Random thoughts about our Juniors:

98 - Zach Vesta surprised me. I knew the kid was tough in his age division and I also knew that he had a rough time at the Park Hill duals. I anticipated that the Junior team would be too deep of water for him. He had some big wins for the team and Tyler Dryden and Zach combined for 5 victories. It was nice to fill this weight in time.
105 - Jeff Vesta showed himself to be a veteran at the duals. He probably exceeded even his own expectations by going 7-1 in FS. It really was a boost for the team to get ahead in most of the duals and provided a much needed spark.
112 - Nathan Furches is back! I know he wants that 0-1, 0-1 loss to Alan Waters back, but Nathan was very impressive in going 5-1 for Team Kansas. Most of those wins were tech falls and just the pure showmanship of his wrestling style is fun to watch.
119 - Sharky Slyter was close to going 8-0. He was scored on very late by the NJ wrestler in each period and lost a very close third period to Cody Tyler from MO. One of things I like about Sharky is his ability to put a bad period behind him.
125 - Jake Tanenbaum had a very tough weight class. He went 4-4 and came from behind in a great match with CA, won a critical 8-7 period against Georgia, lost a close 2-2 period against Justin Forrest and pinned his PA opponent in 44 seconds.
130 - This was the toughest weight class in my opinion. Trison Graham lost to a who's who of Nate Moore, Chris Villalonga, Josh Kindig and Zach Bintliff. He won 2 matches including a hard fought three period win over Georgia. This weight also had Dylan Ness, Ian Paddock, Riley Adamson and Dardanes from Illinois.
135 - One of our most heralded wrestlers, CJ Napier, went 6-2 in this loaded weight. He lost a heartbreaker in the NJ dual and a three period loss to the Minnesota kid. He beat Josh Dziewa from PA 1-0, 3-0 in the 7th place match.
140 - Aldon Isenberg went 4-2. He pulled out his famous headlock and pinned Trey Bertram from Minnesota who beat Ellis Coleman for Illinois. He also hung tough with highly ranked Jordan Oliver from PA. Kendric Maple also scored for the team by winning straight periods in the CT dual.
145 - Brent Fisher had a great tournament going 6-2. His dramatic pin with 2 seconds remaining was the defining moment in the MN dual. He also pinned the NJ kid in 22 seconds.
152 - Tyler Caldwell went 5-1. His only loss was to Mario Mason from NJ. He had a great 3 period win over Iowa. Chris Watson went 1-1. His match with Cody Compton came down to a 3rd period clinch and after losing a period 0-6 against California, he won the match in the 3rd.
160 - Tyler Koehn went 7-1. I kind of expected him to run the table. In his 7 wins, he surrendered only 6 total points! He lost an extremely close match to highly ranked Scott Winston from NJ. He scored 24 team points.
171 - Grant Hinckley was a late entry to the team and plugged the gap courageously! He scored 9 team points and at 166 pounds he was wrestling studs that had pulled from 190. He had a close fought match with Armato from MO and also avoided an incredibly tough pinning combination from Travis Rutt on MN.
189 - Dereck Heckel and Nate Davis combined for 4 wins at a weight that was left vacant by a LATE bail out by Romero Cotton. Heckel pinned the CT kid in his first FS match in 5 years. He lost a very close match to Caleb Lines from Minnesota 1-0, 0-1 before running into a conditioning wall in the 3rd period. Davis pinned his CA opponent in the 1st period and won a great match against PA, 1-0, 2-1. Great job to both of these warriors for coming to the aid of their State at the last hour!
215 - Kyle Caylor and Howard Johnson combined for 3 wins. Caylor pinned the NJ kid in the 1st period and wrestled a very close match with Glore from MO. Johnson provided some thrills with his strong headlock. Caylor scored 5 team points and Johnson had 4.
285 - We ran the table at HWT. Big Steve Andrus and Mighty Joe Bach combined for an 8-0 record! We will sure miss these two next year! Those of you that know them both, know that they are quality young men with great futures ahead of them. Being an OU grad myself, I can't wait to see Bach in the Crimson and Cream!