Sunday notes

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the support you are sending along. I have been printing out the messages and taping them in the hallway of the hotel. The kids are enjoying them.

Jamie - I played Matt his warm-up music, he got a kick out of it.

To those of you who have thanked me for posting the results, I am glad to be able to do it. I just wish it was possible for me to update live as the matches finished, but there just isn't time. We will work on that for next year though!

Monday's schedule:

Morning session (9-12/1) is when the Cadets (Brandon S in our case) wrestle round robins to determine what places they are going for. And the Juniors continue.

2-3:45 are the Cadet medal matches, Juniors go again from 4:15-6:15 (this is when they will know if they are AA), then Cadet finals are 6:45-9. (all times are central).

The plan for tomorrow, since we don't have as many guys wrestling, is I will take the computer to the dome, to try to update sooner. So keep checking in the morning to see which place Brandon will be wrestling for.

Other notes -- in the Cadet division, the guys looked great. Todd Bigelow had an incredible tournament - he got off to a 5-0 start before losing his last 2 matches. He finished one round away from making AA, and in his first 5 matches had only a few points scored against him. Greg Balch also went deep in the tournament, 2 rounds out from the All-American rounds. 3 out of his 4 wins were by pin, and the other was a tech.

It should also be noted that 3 of our 8th graders did quite well in Greco - Kane Long, Dusty McKinney, and Matt Linker each won two matches, so the future looks good too...

I know I am forgetting to mention a lot of the wrestlers, and I apologize. I plan to do more write-ups when I get home and have more time to write. Right now I'm just going off the top of my head..

In the Juniors today, Jermey McKinney won his 2nd match by creating a little excitement. Down 8-0, he ended up winning 9-8. Juniors still in it with one loss are Joseph Walker (2-1), Troy Simmons (2-1), Kevin Fields (1-1), and Ryan Ard, Sean Paez, William Crumel, and Nick Harris, all 0-1. Nick Mayhew had a bye so did not get to wrestle yet. And Jermey McKinney is 2-0.

One other thing I'd like to mention is that this group we have out here seems to have more spirit than any team I can remember the last few years. Each style/division has a parade of states before the tournament starts (ie, one for Cadet Greco on Sat, Junior Greco on Sun, etc). Our guys have been fired up in the parade, doing backflips, cheering, etc. Even the Juniors, and historically the Juniors just walk along the floor doing not much of anything. Yes, they came out here to wrestle, not be in a parade, but it is still nice to see them excited and having fun. They'll remember that long after the trip is over. So what if they look goofy (Troy and Nick!!!!)

Signing off for now ...