Sesker's Slant: Exciting college postseason just around the corner
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by Craig Sesker USA Wrestling
Iowa's Bobby Telford (left) defeated Penn State's Jimmy Lawson to give the Hawkeyes an 18-12 win on Sunday.
What a great year to be a wrestling fan in the United States of America!
The World Cup and World Championships will both be held in the United States for the first time since 2003.
Be sure to attend both of these amazing events. Trust me, you don’t want to miss either event.
Before we get to those exciting events, we have an exciting college postseason to look forward to.
After watching Iowa defeat Penn State, and Ohio State beat Minnesota this past weekend, one thing is clear to me.
Iowa is still the team to beat, but not by much.
Penn State was right in the dual with Iowa, and the Hawkeyes looked flat to me with a few wrestlers fading in the third period. I’m sure that’s an issue that is being addressed in the Iowa room this week.
Kudos to the Nittany Lions for being ready to wrestle, even though they have a lot of new faces in their lineup this season.
And kudos to Iowa for still being able to win the dual despite not having its best performance.
The Big Ten and NCAA tournaments are going to be a dogfight.
Look for Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State and Penn State to be in the mix in both of those tournaments. Missouri and Cornell also will be big factors at the national tournament.
Next week’s National Duals in Iowa City is going to be a great event with Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Ohio State expected to be in the hunt.
I would love to see Iowa match up with Missouri. The Tigers are a legitimate threat to win the National Duals and the NCAAs, and an Iowa-Mizzou matchup at Carver-Hawkeye Arena would be awesome to see.
Fun day watching Sectional wrestling in Iowa
I don’t have many opportunities to attend a wrestling event as a fan, but I did this past Saturday.
I attended the Class 1A Iowa Sectional tournament in Clarence, Iowa, and it was a really entertaining day of wrestling.
My high school, Tipton, had a very good day and advanced seven wrestlers to Saturday’s District meet. The Tigers also qualified for the Regional Duals for the first time. It was great to see a lot of old friends and former wrestlers whose sons are now competing at the prep level for my alma mater.
Perennial state power Lisbon, led by Cadet World Team member Carter Happel, won the tournament. Happel is a junior, but he already is considered a top college prospect. It was fun seeing him compete again.
Happel is halfway to becoming a four-time state champion. He won a USA Wrestling Cadet Nationals freestyle title in 2013.
It also was nice to see past Iowa Hawkeye NCAA champion Brad Smith back in the corner as the head coach at Lisbon. Smith is in his second stint at Lisbon after coaching for many years at Iowa City High.
Postseason wrestling, at any level, is enjoyable to watch.
For a lot of these kids, the state tournament is their Super Bowl and making it that far is the highest goal they may achieve.
Good luck to all the young wrestlers in postseason action this weekend!
BTN crew is top-notch
I really enjoyed the Big Ten Network’s coverage of the exciting Iowa-Penn State dual this past Sunday.
It looked like a tremendous atmosphere with nearly 16,000 fans packing Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. The spotlighted mat looked awesome while watching on television and you could hear how vocal the crowd was.
BTN’s announcing team of Tim Johnson, Jim Gibbons and Shane Sparks proved once again they are top-notch.
These guys are all professionals and their call on Sunday was a home run, in my opinion.
Gibbons is the best analyst in the business. He’s knowledgeable, informed and does a great job of explaining what is going on. He’s also not bashful about injecting his opinions, which I think is a huge strength of his.
Wrestling is lucky to have a veteran and knowledgeable voice in Johnson, who was an outstanding high school coach back in the day. T.J. is very passionate about the sport and he’s a class act all the way.
Now if they could just keep Sparky from drinking too much Mountain Dew and Red Bull before he goes on the air!
Hodge Trophy watch
Three-time NCAA champion Logan Stieber of Ohio State is still the clear favorite to win the Hodge Trophy this season. He’s trying to join Pat Smith, Cael Sanderson and Kyle Dake in becoming just the fourth wrestler to capture four NCAA titles.
The top-ranked Stieber has been dominant all season at 141 pounds, but he survived a scare this past weekend. He edged No. 4 Nick Dardanes of Minnesota 10-9.
Returning NCAA champion Alex Dieringer of Oklahoma State has also been very dominant at 165. Two-time NCAA runner-up Dylan Ness of Minnesota also is unbeaten this season in a very strong weight class at 157.
I can’t wait to see Ness battle Nebraska senior James Green and Illinois freshman Isaiah Martinez at Big Tens.
