Week in Review - 12.19.11

We had a productive weekend at the Reno Tournament of Champions.  The team finished in a strong 4^th place behind Oklahoma State, Wyoming, and Oregon State.  I feel like 4^th is a pretty solid accomplishment for only bringing seven wrestlers.  Four wrestlers placed in the top four and two other wrestlers finished in the top eight.

Patrick Hunter is getting better and better.  He wrestled well this weekend overall going 3-2.  He lost one match that he was winning by giving up a five-point move in a scramble and it put him out of the match.  In his other loss, he did not wrestle his pace and did not get his offense going.  In all three wins, he set a good pace and wrestled well.  

Donnie Vinson is a little banged up and injury defaulted his third place match to a wrestler that he had beaten earlier in the tournament.  He went 4-1 on the day.  His only loss was to highly ranked VonOhlen of the Air Force.  In that match, he was ahead 4-0 before being caught on his back.  He was in a very tight position and fought it for about a minute before VonOhlen was able to get his shoulders down.  He picked up a solid win over former National Qualifier Osterman of Michigan State.  

Justin Lister cruised to the finals at 157 pounds on the strength of two pins, a 9-2 decision, and a 10-1 major decision.  His 10-1 win came over Anthony Jones of Michigan State.  Jones has finished in the top twelve of the NCAA National Tournament in the past.  In the finals, Lister was dominating his opponent 3-0 with twenty seconds left before being taken down to his back to lose 3-5.  Lister made a mistake at the end of the period.  It is better for him to make that mistake now than at the national tournament.  

Matt Kaylor went 4-2 on the weekend to place 4^th.  He got beat by two-time All-American, Onufer of Wyoming.  He picked up quality wins over national qualifier Cuthbertson of Boise State and Blevins of Appalachian State.  In his win over #12 nationally ranked Blevins, Kaylor picked up a pair of takedowns.  Kaylor wrestled well overall but was flat in his final match.  

Nate Schiedel was the ironman of the day wrestling seven matches and winning five of them.  He had two major decisions and two pins.  He had his best outing of the season and scored a couple of takedowns and reversals over #1 nationally ranked LeBlanc of Wyoming.  Schiedel showed that he can compete with anyone in the country and is coming on strong going into the second semester.  

Cody Reed finished 3-2 and in the top eight.  He beat McDiamid of Michigan State, who placed in the tournament.  He also beat the #3 ranked D2 wrestler in the country by seven points.  He lost by a single point to the #2 ranked Byers of Oklahoma State.  Reed is hard to beat when he wrestles with confidence and needs to believe in his ability.  Once he does this, he will have a huge breakthrough.  

Nick Gwiazdowski went 3-2 and finished top eight in probably the deepest weight class in the tournament.  Both of his losses were to All-Americans.  Gwiazdowski gave both of them too much respect in those matches.  He picked up a big win over the #12 nationally ranked McClure of Michigan State 6-4.  Overall it was a good weekend for the Bearcats.

Our next competition is not for a couple of weeks.  Watch for more updates this week as we will continue to update the blog over the Chirstmas Holidays.  Patrick Hunter will discuss Christmas tomorrow on Two Minute Tuesday.  Wednesday will be a rankings update.  Throughback Thursday will have a special guest.