Kolat vs Bassett

[OH-IO]

since alot of attention is being generated about BB, just thought i would add a fun topic to ponder!

Many of us consider to this day Cary Kolat to be the best HS (and top 20 college) wrestler of all time, I too agree with Cary being the top dog ever in HS it was just amazing to see him in HS (although I would say Chris Phillips was a close 2nd, only HS loss was 3-2 his freshman year to Senior Ed Ruth, Chris actually controlled the match completely,  Chris was unchallenged, 175-1,  BTW~does anyone know whatever happened to him) in your opioin has anyone surpassed Kolat as the greastes HS wrestler of all time? Of course I start this topic for good conversations and potential visits back to memory lane! 

 

thoughts of a matchup in their HS days has me curious......... Kolat vs Bassett 

 

My take is Kolat is still the best HS wrestler ever.... Cary was than and still is now a different type, an absolute beast among beast!!

 

Thoughts from some old school wrasslers!

 

[pokemonster]

I still remember when Chris Phillips beat Brian Roddy, who was a phenom in his own right, as a freshman. Mind you, Roddy was benching 315lbs the summer heading into freshman year during football workouts. Absolute monster. 

Can't comment on Kolat as I was focused on Ohio wrestling back then.

[Truzzcat]

Kolat was well before my time Chance was the closest thing to him for me hearing about him winning matches at college opens when he was in 7th grade was absolutely insane. Chance did not wrestle the circuit the other two did however and by comparison Kolat I don't think was active as Bo. Ive never heard of Kolat taking losses period in high school though. That is probably partially because of the events these kids go to now cadets,juniors,elite 8,super 32,fargo. It seemed like kolat had that aura of being completely untouchable that I'm not sure Bo quite has simply because we have seen him take losses to his peers, but I think that's a product of the national depth we now have and kids having the ability to wrestle so many different places. As far as in season goes Bo is currently 111-0 with 107 wins by bonus so 96.3%. Kolat was 137-0 for his career can't find bonus results. Thats a lot to say I think it's a matter of perspective Kolat may have had a bit more sense of invincibility though.

[OH-IO]

"Truzzcat" ~ good point sounds like you know your stuff, I remember Kolat wrestled a 4x MD state champion and tech'd him, I believe Kolat held his own in Midlands while in HS, I wish I knew the exacts for some reason I wanna say he wrestled Chertow while Kolat was still in HS @ Midlands and went toe to toe with him....anywho they all could kick my butt, quite easily too I might add.....

 

"pokemonster" ~ I remember the Roddy match very well finals @ Ironman 2007 (171lbs), Roddy number #1 or #2 in the country, chris also beat the # 3 kid in the country @ Ironman to get to Roddy, actually destroyed him, than destroyed Roddy in 2007 did not even give up a take down to either, crazy talent as a freshmen

 

[MPhillips]

As a freshman @ Ironman, Phillips wrestled Corey Peltier Blair Academy(ranked nationally), Zac Thomusseit (#1 ranked in OH DII), then (#1 nationally ranked) Brian Roddy from STED. 

Apologies not sticking to the Kolat/Bassett portion of the thread. I hope we get 4-5 college years of Bassett that we didn't get from Phillips. 

Al Fried is always in the top for me...

 

 

[GimJustafan]

One-on-One with Cary Kolat - College - InterMat.mhtml

Edited Thursday at 05:50 PM by GimJustafan
wrong link

[Hammerlock3]

Did Kolat take 4th at the OTTs in HS? Also wasn't Kolat the best wrestler in his class?

[BAC]

It's a pretty good comparison, and tough to make a pick between Bassett and Kolat. 

Both have wide-open styles as high schoolers that leave them exposed, but it doesn't matter, since their offensive output is so high that they overwhem(ed) their opponents.

Both are famous for training like absolute madmen.

Both dominated PA high school wrestling, making wreckage of past state champs and medalists. 

Both also had freestyle success.  Both cadet world champs.

