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John opens with a reading from the book of weight cutting is all I know.

Now that we know the entire field and who will be competing where, in respects to byes to the semi-finals, how do we think seeds will play out? Nomad had gone in to great detail, mind you with obviously opinionated picks as to how he thinks they should go, but how do we think they're going to go? Here are who is qualified as of now, with their 'projected' weights... I have taken the liberty of putting who I think will NOT show up in italics. Some thing to consider with this is that once you are qualified, you are qualified. There is no stipulation as to what weight you can wrestle once you are qualified. Meaning Daton Fix could go 65 KG or Aaron Brooks could go 97 KG. The stipulations are only with the 'byes' that are earned. For example, a bye to the best-of-three finals is stipulated upon you having earned a medal at that Olympic weight the year prior. A bye to the bottom semi-finals is stipulated that you earned a medal at an adjacent weight the year prior (technically Snyder could have gone 125 KG if he chose, with a bye to the bottom semi-finals). The guys waiting in the best-of-three finals and the bye to the semi-finals gents are locked in as of now, though, as they had to declare their intentions by the end of last month. Again, here are the currently qualified gents for MFS... 57 KG Challenge Tournament Zane Richards - 2023 World Team member Thomas Gilman - 2020 Olympic Team member Daton Fix - 2019 World Team member Marcus Blaze - 2023 U17 World champion Spencer Lee - 2023 Bill Farrell champion Nico Megaludis - 2023 Senior Nationals 2nd place Liam Cronin - 2023 Senior Nationals 3rd place Daniel DeShazer - 2023 Senior Nationals 4th place Luke Lilledahl - 2023 Senior Nationals 5th place Richard Figeroa - NCAA D1 champion at 125 lbs Vitali Arujau - 2023 Senior World champion 61 KG Joe Colon - 2018 World Team member 61 KG Nick Suriano - 2024 Pan Am Championships champion 61 KG Jax Forrest - Last Chance Qualifier 65 KG Sitting out to Bottom Semi-Finals Zain Retherford - 2023 Senior World champion at 70 KG Challenge Tournament Nick Lee - 2023 World Team member Yianni Diakomihalis - 2022 World Team member Logan Stieber - 2018 World Team member Kaleb Larkin - 2023 Bill Farrell champion Andrew Alirez - 2023 Senior Nationals champion Beau Bartlett - 2023 Senior Nationals 2nd place Joey McKenna - 2023 Senior Nationals 3rd place Seth Gross - 2023 Senior Nationals 4th place Austin DeSanto - 2023 Senior Nationals 5th place Jesse Mendez - NCAA D1 champion at 141 lbs Caleb Henson - 2024 NCAA D1 champion at 149 lbs Nahshon Garrett - 2018 World Final Trials champion 61 KG Tyler Graff - 2019 World Team member 61 KG James Green - 2021 World Team member 70 KG Alec Pantaleo - 2024 Pan Am Championships champion 70 KG Matthew Kolodzik - Last Chance Qualifier 74 KG Sitting out to Best-of-Three Finals Kyle Dake - 2023 Senior World silver medal at Olympic weight Challenge Tournament Jordan Burroughs - 2019 World Team member Mitchell Mesenbrink - 2023 U20 World champion Keegan O'Toole - 2023 U23 World champion Jason Nolf - 2023 Bill Farrell champion Quincy Monday - 2023 Senior Nationals champion Alex Marinelli - 2023 Senior Nationals 2nd place Alex Facundo - 2023 Senior Nationals 3rd place Jarrett Jacques - 2023 Senior Nationals 4th place Tyler Berger - 2023 Senior Nationals 5th place Levi Haines - 2024 NCAA D1 champion at 157 lbs David Carr - 2024 NCAA D1 champion at 165 lbs Carter Starocci - 2024 NCAA D1 champion at 174 lbs Meyer Shapiro - 2023 U20 World champion 70 KG Ladarion Lockett - 2023 U17 World champion 71 KG Vincenzo Joseph - Last Chance Qualifer 86 KG Sitting out to Best-Of-Three Finals David Taylor - 2023 Senior World champion at Olympic weight Sitting out to Bottom Semi-Finals Zahid Valencia - 2023 Senior World bronze medalist at 92 KG Challenge Tournament Patrick Downey - 2019 World Team member Aaron Brooks - 2023 U23 World champion Trent Hidlay - 2023 Bill Farrell champion Alex Dieringer - 2023 Senior Nationals champion Mark Hall - 2023 Senior Nationals 2nd place Max Dean - 2023 Senior Nationals 3rd place Connor Mirasola - 2023 Senior Nationals 4th place Evan Wick - 2023 Senior Nationals 5th place Parker Keckeisen - NCAA D1 champion at 184 lbs Chance Marsteller - 2023 World Team member 79 KG David McFadden - Last Chance Qualifier 97 KG Sitting out to Best-of-Three Finals Kyle Snyder - 2023 Senior World bronze medalist at Olympic weight Challenge Tournament Isaac Trumble - 2023 U23 World champion Michael Macchiavello - 2023 Bill Farrell champion Kollin Moore - 2023 Senior Nationals champion Nathan Jackson - 2023 Senior Nationals runner-up Jay Aiello - 2023 Senior Nationals 3rd place Eric Schulz - 2023 Senior Nationals 4th place Anthony Cassioppi - 2023 Senior Nationals 5th place J’den Cox - 2022 World Team member 92 KG Christian Carroll - Last Chance Qualifier 125 KG Sitting out to Best-of-Three Finals Mason Parris - 2023 Senior World bronze medalist at Olympic weight Challenge Tournament Gable Steveson - 2020 Olympic Team member Hayden Zillmer - 2022 World Team member Nick Gwiazdowski - 2021 World Team member Wyatt Hendrickson - 2023 U23 World champion Christian Lance - 2023 Bill Farrell highest placer Dominique Bradley - 2023 Senior Nationals champion Gary Traub - 2023 Senior Nationals 3rd place Demetrius Thoms - 2023 Senior Nationals 4th place Trent Hillger - 2023 Senior Nationals 5th place Greg Kerkvliet - NCAA D1 championat 285 lbs Jaron Smith - Last Chance Qualifier Disclaimer: If Steveson does show up at 125 KG, I expect Zillmer to be at 97 KG.

