He can't be a one trick pony, especially against guys who are noticeably stronger than him. It's never going to work in those cases and we've seen him struggle against those types of guys even if they are significantly less talented than them. It worked out for him vs. Hale and Bates but he won by the skin of his teeth and a ridiculous reversal.
No. 18 Rutgers Wrestling Treks to 2022 Ken Kraft Midlands Championships
- Thread starter Tango Two
- Start date
Peterson was seeded 4th and is wrestling for 3rd, so he will finish at or above his seed as well. I think he had a very good tournament.
Boone had a good tournament as well. He was seeded 5th and is wrestling for 7th. He had the misfortune of running into the #4 ranked wrestler (and a guy who finished 2nd and 4th the last two years) in the consolation bracket. Otherwise, he more than likely wrestles to his seed.
Shh! This board believes all wresters should always be performing at least slightly better than they ever had. If they aren't, then they are a waste and everyone on the staff should be fired. Please don't counter this narrative.
Already a disaster. I've seen a bunch of terrible 2nd days by RU in big tournaments, but today takes the cake. Add in yesterday's quick outs by White and Turley, and this Midlands is a huge disappointment for RU.
Worst case scenario going into today.. 0 for 4 in the semis… the only wrestlers to wrestle to or above their seed was Clark and Peterson… we had a lot of favorable seeds and def didn’t take advantage of it.. disappointing indeed..
Tough semi round for sure - lost to 2 back ups and a D3 guy / Dean's loss wasn't out of the ordinary.
didnt anticipate Oliveri would lose to the Bloomsburg kid in the consi s , was hoping he would place . Surprised Schwaver didnt place either.
Does the 125 outcome settle 125?
didnt anticipate Oliveri would lose to the Bloomsburg kid in the consi s , was hoping he would place . Surprised Schwaver didnt place either.
Does the 125 outcome settle 125?
I can’t remember a worst 2nd day for RU for real… we lost every big match and everyone’s earlier prediction of us getting over/under 2.5AA(lol) looking really bad rn
Not the results anyone wanted, but shit happens. They're a young team. Maybe enter another big tournament at the beginning of the season, so these guys get different looks at top competitors and the tournament atmosphere? (aka Cliff Keen)
There were def a lot of positives. All the guys wrestling today had a good tournament. The tournament also answered a few questions such as: 1) who are 125 lber will be 2) Boone vs the top guys. Boone wrestled tough against two AAs. 3) Will the real Sammy A showed up? 4) Peterson and Joey O need to work on escaping the AAs when on bottom 5) Clark needs to stay aggressive in neutral 6) If Soldano can't get his way, then he needs to get back to the basics if the win is still within reach. His opponent did nothing special.
Big disappointments at other weights. There's really nothing to be said about it other than that. I think White can rebound, but 174 and 165 are alarming (and the health at 197). Glad Gayer got to see some action; he ran into Haimiti which is no easy task. I don't think there is much separation between him and O'Neil. What's the word on Kannaird?
There were def a lot of positives. All the guys wrestling today had a good tournament. The tournament also answered a few questions such as: 1) who are 125 lber will be 2) Boone vs the top guys. Boone wrestled tough against two AAs. 3) Will the real Sammy A showed up? 4) Peterson and Joey O need to work on escaping the AAs when on bottom 5) Clark needs to stay aggressive in neutral 6) If Soldano can't get his way, then he needs to get back to the basics if the win is still within reach. His opponent did nothing special.
Big disappointments at other weights. There's really nothing to be said about it other than that. I think White can rebound, but 174 and 165 are alarming (and the health at 197). Glad Gayer got to see some action; he ran into Haimiti which is no easy task. I don't think there is much separation between him and O'Neil. What's the word on Kannaird?
Posts like this are just as bad as the posts from guys who are never satisfied. If you think rutgers overall did well this tournament you are out to lunch.
Peterson was probably the best wrestler we had this week. Soldano had some results but a lot of sloppiness to get there but that’s kind of his style. Clark wrestled pretty well. Alvarez got some results but again you want to see more. Boone wrestled well but drew a couple studs. Heilman and Olivieri pretty average. White, Oneill, and Turley disappointing.
You’d hope a big 10 team would be able to get at least 1 guy through to the finals especially with 4 guys in the semis. Just not our tournament.
Goodale in the past has said youth should not be used as an excuse. It’s also not really that young of a team. Peterson, Soldano, and White are really the only inexperienced guys on the team and 2 of those guys were our best wrestlers this week. A lot of the other starters have been around for quite a while.
Regardless of what happens after this, here is how I saw the tournament shake out for our key guys:
Stock Up:
Clark - Knocked off the #1 seed and #15 in the country. He won matches on his feet which has been missing from his game against quality opponents. Consistency will be key here so hopefully he can continue to build off of this weekend as he will be a huge piece in B1G duals moving forward.
