Congrats to Ramos - and others
- Thread starter uihawk82
- Start date
I'm sooo happy for Ramos - he's been my favorite Hawkeye wrestler for the past 4 years - I put him in the same category as Metcalf, Ironside, McIlravy, Brands as far as style/intensity, and example of typical Hawkeye wrestling and attitude. If he had lost, I'd have considered him the best Hawkeye wrestler never to have won an NCAA title (along with Mike DeAnna --- you old-timers remember him, right?). Ramos didn't have a stellar tournament in terms of dominating opponents, but in the end, he's CHAMPION!
A quick rundown on the performance of the rest of the team.
125 - Clark finished about where he should have. Hopefully he'll progress next year and beat Delgado/Megaludis/Garrett.
141 & 149 - No one should have anything bad to say about Dziewa and Grothus. At the start of the year not much was expected out of them, yet they stepped forward and gave us solid wins throughout the year, and then qualified for NCAAs and won several matches. If they step up a level next year, we could see them both AA.
157 - St. John has had a lot of success through the years, but is not your typical Iowa wrestler, not seeming to look to be aggressive or dominate. He's shown flaws this year, and I suspected it would catch up with him. Would have liked to see him genuinely challenge for the title, but still...4x AA is quite an achievement!
165 - A puzzle! Sometimes guys simply have bad tournaments, and I guess that's what happened with Moore. Too bad, since he clearly was one of the top guys throughout the year. I'm confident he'll challenge for title next year.
174 - Evans/Perry/Brown/Storley/Kokesh have always been so closely matched that it's a toss-up each time. Evans has recently been winning some of these matchups, and beat Brown in quarterfinals, but then lost 3 straight to that group. I'm still not a big fan of his, but there's nothing to fault in his effort.
184 - Not sure if Lofthouse, like Moore, simply had a bad tournament or if it was more of what's been a pattern for him, not showing up for big moments. I look forward to Brooks next year - doubt we'll find fault in his efforts.
197 - I've seen great improvements in Burak, and I think he'll place higher next year. Good effort in each match.
285 - As I've stated many times...I hate heavyweight matches! However, Telford had a good tourney, beating Myers, Coon and McClure. Losses to Nelson and McMullan weren't something to criticize.
Overall, good showings by most guys, and mysteriously bad showings by several. However, to win a national title, guys need to wrestle above their seeds and get on a run and win matches they normally wouldn't win (e.g. English, Marsden, Kindig). The Hawks did have Clark, Ramos, Burak and Telford place above their seeds, and can't find fault in Evans, but the shortcomings of St. John, Moore and Lofthouse sealed the Hawks' fate.
A quick rundown on the performance of the rest of the team.
125 - Clark finished about where he should have. Hopefully he'll progress next year and beat Delgado/Megaludis/Garrett.
141 & 149 - No one should have anything bad to say about Dziewa and Grothus. At the start of the year not much was expected out of them, yet they stepped forward and gave us solid wins throughout the year, and then qualified for NCAAs and won several matches. If they step up a level next year, we could see them both AA.
157 - St. John has had a lot of success through the years, but is not your typical Iowa wrestler, not seeming to look to be aggressive or dominate. He's shown flaws this year, and I suspected it would catch up with him. Would have liked to see him genuinely challenge for the title, but still...4x AA is quite an achievement!
165 - A puzzle! Sometimes guys simply have bad tournaments, and I guess that's what happened with Moore. Too bad, since he clearly was one of the top guys throughout the year. I'm confident he'll challenge for title next year.
174 - Evans/Perry/Brown/Storley/Kokesh have always been so closely matched that it's a toss-up each time. Evans has recently been winning some of these matchups, and beat Brown in quarterfinals, but then lost 3 straight to that group. I'm still not a big fan of his, but there's nothing to fault in his effort.
184 - Not sure if Lofthouse, like Moore, simply had a bad tournament or if it was more of what's been a pattern for him, not showing up for big moments. I look forward to Brooks next year - doubt we'll find fault in his efforts.
197 - I've seen great improvements in Burak, and I think he'll place higher next year. Good effort in each match.
285 - As I've stated many times...I hate heavyweight matches! However, Telford had a good tourney, beating Myers, Coon and McClure. Losses to Nelson and McMullan weren't something to criticize.
Overall, good showings by most guys, and mysteriously bad showings by several. However, to win a national title, guys need to wrestle above their seeds and get on a run and win matches they normally wouldn't win (e.g. English, Marsden, Kindig). The Hawks did have Clark, Ramos, Burak and Telford place above their seeds, and can't find fault in Evans, but the shortcomings of St. John, Moore and Lofthouse sealed the Hawks' fate.
Sparky
Well-Known Member
Cut the sugar coating crap and say it how it is.
NATIONAL CHAMPION, TONY RAMOS!!! enough said!
Evans - Got screwed and over performed
Clark-did great, better than expected by most.
Burak- ugh
Dwieza and Grothus-suuuuuucked
Moore and Lofthouse- crapped the bed. Both need help.
DSJ- looked like he forgot how to wrestling. Underperformed by a lot, more than I can even put words to.
Telford- Needs to pick up a dumbell, pull his head out of his backside, and learn to do something other than lean and push. He's slow.