Deutesaunamy Chapter 6

Lifetime sport where anyone can pick up a ball and throw it into a hoop (not necessarily well) vs. a combat sport with nuance rules, multiple styles and a sports culture that didn’t grow up competing it it. We can learn some things but ultimately, it’s a tough sell to convert people without prior experience in the sport and we have this habit of turning off our own people to it as well.

So many of these guys from Illinois 125: Ramazan Attausauov, Illinois / Markel Baker, George Mason 133: Lucas Byrd, Illinois 141: Andrew Alirez, Northern Colorado / Frankie Tal-Shahar, Northwestern 149: Colin Realbuto, Northern Iowa 157: Cobe Siebrecht, Iowa 165: Danny Braunagel, Illinois 174: Josh Ogunsanya, North Carolina / Alex Facundo, Penn State / Darrien Roberts, Morgan State 184: Nelson Brands, Iowa / DeAnthony Parker, Oklahoma 197: Zach Braunagel, Illinois / Braxton Amos, Wisconsin 285: Jacob Bullock, Indiana

Woman's basketball is tough to compare because the sport itself is so much more accessible and in the general population than wrestling is/will be anytime soon. Caitlin Clark has clearly had a massive affect on it, but WBB has had consistent viewership growth for the past few years. The sport has a lot of similar things going for it compared to wrestling, big stars, good rivalries, athletes who stick around for their full eligibility. However, it goes back to basketball being a very relatable sport for the most casual of sports fans. I don't think that wrestling comparing itself to women's basketball and Caitlin Clark gives any groundbreaking concepts for wrestling to learn from. IMO a much more reasonable sport to look at is the growth of collegiate volleyball. Olympic typically non revenue and more niche sport akin to wrestling that has been breaking viewership and attendance records in recent years. I think that growth in viewership starts at a youth level, and with the numbers on girls wrestling ever increasing, that could be a whole new group plus families to start watching college wrestling as a whole as opposed to the idea of trying to turn casual sports fans into wrestling fans. Not to mention if you're talking about concepts like storylines, increased promotion of women's wrestling adds in so many more names and schools to bring people in and build tension as well.

