A Winner is You! 197

by RossWB on Nov 16, 2009 11:00 AM CST in News Comment 11 comments

Come January, when the Iowa football team again goes into hibernation for another nine months, what's a Hawkeye fan to do? You could pay attention to our preseason consensus cellar dweller basketball team... or you could give a little time to the two-time defending national champion, #1 ranked wrestling team. It is the one sport we're really, really good at, after all. In the spirit of our Assume the Position series for football, we bring you A Winner is You!, a weight class-by-weight class breakdown of the Iowa wrestling team, counting down from the weight class we have the most confidence in to the weight class we have absolutely no clue about.

This is totally what Chad Beatty looks like. Yep.

What We Already Know
Chad Beatty (SR) was thrown into the deep end at 197 lbs. two years ago, as injuries forced the Iowa coaches to send the undersized Beatty (who also wrestled at 174 lbs. and 184 lbs. that season) out to man the spot and attempt to pick up some points (or at least avoid forfeiting a match in every dual meet). Unsurprisingly, Beatty went just 10-12 that year (3-5 in Big Ten dual meets), although he did pick up a few clutch wins, including a big upset win over Michigan's Anthony Biondo that enabled Iowa to win the meet and continue its unbeaten streak in dual meets (a streak that is still alive going into this season). After a year of bulking up and specifically training for 197 lbs., Beatty had a much improved junior season, going 19-6 (7-1 in Big Ten dual meets), although he was hampered by a knee injury, particularly right before the NCAA Tournament. When healthy, Beatty has developed into a solid, dependable wrestler: he beats the guys he should beat and is competitive with the top guys (he had only one loss last year that was worse than a decision).

Who Else Is An Option
The only other guy to compete at 197 at last week's wrestle-offs was Luke Lofthouse (JR), who lost to Beatty, 7-3. Lofthouse has precious little recent experience, going just 1-2 in official competition last year. Fun fact: Lofthouse has been at Iowa since 2004, having taken a couple years off for a Mormon mission. Let's be realistic: Beatty may be no phenom, but there appears to be a fairly substantial drop-off from him to the Stormin' Mormon, so our prospects of garnering points looks pretty slim if something happens to Beatty.

Who Are The Major Threats
Good news: this is another weight where the Big Ten is pretty weak. There are only four Big Ten wrestlers represented in the preseason top twenty, and only one of those makes the top ten (Trevor Brandvold (JR) of Wisconsin; Beatty himself checks in at 12). Bad news: this is a pretty loaded class outside the Big Ten, particularly in the Big 12, which features three of the preseason top four, including the top two (the stupendously talented but crushingly dull Jake Varner (SR) of Iowa State and Craig Brester (SR) of Nebraska, respectively). Beatty's never wrestled Varner (he was out with an injury when those teams tangled a year ago) and is 0-1 against Brester.

What We Reasonably Expect To Happen
To be blunt, expectations for Beatty are not nearly as high as they are for many other Iowa wrestlers. He's very solid and deserving of considerable respect for the way he stepped into a tough spot in 2006-2007, but this should be a pretty brutal weight class. Given the relative weakness of the Big Ten, he probably can make a decent run in the conference tournament, but the NCAA Tournament will be far trickier. I think he's a fringe All-America candidate and anything beyond that would probably be gravy.

Previous entries in the series:

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Comments

Chad doesn't disappoint with AA

by fivewords on Nov 16, 2009 12:03 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Cosign.

If he stays healthy, he is a good shot to AA and that would be great for him and the Hawks. If every athlete at IOWA had the heart of Chad Beatty, we would be champions in a lot of sports. To watch him two years ago wrestle up two weight classes was inspiring. I would not say he only went 10-12. I would say, “He went fucking 10 and 12!!! What an effort!!!!”

by Bluzmn on Nov 16, 2009 3:06 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Luke Lofthouse

was the only redeeming part of The Da Vinci Code movie

by hawk6894 on Nov 16, 2009 1:30 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Stupendously talented but crushingly dull

This is something I’ll be paying attention to this season. Thanks for bringing the issue to the front burner.

"For me the game wasn’t grounded in reality. It was about the uniform you put on that turned you into a warrior. It was about the mythology of the battle, the victory, the defeat, the struggle." - Mike Reid, PSU '69

by jtothep on Nov 16, 2009 1:40 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Chad Beatty was Mr. Perfect in a former life?

I never knew.

"You don't become a Hawkeye fan, You're born with Black and Gold in your veins." - Me

by BStylin Hawkye on Nov 16, 2009 1:48 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Ross

nice work on these. It is hard to follow the Hawk wrestlers from afar. This is greatly appreciated.

"I think it's safe to say our concerns are many." -- Kirk Ferentz

by StoopsMyAss on Nov 16, 2009 8:19 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

minimum, how many points can we get if Beatty makes All-American @ the NCAA tourney?

how many points can we reasonably expect?

great right up. i’m more excited for these guys than, let say, one of the other teams that plays regularly but doesn’t show up at CHA, at least not in years.

this place smells like feet. i’ll bring a can of lysol next week.

by pfac51 on Nov 17, 2009 6:57 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I don't really know.

I really only take the time to figure out the byzantine NCAA tournament scoring system in March and them promptly forget it. As a rough estimate, though, if he finished in 8th place and took the last AA spot, he’d probably earn around 10 points or so and that doesn’t factor in the possibility of bonus points for falls, tech falls, etc.

by RossWB on Nov 17, 2009 8:50 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Me, too

I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable and devout wrestling fan, especially concerning IOWA, but I have to think my way through those damn scoring rules every March, too.

by Bluzmn on Nov 17, 2009 3:49 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

so i was really bored waiting for it to be 5pm and found

this nugget 2009 NCAA WRESTLING RULES AND INTERPRETATIONS.

i’ll have my full review up of the document after the ~~Rose Bowl.~~ FIESTA BOWL.

for those that can’t wait, check out page 49/ RULE 4. Scoring

from page 51…
4.4.2 Advancement Points. One team point shall be scored for each match
won in the championship bracket and ½ point in the wrestle-back
bracket, except for the final first-, third-, fifth- and seventh-place
matches. One point in the championship bracket and ½ point in the
wrestle-back bracket shall be awarded for a bye if the wrestler receiving
the bye wins in the next round.

4.4.3 Additional Points. Two additional points shall be scored for each
match won by fall, default, forfeit or disqualification throughout the
tournament. A total of 1½ points shall be awarded for each match won
by a technical fall if the winning wrestler was awarded a near fall during
the match. One point shall be awarded for each match won by a major
decision or technical fall if the winning wrestler failed to score a near
fall during the match.

If we can advance all 10 wrestlers to the finals via PIN, i think we’ll defend the title, realistically, if we get 2 or 3 in the Finals that will greatly help the cause.

this place smells like feet. i’ll bring a can of lysol next week.

by pfac51 on Nov 17, 2009 4:38 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs