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Discussion Topic: Ohio state early season assessment and thoughts
Nick Lecklider added to this discussion on November 20, 2023
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Ohio state has wrestled about as well as possible through the first few weeks of the season. I really love the new three point takedown. Bonus points are now adding up more frequently and faster and Ohio state strength during the Tom Ryan era has been from nuetral. This is a pretty advantageous for this team I believe. What has always bothered me is a guy who gets one takedown and the other gets zero and still loses the match. The biggest one that comes to mind is Reece Humphrey losing to Dake when he scored the only takedown at Ncaas. If the rules were the same as today it very well may have won Reece that match.
125 no one has really stepped up at this weight and It was disappointing Kilkeary couldn’t being a higher level recruit. The job is mccrone going forward but nothing to me shows that he is an NCAA qualifier at this point. Yes he beat Ventresca but so has everyone. Something is clearly wrong with him as he is 2-5 to start the year. Definitely the weakest weight on this team but actually the best chance to beat Penn state is this weight. Prediction non qualifier
133. Bouzakis a little worried so far about results. Beat everyone he should have but lost to everyone that was real competition. I remember watching him at Virginia tech last year and being a little concerned about some of the things he was doing. This year still nothing to make me think different. He is strong as any 133 but just gets sloppy and makes too many mistakes. I believe having Lou back is going to be very good for him however and hopefully he can fix some things technically and mentally. Prediction r16 ncaas
141. Mendes looks great at 141. He looks more offensive and better than a year ago. Probably Ohio state best shot at a title. He is way undersized at 65 kg which makes me think he will eventually move to 149. Prediction 3rd ncaas
149. Demilio also has looked good uo a weight. Energy and offense have been great. Loss to Henson but he’s on a short list to win ncaas. Prediction 7th ncaas
157. Paddy looks to be injury free and the best he has since being a buckeye. He was right in that match with Andonian. This I look for him to have his breakout year and get to the podium. Prediction NCAA 7th
165. Hepner finally wrestled and won against little competition. I’m not sure he is the set starter as him and Wilcox split starts. Wilcox and him are both top 20 guys and Tom probably is going to give them a wrestle off before Vegas maybe? Hepner just no one knows enough about as he has wrestled little the last two seasons. Prediction hepner r16 ncaas
174. Carson looks good up a weight and it’s a good sign he’s wrestling every dual. Expect an injury free Carson to have a good year. Prediction NCAA 4th
184. Hoffman looked good at this weight yesterday. Wanna see if he has that same energy against stronger competition but so far so good. 184 is a very weak weight compared to 197 which may be one of the toughest in the country. Prediction 5th place ncaas
197. Geog very good win against a top 15 type opponent from Virginia tech. He probably could have won by a bigger amount but think may have been a little tired due to being out with injury. I really think he can all American but I think 197 is probably one of the toughest weight this year ecspcailly with Ferrari and Brooks entering. I can’t make everyone an all American so my prediction is r12
285 Feldman so far so good. Had a close match with Catka but was never really in danger of being taken down. Just needs to get off bottom better. Tech falled a top 20 wrestler yesterday in the only ranked matchup. Has been out of competition for a full year so I only expect him to keep getting much better throughout the year. Prediction. 6th place ncaas.
Overall 6 all Americans and 9 NCAA qualifiers.
This is the deepest Ohio states team has ever been. Our second string guys are flooded with guys who would be NCAA qualifiers
133 Gonzales borderline( gave bouzakis and ragusin very good matches)
141 cannon probably top 20 if not redshirting
165 Wilcox ranked 18 by Flo
174 Rocco. Definitely top 20 already
184 Rotogotzke and Shumate. Rotogotzke is top 20
149 Herman. Haven’t seen him enough but won his first open and was a high level recruit.
Future looks bright. Vegas will give a better idea of where this team stands. Last year was a disappointing effort at Vegas yet still had a very good finish to season.
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Discussion Topic: Ohio state early season assessment and thoughts
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on November 20, 2023
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Nick: I think you're underestimating McCrone so far. Not a great showing at Clarion but he seems to keep getting better.
Bouzakis has some holes which Rex elucidated on. These are fixable problems and I'm sure the staff will do their best in this regard. So far, this teams seems like the type to keep improving.
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Discussion Topic: Ohio state early season assessment and thoughts
Casey Talbott added to this discussion on November 20, 2023
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Agree Hank, this is an exciting team to watch.
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Discussion Topic: Ohio state early season assessment and thoughts
Rob Wagner added to this discussion on November 20, 2023
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Ill speak just on 125 and 133 right now.
Hank has backed McCrone since he came on campus, and I have disagreed with him- I m starting to think Hank wins this "debate". I will gladly concede this one as McCrone looks very good from the top position. I hope he does well in Vegas, as of right now I feel confident in saying he's an NCAA qualifier.
133 Bouzakis clearly stronger than so many of his opponents. He made the Hofstra wrestler look like man vs boy. I think he needs to clean up his D a bit vs top tier wrestlers and would like to see his offense open up bit more. I'd say blood round at NCAAs right now, but am really hoping to see him improve.
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Discussion Topic: Ohio state early season assessment and thoughts
Brian Mathews added to this discussion on November 20, 2023
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Nick: good summary. I agree with most everything you said. There seems to be a really good energy in the room at the moment, and it's shown on the mat with the start they've had.
On the NCAA predictions... not trying to rain on the parade, I love the optimism. I just want to point out that 6 AA's, 5 of which would be returning the following season, would be an amazing result for this team. Only 3 guys in the lineup are currently ranked in the top 8.
Re: Bouzakis and Feldman, I think we just need to be patient. The talent is there.
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Discussion Topic: Ohio state early season assessment and thoughts
Jack Muni added to this discussion on November 20, 2023
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Quote from Nick Lecklider's post:
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"Our second string guys are flooded with guys who would be NCAA qualifiers
133 Gonzales borderline( gave bouzakis and ragusin very good matches)
141 cannon probably top 20 if not redshirting
165 Wilcox ranked 18 by Flo
174 Rocco. Definitely top 20 already
184 Rotogotzke and Shumate. Rotogotzke is top 20
149 Herman. Haven’t seen him enough but won his first open and was a high level recruit."
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With these guys I finally feel confident that, if needed, they could step into the line up and be competitive. I would even add Fenton at 125 to the list. It's going to be fun to see where TR chooses to insert some of these young guys in the upcoming matches.
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