I never saw this particular match so I can't comment on it but Dean and I watched a young soph Elijah Madison take on a two time state champ at the Junction City Inv. The kid was Tyler Jessen who out-weighed Elijah and was probably 3" taller. The senior Jessen pushed him around and muscled him out of bouds a couple of times and was feeling a little cocky. The third time he pushed Elihah, Madison did a cow-catcher and threw him to his back and stuck him in probably under a minute in the whole match. We had seen Elijah at the Salina South Inv before that match and so we knew he was pretty good. The match in Junction City just solidified what we already knew - Elijah Madison is for real. One more opponent will also solidify this thought. Madison wrestled Dom Bradley (University of Missouri) last year and I think they split the two matches that they wrestled. Bradley was the #1 nationally ranked heavyweight and a three time state champion in MO. No disrespect to Vlatnic, never seen him wrestle and I am sure he is a good wrestler. However, Mr. Madison is at a level above most. Probably the only thing that kept Madison from being a 4x stat champion was him moving from Kansas to Missouri and having to wrestled Dom Bradley.

Yep. That was very cool seeing Elijah toss Jessen. WOW! So, to the person that commented earlier that all of Elijah's points were 'defensive' - - BIG DEAL! Its called 'wrestling smart' or, wrestling your style. A wild bull is aggressive, but sooner or later, the smart and patient matador will get him 99% of the time.

PS:

"Zlatnik" was his opponent last week. Not 'Vlatnic' -- you can correct your post via the edit button if you so choose, just thought I'd let you know first before the spelling 'police' come out and get you!

;-)

PSS:

OK. Somebody remind me -- I got to pick ONE of three locations to watch 4a-6a state tourney this year. Ghez. How silly. What are the three locations? Who is wrestling where? I NEVER had this problem in the many years i wrestled and coached in Missouri . . . Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Mark had this problem all the years he wrestled in Nebraska either . . . Like somebody said on the video thread, Cokely buy the org and fix this stupid problem to! ;-)

Actually there was another heavy weight in KANSAS that kept Elijah from being a 4xer .. I believe it was Sprigg .. I could be wrong though .. but believe me ... Elijah didn't have to move to Missouri to find competition.. with Zlatnic, Disney, and Andrus .. whew...

Sprigg was definitely a stud, but it was actually Payne from Paola that beat Madison his freshmen year. I don't remember the score though.

Caleb Payne won 3-2 in the Finals in 2005.

Madison didn't move to get better competition, he was escaping the oppression known as the KSHSAA. Oak Park travels beyond the 400 mile limit and they get coached year round.

ROTFL! Good one Cokeley!

yes payne that was it!! I remember watching the match too ..

and yes I was just commenting on the guy who said he would have been a 4xer if he didn't move to MO

Agreed. OK, he would have been a four time FINALIST. As it was, I think he and Bradley ended up on the same side of the MO bracket and this unfortunate event kept Elijah from the finals (although Elijah HAS beaten Bradley before - and at one time Bradley was THE number ranked heavyweight in the country).

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