There were some great finals matches Saturday and a lot of great kids! Who would you have selected as the tournament MVW? One kid that stood out to me was Hayden Lee of Marysville 113#. He looked like a state champ in the finals!

Not even close, Josh Wimer!

Lee was impressive, but I agree with westsider, Josh Wimer pinned his way through the sectional, and the District, with only one match not a pin, an 11-1 major over Dooley. And pinning Penzone two weeks in a row? Wow.

Yes it is not even close in my book Wimer pinned a state placer who is ranked 3rd Lee looked very good but what Wimer did to Penzone was next level in my opinion.

Wimer.

Wimer.

Lee!

113 was deeper then 132 IMO but both these kids beat the same kids they beat the week before in the finals. Was there anyone else that rose above to win a impressive weight class?

Tony Mead;1584748 wrote:113 was deeper then 132 IMO but both these kids beat the same kids they beat the week before in the finals. Was there anyone else that rose above to win a impressive weight class?

Archer. HWT. Westerville North. Small heavyweight and stuck both Crumb and Kinzer. I didn't see his name posted anywhere and/or even hear it whispered in any District discussions. Everyone talked about how solid 285 was and 3 Sectional champs didn't even advance. The ITC guys did talk about it being a toss-up type class, given close matches and parity etc, but they didn't include Archer in the discussion and neither did I. I listed 5 guys I thought could be in the discussion. I was right on 2 of the 5 (Sawicki and Crumb) but missed on Kinzer and Archer and they were the finalists.

I was getting ready to mention the big guys! There we go shout out to Archer!

As a whole I think what Josh Wimer has done over the last week has been the most dominating performance of any wrestler in central ohio; however, I think Lee's 8-0 win over Laney (who I might add is up there with Wimer as one of the best central ohio guys of the last two years) was more impressive then decking Penzone twice. Penzone for four years has been a big move guy, and big move guys tend to go down big also. I'm not shocked that he pinned him, or that he even did it twice. I was shocked that Lee seemingly dominated Laney in all three positions Saturday night. I though Laney, given a full day to add wieght, had a shot to win it. Lee proved that thought wrong.

As far as Archer's performance I think you have to be impressed. A kid who most people probably had around 8-10th in terms of ranking going into the post season looked impressive. I was most impressed with his comback win over the Scioto kid. The thing is that I'm not sure his winning heavyweight will ultimately mean that our district is better off. Heading into the post season most people had the Hamilton kid and Rollo as outside contenders for a state title. Neither will be participating this weekend, and Nader not competing isn't good either. I honestly think that the heavy weight division went from being a multi place winner class to a weight class where we might be lucky to win a match between all four guys. I hope Im wrong, but it only takes one weekend with heavys to screw up a total body of work.

Mutts, of the names you mentioned, I think only Hammie's Crum will be missed. And that is a total unknown.

Rollo got exposed, in my opinion. He was simply not wrestling late in the season as well as he was earlier in the season. He lost to Sawicki in back-to-back weeks and lost to Kinzer at Districts. He barely got by Walker in the 5/6th place match and Walker is pretty pedestrian in terms of rankings of state heavies. I have no reason to believe that Rollo would perform better at the Schott this week.

Nader has great wrestling skill, but he is small. He lost to both Sawicki and Crumb. He would face guys every bit their equal at State. I have no reason to believe he would represent CD any better in terms of being a potential SP. He's simply too small.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Mentor District got a lot weaker once Morgan-Cunningham pulled a Crum. I'm not sure how good any of their 285's are now.

Vough won the CSU District. He's a (red-shirt) Freshman. Tough strong kid. He's certainly beatable though. He made mincemint of the District pinning his way through it in easy fashion. He's good, but not that good. That tells me that CSU District is not that strong at 285 either.

The wild card to me is Kettering. Their four seem pretty solid, but who knows. It all comes down to matchups. Kinzer is cagy. Archer showed he could beat 3 different types of opponents (Crumb, Kinzer, and Sawicki). Sawicki's power makes him a threat against anyone. Crumb has done well in some big meets too. We may show better than you think.

Missing Crum from HT is huge though. He could have been marquee, in my opinion.

Who I believe should at least be a name thrown out there for MVW is David Sparks. He had the huge win over projected state champ Demas who teched Sparks earlier this year. 138 was one of the deeper weight classes at Darby. Unfortunately Hinkle was injured in the championship match, but I still believe Sparks definitely deserves some recognition as one of the best (if not the best) performances in the tournament.

Crum being out does hurt in more ways than one he did major Kinzer and was up 8-1 vs Archer before hitting his head he still won but it took something from him and aloud for a closer match but with any injury you need time to heal and he just ran out of it no real reason for him to even think of what if as a bright football future won't allow time for living in the past. But thanks Dusty I like you thought he could make a nice run at state.

Also every champ at every weight has a case for MVP they after all are district champs but I stand by the Wimer pick for the very reason that the one thing Penzone would be sure to avoid was anything that would lead to a pin and still Wimer suck him but really it's a question that will never have a answer as we don't crown a Mvp at district's.