Nainten

There is a MS wrestler who has wrestled at Houston, G-town, and Bolton tournaments. This kid is years ahead of anyone at these tournaments IMO. He wore a red singlet with white trim and he weighed about 90-100 pounds. When I first saw him at Houston I just felt he wasn't from around these parts. A friend told me he was from Illinois and I saw his Tee shirt read Murphysboro (which is in Illinois). His mat sense and technique were very advanced. It almost wasn't fair to the other kids in his weight. I don't think it too big a stretch to say that he could place at a high school regional tournmanent. He was easily the best MS wrestler I've seen in this still very young season. Does anyone who was at these tournaments know who this young wrestler is?

Awesome! Thanks, RDTD.

Can anybody who is aware of any place-match results post them here. If the info is available elsewhere on the web can you provide a link? Thanks in advance.

I don't have inside info on what weight Patrick Simpson will wrestle this year but barring such info, I don't think it is out of the question that he will be at 141, regardless what the ARMY SID says this early in the season. It is not uncommon for bigger wrestlers to take all the way up until mid December to come down to their target weight in D1. Phillip simpson did this the last year he wrestled at 141 by wrestling nearly all the first semester tournaments and meets at 149. That said, perhaps Patrick thinks he has a better chance to make the EIWA finals at 149 which is pretty wide open than to pull an extra eight pounds and try to his luck at 141 which has Cooperman (#3) and Meltzer and Leen (Both ranked nationally) returning. IMHO I think he will have a better chance to make the finals at 149, but whichever way he goes, I think he will be top 4 and go to nationals this year.

Spencer Manley became Navy's starter at 141 over the weekend by beating out freshman, Ricky Tippett, in the wrestle-off finals. The final score was 3-1 with Manley getting the lone takedown of the match. With Navy's schedule, Manley will probably wrestle about 40 matches with 3-8 of those being against nationally ranked opponents. If he stays healthy he should have a very good year.

Thanks. Nainten

WrestleSBA, I understand there are supposed to be a couple of folkstyle tournaments in the Millington area in the next couple of weeks that middle schoolers can enter. Do you know any details or how I can get the details? Thanks in advance. Nainten

Thanks to WrestleSBA and BartlettDad for filling in the missing info. At least I didn't get the actual results wrong. Whew. Very nice finals. Just a couple of comments and observations. The action was easier to follow on three mats than on four. I would have expected four mats for a sixteen or so team tournament but it didn't seem to slow things down over the two days. Great matches at 125 and 215; the best of the finals. Gibbs 3 NF points late in the third were awesome but to me Hansen's escape with just three seconds left was more dramatic. That's just me. Still both were fantastic finishes. Of Speroff and Mitchner: as disappointed we might be as fans friends and relatives. It probably pales in comparison to the disappointment the wrestler themselves feel. I feel badly them. Hopefully this experience will pass for them soon and they will go on to greater things in their respective futures. Congrats to all the wrestlers and the staff Ridgeway on a successful tournament. Good luck at states! thumb

