Leaderboard

I'll give you a couple of reasons that I've heard over the years as to why Pa is so good. 1. Back in the day (40s-50s in particular) the top 4 wrestling colleges in the state sent their coaches out to local high schools to give clinics as the sport was in its HS infancy. Those areas where the colleges were became the states hot spots. One might surprise you. In no particular order- A. Western Pa (WPIAL)- Pitt (Rex Peery) B. North Central Pa- Penn State (Doc Speidel) C Eastern Pa- Lehigh (Sheridan/Leeman) D. South Central Pa- F&M (Believe it or not- they were among the top teams in the country back in the day) (Uncle Charley Mayser) 2. The State College system. Used to be known as the State Teachers Colleges. Several of them have dropped over the years. The PSAC was never a qualifying conference but the league tournament was one of the best in the country. So what would happen is that a kid would wrestle in HS, go to one of these colleges to wrestle and to become a teacher. Would get a job as a teacher and a coach and the cycle would continue in an upward motion.

I’m sure everyone has seen this but didn’t see a topic about it. Brock posted the first picture yesterday after the duel then I guess got some heat from Penn state fans so then posted the second picture today. I thought it was funny and not a cheap shot but then he looks classy with the second post.

Hot diggity, well I know a kid I’ll be rooting for real hard during Big Tens and NCAA’s.

Growing up wrestling in a neighboring state, we quickly learned to fear and respect PA wrestlers- especially those from the Lehigh Valley. My high school team traditionally competed in a medium-sized tournament in the region (Christmas City). As freshman in the pre-information age, the veteran upperclassmen routinely horrified us with tales of this tournament- how the top guys in our state would struggle just to place, and about the physical style of wrestling in the area, which typically left nearly everyone on the team bruised and battered. We were also told that the local wrestlers in this area were borderline feral, that their only breaks from toil in mines and factories came from wrestling. It sounds quite silly in retrospect. But again, as a young and impressionable 14-year old in the "word of mouth" era, this left a mark, and I will put the D11 area up against any other area in the country in terms of both quality and quantity of output.

You just used "ain't" in your comment about correcting the misuse of "your".

The point of showing all of that is to highlight that this isn't the result of a couple of good coaches or programs - or a result of a couple of good relationships with college programs. It's very widespread and varied, because this area benefits from having a strong wrestling ecosystem.

Just watched the JB: VI Flo Film. Kinda pissed that that Flo ambushed JB at the beginning by not telling him (giving him time to prepare) that they were planning to bring Dake on to the podcast. Love Dake, and love JB, but that was really sh*tty of Flo to not give JB a heads up. Is this typical of Flo? Legit question, as I have subscribed to them for many years to watch films and live wrestling, but have not watched any FRL. Of course I read the feedback here about Pyles and others, but never watched any of their opinion podcasts. Is there an opportunity for someone to replace them in interviews, opinion pieces, etc., and still provide the wrestling community with access to these athletes and their feedback without blindsiding them and treating them with respect?

Are you sure? What was that you said about reading comprehension? Hopefully this is not too much for you to read and comprehend. It's all you, and nothing but the you. But I will spell it out for you. First you quote Husker's Portland murder chart and comment with "add making guns readily and easily available and legal to carry" bolded here just like you did there. And then you come back after this comment about Portland murders and say "Absolutely nothing I've posted is about Portland or Open Carry". In effect you said the bold about Portland murders and then say you didn't. Trying to have your cake and eat it too but it just didn't work out for you. "But it usually works, darn" you might say. Maybe next time. Facts are stubborn things. mspart mspart