Both had success against college opposition in high school.  Kolat took 3rd and 4th at Midlands when it was the best tournament of the year, including taking out NCAA finalist Shawn Charles.  Bassett has won a couple smaller college tournaments, including one with Bouzakis in it, and has a freestyle win over NCAA champ Ashnault.

Both are human. The main chink in Kolat's armor is his 4-4 draw as a senior to Chris Bono at the Dapper Dan.  (He went up a weight at Senior Nationals the next weekend to avenge the loss, but Bono didn't make the finals.)  Got thumped at OTTs by Kendall Cross (future gold medalist).  Bassett has more chinks -- teched by Kolozik, lost at U20s, split matches with Zepeda -- but also lives in an era where there's more opportunities to find the top competition.

In college, Kolat made the national finals as a true freshman, taking out Iowa's undefeated defending champ Troy Steiner in the semis.  Bassett's true freshman year?  Yet to be seen.

Both are trailblazers. The country had never seen a high schooler taking on and beating college-level competition when Kolat did it; now it's more common. But Bo's shown leadership qualities in his own right, albeit more by force of personality.  (Kolat was always more of a recluse.)

Of course, wrestling's come a long way in the 35 years between the two, not just in technique but in access to information (internet, etc), so I don't doubt that Bassett as a high school junior is ahead of Kolat as a high school junior. But I don't think it's fair to factor that in, as the opposite would be true if they swapped the eras they grew up in.

Bottom line?  I'd call it a draw.  

[fishbane]

2 hours ago, BAC said:

Got thumped at OTTs by Kendall Cross (future gold medalist).  Bassett has more chinks -- teched by Kolozik, lost at U20s, split matches with Zepeda -- but also lives in an era where there's more opportunities to find the top competition.

I thought Kolat lost to Steve Knight at the 1992 trials and lost to John Fisher in 1996.  I think Cross and Kolat were are different weights in 1992, so maybe this match happened at another event.  

[fishbane]

2 hours ago, Hammerlock3 said:

Did Kolat take 4th at the OTTs in HS? Also wasn't Kolat the best wrestler in his class?

The 1992 trials were Kolat's senior year of high school.  I have often heard the claim that he was 4th, but also that he lost in a minitourament.  I don't really know how it worked way back in the old days.  It was clearly much different.  Below are the entries from an Oklahoman article.

136.6 - John Smith.

1. John Fisher; 2. Troy Steiner; 3. Terry Brands; 4. Mini-tournament: Buddy Lee, Ken Wharry, Sean O'Day, Mike Gomez, Cary Kolat, Steve Knight, Joe Stukes.

It went on to describe the schedule/format thusly "Mini-tournaments will be held today to determine the No. 4 seeds, which will go against the No. 3 seeds at each weight in the first of three, best-of-3 ladder challenges on Thursday.

So I don't really know what that means.  Maybe they wrestled the mini tournament and the winner of that had a best of three against Terry Brands and then the winner of that gets a best of three against Tory Stiener with the process repeating for the winner and John Fisher and then finally John Smith.  That would seem like a totally wild format. Maybe the 4 seeds just wrestled either a bracket or a round robin with the winner wrestling the best of three with John Smith.

The only results I know from the tournament were that Smith beat Fisher in the best of three and Steve Knight beat Kolat in the mini tournament final.  Not sure how that would put Kolat 4th.  Maybe Stiener or Brands ended up not wrestling so runner up in the mini-tournament became 4th in the challenge tournament and 5th on the ladder.  Or maybe I don't understand the format at all.

[BAC]

42 minutes ago, fishbane said:

I thought Kolat lost to Steve Knight at the 1992 trials and lost to John Fisher in 1996.  I think Cross and Kolat were are different weights in 1992, so maybe this match happened at another event.  

You're right, I'm misremembering.  From a quick google search, the Cross match was at the 1991 US Open, and though Cross won, Kolat took it to him at the start.  Match here.  I guess Kolat would've been a high school sophomore at the time?