Peterson - Only lost to #7 Barnett who is a 2x AA. He was going to wrestle for 3rd, but took a MFF. He wrestled great all tournament and hopefully is guy moving forward. He definitely proved/earned it and clearly has the highest ceiling, so we need to let him continue to develop and get experience on the mat.
Boone - Had some solid wins and kept it close vs #4 Schultz who was a finalist last year and a 2x AA in as many years. He clearly has much more stamina and which will pay off huge in the long run.
Oliveri - Seeded 9th; lost to the #1 guy in the country in a 2-1 decision and then another tough 5th year guy 3-0. He was in a lot of shots, but couldn't finish and was simply overpowered. I don't think it's any surprise to anyone that he needs to get stronger at this new weight, which is the exact reason he is redshirting. His outlook/future is very promising.
Neutral:
Soldano - He's a wild & exciting wrestler, but will clearly have growing pains at times against larger opponents. He struggles against some of these grown men who can overpower him and neutral his style. He needs to realize when he is overmatched and mix up his attacks. I have no concerns with him long term though. He will wrestle for 3rd. Was his first real tournament as well.
Heilman - He was definitely over seeded a bit. Cannon (NW) is a 2x AA in as many years and ended up #3 since he struggled a bit this year against top competition but its hard to overlook him going 2 for 2 in terms of AA status whereas Heilman was only a R16 guy. once. He wrestled well for the most part and finished 5th which was lower than his seed but like Boone ran into a top 10 opponent (and #1 seed) in the consolation bracket, this kept him out of the 3rd place match which should have been his seed IMO. Struggled on bottom a bit today as well but don't think its a prohibitive issue.
Alvarez - I think he is slowly finding his groove but is a completely different wrestler when he is on the attack and pissed off rather than looking to score off counters/scrambles. Lost to Edmond who was a NQ last year (and top recruit) in a match where he didn't get on his offense until late the 3rd (and where his opponent was allowed to back up/dance around for 2 minutes without ever moving forward but I digress). It's his own fault for ending up in that situation, so hopefully it was a learning experience. Was seeded #2 and will wrestle for 3rd, so not much to make of that.
Stock Down:
White - Hope this was a fluke related to a sickness or just an off day, but hard to overlook this performance where he barely scored any offensive points against average at best competition. He's still young and raw, but hard to say this wasn't the least bit concerning.
Turley - Injuries have gotten the best of him unfortunately. He's just not the same guy we saw AA in 2021 but hopefully he can get healthy and put it together once again. Definitely pulling for him.
Shawver - Seeded 6th but finished well below that. Looked good at times but faded unfortunately. Peterson looks to be the guy at 125, can't see any justification for him over Peterson at this point. He continues to get better each year, but unfortunately is competing with a really talented freshmen right now.
O'Neill - Not much to say which hasn't already been said a million times already, but he is really struggling. Had some tough matchups given his low seed, but didn't score a single offensive point. Not sure where we go from here at 165.
Stock Up:
Clark - Knocked off the #1 seed and #15 in the country. He won matches on his feet which has been missing from his game against quality opponents. Consistency will be key here so hopefully he can continue to build off of this weekend as he will be a huge piece in B1G duals moving forward.
Peterson - Only lost to #7 Barnett who is a 2x AA. He was going to wrestle for 3rd, but took a MFF. He wrestled great all tournament and hopefully is guy moving forward. He definitely proved/earned it and clearly has the highest ceiling, so we need to let him continue to develop and get experience on the mat.
Boone - Had some solid wins and kept it close vs #4 Schultz who was a finalist last year and a 2x AA in as many years. He clearly has much more stamina and which will pay off huge in the long run.
Oliveri - Seeded 9th; lost to the #1 guy in the country in a 2-1 decision and then another tough 5th year guy 3-0. He was in a lot of shots, but couldn't finish and was simply overpowered. I don't think it's any surprise to anyone that he needs to get stronger at this new weight, which is the exact reason he is redshirting. His outlook/future is very promising.
Neutral:
Soldano - He's a wild & exciting wrestler, but will clearly have growing pains at times against larger opponents. He struggles against some of these grown men who can overpower him and neutral his style. He needs to realize when he is overmatched and mix up his attacks. I have no concerns with him long term though. He will wrestle for 3rd. Was his first real tournament as well.
Heilman - He was definitely over seeded a bit. Cannon (NW) is a 2x AA in as many years and ended up #3 since he struggled a bit this year against top competition but its hard to overlook him going 2 for 2 in terms of AA status whereas Heilman was only a R16 guy. once. He wrestled well for the most part and finished 5th which was lower than his seed but like Boone ran into a top 10 opponent (and #1 seed) in the consolation bracket, this kept him out of the 3rd place match which should have been his seed IMO. Struggled on bottom a bit today as well but don't think its a prohibitive issue.