Some backgorund on the Div. 3 wrestler with losses. And by the way, Dan Hodge himself was 100 pecent in favor of honorirng Nick Ackerman in this fashion, as was Olympic champion Randy Lewis (read his comments below):: BUT WHILE SANDERSON was destroying the record books in Ames, 60 miles to the south, a story of equal impact was taking place. On the campus of Simpson College, in Indianola, another wrestler was also making history….in a far different fashion and with staggering emotional impact. Nick Ackerman was inflicted with spinal meningitis as a young boy and both legs had to be amputated below the knees to save his life. Yet by showing determination and courage which outstrips anything ever seen before in the 73-year history of NCAA wrestling, he won the 174-pound national championship at the Division III tournament in Waterloo, IA. And he did it by defeating defending national champion Nick Slack of Augsburg, who was riding a 60-match winning streak of his own! The 3,000 fans in Young Arena responded by a prolonged two-minute standing ovation to show their respect for what had just been accomplished. Ackerman finished his senior season with a 38-4 record, 13 of which were pins. “The story of Nick Ackerman has uplifted the entire sport,” said Randy Lewis, 1984 Olympic champion. “When I read about it, I got emotional. I started calling people and saying, ‘Have you read this story?’ What other sport could do this for an athlete? Wrestling should be so proud of this guy. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the best story of the year…of the decade…maybe ever….in wrestling history. Someone should make a movie of it!” “I never even dreamed about winning the Hodge Trophy. I don’t put myself in that class. It’s so overwhelming that I can’t put it into words,” said Ackerman when told of the award. “This has been the most unbelievable year of my life.”

I grew up wrestling with his older brothers. J'Den was born a monster. Wrestled up in age groups and weight class in youth tournaments to try and get competition (and the parents of the bigger, older kids would complain). I don't think he ever lost a state tournament after his first year of wrestling. He also had endless energy, at least as a kid. The bouncing around he does in the mat would continue all day long. No surprise J'Den is my pick for best from Missouri when looking at the full career, followed by Henson. High school-wise, I definitely got to see some incredible wrestlers in the late 90's- early 2000's, but TJ Hill was legendary (those Farmington kids were takedown machines). I believe he teched or pinned everyone his last 2 (or more) seasons.

People must accept responsibility for their choices. Nobody else is ever responsible for your situation but you. Honor your commitments. Pay your bills.

sounds like he has a lot of wisdom for a college kid. you don't hear stuff like that from young 20s in my experience. lots of testosterone flowing and everyone wants to be the man.

Hard not to like Brock Hardy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While I may not have a bias toward any particular team, I do tend to root for guys who came through the Lehigh Valley. From my experience, the strength of the youth system in the region is spread throughout mostly public schools with just a handful of private schools. It's generally accessible to everyone. And the culture and history are rich, boosted by Lehigh University and their success in NCAA wrestling. This is a pocket of land with 131 mile circumference and a population of just over 861,000. As a percentage of the US population it makes up 0.26%. As a percentage of division 1 wrestlers, the region supplies 2.04% of the overall pool. This translates into this region below having a 7.95 times greater conversion rate from resident to division one wrestler. Weight Wrestler College High School WS Rank Status NQ AA VEWL Program 125 Brett Ungar Cornell Notre Dame - Green Pond 21 Starter 1 0 N/A 125 Ryan Milller Pennsylvania Blair Academy 33 Backup 2 0 Stroudsburg 125 Carson Wagner Binghamton Northampton 93 Starter 0 0 Pocono Summit 125 Brandan Chletsos Rutgers Notre Dame - Green Pond 120 Backup 0 0 Palmer Township 125 Braxton Appello Ohio State Easton 187 Backup 0 0 Palmer Township 133 Ryan Crookham Lehigh Saucon Valley 3 Starter 0 0 N/A 133 Julian Chlebove Arizona State Northampton 34 Starter 0 0 Northampton 133 Sean Pierson Princeton Nazareth 46 Starter 0 0 Nazareth 133 Devon Britton Rutgers Northampton 112 Backup 0 0 Northampton 133 Charlie Bunting George Mason Nazareth 167 Redshirt 0 0 Bangor 133 Ashton Campbell Bloomsburg Bethlehem Catholic 216 Redshirt 0 0 Palisades 141 Dante Frinzi Harvard Bethlehem Catholic 147 Backup 0 0 N/A 141 Cael McIntyre American Bethlehem Catholic 184 Starter 0 0 Forks Township 141 David Kreidler Navy Central Catholic 218 Backup 0 0 N/A 149 Tyler Kasak Penn State Bethlehem Catholic 11 Starter 0 0 N/A 149 DaShawn Farber Lock Haven Nazareth 109 Backup 1 0 East Stroudsburg 149 Drew Munch Lehigh Wyoming Seminary 119 Backup 0 0 East Stroudsburg 149 Cole Handlovic Cornell Bethlehem Catholic 134 Backup 0 0 Wilson 149 Kenny Herrmann Harvard Bethlehem Catholic 136 Backup 0 0 Palisades 149 Jarred Papcsy Duke Bethlehem Catholic 150 Starter 0 0 Nazareth 149 Steven Storm Lehigh Pocono Mountain East 154 Backup 0 0 Pocono Mountain 149 Ethan Szerenscits American Northampton 168 Starter 0 0 Northampton 149 Matthew Arciuolo Columbia Saucon Valley 202 Backup 0 0 N/A 149 Oliver Fairchild Campbell Easton 249 Redshirt 0 0 Forks Township 149 CJ Fritz Bloomsburg Northampton 254 Backup 0 0 Lehigh Township 149 Jonathan Miers Princeton Easton 264 Backup 0 0 Forks Township 149 Jake Doone Air Force Nazareth 286 Backup 0 0 Nazareth 157 Sammy Sasso Ohio State Nazareth 3 Injured 4 2, 5, 2 Nazareth 157 Nathan Haubert Lehigh Palisades 84 Backup 0 0 Palisades 157 Luca Frinzi Lehigh Bethlehem Catholic 97 Backup 1 0 N/A 157 Dominic Wheatley Franklin & Marshall Nazareth 234 Starter 0 0 Nazareth 157 Dagen Condomitti Oregon State Northampton 259 Redshirt 0 0 Northampton 157 Marco Albenese Binghamton Emmaus 288 Redshirt 0 0 East Penn 157 Christopher Arciuolo Franklin & Marshall Saucon Valley 290 Backup 0 0 N/A 157 Anthon Micci Franklin & Marshall Wilson 293 Backup 0 0 Wilson 165 Andrew Cerniglia Navy Notre Dame - Green Pond 19 Starter 2 0 Nazareth 165 Liam Scrivanich Rider Saucon Valley 62 Redshirt 0 0 N/A 165 Evan Maag George Mason Notre Dame - Green Pond 67 Starter 0 0 Bethlehem Catholic 165 Holden Garcia Princeton Notre Dame - Green Pond 72 Backup 0 0 N/A 165 Benjamin Haubert Citadel Palisades 75 Starter 0 0 Palisades 165 Evan Gleason Harvard Easton 129 Backup 0 0 Forks Township 165 Jagger Condomitti Nebraska Northampton 146 Backup 0 0 Northampton 165 Landon Muth VMI Bethlehem Catholic 254 Redshirt 0 0 Lehigh Township 165 Riley Hughes Bloomsburg Bethlehem Catholic 267 Redshirt 0 0 N/A 174 Darrien Roberts Morgan State Wyoming Seminary 76 Redshirt 0 0 East Stroudsburg 174 Connor Herceg Lehigh Nazareth 80 Starter 0 0 Nazareth 174 Nick Foster George Mason Nazareth 202 Backup 0 0 N/A 174 Anthony DeRosa Bloomsburg Bethlehem Catholic 217 Backup 0 0 N/A 174 Luke Thomas Bloomsburg Bethlehem Catholic 238 Backup 0 0 Whitehall 174 Nathan Stefanik Princeton Nazareth 278 Backup 0 0 Nazareth 184 Lenny Pinto Nebraska Stroudsburg 5 Starter 1 0 East Stroudsburg 184 Adrian Gacek Clarion Parkland 109 Redshirt 0 0 N/A 197 Sonny Sasso Virginia Tech Nazareth 22 Redshirt 0 0 Nazareth 197 Kolby Flank Bloomsburg Wilson 114 Backup 0 0 Wilson 197 Caden Wright Lehigh Emmaus 156 Backup 0 0 East Penn 197 Chase Levey Drexel Nazareth 168 Backup 0 0 Nazareth 285 Matthew Cruise Pennsylvania Easton 165 Backup 0 0 N/A 285 Karam Chakif Lehigh Dieruff 186 Backup 0 0 N/A