You can see a snippet of his 7-6 loss to Steve Knight at the '92 OTTs here.

[fishbane]

8 minutes ago, BAC said:

You're right, I'm misremembering.  From a quick google search, the Cross match was at the 1991 US Open, and though Cross won, Kolat took it to him at the start.  Match here.  I guess Kolat would've been a high school sophomore at the time?

You can see a snippet of his 7-6 loss to Steve Knight at the '92 OTTs here.

Kolat graduated high school in 1992.  The 1992 olympic trials would have been the spring of his senior year.  The 1991 US Open was likely the spring of his junior year.  His junior year I'm pretty sure he was 4th at Midlands and his sophomore year he was 3rd.  At some point in high school he beat 1989 NCAA champion Sean O'Day.  I think that was in freestyle.

Still not sure the format of the 1992 trials and losing to Knight in the mini tournament finals makes him 4th.  I also found that Steiner was 3rd at the trails, so maybe Brands didn't wrestle and the final ranking was something like Smith>Fisher>Steiner<>Knight>Kolat with Kolat's 4th place referring to the challenge tournament and Steiner's 3rd place possibly referring to either the challenge tournament or overall.

[Paul158]

9 hours ago, BAC said:

It's a pretty good comparison, and tough to make a pick between Bassett and Kolat. 

Both have wide-open styles as high schoolers that leave them exposed, but it doesn't matter, since their offensive output is so high that they overwhem(ed) their opponents.

Both are famous for training like absolute madmen.

Both dominated PA high school wrestling, making wreckage of past state champs and medalists. 

Both also had freestyle success.  Both cadet world champs.

Both had success against college opposition in high school.  Kolat took 3rd and 4th at Midlands when it was the best tournament of the year, including taking out NCAA finalist Shawn Charles.  Bassett has won a couple smaller college tournaments, including one with Bouzakis in it, and has a freestyle win over NCAA champ Ashnault.

Both are human. The main chink in Kolat's armor is his 4-4 draw as a senior to Chris Bono at the Dapper Dan.  (He went up a weight at Senior Nationals the next weekend to avenge the loss, but Bono didn't make the finals.)  Got thumped at OTTs by Kendall Cross (future gold medalist).  Bassett has more chinks -- teched by Kolozik, lost at U20s, split matches with Zepeda -- but also lives in an era where there's more opportunities to find the top competition.

In college, Kolat made the national finals as a true freshman, taking out Iowa's undefeated defending champ Troy Steiner in the semis.  Bassett's true freshman year?  Yet to be seen.

Both are trailblazers. The country had never seen a high schooler taking on and beating college-level competition when Kolat did it; now it's more common. But Bo's shown leadership qualities in his own right, albeit more by force of personality.  (Kolat was always more of a recluse.)

Of course, wrestling's come a long way in the 35 years between the two, not just in technique but in access to information (internet, etc), so I don't doubt that Bassett as a high school junior is ahead of Kolat as a high school junior. But I don't think it's fair to factor that in, as the opposite would be true if they swapped the eras they grew up in.

Bottom line?  I'd call it a draw.  

As a junior Kolat went to the old Midlands tournament when it was much tougher than  the NCAA tournament at the time. He finished 3rd. Beating several all-americans  along the way. The Midlands back then had current, and past all-americans in the weight classes. NCAA Champions struggled to place in the tournament. One other thing, did Kolat take one or two grey shirts like Bo Bassett. Bo is very good by why did he take two grey shirts. He is 4 months older as a junior in high school then I was a freshman in college. I will go with junior Kolat wins by 8 over Junior Bo.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

12 hours ago, Paul158 said:

As a junior Kolat went to the old Midlands tournament when it was much tougher than  the NCAA tournament at the time. He finished 3rd. Beating several all-americans  along the way. The Midlands back then had current, and past all-americans in the weight classes. NCAA Champions struggled to place in the tournament. One other thing, did Kolat take one or two grey shirts like Bo Bassett. Bo is very good by why did he take two grey shirts. He is 4 months older as a junior in high school then I was a freshman in college. I will go with junior Kolat wins by 8 over Junior Bo.

