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My 2 cents: This is a guy whose kids wrestles their hearts for a man they know cares about them like they were his own.

I’ve been considering making this thread. Obviously most people here are here to talk about D1 wrestling at the highest level, but there are hundreds of programs outside of D1 that have talent, resources, great coaching, passion, etc. Does anyone here follow other divisions? I wanted to start this thread to see if there are good resources for following it and supporting it. Additionally there are guys from non-D1 schools that go on and wrestle post collegiately to make world teams. Tervel Dlagnev & Daniel DeShazer come to mind. This is an open topic, I have nothing to add other than they deserve support and recognition as well.

Didn't he commit to Cal Bap his junior year of hs? He honored his commitment but was a much different wrestler then from when he decided to go to PSU

Much respect to Nebraska for entering into the lions den and wrestling like that.

Judging a new coach by his first year doesn't make much sense. Dubuque has the team that coach Ayres built. What would have been different this year if Ayres stayed?

Yo, this right here. Princeton was an absolute doormat for a long time. He built teams around having Monday and Glory, who he was able to get bc both their parents said "Princeton? Really? Yeah choose life my child, not wrestling" It is two seasons too early to bag on Dubuque when Ayres just bounced less than two months before the start of the season and just handed Dubuque the keys saying "Hey dog...here ya go!" Dubuque is a 2x NCAA champ who is homegrown Jersey. Ayres going all the way across the country to go to Stanford WHILE HIS DAUGHTER IS STILL AT PRINCETON very likely was a big dollar signs move. Those moves are usually great for one person, but they burn everyone else involved in their environments. I know guys love Ayres, and I hope this wasn't exactly the situation, but...it's Stanford, and they have a pointed track record of operating with duplicity, so...yeah, I'm going to say Dubuque was at least surprised in September. Give Dubuque a few recruiting classes and a few full off seasons before you throw him under the bus. Princeton beat the crap out of Columbia. They won 26-7. Let's not go making stuff up to throw a new coach in the dirt. Especially dirt that doesn't exist.

Here's one measure -- Princeton won its first dual under Ayres in his third season as head coach.

All times Eastern, with local times in parenthesis. *-indicates event is believed to be eligible for a one-pound weight allowance. Tuesday, February 20: Sacred Heart at LIU, 6:00 PM Wednesday, February 21: Bloomsburg at Rutgers, 7:00 PM Thursday, February 22: Presbyterian at The Citadel, 6:00 PM Cleveland State at Kent State, 7:00 PM Rider at Pittsburgh, 7:00 PM Friday, February 23: *Rider at Cleveland State, 2:00 PM *Queens at Davidson, 5:00 PM Central Michigan at Cleveland State, 6:30 PM Harvard at Brown, 7:00 PM *Presbyterian at Davidson, 7:00 PM Chattanooga at Indiana, 7:00 PM Drexel at Maryland, 7:00 PM Virginia Tech at NC State, 7:00 PM Duke at North Carolina, 7:00 PM Morgan State at Penn, 7:00 PM *Virginia at Pittsburgh, 7:00 PM Bucknell at Princeton, 7:00 PM SIU Edwardsville at Northern Illinois, 8:00 PM (7:00 PM) Missouri at Northern Iowa, 8:00 PM (7:00 PM) Saturday, February 24: California Baptist at Utah Valley, 1:00 PM (11:00 AM) *Franklin & Marshall, Maryland at F&M Scramble, 2:00 PM *Sacred Heart at Brown, 3:00 PM *Hofstra at Drexel, 4:00 PM Campbell at VMI, 5:00 PM Buffalo at Ohio, 7:00 PM Lehigh at Arizona State, 9:00 PM (7:00 PM) Sunday, February 25: Davidson at Wildcat Open, hosted by Davidson, 10:00 AM George Mason, Indiana at Patriot Last Chance Open, 10:00 AM Queens, Utah Valley at National Collegiate Open, Smyrna, DE, 10:00 AM American at Columbia, 12:00 PM Chattanooga at Bellarmine, 1:00 PM Binghamton at Cornell, 1:00 PM Little Rock at Lindenwood, 1:00 PM Gardner-Webb at Appalachian State, 2:00 PM Michigan at Central Michigan, 2:00 PM Wisconsin at Northern Iowa, 2:00 PM (1:00 PM) Edinboro at Penn State, 2:00 PM *Nebraska at Arizona State, 3:00 PM (1:00 PM) Missouri at Iowa State, 3:00 PM (2:00 PM) Iowa at Oklahoma State, 3:00 PM (2:00 PM) North Dakota State at South Dakota State, 3:00 PM (2:00 PM) American at Army West Point, 5:00 PM

The dual lineup from Iowa has Ayala out for Joey Cruz and Gabe Arnold in. Lame for Arnold to be in now.

