Black Knight Invitational

[Pinnacle]

2 hours ago, Nak21 said:

My takeaways.

Great day of wrestling. Great being on post, West Point is truly a beautiful spot. Cristl is a decent arena, Army ran a quick and efficient tourney. Home in plenty of time for the 4p NFL games. Only hiccup, they ran out of hotdogs for the day at like 11-11:30a.

Not a competitive tourney, but you wrestle who they put in front of you and do your job and PSU did that. 
125 - took some time to reflect and iron sharpens iron. No way did I think Cael would let most of these PSU v PSU finals happen…super wrong…he let them all happen. Lots of room familiarity here, going back to Wyoming Sem. A few scrambles but overall neither guy did much, LL got in a close one with a good wrestler and dropped a close one. It doesn’t count on the records, but it happened. PSU continues to have an embarrassment of riches at multiple weights.

133 - Blaze dominated as expected. The final, the Army kid may have been auditioning for West Points boxing team, some vicious clubs to the head, Blaze kept his cool and kept scoring. He’s gonna be fun to watch over the next 4yrs.

141 - what I considered the hole, may really become a deep hole. I just don’t like Nagao’s style. I’m not a Dr, but I was sitting next to one. I thought wrist and body language after was not good. Like, “oh no, not again” kinda posture from a kid who already lost last year due to injury. Really hope I’m wrong and it’s not serious.

149 - Van Ness looked good, PSU on PSU final seemed friendly and followed the script.

157 - Duke looked amazing. The final was light on scoring but Sealy and Duke went after each other. PSU has an embarrassment of riches at 157, maybe the top 3-5 kids at the weight depending which Joe Sealy shows up.

165 - MM did MM things

174 - Henckel gave Levi all he wanted. PSU is gonna be fine at 174 when Levi graduates, if Henckel can hold the weight. He’s a big kid and recall a pic of his family from his recruitment, his Dad looks to be a big dude.

184 - Asher Cunningham is fun to watch. Hope he can work into the lineup in the future. Welsh has been impressing me since the summer and coming to PSU. I remember his FR year at tOSU and he didn’t seem to be aggressive or dynamic. U23s, handful of matches so far, he’s aggressive and attacking. No idea how 184 shakes out, there are some studs, but he’s in the mix.

197 - Mirasola looked good. Still Barr’s job when he’s healthy, but yet another weight PSU has incredible depth.

285 - Mirasola and Cochran both looked ok. Still both undersized but didn’t hurt them here. They met in the semis. Not much action, Mirasola pulled it out late. Depth here but not like the other weights. 
 

Got some matches in, took home some cool camo flak jacket vests. 125 is really a nothing burger - Lilledahl is the starter, Desmond is redshirting, that’s not changing. But depth and the future is bright. Biggest thing is Nagao…is he back already, next week, next semester, next season. Gonna need to see/hear the severity of the injury.

 

Nice write up, Nak. I agree with all that, plus here is a few added thoughts.

In the close PSU vs. PSU finals, this clearly wasn't a case of the starter not being what we all thought of him but rather a case of the back up being perhaps surprisingly good. Sealey may have lost to the Harvard wrestler, but that was a 10-9 score in his first match. Kid looks pretty good. Henckel and Cunningham, also good.

Not shocked that Nate Desmond showed how close he is. He has beaten some pretty good wrestlers and when healthy has never been far behind Lilledahl. One thing not mentioned anywhere I could see, part of what led to that takedown at the end was that Desmond actually stepped on Luke's foot which threw led to him being able to get to that leg. Not taking anything away from Desmond, but that is somewhat flukey. Either way, Desmond is for real. I think most PSU fans still expect him to redshirt and Luke to start, get dinged for an L, and work his way back to the top of the rankings by NCAAs. 

 

 

[Rassling2]

FYI-FLO just posted the finals replay to this event on YouTube 38 minutes ago.

https://youtu.be/L13ZAeKqaFw?si=jX9c3jvkY-kt-cWC

Edited November 25, 2025 by Rassling2

[Rassling2]

23 hours ago, Pinnacle said:

 

Nice write up, Nak. I agree with all that, plus here is a few added thoughts.

