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For me.....46th NCAA Championship dating back to 1972 (Maryland).....this will be 40 in a row, dating back to 1985 (Oklahoma City)....before I retired, it was a vacation, today.....it's still a vacation....lol. Some day I plan on being the last man standing....oh, and by the way, I can prove I've been to each of those NCAA's!!!

I was just thinking how great it was not watching someone ride a leg on top for 4 minutes without turning his opponent.

I see a lot of holier than thou takes on Williams , a lot of grown ass adults judging this kid but the reality is the kids father is in prison , his mother isn’t in his life and he doesn’t have much guidance , Coleman Scott and his wife were his support system last year and checked on him daily to try and keep him in line then after one year at school his support system is gone , I would bet 95 percent of you have no idea what’s it’s like to be 18 and have no parents to help you and no support system ( nevermind while wrestling D1 at one of the most prestigious programs in the sport) ,save your judgements and just hope this young man finds a place where he can get it right because the talent is there and he’s a great kid overall

While you're at it, can we get rid of the stupid bob dole face as the default reaction? It was funny for about 5 seconds but time to move back to the standard thumbs-up.

With another cycle of Olympic Wrestling in the books followed by the inevitable traditional quad annual should we switch to freestyle brigade choir. I just wanted to remind everyone Folkstyle wrestlers are superior to Freestyle wrestlers

Now that the Olympics are over I would just like to say folkstyle is way more interesting and way easier for casual fans to understand than freestyle.

Hey everyone, This is my first post here. I'm an Iranian-Austrian living in Germany, and I've been following wrestling for a few years now. Just wanted to share some thoughts: Even though Russia wasn't officially competing, they were definitely still in the mix through athletes from Albania, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain. There were basically seven medalists in freestyle wrestling who were from Russia (mostly Dagestan), which honestly made it feel like there were more Russian wrestlers than when they were officially competing. Japan is really stepping up in the lighter weight classes. Their culture of discipline, perfectionism, and staying cool under pressure really shines through in their wrestling. They ended up with 8 gold medals across 18 weight classes in freestyle, Greco-Roman, and women’s wrestling. I was surprised to see the U.S. wrestlers not as dominant as they've been recently, especially considering how they've been crushing it at the World Championships in the past few years. I'm curious to hear what you all think is behind this. I know it’s a tough question, but still. It was tough watching Yazdani, Zare, and Amouzad get silver instead of gold, but overall, I think the Iranian wrestlers did well, grabbing 8 medals across 12 weight classes in freestyle and Greco-Roman. What hurts the most is Yazdani’s injury flaring up at the worst time. I think we were all pumped to see Yazdani vs. Brooks. Looking forward to hearing what you all think.

From a human standpoint, really feel for Dake. I know after the trials he said this one was going to be for his dad. Sending him positive vibes and well wishes because I’m sure this is devastating on multiple levels.

Oslo — here’s Zare’s And Geno’s

I would say that many, me included, thought Dake was just as good as Burroughs, and I think we know that's not true. He's still awesome, but this does reaffirm the specialness of prime Burroughs.

I swear the Olympics bring out the worst and most arrogant of our fan base, the fact that it seems so many people thought we were going to just run through everyone bc the Russia team isn’t here is crazy just for starters …but the hate I’ve seen towards Parris, Dake, Zain and especially Brooks is embarrassing. This is the Olympics ,the pinnacle of the sport , you have the best guys from around the world living out something they ve been dreaming aboutand sacrificing for more then half their lives but that doesn’t stop the fat guy who never placed in districts from sitting on the couch and talking shit. ive seen about a dozen posts (about 6 from mineo) about how disappointing this Olympic run has been….we still have a chance at medaling 5 out of 6 in men’s freestyle (most likely 4) and we had 4 new guys on the team with no Olympic experience and barely any senior level experience and we re still doing pretty well I feel brooks has gotten the most crap but in reality he just graduated college , went to the Olympics and lost in the final second by 1 to the Olympic champ and came back and medaled and you think he went 0-2 BBQ

I sure hope you didn't read any of it. That makes you an accessory after the fact.

