As Weigel Returns, Andrew Marsden Could be Tabbed as the Starter at 184

It’s been announced that Preston Weigel is back from injury. He’ll get his first start of the season Monday vs. Northern Colorado.

With that Andrew Marsden will now make the cut from 197 down to 184 where Keegan Moore has been the starter to this point in the season.

Marsden had some struggles at 197 early in the season but seemed to have made some adjustments and has been wrestling well the last few weeks.

Moore has had a pretty solid W-L record at 184 and some really solid wins but has had some losses that sorta make you scratch your head. He dropped one to a D2 wrestler the other day but has looked relatively good otherwise.

The question now is how long will it take for Marsden to get down to 184, and when he gets down, who is the better of the two?

Coach Smith said he’ll be wrestling at 197 this weekend in Reno, but he hopes he’ll be down at 184 by January 6th and maybe by the Southern Scuffle which is on New Year’s Day.

“He’s going to wrestle in the Reno tournament this Sunday at 197, of course, he’ll have to weigh a lot less than that in order to make it down the road,” said Smith on Tuesday. “With weight certification, he’ll weigh in below 197, wrestle 197 this week and then hopefully by Jan. 6, he can wrestle at 184. I’m sure that there are several ranking matches before then, but he could be wrestling in the Southern Scuffle at 184.”

Pulling weight can be tough and it impacts everyone differently. If a guy does it “right,” — no last minute heavy drops, legitimate dieting, etc. — it usually doesn’t hurt them as much. How Marsden will handle the weight cut is an unknown and something we’ll all have to wait and see on. If he comes out pretty sluggish in his first few matches at 184 he may be struggling with the cut. It usually does get easier after the first few times he makes weight and it may get better for him even if he does struggle with it early.

Marsden has a pretty wild style. Lots of throws and crazy offense, but on the surface it looks he’s probably a bit better than Moore. As long as he handles the weight cut well I’d project him to take over here when he gets down to weight. If he doesn’t it could create a bit of a battle to start. I’d really like to see him down to weight and wrestling at the Southern Scuffle. That would be a good test to see where he’s at.