Lehigh Sports Forum

Is it too early to speculate on the '21-'22 starting line-up?

Assuming fully healthy and ready to rock n roll: Starter/Back-up (assuming no true frosh at this point)

125: Paetzell/Lane
133: Hines/Munch
141: McGonagle/Moran
149: Hoffman/Bryant
157: Humphreys/Frinzi
165: Lawrence/Meyer
174: Logan/Herceg
184: Logan/Wright
197:Grape/??
285: Wood/Jones or Moore

Heard Logan may move up so 174/184/197 still in flux. Solid at 8 weights. Perhaps a true frosh will emerge or someone who has been "developing" will emerge. It's a pretty solid line-up. Remember, Thayne Lawrence, in his first varsity bout, gave NCAA runner-up Jake Wentzel a tough go. Last year was a disaster in terms of practice management....not a criticism. This year should be more predictable. Any thought, additions, subtractions?

I seem to remember someone in the know writing last season that Pretzel would never see 125 again. If that's the case, the lightweights would probably be Lane, Pretzel & Hines. I think Davis did pretty well for a true frosh at the beginning of last season. Looked strong, athletic and a good tank. Could see him at 184.

Thanks for adding your thoughts....it's new data to me.

speculating but seems to me lower weights will end up being:

125 Lane
133 Paetzell
141 Hines

Hines is dynamic and I hate to see him get bumped up if he doesn't need to be, but from what I saw last season the only thing he really lacked at times was strength, was it the cut? Don't know.....to me Hines does not lack the height (leverage) to be a strong 141, but would need to add some muscle to his frame....if he could do this would give us a very strong starting 3........

Logan at 184 is a very bad idea.

whiz wit wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 12:44 pm I seem to remember someone in the know writing last season that Pretzel would never see 125 again.

I think that was me. Just based on what I heard, after some illness (I don't know if it was Covid, something else, or both) he was way over 125 and likely never to get down that low again. I'm hoping he can make 133, where I think he would contend for an NCAA medal, but I have no recent inside information.

This is always a fun summertime exercise so here is my take:

125-Lane
133-Hines
141-McGonagle
149-Hoffman
157-Humphreys
165-Lawrence
174-Logan
184-Davis
197-Garcia
285-Big Wood

125- Lane (if he can still make it) and Seymour
133- I was the fly on the wall and hope Paetzell can make 133 and do well, as he did in '20 before deciding he was getting horsed up there (beat 2 Top 10s). He did amazingly well in '21 but Mother Nature has the final say.

141- Ok, so maybe Malyke was wrong to tell me in Sep '19 that he'd finish at 165, but it was just a guess. But the guess incl. believing he'd debut at 141; in my opinion only, he took one for the team by agreeing to replace Brandon at 133 last yr. While he handled the wt incredibly well, I'm hoping he'll move up, or back up to 141. At 5'10" (his confirmation) anything's possible over his final 3 yrs. That Mother Nature thing again, that he defied in '21.
I like McGonagle a lot but wish he thought of himself as a 133; wt cutting isn't equally for everybody (incl me)

149- We'll know by Dec whether Bryant can still make 149 again (too many cutting questions; thank God for Sheldon Seymour); it's him or Hoffman, back-up Edmondson
157- Welcome back, Josh, huge in every way
165- agree with Lawrence, Meyer; last I heard Thayne got his shoulder fixed, Weiler-like. Also think Herceg may look large here, if he made 158 in the Spring.

174- so the rumor about Casale got by me (whatever) but I'll be stunned if the rumor about Logan also eluded me. Why wouldn't he stay at 174 where he's needed -- and where he excelled in freestyle in May/June? Sure, Lawrence will eventually move up, but up to him as to when (his younger & older bros are bigger).
184- I like Davis a lot and can hear him clankin' the weights all the way from SNJ

197- Grape's fine, with a bigger Elijah Jones if he can still make it; sometime before Xmas comes The Grand Experiment as we all look forward to revisiting our 2-sport past. If he stays healthy I have little doubt that Garcia can be the real deal.
285- No distractions, hopefully no viruses for The Man, Jordan Wood. For several good reasons I'm not one of the fans who think he "slipped some last season." Don't even try debating me on that when most of us fully know how weird the season was for everyone, especially JW after the NCAA's ludicrously ill-timed decision on freezing eligibility. In several ways I kinda' wish they had simply canceled 2020-21 (that part obviously debatable).

Look forward to a normal season? We can only pray, given what the freakin' virus variant is plotting -- as the pct of vaccinated getting it has risen from 1% to 20% in CA in just the past 2 mo. fasten your seat belt and tell all your friends & relative to take the needle. No guarantees; just better odds.