Often in wrestling, even the bluest of blue chips are given a redshirt year to adjust to college or allow for an upperclassmen to graduate or change weights to make room for them. As such, we mainly only see them at open tournaments.

However, right after Christmas we're lucky enough to see a good number of them at two of the toughest events in the country: the Southern Scuffle and Midlands. So we wanted to look back at how they fared and try to highlight at least a few of them.

In total, 22 wrestlers who are currently on redshirt placed at the two events, and 17 of them just graduated high school last year. Let's start with the Scufle and see who finished  on the podium. Those in italics have already used at least one year of eligibility and are not true freshmen.

Southern Scuffle

125: Jakob Camacho (NC State) - 3rd

133: Todd Small (Iowa State) - 5th, Collin Gerardi (Virginia Tech) - 7th

141: Real Woods (Stanford) - 2nd, Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh) - 7th

165: Shane Griffith (Stanford) - 3rd

174: Trent  Hidlay (NC State) - 4th, Michael O’Malley (Drexel) - 7th

184: Hunter Bolen (Virginia Tech) - 2nd

Stanford finished in fourth place as it is, but would have leapfrogged Iowa State for third had they gotten the points from Real Woods and Shane Griffith. We missed out on a Woods match against Kaid Brock, but he did beat #17 Nick Gil to make the finals and finish as the highest placing true freshman.

Griffith looked excellent in pushing Vincenzo Joseph in the quarters, taking him down and only losing by two. He also beat All-American Chandler Rogers and #19 Jesse Dellavecchia. It wouldn't shock me if they pulled either of their redshirts, but that will be up to the Cardinal coaching staff.

Scuffle Brackets in FloArena

NC State also had a strong showing, with FloNats champs Jakob Camacho finishing third and Trent Hidlay ending up fourth. Hidlay lost to All-Americans Joe Smith and David McFadden by a combined three points, and Camacho's only loss was to #3 Nick Piccininni.

Another ACC team in Virginia Tech also missed out on some points. They were already missing Mekhi Lewis, Zack Zavatsky, and Korbin Myers, but then Hunter Bolen made the finals and Collin Gerardi placed seventh. Bolen is redshirting this year to allow Zavatsky to graduate; he was an NCAA qualifier last year at 174. Bolen knocked off AA Jacobe Smith and #8 Louie DePrez to make the finals. Gerardi pushed Roman Bravo-Young in an excellent quarterfinal match.

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Also checking in is Michael O'Malley of Drexel, who has had a sneaky good redshirt season thus far and could find his way into the rankings next year once he's a starter.

NJCAA champ Todd Small, formerly at Iowa Central and now a Cyclone, picked up a fifth place finish. If there are any designs on a lineup bump at ISU next year a la what we saw at Minnesota this year, Small could really benefit.

Midlands

125: Justin Cardani (Illinois) - 6th, Kyle Biscoglia (UNI) - 7th

133: Zach Sherman (UNC) - 3rd

141: Michael Blockhus (UNI) - 4th

149: Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) - 3rd, Jacori Teemer (ASU) - 5th

184: Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State) - 5th

197: Tanner Sloan (SDSU) - 2nd, Lucas Davison (Northwestern) - 3rd

285: Tanner Hall (ASU) - 1st, Mason Parris (Michigan) - 5th, Jere Heino (Campbell) - 6th, Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) - 7th

How about Tanner Sloan? The true freshman at South Dakota State upended fellow 2018 graduates Brandon Whitman and Lucas Davison en route to the finals, both guys who were rated above him coming out of high school. He also defeated Josh Hokit of Fresno State in his first match of the tournament.

But the big news was him teching then #4 Jacob Warner of Iowa. It's one thing to knock off a Top-5 guy when they mess up a throw and give up six points or if they give up some unnecessary hands to the face and stalling calls. But Sloan just worked Warner from top, nothing flukey about it.

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He was the only true freshman at Midlands to make the finals, just like Real Woods at the Scuffle. However, past AA Tanner Hall won the heavyweight title for Arizona State, being joined by Jacori Teemer on the podium. Hall would likely be ranked high, maybe between four and six if he were competing attached this season.

Teemer battled (and beat) every other freshman of note at 149: Sammy Sasso, Brayton Lee, and Jake Benner. Lee and Benner did not place, but Sasso wound up third, actually ahead of Teemer. That one was unquestionably one of the best and most controversial matches of the tournament.

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Sasso led an excellent contingent of unattached Buckeye wrestlers that included 2015 NCAA champ Nathan Tomasello, who unfortunately was injured in his second match. Also placing was Gavin Hoffman at 184, going 5-2 on the weekend and leaving a good impression for tOSU fans. But the District XI native Sasso went on an insane run on the backside at Midlands, beating Josh Maruca, Josh Heil, Henry Polhmeyer, Alec Pantaleo, and Pat Lugo. Incredible.

Northern Iowa also had a couple placers in Michael Blockhus and Kyle Biscoglia. Blockhus most notable win was a major over Mike Van Brill of Rutgers and should slide in just fine to replace Josh Alber next year. Biscoglia's hit list included a number of guys who we should see at the NCAA tournament this year: Michael McGee, Trey Chalifoux, Drew Hildebrandt, and Elijah Oliver.

Anthony Cassioppi came down to earth a little after falling to Jere Heino and Matt Stencel, but looks very much ready to step in as the Hawkeyes' heavyweight next season. Campbell still placed Top-10 even without Heino's points counting for them.

The power forward sized Lucas Davison continues to place high at tournaments, showing once again that coach Storniolo has Northwestern on a slow and steady build. Once Gary Wayne Harding, Zach Sherman will slide back in as the Tar Heels' 133, this time with a wealth of experience under his belt. Justin Cardani actually ended up in the fifth place with the guy he's starting behind in Travis Piotrowski.

Lastly I'm bringing up Mason Parris, because at the time I started this article and when he was competing at Midlands he was still redshirting. Then the Wolverines went to Oregon State and he knocked off #1 Amar Dhesi. The future is now for Parris, I think we're all excited and curious to see how he does as he is a part of this massive influx of talented heavyweights.

Full highlights from last night's Parris/Dhesi heavyweight bout. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/aqtMr2etir

— Michigan Wrestling (@umichwrestling) January 4, 2019