2022-2023 Season

[Big Bird]

Midkiff wins 8-6 over Mizzou backup and NDSU falls 28-11

[steelbison]

Question to those that are great wrestling minds. Why hasn’t Franek improved Seems to me he is regressing. I figured he would have a chance to compete for a title. Don’t see that happening the way he is wrestling this year.


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[Big Bird]

Question to those that are great wrestling minds. Why hasn’t Franek improved Seems to me he is regressing. I figured he would have a chance to compete for a title. Don’t see that happening the way he is wrestling this year.


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IMO he's had a tough schedule and he's had very limited matches with no Bison Open, CKLV, or Daktronics. He hasn't looked "national champion" level sharp thus far, but there is still plenty of time. I'm not a fan of how the schedule has been managed thus far for most of the team, not limited to starters.

He still has a chance to contend for a title, he just has to improve significantly. Not being competitive with Robb was pretty jarring to me, but Robb has continued to look outstanding.

The weight class is still super wide open and IMO, their are 6 guys who can legitimately win it all: Robb, Monday, O'Connor, Andonian, Franek, and Lee. Their are other very good wrestlers who pose significant challenges and have a chance, but I'd say they all have under a 5% chance, like Coleman with his quickness, Scott with his headlock and stingy defense, and Lewan with his grinding style, but I think Franek still has a better shot at winning it all. That being said, he needs to take a step in the second semester to do so. Needs to be more aggressive, finish shots better, and be lighter on his feet.

[RadioBison]

Question to those that are great wrestling minds. Why hasn’t Franek improved Seems to me he is regressing. I figured he would have a chance to compete for a title. Don’t see that happening the way he is wrestling this year.


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For what it's worth, the professional rankers have him at all time highs. For example, he is #6 at Flo and #4 at Intermat. That seems a little bit high to me, being ahead of guys like O'Conner. But, wins over Brayton Lee and Jacques are nothing to sneeze at either.

[PaBizon]

Question to those that are great wrestling minds. Why hasn’t Franek improved Seems to me he is regressing. I figured he would have a chance to compete for a title. Don’t see that happening the way he is wrestling this
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Franek has never been an ultra exciting scrambler or a quick as the David Carrs of the world. That being said he’s solid defensively and very hard to score on. IMO he’s in as good or in better condition than anyone at his weight and he tends to be more aggressive offensively as the season progresses. In the last two years at ncaa’s he had both Deakin and David Carr on the ropes and probably should have won both matches. To me He looks very confident and I see him as an AA this year with an outside chance of wrestling for the title.

[steelbison]

Franek has never been an ultra exciting scrambler or a quick as the David Carrs of the world. That being said he’s solid defensively and very hard to score on. IMO he’s in as good or in better condition than anyone at his weight and he tends to be more aggressive offensively as the season progresses. In the last two years at ncaa’s he had both Deakin and David Carr on the ropes and probably should have won both matches. To me He looks very confident and I see him as an AA this year with an outside chance of wrestling for the title.

I hope that happens. Would be nice to see him take that next step and compete for a title


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[Big Bird]

Heading into the Scuffle and the new year, I really don't have a good grasp on this team and their potential. The new redshirt rules effectively neutered the 1st semester open tournaments, which typically where the most challenging, gave a good glimpse into freshmen potential, and got starters up to speed in a hurry. Many NDSU starters have hardly wrestled, with Franek and Droegemueller only having 6 matches as we head to January. The Scuffle should provide a much better barometer of where guys are at, but here is what I see thus far:
Potential to be an AA this year: Droegemueller, Franek, and Caliendo. Caliendo just needs to get his cardio straightened out and he's there. 165 is absolutely loaded but pretty much nobody can take defending champ Keegen O'Toole down twice in a match, and Mikey did that in the first period. Franek is right in the mix with a bunch of guys. Nobody has separated themselves at 157 without David Carr, other than maybe Peyton Robb. NCAAs will be a grind, but if Jared can win the scuffle, he has a chance to run the table in the regular season and the B12 tourney and secure a high seed for NCAAs. Droegemueller thumped Brock Hardy and Hardy has looked phenomenal outside of that. 141 is the weakest weight in the country IMO and if Dylan wrestles well come NCAAs, he can AA, although I don't think it is all that likely.

Guys who earn AQs for the B12 and would be strong bets to get in NCAAs: Nobody. Based off of this year alone, Sax and March are the two closest IMO, although Pentz's reputation may have him in.

Guys who could still earn AQs for the B12, but must improve and get some quality wins: Pretty much everyone other than the 3 possible AAs. Negrete is 7-2 and beat Tanner Jordan, but that's it. Midkiff is 5-3, but his best win is over a former NCAA NQ who isn't a starter this year. March is 8-4 with his best wins being 3 wins over the same former NCAA NQ who isn't a starter this year. He has been right there with some really good guys though and probably has the best resume of the NDSU guys in this category right now IMO. Sax is 6-4 and his wins over Cassella and Wills are actually very nice and should help a lot come AQ allocation time. Needs to maintain his level of performance. Parker is 3-6 and nowhere near earning a spot in NCAAs, but there is time and opportunity. He has to start winning at the Scuffle though. Pentz is 4-4 and has a win over Michael Foy, but other than that, his resume is held up by prior seasons. Mora is 5-4 and could still improve, but thus far, he has lost some close matches that will matter against Josiah Hill, Elam, and Cory Day.