I have followed and enjoyed this forum both here and at its previous site for many years. However, this post made me want to sign up and reply, not as a negative response, but to give rationale as to why many Badger wrestling fans are calling for Bono to be gone. First, I have been around the sport of wrestling since I was old enough to know what wrestling actually was. During high school, I lived in Northwest Illinois; we got IPT (Iowa Public Television) on our farm. Yes, I am a life-long Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling fan. Now, I live about 25 minutes south of Madison, WI. I met and married a woman with no wrestling background or knowledge... needless to say, she has embraced the sport I love, and we are now Badger Wrestling season ticket holders. To address the why: Bono and staff tout the importance of having in-state kids on the Badger roster. However, that sentiment really is working against Bono. When you take a look at the Badger state kids that Bono does not have on the roster, it is frustrating to see their success not in a Badger singlet. O'Toole, Mocco, and Whiting at Mizzou, Keckeisen at UNI, Messenbrink now and the Mirasolas next year at Penn State, and countless other possible All Americans at other programs make the current roster less than impressive. Going back to Askren, Pell, and Wagner all ending up at Mizzou, that pipeline was clearly established. Additionally, the rocky relationship, supposedly on the mend, between Bono and Askren does not help. While Wisconsin does have subpar facilities, this does not equal doom and gloom for the program. As alluded to in other threads, a growing number of Badger fans are tired of Bono's antics, and the in-state kids the Badgers get do not compare to the list above! If you look at the Wisconsin kids on the Badger roster this year and their records, it is not very impressive. However, one very pleasant surprise for the Badgers has been Shane Leigel, a grad transfer from Division 3 Loras, and a multiple-time Wisconsin State Champion from River Valley High School. In a nutshell, the Badgers are missing out massively on the "great ones" who keep getting away and are settling for the second-tier recruits, most of whom are just not very successful in a Badger singlet. Plus, that whole NIL thing!

Done no whining. Let it be, ok? Don't muck up a benign thread because of some curious vendetta, ok, Jefferson? Thanks.

Seems like there's a bigger population of socialists in the wrestling community than I would have guessed.

Can you stay on the track? We’re talking about the special people who took special jobs to qualify for special education loan forgiveness.

It was a good week or so wasn't it?!?! To bad he/she/they came back.

Nolf tore his MCL his junior year , if that doesn’t happen I’m pretty confident he would’ve got his hodge that season ..I consider Nolfs junior year the most impressive ncaa tournament Ive seen, he had one leg and completely changed his style and just started crushing people from top instead of on his feet .. he beat Kem, Micah Jordan and Hidley in a row at ncaas , all of them 4x AAs and Ncaa finliasts ..Nolf bonus rates were 88.89 his freshman year , then 92.59, 80 % his junior year ( was around 95% before torn mcl, only non bonus win was 6-4 over pantleo), and 87% his sr year ( only 3 non bonus wins, Pantleo 2x and The Hidley match everyone likes to bring up) only 2 true Ls in his entire career both as a freshman , also the first person to beat Imar just when people were thinking Imar was going to be an undefeated 4xer , 16-0 vs guys who were/ended up ncaa finalists with 9 bonus wins …probably the best guy to never win the hodge , definitely in my lifetime

This is really simple. Why isn't Wyatt Hendrickson getting buzz for the Hodge? We all saw him get shoved in a locker. Even if he avenges that loss, it happened, and is likely disqualifying, unless the other dominant guys eventually lose.

Nice job catching the irony. Check their credibility, but Miriam-Webster and Cambridge dictionaries recognize ‘ain’t’ as word. I know they advise against it in formal writing. Despite the tuxedo I’m wearing, I can assure you, a chat forum falls under the informal umbrella. If only just barely.

Jason Nolf was jobbed so bad. He was a generational NCAA wrestler who had the awful luck of being "only" the second most dominating wrestler his sophomore (Zain), junior (Spencer), and senior (Bo's Helping Hand) seasons. If there was ever a season that a Hodge should have legitimately had co-winners it should have been his senior season.

The numbers need to be related to the number of high school kids who have the opportunity to wrestle, not just general population. Then look at of those with access to HS wrestling how many had junior high wrestling, how many had access to a club program. Yeah there are a lot of big deserts across the country and a lot of areas with no or poor access to club.

