Great work gents. And great point about the rankings, no point in putting them out too frequently, especially as the picture in some weights is often slow to develop. CD HWT is a perfect example, as you all noted previously about how that weight (more so than any other) seems to be subject to surprises, upsets, and people coming out of the blue or disappearing all together (for football).
Pre-season, it looked like Teacher, Crumb, Archer, and Sawicki....and maybe "others (Morefield & Miller?)". Then the word was Sawicki wasn't going to wrestle so it was Teacher, Crumb, Archer, and maybe Eubanks and "everybody else (Morefield & Miller?)". Now word is that Crumb is hurt (possibly done for the year), and that Sawicki is back in the room and may make his debut at Marion this weekend. Teacher has been rolling through foes, but comes off a bit more as
efficiently excellent than
scary dominant (more like a Garren than a Gusan). Not a bad thing obviously, just different. Archer has added some good weight and is more of a full fledged HWT now which will certainly help him come March, but he has lost a few so far this year. Miller and Morefield can be dangerous on any given day but seem to be losing as much as they are winning.
Meanwhile, a bunch of kids at the next tier have stepped in.
Eubanks was on the radar and has continued to do very well winning several tournaments. Hasn't had a lot of cross-over big time matches but did wrestle Crumb close (5-4). Several kids who weren't really on anyone's radar have stepped it up this year and could shake things up come Darby time:
Davidson's Sadler -- 2014 DQ. 1st at Olentangy Invitational, 1st at Porter, 2nd at West Jeff (to WC's Lipscomb).
Olentangy's Elmurr -- (Filling in for Crumb). Smallish HWT, but strong and athletic (very rare HWT
linebacker for the Regional Champion Braves), got 3rd at Orange, 5th at Medina and wrestled Archer to OT
Scioto's Hubschman - (Filling in for Sawicki). Big HWT. 2nd at Olentangy (to Sadler, only loss this season), 1st at Kevin Cleveland, riding 6 straight first round pins (including over Van Fossen, Morefield, and Archer)
Westerville Central's Lipscomb -- 1st at West Jeff (over Sadler) and 2nd at Orange Pioneer to BC's Packwood. Stocky and strong.
Upper Arlington's Wunderlich -- Smallish HWT, was DQ at 182 last year I believe. Won the UA tournament. Won some matches in Medina I think also. Could be dangerous.
Darby District 2014 was pretty crazy as guys like Rollo, Teacher, and Nader were sure-fire SQ's and got eliminated, meanwhile Archer snuck up on everyone and won the whole darn thing and Kinzer & Sawicki survived the field to surprise people as well, Kinzer riding it all the way to the podium at the Schott. TV's Darnel sort of did the same thing on people in 2013, sneaking up on people and making it to state.
What's the old saying, "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown"? The Darby bracket could be really unfriendly to someone as it was to Gahanna's Nader last year. Went from pinning his way through Sectional to a three and out at District, largely due to the way the bracket fell (in my opinion).