57kg: I expect Luke to medal I think he is world level for seniors let alone u20's. In his way I think will be Valizadeh from Iran who was the 2023 senior world rep for iran and grabbed two wins over an unknown and Rzazde from Azerbijan who is tough. He also has a win over Horst Lehr who infamously pinned thomas gilman. There is also the Japan rep who I am sure is good and then Pavlov from Russia who recently won euros but Luke beat him last year 9-2. Prediction: gold but Iran worries me 61kg: I think Marcus Blaze is the best high school wrestler I've ever seen just given the accolades of the guys hes beaten as well as how sound his defense is, that being said this weight is brutal. Jamal Abbasov took second at Euros and beat ben davino 5-0 at cadets last year. The guy he lost to at Euros 6-1 is Andrei Midlovets who teched his way to the finals before beating Abbasov. Ono from Japan was up at 65kg for the senior Asian championships where he took third only falling to tumur ochir. Edik Harutyunyan is also a returning bronze from 57kg last year. Prediction: Gold Blaze is that dude 65kg: I am very interested to see how Bo does here. I think his pace could be a serious issue for the international guys. I am worried that he snaps guys into his legs sometimes and that could prove to put him in a hole he can't dig himself out of. Abdullah toprak doubled up on bronze medals last year at u20's and u23's taking a 3-1 loss to Mendez at u20's. He also managed to score 4 points on Amouzad this year which is 4 more than Zain scored. The Iranian is also a returning Bronze medalist from last year and won the asian championships this year as well as a cadet gold in 2021. Hosokawa from Japan took 5th at the emperors cup. He took bronze at Asians last year and has a win over 2022 u20 champ Jalalov. Prediction: Bronze for Bassett 70KG: Would be a bit surprised if Duke did not win gold I think his only fault is he gets a bit tired but what he did to kannon webster twice was quite insane. Karampour from iran teched his way through asians so hes definitely a stud. Baitukaev did the same through Euros and I think will be his biggest test. He took Bronze last year and lost to Meyer 8-0. It was a match that came down to a few exchanges though but I still think its a match I favor PJ in. Prediction: Gold for Duke 74kg: Similarly to Duke I think Dee should be the favorite at this weight. Yaprak from Turkey is tough he took third and 5th and u20 and u23 euros ironically the third was in u23's. Locketts biggest threat is Reza from Iran who took silver at 70kg last year losing to Meyer 11-6. He teched his way through Asians and took third at the second ranking series beating Bayramov 5-0 and actually going the distance with zhamolov losing 7-0. Prediction: Gold for Lockett I will do the second half in a bit I've grown tired.

Guys, we just changed ad service. we didn't 'turn up' frequency of ad placement or anything. i can understand your hatred of too many ads, but i promise you it's not on purpose. i want everyone to enjoy coming to the site. it's an entirely new service, so there's bound to be some tweaks. give @BobDole a moment to fine tune it. and continue to let us know here, what you're seeing (apparently we're all seeing different things). thank you.

I am biased toward: 1. Bravery and courage, regardless of result. think of Rivera at Northwestern bumping up to 133 to face number 1 Stephan Micic. He lost the match, but won a fan. 2. Those who don't take a redshirt 3. Underdogs 4. Guys who were recruited over 5. Aggressive wrestling style with high attack rate 6. High stamina - never gasses

Rivera put it really eloquently in his bronze medal, post match interview. "I find peace in the sacrifice"

I think he is killing it! Very informative without over-talking. Good for him.

1. Snyder's wife got in to med school at PSU, which is why he left. Some things in life are bigger than wrestling, and sometimes you have to support the people you love in their careers and pursuits - much like I'm sure Snyder's wife has done for him throughout his career. Life is about compromise and competition is inherently selfish. Snyder is still in a great room, arguably the best room for heavyweights. 2. It's important to understand the distinction between underperformance and a disappointing performance. Could the US have medaled at 6 weights? Absolutely. Our wrestlers lost to the best in the world. I think the farther away you get from competing, the easier it is to forget how tough winning is. This is the Olympics - sure Russia wasn't there, but this is THE toughest tournament in the world for a reason. Our guys have had near unprecedented success the last few years and have made winning look easy. It's not. That's why we celebrate our Olympians; qualifiers, medalists, and champions. 3. I think Mason losing first round was the biggest shocker, but for those who have paid attention to the scene for a while, these things happen every year, and it's only recently that we've been spoiled with a relatively low amount of upsets. A few years ago and this would've been par for the course for us. The relevant thing is that crazy things happen every year, especially in the Olympics. 4. Zain's concussions are so disappointing for us as fans of American wrestling. He's on the short list for greatest college wrestlers ever. Dake too. Sometimes things don't go your way, and you don't get tougher than those two. Maybe Spencer Lee. All I can say is I hope that for the guys that continue, they are able to find the motivation, health, and timing to make their dreams a reality. I'm dismayed that our community has put so much blame on their shoulders. Bottom line - this sh!t is tough for a reason. Our guys were the best of our best. We are overly familiar with their success and under familiar with the world. Armchair quarterbacking is especially hilarious in our sport, where our B-team is getting teched in the finals of OLY trials and Final X. Let alone the guys that made varsity maybe once or twice in high school and never sniffed D1. Anyone with experience/perspective knows we put our best foot out there and just lost a couple close ones but had success nonetheless. USA Wrestling is still in a great place. LA 28. Postscript - How about those freaking BADA$$ women?? Also, can we scrap Greco and give those weights back to WFS and MFS?

