He’s very methodical in his approach. He’s also an unbelievably strong wrestler for his weight class (which was demonstrated by finishing 5th at 174 last year). Lastly, he is exceptionally smart on the mat. Some may point to the mistakes in the OSU match, but one was most likely a bogus call and the other appeared to be the product of losing an arm.

He wastes very little energy on the mat and is very body aware at all times. By that I mean he doesn’t put himself in negative situations by rolling the wrong way or over-reaching. He takes what is given and is able to control his body in a way that makes him elite.

The closeness of that match was more Wick being an excellent wrestler (and potential NCAA finalist if things break right) and less of McFadden not performing well. I think it’s easy to say that David shouldn’t have given up those reversals, but with our homer goggles (I’m just as guilty as anyone else), it’s easy to forget that he didn’t lose those positions so much as Wick earned them.

The same applies for his first three matches. He didn’t blow those dudes out of the water, but he did _exactly_ what he needed to do and he didn’t waste any energy doing it.

Some people see a 4-1 victory over an I ranked guy from UNC as a bad showing. I saw 4 minutes of riding time as a total domination of an opponent who literally had no answers for DMF and turtled up to keep the score from being even worse.

The takedown at the end of the R16 match was more smart wrestling in that he didn’t allow the big move. He was still within reaching distance (7-1 isn’t insurmountable with 15 seconds left, especially if you throw the guy to his back and pin him... because that NEVER happened to me when I wrestled...) and did the smart thing by giving up the takedown and laying there. Team points don’t mean diddly here.

TLDR: He’s a boss and he’s gonna ride that bull all the way to the gold medal!