MemphisTiger14

Worley had to medical forfeit due to a stomach bug. I think Dawson and Coleman (Bolton) both have a shot at medaling this year. Coleman beating Salyers was big.

Personally, I thought the new set of rankings were pretty spot on. They obviously aren't perfect, but objective changes were made according to state dual results. Can't wait for the state individual prediction threads to start up.

Anybody notice that G Bowers is down to 132 for the Brothers? Him and Dendy will be a good one to watch.

Depending on how teams set their line-ups, here are some other good match-ups we could see in Rd 1: Centennial vs Houston A. Ables (Centennial) vs Manuel (Houston) at 132/138 Young (Houston) vs Knight (Centennial) at 182 TN High vs Blackman Ferguson (TN High) vs Brown (Blackman) at 152 Fields (TN High) vs Fowler (Blackman) at 170 (I doubt we'll see this one, but TN did bump Fields to wrestle Diehl at 170 in their region tournament so you never know.) Halls vs Bradley Central Hughes (Bradley Central) vs Morgan (Halls) at 132

132- Seeley vs Kerns would be a good one should Science Hill meet Arlington in the quarters. Kerns has only lost around 5 matches this year and all of them were to studs. He's dropped two matches to Bowers from CBHS, one in SV to Ward from McCallie, and a minor decision to Dendy from Baylor.

So Brentwood won at 126, lost a minor to a good kid at 138, bumped the 170 and picked up a win, and won at 220. I didn't think it would get this ugly, but looks like I had it just about right.

I haven't seen Brentwood wrestle this season, but the results on Track lead me to believe that Ryan will win comfortably. Brentwood's best shot at picking up wins will be at 126, 138, 170, and 220.

Here are some of my thoughts from the Black Horse. Brother Martin dropping out at the last minute really hurt the level of competition. There was still plenty of great wrestling, but this tournament is usually a gauntlet when they bring two full squads. -Bradford from Blackman looked as good as advertised at 113. He wrestled a pretty strong junior from Bartlett in the semis and controlled the match from the parts that I saw. -Blackman can seriously contend for a top 4 spot. I knew they would have a handful on hammers that can go with anyone in TN, but their role-players looked tough as well. -The Brothers look good again. Their depth will allow them to be able to move some people around in duals for favorable match ups. Not sure if they will be able to compete with Baylor and McCallie, but that remains to be seen. -Austin Antcliffe is an absolute animal. I don't think he wrestled outside of the 1st period until the finals, and in that match against Sacharczyk he looked in control pretty much the whole time. -Collierville has a raw, but very promising prospect in Dawson at Hwt. I saw flashes of crazy athleticism from him and he definitely passes the eye test. -The new regime at Houston is off to a good start. For the first time since the late 90's someone other than Coach Holmes is at the helm for the Mustangs and I could already see a difference in the way they wrestled this weekend. Coach Holmes will surely be missed, but their new staff has those boys working!

I just got around to watching the Adidas Nationals from this past weekend, so I thought I would update everyone on how the TN kids did (considering most people were probably watching Flo Nats or the Masters). Some of the kids registered under their hometown, so I don't have a school to list for them. Apologies if I missed anyone. 9th Grade Hayden Baudoin, Arlington- 6th at 133 Adam Milton, Arlington- 4th at 192 Hunter Parks, Tullahoma- 6th at 163 10th Grade Mason Hull, Arlington- 7th at 163 Joshua Reick, Independence- 4th at 148 Brian Nelms, Tullahoma- 7th at 192 11th Grade Justin Donahue, Arlington- 7th at 138 Austin Antlciffe, Arlington- 2nd at 174 Robert White, Nashville (?) - 7th at 174 12th Grade Brendan Jarvis, Knoxville (?) - 2nd Place at 138 William Parish, Knoxville (?) - 4th at 143 From what I can tell, the brackets get smaller at this tournament every year. Especially in the younger divisions. Some of the kids from other states looked tough based on what I saw in the match videos, but it's frustrating that they can't fill some of the weights. They should think about splitting it into two divisions: 9th/10th and 11th/12th. A date change might also help. Anyway, congrats to all of the Adidas Nationals AA's from TN.

