Southern Scuffle

[Big Bird]

Alvarez wins the flip, and Cam starts down. Would've been nice to have Alvarez make a choice there

[Big Bird]

Alvarez got a td off of a nice Sykora shot. tied at three heading to the third and riding time is at 40 seconds. Alvarez chooses neutral.

Cam doing very well from the front headlock and underhook positions from neutral. Cam rode well in the first too.

[Big Bird]

Minute to go, and Cam hit a nice shot again. Alvarez defends well and gets a cradle to secure the go ahead td

[Big Bird]

Cam in deep on a single as time expires, but can't finish. Loses 5-4.

Cam initiated all of the offense, just got outfunked when he didn't finish quick enough.

[Big Bird]

Overall, I thought NDSU performed well. Finished 5th in a tough tournament, with 6 placers and nothced some really good wins. My biggest positive was JVM and Eaton getting some nice wins and seemingly getting on track. Biggest negative was definitely Midkiff getting hurt.

125- Midkiff looked really good but the injury sucks. He had a nice win against Storm, who wound up beating #19 Sydney Flores. If the injury is serious, I want Gamet's redshirt pulled as opposed to forfeiting.
133- Cam wrestled well and crushed some should be qualifiers before running into the red hot Alvarez. He wrestled well in the finals, just couldn't finish a couple nice shots. I don't think the calculus has changed for Cam. There are 3 clear cut contenders and then roughly 10 guys in the mix for the remaining 5 All American spots. Cam is right in the mix.
141- Degen was ok. Went 2-2 but didn't face any probable qualifiers. Droegemuller went 1-2 but had the tougher road facing #15 Willits and the 7 seed Trybus.
149- JVM did well to place and rack up a bunch of wins. Balmaceda was a top 20 recruit this last year and he also beat #31 Grippi. Lost twice to #16 Van Der Merwe.
157- Franek beat the guys he should, lost to a potential NCAA champ, and lost to a similarly ranked guy. Weber did great. Split with #28 Zovistoski, who beat Franek. Also beat Willits, which is a good win.
165- Sucks to not have Fogarty, and he probably drops in the rankings with Bullard only getting 4th. Brenner went 2-2, but wasn't competitive with a couple guys who aren't world beatrs.
174- De La Riva had the massive win over Smith, which helps a ton. The loss to #17 Harvey doesn't hurt, but the loss to Logan might hurt a little. Fortunately Logan is a backup to AA Jordan Kutler and shouldn't factor into NCAA allocations.
184- Cressell has to be the guy going forward IMO. He beat #28 Hazel and has been far more consistent at generating offense compared to Pottinger. Pottinger went 2-2 and both losses were to very good, ranked opponents.
197- Nice to see Eaton get some wins. Avenged an early season loss against Ducharme, which is big in potentially getting another qualifying spot for the B12. Same with the win over Rodney Jones. His two losses were to very good competition.
HWT- Metz beat everyone he was favored against and lost too the two who he was an underdog against, while wrestling to his seed. For what it's worth, I've been super impressed with Dalton Robertson this year and don't consider that a disappointing loss. Win against #20 Cary Miller was the big moment for him. The only concerning thing for me, was he forced a couple throws when he didn't need to and got himself into trouble. That was a problem last year, but not this year. Stibral did well in getting 8th and serves as quality depth.

The Scuffle and CKLV have shown some of NDSUs quality depth. Stibral and Weber placing is pretty big, but Witzig showed well at CKLV too.

Right now, Sykora and Fogarty are legit All American contenders. Metz and Franek are very likely NCAA qualifiers. De La Riva is probably 50/50. JVM, Eaton, and Midkiff (health dependent) all have a decent shot, but the conference schedule will be big for them. Degen/Droegemueller and Cressell/Pottinger are firmly on the outside looking in at this point.