Our opening 1-2 punch!

[gimpeltf]

Although due to his injury/transfer situations where I haven't actually seen him a lot yet, Crookham may be the best Lehigh kid I've seen since Burley. He does a number of things well but he may be the best at turning the corner I've ever seen. And he makes it seem easy. Very subtle motion- just twists his shoulders and hips slightly and the other guys fall down.

Stanich is a gamer. But a non-wrestling and weird thing a few of us noticed about him was just his getting on the top rung of the podium. He walked over and faced it and stepped up with one leg (right, I think) and then stepped up. If he used his hands we didn't see it. Not a single champ after him came close to being able to doing that.

[martinsilvestri]

Although due to his injury/transfer situations where I haven't actually seen him a lot yet,

Sorry, could you clarify the "transfer" part of this statement re:Crookham? Long day and brain may not be processing correctly (even by relative standards)...

Also, nice of you helping out our hobbling world champ to get through the rope barrier leaving the stands. Definitely a sobering moment.

[gimpeltf]

Although due to his injury/transfer situations where I haven't actually seen him a lot yet,

Sorry, could you clarify the "transfer" part of this statement re:Crookham? Long day and brain may not be processing correctly (even by relative standards)...

Also, nice of you helping out our hobbling world champ to get through the rope barrier leaving the stands. Definitely a sobering moment.

HS transfer

Seems like a very nice down to earth kid. That morning before weighins, he carried Cornell's scale (they get 10 schools to bring scales and to help at weighins) over to where they were doing them. I kidded calling out to him saying- Ah- Vito gets his own scale!. He put on a big smile and put his finger to his mouth as if to say Don't tell anyone!

[martinsilvestri]

Seems like a very nice down to earth kid. That morning before weighins, he carried Cornell's scale (they get 10 schools to bring scales and to help at weighins) over to where they were doing them. I kidded calling out to him saying- Ah- Vito gets his own scale!. He put on a big smile and put his finger to his mouth as if to say Don't tell anyone!

Neat to hear, and very cool how you get to interact with these guys like that. Last year at EIWAs my 8yo son asked Vito for an autograph after one of his early matches. He had to quickly use the corner of a vendor's table for the autograph, and went out of his way to ask the vendor permission to use the table first. It was a small gesture but just so respectful and spoke volumes. It is Crookham's time in the NCAA but I will always be a big Vito fan on the world stage and hope he bounces back from this injury.

[Mountain Hawk]

Nice Vito story but have to say I didn’t love the shoulder shrugging during the match because Ryan wouldn’t submit to his style and imposed his own. Ryan will need to be careful about backing up at NCAAs but hopefully if they meet again any official will understand the style differences. Having rewatched that match a couple times, Ryan initiated as much or more offense throughout the bout despite Vito’s almost constant forward push. Now Vito will walk away knowing Ryan can get to his legs….
The quickness displayed in that bout was just nuts.
Anyway, Vito could easily fall to a 4 or 5 seed depending on conference results in Big12 and Big10. 133 gonna be hot in KC one way or another.

[whiz wit]

Referring to the Crookham bout, Mountain Hawk wrote in part,

"The quickness displayed in that bout was just nuts."

That's what I thought, and I couldn't square it with comments on this forum that neither looked himself, both must be unrecovered from injuries, yak yak. True that their early wins didn't show their expected dominance. I'm wondering if both were playing a little possum in those early bouts ... trying to get a psychological edge by making their opponents think they weren't in top form so as to render them a tad overconfident.

[Oracle]

Aside from the final lightning strike by Crookham to ice the match, the best sequence was after Ryan’s TD, the chain wrestling quickness that resulted in Vito’s reversal. That was quite impressive.

[whiz wit]

Referring to the Crookham bout, Mountain Hawk wrote in part,

"The quickness displayed in that bout was just nuts."

That's what I thought, and I couldn't square it with comments on this forum that neither looked himself, both must be unrecovered from injuries, yak yak. True that their early wins didn't show their expected dominance. I'm wondering if both were playing a little possum in those early bouts ... trying to get a psychological edge by making their opponents think they weren't in top form so as to render them a tad overconfident.

[FloridaGuy]

>>>>>>>>Vito’s ranking and seed should not be negatively impacted because he lost to the top ranked wrestler——— he should be seeded 2nd or 3rd along with Fix ( if Fix wins the Big XII)

Lehigh’s top four should go into the NCAAs with stratospheric seeds———- potentially #1, #1, #3 and #6/7. Might be time to tamp down expectations in a tourney where every match is a proverbial minefield.

[Richb-3]

It would be great if Luke gets seeded #1. He would get about an extra 40 minutes before his first bout to Rehydrate.