Midlands was great, but I don't remember active NCAA champs struggling to place.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

9 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Midlands was great, but I don't remember active NCAA champs struggling to place.

1989:

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/nusports.com/documents/2012/7/16/1989MidlandsBracket.pdf?timestamp=20150515100043

1990:

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/nusports.com/documents/2012/7/16/1990MidlandsBracket.pdf?timestamp=20150515100043

Edited yesterday at 03:47 PM by Interviewed_at_Weehawken

[fishbane]

12 hours ago, Paul158 said:

As a junior Kolat went to the old Midlands tournament when it was much tougher than  the NCAA tournament at the time. He finished 3rd. Beating several all-americans  along the way. The Midlands back then had current, and past all-americans in the weight classes. NCAA Champions struggled to place in the tournament. One other thing, did Kolat take one or two grey shirts like Bo Bassett. Bo is very good by why did he take two grey shirts. He is 4 months older as a junior in high school then I was a freshman in college. I will go with junior Kolat wins by 8 over Junior Bo.

Kolat was 3rd at the Midland in 1989 when he was a sophomore in high school.  He lost to Sam Geraci in the first round.  I think Garaci was the junior college champ that year.  Kolat avenged that loss in the consolations.  His best win was over Bobby Crawford (Missouri) who would go on to place 7th at NCAA in 1990.  Larry Jones beat Jack Griffin in the final at this weight, but having lost in the first round Kolat did not wrestle either of them

Kolat was 4th at the Midlands in 1990, his junior year in high school.  Kolat lost in the quarterfinals for Ken Chertow 2-1.  Chertow was a post grad at this point and had placed 6th at NCAAs the year before as a senior.  He was 3rd at NCAAs in 1988 the same year he made the US Olympic team.  I've heard that Kolat was penalized for a slam in this match which ultimately proved to be the difference.  Chertown would go on to win the tournament defeating Terry Brands in the final 7-4.  Kolat beat Shawn Charles (ASU) 7-3 in the consolations.  Charles was 5th at NCAAs in 1990 and would go on to place 7th that season.  Kolat dropped an overtime bout with Adam DiSabato (Ohio State).  DiSabato was 6th at NCAAs the year earlier and would go on to place 4h that year in 1991.

In summary Kolat beat two AAs in high school at Midlands.  Bobby Crawford his sophomore season and Shawn Charles his junior season.

[Paul158]

1 hour ago, fishbane said:

Kolat was 3rd at the Midland in 1989 when he was a sophomore in high school.  He lost to Sam Geraci in the first round.  I think Garaci was the junior college champ that year.  Kolat avenged that loss in the consolations.  His best win was over Bobby Crawford (Missouri) who would go on to place 7th at NCAA in 1990.  Larry Jones beat Jack Griffin in the final at this weight, but having lost in the first round Kolat did not wrestle either of them

Kolat was 4th at the Midlands in 1990, his junior year in high school.  Kolat lost in the quarterfinals for Ken Chertow 2-1.  Chertow was a post grad at this point and had placed 6th at NCAAs the year before as a senior.  He was 3rd at NCAAs in 1988 the same year he made the US Olympic team.  I've heard that Kolat was penalized for a slam in this match which ultimately proved to be the difference.  Chertown would go on to win the tournament defeating Terry Brands in the final 7-4.  Kolat beat Shawn Charles (ASU) 7-3 in the consolations.  Charles was 5th at NCAAs in 1990 and would go on to place 7th that season.  Kolat dropped an overtime bout with Adam DiSabato (Ohio State).  DiSabato was 6th at NCAAs the year earlier and would go on to place 4h that year in 1991.

In summary Kolat beat two AAs in high school at Midlands.  Bobby Crawford his sophomore season and Shawn Charles his junior season.

