Thursday News

Thursday is media day in Wrestling, but it is fairly common to not get any news that would cause even a small ripple in the pond. This Thursday, in the year of our Lord Gable, decided to be incredibly different than all other Thursdays! I'm not sure where I was going with that, but here are some headlines. 

Kyle Dake is competing in France soon and it will be at 74 kg! On our podcast #100, Titan Mercury Coach Royce Alger discussed how Dake was really nowhere close to filling out the 86 kg class when he challenged for the Olympic Team spot in 2016. A drop back down to 74 kg was expected and here it is. Credit to BDI for the breaking news. The easy joke of finally USA being competitive at 74 kg is low hanging fruit, but the trials this year could include Dake entering a fray of Burroughs, Dieringer, Imar, Mark Hall, Logan Massa, and more. Craziness!

BDI also tweeted that 10 weight classes (internationally) per style is possible in 2018. I suggested that 8-8-8 was not out of the possibility for the 2020 Olympics in large part to the fact that host country Japan wants those women's medals. 10 per style for the 2018 World's seems pretty tough to wrap my head around, but I don't argue about more international wrestling to watch. 

Tom Brands has confirmed in their media day that Alex Marinelli will indeed remain in redshirt for the entirety of the 2016-17 season. It sounds like the knee that sidelined him for a bit was a factor. The 4-time Ohio State champ and blue-chip recruit had Hawkeye fans drooling to throw him into the lineup to boost their National Championship chances while their lineup boasted several top-ranked seniors. After a 4th place finish at the Midlands, Marinelli travelled to Michigan with the team weighing in but unranked Gunther got the starts. The Hawkeyes do have another true freshman at 165, Kaleb Young, who took 5th at the Midlands. There hasn't been an official comment on him that I know.

Lastly, it was lost on me till this afternoon that Michigan State travels to Northwestern Friday and then hosts Maryland on Sunday. That's two winnable Big Ten duals in the same weekend, which is pretty crazy to think about.