Happy Holidays Gopher Wrestling fans, I hope you are enjoying the year-end festivities!!!
As we are halfway through our 2022 23 wrestling season, I thought it would be a good time to discuss how we think we are doing so far.
In terms of our early tournament and dual meet record, I think we have really excelled!! We won almost all of the titles at the Bison Open and one at the Daktronics Open (we only sent a handful of non-starters).
And we are a perfect 7-0 in dual meets, the first time we did this since 2014-15!
The biggest of these was our 18-12 win over #5 OKSU, something we had not done since 2014!!! So on both of these levels, have excelled so far!
The next way to look at how we are doing is to see how well our starters are doing relative to where they could be. Here are my thoughts on this:
125 - #4 Pat McKee is doing very well, and he's not taken any of the bad losses that he's been taking during the season the last two years.
133 - #21 Aaron Nagao is doing exceedingly well and he's matching up to the high expectations we have for him!!
141 - #6 Jake Bergeland is doing ok, but he was ranked #3 and has taken a couple losses to lower ranked wrestlers. He's not at his peak yet.
149 - #14 Michael Blockhus is almost at his peak and is looking very confident!!
157 - #11 Brayton Lee was ranked as high as #1 or #2, but he's taken losses to lower ranked wrestlers. This is a year when he really has a good chance to be a Natty Champ, but so far he's just not at the top of his game. It's possible that he's still overcoming the mental effects of the bad elbow injury he had at the end of last year. Brayton is great on his feet, but he has lacked the confidence to be able to finish his shots so far. I'm hoping that he's able to turn it on in the 2nd half, raising his level a couple of steps so he can compete AT THE VERY TOP!!!
165 - #20 Andrew Sparks looks like he's almost back from that awful, twisted knee injury he had almost two years ago. He is winning some tough matches against elite wrestlers, but he still needs to be more confident and aggressive. Sparks is not the super elite Freshman that he was two years ago, but maybe he can get back close to that!!
174 - #15 Bailee O'Reilly is doing well coming back from his year-end leg injury, and he is nearing his peak form.
184 - #13 Isaiah Salazar is really gaining confidence and he's almost now what we knew he could be...a real stud!!!
197 - #29 Michial Foy is back where he should be at 197, and he's winning some big matches for us!! He may continue to improve in the 2nd half.
285 - #29 Garrett Joles is also where he should be at Hwt., and we need him there! He is strong and agile, and he will win some important matches for us in the 2nd half!
MN was ranked as high as #7 in Tournament Rankings before Lee and Bergeland took their bad losses. Now we are in the mid-teens, but we should rise a ways from there. I've not heard anything more lately about a Gable return. I know it was a small chance, but maybe we'll hear more about this in January. Either way, I still think we are a team on the rise and we may be able to exceed expectations by year-end!
The Midlands Wrestling Tournament at Hoffman Estates, IL starts tomorrow and finishes on Friday night, streamed live on BigTen+. And then we are at the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, TN on Sunday Jan. 1 and Monday Jan. 2, streamed live on FloWrestling.com. I think almost our whole squad will be at the Scuffle, except for Jager Eisch, who will be at the Midlands.
So besides all the great college football (Pinstripe Bowl tomorrow and Natty Semifinals on Sat.), we also have some Fabulous D1 Wrestling to watch over the next week!!! Tune in to all of this and enjoy!!!
Happy New Year!!
Go Gopher Wrestling!!
#GopherTough!!!