I wonder how he would have done his senior year. Do you know what age Kolat was in high school? Looks like Kolat had a good chance of placing at NCAA's his sophomore, Junior and senior years in high school. I don't see Bo anywhere near that level. The Midlands was incredibly tough back then. I would say it was tougher than the NCAA tournament. My nephew was Kolat's team mate at Penn State until he left for Lock Haven.

[Paul158]

1 hour ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

1989:

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/nusports.com/documents/2012/7/16/1989MidlandsBracket.pdf?timestamp=20150515100043

1990:

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/nusports.com/documents/2012/7/16/1990MidlandsBracket.pdf?timestamp=20150515100043

I should have put and All-Americans. 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

5 minutes ago, Paul158 said:

I wonder how he would have done his senior year. Do you know what age Kolat was in high school? Looks like Kolat had a good chance of placing at NCAA's his sophomore, Junior and senior years in high school. I don't see Bo anywhere near that level. The Midlands was incredibly tough back then. I would say it was tougher than the NCAA tournament. My nephew was Kolat's team mate at Penn State until he left for Lock Haven.

19 when he graduated.  Turned in May.

[Paul158]

11 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

19 when he graduated.  Turned in May.

Close to Bo's age. I was a couple months into my sophomore year in college before I turned 19. Pat Milkovich was winning his 2nd NCAA title at that age. Lee Kemp had placed 2nd his freshman year and was going after his first NCAA title at that age. 

[OH-IO]

wait, being honest and straight forward BB will be 19 when he graduates from HS, seriously or is this????  doesnt change how much talent he has just just makes it less impressive, personally I was 17 and 9 months old when i graduated, at 19 i was totally different...for the better!  

 

its not like i havent heard of this (kids being much older while still in HS) before if we are being honest, i just didnt know BB was, well basically a Freshmen in college age wise but only a Junior in HS!  

[scourge165]

On 2/5/2025 at 5:27 PM, OH-IO said:

"Truzzcat" ~ good point sounds like you know your stuff, I remember Kolat wrestled a 4x MD state champion and tech'd him, I believe Kolat held his own in Midlands while in HS, I wish I knew the exacts for some reason I wanna say he wrestled Chertow while Kolat was still in HS @ Midlands and went toe to toe with him....anywho they all could kick my butt, quite easily too I might add.....

 

"pokemonster" ~ I remember the Roddy match very well finals @ Ironman 2007 (171lbs), Roddy number #1 or #2 in the country, chris also beat the # 3 kid in the country @ Ironman to get to Roddy, actually destroyed him, than destroyed Roddy in 2007 did not even give up a take down to either, crazy talent as a freshmen

 

Kolat took 3rd at Midlands back when it was often tougher than the NCAAs. When you'd get guys like Joe Williams Wrestling there for years after or...whoever, Sr level wrestlers just entering to Wrestle. 

[fishbane]

8 minutes ago, scourge165 said:

Kolat took 3rd at Midlands back when it was often tougher than the NCAAs. When you'd get guys like Joe Williams Wrestling there for years after or...whoever, Sr level wrestlers just entering to Wrestle. 

He took 3rd at Midlands back in 1989.  Joe WIlliams is younger than Kolat and would not win the tournament until 5 years later in 1994.  This is a year after Kolat won Midlands for the first time.  In 1989 when Kolat placed third there were no significant post grad entries in his bracket.

1 hour ago, OH-IO said:

wait, being honest and straight forward BB will be 19 when he graduates from HS, seriously or is this????  doesnt change how much talent he has just just makes it less impressive, personally I was 17 and 9 months old when i graduated, at 19 i was totally different...for the better!  

 

its not like i havent heard of this (kids being much older while still in HS) before if we are being honest, i just didnt know BB was, well basically a Freshmen in college age wise but only a Junior in HS!  

Bassett turned 18 in August of last year.  He will turn 19 in August of this year and graduate in June of next year.  I think this puts him two years older than if he had enrolled at the min age in PA.  However if he had done that he would have been one of the youngest graduates in his class like you probably were.