Results are based on my best recollection and are not complete. Apologies in advance for any incomplet or incorrect info. 103 1st K. Johnson , Col over Spencer, Hou 3rd (Bernal??), Ger over Stute, Mil 112 1st D. Johnson, Bri over Brittcliffe, Col17-3 3rd ????? 119 1st Tisdale, Col over Trentlege, Bar 11-4 3rd ????? over Brandon Annis, Ger 125 1st Jonas Gibbs, Rwy over Jeff Hunt, Col 13-10 3rd Dustin Smith, Ger over Dalton Keinjan, Bar 130 1st Chad Warren, Rwy wbf over Andy Groves, Hou 3rd John Hannah, Cor over Kip Packer, Col 135 1st David Hunt, Col over Kenny Flemming, Ger 10-4 3rd Rob Harrison, Rwy over Chris Reynolds, Cor 140 1st Brandon Wright, Hou dec Ben Scott, Rwy 3-2 3rd Ashton Johnson, Brighton, over _______, Germantown 145 1st Andrew Barnett, Ger tf Chris Gipson, Cor 24-7 3rd Vincent Page, Rwy over Josh Rehder, Col 152 1st T.J. Hannah, Bol dec Ryan Cullen, Col 3-2 3rd Dustin Ring, Cor over Greg Featherstone (sp), Ger 160 1st Luke Borneman, Hou wbf Tom McNinch, Cor 24 secs left sat night ride 3rd Robert Norwood, over Collierville opponent 171 1st Josh Bourland, Bol wbf Dan Harris, Bar 3rd Houston Wrestler over ???? 189 1st David Booker, Kin dec Scott Berry, Cor 3-1 sv 3rd RJ Autry,Hou over Daniel Powers, Col 215 1st Uri Hansen Rwy dec Brett Rodgers, Col 4-3 3rd ?????????????? 275 1st Stewart Allen, Cor over Carl Taylor, Rwy 3-2 3rd ???????????????

I meant to say top 9 teams. More details to follow on individual finals but here are the top 9 teams (unofficial) as I heard them announced. 1. Collierville 2. Ridgeway 3. Cordova 4. Houston 5. Germantown 6. Bartlett 7. Bolton 8. Kingsbury (?) 9. Arlington? (?) 10. (?????) No points announced initially. Outstanding wrestler for region: Luke Borneman (Houston) - not sure if it was OW for the whole season or just for the tournament. Coach of the Year: Jason Thiry (Cordova) More to follow

I defer to anyone with inside knowledge but I think region 8's meeting is Wednesday.

I think this thread may be at the end of it's run but let me say one last thing. By all accounts Jordan seems to be a fine young man and no doubt is making many folks back here proud. I think you will see bigger and better things from this young man. Young Mr. Leen is 16-11 as a true frosh and has beaten the 13th and 17th ranked wrestlers in the country according to AWN. Tomorrow (Saturday) if he wrestles, he will likely meet the 7th ranked guy in Ricky Laforge. Jordan is going to have a tiger by the tail should they meet, but if he pulls it out then I think we will see his name in the top twenty of at least one of the ranking services out there (i.e. AWN, NWCA, WIN, TWN, WrestlingReport...), and he will likely draw a top 4 seed at the Easterns. There... I am all Leen'ed out for now.

Although he wrestles for Illinois U. (and please correct me if I am wrong ) I believe he is a St. Paris Graham product from Ohio.

These are NCAA D1 AA's. Good pick-up on my mistake about Illinois. It had two AA's: Brian Glynn and Pete Friedl.

In another thread regarding NY, NJ, and PA wrestling I stated I'd research this because many folks view it as ONE measure of a state's wrestling strength, prowess or what have you. I'll just put the numbers out and you guys can come to your own conclusions. These are only last year's AA's. It would be better to do a 5-10 year retrospective but I am not that dedicated. AA's by High School State for 2004 PA 14 OH 12 NJ 8 OK 6 IA 6 CA 5 KS 4 WI 4 NY 3 IL 2 The following states all had 1AA. FL IN HI AZ WA MI TN LA IL OR MO ID SD TX VA MN I suspect that if you go back more years you will find some variation in the order of the top 5-7 but I think you'll find the same states are usually there.

Super! Thanks for the offer. I may be taking you up on it .

Ah, you're the MS coach for the SBA program. That's Great. I see SBA every Sunday when I go to church right there across the street on Chimney Rock. We're actually throwing the idea of private school for my little one around at home. Yes my son was among those that wrestled. We only have about six regulars in the "room" and three of them wrestled only about 4 weeks before those bouts. Like you I was surprised to see them perform as well as they did. Thanks for the invite to wrestle with your guys. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to meet and talk sometime soon. Yeah I’d like to get more involved in helping Coach Thiry build the program but at this point I don’t know how much time I can set aside for it and I don’t want to commit to it only to have to back out a few months down the road. For the time being I’m incline to wait and just help out during the practices. I have a few of questions for you if you don't mind: How many kids do you have in your MS program? Do your kids wrestle during the free style season? Does SBA fund you or do you do your own fundraising. Is it a combination of both? . Are the parents of your wrestlers actively involved in the program? How long has your MS program been around? Thanks in advance.

