ISU 2008 Recruits

ISU2007 · 02-13-2008, 07:57 AM

Andrew Long-Creston, Iowa
Projected Weight: 125 LBS
Accomplishments: 2007 Midwest Classic Champ, 2007 Iowa State Champ, 2007 Junior Greco-Roman National Champ, 2006 Iowa State Champ, 2006 Kansas City Wrestling Classic Runner-Up, 2006 Junior National Freestyle 4th Place, 2006 Junior National Greco-Roman 3rd Place, 2006 FILA Cadet Greco-Roman National Champ, 2006 FILA Cadet National Freestyle 3rd Place, 2005 Cadet Freestyle National Champ

Eric Thompson-Waverly, Iowa
Projected Weight: 285 LBS
Accomplishments: 2008 Dapper Dan Team Member, 2007 Junior National Freestyle 4th Place, 2007 Junior Greco-Roman 5th Place, 2007 Iowa State Champ, 2006 Iowa State 5th Place

Nate Carr Jr.-Jones Co., Georgia (Iowa Central CC)
Projected Weight: 165 LBS
Accomplishments: 2007 JUCO National Champ, 3x Georgia State Champ

Matt Brown-Cyprus, Utah
Projected Weight: 141 LBS
Accomplishments: 2007 Utah State Champ, 2007 NHSCA Junior National 6th Place

Chris Spangler-Naperville, Illinois
Projected Weight: 174 LBS
Accomplishments: 2008 Dapper Dan Team Member, 2007 Dvorak Invitational Champ, 2007 Illinois AA State 5th Place, 2006 Illinois AA State Champion, 2005 Illinois AA State Qualifier

GlenEllynClone · 02-13-2008, 11:43 AM

This looks like a very good recruiting class. We definitely need a 174 pounder - that is our weakest weight this year.

One minor correction - Spangler is from Nequa Valley, not Naperville North. He is 40-0 and pinned his last opponent in the sectionals. I believe he is seeded 2nd or 3rd in the state tournament which is Feb. 15 and 16. There is a guy from Montini that is seeded first - he has 3 losses, but Montini wrestled in the Clash and the guy likely wrestled some tough competition there.

rhillary · 02-13-2008, 11:47 AM

What is this class ranked overall?

jDub · 02-13-2008, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by GlenEllynClone

This looks like a very good recruiting class. We definitely need a 174 pounder - that is our weakest weight this year.

One minor correction - Spangler is from Nequa Valley, not Naperville North. He is 40-0 and pinned his last opponent in the sectionals. I believe he is seeded 2nd or 3rd in the state tournament which is Feb. 15 and 16. There is a guy from Montini that is seeded first - he has 3 losses, but Montini wrestled in the Clash and the guy likely wrestled some tough competition there.

I thought the guy from Richmond (Jordan Blanton) was seeded first. The guy from Montini (Carl Foreside) lost to Spangler earlier this year 7-3, so my guess is that Spangler is seeded #2 behind Blanton (both undefeated) and Foreside is #3. Those were the last rankings on this site anyway (as of Feb 5th):

Illinois Matmen Class AA Individual Rankings 2/5/08

BTW - Blanton was originally committed to the Hawks. However they called him in November and said that they needed to reduce his scholarship for his first year to 60%. He pulled his committment from Iowa immediately and committed to Illinois.

Balls · 02-13-2008, 12:01 PM

How's Iowa's class. I think in a couple years it will come down to ISU vs Iowa. We need to beat them head on 60%+ of the time or else Iowa will once again become the place of choice.

jahfg · 02-13-2008, 12:03 PM

This is a very good class when you consider we didn't have a lot of scholarship money to throw around. Thompson is a future national champion.

ISU2007 · 02-13-2008, 12:59 PM

Iowa's Class

A lot of talent, but 3 guys at the 133/141 lb range. I still like ours more.

Nate Moore-Iowa City, Iowa
Projected Weight: 133 LBS
Accomplishments: 2007 Dvorak Champ, 2007 Iowa State Champ, 2007 Junior Freestyle National Champ, 2006 Dvorak Champ, 2006 Iowa Runner-Up, 2006 Cadet Greco-Roman National Champ, 2006 Cadet Freestyle Runner-Up

Grant Gambrall-Iowa City, Iowa
Projected Weight: 174/184 LBS
Accomplishments: 2007 Dvorak Runner-Up, 2007 Iowa State Champ, 2007 Junior National Freestyle 5th Place, 2007 Junior National Greco-Roman 3rd Place, 2007 FILA Cadet National Freestyle Runner-Up, 2007 FILA Cadet National Greco-Roman 3rd Place, 2006 Dvorak Runner-Up, 2006 Iowa State Runner-Up, 2006 NHSCA Sophomore National Runner-Up, 2006 Cadet National Greco-Roman Champ, 2006 Cadet National Freestyle 3rd Place

Mark Ballweg-Waverly, Iowa
Projected Weight: 133/141 LBS
Accomplishments: 2007 Junior National Freestyle 7th Place, 2007 Iowa State 4th Place, 2006 FILA Cadet Freestyle 3rd Place, 2006 Iowa State 3rd Place, 2005 Iowa State Champ

Matt McDonough-Linn-Mar, Iowa
Projected Weight: 141 LBS
Accomplishments: 2007 Junior National Freestlye 5th Place, 2007 Iowa Class 3A State Champ, 2006 Cadet Freestyle National Champ, 2006 Cadet Greco-Roman National Runner-Up, 2006 Iowa Class 3A State Champ, 2005 Iowa Class 3A State 6th Place

ISU2007 · 02-13-2008, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by GlenEllynClone

This looks like a very good recruiting class. We definitely need a 174 pounder - that is our weakest weight this year.

