Chicks Heart Fights

This weekend, Iowa State won the Big 12, Iowa won the Big Ten, and Northern Iowa won the West Regional. Not bad for a state with less than three million people.

Conference tourney highlights:

• The much-anticipated (to put it mildly) match-up between Iowa’s Brent Metcalf and Minny’s Dustin Schlatter finally happened, with Metcalf coming out ahead 5-3. He was awarded Wrestler of the Year and Wrestler of the Tournament, of which he is well-deserving. From what I’ve read, this match was a doozie. I hope that video shows up on Youtube!
• In not so happy Iowa news, Mark Perry lost to Michigan’s Eric Tannenbaum, 3-2.
• Iowa State wrestled the entire tournament on a tear. Only one wrestler took less than third, and he was awarded a wild card.
• One of my Tigers, Tyler McCormick, pulled the upset of the day by beating top seed and #1 ranked Coleman Scott. Scott has been the monkey on Tyler’s back, so it was nice to see him shake it off. McCormick went on to lose to Nick Fanthorpe.
• In other 133 news, Michigan State’s Franklin Gomez beat the precious Jimmy Kennedy, and Cornell’s Mike Grey lost to Joseph Baker of the Naval Academy. So that makes 133 a bit… confusing.
• At 125, the previously perfect Jayson Ness (Minn) lost to Hoosier Angel Escobedo.
• Cornell ended up winning EIWA by a half point over Penn.
• Two Minny seniors, Roger Kish and CP Schlatter, injury defaulted their way to sixth place. Hopefully, they can get back in shape to wrestle in St. Louis.
• Heading into NCAAs, these are the remaining undefeated wrestlers: Chad Mendes, Cal Poly; Keith Gavin, Pitt; Jake Varner, Iowa State; and Josh Glenn, American. I think the most likely wrestler to remain undefeated is Gavin. No one is close to him.

When coaching at UNC-Greensboro, I’m not sure if Tom Shifflet had a vision of turning the Southern Scuffle into a great tournament that serves as an alternative to Midlands, or if he just didn’t feel like traveling during the holidays. Regardless of his motives, the Southern Scuffle has grown into an event that attracts some of the country’s best teams. In contrast to Midlands, it offers nicer weather and easier travel for East Coast teams, but of course, it’s not in the best city ever.

This year, Shifflet, now coaching at Hofstra, will return with seven seeded wrestlers, including three wrestlers with a #1 seed. (more…)

I’ve been having issues with my cable lately, so this afternoon, Comcast is bringing me a new cable box. The bad part of this is that I will lose all my DVRed programs, including the 2007 NCAAs. I’m rewatching the NCAA’s now since I’ll be losing my cable, and I figured that this was a good excuse to share my thoughts on the tourney and the broadcast.

- I highly doubt that Cael Sanderson was hoping that his “mere presence” would inspire the Cyclones to the title, as the announcers suggested. I can just picture Cael, sitting in a recliner at practice, and yelling at Backes “Don’t I inspire you? I mean, I’m here. Isn’t that enough?”

- Moore from UC Davis’ mom was my favorite cutaway shot of the broadcast. She was sitting very close to me during her son’s match, and as a friend of mine noted, she did everything short of going out and wrestling the match for her son. It was fantastic to see it again on TV.

- Even though I knew who won the Perry-Hendricks match, while watching that match, I was still cheering him on as if he wasn’t going to get those nearfall points. Right behind Mizzou’s third place finish, Askren’s win and Pell’s third place finish, Perry’s win was a highlight for me. I’ll be honest; I didn’t really like either of the wrestlers. Seeing Perry win, though, and get that monkey off his back was fantastic, and I was once again impressed by Hendricks’ classy reaction to the loss.

- Tom Brands looks ridiculously uncomfortable when giving his “That’s a reversal” lesson.

- I liked seeing Gregor Gillespie, and Edinboro win. To me, Edinboro is the little school that could. Bruce Baumgartner’s alma mater employer continues to produce quality wrestlers, despite less funding than the Big 10 or 12, or the EIWA powerhouses.

- I did NOT like seeing the cutaways of Mark Churella during Josh’s match. Wrestlers are proud men, and father’s are generally pretty proud of their sons. Seeing Mark Churella, this amazing wrestler and father of top wrestlers, watch his son lose did not add to the quality of the broadcast.

- ESPN’s broadcasts have improved over the years, but is it that hard for them to find an effective matside reporter? Kessenich was passable, but clearly did not know wrestling. He mentioned that Churella ate the same breakfast every morning for two years - yeah, when wrestlers find meals that work within their diet, and keep them at their weight, that is a meal they will stick with. The weight management aspect of that story would be much more interesting story than easy “breakfast of champions” quip.

How many days until wrestling season?