Soms, I am enjoying Memphis just fine, thanks. I'll check out the Interstate BBQ and Cozy Corner when I get the time. My wife and I are still looking for a good Chinese food place in the east Memphis area. I'd like to get around and meet folks in the local wrestling community and am sure eventually I'll do so. I know Christian Brothers has invited our (Cordova) MS school kids to come practice with them whenever we can and WrestleSBA has invited us as well so I plan to get around and meet some of these guys. One thing: I am a little slow on the uptake so forgive me but I don't know what RMC refers to in your posts. Can you clarify?

WSBA, Thanks for the welcome. Being new to the area it took me a little while to connect your handle with St. Benedict's but "light dawned on Marblehead" eventually. I was basically raised just north of Boston so I am a true blue Red Sox fan. That's where my aversion to the word "Y-Ya-Ya"...well, you know... came from. I didn't even consider the "southerner" aspect of it, but I laughed a bit when you mentioned it. Ironically enough I guess in that sense, I actually am a Y-... well, you know. It may take a little while before I become a "true southerner" but I don't expect to be moving anywhere in the foreseeable future, so it will probably happen eventually. Right now my 12 year-old goes to Mt. Pisgah middle school but he is being coached by Jason Thiry and Chris Helling (sp). They are trying to start a feeder program for Cordova. I kind of help out with the practices and have gotten to know some of the varsity kids in the process because they help out too. We've taken in a couple of their duals too. Once you meet these kids it's hard not to root for them. I agree with your take on NY-NJ. To me it seems the difference is that NJ puts out more "top-tier" guys. NJ has a huge wrestling tradition and although PA is the the best high school wrestling state in the East (and arguably in the country), NJ comes close to it, IMO. Every year someone on the national forums comes up with a list of the D1 AAs and what state they came from. I don't remember how NJ, NY, and PA did. Maybe I'll look it up when I get the time. BTW, Sorry it had to be your Cardinals that took the hit in the WS but we were desparate.

I've never spent a lot of time in New York. Just on visits and pass-throughs, so I can't say much about their wrestling on the high school level. What little I do know is mostly from what I've heard and read. My impression is that NY is rich in quality D1 wrestlers but plays second fiddle to neighboring Pennsylvania and often New Jersey in the east. No question, however, that it's one of the top wrestling states in the country in terms of putting out a large number of good college wrestlers. I've lived a nomadic existence. I've lived in Boston, Puerto Rico, Maryland, Rhode Island, San Diego, and now I reside in the great state of Tennessee. I just moved to the Memphis area about six months ago. So while you were in NY, did you become a Y-Y-Yan-Yan...give me a second here, I have trouble saying it...YYankees fan?...whew, there I said it. Sorry. It's tough for me to get that word out. A little easier nowadays but still tough nonetheless.

CSTV Wrestling Schedule I hope this works. Try the link above. If not, just go to CSTV website and find their "on air" link on the left side of the page. Follow the links to the wrestling schedule. If you don't have CSTV call your cable company. I got got it along with a few other sports channels for only a couple of bucks more on my cable bill.

What's that old saying," Life's hard. It's harder when you are stupid." That's me . It's too easy to offend folks on forums inadvertantly. Especially when you are new to it. I still need to get the flavor for this one. I try to be mindful of folks' feelings but I like to be honest and unbiased whenever I can. Sometimes people don't care for candid opinions or even facts. By the way, lost in all this is the fact that I agree with you about Jordan Leen. He is showing early on that he has the stuff. What a find he was for Coach Koll. I follow the national high school picture a little bit and read up on most of the top recruits but I admit I had never heard of Jordan Leen. Do you happen to know what other colleges courted him? I look a kid like that and ask myself, "Why didn't we (Navy) go after this kid?" Cornell's recruiting the last couple of years has been off the charts. This coming year may be their best yet.

