With TheOpenMat shedding some light on the Nord situation let's talk gopher line-up!

125: Sanders -- National Champ
133: Ness -- National Champ
141: Thorn -- AA
149: Mason -- AA
157: Dietchler -- AA
165: Schlatter -- National Champ
174: Glasser -- DNP
184: Yohn -- AA
197: Nord -- AA
Hwt: Berhow -- AA

With my homer projections it looks like the Gophers are in line for yet another NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!

To be honest I don't think all that will happen, but I also don't think that any of it is out of reach for any of those wrestlers.

I will give my 2 cents here.

125: Sanders -- Top 3
133: Ness -- Finalist
141: Thorn -- AA
149: Mason -- Possible AA
157: Dietchler -- Possible AA
165: Schlatter -- National Champ
174: Glasser/Yohn -- DNP
184: Yohn -- Possible
197: Nord -- AA
Hwt: Berhow -- AA

I see MN with 4 AA's for sure. Sanders, Ness, DS and Berhow..

I think its close with Thorn, Yohn and Nord.

I think it will be a stretch for Mason, Dietchler

I do not see a AA at 174

My Prediction is a Top 5 finish and not contending for the title this season. Now with that said if the can get 3 in the final and the two young guys AA there is a outside chance.

125- Top 5
133- Top3
141- Top 8
149- Top 8 (pushing it)
157- Top 8 (Realistic, I realize some Greco wrestlers dont do well in Folk (Paulson) but I think Jake is a far better follkstyler than Paulsen was)
165- Champ
174- Low AA at best.
184- Low AA at best
197- Low AA at best
HWT- AA
Iowa will be tough again. It would be nice to see the Gophs pull off a couple upsets and make some noise this year.

Nord AA..Dont see it but it would be nice...


Sanders top 3 AA. Maybe gets to the finals.
Ness He pulls it out National champ..
Thorn It should be his year to crack the AA status 7,8
Mason Tough weight class but he is looking good ill say he pulls an upset and places 5th
Dietchler same as Mario places 5th
schlatter national champ
glasser,yohn DNP.
yohn Places 7,8
nord DNP
berhow places 5,6,7,8,

Just as likely...

Sanders - top 5
Ness - top 5
Thorn - R12 Deep weightclass, some tough guys didn't AA last year.
Mason - DNP
Deitchler - DNP This is folkstyle, not greco.
Schlatter - top 5
Glasser, Yohn, Yohn, Nord - DNP
Berhow - R12 Every match is close in this weight class.

Jake was a top recruit coming out of high school based on folkstyle. He was a 3X MN State H. S. Champion.
WUSA pre-season has him at #9.
He is much more than a greco only guy.

Another thought on Jake is that he has an incredible motor. I think many might remember that Sanders didn't win many first periods as he seemed to be undersized/overpowered in the first but he owned the 3rd period many times. I think Jake will out work and out last many of the talented guys at his weight as well this year.

Does anyone know how big Jake is? Will he be a full sized 157 or simply cutting a little weight?

He was cutting to get to 163 internationally this year.

tigerfan; your comment makes me think you don't know
much about Jake- sub and dog are right; MUCH MORE than Greco
only, and yes, he has a great motor - BUT - admittedly since
I haven't watched enough D1, I can't make a prediction -
I just wouldn't ever underestimate the kid

I'm not underestimating Jake, I think he'll absolutely be one of the best freshman at 157. He was highly ranked in HS, but he was no Jason Welch who was All-Everything Folk. If memory serves, Welch didn't even make the R12 last year. Granted, 157 was loaded last year compared to this year, so if Jake is as good as Welch was, he MIGHT place, but whether he's as good as Welch at folkstyle is certainly yet to be proven.

Michael Chandler's motor took a backseat to nobody, but I don't remember him owning the third period in a lot of matches. You know why? Because with a few notable exceptions, EVERYBODY at this weight has an incredible motor. At least that's how it seems to me. There are very few Bonilla-Bowmans out there.

Hi Chris. I'm sure Jake has put on some weight since his first competition at 163 in Greco (I think that was in April or so), however, I thought I read something where he weighed in 2 kg's under the 74kg. Maybe this was rumor, however, I thought I read that somewhere.

Needless to say, working out with Mario, Luke, Jared, and Dustin, along with the way their weight training program works, I'm confident Jake will be a filled out 157#er.

Welch had a pretty decent true freshmen season, and I expect Jake to have a pretty similliar season this year. He's a year older, has better workout partners, and is probably a more fundamentaly sound wrestler then Welch. Welch is a great talent, but sometimes funk that worked great in high school will not work as well in college. Working with Askren should help him a lot this year.

I believe right now he's in the mid 60's after practices. Pretty sure he cut 10-12lbs to make 74kg for the WTT's.

He was .4kg under when he weighed in at WTT's and .15kg under at the open.

