Of course, the top-line question when it comes to Michigan wrestling right now is will Olympians Myles Amine and Stevan Micic return to the team? Unfortunately, there is no answer to either yet that I've seen. However, some nuggets have started to trickle out …
After winning a bronze medal in Tokyo — becoming not only San Marino's first Olympic medalist in the sport, but also Michigan wrestling's first in freestyle wrestling — Amine was interviewed by FloWrestling. It's a good watch, but some takeaways/thoughts:
- Amine revealed that in his first match at the RTC Cup, he fractured and had what he called a "skier's tear" in his thumb, an injury that required surgery. That kept him out until mid-February. That made what he did afterwards — going up to 197 (after previously wrestling 174 in college), winning Big Tens and placing third at NCAAs — even more impressive. His toughness can never be questioned (remember, this is what he looked like after NCAAs):
- Interviewer Christian Pyles confirmed what I thought was the case … Amine was the only wrestler in the tournament to take down eventual gold medalist David Taylor.
- Amine confirmed what has been widely speculated — if he comes back to college, he won't wrestle at 197 again like he did last year. He said he was weighing 84, 85 (I assume he's talking kilos here, since he wrestled at 86 kg … 84-85 kg would be 185.2 lbs to 187.4 lbs) coming into the Olympics.
"If I were to come, it definitely wouldn't be at 197 again," he said. "At Michigan, there's a guy that's much, much bigger than me — Pat Brucki. He's a human tank."
Brucki, of course, is the physically imposing graduate transfer from Princeton who was a two-time All-American at his old school. A 184-heavyweight lineup trio of Myles Amine-Pat Brucki-Mason Parris may be one of the best end of the lineup trios in college wrestling, if not the best. Amine is already a four-time AA (all top 4 placements), Brucki placed fourth as a true sophomore and was the No. 8 seed the following year for the canceled 2020 NCAA event, and Parris was the NCAA runner-up last year and seems to be the clear top dog if Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson moves on (which was once almost expected according to most, but now sounds less likely).
- Amine said "we'll see on returning," but admitted "a lot of pieces are falling into place" in terms of NCAAs being in Detroit (which an interviewer mentioned) and it being the 100th year of Michigan wrestling (which Amine brought up on his own). "There's a looming NCAA title for me, which is something I've dreamed for a pretty long time," he concluded. "… I'm going to enjoy this bronze medal for a little bit, and then a decision will come, hopefully, in the next few weeks."
- He said nothing is final, but he explained that he's leaning towards not wrestling in the upcoming World Championships. He admitted he has some "nagging injuries" that he wants to take care of.
- Despite his weight being what it was, he basically ruled out dropping down to 79 kg in non-Olympic years (for those that don't follow it as closely, there are additional weights at the annual World Championships — 10 weight classes — that aren't done at the Olympics, which has only six … in a word, it's dumb). He noted he doesn't want to compete with training partner Alex Dieringer, a Cliff Keen Wrestling Club member, and stick at/grow into the Olympic weight.
A final note on Micic, the former NCAA finalist who can also technically return for another year of college eligibility if he wants — he made an instagram post yesterday that ended with : "Preparation for Paris 2024 [the next Olympics] begins now … Sayonara 57 kg." I don't think that's a surprise to anybody that watched him wrestle, he competed in college at 133 pounds (and looked pretty big there), while his Olympic weight of 57 kg is 125.7 pounds.
He could plan on wrestling 61 kg in non-Olympic years, but I imagine that means we're likely to see him competing at 65 kg (143.3 lbs) in the next Olympics. There's a pretty obvious opening in the college lineup at 141 pounds, in my opinion …
After winning a bronze medal in Tokyo — becoming not only San Marino's first Olympic medalist in the sport, but also Michigan wrestling's first in freestyle wrestling — Amine was interviewed by FloWrestling. It's a good watch, but some takeaways/thoughts:
- Amine revealed that in his first match at the RTC Cup, he fractured and had what he called a "skier's tear" in his thumb, an injury that required surgery. That kept him out until mid-February. That made what he did afterwards — going up to 197 (after previously wrestling 174 in college), winning Big Tens and placing third at NCAAs — even more impressive. His toughness can never be questioned (remember, this is what he looked like after NCAAs):
- Interviewer Christian Pyles confirmed what I thought was the case … Amine was the only wrestler in the tournament to take down eventual gold medalist David Taylor.
- Amine confirmed what has been widely speculated — if he comes back to college, he won't wrestle at 197 again like he did last year. He said he was weighing 84, 85 (I assume he's talking kilos here, since he wrestled at 86 kg … 84-85 kg would be 185.2 lbs to 187.4 lbs) coming into the Olympics.
"If I were to come, it definitely wouldn't be at 197 again," he said. "At Michigan, there's a guy that's much, much bigger than me — Pat Brucki. He's a human tank."
Brucki, of course, is the physically imposing graduate transfer from Princeton who was a two-time All-American at his old school. A 184-heavyweight lineup trio of Myles Amine-Pat Brucki-Mason Parris may be one of the best end of the lineup trios in college wrestling, if not the best. Amine is already a four-time AA (all top 4 placements), Brucki placed fourth as a true sophomore and was the No. 8 seed the following year for the canceled 2020 NCAA event, and Parris was the NCAA runner-up last year and seems to be the clear top dog if Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson moves on (which was once almost expected according to most, but now sounds less likely).
- Amine said "we'll see on returning," but admitted "a lot of pieces are falling into place" in terms of NCAAs being in Detroit (which an interviewer mentioned) and it being the 100th year of Michigan wrestling (which Amine brought up on his own). "There's a looming NCAA title for me, which is something I've dreamed for a pretty long time," he concluded. "… I'm going to enjoy this bronze medal for a little bit, and then a decision will come, hopefully, in the next few weeks."
- He said nothing is final, but he explained that he's leaning towards not wrestling in the upcoming World Championships. He admitted he has some "nagging injuries" that he wants to take care of.
- Despite his weight being what it was, he basically ruled out dropping down to 79 kg in non-Olympic years (for those that don't follow it as closely, there are additional weights at the annual World Championships — 10 weight classes — that aren't done at the Olympics, which has only six … in a word, it's dumb). He noted he doesn't want to compete with training partner Alex Dieringer, a Cliff Keen Wrestling Club member, and stick at/grow into the Olympic weight.
A final note on Micic, the former NCAA finalist who can also technically return for another year of college eligibility if he wants — he made an instagram post yesterday that ended with : "Preparation for Paris 2024 [the next Olympics] begins now … Sayonara 57 kg." I don't think that's a surprise to anybody that watched him wrestle, he competed in college at 133 pounds (and looked pretty big there), while his Olympic weight of 57 kg is 125.7 pounds.
He could plan on wrestling 61 kg in non-Olympic years, but I imagine that means we're likely to see him competing at 65 kg (143.3 lbs) in the next Olympics. There's a pretty obvious opening in the college lineup at 141 pounds, in my opinion …