This team doesn't have a glaring weakness, but they also haven't looked particularly sharp this year. Hopefully they are healthy and dialed in for the Scuffle, because if they are, it will dramatically improve their own (and the conferences) ability to get AQs and get more Bison in the NCAA tournament.

[PaBizon]

Records can be very deceiving. I like to look more into who they’ve wrestled and how they’ve done against ranked opponents. Overall the BiZon starters are 51-34 on the season. In matches against ranked opponents they’re 9-25 with Franek (3) and Caliendo (2) responsible for five of the victories. BiZon back ups are a combined 0-9 against ranked opponents. Here is a quick look at the starters.

125 Negrete jr - 6-4 overall with one win a forfeit. Ranked matches 0-2 (McKee, Cronin), ranked wins (none)
133 Midkiff - 5-3 overall. Ranked matches 0-3 (Dryden, Nagao 2x), ranked wins (none)
141 Droegemueller- 4-2 overall. Ranked matches 1-2 ( Bergland, Hart), ranked wins (Hardy)
149 March - 8-4 overall. Ranked matches 0-4 (Blochaus 2x, Realbuto, Hart), ranked wins (none)
157 Franek - 5-1 overall. Ranked matches 3-1 (Robb), ranked wins (Lee, Petite, Jacques)
165 Caliendo - 8-1 overall. Ranked matches 2-1 (O’toole), ranked wins (Sparks 2x)
174 Sax - 6-4 overall. Ranked matches 1-3 (Labriolla, Oreilly, Mocco), ranked wins (Cassllia)
184 Parker - 3-7 overall. Ranked matches 0-4 (Foy, Nolan, Salazar, Hoose), ranked wins (none)
197 Pentz - 4-4 overall. Ranked matches 1-3 ( Alred, DePrez, Elam), Foy
HWT Mora - 5-4 overall. Ranked matches 1-2 (Joles, Elam), ranked wins (Davidson)

[PaBizon]

My personal assessment to this point if the season.

125 Negrete Jr - basically a .500 wrestler to this point. I expected him to be a bit better offensively (aggressive with his quickness) at this point. Pretty typical for a first year starter. That being said he hasn’t been dominated and I see him getting better in the back half of the season as he gets more comfortable. Outside chance at being a NQ
133 Midkiff - IMO hasn’t shown much and I’m not sure he’s even the best wrestler in the room at 133.
141 Droegemueller - is this the year he finally beats Carlson who’s struggled to this point? NQ looks like a for sure but I don’t see him being offensively able to finish against the better wrestlers to be anything more even with an easy weight class.
149 March - has 8 Wins to this point all against wrestlers he should beat. The four losses are to quality opponents. He seems to be plenty strong for the weight and his mat returns are fun to watch. I see him being someone people won’t want to wrestle at Big 12’s. Outside chance at NQ
157 Franek - Carr moving up to 165 helps. I think he’s for sure top 8 this year and an AA
165 Caliendo - Carr moving up makes 165 a beast in the Big 12 and nationally maybe the toughest weight class of all. As a Freshman In this weight class I’d say NQ at worst and Round of 12 at best. I hope he proves me wrong an is an AA.
174 Sax - it’s amazing to me how he’s been able to go up 3 weights and still be the starter. Has the length for the weight but Strength will be a problem. Being a NQ would be a really nice year for him.
184 Parker - tough tough start to the year for DJ. For me it’s not so much about the record or the losses but how he’s looked in the losses. He’s been flat out dominated a number of times. I really believe not red shirting last year is catching up with him. That being said there’s a whole bunch of potential here and some confidence building wins sure would help.
197 Pentz - has had a tough schedule to this point and is one of those guys many won’t want to see in the post season. NQ with a win or two
HWT - for me a tough guy to figure out. He’s seems very confident in his abilities but IMO wrestles to the level of his competition. Another guy that I think will get much better in the back half of the year. Go Tank Go!

This weekend at the Southern Scuffle will be a good test for the boys. Right now I’ll say the BiZon end up with 4 NQ and one at large for five in the national tourney

[RadioBison]

I was trying to figure out what kind of chances the guys have at improving their rankings at the Scuffle. This is based on Flo rankings, and assuming that most teams will bring everybody, except that I ignored NC State, Virginia Tech, and Virginia, because they are signed up to bring partial squads. Of course, there are always some good redshirts, and other guys that will sit out, but some of that probably washes out.

125 Needs 7th place to finish ahead of honorable mention guys
133 Needs 6th place to finish ahead of honorable mention guys
141 Needs 5th place to maintain #11 ranking
149 Needs 7th place to finish ahead of honorable mention guys
157 Needs 2nd place to maintain #6 ranking.
165 Needs 5th place to maintain #21 ranking and might move up a spot with 4th
174 Needs 6th place to finish ahead of honorable mention guys
184 Needs 6th place to finish ahead of honorable mention guys
197 Needs 6th place to maintain #24 ranking
285 Needs 5th place to finish ahead of honorable mention guys

It's going to be hard for guys to go up much in the rest of the duals, other than getting good upsets in a few cases. I think Negrete has the most opportunities that way.

So, I hope to be following lots of guys in the placement matches this weekend.