One minor correction - Spangler is from Nequa Valley, not Naperville North. He is 40-0 and pinned his last opponent in the sectionals. I believe he is seeded 2nd or 3rd in the state tournament which is Feb. 15 and 16. There is a guy from Montini that is seeded first - he has 3 losses, but Montini wrestled in the Clash and the guy likely wrestled some tough competition there.

Nequa Valley is a high school in Naperville, IL. Nick Fanthorpe went to Naperville North in Naperville.

cloneu · 02-13-2008, 01:05 PM

It seems Iowa takes a majority of instate talent and we get the out of state guys. Helps they have it pretty good with the IC/CR kids and the Ballweg family already. It will be hard to beat them in a meet next year but the future looks great.

illinoiscyclone · 02-13-2008, 01:07 PM

Just so all of you know, there is not seeding in the illinois state tournament. all sectional champions get a bye first round, and 2nd and 3rd placers wrestle off and feed into the sectional champs. it is all done by blind draw before regionals. however, spangler and blanton are on the same side of the bracket and will meet up in the semifinals. this may be the best match of the whole state tourney, and surely the championship match a round early. blanton has lost 1 match in his whole career, to mikey benefiel who wrestles for northwestern. he is a 2x state champ and 1x state runner up. a tough opponent for chris, but i think chris may be able to do it. blanton wrestles a weaker schedule, and really the only advantage he has is having tyrone byrd- a three time ncaa qualifier, as his practice partner.

GlenEllynClone · 02-13-2008, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by jDub

I thought the guy from Richmond (Jordan Blanton) was seeded first. The guy from Montini (Carl Foreside) lost to Spangler earlier this year 7-3, so my guess is that Spangler is seeded #2 behind Blanton (both undefeated) and Foreside is #3. Those were the last rankings on this site anyway (as of Feb 5th):

Illinois Matmen Class AA Individual Rankings 2/5/08

BTW - Blanton was originally committed to the Hawks. However they called him in November and said that they needed to reduce his scholarship for his first year to 60%. He pulled his committment from Iowa immediately and committed to Illinois.

You could be right, but the parings, on the Illinois High School Athletice Association website, show Blanton wrestling Spangler in the semis, which leads me to believe they are 2 and 3. Foreside's half of the bracket looks like he would face the #4 seed in the semis (Clayton Kendall or Pete Damiani). Otherwise Blanton could be the 4th seed and Spangler 1, but that is doubtful, because Blanton is 37-0.

jDub · 02-13-2008, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by illinoiscyclone

Just so all of you know, there is not seeding in the illinois state tournament. all sectional champions get a bye first round, and 2nd and 3rd placers wrestle off and feed into the sectional champs. it is all done by blind draw before regionals. however, spangler and blanton are on the same side of the bracket and will meet up in the semifinals. this may be the best match of the whole state tourney, and surely the championship match a round early. blanton has lost 1 match in his whole career, to mikey benefiel who wrestles for northwestern. he is a 2x state champ and 1x state runner up. a tough opponent for chris, but i think chris may be able to do it. blanton wrestles a weaker schedule, and really the only advantage he has is having tyrone byrd- a three time ncaa qualifier, as his practice partner.

Aha! That explains why the brackets weren't making any sense to me. Thanks for clearing that up.

When you say Blanton has only lost one match, you mean in Illinois (non-tournament) correct? There's a video on flowwrestling of him (at least it says it's him) getting beat at the 2007 Super 32 tourney in NC. Here's a link.

Flowrestling Coverage - 2007 Super 32 Challenge

GlenEllynClone · 02-13-2008, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by GlenEllynClone

You could be right, but the parings, on the Illinois High School Athletice Association website, show Blanton wrestling Spangler in the semis, which leads me to believe they are 2 and 3. Foreside's half of the bracket looks like he would face the #4 seed in the semis (Clayton Kendall or Pete Damiani). Otherwise Blanton could be the 4th seed and Spangler 1, but that is doubtful, because Blanton is 37-0.

I found another place on the website that shows that the wrestlers are not seeded. The 8 sectional champs face the winner of the 2nd and 3rd place finishers from other sectionals. Spangler may have had some bad luck in having to face Blanton as soon as the semis (or maybe Blanton is the one with the bad luck having to face Spangler in the semis).