Back in my day, a 5am meant you were at the workout location, warmed up and ready to go, no monkey business. Hopefully young Mr Basset is doing a workout in his bedroom. God also told me he appreciates humility and while he isn’t bothered, also doesn’t think waking early glorifies him anymore than a good nights sleep

HS sophomores may not be tuned into world politics...

Just give him another year in OSU's room. He'll be at 184.

It wasn't the weight. Its not like he was fading at the end of matches. He was just flat-out getting wrecked and looked out of it mentally. I give him credit for going thru wrestlebacks but I think the Missou freshman version of Eierman would have torched this version, much less the version that was going toe-to-toe with Lee/Rivera a couple years ago. I'm sure the HWC stipend is nice but I think he knows its time to move on.

Teching Brands, Lujan and Foca is no joke. Will be interesting to see how he fits in with Keck and Voelker.

look like good kids to me

I imagine many different schools might have reached out after that performance.

Do we think Bormet and others have reached out to John Gunderson at UNI? Currently behind Keckeisen but just beat Brands 2x as well as Foca and Lujan

57kg Zane Richards - 3 Thomas Gilman - 2 Daton Fix - 5 Marcus Blaze - 12 Spencer Lee - 4 Nico Megaludis - 6 Liam Cronin - 8 Daniel DeShazer - 10 Luke Lilledahl - 9 Richard Figeroa - 13 Vitali Arujau - 1 Nick Suriano - 7 Jax Forrest - 11 65kg Nick Lee - 1 Yianni Diakomihalis - 2 Kaleb Larkin - 6 Andrew Alirez - 3 Beau Bartlett - 4 Joey McKenna - 5 Seth Gross - 8 Austin DeSanto - 9 Jesse Mendez - 7 Caleb Henson - 14 Nahshon Garrett - 15 Tyler Graff - 13 James Green - 11 Alec Pantaleo - 10 Matthew Kolodzik - 12 74kg Jordan Burroughs - 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink - 5 Keegan O'Toole - 3 Jason Nolf - 2 Quincy Monday - 8 Alex Marinelli - 10 Alex Facundo - 12 Jarrett Jacques - 12 Tyler Berger - 9 Levi Haines - 13 David Carr - 7 Carter Starocci - 8 Meyer Shapiro - 4 Ladarion Lockett - 11 Vincenzo Joseph - 6 (this seeding feels absolutely wrong based off of where I think guys will place relative to seed but baced purely on PIN and senior/age level results this is where I think it shakes out) 86kg Patrick Downey - 11 Aaron Brooks - 1 Trent Hidlay - 3 Alex Dieringer - 4 Mark Hall - 5 Max Dean - 6 Connor Mirasola - 7 Evan Wick - 8 Parker Keckeisen - 10 Chance Marsteller - 2 David McFadden - 9 97kg Isaac Trumble - 4 Michael Macchiavello - 2 Kollin Moore - 3 Nathan Jackson - 5 Jay Aiello - 6 Eric Schulz - 8 Anthony Cassioppi - 9 J’den Cox - 1 Christian Carroll - 7 125kg Gable Steveson - 1 lol Hayden Zillmer - 2 Nick Gwiazdowski - 3 Wyatt Hendrickson - 4 Christian Lance - 7 Dominique Bradley - 6 Gary Traub - 8 Demetrius Thoms - 9 Trent Hillger - 10 Greg Kerkvliet - 5 Jaron Smith - 11 (this weight should just start at the quarters) I c&p'd from the OP so the seeds wont match as the names are listed

Great post! You don't think PD3 will show? What makes you say that?

you give off the horrible impression of someone who stumbled upon the complexity of the world late and is now talking about it like they were the first.

I just went back and watched this year's Brooks Hidlay final. That was an absolute stomping. The score doesn't show it, but that was the least competitive match they've had across the entirety of their series of matches against one another. Hidlay couldn't move Brooks at all. Brooks already looked like the bigger guy at WTT last year, I don't think anybody at 86kg is going to bring any sort of challenge to these two, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a 2021 Tokyo JB/Dake-style dethroning this year. It's not what anybody is expecting, but after watching that match again...I'm penciling that in as my most likely dark horse upset.

