wristandahalf

Shirkey lost in round of 8. Won his next match and will be in the medal round tomorrow. Hudson Heidorf is in the semis - no worse than 6th. Ervin and Fausz in semis on opposite sides of the bracket. Austin Myers dominating. Stephen looking good. So far 5 all Americans with more possible.

Are open mats still on for 4 o'clock today?

John Lampe named to the Southern Conference first team and made the all freshman team. Way to keep up the hard work John!

You must be thinking of someone else. The last time Shirkey/Blanton wrestled was in 2009 Middle School State at 82 lbs and Shirkey won 6 to 3. Also I believe Blanton was in 5th grade then and Shirkey was in 6th. This year Shirkey is in 10th grade and Blanton is in 8th. A lot of time has passed since then.

Last year 120 Keegan North #4 beat Keegan Duncan #1 first round. Duncan wrestled back and beat North in the consolations to take fifth.

On Big 10 network now. Caleb Ervin wrestling #5 ranked wrestler from Minnesota.

Wrestling USA magazine has in the latest issue: Overall rankings; Brock Ervin - 126 #19 Stephan Myers - 160 #18 Austin Myers - 220 - #21 Nice to see KY ranked in all publications - even if USA wrestling has the weight wrong on one of the guys.

Roy Nash Taylorsville UT was ranked #1. National champ at Fargo Freestyle and Greco. When I looked him up there were 2 articles that said he had missed his sophomore year with a knee injury and was a junior this year. Looks like USA Wrestling has him in the wrong class for rankings.

126, John Shirkey, 10 (Oldham County, KY) 23 182, Eli Matthews, 10 (Campbell County, KY) 25 220, Austin Myers, 10 (Campbell County, KY) 2 3 more guys nationally ranked. All placed at Freshman Nationals. If you want to get nationally ranked you have to go to the offseason tournaments. Way to go guys.

Shirkey from Oldham will be there at 126. Faced Corydon 2 weeks ago but didn`t get the chance to face LaHue who hurt his knee earllier in the day. LaHue lost in the first round 5 to 2 to kid from Floyd Central. Shirkey beat kid from Floyd Central 6 to 4. Lawson from Woodford beat Shirkey earlier in the year 5 to 4. If Rosado and Whalen go 126 it will be very stacked. It is going to be tough to place at 126.

The boys from KY went up north to Michigan and showed them what KY wrestling was about. Trae Blackwell took first with a pin in the finals. Jayce Carr took second Kevin Cooper took second John Shirkey took fourth Jeffrey Wurth took seventh There was a ton of talent at his tourney and the kids represented KY well.

Preseeds are out. This tournament is stacked. When Brock gets a #4 seed you know that bracket is loaded. Looks like the showed some love for they guys from KY and gave some decent seeds.

Medal round today and KY has 5 kids who will be on the podium. Matthews, Fausz, both Meyers and Shirkey. Outstanding job guys. Things are looking good for KY wrestling.

1. Erdman 2. Whalen 3. Austin 4. Rearic If the top 2 fall on opposite sides of the bracket. Erdmans quickness and technique wins over Whalens strength.

Oldham County took 1st place with 4 champions who all won by pin in the finals 113 - Shirkey 120 - Wilkerson 132 - Kaelin 182 - Gnadinger Franklin County took second Tates Creek took third Whalen from Henry Clay received MOW 106-145 Stout from Bourbon County received MOW 152 - HVY

Lot of talent moving up this year but most are going to fall into tough weight classes to make noise this year with the following exceptions: Caleb Austin - Christian County - 106 Jake Erdman - Ryle - 106 John Shirkey - Oldham County - 113 Dominic Lampe St. X 138/145 range Eli Matthews - Campbell County - 165 Tommy Underwood - Hardin County - 185 range With the right draws others could do well but they would have to get some breaks along the way.

Good luck to all the entrants from Kentucky. 71 total entries. This is a great number for the state. Thanks to Kentucky USA Wrestling for their help.

Team KY took 14th out of 20 teams. They had 2 wins over Texas and Nebraska. Lost to Illinois Gold, Indiana Blue(twice), Illinois Top Dawgs and Oregon Orange. There were 4 wrestlers awarded All American status: John Shirkey - East Oldham 6 wins 1 loss Tommy Underwood - Central Hardin 6 wins 1 loss Jake Erdman - Gray Middle 5 wins 2 losses Dominic Lampe - River City wrestling 5 wins 2 losses Overall the team represented themselves and the state well. Indiana (first round) and Oregon matches were decided by 1 match. It was a lot of fun and the team, coaches and KY USA are to be commended.

Lot of great matches - I saw the Ryle coaches smiling quite a bit about what's in store for that program in the next 4 to 5 years. Talk about a program that's going to be on the upswing.

