I nailed a lot of these back in December.
Also told y'all we're taking Billy Tyler too lightly and that Sykes would not get pinned by Martin. Nininger and Martin are two of the best wrestlers Virginia has ever seen but it was nice to see other 3a guys make them work for it when many thought they'd sleepwalk through the tournament.
I will say for the most part if a kid is in the finals they are going to be good. 3A as a whole is pretty deep with good kids.
Yeah, I agree, and I actually think 3a got deeper this year.. some of the not so heard of names school wise are producing at least a few kids to make it interesting. I'd say as a class it's very strong outside of one or two weights.
Just for conversation and what I got right or wrong-
106- I had the finalists right but the outcome wrong. I guess I fell victim to wrestling math and once Buffum majored Carter, I figured he was close to a lock. Well, turns out Witcher is very good, and I'm wondering if he may have been undersized last year. Super tough on top.
113- I picked Brandt in my mind, regardless of the result last year. Figured he'd be a little bigger with Carter coming up from 106 and he'd pick up the win.
120- Hey, I was wrong again! The best two kids hit in the semis and I thought Gibson slightly but it winded up being Withers slightly.
126- This was pretty obvious once Martin went up. The Heritage kid got a lot better since watching him in the preseason though.
132- Heck of a match, and they made short work on their way there. Martin was superior on top, but Sykes got so close to scoring a bunch of times. I felt this may have been the match of the tournament.
138- Hand was clearly a winner too. Wasn't sure who he was going to have in the final, thought Hatcher but I knew the Heritage kid beat him last season. Also think there was a chance Cuic was second best here but had a bad draw
144- I was super wrong here, my pick went down round 1! Thought he was too strong and physical but I was wrong. Mefford had a heck of a day 1 with two upsets in my opinion, but he slowed down a little day two, as shown in his rematches of his upsets. And, I was wrong on Saavedra, he got it done and has filled in nicely at a higher weight without losing any of his flexibility and athleticism.
150- Finals was an easy pick, didn't think it would be tied 3-3 heading into the third though!
157- I had the finals picked right but wasn't sure.. Hartman had looked slightly better but Barns had the Staunton River and I've been here before factor.
165- To me this was the deepest weight in all classes outside of 6a 132. Ayers is the real deal and UVA has a good one coming. I would have liked to seen Robie vs DiVello for the right to face Ayers in the finals, but same region, I get it.
175- That was a good match. I feel like Kelly won because SR schedule has put Kelly in situations like that a lot, whereas it seems like Armbrust wasn't really pushed all year.. an undefeated record and I didn't see many close matches. Maybe I'm wrong.
190- Totally obvious.
215- Goochland kid is good, when was the last time they had a state champ? Good for them.
285- Garrison is too athletic for the rest of 3a at 285 right now.