Kolat turned 18 in May of his junior year.  He turned 19 in may of his senior year.  I think this puts him a year older than enrollment at the min age.  Kolat had enrolled at the min age and famously intentionally failed 8th grade the first time through.

In cases like theirs (and all cases really) I think the hold back holds back wrestling development.  Kolat beat AAs in placing 3rd at the Midlands in Dec of 1989 when he was 16 years old.  He was too far ahead of his peers by the end of his junior year and would have been better off in a college room.  Bassett beat Anthony Ashnault 12-2 last spring at their last chance OTT qualifier when he was 17 years old.  Hard to imagine he gets much out of wrestling a high school schedule next year.

[scourge165]

On 2/6/2025 at 3:00 AM, MPhillips said:

As a freshman @ Ironman, Phillips wrestled Corey Peltier Blair Academy(ranked nationally), Zac Thomusseit (#1 ranked in OH DII), then (#1 nationally ranked) Brian Roddy from STED. 

Apologies not sticking to the Kolat/Bassett portion of the thread. I hope we get 4-5 college years of Bassett that we didn't get from Phillips. 

Al Fried is always in the top for me...

 

 

I was wondering when Fried would get mentioned. I think Kolat was a better HS Wrestler, but...Fried was a freak as well.

 

I think these things are relative. Bassett did worst at some of these Sr Level tournaments than his own HS teammate(in fairness...Forrest is pretty damn good as well). 

But it's more common now to see a HS kid beat an absolute hammer and high AA/NC.

Mirasola beat Dean and in his first year of College, he lost 10-1 to Josh Barr. 
Blaze has some pretty damn impressive notches on his belt. 

When Kolat and Fried were doing it, it was a helluva lot more rare.  Probably because the best of the best in this sport are...getting better each year and the year 'round Wrestling and high level coaching is great for them, but I think it's important.

 

Chris Phillips was right there with Kyle Snyder as the best SINCE Kolat/Fried to me...though not it's just too hard to measure. They're all really good.

 

Only one correction(not to you, from an earlier post), Phillips wasn't a Freshman losing to a Sr Ruth. I'm about 90% sure he lost in the Ironman as a Soph to the Jr Ruth and then came back and avenged him the following year. 

I also don't lost the comments kinda inferring Phillips was a disappointment. I mean, sure, I was disappointed I didn't get to see him Wrestle, but far as I know, that was just a personal choice and he didn't Wrestle because he was burned out. I thought he paid his own way and went back and worked on the farm or something, but not like he got into trouble and threw it away. I'm fine with that. In fact, I have more respect for that. If you're burned out/sick of Wrestling, whatever it is, you don't love the sport, don't take up a scholarship. 

[fishbane]

On 2/7/2025 at 12:38 PM, Paul158 said:

I wonder how he would have done his senior year. Do you know what age Kolat was in high school? Looks like Kolat had a good chance of placing at NCAA's his sophomore, Junior and senior years in high school. I don't see Bo anywhere near that level. The Midlands was incredibly tough back then. I would say it was tougher than the NCAA tournament. My nephew was Kolat's team mate at Penn State until he left for Lock Haven.

I think Kolat would have had a chance to win at 126 as a senior, but in Dec of 1991 he was likely a 134 at.  He wrestled 135lbs in high school competition and 62kg at the Olympic trials in 1992.  1991 was the year Alan Fried pinned Tom Brands in the final.  Fried also has a very accomplished high school career and had placed 2nd to Brands at NCAAs the year before as a redshirt freshman.  I think Fried beat Kolat at the US Open some year after this (1995?) and before Kolat eventually made a world team in 1997.  Kolat finally won the Midlands in 1993.  He would have had a decent shot at winning her year before, 1992.  TJ Jaworsky won Midlands at 134 that year which was the same season he came from behind to beat Kolat in the NCAA final.