Many great finals matches BUT....

[whatever]

....if you didn't stick around for the 285lbs championship, you missed one of the best matches of the night.

Congrats to Vito Massa for pulling off one of the greatest scramble/takedowns to win the match that I have ever seen.

If you missed it, that's too bad for you.

[imnofish]

....if you didn't stick around for the 285lbs championship, you missed one of the best matches of the night.

Congrats to Vito Massa for pulling off one of the greatest scramble/takedowns to win the match that I have ever seen.

If you missed it, that's too bad for you.

Agreed!  In fact, all 3 of the 285 finals matches were excellent!  The big boys are just as invested, and just as worthy of our support and respect, as the rest of the kids.  Instead of leaving early to beat the traffic, I've always preferred leaving a bit behind the crowd and avoiding the gridlock.  Much less stressful and I don't miss any great matches!

[npope]

I am under the impression that Vito started out as a "little guy" wrestling something around 145. That might explain his scrambling abilities - wrestles like a smaller guy against big guys who typically have a different style.

While I'm an RF fan, I think if Empey and Massa wrestle that match ten times they both go home with a few wins - was holding my breath on at least a couple of occasions during the match.

[TomM]

I am not sure if anyone would confirm this for us, but I was told he wrestled every weight class at least once while in high school.
Is that true?

[Redeemer]

I am not sure if anyone would confirm this for us, but I was told he wrestled every weight class at least once while in high school.
Is that true?

Not while in high school... he was in Minnesota so wrestled varsity at 106 as a 7th grader. So he technically did wrestle all 14 weight classes, just not in the WI high school sense. Phenomenal athlete to watch. moved to WI in 2020 i believe?

[benaskren]

Agreed, great finals and the crowd seemed to be really into it the entire way.

D1 152 was the best match IMO, great battle by both guys.

[littleguy301]

I believe as a varsity wrestler Vito has a win at every weight also. Yes as a middle schooler he wrestled the lo a er weights and as a sophomore he was at river falls and wrestled 138. I thinknhe won northern badger at 138 in 2019 and hwt in 2021. Not many can say they won a tournament 2 years apart at those classes

[MarkK]

pretty cool

[Sudden Death]

Agreed, great finals and the crowd seemed to be really into it the entire way.

D1 152 was the best match IMO, great battle by both guys.

That was a good match but I would say the D1 145 was a better match.  It went into OT and both wrestlers gave it there all.

[Vir Fortis]

....if you didn't stick around for the 285lbs championship, you missed one of the best matches of the night.

Congrats to Vito Massa for pulling off one of the greatest scramble/takedowns to win the match that I have ever seen.

If you missed it, that's too bad for you.

I only created an account to comment about the overall Wrestling this year, but I absolutely agree.

The level of Wrestling across all weights is/was incredible this past weekend. This was as good of a State Finals as I can ever recall. And Vito Massa...just an incredible job giving up nearly 100 pounds vs a HWT who is an exceptional athlete in his own right. In fact, most years it feels like we'd be talking about what a great athlete Empey is for a legit 285-pound HWT, but Massa just had an incredible game plan...and a whole lot of guts. I was convinced he had to win that match on his feet, but he got out on bottom(with a Gramby no less) and he put the boots in.

Incredible match, incredible finals...incredible Wrestlers.

[Vir Fortis]

Agreed, great finals and the crowd seemed to be really into it the entire way.

D1 152 was the best match IMO, great battle by both guys.

That was a good match but I would say the D1 145 was a better match.  It went into OT and both wrestlers gave it there all.

152 was a good match and the kid from Homestead gave it a helluva run, but Messinbrink was in control of that match pretty much all the way through. IIRC, Millard scored a TD late to take it from a 5-2 match, made it 5-4 and then had to cut Messenbrink making it 6-4. Messenbrink left a TD and as good as he is with that cradle, maybe nearfall on the table(because...why risk it with 10 seconds left in control).

I'd argue the best match was 132(outside of the HWT match). That Kellen Aure wrestled hard and scored in the final 5 seconds...at the point in the match where a lot of kids are kinda resigned to their fate and he kept wrestling and got the 2. 


I think the ONLY real problem I had with the weekend and the finals was during that 145-pound match. I didn't love how the crowd actually seemed to boo a HS kid simply because he was Wrestling a UW recruit. I understand supporting or cheering for the UW recruit, but the booing? Kid should be walking on air after that battle(and I'm sure he was).


Actually, the WORST part of the night was having to go from the D-2 match to watch the kid ranked 4th in the Country, back to the D-1 match with the kid ranked 9th in the Country while keeping your eye on the D3 match with kid going for his 3rd title in a battle with the Soph! But that's a fun "problem" to have as a fan of this State and the Wrestling.

[DocWrestling]

Does each division have to wrestle in the same order?  I would not think they would need to.  Not that big of deal to give the D1 145 awards at same time as 220 D2 awards and 106 D3 awards.

Maybe they should alter order to have the potential 4-timers wrestle as the last matches.

Would people stay to honor them?

[imwi]

I didn't notice people leaving early like they usually do.  Was that just me?  Seemed in year's past it was pretty much empty by the time the 285 rolled around but it didn't seem like this year.  Maybe just because my section hung around