oceansize42

Wish him the best.  My son is fortunate enough  (if you ask him he might tell you he is unfortunate) to get beat up by Kodiak on the regular.  Tough, super hardworking kid and that should be a great program for him.   

Hunter will take 7th or 8th.  Impressive.  

Flynn will do better, still in the hunt for 3rd.

Cooper Flynn and Hunter Mason are the last men standing.  Both will medal.  Having two medal in Junior Freestyle is an improvement over 2018 (zero) and 2019 (one, Cooper).

Same four are left (Kodiak, Hunter Mason, Ashton Davis, and Cooper Flynn)  but all have a loss under their belt.  Number 13 that beat Hunter then went on to beat Bouzakis.  Didn't see that coming.  Hunter has won two since his loss. 

Kodiak, Hunter Mason, Ashton Davis, and Cooper Flynn in the round of 16. 
 

If Hunter wins one more  he gets Bouzakis in the quarters 

I wanted to give a nod to Braxton Mann of SH for his recent signing.   Everybody seems to know Braxton and he seems to know everybody.  Congratulations.  I, and many others, have enjoyed watching you wrestle over the years.

Hunter beat the number six in the nation Jordan Titus so 27-0 in the last two weeks.  Congrats to Hunter.  

Hunter tied at the end of the third period 7-7 and hit a double in SV to secure the win.

Have to give a shout to a TN wrestler that has been on an absolute tear the last two weeks.  Hunter is 26-0 coming from Spartan, Southeast regionals, and now just beat the number 10 in the Flo rankings  (Jack Gioffre out of CA) at NHSCA duals.  Hunter is currently ranked 13th on Flo but should now go up.  If Team Shutt wins the semis and Team Kong wins the other side (over the minions) he will get the number 6 on Flo, Jordan Titus in the finals.  

8 hours ago, JSamson7 said:

I'd put these Freshmen names in the hat from TNAAU Region 1 as ones to watch next year in HS.

Mason Jakob (Kingsport DB), Cole Gumlick (Lakeway), Cameron Helton (???), Jordan Sexton (Halls), Hunter Sturgill (Heritage), Riley Lee (Maryville), Brody Casto (Heritage), Max Norman (Kingsport DB), Harlen Hunley (Halls), Wyatt Howard (Pigeon Forge), the Ferrells (Crockett), Ricky Reyes (Pigeon Forge)

All but 2 of these kids wrestled on the Region 1 All Star team that dominated the other region dual teams this year. Had Sexton and Howard not been hurt it would have been even worse. There may be some others I've left off since I'm not sure about their grade level, but this group is pretty solid.

Crockett will have three Ferrells on the team next year.  Two freshmen and an Junior.  The junior is a solid wrestler and really coming into his own, should have a monster year.    Their dad is going to have the time of his life watching three boys wrestle.  Couple that with a solid incoming heavyweight freshmen whose name now alludes me.  Heavyweight is tough as a freshmen but he could be one to watch down the line. 

I'm impressed that even with PF losing Dalon and Gumlick that they were able to maintain their strength.  Credit to their program.   They do lose 5 seniors, 3 of which were strong contributors (Skidmore, Sutton, and Algarawi) and state placers.  

Greeneville has two of the best wrestlers in the state, period, in Mason and Cannedy.  Just having those two in their room raises everyone. They lose 5 seniors, one of which was a state placer in Hunter Johnson. 

I saw Halls loses a crazy number of seniors (11).  Is most of their current talent young?

Region 1 runner up should be Crockett.  Beat Sullivan East 54-27 last year and only lost one senior.  Crockett was a AAA team this past year.  If not for COVID Crockett would have had five state qualifiers last year instead of two.  Solid group of freshmen coming up as well so the move down should benefit them greatly.

41 minutes ago, durdon said:

The D2 coaches use the OW award in D2 as a wrestler of the year award and the D2 OW award is not related to tournament performance.  Not saying that it’s the correct criteria but that’s the way they handle it.  At least with D2 you can define why they give out the OW award to a particular wrestler each year. 
 

It would be nice if the D2 coaches had a Wrestler of the year award and a separate Tournament OW award. 

Well that is interesting.  What is the actual criteria for OW at D2?  Points, wins, strength of schedule? Cut and dry with no subjective element? Win/loss ratio?  Definitely seems odd that the most important tournament of the year plays no role in the selection process.  You are saying the votes are cast before the tournament even begins?  If it is cut and dry with actual definitive criteria then that should probably be emulated, but I'm interested to know for sure it is really neat and clean.