This wasn't an overall good showing by most. This team underperformaned and they should be embrassed about it. Iowa had a total of 8 bonus points during the entire tournament and it was a pathetic performance.
Wow, what negative comments Sparky! Maybe this points to one possible reason why Hawkeye wrestling has dropped a bit - there's too much intensity and negativity, rather than a relaxed atmosphere that allows wrestlers to enjoy the sport (e.g. Penn St., Okla. St., Ohio St., Edinboro, etc.).
You clearly have a man-crush on Evans - he didn't get screwed or over-perform, he's simply one of 5-6 evenly matched wrestlers who trade off winning. Burak "ugh"? He got AA and wrestled above his seed, and gives great effort every time. Dziewa wasn't even seeded so what did you expect? Grothus was seeded 13th, so clearly he wasn't considered a strong contender (though he did perform quite well throughout the year - do you not recognize that?). You're right that Moore and Lofthouse wrestled poorly, but that happens to a number of good wrestlers every year. You show no appreciation for St. John and his skills and steady performance this year and in the past. Are you inferring that Telford is weak? That's laughable. And leaning/pushing is what almost every heavyweight wrestles.
For years I've heard fans from other schools complain about the attitude of Hawkeye fans, and now I think I understand why. Seems like Hawkeye fans are hyper-critical if they don't win everything, all the time. How shallow! Please learn to appreciate the sport of wrestling for what it is, enjoying watching all the wrestlers no matter what school they're from, and be positive and encouraging to your favored school. GO HAWKS! I'm hopeful they'll do much better next year, and if they win the team title that would be great, but if not then it won't affect my enjoyment of the greatest sport there is!
You clearly have a man-crush on Evans - he didn't get screwed or over-perform, he's simply one of 5-6 evenly matched wrestlers who trade off winning. Burak "ugh"? He got AA and wrestled above his seed, and gives great effort every time. Dziewa wasn't even seeded so what did you expect? Grothus was seeded 13th, so clearly he wasn't considered a strong contender (though he did perform quite well throughout the year - do you not recognize that?). You're right that Moore and Lofthouse wrestled poorly, but that happens to a number of good wrestlers every year. You show no appreciation for St. John and his skills and steady performance this year and in the past. Are you inferring that Telford is weak? That's laughable. And leaning/pushing is what almost every heavyweight wrestles.
For years I've heard fans from other schools complain about the attitude of Hawkeye fans, and now I think I understand why. Seems like Hawkeye fans are hyper-critical if they don't win everything, all the time. How shallow! Please learn to appreciate the sport of wrestling for what it is, enjoying watching all the wrestlers no matter what school they're from, and be positive and encouraging to your favored school. GO HAWKS! I'm hopeful they'll do much better next year, and if they win the team title that would be great, but if not then it won't affect my enjoyment of the greatest sport there is!
judzeehawk
Well-Known Member
Mendoza7 it's getting tiresome hearing all the negative waves about football basketball and now wrestling. Next inline will be the lady HAWKS. Keep posting. Good job.
H
HawkBBFan
Guest
Sparky was right it was a very bad performance for the team...I mean seriously 8 bonus points for the whole team the whole tournament that is an utter joke and they won't win anything if they keep that crud up.
Sparky
Well-Known Member
I've supported this team in and out for a number of years, donated my money, and attended a bunch of their meets. I expect them to win. THAT IS THE IOWA WAY when it comes to wrestling. If the guys on the team don't expect to win a National Championship, they shouldn't be on the team. Ramos has said for a number of years that he was going to win a NC. He has wrestled harder than every single member on this team and look what he accomplished.
I wonder what Gable would say to you if he read this load of crap. I bet that he would just roll over and accept being mediocre.
Sparky
Well-Known Member
I guess I'm not done.
If you base potential performance off of seeds you're going to have a bad time. Grotus had a record of 23-10 which included four victories over opponents ranked in the top eight in the country. If you think he did ok than you're badly confused. Are you aware that earlier in the season he beat Grajales and Tsirtsis who ended up getting 3rd and 1st? Where did he place?
DSJ was a RETURNING NATIONAL CHAMPION. There is no reason why he performed as poorly as he did. Telford got beat by two wrestlers that he beat earlier in the year. I'm also saying that he's weak, and slow, and boring as watching paint dry.
Iowa is vanilla..with no toppings. You get what you see and what you see is 7-8 guys wrestling scared. They start a majority of matches playing catch up or 0-0 going into the 2nd and 1-0 or 0-1 going into the 3rd. You can't expect anything exciting out of this team because they're not going to deliver.
Sparky I don't view your thoughts as negative but simple truth. This team is missing something. I feel that something is "intimidation". They just don't have it any more. It used to be everyone hated Iowa, why? Because It was expected of Iowa to win every match. Look at PSU now, do you not expect them to win most every match most days? Intimidation can go a long way in affecting how an opponent views another, and I believe that Iowa needs to get that edge back to get back to the top
Mendoza, you need to pop in McIllravy's finals match against Abas in 93 or read up on Jesse Whitmer in 97 to know what we are talking about. We lack the mental edge we once had, we are not aggressive at all. Outside of Ramos there was no sense of urgency, even with Evans. I agree with Sparky's take.