Is Messenbrink the new Stevenson?

Ironic that PSU had mirror issues that Iowa did (a possible duck, and a guy using injury to avoid a TD) with much.lwss furor. As to the match, best guy on Penn State right now might be Haines. I've been thinking he's too big and that might catch up to him at NCAAs, but the way he's pouring it on late against good opponents....awesome, separating himself from the field. 125: Davis may be hitting a bit of a wall, or maybe he's just hitting tougher competition. Smith finished strong. 133: Van Dee got baited into a match strategy he should never have approached. 141: Bartlett looked good other than the injury situation. I don't love watching him wrestle, but he's damn good. 149: Lovett's lack of neutral offense almost bit him again. Dug deep though. 157: see above, Haines the man. Robb was dodging bullets, but they started hitting late. 165: Mesenbrink ok? 174: Starocci dominated 184: Truax's only TD was a counter, otherwise Pinto got his own TDs and stoned Truax effectively and impressively. 197: Brooks just on a different level, plus some regression from Alred. 285: Yeesh. Kerk the man to beat until proven otherwise.

The PSU review works now?

Messenbrink wouldn't even make it out of conference tourney with Askeen as his coach.

d u b y a

Extend Bono. I love the impact he’s having.

That was a nutmashing at heavyweight. Gotta give Nebraska credit, they came ready to rumble, this was closer than I expected it would be.

This ain't fair ... Brooks is too short.

lenny pinto is a ***ducking** horse

Win or lose - Lenny Pinto has a bowlcut.

Taylor is clearly strong as an ox. Also, Mesenbrink is tough. Wrestling with a popped rib is a special experience.

PSU is so good I have to root against them. I also don’t like Truax for transferring there, the rich get richer. all in all penn state is good for wrestling and evolving the sport but I love rooting against them

I follow NJCAA

Who doesn't want to see a Bono Brands brawl at some point during the meet?

www.d3wrestle.com has your DIII coverage. WrestleStat also has a DIII section (and DII).

It was worth it to see the angry Bono

Lol. Classic weestling injury to full recovery. Very Russian.

He already in the right place to learn how to stomach seeing a lot of injuries.

Damn I love 125

Well. If there is a betting line for that game to go to overtime, then it’s a shoebox bet.

The starter at 133 was recently in a fight where a guy threw a bong at him. The details were cloudy at first, but he had some lacerations and what appeared to be puncture wounds. Reports were unclear if he was going to return for the remainder of the season and I stopped following the story. The kid is tough and has been having a great season. I hope he gets better soon, as he is entertaining to watch.

As an alumnus who follows the program closely, I see encouraging signs for the future. McGowan (125) is greyshirting. Whalen (who won Midlands) and Mulhauser are taking a year off. Their current 125 pounder (Heethuis) is very good, but dropping a lot of weight. They have three freshmen starting who just need time to develop. Not only did Ayres leave on short notice, their associate head coach Sean Gray also followed him. Give Dubuque a few years to develop this team.

I believe this is PSU’s last Big Ten dual of the year, and Nebraska has a tough team. Should be fun to watch.

100% that fake news predates Trump and has gotten worse He popularized awareness of it. Personally I had higher trust than Democrats in 1997 and lower trust than Republicans in 2016. See more charts, including how zero trust in news increased from 9% in 1998 to 39% in 2023. https://news.gallup.com/poll/512861/media-confidence-matches-2016-record-low.aspx I agree that people generally fall in for whatever side ‘their media’ is displaying. It's part of the emotional side that human's cannot escape. However my own observations is that these charts are accurate. I see it reflected in these forums. More right wingers will criticize their political side and right-leaning media as compared to left wingers criticizing the left-leaning media and politics. Personally I don't trust much of any news on first read anymore. Warning signs It includes an opinion It is one-sided It includes an outlandish headline Multiple news report the same keywords / language A quick readup on the author The sponsor / ownership majority of the news company It goes against real-life common behaviors... e.g. internal bullshit detector fires So much grattitude here for independent journalism and raw video access on X. The good > the bad on X.