Yeah it’s a lot of hassle to get one stud wrestler in Angelo. The dad has this weird “I’m an alpha male loon at me” vibe. If he wasn’t a wrestling dad he’d probably be protesting women’s rights or selling energy drinks lol

Your complaint is with PIAA, not Flo. PIAA sold the rights. They did not have to, they chose to.

This .

Wait...I thought it was "privilege"?? Ahhh...I bet "Prejudice" is the word of the month for the virtue signaling club

People want to demonize Flo for purchasing the broadcast rights to PIAA, but they can only buy what the PIAA was willing to sell.

No, unless the cancellation causes the entity that is owed money to become bankrupt, once a debt is cancelled it is cancelled. And the government is not eligible for bankruptcy protection. One thing to note is none of these cancellations are through new programs created by the Biden administration. In some cases they are just being proactive with existing programs and in others they are just claiming credit for things that have always happened and would have happened no matter who was president.

one of the things I'll never forget nor forgive is the PIAA here in Pennsylvania selling the televised rights (which were free to the local public) to the AA & AAA state wrestling championships. Our old timers enjoyed watching these events for FREE for decades on PCN and now its gone.

you’re* I guess a college education ain’t what it once was. Hah.

in addition to thinking you're stupid, i now think you're not fully sane.

The only reason I thought it was legit was because JB had his kid with him on camera, which, I would assume if you're playing into something/acting, you wouldn't do. I may be wrong on that, though. Problem with Flo is that they have built up the relationships to get the media rights. I wonder if there is a market for the "opinion" and podcast part outside of Flo. Pyles is clearly lacking in that area, and from what I've seen, the other guys that contribute (besides legit wrestlers like Askren) are worthless. I could be wrong, though...

As someone who has bashed Flo a lot, the dake ambush is one of the better things they've ever done, mostly because ot required a measure of boldness.

Another guy that has a funny sense of humor about his own matches is Cael Happel. When he got tossed feet to back by Echemendia, he replied to the tweet saying "wow looked liked that one hurt!"

Bono should get at least 10 more years to prove himself.

33% of schools in the region have a former athlete wrestling Division 1 High School Bethlehem Catholic Central Catholic Dieruff Easton Emmaus Nazareth Northampton Notre Dame - Green Pond Palisades Parkland Pocono Mountain East Saucon Valley Stroudsburg Wilson 56% of Valley Elementary Programs have a guy in Division 1 VEWL Program Bangor Bethlehem Catholic East Penn East Stroudsburg Forks Township Lehigh Township Nazareth Northampton Palisades Palmer Township Pocono Mountain Pocono Summit Stroudsburg Whitehall Wilson

this young man will succeed in what ever he chooses to do in life. That’s my prediction.

Thoughts: Fewer matches and fewer bums. Guys aren’t seeing 40 matches, half of which are against backups, anymore. And the level has jumped considerably. Watch the technical ability of guys winning titles in the 80s and 90s. Their defense was not great; far ankle scrambles basically didn’t exist. Some of those guys would get crushed by current top wrestlers. I know I’ll get flamed for this but I don’t care: Ed Banach vs Mark Schultz. That was an NCAA final in 1982. These guys would get stomped by recent 184s like Amine, Hidlay, Keckeisen or Brooks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Steveson really is not an exception anymore. Of the last 10 Hodge winners, half did not lead in pinfalls among the finalists. I chose 2012 as the starting point because that appears to be when the voting method changed. It went from a handful of people as part of a committee to a committee plus the vote of past Hodge winners. Ultimately, a fan vote was added to.

Gotta love the sense of humor

Classy Kid.

Steveson was an exception to the general rule. Look at the history of Hodge. Many are big pinners: Sanderson (3 times), Askren (two times), Taylor (2 times), Retherford (two times), etc. Last year, Mason Parris had 11 pins. None of the so-called Hodge candidates this year have anywhere near even that number, except Hendrickson (who is not even on some of the lists). If the powers-that-be want pinning to be de-emphasized, then revise the Hodge criteria. And make sure you check if Dan Hodge has rolled over in his grave. If you don't want to exhume him, then consult Ben Askren for his thoughts or even Wade Schalles. They will both chew the cauliflower ears off the wrestling community on this point about pinning.

