2023 Midlands: By the Numbers

While the Midlands tournament may have lacked a bit of star power compared to some of the stacked fields of the past, the event still took place over the holiday break. As always, there were several wrestlers who put up impressive stat lines and those competitors are celebrated here. Michael Beard finishes with absurd Point Differential No. 9 Michael Beard had a borderline incredible performance in the 197-pound bracket. The Lehigh wrestler defeated all five of his opponents and averaged a tournament-high 3.10 points per minute. At the same time, he allowed his opponents to only score 0.34 points per minute. His resulting +2.77 point differential was the second highest of the event. The only wrestler with a better differential (Matthew Cover of Princeton) defaulted out after winning his first match. Beard opened his tournament with a pair of 18-1 technical falls over Carter Blough (Michigan State) and Ryan Yarnell (SIU Edwardsville). He then bested a pair of Virginia Tech teammates in Sonny Sasso and Andy Smith. Smith, the number 26th ranked wrestler in the most recent InterMat rankings, failed to even notch a single point before he was defeated via fall in the waning seconds of the second period. In the finals, Beard’s run continued with a 15-0 technical fall over No. 10 Luke Stout (Princeton). While Beard defeated the Princeton wrestler earlier this season, he seriously widened the gap in this rematch. Their first bout of the season, back in November was an 18-8 major decision. Dean Hamiti relies on his defense Down at 165 pounds, Wisconsin’s No. 6 Dean Hamiti was nearly as dominant as Beard. He averaged 2.23 points per minute, allowed 0.17 points per minute and therefore finished with a +2.07 point differential on his path to the title. While Hamiti has always been a prolific scorer in the neutral position and on top, his defense was perhaps the most impressive aspect of his Midlands performance. He surrendered four points in his opening match against Tate Geiser (Cleveland State). After that Hamiti did not allow a single point in his next four matches. He pinned Luke Gayer (Rutgers) and Beau Mantanona (Michigan) before they could get anything going. In the semifinals, he wrestled for the full seven minutes against No. 17 Maxx Mayfield (Northwestern) and walked away with a 10-0 major decision. For the title, Hamiti faced off against No. 11 Peyton Hall (West Virginia). He once again went the full regulation and did not give up a single point. Prior to the finals, Hall had been on quite a scoring tear. In his first four matches, he averaged 2.07 points per minute and won all four matches with bonus. Hamiti was able to completely stifle that offense and pick up his own bonus-point victory. Dakota Howard racks up the points While he did not win the tournament, Virginia Tech’s No. 18 Dakota Howard had a big-time scoring tournament at 184 pounds. He averaged 2.68 points per minute on his way to a fourth-place finish. His only defeat outside of a medical forfeit out of the third-place match was a quarterfinal loss against No. 17 James Conway (Franklin & Marshall) in sudden victory. Even in defeat, Howard managed to score eight points. Things really took off for him in the consolation bracket where he scored 22, 22, and 14 points respectively against No. 20 Nate Dugan (Princeton), Hayden Filipovich (Purdue) and No. 29 Tony Negron (Arizona State). Other things I liked and didn’t like Yes, I stole the idea for this section from ESPN basketball writer Zach Lowe. Sue me. Actually, please do not sue me. The following are a few things I came across while reviewing the brackets and collecting data that I thought I would share. All back points technical fall There has been some consternation among the wrestling Twitterati that the advent of the three-point takedown has devalued mat wrestling. There might be some merit to that argument, but do not tell that to Northwestern’s Sam Cartella. In the consolation bracket, the 149-pounder faced off against Jaivon Jones (Northern Illinois). After a scoreless first period, Jones won the toss and deferred to Cartella. The Wildcat took the top position and proceeded to score four consecutive sets of four-point near falls and finish the match via technical fall with 22 seconds left in the second period. Even with the three-point takedown, that kind of turning ability will never go out of style. Who cares about the scoreboard? Per Wikipedia, “Thomas More University is a private Roman Catholic university in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. It serves about 2,000 full and part-time students.” One of those students, heavyweight Daulton Mayer placed fifth at the Midlands. While it is always impressive when competitors from outside NCAA Division I place in the mid-season classic (Thomas More is transitioning from NAIA to Division II), Mayer took a very interesting path to his placement. He went 5-2 in the bracket with his only losses coming against Jacob Bullock (Indiana) and No. 24 Trevor Tinker (Cal Poly). However, he only actually finished with more points than his opponent in one match. Mayer won his opening match via fall over Charles Hastriter (Oregon State) while leading 3-0. He then defeated Princeton’s Matthew Cover via injury default while trailing 2-0, Ira Jenkins (Michigan) by fall while trailing 6-3, John Stout (Penn) by fall while trailing 6-1, and finally picked up a forfeit over Tinker in the fifth-place match. For the tournament, he was outscored 31 to nine and still finished fifth. Technicality about Technical Falls Rule 4 Section 5 Article 13 of the NCAA Wrestling includes the following passage, “an earned riding time point may be awarded no sooner than at the end of the third period and/or at the end of any sudden victory or any round of tiebreakers.” While this is an odd way to turn a phrase, it basically means that for any match that ends via termination (such as a fall, technical fall or injury default) the riding time point should not be added to the point total. Unfortunately, this rule is not consistently followed in collegiate wrestling. It is exceedingly common to see a wrestler earn an extra point when the match is stopped due to a 15-point margin. In the grand scheme of things, the extra point does not mean very much. However, for the purposes of statistical analysis such as this article, it creates pretty clear inaccuracies. This was clearly a problem at the Midlands as the mistake appeared to happen with some frequency. Perhaps there could be some sort of standardized training for table workers, or a tournament official could be responsible for verifying final scores. I am open to ideas here people. While the Midlands tournament may have lacked a bit of star power compared to some of the stacked fields of the past, the event still took place over the holiday break. As always, there were several wrestlers who put up impressive stat lines and those competitors are celebrated here.

Sign In

2023 Midlands: By the Numbers

User Feedback

Recommended Comments

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in

Categories

Rankings

Browse

Activity

Support