Was at the match last night, great time with a bunch of wrestling buddies. Props to WIBN, it was great having the best seats in the house complete with an open bar and food!
A couple of thoughts:
- Drexel kids came to wrestle last night, especially in the lower weights. Pleasant was a good watch - one of the few kids in the country that can almost match Luke's speed.
- Tough one for my CRS boy, Waterman, but Blaze is so impressive. I was hoping Kyle could hold him off a bit, but no chance. Really hard to believe how good Blaze is so young. Much stronger than he looks too.
- Nasdeo kind of throttled down in the second and it cost him. I'm pretty sure he had the TD in the 3rd, he controlled the 2nd ankle for a full second, it was right in front of us. But no matter, the right kid won, the Drexel kid earned it.
- Saw a remark about Kelly having a smile while in a cradle. If you've watched him wrestle coming up through his career, that's no surprise, he's one of those goofy wrestlers you always want to watch. Great on the mat, really unorthodox, gave the Drexel crowd a boost with the reversal in the 1st. He's so funky it was enjoyable watching SVN roll around with him in his wheelhouse on the mat for a bit, but as I said to my buddy - this will be fun for a while but it will end up with Kelly on his back, SVN's just too good.
- Duke is a monster. The first TD was just brute strength. This from a 19 year old kid wrestling a probably 24-25 year old NQ (7 years ago he was in the ETR finals as a SR). You would have thought Duke was 25 and Nichter was 19 the way he threw him around.
- MM, nothing really to add. He may be the best wrestler in the world at his weight now.
- Queen did a heck of a job surviving against Levi. I thought Levi would pin him at some point in the 2nd or 3rd, maybe up 7-0, or 6-1 something like that, but Queen avoided a lengthy stay on the bottom against him. Yeah, he stalled and probably would have racked up a few more calls if this match was at NCAAs, but he was surviving. Smart, tough wrestler. His dad is a colorful guy, lol.
- Same thing at 184, he may have been defensive, but he was engaging and wrestled Rocco tough. Good showing by Wilson.
- The open bar had gotten to me by 197, so not much to add about the Mirasola's, besides the fact it was nice to see Cole go get that TD late with Casey yelling at him to get it.
- I've been to a couple matches before at Drexel and the crowd was always kind of how it looked in the arena last night an hour before the match. Packed house last night, great to see.
- I was floored when they announced Acevedo was in his 15th year as HC at Drexel. I'm getting way too old, too fast. Seems like yesterday he got the gig.