Chicks Heart Fights

Though I was there live, and watched the broadcast with some friends a few nights ago, I am finally sitting down by myself to watch the finals on ESPN. Our announcers are Tim Johnson (yay), Jeff Blatnick (yay) and some dude who clearly knows nothing about wrestling. Quint Kessenich is the matside reporter, and I feel like I’m going to betray the sisterhood here, but why on earth don’t they have a woman doing this job? The guys are just walking away from Kessenich and not listening to a word he says. If they had a relatively attractive woman in this role, the reporter might have a fighting chance. Match by match analysis, after the jump:

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I’m finally back home in Chicago, after days of fun, wrestling, and Easter egg hunts. As usual, it takes me a little bit of time to go back to being a normal citizen after devoting three days to nothing but wrestling. You mean, not all men have cauliflower ear?

Tomorrow, I will give a rundown of finals, and a rundown of do’s and don’ts of the NCAAs. Tonight, I just wanted to mention a few of the highlights from the whole weekend while they are still fresh in my mind.

- Brent Metcalf - WOW. He is an old fashioned Iowa wrestler; no wonder Brands loves him so much. He drives hard and does not give up at any point in the match.

- Nick Marable - what a great surprise for the Mizzou faithful! Nick, a sophomore from Collierville, Tennessee, was one questionable call from the finals, and will definitely be back for more. He and the other Tiger All-Americans made a statement by winning all of their medal matches on Saturday -Mizzou isn’t going anywhere.

- Jordan Leen, the Iowa Hawkeyes and Mike Poeta - all people I told you to watch out for!

- The Wrestling Family - The best part about the NCAAs is that the entire wrestling family gets together for it. I made new friends, and reconnected with old friends. It was good to see you all, and I look forward to seeing you again.

(Photos from Danielle Hobeika, Amateur Wrestling Photos) 

You dominated your way to the team title, and picked up a Outstanding Wrestler and Coach of the Year Award along the way.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to respect them. They have been through some tough times on the way to this championship, and you could tell how this trophy was full of emotion for them. I was in the tunnel at Scottrade, and as the team was leaving, Brands found Metcalf and took his bag from him. He wasn’t going to let his star wrestler do any extra work last night.In another nice moment, right after they were awarded the team trophy, the team got a visit from Dan Gable:

Congratulations to everyone at Iowa, including the cutest coach there, Mike Zadick:

He looks a little too intense there, but still…yum. (Photo credit: Iowa Press-Citizen.)

Wrestling started at 11, and my head stopped pounding just a few minutes ago. These posts are not going to give results; you can find them here.  What I will provide is some quick thoughts about the things you will not see in the results:

•  I had never watched Anthony Robles wrestle before, and he just blew me away. I can’t write much about him that hasn’t already been said, but he is an expert at turning a negative into a positive. He uses his flexibility and upper body strength in ways that make his wrestling truly beautiful. He gave Escobedo a heck of a match, and will continue to be a force throughout the tournament.
• The arena went crazy when McKnight (Penn St.) turned Shinn (Okie. St.) OSU fans aren’t the force this year that they have been in the past.
• Franklin Gomez (MSU) and Brent Metcalf look unstoppable.
• During Morningstar’s loss, Tom Brands looked more hysterical than he has ever been. He was on the ground in a split. Unbelievable.
• One of the things about the tournament is that you often end up sitting by the family of some wrestler. When a seeded wrestler was upset, his dad was behind me, and my heart just fell for him. As hard as it is for the wrestler, it’s triply hard for the parent.

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.

… from some sweet seats that a friend of a friend hooked me up with! I walked in the door, and a man handed me a ticket for free, and then my friend and I saw an old friend of his, that friend had seats in the center reserved section, about ten rows up. I’m a lucky gal! My lucky thoughts on the Midlands finals, after the jump… (more…)