In the close PSU vs. PSU finals, this clearly wasn't a case of the starter not being what we all thought of him but rather a case of the back up being perhaps surprisingly good. Sealey may have lost to the Harvard wrestler, but that was a 10-9 score in his first match. Kid looks pretty good. Henckel and Cunningham, also good.

Not shocked that Nate Desmond showed how close he is. He has beaten some pretty good wrestlers and when healthy has never been far behind Lilledahl. One thing not mentioned anywhere I could see, part of what led to that takedown at the end was that Desmond actually stepped on Luke's foot which threw led to him being able to get to that leg. Not taking anything away from Desmond, but that is somewhat flukey. Either way, Desmond is for real. I think most PSU fans still expect him to redshirt and Luke to start, get dinged for an L, and work his way back to the top of the rankings by NCAAs. 

 

 

[Nak21]

Just now, Rassling2 said:

FLO just posted the finals replay to this event on YouTube 38 minutes ago.

Thanks!! I’ll have to go back and watch again, I tend to miss a lot in person, too much stimuli, trying to watch too many things at once.

[Rassling2]

1 minute ago, Nak21 said:

Thanks!! I’ll have to go back and watch again, I tend to miss a lot in person, too much stimuli, trying to watch too many things at once.

I just posted the link Nak

[Nak21]

2 minutes ago, Rassling2 said:

I just posted the link Nak

Thank you a second time!!!

[TAC]

On 11/24/2025 at 11:35 AM, Nak21 said:

My takeaways.

Great day of wrestling. Great being on post, West Point is truly a beautiful spot. Cristl is a decent arena, Army ran a quick and efficient tourney. Home in plenty of time for the 4p NFL games. Only hiccup, they ran out of hotdogs for the day at like 11-11:30a.

Not a competitive tourney, but you wrestle who they put in front of you and do your job and PSU did that. 
125 - took some time to reflect and iron sharpens iron. No way did I think Cael would let most of these PSU v PSU finals happen…super wrong…he let them all happen. Lots of room familiarity here, going back to Wyoming Sem. A few scrambles but overall neither guy did much, LL got in a close one with a good wrestler and dropped a close one. It doesn’t count on the records, but it happened. PSU continues to have an embarrassment of riches at multiple weights.

133 - Blaze dominated as expected. The final, the Army kid may have been auditioning for West Points boxing team, some vicious clubs to the head, Blaze kept his cool and kept scoring. He’s gonna be fun to watch over the next 4yrs.

141 - what I considered the hole, may really become a deep hole. I just don’t like Nagao’s style. I’m not a Dr, but I was sitting next to one. I thought wrist and body language after was not good. Like, “oh no, not again” kinda posture from a kid who already lost last year due to injury. Really hope I’m wrong and it’s not serious.

149 - Van Ness looked good, PSU on PSU final seemed friendly and followed the script.

157 - Duke looked amazing. The final was light on scoring but Sealy and Duke went after each other. PSU has an embarrassment of riches at 157, maybe the top 3-5 kids at the weight depending which Joe Sealy shows up.

165 - MM did MM things

174 - Henckel gave Levi all he wanted. PSU is gonna be fine at 174 when Levi graduates, if Henckel can hold the weight. He’s a big kid and recall a pic of his family from his recruitment, his Dad looks to be a big dude.

184 - Asher Cunningham is fun to watch. Hope he can work into the lineup in the future. Welsh has been impressing me since the summer and coming to PSU. I remember his FR year at tOSU and he didn’t seem to be aggressive or dynamic. U23s, handful of matches so far, he’s aggressive and attacking. No idea how 184 shakes out, there are some studs, but he’s in the mix.

197 - Mirasola looked good. Still Barr’s job when he’s healthy, but yet another weight PSU has incredible depth.

285 - Mirasola and Cochran both looked ok. Still both undersized but didn’t hurt them here. They met in the semis. Not much action, Mirasola pulled it out late. Depth here but not like the other weights. 
 

Got some matches in, took home some cool camo flak jacket vests. 125 is really a nothing burger - Lilledahl is the starter, Desmond is redshirting, that’s not changing. But depth and the future is bright. Biggest thing is Nagao…is he back already, next week, next semester, next season. Gonna need to see/hear the severity of the injury.

