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Travis Wittlake Jr. Defeats Trent Hidlay 5–2 as Team USA Wins Pittsburgh Classic

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Future Oklahoma State Cowboy and No. 1 ranked 170-pound wrestler Travis Wittlake Jr. beat third-ranked Trent Hidlay Sunday night in the Pittsburgh Classic All-Star Match. Team USA went on to win the dual 23-21 over Team Pennsylvania.

Wittlake looked good, really good. I wrote in my preview that I wondered if it might be a bit of an adjustment for him to make the jump from Oregon high school kids to a top-ranked national guy. It wasn’t. Wittlake controlled the entire match and it wasn’t even as close as the score showed.

In a collegiate match I think the spread of the score would’ve been even wider. Hidlay backed up a lot and was on the edge of the mat using it as his main defense. High school rules don’t have anything that prevents that — college does. He would’ve been dinged for stalling a few times by most college refs.

I’ve been able to watch a lot of Wittlake’s old freestyle matches, but haven’t had much opportunity with his collegiate stuff. He was as good as advertised. Hidlay is built, he’s a really strong kid, and Wittlake physically controlled him the entire match. On his feet I was really impressed. There was no wasted motion with his stance, he still constantly pressured in and had some very slick and very diverse offense.

Wittlake took a few shots on Hidlay’s legs, but was most impressive for what his offense that didn’t require he attack legs, he has a strong Greco background and it showed here. In a lot of ways he reminded me of Kaid Brock, just not as fast-paced. He hit a nice merkle and a shrug on the edge that he probably would have finished if it weren’t for Hidlay being backed up to the edge of the mat and the pair going out of bounds, which again in both spots likely would’ve been called stalling on Hidlay in a college match.

From watching some of his freestyle stuff, and this, I believe his weapon of choice is a duck-under. He hit a really nasty one on the edge to score 2 in the second and I’ve seen a lot of them in his freestyle matches. Hidlay tried to throw up a Hail Mary with this throw late in the match, but Wittlake wasn’t having it and took him down on the edge to close it out.

The only real concern I would say is possibly his mat wrestling. He didn’t ride especially strong when he was on top and he gave up a bit of a ride when he was on bottom in the third. Nothing too bad, but I would definitely say his wrestling on his feet is his strength, which is almost always the case for a highly-rated guy like him coming out of high school.

When you consider that Hidlay is one of the top guys at this weight beside Wittlake — and that Wittlake pretty well dominated him —  it’s very promising for the future Poke. After a redshirt year I think he could easily come in as a top 5 guy at 174. After Mark Hall and Zahid Valencia graduate you could reasonably expect him to be the favorite as a sophomore.

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