Virginia Duals

[Big Bird]

Hall escapes in 4 secs

[Christopher Moen]

0-0 after 1 and a couple near misses for Ben. He's in this

He did get called for a bad stall call

Tanner Hall is pretty tough. He might be listed as a Sophomore, but he spent a few years on a Mormon Mission.

[Big Bird]

3-0 hall plus rt after 2

have to go neutral

[Big Bird]

Tynan falls 4-1 and ASU comes back to win 20-19

[Christopher Moen]

Hall wins 4-1. ASU wins 20-19. The Bison are still improving and are looking like a team that might be able to finish in the Top-20 in March.

[Big Bird]

Great weekend for the team overall. Shoutouts to Cam, Nein, and Clay for all having fantastic performances this weekend.

[Bisonator98]

Sheesh not a good day for the Bison. Lose both BB games and both wrestling matches.

[Big Bird]

Thoughts on the entire weekend:
125- Josh wrestled well. Mueller is a top 10 guy and the win was dominating and controlling. The match vs Dance wasn't what I hoped, but Dance is a top 2 or 3 guy at 125, and the loss was only 2 points. The worry for me was how ineffective Josh was at getting to Dance's legs. Dance was also able to get to Josh's legs fairly easily, but he's the first guy all year to do that. Still, Josh's outlook remains about the same. He should slot in seeded right around 5th come NCAA time with a chance to move up a couple spots.
133- Cam was really good all weekend. Only guy on the team to 4-0 and had a couple quality wins over Mason and Gustafson. Cam has a solid single leg and great tilts. One troubling trend of late has been his third period performance. Not sure if he's just rounding into shape after not competing a ton first semester or if he's putting it on cruise control because he has the match one. My hope is that Cam has done enough, and will continue to do enough, to earn another AQ spot for the B12.
141- Breakout performance for Nein. The fall vs VT was a big reason why the dual was as close as it was. Villareal was probably set to crack the top 20 until Nein knocked him off, so that is a real signature win for the true freshman. A 3-1 weekend with his only loss coming to a top 10 opponent is more than pretty much anyone could've expected. Great job and something really positive to build on.
149- Friedman's record this weekend was disappointing, but he was very competitive again against good competition. He went just 1-3 but his win over Krivus is a good one. Pagdilao has been in and out of the top 20 for the better part of a year, Chishko is a top 10 guy, and Buckiso is solid. He had Chishko on the ropes and should have won. Combine those with his matches vs Jeffries and he looks like a guy who could steal someones AQ spot come B12 tourney time. Had he beaten Chishko and Jeffries once, he may well have earned another AQ spot for the conference. He's surpassing my expectations.
157- Great weekend for Clay. 3-0 with all three wins over top 20 guys, with Shields being top 10 according to Flo. Great rebound weekend for him. Although I'm not sure Gladiator Dad was happy with his movement at times on his feet (I'm guessing that was you I could hear on the video). Gliva lost to a top 20 Walker, so no shame in that one.
165- Fogarty went 3-1 but his performance was pretty spotty. The third period vs Bergida was incredibly frustrating to watch. Plus the takedown in the last 5 seconds vs Valencia sucked, as it gave up the tech. He was also losing when he won by injury default. Not sure if he's just hitting a rough patch in a long season, but there are some cracks developing. With that said, Zilverberg knocked off Ashworth this weekend and Fogarty may well crack the top 20 in Flo's rankings now. He still looks like an NCAA qualifier too.
174- Urbach was ok. He wound up 1-3 and could've gone 2-2 if he beat Peterson. He was down 1-0 in the 2nd and in very deep on a hi-c and didn't try to finish. Granted Peterson had something to do with that, but if he finishes that quickly, it's a whole different match and he may well win. Peterson is solid, so the loss doesn't bother me so much as the one sequence that could've changed the match. I hope Nielson still sees some time, as I like his defense better and he has some solid attacks.
184- Rough weekend for McNutt. He went 1-3 but two of his losses were to top 10 guys. The only thing that bothered me was how bad Zahid overpowered him. He jumped 2 weight classes in one offseason, so it'll likely take another offseason before he better acclimates to the higher weight. Hopefully he can add some strength this offseason. I think he's a better wrestler than Schany too, but he dropped that one by 1.
197- Eaton was ok again. He went 2-2 but he definitely could've won the match vs Citadel. I'm more just hoping he learns and develops this year, as he is still pretty raw. Big talented kid who just needs matches vs good competition.
HWT- A 2-2 weekend with two losses vs top 5 opponents isn't bad. He had a noticeable quickness advantage vs Hall and you could see his confidence rise after he had a couple near misses. Hopefully this is a confidence boost to let him know that he can compete with most of the top 20. I think he is an NCAA qualifier this year and could win a couple in St Louis.

As a whole, the team is trending in the right direction. Probably back in the top 25 after knocking off UVA and dropping two close ones to ASU and VT. It's not unrealistic to say Rodriguez, Sykora, Friedman, Ream, Fogarty, and Tynan could each qualify for NCAAs. It probably isn't realistic for all of them to make it, but they all individually have a very legitimate chance. Rodriguez and Ream have both shown legitimate AA potential too. If things broke in a Julson like fashion (which is absolutely perfect at NCAAs), I think Tynan could too.

[Gladiator Dad]

157- Great weekend for Clay. 3-0 with all three wins over top 20 guys, with Shields being top 10 according to Flo. Great rebound weekend for him. Although I'm not sure Gladiator Dad was happy with his movement at times on his feet (I'm guessing that was you I could hear on the video). Gliva lost to a top 20 Walker, so no shame in that one.

LOL Big Bird you've got me. I have always believed with him that if he has good motion that's when he is at his best and and gets off a good shot by creating good angels. When he is stationary it makes him vulnerable to getting picked and having to defend against a shot by his opponent.

Good over all assessment that you gave above. The one thing that I would add that you don't see just from watching the live feed as how this team has geld and have really started coming together and supporting each other. I will also add that there were so many people from other teams or just there as fans of the sport that came up to the few Bison Fans that made the trip as well as our coaches that stated how impressed they were on how our team battled and conducted themselves. I think the Young Bison showed a lot of people that they can't be taken lightly.

[RadioBison]

Thoughts on the entire weekend:

As a whole, the team is trending in the right direction. Probably back in the top 25 after knocking off UVA and dropping two close ones to ASU and VT. It's not unrealistic to say Rodriguez, Sykora, Friedman, Ream, Fogarty, and Tynan could each qualify for NCAAs. It probably isn't realistic for all of them to make it, but they all individually have a very legitimate chance. Rodriguez and Ream have both shown legitimate AA potential too. If things broke in a Julson like fashion (which is absolutely perfect at NCAAs), I think Tynan could too.

I agree that all of the guys you mentioned seem to be wrestling well enough to make the NCAA field, but I get the feeling that most of them are going to need upset wins at the Big XII tournament to get in. Rodriguez and Ream should be in no matter what at this point. With the other guys, even though they have good records and many of the losses are to quality opponents, I don't really see many "quality wins", or many further opportunities for them this season. Friedman seems like he might have the best chance, with Hammond, Mendenhall, and Kocer remaining on the schedule. After seeing Tyler Lehmann not get in a few years ago (14-6, with five losses to ranked opponents), and with Steven Monk not making it in as a freshman (22-9, 2nd in WWC), I guess I don't have much faith in the committee helping us too much. Am I way off base here?

P.S. I'm basing some of my outlook beyond top 20 guys on wrestlestat, which I haven't gained lots of trust in just yet. I do appreciate all of the match results in one place.