Great analysis. I watched every PSU match on flo after the fact.  I would not argue with anything you said. But I do like Nagao and his style. I was really looking forward to watching him this season. But I agree with you, the reaction to the injury did not look good.  I do think Rocco is underrated right now. He has as good a chance as any of those top 4. 

I was thinking LL was the favorite to win it all, but now not so sure.  I do like Nate, but I just felt he was a year away. He looked really good.  We are definitely set at those bottom 3 weights for the foreseeable future.

[NM1965]

On 11/23/2025 at 3:16 PM, Pinnacle said:

Nagao win 3:31 TF. Van Ness by bow and arrow fall in a little over 1 minute.

Dalton Perry and Connor Pierce are on the mat as is PJ Duke.

Matches are going quick. Duke win by fall over Army in 1:38. Had a tight cradle on his opponent after 3 prior takedowns.

Cael must love the bow and arrow, PSU guys are about the only guys I ever seen using it. I know I never used it back when I wrestled in the Pleistocene. 

[NM1965]

On 11/23/2025 at 2:55 PM, Antitroll2828 said:

Only works for #30 or worse? That’s strange because he has wins over Mendez, Byrd, Bouzakis, Van Dee, Shawver, Kai Orine, Mickey Phillipi, Taylor Lamont, Ravon Foley in his career. All of which are AAs or top 10 guys that he beat using the same exact style 

It's interesting you mention Mickey Phillilpi. I think that dude went R12 4 times!!! I felt real sorry that he never cracked AA and was so close so many times. 

[Nak21]

35 minutes ago, NM1965 said:

Cael must love the bow and arrow, PSU guys are about the only guys I ever seen using it. I know I never used it back when I wrestled in the Pleistocene. 

I don’t know if it was Cael. My memory sucks anymore but I seem to recall it being a Zain thing (and he’s always been around - NLWC, now coaching) and then it started showing up in the arsenal of a lot of the guys. Don’t recall seeing it pre-Zain. I remember learning it as a kid and drilling it in practice for freestyle, never came up during folkstyle in my Pleistocene days either. Max Dean used it a lot, thought I saw Nickal trot it out, Levi seems to love it and it’s gruesome to watch him do it, I feel bad for the other guy and start thinking it might need some guard rails and more PD calls. But yeah PSU seems to be the only ones I see use it or use it a lot. It’s effective if you can get it.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

1 minute ago, Nak21 said:

I don’t know if it was Cael. My memory sucks anymore but I seem to recall it being a Zain thing (and he’s always been around - NLWC, now coaching) and then it started showing up in the arsenal of a lot of the guys. Don’t recall seeing it pre-Zain. I remember learning it as a kid and drilling it in practice for freestyle, never came up during folkstyle in my Pleistocene days either. Max Dean used it a lot, thought I saw Nickal trot it out, Levi seems to love it and it’s gruesome to watch him do it, I feel bad for the other guy and start thinking it might need some guard rails and more PD calls. But yeah PSU seems to be the only ones I see use it or use it a lot. It’s effective if you can get it.

Cael used a lot of cradles.  I know I saw him use a crabride 1/2 at least once.

[Pinnacle]

On 11/26/2025 at 9:35 AM, NM1965 said:

Cael must love the bow and arrow, PSU guys are about the only guys I ever seen using it. I know I never used it back when I wrestled in the Pleistocene. 

 

On 11/26/2025 at 10:15 AM, Nak21 said:

I don’t know if it was Cael. My memory sucks anymore but I seem to recall it being a Zain thing (and he’s always been around - NLWC, now coaching) and then it started showing up in the arsenal of a lot of the guys. Don’t recall seeing it pre-Zain. I remember learning it as a kid and drilling it in practice for freestyle, never came up during folkstyle in my Pleistocene days either. Max Dean used it a lot, thought I saw Nickal trot it out, Levi seems to love it and it’s gruesome to watch him do it, I feel bad for the other guy and start thinking it might need some guard rails and more PD calls. But yeah PSU seems to be the only ones I see use it or use it a lot. It’s effective if you can get it.

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