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I was planning on doing my annual Iowa/PSU predictions thread but I usually start on Monday. Good way to goof off at work. Wouldn't want to waste valuable weekend time.

Class of 2019 #3 Andrew Alirez didn't AA until his fourth year when he won nationals. Class of 2020 #1 Braxton Amos hasn't AA'd. #3 Patrick Kennedy has not AA'd Class of 2021 #2 Alex Facundo hasn't AA'd #3 Paddy Gallagher hasn't AA'd Class of 2022 is the only class in the last four where the top three have achieved AA status with Feldman, Swiderski, and Mendez. (Bouzakis was #4)

It is a little cringey but is still leagues better than: Threatening public exposure at a graveyard Threatening to physically assault an opposing team's coach Mouthing off to Dieringer after losing to him Misspelling Marstellar's name and insulting him on Twitter, again after losing Sorta kinda insinuating retirement after defaulting out of the Big Ten tournament and leaving your teammates behind Posting a picture of a dildo to social media. Yeah, I get it, it's not the smoothest callout but are we really so uptight as a community that we need to complain about every single tiny thing? This kinda stuff isn't my jam but I can appreciate it's potential effect on raising the stakes for a match that most likely will be rather one sided

I doubt Mendez loses another college match

Would have loved to see Davino and Ayala.

A nice testament to the Brands brothers' continued success with little guys.

Good on the Ivies for taking a principled stance. I don't think it'll affect wrestling much if at all. Recruitment, retention, and administration will be as tough as it has ever been for coaches in the Ivy environment. Maybe we'll see a very watered-down version of the "feeder school" trap that the revenue sports are worried about, with talented kids getting poached. I guess the bigger worry would be if opting-out could affect enough football and basketball players that it cascades down into other problems (lost enrollment, inability to find good coaches, and such) to the point that the Ivy League reclassifies to D3. Seems like there's been a low hum in the background for a while now about finding a better fit down in D3. The policies will definitely be more in-line with the Ivies' philosophy of academics and athletic governance.

A little cringey to make that callout after winning in SV against the #20 guy. He didn’t call out a specific wrestler though. What did he weigh in at today? Any chance he drops to 174?

He backed out the whole match.

Is that Marijuana print on Sasso's headgear

Alirez.

I said he's been having an excellent year - in the sense that he's a hell of a lot better than he was last year. Clearly improved wrestler IMO. He has two wins over ranked wrestlers now as well as a win over Diversent who is tough. Last year he had nothing that would compare. His wrestlestat ranking has gone from 84 down to 47 and it hasn't counted today's victory

Tired of McCrone. Give me Kilkeary

Mccrone has 0 offense on the feet

What does hammering them into the mud look like? I haven't seen any predictions what would be a "hammering."

Conner Harer was a top 25 P4P recruit. 151-1, 3 Pa State titles his last 3 years in hs. Kasak controlled the match against a good, if young and unknown, wrestler.

Bumping Mendez is their only shot at winning the dual. I think DDE got majored by parco last time they wrestled. As good as parco is, Mendez is next level. Dude beat yanni and was right there with Zain to make the Olympic team. Zain and yianni are two of the best 149 pounders of all time. Mendez will be just fine up a weight. I think they should use bouzakis at 133 and Davino at 141.

And will not be eligible for NCAA championships...

Dean Peterson with the clutch takedown to defeat Lilledahl 4-1. Now Shawver vs Davis

My mother said I was a very literal child. Like George Costanza if all my instincts are wrong the opposite would be right.

I was attempting humor. missed. I coached try to peak in march, and what happens before is another day at the office.

And I might suggest not letting assassins from Iran in the country. But Biden had a different idea.

... and thus why were we paying for their security?

My understanding is the opposite. RBY said the last thing Sanderson said to him before his first final was, "In 10 years, no one will remember this." Then you have Mesenbrink lecturing a reporter to stop focusing on results, focus on getting better. Sounds like he is channelling a coach's message.

@VakAttack finalized the NIL deal with your lawyer. For every $1 you make on this single you pay back Porta Records $1.25. Best deal we could get you. It became obvious Vak was very generous to you in negotiations. I think it's only proper you at minimum gift him with a Thank You

They were definitely flat last night. But that is also an annual thing. Train hard now and taper for NCAAs. If it means some shaggy performances in January to get your best in March, then so be it.

I didn’t think Bartlett looked bad. Kerk a little. But even if you think they looked bad, isn’t this usually the time of year where they “look bad” because of a hard training week or something and then they always look good at NCAA’s?

bro, what? the ivy league rejects 93% of applicants. if you don't want to come to Harvard to play FB or BB because you're not getting paid, guess what, someone will. this might be a good theory if you applied it to other schools, but not schools who turn down 9 of 10.

i would say it's a principled stance. if the ivies wanted to compete with the big FB/BB schools they would have done what the rest of DI did years ago and essentially wave any academic requirements for athletes in those sports. so, yeah, they are staying in line with their principles.

https://usafacts.org/articles/what-can-the-data-tell-us-about-unauthorized-immigration/

i thought you couldn't get any dumber. but here we are

fauci is evil. at the very least, the citizens of this country shouldn't be paying a cent to him, especially private security.

And they are really yuge chromosomes.

19-4 TF for Okie State's Hendrickson over UNI's Runyon. 22-14 OSU D3

Kerk wins 2-0 and the dual is over. Peterson over Lilledahl is the only win for Rutgers. I bet that's the first (and last) time that Lilledahl is the only member of his dual team to lose his individual match.