I think 97 KG has a few different routes it could go, insofar as scenarios... 1 - J’den Cox 2 - Michael Macchiavello 3 - Kollin Moore 4 - Nathan Jackson 5 - Jay Aiello 6 - Isaac Trumble 7 - Eric Schulz 8 - Anthony Cassioppi 9 - Christian Carroll I think they reward Macch for him having the last win in the series. Aiello has kind of had the upper hand with Trumble in their series rather recently, but I could see them rewarded Trumble for his U23 Gold as well as outplacing Macchiavello at a tourney this year (he beat the guy who eliminated Macchiavello at that as well). In that scenario I would think it ends up being Moore at the 2, Trumble at the 3, Macchiavello at the 4 and Jackson at the 5 - which would look like this... 1 - J’den Cox 2 - Kollin Moore 3 - Isaac Trumble 4 - Michael Macchiavello 5 - Nathan Jackson 6 - Jay Aiello 7 - Eric Schulz 8 - Anthony Cassioppi 9 - Christian Carroll I could see them swapping Cassioppi and Carroll based on PIN(?) or w/e but I don't expect it and it wouldn't matter. EDIT: Hayden Zillmer? If he comes in, I think it's right after or right before Jackson in either scenarios.

Agree completely, greco skills are best suited for HWT. Let's also not forget that Amos has had recent freestyle success as well, sometimes competing in both free & greco and winning both. I like his prospects better at HWT, even if a bit undersized.

Just watched the Forest vs Tomasello final … wrecking ball is right. Wow. That was a butt kicking. Started with a sweet counter shot that was a fireman’s! Executed so well. Then another TD off a slide by I think. Tomasello seemed to not have any idea of the risk he was in on that last 4. Forest knew it and launched him. Really impressed

JAX FORREST. What a wrecking ball machine.

I would think that it translates over better at heavy than any other weight. There are a lot of dancing bears with little to no actual upper body skills.

I believe he has one who graduated Medical School and completed his residency two years ago and another who was Johnny Thompson's backup at Okie St.

Well...IF you believe that Sadulaev was injured for his last loss, then his losses on the Sr circuit are as a 13-year-old and a 6-5 loss to Snyder after bumping up a weight class. I'd put Sadulaev as my #1. It's subjective of course, reasonable people can disagree(and unreasonable people can argue with me and claim Dake is ahead of Sadulaev because he wrestles a tougher weight)...but a pretty strong argument could be made there. The argument they have over DT is that they won at multiple weights. Saitiev and Sadulaev. But I'm certainly not going to argue against DT very hard. It is a reason I'd like to see him go one more cycle. If he could manage to get a couple more WCs and MAYBE one more Olympics, then...it'd be really interesting. Of course I don't find the OPs premise as absurd as others on here do.

Carroll's dad responded to one of my posts earlier today on another forum and said "He will be at 197 for sure next season". End quote. He will be lean and mean, he looked fantastic today, sharp and quick as hell.

2015 world team trials Anthony Valencia has entered the chat

Bassett just teched an undefeated 149lb national champion at 65 KG (143.3lbs) as a 138lb high school soph in the first period. It wasn't even close. Shnaulty had nothing to make me think that match goes the othet way, at all - ever.

74 KG

65 KG

57 KG

The politicians and media is good at misinforming and making issues out of nothing. It's easy to assume that a team misses the anthem due to player protests, given how frequently the narrative has been presented. LSU says that is not what they did. Okay fine. There is still discussion to be had. There is a difference between not knowing any better, following orders, and showing intentional disrespect. Some deserve a pass, but the other deserves to be called out. Could the remarks about shouting down, rage, and anger actually stem from individuals projecting their own insecurities and defensiveness onto others? Without direct callouts, I assume the remarks include me as a target. I don't feel rage. I feel disgust and dissapointment... similar but more intensely to how I feel when someone doesn't wash their hands after using the bathroom. These comments remind me of my daughter. When I call her out for neglecting her Covid dog, her response is anger. This is a defensive reaction to protect herself from discomfort and guilt.

