Originally posted by mike fairleigh:
........My point is that Cole's accomplishment to run up the back of a bracket that big with that much talent, is something that you don't see too often
Agreed, but it does happen from time-to-time.
Pretty sure Clay Center's Pfizenmaier won 8 or 9 in a row (memory is gettting bad, but one of those he may have even had to wrestle twice because the table workers paired him with the wrong guy ) to end up placing 4th (I think).
Ohio's CB Dollaway lost his first match by major decision to Oklahoma's Matt Steele and ended up avenging the loss to Steele in the consolation semi finals after rattling off 6 or 7 wins.
Gabe Jenkins finished a match short of AA after winning several on the back-side.
Will certainly agree that winning out the front makes it easier. But a blind draw in a tournament of this magnitude does some pretty cruel things....look at Tait Weatherbee's first round pairing.....Mat Gilliland lost in the quarterfinals to the kid who went on to beat the "unbeatable" Alex Tsirtsis. Jack Dennis lost to some guy named Tommy Rowlands in the quarters. Hawaii's/Cornell's Travis Lee lost to Shawn Bunch pretty badly on the front side of the NHSCA nationals, but was waiting for Bunch on the backside and avenged the loss. Eric Luedke - 3x state finalist, 2x NJCAA national champ, NCAA All-American - caught Joey Eckloff in his first or second match and finished short of AA.
There are absolute monsters like that in every bracket every year.....just luck of the draw on how early we hit them - on the front or back sides.
But what makes can make a difference is when our Kansans show their exceptional resolve and character (and a little cross-bracketing luck) by strapping it up and battling back after taking a loss on the front side.
And Team Kansas had some of those type of performances this year. Kudos to them.
