D5 Finals and D5 Reps

[4him]

I was thoroughly impressed with the D5 tournament this year. I looked at the brackets and thought that many of the weights were weak, but some kids have improved a vast amount since last year. I think D5 should be rather well represented at the SW Regional Tournament throughout the middle weights. The top and the bottom may be a little weak however.

The finals (as well as the consi-finals) provided some great entertainment this evening. I'm almost broke from this weekend, but I got my moneys worth. My thoughts, based on memory (since Scube stole my brackets and program):

1. Howsare impressed me in how well he did against Josh Snyder.
2. I was also impressed with Foster and how well he stuck in there for the majority of the match.
3. Despite no real upsets occuring in the finals, I was impressed with the lower seeds.
4. I thought Mike Young looked excellent, but not being conditioned due to injury will hurt him (and did in the finals).
5. Chris Lascari looked tough against Jake Snyder when they were on their feet. Jake is just an animal on top.
6. I really like the way Jordon Downey wrestles. He is a solid wrestler with quality technique.
7. I was surprised (yet overjoyed) to see Adrian Ritchey win his first D5 title. However, the true surprise came when Lepley beat Hostetter.


Congratulations to Luke Lorson on his title, the Berlin wins record, and the OW award. He has gone from a wrestler who was already great, to being absolutely spectacular. I suspected that his clean sweeping of his bracket would keep the voters from remembering him, but I suspect they just felt that he dominated that much and was that solid...the honor was well deserved.

It was obvious that North Star was going to dominate the D5 tournament, but 8(?) finalist is unbelievable. In the district tournaments that I have attended, I don't recall ever seeing that many. Bedford may have possibly had that many in one of the tournaments that I attended before my HS days, but nonetheless NS was definitely impressive.