3 minutes ago, Chalupaking said:

Ocean, was your comment directed at Durden’s comments or mine? You replied to mine so my response would be in D2, I believe Peterson or Harper should have won it. Since there is no criteria for such an award, we are stuck with the way it is and has been for years. 

To you since you made me aware of the scenario in D2 but I was definitely poking durdon a bit for the double standard since durdon was hanging his hat on Cody pinning his way through where as Tre had a 17-2 TF.  In fairness durdon is also saying 145 was harder but for me, meh, splitting hairs.

1 hour ago, Chalupaking said:

If pinning your way through tournament is your guidelines then the stud on your team shouldn’t have won MOW 3 years in a row since he didn’t pin his way through the tournament once. Still one of the best and love to watch him on the mat but definitely not the best overall in the State Tournament. Coaches/voters are biased in this State and all one has to do is look at the results. 

LoL.  I just saw that Baylor's 145 stud pinned his way through but didn't win MOW while McCallie's 170 had not one but two TFs and won MOW.   I guess that wasn't worth complaining about.  No conspiracies in D2 land.  Now don't go getting mad because I know how good Whitworth is and I'm not mad at all as I'm sure he deserved it, 100%, but I do find it funny that one of the main arguments was Tre not pinning his way through.  Jeebus....

13 minutes ago, Mason422 said:

I personally hate that coaches vote on MOW. It just makes it a popularity contest, I wish it was based on some type of criteria.  
 

Case and point, Kodiak Cannedy of Greenville has pinned his way through 3 state tourneys and hasn’t ever given up an offensive point.  That young man is yet to win a MOW award.  If that isn’t dominant I don’t know what is, but a kid who wins a close match in the finals will win it. Just a little baffling to me 

 

Sid Mason

Now this I agree with (establishing criteria).  If things really are that bad then everyone should lobby for some sort of criteria.  

Who won AA Sid? I'm not looking to knock anybody just curious.

Never mind, I found out who won it in AA.  

1 hour ago, DAKEKO said:

This Fowler is not a twin.  

Willett did not miss weight. He blew out part of his lung the day b4 state and couldn't keep his oxygen levels up. 

Please get your facts straight. 

And Cody would probably pin Tre in the 160 final, even with the bad knee. Might tech pin him. 

Fowler? I'm talking about the Fisher brothers, Landon and Logan, from Jefferson County.  Cody wrestled Landon and Tre wrestled Logan.

Yeah, sorry about Willett.  Was unaware on that one.

Who cares about matchups that didn't happen.  I'm really surprised about the amount of well "Cody is the best wrestler there talk".  Does anyone believe he wasn't?  Am I missing something?  Do you believe your announcing brand new information that Cody is the number 1 in the nation at 145?  That he couldn't win any weight class he wanted?  Dang guys.  Everyone assume everyone else is dumb?

1 hour ago, WrestlingGod said:

He spent two days in the hospital. Come on now. We should be talking about how awful the kids luck is, not assuming we know things because he wasn't there.

Don't read into it.  That was no slight on Willett at all and I was unaware he was in the hospital.   I'm not here to belittle any of these young men as I know they all work really hard.

I would like to see a break down of placers by region from recent past state individual tournaments before I committed to a particular option.    Whatever is done has to account for the fact that some of the regions are less than good when evaluated as a whole.  I'm probably in the camp that says let a high number of kids go so that there isn't situations where a deserving kid who is third or fourth place in his region and simultaneously third or fourth in the state doesn't get left out.   Getting that kid the opportunity to medal is more important than not devaluing the label of state qualifier in my opinion.   

4 hours ago, durdon said:

This is where I still have issue with Cody not getting the OW.  If you take Cody out of the Tournament, I think we would all agree that 45 was the 2nd toughest weight class behind 32.  Braxton ended up not placing in this bracket so that shows you how tough this weight was. If you add in Cody, then 45 was the toughest overall weight class at state. 

Cody was the only state champ that had to defeat 3 returning medalist to win his title.  Again, he was the only State champ in the tournament to beat 3 returning medalist.  And, he was the only person to pin his way through the tournament.  
 

I can see the argument that Bradford should have gotten it.  He did have to beat two returning state medalist in the 2nd toughest weight.  But, Bradford had two close decisions. 

Tre I still don’t see. Tre didn’t beat a single returning state medalist and he didn’t pin his way through his bracket at a weight that objectively wouldn’t even be considered one of the top 8 toughest weights this year.  
 

I still fail to see how what Cody accomplished wasn’t the most impressive performance at the tournament.  He PINNED everyone, he was the only Champ to beat 3 returning state medalist, and he did it in the toughest weight class at state this year.  

His only negative was that he is so much better than everyone else at his weight he made it look to easy which ended up taking away from how impressive what he accomplished was.  