First in AZ. Also in the biggest school's division.

Probably went over as good as the time I asked my wife if she had been doing "busy work" all day?

Idk man, how long did it take Ayres to get Princeton to be competitive? I recall a lot of years with plenty of rough beatings. Plus, Princeton just lost 2 hammers. Give Dubuque some more time to try and (re)build something

Pretty sure they're both in the Big 10

Probably better than McCrone shaving...

FC Rank Wrestler School Conference InterMat FloSports WIN WrestleStat Net Media Rank 1 Eric Barnett Wisconsin Big Ten 3 3 7 2 2 2 Matt Ramos Purdue Big Ten 1 1 1 1 1 3 Nico Provo Stanford PAC 12 16 19 16 21 18 4 Jore Volk Wyoming Big 12 9 14 15 15 12 5 Troy Spratley Oklahoma State Big 12 10 7 6 8 6 6 Cooper Flynn Virginia Tech ACC 4 6 3 10 5 7 Drake Ayala Iowa Big Ten 5 4 2 5 3 8 Noah Surtin Missouri Big 12 8 8 9 9 7 9 Caleb Smith Nebraska Big Ten 12 9 10 12 9 10 Tanner Jordan South Dakota State Big 12 15 13 13 22 16 11 Braeden Davis Penn State Big Ten 6 5 5 6 4 12 Michael DeAugustino Northwestern Big Ten 14 10 11 11 11 13 Brett Ungar Cornell EIWA 13 16 17 20 17 14 Luke Stanich Lehigh EIWA 2 2 51 3 14 15 Brendan McCrone Ohio State Big Ten 22 17 51 17 22 16 Patrick McKee Minnesota Big Ten 11 15 12 7 10 17 Anthony Molton Campbell SoCon 23 30 51 14 23 18 Jakob Camacho North Carolina State ACC 24 20 18 16 19 19 Anthony Noto Lock Haven MAC 21 21 8 4 13 20 Jack Maida American EIWA 29 31 51 26 27 21 Jett Strickenberger West Virginia Big 12 57 22 51 28 31 22 Stevo Poulin Northern Colorado Big 12 7 12 4 13 8 23 Dean Peterson Rutgers Big Ten 19 18 19 23 20 24 Brandon Kaylor Oregon State PAC 12 17 11 14 18 15 25 Blake West Northern Illinois MAC 33 57 51 36 33 26 Trever Anderson Northern Iowa Big 12 26 23 51 19 24 27 Ethan Berginc Army EIWA 32 32 51 30 29 28 Brayden Palmer Chattanooga SoCon 25 57 51 25 32 29 Spencer Moore North Carolina ACC 30 27 51 38 30 30 Kysen Terukina Iowa State Big 12 27 24 51 31 26 31 Dominic Mendez Cal Poly PAC 12 31 57 51 40 34 32 Drew West Gardner-Webb SoCon 57 57 51 42 43 33 Diego Sotelo Harvard EIWA 20 26 51 24 25 34 Sean Spidle Central Michigan MAC 57 57 51 47 47 35 Eli Griffin California Baptist Big 12 28 28 51 34 28 36 Jeremiah Reno Little Rock PAC 12 57 57 51 41 42 37 Max Gallagher Pennsylvania EIWA 57 57 51 27 37 38 Conrad Hendriksen Oklahoma Big 12 57 33 51 39 35 39 Jake Ice Sacred Heart EIWA 57 57 51 60 60 40 Kyle Montaperto Virginia ACC 57 57 51 51 51 41 Tucker Owens Air Force Big 12 57 57 51 44 45 42 Justin Cardani Illinois Big Ten 57 57 51 52 52 43 Tristan Lujan Michigan State Big Ten 57 57 51 43 44 44 Joey Fischer Clarion MAC 57 57 51 37 41 45 Richie Figueroa Arizona State PAC 12 18 25 20 29 21 46 Michael Joyce Brown EIWA 57 57 51 56 56 47 Ryan Henningson North Dakota State Big 12 57 57 51 65 65 48 Kade Davidheiser Bucknell EIWA 57 57 51 77 77 49 Nick Babin Columbia EIWA 57 57 51 35 40 50 Tyler Klinsky Rider MAC 57 57 51 33 39 51 Yusief Lillie Utah Valley Big 12 57 57 51 66 66 52 Benjamin Aranda Cleveland State MAC 57 57 51 57 57 53 Chad Bellis Appalachian State SoCon 57 57 51 32 38 54 Richard Castro-Sandoval Cal State Bakersfield PAC 12 57 57 51 49 49 55 Drew Heethuis Princeton EIWA 57 57 51 48 48 56 Colton Camacho Pittsburgh ACC 57 29 51 46 36 57 Davian Guanajuato Southern Illinois Edwardsville MAC 57 57 51 59 59 58 Desmond Pleasant Drexel EIWA 57 57 51 54 54 59 Tommy Capul Maryland Big Ten 57 57 51 76 76 60 Damion Ryan Bellarmine MAC 57 57 51 71 71 61 Logan Agin Duke ACC 57 57 51 45 46 62 JB Dragovich George Mason MAC 57 57 51 63 63 63 Trenton Dominguez Presbyterian SoCon 57 57 51 75 75 64 Blaine Frazier Indiana Big Ten 57 57 51 50 50 65 Massey Odiotti Northwestern Big Ten 57 57 51 73 73 66 Robbie Sagaris Long Island EIWA 57 57 51 55 55 67 Dylan Acevedo-Switzer Hofstra EIWA 57 57 51 62 62 68 Carson Wagner Binghamton EIWA 57 57 51 53 53 69 Dayton DelViscio Navy EIWA 57 57 51 64 64 70 Malik Hardy Citadel SoCon 57 57 51 58 58 71 Eric Howe Franklin & Marshall EIWA 57 57 51 70 70 72 Enis Ljikovic Davidson SoCon 57 57 51 79 79 73 Max Elton Buffalo MAC 57 57 51 61 61 74 Bronson Garber Bloomsburg MAC 57 57 51 68 68 75 Caleb Edwards Edinboro MAC 57 57 51 72 72 76 Adan Benavidez Kent State MAC 57 57 51 69 69 77 Tony Burke VMI SoCon 57 57 51 78 78 78 Ryan Meek Ohio MAC 57 57 51 74 74 79 Julian Dawson Morgan State EIWA 57 57 51 67 67 80 Austin Kegley Lindenwood MAC 57 57 51 80 80 81 Daniel Graham Queens SoCon 57 57 51 81 81

