And so it begins...

The 2009-10 Michigan wrestling season kicked off this weekend with the Eastern Michigan open, one of the bigger preseason tournaments in the country. I can't get too in depth into results today, I've got a friend working on the rest of the weight class previews and me and him are gonna hash out exactly what happened here, as he knows more about CMU and some of the other kids who went to HS in Michigan than I do.

There was some encouraging news for Michigan as a team though, Aaron Hynes and Mark Weber both took 2nd in the open division, and Phillips won the title up at HWY. Weber lost a close match in the finals to Purdue's Juan Archuletta, after he beat MSU's starter Colin Dozier. There wasn't really any nationally recognized kids at 41, Northwestern was there so I was suprised that Sulzer wasn't there, maybe he's up. Hynes cruised to the finals but Jarrod King, returning NCAA champ, was waiting to major him. It's nice to see that going up a weight wont' hurt him much. Phillips at HWY was interesting...McFarland said earlier he would be down at 197. Biondo is the obvious starter there though, so he might end up being at HWY. Speaking of Biondo, he took 2nd as well, losing to 14th ranked Logan Brown of Purdue, 4-3. Not much new there, Biondo should be around that level of competition all year. Justin Zeerip also placed 3rd, his one loss a 3-1 overtime defeat at the hands of 11th ranked Luke Manuel.

EMU also has a Freshman/Sophomore division, where 3 Wolverines placed. Sean Boyle, likely your starter at 125, took 3rd, his one loss a 5-3 decision in the Semi-finals. Dan Yates, another member of the stacked 2009 recruiting class, took 3rd, losing his first match then absolutly destroying everyone in the consolations, with only one match lasting the full 7 minutes. That is total and complete domination. Dan Yates is a bad, bad man. Michigan also had a champ here, Hunter Collins, who managed to win in every way possible with a bye, a pin, a tech, a major, and a decision. He wrestled for the cycle.

The placements here reaffirm my belief that Michigan will be a decent team this year, probably to 20, but next year will compete for a national title. Boyle, Zeerip, Hynes, and Collins should all have breakout years, and Mark Weber may join them, and once again, Dan Yates is a bad, bad man.