists by region: Reg 4 11 Reg 6 5 Reg 7 5 Reg 5 3 Reg 3 2 Reg 1 1 Reg 2 1 Reg 8 0

Now he has two wins over them. Congratulations.

Went back to Michigan after Christmas.

152: Good, deep weight potentially with Williams (Col), Murphy (Hou), Costner (Cor), Hall (Bar), and Sanders (SW). It’s not clear to me if Enzor (Arl) will enter this tournament at 152 or 160. In either case he becomes the favorite. Assuming he doesn’t wrestle at this weight then I think it sets up for Williams and Costner to meet up in the finals. 160: Enzor has wrestled here most of the year when he has not been bumped up for team purposes. He has a win over Mullins (Cor) and should be the top seed. If Enzor moves down a weight then I would think that Mullins and C.J. Cara (Bar) will be the top seeds on opposite brackets. If Enzor stays then this will likely mean that Cara and Mullins meet in the semis of the lower bracket. If Seth Williams stays up at 160 then he could slip into the one or two seed given his win over Mullins early in the year. Good weight to follow.

These aren’t predictions per se; just my thoughts and impressions about each weight. 106 : Morgan has ruled this weight all season. Who will Houston mat here; Ewen or Bowden? I don’t see any other finals threats. Morgan should come out of this weight on top, but you can’t sleep on either Houston wrestler. 113: I think Abel (Bol) and Smolin (Hou) make the finals here. I don’t know who wins it. I saw that Abel pinned Smolin earlier this season but was it a case of Smolin getting caught or was it indicative of the difference between the two? I didn’t see the match. 120: Arthur (Hou) is the favorite here. I don’t know who will face him in the finals because Dodson, who lost to Arthur in the region duals tournament, has wrestled sparingly all season and did not even make the trip to states. His back-up, Harrison Phillips, is actually very capable and could give Donovan Nason (Kin) a run for his money, but I would have to go with Arthur over Nason in the finals. Should be an interesting weight to follow. Here’s a question: Where is Dalton Ridling from Bolton? 126, 120, 113? Still wrestling? 126: I think this is between Keaton Jones (Hou), David Thomas (Bar) and Reid Cacaro (Arl). Should be very competitive. Good luck picking this one. Thomas has a win over Cacaro so that may be a separator but I wouldn’t bet the farm either way. Good weight to follow since Arthur dropped down to 120. 132: Zarshenas (Arl) takes any suspense out of this weight. Colin Jones probably comes out of the lower bracket but no guarantee since Justin Taylor(Cor) can challenge here. Either way Zarshenas comes away with bonus points for his team. Also I would keep an eye on Tyler Brown from Munford. He could upset his way into the finals. 138: Is Grayson Young (Hou) healthy enough to wrestle? If so expect the 126 returning champ to be in the finals against last year’s 3rd place finisher at this weight, Will Craft (Arl). Should be a great match. Craft has been consistently very good this year and has not had to cut. Young hasn’t been healthy all season and that could be the difference here. Should be a good finals. Diego Scott-McCabe (Col) is a solid qualifier here and Jordan Taylor (Cor) will probably be the other guy to represent at States. Good Depth at this weight. 145: Mike Mowery (Arl) is easily the guy here given that Kris Bledsoe (Bol) has not wrestled the second half of the year. Assuming Bledsoe is gone, does Costner (Cor) drop down to challenge Mowery from 152? They met at 152 with Mowery coming out on top but Mowery walks around at 144. If Costner drops I expect he would make the finals over Holley and lose to Mowery to take second. That’s it for now. Will hit the last seven weights later.