Heres some picks but I haven't seen any of the wrestlers from the eastern or southwest part so they may be biased towards who I have seen or what I remember from last year. 70 Wise / Jacobs Jacobs wins all number 1's are tough - could go any way but Jacobs seems to be clicking on all cylinders. 75 Burroughs / Sheffer Burroughs wins 82 Bindner / Wiley Bindner wins #3 - this is the match to watch 89 Erdman / Putty Erdman wins Put too much hard work in over the past 12 months for anyone to hang with him. 96 Heidorf / Erdman Heidorf wins My heart tells me to go with Emerson. He always finds a way when the chips are on the line and he will probably prove me wrong this year and be in the finals. Seocond toughest weight class 103 Smith / Poynter Poynter wins One of the most talented first year wrestlers to come along in a while. 110 Shirkey / Duncan Shirkey wins rematch of districts and regionals. Shirkey is one of the quickest wrestlers on his feet at state this year. 117 Mitchell / Belk Belk wins Pound for pound 2 of the strongest wrestlers at state 124 Oxford / Frankrone Frankrone wins Anyone can be beat on any day - don't see anyone doing it here 131 Smith / Lampe Lampe wins Another Lampe with a state title 140 Meiman / Mills Meiman wins 150 Matthews / ???? Matthews wins Haven't seen enough of the wrestlers on the bottom half of the bracket to make a decision but Matthews is going to be tough to beat 165 Dodd / Warwick Dodd wins Again haven't seen much of the bottom half so could be another wrestler in there 185 Adams / Underwood Underwood wins The 2 semis in this weight class are going to be the best of any weight class. All 4 of these kids are beasts that wrestle tough. Could go either way but had to pick 2 for the finals. The toughest weight class top to bottom this year HWT Johnson / Young Johnson wins All 4 number 1 seeds could make this their year. Haven't seen them against each other to truly pick 1 over the other but Johnson looked very good when I saw him this year. Once again should be a great state tournament. I hate to see it come to an end.

North Hardin has a 185 that has looked very good. Don't know his name but he will be making a lot of noise at that weight class. Heavyweights - Kid from Fern Creek and Matt Davis from South Oldham are both looking very tough to beat.

East Oldham A Campbell County Fern Creek River City East Oldham had wins over Gray, River City and Campbell County. Gray was missing half their lineup with kids at other events. Probably would have changed the outcome if they had their entire lineup there. Good matches Nick Wise from East Oldham over Tanner Yenter by 1 point. Both wrestlers looked good with the match going back and forth. AJ Bindner at 82 lost 5 to 0 to a kid from Elder who placed third in Ohio last year. Didn't get to see any of that match. Heidorf looked good at 103. Didn't see it but heard he beat a kid from Elder 6 to 1 who was a state qualifier in OH last year. Tyler Frankrone at 124 looks unbeatable. If I had a wrestler at 124 I'd look to go down or up in weight. Dominic Lampe looked very good at 131. Going to be tough to beat this year. 2 heavys to watch out for - Davis from South Oldham and the kid from Fern Creek - both look very tough. Shirkey from East Oldham rolled through everyone he faced at 110.

Hey I'll throw a couple of more in there: Emerson at 82 which I thought was the most balanced weight class in the tournament. Not only won but won by pin, 9-2, 10-0 and 12-7 in finals against an opponent I didn't think he had a chance to beat. Brought it all that day at the right time. 103 - Justin Lampe rolled through to the finals where he defeated one of the best wrestlers this year in the state in Ian Kahl. 117 - Matt Fahy went about his business as he has every year winning all the way through against quality opponents. Hvy - Crockett Cosby - Weight class not as stacked as in previous years but what more can a kid do - pin, pin. maj dec 14-0 and a pin in the finals. Talk about total domination of a weight class. This is just a few examples in addition to the ones already listed. All quality wrestlers and any of them were deserving of the MOW. This day just belonged to Frankrone and he was as deserving as anyone.

My prediction 70 makes it to the semis before getting knocked down to consolations getting no worse than 6th 75 takes it all the way to the house coming out as number 1 82 and 89 both got bad draws - get knocked out in he quarters by the erdman cousins and have to fight back through the consolations to place Could go the other way but I have Erdman at 82 winning it and if Erdman gets past Lancaster in the semis at 89 he should come out on top. You never can tell though - this tournament gets much tougher every year.

Arguably the most balanced class of the tournament. Any one of the top 6 to 8 could end up as the winner. The quarterfinals have some of the toughest matches of the tournament. Whoever takes this weight class has quite an accomplishment to talk about. My vote goes to Erdman but that's why they wrestle the matches - anyone can win it. No one in this weight class is getting any easy rides. I can't wait to see the wrestling in this class.