Leave it to Chris to provide the exact weight to the 1/10th..... He always gives the necessary backup!

Anyway, who else is planning on attending the meet and greet on Friday for the wrestling team?

Jake was almost 2 kg under at the Dave Schulz Memorial.

Last year 57 was stacked and Jake would have been humbled. He has a chance this year to place just for the mere fact that he has great partners- it won't be the coach that gets him there. This sport is all about who you wrestle with in the room everyday. 57 is one of the weaker weights this year- so I think he has a shot. It i going to be an interesting year.

That's a little misleading as there was a 2kg allowance for that tournament. He weighed in at 74.25kg (163.4lbs) there. This was also in early February and not too long after the decision was officially made for him to bump up from 66kg to 74kg.

74.25 kg=163.6915 lbs. :D

Correct...what's your point?

The only point is that your number was a little off, but when you weigh in under the limit, you most likely are not cutting. My guess is that was close to his natural weight. I doubt as a freshman he will be a large 157. He will most likely be at a physical disadvantage as most freshmen are.

JP O connor, Chase Pami, Sanderson, Winston, and Welch will all be back. Not exactly an easy field, but JD should be competitive. Rumor has it Welch may red shirt.

Don't forget Adam Hall from Boise State. Also, I think Scott Winston is redshirting this year. He said that in an interview he did on Flo.

And again that was in Feb. I promise he was cutting 10-12lbs to get there by the time the WTT's rolled around. I also promise that he's in the mid 60's right now after practices.

I'll buy this quess! with a few twist..........a good match can change the weekend as can one bad match.
125- good mojo top 3

165 we need bonus points all the way to stand

I like that placing list as well, but I think we will score a lot more points up top this year than we think we will.

184 I think Yohn will be tough as nails this year. LMD pointed out a lot that Yohn was injured for the first part of the year and if you remember the IA match last year he gave Keddy all he could handle and he was only a Freshman

197 I think Nord will do well in an otherwise shallow weight class.

HWT Berhow is going to be very good this year. 2 more guys in the room to make him better and he has 3 years of Big Ten compeition is going to prove to be a motivating factor.


If we can find consistency at 174 this team stacks up with anyone in the country. I am hoping Thorn turns the corner this year and starts to show domination as well.

Willaert is correct. Jake won't be a small 157 and he is cutting more than 10# from a pretty lean body.
Remember, Jake isn't the typical true freshman just out of high school. He's almost an old guy :D since he will be 20 in December.

I couple of thoughts… One thing most people underestimate is the fact that Greco or not, Jake Dietchler spent the last year training and competing in national and international competitions. He is at the very least one year more mature than any true frosh. As I’ve wrestled with Jake in Greco and Folk I can tell you that he is quickly improving at his collegiate style of wrestling. Whether or not he is ready for immediate D1 wrestling success is anyone’s guess but I’d never bet against him, he has intangibles that very few possess. Also, as someone who has experienced the same thing, I am disappointed in the lack of support for native MN wrestlers. Caleb Young comes to mind as a guy that started for most of the season last year as a Redshirt Frosh and I can only believe he has a shot to be the guy again at 174. I’m personally pulling for him to improve and have more success at that weight than he had last year. Just so you guys know, it does matter what people say on these message boards to everyone including most of the wrestlers on the team.

I think people are arguing whether or not these guys will be All Americans, top 8 in the nation. As far as I am concerned, I don't wish to disrespect Caleb but I see 174 as being the most competitive for the starting spot in the room right now and unlike other weights which I think are pretty locked up I can see many of those competitors at 174 making big strides and winning that spot.

When I look at enviesbears's predictions he has every spot as a possible AA which I think has only happened once ever, that is an optimistic prediction.

Reiter was bigger than that going into his Sr. year as a 133 lber.

My point about Caleb was based on the fact that he wrestled by far the majority of the matches at 174. He will only be a sophmore, so that combined with the fact he is actually a MN boy I would hope that someone would have atleast mentioned his name for being in the mix. If he's not the front runner, he has just as good of chance of doing something at that weight this year as the other guys that have been mentioned; especially since no one else has even proven as much as Caleb has on the mat.

I can see that but Torrey Line is listed at 174 on the Gopher roster and is from Minnesota, Nate Matousek is listed as a senior at 174 on the roster and he is from Minnesota, Scott Glasser is from North Dakota but that is really Western Minnesota (just don't tell them that ;) ) and he is listed as 174. Cody Yohn is a redshirt Freshman and even though he isn't a Minnesotan it is tough not to appreciate that his brother and him are both here trying to make the team better.

I always notice how many Minnesotans wrestled for the team after each dual but I also believe that anyone who is in the room is trying to wrestle for Minnesota and deserve the support as well.

Well some athletes keep their weight in check in the off season and some dont. Reiter was just plain fat up that high, if he had a ripped six pack at 170 pounds you please show me the pics.