Hendrickson has FAR more pins than any of these guys. He has a far higher dominance score than any of these guys. He has more wins than any of these guys but two. I'm not saying he should or will win the Hodge (he very likely won't). It's just that he deserves consideration at THIS POINt in the season. Jan 10, 2024 Feb 19, 2024 RANK NAME SCHOOL WEIGHT YEAR Previous RECORD PINS BONUS RATE DOMINANCE SCORE 1 Aaron Brooks Penn State 197 SR 2 14-0 4 92% 4.92 2 Carter Starocci Penn State 174 SR 1 11-0 3 90% 4.9 3 Keegan O'Toole Missouri 165 JR 3 16-0 6 81% 4.81 4 Trent Hidlay NC State 197 SR 5 21-0 4 85% 4.76 5 Parker Keckeisen UNI 184 JR 6 19-0 2 78% 5.1 6 Greg Kerkvliet Penn State 285 SR 4 12-0 1 75% 4.16 7 Ridge Lovett Nebraska 149 JR 8 21-0 6 61% 4.19 8 Levi Haines Penn State 157 SO 12 14-0 3 64% 4.28 9 Mitchell Mesenbrink Penn State 165 FR NR 17-0 3 70% 4.47 10 Daton Fix Oklahoma State 133 SR 14 12-0 1 75% 4.16 11 Vinny Zerban Northern Colorado 157 SO NR 18-0 2 77% 4.88 12 Ryan Crookham Lehigh 133 FR 7 14-0 1 64% 3.85 13 Yonger Bastida Iowa State 285 SR 10 19-0 0 68% 3.89 14 Beau Bartlett Penn State 141 SR 11 17-0 4 41% 3.88

https://vpc.org/more-than-2200-non-self-defense-deaths-involving-concealed-carry-killers-since-2007-latest-violence-policy-center-research-shows/ More Than 2,200 Non-Self Defense Deaths Involving Concealed Carry Killers Since 2007, Latest Violence Policy Center Research Shows For Release: Thursday, April 21, 2022 Overall, Concealed Carry Killers documents 1,981 fatal, non-self defense incidents since May 2007 in 40 states and the District of Columbia, resulting in the deaths of 2,240 people. Thirty-seven of the incidents were fatal mass shootings as defined by federal law (three or more victims killed), resulting in the deaths of 183 victims. At least 24 law enforcement officers have died at the hands of concealed carry killers since May 2007. This is a website that is a proponent of no concealed carry. They cite over 2000 deaths since May 2007. Of those, over 1200 are suicide, so that is not really a consideration. They could have done that without a permit so now there are much less. Of the rest, about 500 have been convicted, and as you can see the numbers go way down from there. So 800 homicides in 15 years, that's a rate of 53.3 homicides a year by people with concealed permits. Putting this into perspective, Chicago had over 700 gun deaths per year since 2020. 2 a day. Think of that. Per https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/ , In 2021, 21000 murders with guns were perpetrated. Perhaps 53 of those by people with concealed permits. It would seem that there is plenty of reason to go after everyone else but concealed carry permit holders. 53 to 20947 which is a ratio of 1 to 395. How many of the murders in 2021 were with illegal guns? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States A 2000 study showed a strong association between the availability of illegal guns and violent crime rates, but not between legal gun availability and violent crime rates.[212] And there you have it. Legal guns are not associated with violent crime rates whereas illegal guns or illegally held guns are. mspart

For South Dakota - already mentioned: Randy Lewis Lincoln Mac Jim and Bill Scherr Some high school greats: Logan Storley 6 titles Kirk Wallman 6 titles (his dad Gary "Smokey" also won 4 as did his brother Troy and brother Cory) not quite the Peery's from Oklahoma, but better than my family... Gary AAed twice at Iowa State. I think one of the boys AAed at Iowa State and one at Wisconsin. Lincoln Mac 5 titles

What you say is very interesting. You have a government that has control because they have the arms and the civilians don't and they can't make a change. Sounds familiar. But they can be ratted out. mspart

It sounds like the good people of Gaza should round up the Hamas folks and turn them over. That would end it right now. mspart