Orta is still tip of the spear on the planet and had to wrestle… I was surprised at how quick he was to get to his under so deep and put Otto in uncomfortable positions…
Orta is so good…
But after podiums and at dinner later Otto and his coaches knew exactly what mistakes he made tactically in the match and nobody is disappointed…
Obviously Otto was a bit disappointed and mentioned several times how much money he lost by not winning, but, everything is still trending in the direction that is needed…
Real Woods dad was one of the people at our dinner table… first time I’ve met him and a super cool dude…
I asked him about the actual RAF money… prefaced it by saying he doesn’t have to answer and I’m definitely not asking specifics, but, he confirmed the rumors of the real money for the athletes…
Otto also confirmed he was approached by Izzy at Vegas and talks are starting about having a Greco match at RAF… an interesting rule set, but, it is 100% being discussed…
US men so far all have and only have one loss. Webster goes down in the finals to Garzon from Cuba and gets silver. DeSanto and Valencia both pick up good.
All the US wrestlers into the semis today. Cronin, Hendrickson, Lovett, Haines, Hidlay, and Buchanan. As far as I can tell none have wrestled a Cuban yet.
Well there was another, Torres beat Buchanan by tech fall. The rest won. Cronin beat Darian Cruz in the finals. Woods had a close one with Canada. The rest went about as well as you can expect. Not a bad performance. 8 gold and two silver.
WTT trials starts tomorrow… 57 - 61 - 70 - 74 - 125 Final X spots are up for grabs…
57kg - obviously Spencer Lee is the over dog and should roll through this bracket to meet Lilledahl at Final X…
61kg- this weight is fairly interesting top to bottom… Jax and Davino are the faves to meet up in the finals, but, add in NATO, DeSanto, and Seidel and every match has something interesting going on…
70kg- only real news is Retherford entered… JW did ball out in Vegas after a tough pre-season at Iowa… i found out where JW was training for a few weeks leading up to Vegas and was somewhat surprised… the drama in the entire state of Iowa that is going on right now is crazy… that is another convo…
74kg- definitely has some names entered… Carr having a tough Open is there… PJ Duke is back in… Jayden James stepping up to seniors is interesting… Caliendo always good for a scrap but a freestyle neophyte…
125kg- biggest bracket there which is crazy… Cassioppi, Kerkvliet, both Mirasolas, Trumble, Parris, Big Jim Mullen, Coby Merrill…
small but fun tourney… leg grabbers get a chance to redeem themselves from Vegas…
i will not go into my own personal grumblings about the Greco procedures…