Tre spent 6 less minutes on the mat so his wins were more dominant.  Quick pins are better than less quick pins. It isn't Tre's fault that Cockman, fourth at 145 last year, was defeated early and thereby depriving him of the opportunity to beat a prior medalist.   Willett, a returning medalist, unfortunately was injured prior to the tournament.  Cody and Tre wrestled twin brothers in the finals with obviously similar abilities and Tre looked better by pinning Logan in 1 minute and 8 seconds (over two minutes faster than Cody pinned Landon).   Tre was simply more impressive in his victories than Cody was and my guess would be this is why he won.  There is something to blowing your opponents out of the water quickly and Tre did a better job of that in many people's eyes.   Having re-watched the matches Tre made it look easier, significantly so, than Cody did.  I don't think their opponents skill difference was enough to justify six extra minutes of mat time.  

Additionally 152 was a bees nest with many, many good kids. Hurst,  Laxton, Ables, Brenot, Clemmons, etc.  Fisak dropped to 45 even with Chittum there.  If 160 was as easy as you claim why didn't any of them go to 160?  The reason was Tre Morrisette.  

21 minutes ago, GoTNwrestling said:

And that’s the point I’m trying to make. I can see why each coach voted for any of those wrestlers. I don’t think this is a dig at a certain wrestler or team, but who impressed

Agreed.

Hanlon's Razor: "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".   

In this particular case I would change it to "Don't assume a wide spread conspiracy exists when the choices are not clear cut and several good options exist".

Just now, WrestlingGod said:

You gotta think Trey Bates and Hunter Borders would probably be in the mix too since they each picked up their third.

Fair point.  Tough choices.

59 minutes ago, GoTNwrestling said:

Do we know who placed 2nd in the MOW?

I don't know that information.  For me I think the choice would be Bradford at 132 for navigating shark infested waters.  Third place probably a tie between Chittum and Trae McDaniel.  Fifth would have been Jackson Hurst.

28 minutes ago, JSamson7 said:

All factual and I'm not a Region 4 guy.

You or the other guy produce a list of MOW winners from the last 25 years and a break down on how it was impossible for the wrestler who won it to even be in consideration, or any other kid outside region 4 to be in consideration, and that a legitimate argument doesn't exist for said wrestler winning MOW.   Not just one or two outliers but an identifiable trend that clearly illustrates, beyond personal feelings, the many many instances of bias against region 4. 

When somebody produces that list and arguments therein we will declare it "factual".   The problem, of course, is there are typically many wrestlers who are deserving.  Ergo every year there exists a set of coaches who more than likely feel "cheated".

3 minutes ago, cobrakid8 said:

It’s like we had on another post the metro teams vote for metro and such at their own tournaments and the same goes with going against Region 4 wrestlers in years past. I’m not a Cleveland fan or a Bradley fan at all, matter as fact I hated them growing up as I wrestled for Soddy, but there’s been bias against Region 4 wrestlers winning this award for 25 years. Sorry you aren’t smart enough to see or know it but that’s a you problem. Tre had an easy tournament because his class was easy plain and simple. 160 was an easy weight class but I guess it doesn’t matter to people and so “MOW” goes to the one who pinned their way through in the quickest time, no matter if the weight class was a breeze to get through. Again it doesn’t matter in the end we will see who has the better career and high school achievements end up meaning very little! Congrats to Tre and good job on his 2nd state title!

Here in lies the problem.  You think a majority, or a least a good sized minority, is actively seeking to ruin a young wrestlers career and deprive them of notoriety.  Simply because you and a few others are convinced of this nonsense doesn't make it true.  People think the earth is flat, Elvis and Tupac live,  and that 5g causes COVID.  Your incorrect assumptions have not been my experience.  I'm personally amazed at the wrestling abilities of the Cleveland team as a whole.  An incredible amount of hard work has been done by those young men.  I and the vast majority of people wish them the most success possible because that level lifts the entire state.   Cleveland proved beyond all doubt they had the best dual team in AAA.   

tl;dr

You are confusing a small minority, who have always existed, with the majority.  Most coaches, in my experience, are good and decent people who want the cream to rise.   Most fans want the cream to rise.  

12 minutes ago, fooseball95 said:

Your right we will stay away from the popularity contests and keep winning the championships

Call out all the programs that are out to get you then.   A couple of you are saying Tre didn't earn it enough.  Who is this mysterious "they" who cost Cleveland?   What percentage of the coaches across the state are out to "get" the wrestlers of Cleveland?  1%? 5%? 10%? 50%? Is it everyone? Highlight them above.  Let us know.  Lay down the facts.