The upcoming Derby Tournament 125 pound weight class is LOADED with national caliber wrestlers. How do you seed these guys?

Tyler Caldwell-#1 6A; undefeated returning stamete champ
Trisom Graham- #1 5A; 2 time state champ
Alex Bridgeford- #1 in Nebraska; undefeated
Jake Tanenbaum- #2 6A; Cadet All-American; undefeated this yr
Dustin Bowen-#1 4A; state placer, undefeated this yr
Cale Demel- #2 4A
Tavo Diken-#6 5A

1 - Caldwell
2 - Graham
3 - Bridgeford
4 - Tannenbaum/Bowen

Bridgeford is not in the top 30 ranked freshman/sophomore kids in the nation. He is listed as honorable mention at 112. Caldwell is #2 at 125 in the nation behind Palmer. Bowen went 32-5 last year, losing 9-1 to Bahe in the finals. Bowen and Tanenbaum could go either way.

You can take those rankings and throw them out the window as far as I am concerned. Bridgeford, was the Most Outstanding last year at the Derby tournament, I have come to know the kid and he is very good. I think he has made a huge jump though, from 103, where he barely made weight last year and didn't make weight for state. He also had a tough Brute tournament in the spring, but he has potential. As to predicting who will finish whre, I won't go there other than to say, I think you have one of those right for sure, but, that is why you wrestle the tournament.

I’m putting my money on Graham! His experience is his biggest asset even though Caldwell is about the same age; the jump from 112 to 125 is the difference from night and days these guys are men not young freshman. This in all reality should just be a blind draw the cream will rise to the top. Let Graham and Caldwell duke it out in the first round. Then let the cards fall where they may!

i'm pickin caldwell. all i need to know about that kid is he pinned hansen from turner last year. and thats hansen's only loss in the last 2 years.

Big Mike… you going to do a PPV? I’d pay $1.99 for a web cast! I’m sure you got a Pay Pal account.

I would love to do it but I'm sure that Big Richard would have something to say, I actually thought about going through the schools to get permission and the KSHSAA in the past to web cast Derby duals and Derby tournament, but with all the hoopla last year I decided to not pursue it. Of course now knowing what I know, I have to wonder how much of the hoopla was real and how much was made up. I am still thinking about it for next year though. The process of setting something like this up for a school, to web cast, would be easy and not difficult. I have even played around with the commentary and announcing and know it could be fun. I'll tell you what though, you get the KSHSAA to approve it, and I'll do it for the finals.

With all due respect, none of those guys want Caldwell in the first round.

Well by going on statistics, Caldwell should beat Graham with a big margin of victory, as Ely whooped up on Graham last year at newton, and Caldwell beat Ely this summer in a close match. So by the looks of it, Caldwell should take this bracket

I am pretty sure ty won the ark city tourny that Graham was at so ty will get #1 seed unless Bridgeford does

yea, considering caldwell beat the 125lb state champ from last year this summer, i really dont think hes going to struggle with the weightclass jump.

The weight class jump was referring to Bridgeford from Nebraska. He is up from 112.

Graham is a good wrestler, but not in the same league as Caldwell. Weight will not play a role in this nor will maturity. Caldwell knows how to compete when the bright lights come on and this will be no different. All in all...this tournament will be a fist fight. A ton of great talent, coaching, and tradition all in one weekend what more could one ask for? I am real anxious to see how it turns out.

Alex is actually up from 103 from last year

what are you talking about maturity, isn't caldwell already 18 as a sophmore. And I think caldwell already beat graham this summer by the score of 6-2 or 1 so it's not out of the question that he can't win.

On 11/24/06, USA wrestling magazine had him as honorable mention at 112. Going from 103 to 125 is a big jump even without having to wrestle Caldwell,

Caldwell beat the Stillwater kid that Graham lost to by 5 or more so stats show Caldwell on top

how many losses do Caldwell have in his highschool career

No, and Tyler will not reach that age this school year.

Tyler is undefeated in his high school career.

Last years freshman season record was 39-0.

After the Emporia Winter Classic Tyler's current season record is 10-0.