Walkenvol, I wasn't trying to convince you that Patrick has no shot. Although I suppose I may have come off that way. I think he has a shot too. I tend to temper my optimism with a dose of realism (not that you or anyone else doesn't). I'd say it's realistic to expect Patrick to place at EIWA's, go to nationals this year, and hopefully get a couple of wins. That's a great year by any standard...well...unless you're a Gable trained guy. But anything above that would be fantastic. Based on what he has already done this year I definitely expect him to go next year and wouldn't be surprised if he pulls out AA. Hey if he exceeds my expectations this year I'm not going to be disappointed. I love it when Navy and Army guys do well. Despite the rivalry there is a mutual admiration and respect between us. In fact, let me relate one of the more poignant moments I have witnessed at an Army-Navy wrestling event. It involves Phillip Simpson. As you know Phillip was a phenom his phreshman year (couldn't help it ). That year he faced Navy senior Mark Conley three times at the All-Academy tournament, the dual, and at Easterns. He lost all three. It was a big rivalry because all the matches were very competitive and Phillip was quite the pinner at 141. Conley graduated and went off to become a Navy Seal. Last year I was at the All-Academy tournament sitting with a friend who happens to be an Army grad. He taps my shoulder and draws my attention to Phillip Simpson who is walking up the bleachers and embraces a guy in the stands. It was obviously a relative or old friend. It was Mark Conley. My friend and I looked at each other with smiles. It was a warm fuzzy moment that underscores the bond service academy guys have regardless of circumstances. So yeah I root for Army in 27 of 29 events each year. They are plebes at West Point and Annapolis and they call them Knobs at either VMI or Citadel.

Maybe he didn't shine as much as he did his senior year but I'd say he definitely shined some (nationally ranked both years) and showed his potential the two complete years he did wrestle. I guarantee you the folks in the EIWA community knew they had a diamond early on. Worthy was a very defensive wrestler and his matches tended to be low scoring against top tier guys and lower tier guys but there was no denying his skill and talent once you saw him wrestle.

I don't know what his specific records were but here is what I do know about Maurice Worthy. According to intermat he ended his freshman season ranked 19 th at 157. I believe he was injured his sophmore season and did not wrestle. His junior year he ended up with a final ranking of 14th. Both of his active seasons he went to nationals. His senior year of course he finished second with -- I think -- one loss on his record. I am "open" to the possibility that the academy experience may in some cases retard the development of some wrestlers but at this point I tend to think it is the exception rather than the rule. I am too lazy to look this up but it would be interesting to see what the freshman and sophmore records are for service academy all-Americans in the last 25 years or so. Worthy obviously showed his pedigree early on as has Phillip Simpson, and believe it or not so did Navy's Mark Conley. Mark had something like a 25-8 record and a 4th place finish at EIWAs his sophmore year. He didn't qualify for nationals that year because they only took the top three at 141. That was his first year at varsity. Army's Luke Calvert (184) has been outstanding since his plebe year and nationally ranked since his sophmore year. He also stands a decent shot to stand on the podium in St. Louis this year in a tough weight class. Bottom line: you make a good point and it's food for thought. My reluctance to buy in to it right away probably comes from the perspective I have gained from being intimately familiar with the service academies ( I graduated USNA in mid-80's and wrestled for a time while there) and have very closely followed both Army and Navy wrestling for the last 21 years. Most of the guys who made AA, IMO showed their stuff early on (even if not consistently) during their freshman or sophmore years. IMO it's a rare event when a wrestler who hasn't placed at the EIWA's in his first two or three years goes on to place AA. In such a case -- and one does come to mind at this point -- injuries played a major role. Incidentally, I noted incorrectly that Mark Conley was TF'ed by Strittmatter in his junior year. It was Doug Schwab to tech'ed him.