Feel free to provide any feedback to me at csesker@usawrestling.org or to my Twitter account @csesker
What a great year to be a wrestling fan in the United States of America!
The World Cup and World Championships will both be held in the United States for the first time since 2003.
Be sure to attend both of these amazing events. Trust me, you don’t want to miss either event.
Before we get to those exciting events, we have an exciting college postseason to look forward to.
After watching Iowa defeat Penn State, and Ohio State beat Minnesota this past weekend, one thing is clear to me.
Iowa is still the team to beat, but not by much.
Penn State was right in the dual with Iowa, and the Hawkeyes looked flat to me with a few wrestlers fading in the third period. I’m sure that’s an issue that is being addressed in the Iowa room this week.
Kudos to the Nittany Lions for being ready to wrestle, even though they have a lot of new faces in their lineup this season.
And kudos to Iowa for still being able to win the dual despite not having its best performance.
The Big Ten and NCAA tournaments are going to be a dogfight.
Look for Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State and Penn State to be in the mix in both of those tournaments. Missouri and Cornell also will be big factors at the national tournament.
Next week’s National Duals in Iowa City is going to be a great event with Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Ohio State expected to be in the hunt.
I would love to see Iowa match up with Missouri. The Tigers are a legitimate threat to win the National Duals and the NCAAs, and an Iowa-Mizzou matchup at Carver-Hawkeye Arena would be awesome to see.
Fun day watching Sectional wrestling in Iowa
I don’t have many opportunities to attend a wrestling event as a fan, but I did this past Saturday.
I attended the Class 1A Iowa Sectional tournament in Clarence, Iowa, and it was a really entertaining day of wrestling.
My high school, Tipton, had a very good day and advanced seven wrestlers to Saturday’s District meet. The Tigers also qualified for the Regional Duals for the first time. It was great to see a lot of old friends and former wrestlers whose sons are now competing at the prep level for my alma mater.
Perennial state power Lisbon, led by Cadet World Team member Carter Happel, won the tournament. Happel is a junior, but he already is considered a top college prospect. It was fun seeing him compete again.
Happel is halfway to becoming a four-time state champion. He won a USA Wrestling Cadet Nationals freestyle title in 2013.
It also was nice to see past Iowa Hawkeye NCAA champion Brad Smith back in the corner as the head coach at Lisbon. Smith is in his second stint at Lisbon after coaching for many years at Iowa City High.
Postseason wrestling, at any level, is enjoyable to watch.
For a lot of these kids, the state tournament is their Super Bowl and making it that far is the highest goal they may achieve.
Good luck to all the young wrestlers in postseason action this weekend!
BTN crew is top-notch
I really enjoyed the Big Ten Network’s coverage of the exciting Iowa-Penn State dual this past Sunday.
It looked like a tremendous atmosphere with nearly 16,000 fans packing Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. The spotlighted mat looked awesome while watching on television and you could hear how vocal the crowd was.
BTN’s announcing team of Tim Johnson, Jim Gibbons and Shane Sparks proved once again they are top-notch.
These guys are all professionals and their call on Sunday was a home run, in my opinion.
Gibbons is the best analyst in the business. He’s knowledgeable, informed and does a great job of explaining what is going on. He’s also not bashful about injecting his opinions, which I think is a huge strength of his.
Wrestling is lucky to have a veteran and knowledgeable voice in Johnson, who was an outstanding high school coach back in the day. T.J. is very passionate about the sport and he’s a class act all the way.
Now if they could just keep Sparky from drinking too much Mountain Dew and Red Bull before he goes on the air!
Hodge Trophy watch
Three-time NCAA champion Logan Stieber of Ohio State is still the clear favorite to win the Hodge Trophy this season. He’s trying to join Pat Smith, Cael Sanderson and Kyle Dake in becoming just the fourth wrestler to capture four NCAA titles.
The top-ranked Stieber has been dominant all season at 141 pounds, but he survived a scare this past weekend. He edged No. 4 Nick Dardanes of Minnesota 10-9.
Returning NCAA champion Alex Dieringer of Oklahoma State has also been very dominant at 165. Two-time NCAA runner-up Dylan Ness of Minnesota also is unbeaten this season in a very strong weight class at 157.
I can’t wait to see Ness battle Nebraska senior James Green and Illinois freshman Isaiah Martinez at Big Tens.
Feel free to provide any feedback to me at csesker@usawrestling.org or to my Twitter account @csesker
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