Nebraska transfer Ethan Stiles, who had a hot start at 157, is down to 149, and giving Jordan Williams all he can handle. 6-1 decision by Stiles in a match that was fun in the scrambles, but not particularly close.

Trump was watching and said it was "perfect."

I was so confused. For a second it looked like down just completely stopped wrestling at the end and ended up on his back. Gave up two takedowns going to a headlock when Fish got to the body lock. Looks like Schwab knows where to focus before their next matchup.

Nini loses by tech fall, but never stops shooting, never gave up, and showed good spirit in spite of the outcome

I don't know which topic to post in. Looking forward to all the level headed takes on 125 from PSU fans

If the outcome of this dual had any real importance, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw them take their shot and do it. Unfortunately, the dual is for nothing but pride.

I like it, and agree it’s probably their best shot

I'm learning some new songs on my guitar. Back in Black and Working for MCA. Both great songs. Also trying to concoct a lead for my friend's song Riverside blues. We were in a band together in college. I really love this song. Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus Top Pro Marshall Origin 20 head (set on lowest volume which is plenty loud in the house) 2X12 speaker cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers. I bought the speakers and installed them. The cab is homemade and I bought it on offer up. $80. Screaming deal. Even makes my Marshall Code 50 sound better. I am not that good, just noodle around. mspart

Just dropped this new single. Hope you Enjoy Title: @ionel

We're talking about Bouzakis' 5th college match in his true freshman year as evidence for how he'd do over 2 years later? I'd favor Bouzakis to win against Block, and I think Mendez vs Parco is a toss-up as well. I don't see Mendez getting bullied in the hand fight, and he's such an efficient finisher I don't think he's likely to get stuck underneath. Either way, it would make for an even more interesting dual.

Kid, With all due respect, you've got some seriously bad takes here, all throughout this thread. You're entitled to your opinions, but the factual understandings on which they're based need some work. Let's take a stab at it, shall we? 1. Boys wrestling isn't dying on the high school level. Participation in high school wrestling is increasing -- including among boys. This article from last year (here) shows an increase of 32,443 boys compared to the prior year, for a total of 291,874. Fold in the gains from the prior year, and there was a 25% gain compared to 2021-22, which is remarkable. This is without mentioning the consistent gains of the girls, to 64,257, although my personal guess is they're mutually reinforcing. The 291K figure is still an overall decrease from the 70s and 80s, including the all-time boys high of 356,131 in 1976 (see article here), but if the current growth rate continues, we'll be back there in a couple years. (We're already there if you add the boys and girls numbers from 2023, but we're talking boys now.) There's pockets where wrestling is struggling for demographic reasons (e.g. in rural areas, where schools have declining enrollment), but it's growing overall. 2. Nor is it dying on the D1 level. It's a concern I share, no doubt, and it's taken a beating over the past half-century, going from 155 D1 men's programs in 1975 to only 79 at the start of this year. But look at the number closer, and you'll see that we've flatlined since around 2011, with a slight net gain in programs since then. A Flo article (here) demonstrates this well, both in listing of actual programs added and dropped over the years, and in an accompanying graph. Yes, losing CSU blows, but every sport loses programs here and there, and not every lost program means "wrestling is dying." 3. Earlier you refer to people "blaming" Title IX, as though it was a scapegoat. While there's a grain of truth to that, there's no question Title IX had a dramatic impact -- or at least the DOE/OCR's three-prong proportionality-driven interpretation did. It isn't rocket science: when you demand equality from colleges whose teams skew male, and don't take disparities in interest into account, you have to either add women or cut men -- and adding costs money. True, those who put all the blame on Title IX ignore the decline in high school participation at the time (see above), and the cuts weren't helped by ADs who overspend on football. But numerous programs were dropped expressly or in part for Title IX reasons, often to stave off pending or threatened lawsuits. On the plus side, it's helped open the door to women's wrestling. Overall this issue has been heavily politicized, and as such most literature on the topic is slanted, so if you have an overly strident view in one direction or the other, you should probably rethink it. Some good reading here, here, here, here, here and here. 4. Can we relax with the "warrior mindset" stuff, and how "soft" we are? Yeah, we're not living in caves anymore using our bare hands to kill our meal each night like "alpha males," but as you can see above, wrestling is doing fine and actually is in the midst of a rebound. Maybe skip the next one or two or twenty Andrew Tate podcasts? Come on man.

Posted this on my team page. 125-McCrone vs. Joey Cruz Maj. 4-0 *133- Bouzakis or Davino vs. Ayala Dec. 7-0 (Just let me have my upset). 141-Jesse Mendez vs. Ryder Block or Jace Rhodes /Cullen Schriever TF. 12-0 149- D'Emilio vs. Parco Maj. 12-4 *157- Sasso or Cannon vs. Teemer or Estrada Dec. 12-7 (If no Teemer, Dec. for Sasso). 165- Paddy vs. Caliendo Dec. 12-10 *174- Kharch vs. Kennedy Dec. 15-10 184- Rogotzke vs. Arnold Dec. 15-13 197- Shumate vs. Buchanan Maj. 15-17 HWT- Feldman vs. Kueter Dec. 18-17 OSU

Yes he was. Maximus was alive then died. It's clear at the end of the movie. Filming wrapped up in 1999 when he died. Movie was released in 2000.

I thought Chlebove would be better at this level than he has been based on his high school career. It just goes to show that it's really hard to predict results at the NCAA level for high school kids.