1st Day of 2011 NCAA Wrestling Championships

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Let me ask you this? What would you do if you were the favorite to win it all but had to injury default out of the tournament because of an existing injury which made you injury red-shirt a year to heal gets aggravated? Before you answer, I forgot to mention it was your last NCAA tournament EVER!!! Now you can answer. This scenario came to an ugly reality for the 2009 NCAA Champion, Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State. He was injured during his second match of the 1st day. It is painful to hear but I can only imagine how painful it is to feel such a thing. The physical pain can go away but the mental pain of another potential championship taken away from you because of a previous injury is a pain that will not go away in a day, week, months or even year or it might not even go away forever.

Other than the tragic ending to an amazing collegiate career to a wrestler who did the unbeatable in 2009 when he beat Brent Metcalf, a wrestler who was said to be unbeatable in the big stage, was defeated, here are my recap of the first day.

-David Taylor @ 157 is an amazing wrestler, whom I wish will win the tournament because his style is relentless and technical and extremely fun to watch.

-Jordan Borrough @ 165 is just simply a beast on the mat. His only speed is GO! GO! GO! GO!

-Ed Ruth @ 174 always looks disinterested in wrestling. He looks like he doesn't want to wrestle yet always wins convincingly while making his opponent look elementary. I suppose he is saving his energy for when it counts.

-Quentin Wright @ 184 He looks like he is a man on a mission in the NCAA stage. He knows when to turn it on and be on tip top shape to become a champion.

-Ryan Flores @ 285 He looks like a lighter weight. Correct me if I am wrong but he 'majored (an 8pt advantage)' So far he looks like the bigger wrestler among some big big boys.

-Looks like the teams at the top are the usual in recent memory: Penn State, Iowa, Cornell, Boise State

I can not wait to see day 2 (Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals) and day 3 (Finals and medal round).