I don't have any inside information or anything, but he seemed pretty chummy with the Baylor wrestlers at the WC Wildcat tourney earlier this year. Pretty sure I saw his dad talking to some of the Baylor parents there too. Wouldn't be surprised if he's wrestling for them next year.

Agree 100%. They could take a lesson from Gabe, who handled the loss with class from what I could tell. I didn’t see him cuss the refs or embarrass himself in any way. I think he realized that he should’ve just cut Borders and gone on his feet towards the end. Great kid. I hate that it ended in such a controversial manner, but 2nd place is still a heck of an accomplishment. Congratulations to him and his coaches on a great season.

Okay, so I was obviously very misinformed about the Palmer/Horst switch at this time, but it looks like Cannon ended up delivering as promised. I'll admit that I'm biased being from Memphis, but anyone that was sleeping on him this season should know that he's legit by now. Hopefully he'll wrestle better tomorrow than he did in the Wildcat finals in January.

Yes, 5 returning medalists and 1 returning champ. However, I don't think there is as much depth outside of the medalists at this weight as there is at 132. I would say the "others to watch" category would only have 2-3 guys in it. I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about this weight though.

I would say 145, 126, and 132 (in that order). 145- 7 Returning medalists, 1 returning finalist 126- 5 returning medalists, 3 returning finalists, 2 returning champs 132- 5 returning medalists, 1 returning champ (but so many dark horses) By my estimation, there are 6-7 kids at 132 that haven't medaled before but are dangerous to the contenders.

Here's a West TN perspective, if anyone cares: 132: Jake Manuel from Houston majored Bussey from Heritage who was previously #6 at 132. (But I already told y'all to watch out for that one ) Another 132 from region 8, Luke Kerns from Arlington, also had a good weekend. Although he didn't secure the upset, he only lost to #1 ranked Chad Milsauskas 10-8 and was in on a few shots late in the 3rd. Milsauskas dominated the 1st, but it looked like he was getting tired by the end of the 2nd. That should make for a good region finals match at 132. 285: Jon Worley from Arlington (NR) was winning most of the match, but ended up losing a close one to #2 ranked Titus Swafford. The match result isn't on Track, but I believe the final was 5-3 or something like that.

Agreed. I have enjoyed watching Gabe improve through the years and I respect his aggressive attitude. His 1st year as a starter he probably only weighed 85 lbs, and now he's throwing kids around at 113.

There's so much parity and not a definitive #1, although I think Teaster might be my pick. I know he beat James this weekend. Lemmons also beat James. Phillips and James both have close wins over Robinson. And Phillips beat Wilson the last time they wrestled at 132 in 2016, but that was a while ago so both are probably completely different wrestlers by now. I'm looking at this group and 126 as the toughest individual weights this year.

145 might be the toughest weight at state this year. All of the studs listed above, plus Lemmons from DB, James from SH, Phillips from Arlington, Brown from Blackman, and Teaster from Heritage. These guys are all legit.

Nainten, We have a lot of the same results, so I will spare you a redundant quote post and only give you my differing opinions and a few complementary thoughts. 113) 1) O'Callaghan, Bartlett 2) Artiles, C'ville Not sure if there's any truth to this, but I've heard that Artiles will actually be at 113. Still think O'Callaghan wins it, but that will be a close one and best match candidate. It should be chippy too. 126: 1) Morgan, Arlington 2) Briant, C'ville 3) Bozarth, Bartlett 4) Kinnear, Houston Bozarth won a tight one over Briant in the region duals, but Briant was battling back at the end. He will use his gas tank to push Bozarth to the breaking point in the semis. 132: 1) Kerns, Arlington 2) Manuel, Houston 3) Franklin Another best match candidate. Both wrestlers had good state tournaments, with Manuel majoring the #6 ranked wrestler from Heritage and Kerns only losing by 2 to #1 ranked Milsauskas from Brentwood. For the sake of debate, I'll say that Kerns pushes Manuel early and wins a tight one in the 3rd period. 170: 1) Antcliffe, Arlington 2) Johnson, Kingsbury I love this match up. Strong and technical vs slick and funky. This should be a great juxtaposition of styles. *I've heard conflicting accounts regarding where John and Johnson from Kingsbury will be wrestling for individuals. I heard early on that John would be at 152 and Johnson would be at 160, but I think they might've had weight management issues. * Here are my award picks: Tourney OW: Gabe O'Callaghan, after pinning through the tourney and then surviving a battle against Artiles. Freshman OW: Mason Sutton, Bartlett Season OW: This is another tough one. I assume O'Callaghan only has a few losses this season if any, but based off of each team's strength of schedule I think there are multiple Arlington wrestlers that should win this over him. I believe Cannon only has two losses this year, a major decision to #1 ranked Palmer in the Wilson Central finals and one minor decision loss to an out-of-state wrestler in LA. Cannon has a head-to-head win over O'Callaghan. He also beat a senior x3 Blackhorse Champ from Brother Martin in the finals of said tournament this year. Phillips also has an impressive resume this year. Wins over previously ranked returning state medalist Andy Robinson from Bradley Central, split matches with Jalen Brown from Blackman as well as one of the Atchley brothers from Baylor. He's pinned the majority of the kids that he's wrestled. Heck, I believe his worst loss of the season is to a kid from McCallie. Lewis at 195 has wins over multiple ranked kids from D2, as well as a close win over #1 ranked Gibson from Bradley Central. However, he lost a major decision to Montana Doty, and he was wrestling up to 195 at the time. He was pinned by #5 ranked Buckman from Halls in the Wilson Central finals. John and Johnson from Kingsbury have had a great season, but I don't think they have the strength of schedule or signature wins to establish a resume worthy of OW. Tourney Champs: Arlington Coach of the year: Simpson, Arlington Best Match: Either O'Callaghan/Artiles, Morgan/Briant, Kerns/Manuel, or Antcliffe/Johnson

Let the record show that I'm not an official, and this is just my opinion. However, I think there are numerous things (not just the match and dual scores) to be considered before stalling is called. For example, if you are considering hitting a bottom man for stalling you first have to be sure that the top man is not technically stalling. If the top man has been riding an ankle or sitting on the bottom man's hips, I would say that the top man is stalling. If the bottom man is making an effort to clear ties and get to a score-able position (like a sit out or stand up), but is consistently overpowered by the top man, then I would find it hard to hit the bottom man for stalling. Stalling on bottom to me is when the wrestler never even makes an attempt to bring his hips up off of the mat, and that instead of clearing ties they are simply holding onto hands or balling up in a base. These indicate passivity to me.

Very true. The officials weren’t the reason that they lost. Arlington could’ve put it out of hand by winning one of the tight matches that they lost, or by picking up pins at 126 or 195. I think what was upsetting was that it did end with a forfeit at heavyweight, and that the deciding criteria was for something that the coaching staff, in my opinion, should’ve received a warning for at most. They were never warned, just penalized the team point.

The final score was a tie and Arlington lost by criteria. The coaching staff was hit for unsportsmanlike conduct for pleading for an escape point in a close match. "That should be one!" Literally all that was said....

I've seen him wrestle and was impressed. He benefits from being in the room with Brown, no doubt.

Keep your eyes on 132. Heritage's Bussey is ranked #6 on pin-tn, and Houston has a tough kid in Jake Manuel. Heavyweight could be a good one too. Houston's 285 gets after it and wrestled a tight one with Oliver from Bartlett (#6 on pin-tn) in the true second match at region 8 duals.

I have to go with the Brothers too. Baylor and McCallie looked strong this year, but I think CBHS beats Baylor in the finals. 1) CBHS 2) Baylor 3) McCallie 4) Father Ryan