I’ll go out on a very sturdy limb here and say Ben is the 2nd best coach in the country right now at developing talent. He is also slowly developing a PSU pipeline, which will only mean great things for AWA in the future.

I have tickets for Paris 2024. Entered a lottery about a year ago and won. I think pretty much everyone won. Bought everything available at the time. During the initial sale they make you buy multiple sports, so I grabbed women’s soccer and sailing as well. New tickets would pop up every couple months and I grabbed the sessions I was missing. No such thing as an all sessions pass like NCAA’s. Have section B and C for prelims and section A for all gold medal FS finals. Going to be a good time. Hoping to go to LA in 2028 as well. I imagine transportation and planning will be much easier. Hardest thing for Paris has been lodging. Had to prepay for a hotel over a year ago.

Agreed

lucky for you I’m not a Purdue graduate that hates on IU. IU is the cooler do the two schools, Purdue is more dweeby. They also have the edge in wrestling at the moment. Other sports idk and idc about. Congrats on the degrees, I didn’t know they actually have those out at IU I thought it was all block parties and frat houses down in Bloomington. Your two degrees is probably equivalent to my one from Purdue

The city had barely recovered from the Great Chicago Fire caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow when a new battle came up. Those same business men you cited were already busy valiantly serving their brothers and sisters in the Great Ketchup War of 1851. It was either let Northwestern keep its name or let Big Ketchup win and thank god those brave men said "Up with sport peppers, down with Heinz! The Oregon Trail will never happen!"

No like I said ... dumb. Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin, California already admitted by then. Oregon territory established, Kansas territory soon to be. Those Chicago business men could not see what was happening and what was coming?

I think given the life cycle of the sport that building a title threat at a non-power school would go beyond Wisconsin's capabilities. They don't have the tradition or the money, IMO, to build a full on title contender. To be clear, were it not for tradition, I don't know that Iowa would be able if they were a Wisconsin-level program right now. I would love to be wrong, truly, more teams winning is healthier for the sport IMO. It's one of the reasons I constantly talk about a dual tournament should determine the team title.

I’m not dogging audiobooks, but for this resolution, I want to physically turn the pages.

Funny to see Gomez honored during Senior night after enrolling in the school less than a month ago.