World Team Trials Opinions Piece

By Stephen Patrick

Opinions (Everyone has them)

Tony Rotundo

• With Tony Ramos making the World Team straight out of college in 2014 and again in 2015, followed by Dan Dennis making the Olympic Team in 2016, Iowa wrestlers have controlled the 57kg weight class for the past three years, and it appears they may continue to do so for a long time. Thomas Gilman made his first senior level World team on Saturday, defeating Ramos in the finals. Besides those two most likely owning the weight for the next two or three years, Iowa has a freshman coming in next year who will surely compete at 57 at the senior level. He has a cadet and two junior World titles. In case you forgot, his name is Spencer Lee. 
• So, it's a reasonable bet Iowa Hawkeyes could possess sole ownership of 57 kilograms from 2014 to 2020 and beyond.
• Thomas Gilman beat four different NCAA champions on his way to making the team, including Ramos twice in a row. The only match he didn't beat a champ was the quarterfinals where he faced the 1 seed, Tyler Graff. 
• In those matches against champs, he outscored Darian Cruz, Nico Megaludis, Nathan Tomasello, and Tony Ramos (twice) by a combined score of 37-9. Watch out Paris.
• David Taylor and Kyle Dake still have not made a World team. 



Tony Rotundo

• Who would have thought "Kid Dynamite", class of 2013, and the "Magic Man", class of 2014, would be 4 and 3 years out of college without representing the US at a World tournament. 
• Jordan Burroughs has defeated both Dake and Taylor in the trials finals. Dake has knocked Taylor out in the challenge tournament finals. And J'den Cox has knocked both out after losing the first match and winning the next two in the best 2 out of 3. 
• You shouldn't perceive the last few bullets as a knock on Dake or Taylor, but rather a testament to how tough it is to make a senior level World team. It also shows you how good Jordan Burroughs and J'den Cox are. 



Tony Rotundo

• Winning the US Open or medaling at the previous years World/Olypmic championships gives you a bye to the finals of the trials. The benefit of that was readily apparent at 74 and 86 kg. 
• Sticking with Dake, Taylor, Burroughs, and Cox, it was readily apparent that by the third match of the finals, Dake and Taylor had run out of gas against JB and J'den. And for good reason. 
• In the challenge tournament Dake had to wrestle Isaiah Martinez and Alex Dieringer. 
• Taylor had to go through Joe Rau, Pat Downey, and an extremely tough match vs Nick Heflin. 
• Even with Cox hyperextending his knee in the third match of the finals, Taylor still couldn't score and even gave up a few pushout points. In the second period of the third match vs Burroughs, Dake got to his legs on multiple shots but didn't come close to finishing. They were tired.



Tony Rotundo

• One of the best parts about these types of tournaments isn't even the finals. It's the early rounds and consolations that often feature NCAA champions fighting to not go 0-2. Once college wrestling fans realize they can watch Cody Brewer vs Jayson Ness in the quarterfinals or Jason Chamberlain vs Jason Nolf in the consolations, the popularity of freestyle will quickly explode. 
• The US Senior Freestyle National Team (top three at each weight) for 2017: 
• 57: Thomas Gilman, Tony Ramos, Nathan Tomasello
• 61: Logan Stieber, Kendric Maple, Brandon Wright 
• 65: Zain Retherford, Frank Molinaro, BJ Futrell
• 70: James Green, Jimmy Kennedy, Jason Nolf
• 74: Jordan Burroughs, Kyle Dake, Alex Dieringer
• 86: J'den Cox, David Taylor, Nick Heflin
• 97: Kyle Snyder, Kyven Gadson, Hayden Zillmer
• 125: Nick Gwiazdowski, Dom Bradley, Tony Nelson
• What colleges did these fine gentlemen attend/are attending?
• 57: Iowa, Iowa, Ohio State
• 61: Ohio State, Oklahoma, Grand View 
• 65: Penn State, Penn State, Illinois
• 70: Nebraska, Illinois, Penn State
• 74: Nebraska, Cornell, Oklahoma State
• 86: Missouri, Penn State, Ohio State
• 97: Ohio State, Iowa State, North Dakota State
• 125: North Carolina State, Missouri, Minnesota 
• In graph form:

• Looks kind of like the NCAA standings, huh?
• Big Ten schools account for 15/24 = 62.5 %



Tony Rotundo

• Dom Bradley finished 3rd at the World/Olympic trials in 2009, 10, 11, 15, and 16. He finished 2nd on Saturday. 
• An important part of senior level freestyle that is often neglected in the States is athletes' previous age level accomplishments, meaning juniors and cadets. According to this well organized tweet from Willie Saylor, here are our senior teams' finishes in junior and cadet Worlds: 
• Gilman placed 10th as a Cadet and 8th and 3rd as a Junior
• Stieber got 2nd as a Junior
• Zain won as a Cadet 
• Green did not compete 
• Burroughs placed 10th as a Junior
• J'den did not compete
• Snyder earned Bronze and Gold as a Junior
• Gwiz did not compete
• Gives you an interesting perspective
• Here are some random results from the tournament that stood out to me, and go along with my earlier point of college fans appreciating freestyle more:
• Alan Waters over Nahshon Garrett 18-6
• Tyler Graff over Alan Waters 16-5
• Nathan Tomasello over Tyler Graff 8-2
• Cody Brewer over Jayson Ness 14-13
• Brandon Wright over Seth Gross 13-11
• Brandon Wright over Josh Kindig 10-4
• Joe Colon over Seth Gross 11-5
• Cody Brewer over Joe Colon 20-10
• Brandon Wright over Cody Brewer 14-4
• Nick Dardanes over Dean Heil 10-0
• Chance Marsteller over Anthony Valencia 6-1
• Isaiah Martinez over Chance Marsteller 9-6
• Call me crazy but that is just as, or more, exciting than an NCAA tournament 
• Lastly, let's talk medal potential for Paris. I'm going to rank them as Low, Medium, High, and Guaranteed. These are purely subjective, and obviously nothing is guaranteed. Also, I don't believe in jinxes:
• Gilman: Medium
• Stieber: High
• Retherford: Medium
• Green: High
• Burroughs: High
• Cox: Guaranteed
• Snyder: Guaranteed
• Gwiazdowski: Medium
• 57 won't be the strongest weight class this year but Gilman has never competed at the Senior level. He did handle Ramos though...
• Stieber is the returning World champ but 61 is being infused with talent from other weight classes as well as the returning competitors. Winning will be hard, but medaling definitely possible 
• Retherford has also never competed at the Senior level but his pace, conditioning, hand fighting, position, mat control and relentless style will prove difficult for the best foreigners
• After medaling in his home country in 2015, Green missed out last year. He looked great at the trials and should find himself on the podium again 
• Similarly, after winning in Vegas, Burroughs had a disappointing Rio. He'll be looking to reassert himself in France 
• David Taylor recently teched and pinned Olympic gold medalists. J'den Cox just beat him 2 out of 3 matches. With Sadulaev moving up to 97, 86 is ripe for the taking, and J'den looks to be in a position to do it. I expect no less than a finals appearance from the 3x NCAA champ
• Kyle Snyder will wrestle Abdulrashid Sadulaev in the finals at 97kg. It will be one of the most anticipated wrestling matches of all time. Snyder will be going for his 3rd World title as a 21 year old and Sadulaev going for his 4th as a 21 year old. With 5 combined Gold medals before their 22nd birthday, these two may not even be in their primes yet. This year could be the start of many years of epic 97kg finals matches.
• I was torn between medium and low for Gwiz. As good as he is, this will also be his first senior level world tournament and 125kg has a few guys on top that will be nearly impossible to beat. With Taha Akgul (Turkey) and Geno Petriashvilli (Georgia) surely locking up the top two spots, that leaves two Bronze medals up for grabs. FloWrestling has Gwiz ranked 16th in the World, although he has beaten 4th ranked Khomeil Ghasemi (Iran). So, I stuck with medium. 
• Here's hoping for 8 Golds.