Went back and watched the matches from this past week. Some good performances from our guys considering that this is the first mat time that Bolen (March at ACCs), Latona (January at the App State Open) and Walz (2019 Senior Nationals back in December?!) have seen in quite some time.

1. We should be really excited about Sam Latona's future. Going 4-3 and placing sixth at your first senior level event is nothing to sneeze at. Especially after a disappointing performance at Junior Trials back in May 2019 where he was the 2 seed at 57kg and went 2-2 with a first round loss (his last freestyle event to my knowledge). His dominant performance over Shelton Mack (five seed and a 57kg veteran) to reach the quarters was particularly impressive. Losses to guys like Mueller (who has wrestled at Beat the Streets and the Flo Card in recent weeks), Sean Russell and Frank Perrelli (who graduated from Cornell when Sam was still in elementary school) are acceptable at this stage in his development, in my opinion. He seemed to have the ankle pick working the whole tournament and I loved his aggressiveness. It burned him a couple of times on exposure but you can tell that working with Brewer (the ultimate shooter) is wearing off on him.

2. A tough draw set the stage for Hunter's weekend. Nothing like starting things out easy with Drew Foster in the first round and, if you win, Taylor Venz in the second round. He bounced back nicely in the consis but Brett Pfarr is too polished in freestyle to contain, even after an early 4 from Hunter. I think Hunter will have more success in folk than free when all is said and done. But if he develops a couple of more attacks like he did during his redshirt season, then he can see some success at the senior level postgrad. His strength and athleticism are there and I think he's a natural 86kg (189.5 lbs). Perfect for Olympic and World years.

3. Walz finishes seventh but has a really solid showing after being off of the competition mat for multiple months. You think Bolen had tough luck this weekend? Ty lost two matches by a combined 0 points. Thanks criteria! (Just kidding, I don't mind criteria, anything but freakin' ball draw). To me, Ty looked really sharp on his reattacks and go-behinds. You can tell that he's worked on it. He wasn't just relying on his high crotch and single leg attacks to score points like he has traditionally. His par terre is getting better as well. Two wins over Jr. World silver medalist Lucas Davison, a 6-0 win over Reenan and a 4-4 loss to the eventual champ in Kollin Moore. I'll take that for Ty at this stage.

Let me know what you all think! It was fun to watch some Hokies scrap.

[Post edited by AllenHokie732 at 10/13/2020 08:52AM]