Alvarez - I think he is slowly finding his groove but is a completely different wrestler when he is on the attack and pissed off rather than looking to score off counters/scrambles. Lost to Edmond who was a NQ last year (and top recruit) in a match where he didn't get on his offense until late the 3rd (and where his opponent was allowed to back up/dance around for 2 minutes without ever moving forward but I digress). It's his own fault for ending up in that situation, so hopefully it was a learning experience. Was seeded #2 and will wrestle for 3rd, so not much to make of that.
Stock Down:
White - Hope this was a fluke related to a sickness or just an off day, but hard to overlook this performance where he barely scored any offensive points against average at best competition. He's still young and raw, but hard to say this wasn't the least bit concerning.
Turley - Injuries have gotten the best of him unfortunately. He's just not the same guy we saw AA in 2021 but hopefully he can get healthy and put it together once again. Definitely pulling for him.
Shawver - Seeded 6th but finished well below that. Looked good at times but faded unfortunately. Peterson looks to be the guy at 125, can't see any justification for him over Peterson at this point. He continues to get better each year, but unfortunately is competing with a really talented freshmen right now.
O'Neill - Not much to say which hasn't already been said a million times already, but he is really struggling. Had some tough matchups given his low seed, but didn't score a single offensive point. Not sure where we go from here at 165.
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Great breakdown but pretty generous.. I feel like only Clark’s and Boone’s stock went up.. Peterson is pretty neutral but seems like he’s our starter going forward.. everyone else is going to drop in rankings or drop out completely.. stock down..
He was seeded 2nd (maybe too high) and took 5th. That's not, "very well". Losing to rookie Crookman should not have happened for a seasoned vet like him, if he did very well.
Rankings at this point in the season mean very little until there are more data points. Soldano, Heilman, and Alvarez might all drop slightly in the rankings, but all that means is that they were probably slightly overrated up until this point but I don't think anything changed materially in their outlook this season which was my entire point.
With that being said, I'm not sure how you don't think Peterson's stock didn't go up as he had an opportunity to finish above his seed, beat a ranked opponent again, only lost to #7, and essentially locked up the starting position this weekend. He wrestled well any way you slice it.
Rankings do matter.. it’s the most objective set of data points based on this year and previous year’s results.. this is why Turley was ranked even though he has no ranked wins this year and why Yianni can take a loss and still be ranked #1. Rankings are fluid week by week and are the most objective way to see who’s stock truly went up or down.. many on this board probably thought we were underrated, if anything, w/ many predicting us to get over 2.5 AA..(we are not a fav rn). That being said, I can only truly say after midlands there were only two wrestlers, Clark and Boone, that looked better after midlands..
Peterson does not look anymore AA likely after this week then he did last week. He was the 4th seed behind Barnett, Courtney, and Kardinale(MFF out) and he didn’t beat any of them and his lone ranked win was a decision over Miller, whom he majored last time....not sure y Peterson’s stock would go up w/ close match to Barnett when he already had a close match w/ Glory. still looks like a fringe AA candidate rn..
It's all going to come down to matchups/draw at NCAAs, and who makes a run. Too hard to predict much for us at this point.
I was talking about the final match. The emphasis was the word there and the time. Yes, he should have done better, but 5th is not terrible and I do think he finished right around where he should have been ranked.
Not pointing this at you. I am just getting tired of all of the negativity from everyone towards our athletes. Our athletic programs on a whole are doing far better than I can remember in my almost 50 years of being a fan. Twenty years ago we would have killed for the success. Be proud that many of these young men and women are working hard to represent.
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Nice win by Sammy over Brian Courtney who was a 2x NQ and a R12 guy last year. He takes 3rd!
Two different Alvarez’s and you don’t know which one you’re going to get each period, never mind each match. If you tell me he will wrestle in the semi finals at nationals, I’d believe it. If you told me he’ll go 0-2 in the tournament, I’d believe that as well.
Outside of his 1st match.. He had a good tournament... This was definitely a confidence booster for him.. One he hasn't had since 2020 scuffle...
Tough end to the Tournament for Clark. Takes 6th with 3 straight loses and lost 3-0 to Model. But wrestled much better than he ever has here.
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I have higher expectations for Sammy. I would say his first, second(Penn back-up 3-2 win) and semi-loss were not good matches. Prior to the season, I expected Sammy to be a high AA. I did like how he closed out his 3rd place match and that is the Sammy that I expect each time out. If he wrestles like that each time out, I think he will AA....but he needs to show it each time out.