Both have pros and cons, but to me folkstyle is way more interesting.

We don't know if Snyder is done yet. I think he'll go until he can't. At 28, it wouldn't be unusual for a guy his size to give it a go in 2028 We don't even know if Burroughs is done yet... It's a great generation of wrestlers. They've made it easy to be a fan. We've also had some promising performances from some age-group kids.

I think he did. he took his shoes off much faster, said a prayer, stood up and backed up a few steps giving Akgul center mat. At the end of the day its Lazarev's moment too; he shouldn't have to sacrifice his oppertunity to end his career on his own terms

Did you mean to say Terry Steiner?

All you see is gold. All you type is garbage. Hell, you can't even get the timing right.

Great showing by the men's free team. 10 of 10 in the semis is great. 1 of 10 getting gold is a bummer, but then again, 9 of 10 came away with medals. My quick take. Lilledahl: Kid is just so cool and consistent. Have we ever had anyone get 4 straight age group world medals? Second win in a row over the Russian who just took 2nd at Russian Nats. A+ Blaze: I thought he'd take gold, but the kid from Japan, Ono, is something special. Slick ankle pick. Wouldn't be surprised to see him as Japan's senior rep at 61kg Worlds. Blaze was otherwise his usual self, stingy on D and opportunistic on O. Bo: Fun to see his high-paced style translate to freestyle success. Probably gave up more points than anyone but also scored more than anyone. His wide-open style makes him beatable in a style where one mistake can enable your opponent to rack up a bunch of points. Not reading too much into his semis loss as gave up a very tight gut position on a TD, and it was game over. Duke: Despite his semis loss he was one of the most impressive. Great attacks from so many positions. Reminds me of Dake. Before this weekend, when was the last time he lost? LaDarion: Kozak is eating crow right now for predicting a DNP finish. C'mon Jon, LaDarion literally teched Shapiro, last year's U20 champ, who beat all these guys! (j/k. Love Kozak's work.) But really, LaDarion looked outstanding, and his 3-3 finals loss was to an Iranian who's been wrestling at a really high level. (What's up with crowding the center though? What US coach is teaching that? Ticked off the Iranian, that's for sure.) Barr: Did way better than I thought he would. Techs to the finals, and held his own against the reigning Russian National champ. Don't see how PSU can sit this kid. Mirasola: Reminds me of a less polished Jake Varner. Semis match was tough to watch... I wanted to slap his opponent for being such a baby, then Mirasola played "can't touch me" for the last 15 seconds and got dinged. Bronze match wasn't very pretty. I see the upside but he could use a redshirt. Rademacher: OK, where the heck did this kid come from? Is this the same kid who got teched by Beard, and got majored by a half-dozen guys last year for Oregon State? Looked strong and polished in all his matches. Can't ding him for losing to a sr. world champ in the semis. Keuter: At first I thought he looked like Ivan Drago, but then I realized that with his upright style he wrestles like what Terry Brands would look like if he were 100 pounds bigger. Anyway, huge props to this kid, who looked very solid, and despite losing in the finals he gave that mountain of an Iranian a closer match than any other American has been able to give him.

All valid points from a viewing perspective, but I think the overall flaw is when watching, we tend to watch freestyle wanting it to be folkstyle. Expecting takedowns to be the same, such as a quad pod. Freestyle is about exposing your back, not about control, which is a crucial element to American folkstyle. it’s the same sport, but to use Olympic parlance, a different discipline. From a viewer perspective, I find riding time to be the biggest detriment to the uneducated sports fan in trying to get them to watch college wrestling. No style is perfect, I just wish more people could appreciate the styles for what they are vs. what they’re not. We don’t do the metric system here but it doesn’t mean it’s worse … imperial is just what we are used to.

headshuck has a bias against people who talk about themselves in the third person.

Already in the room...