Let's just say Connor McGregor should've stuck to MMA. (I'm going to keep speaking elliptically until you get it!)

WBB is fun for people to watch because the media manufactures storylines and human interest stories. Kinda like why people like watching the Olympics. The actual athletic, basketball product is bad.

It’s not about religion, although it does play role. It’s about political systems. You cannot have a political system based on free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, democracy, etc. if you don’t defend it from people who pose a clear and present danger to it.

There's a distinction between barring a country vs. individual athletes (or both) from participating. The IOC dropped a 2 year ban on NK for pulling out of the Tokyo Olympics, but individual athletes from NK were still allowed to compete under a neutral flag (they just didn't or couldn't). But the IOC has blocked financial assistance to NK's national sport committee because of their nuke testing. It could be some other international governing body imposing sanctions blocking the funding, not sure. I believe the IOC is withholding Olympic development money to Russia and Belarus (it's probably not a lot), dunno who else.

Right. Theres a difference in who attacked who first. There’s also a difference in that Israel is a Western ally while Hamas is not. Fair or not, a Western-led political system cannot exist for long if it does not look out for its survival.

Because they were attacked first

The IOC seems to have strayed just a bit from these motives... The IOC and the NCAA seem to inhabit the same aisle at this point. For any who are unaware, when you compete at the olympics for a country like, Russia, North Korea, or China, you place yourself under the thumb of the government for the rest of your life. The trade off is a potentially more comfortable life for you and your extended family, because everybody in your family tree gets taken care of, but you also are required to stand at attention and do as asked when asked. It is a tradeoff that these athletes make to improve the lives of their families domestically. They also, have no choice in the matter. Once they realize success, they also immediately forfeit the right to have an opinion of any kind (what little was allowed) other than whatever the government's is at the time. So, they can either say nothing, or, if they are hoping to get a little more money from the next olympic cycle, they can be more outspokenly patriotic like sidakov. But do them the human favor of realizing they have no choice at this point. Athletic success in these countries perches them at the edge of a very high cliff. The view is spectacular, but they are also one wrong word away from being pushed off that ledge, their families with them. So, they have no choice. They can say nothing, or be supportive of whatever the party line is at the time, but to do anything else is literal jail time if not suicide for them, and their families. This is not an exaggeration.

Yeah but what about people wrestling for countries where abortion is legal?!?!?!

Taz looked pretty outstanding at Asians but he scored literally all of his points off kyles attacks at worlds so perhaps he can make some adjustments. He also has to worry about the Iranian that beat him late last year pretty soundly.

I am torn on how to feel about this. I just hope Snyder steps up and eliminates Taz. But I would hope that no matter what. mspart

I personally hate when Russia does not have their best team because it takes away from us beating them, and I like to watch the best guys in this case though I feel like Sad is no longer threat 1 at 97 not just from his worlds showing but his rather lackluster Russian nationals' performance.

What? Listen, bud. I am not sure what you actually mean there. You're all over the place... using words that don't mean what they mean and trying to project to 'the people' like you some messiah of sorts... Come on, man. When you say 'good luck' you could mean something like 'I hope your nephson trips and knocks his head on some sort of petrified watermelon' or something else entirely random. Get with it, use words properly like a real human person, and try to speak (type) clearly and concisely. Everything will be okay.

I think AB has a shot. Not a great one but possible

What about it is nonsense?

It's Taylor's to lose, but I could see him dropping at least the first match while shaking off some rust. He's only been competing at 1 international event in each of the last couple of years and is also getting a little long in the tooth. Even Burroughs was getting in some reps and competing during the last cycle.

Honestly, I don't think he does it. While he looks a good amount thicker, he isn't bigger. DT has a frame on him that is perfectly suited for 86 KG, hence one of the reasons he has absolutely dominated the entire planet for nearly half a decade. Again, I don't think he does it. On the off-chance that he does, I think DT leaves his shoes on the mat and embraces his student and good friend Brooks at the center of the mat, raising his (Brooks) hands in triumph. They both win, if Brooks wins, and I think DT well understands that.