Wow, I guess that's a great question.....I don't think I can pick out just one, they all have there memories, but, 1972 (Cole Fieldhouse, Maryland) definitely stands out, partly because it was my first, on Saturday we skipped the consolation matches and visited the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. It included, just like all the others, great wrestling....At 118 Greg Johnson won his 3rd NCAA title, at 126, Yoshiro Fujita (defended champion) broke his collar bone in the first round and was out , 134 was high scoring match that ended up with Gary Barton (Clarion) upsetting Phil Parker ISU, Iowa State winning the NCAA title with 3 champions in Carl Adams, Ben Peterson and Chris Taylor. That year, Clarion (Div. 2) had 2 NCAA Champions in Barton and Wade Schalles, and they followed up in 1973 with 3 Champions in Schalles, Don Rohn, and Bill Simpson...Div. 2 scores didn't count in the team score or Clarion would have been up there in the team score as Iowa State again won it with 2 champions in Rich Binek and Chris Taylor. Every year the guys I go with (former wrestlers of mine) and I try to make a trip to an area place of importance, Philly as seen above, Oklahoma City bombing, World Trade Center, The Museum in Tulsa for the burning of "Black Wall Street", etc. Will have to think about this....maybe to be continued!!!

You might be on to something there OP. Watch, Bassett will eliminate every school from his list lol

The great forum poster from the early 2000s Skandar Akbar once held an iconic TheMat.com posters party, but accidentally posted the wrong address. People allegedly showed up at a house of ill repute … notably missing was the Mayor of Cleveland.

Arizona State was the best place last year. Princeton the year before.

for the kids who are pictured on the right hand side of this forum, who have just signed up to be miserable and malnourished for the next 4-5 years of their lives? I was young and dumb and thought I would win NCAAs and got smacked down by reality, just as most of these guys will. Poor guys. Don't tell em.

48 and 52 are madness

There was already whisperings about Williams when DT arrived. The sad part about this is that despite his problems last year, having DT come in with strict policies, he chose to do this again. Hopefully he can get things straightened out and get to another school down the road. We have seen others succeed.

I am a relatively new fan of wrestling. I don't find one any easier to explain to someone than the other. In folk you can watch two guys roll around for 40 seconds and there are no points scored because they are both holding on to a foot. Or as others have said here is a lace and the match is now over. Neither is made for the uninitiated. Just embrace that they are different and enjoy both (or all three).

The ones that I really feel sorry for are the wrestlers for Johnson-Wales in Rhode Island, home to one of the best culinary schools in the country. Probably the only program that worries about their HWT making weight.

I don't care about him and his recruiting and that is why I am constantly checking in to see what he is doing

I could be wrong but my subjective observation is seems its the refs job to put the wrong guy on the clock first thus when he puts the right guy on the clock second then the wrong guy who is now the right guy will win the match if 1 - 1 by virtue of scoring the last passive point thus making everything right in the match.

Scoring in any sport is arbitrary to someone who doesn't understand it.

Rivera’s bronze match has to be up there.

I just want to say. I don't post much, but I read everyday. I appreciate the knowledge I get from this site. I'm a huge wrestling fan. I wrestled in hs. My son wrestled in his. I coached kid wrestling. I helped coach middle school and hs. I'm and old guy. 67 years old. But again I really appreciate this site. We are a small community. I congratulate anybody who competes in this sport. They are all winners in my book. Did we have a disappointing Olympics? I don't think so. They all wrestled there best. That all you can ask for. Somebody has to win. Somebody has to lose. Thats wrestling! They are all winners at this level!

And you are a poor excuse of a human being.

Burroughs was praising Snyder for not going all out in period 1, then after Kyle got two TDs near the end he was question Kyle first period tactics. Now Kennedy gets up 8-2 and he says she should let the fur fly. Blades attempts a TD and Burroughs claims "Well done" but Kurgistan counters and turns her within 5 seconds to make 8-6. Not his best color commentary.

Bad news for Higuchi - he needs to fight Spencer's mom now.

15. Cadet eligible.

Not sure it was 2 calls but ...

Dake giving up that pushout shows how overrated he is. Someone should ask Cael if they even practice that situation. Got lucky in that match

I will not take any more Kyle Snyder slander. He, like Yazdani, would be in GOAT conversation if there were not a pantheon all-timer. You are all damn fools for even thinking this. He had a single bronze slide outside of Sadulaev before what was either Taz's tourney of his life or the changing of the guard when Snyder was an old *and still producing* 27. You folkstyle morons need to gtfo and it shows.