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I admire Penn State's wrestling program, but I have to make an exception with Nickal. He's is often an example of things gone haywire and wrong. He exudes toxic "bro" culture and exaggerated macho-ness. He has a Texas-sized ego that often rivals Ferarri for it's wounded narcissism. (The two are from the same high school.) He is blindly ambitious in that sense made famous by Oscar Wilde's line, "Ambition is the last refuge of failure". He has no sense of proportion. Listen to the tone of his words as well as the content. He is hyperbolic and usually self-referential. He invokes Jesus as some kind of culture warrior, but clearly knows little to nothing about biblical history, the New Testament, or his occasional "hero's" life and words. He hitches a ride off the bluster, blatant jingoism, and authoritarianism of a dangerous politician who will remain unnamed. He has athletic talent but imagines he is the second coming of something special in MMA. He's not. When he gets plastered to the floor in MMA the way Askren got humbled, I expect we will hear a litany of excuses. As for his jealousy of David Taylor, Nickal shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence.

Karl is often misspelled Cael.

In thinking about dark horses I originally wanted to limit it to guys outside of the top 8 as they are already ranked for AA. But then I got to thinking about the 9 - 12 group and how they are only a blood round win away (in theory), from AA. So I decided to limit myself to 13 and higher. The higher the darker. Then I looked for guys with some rankings momentum. Here is what I have: I love that there are guys from Northern Illinois, Central Michigan, Campbell, Bucknell, Navy, Army, and Bakersfield that are rallying into their conference tournaments. Those are the guys I am pulling hardest for.

Based on his results, NLWC has not done what was hoped when he left tOSU. Snyder is an incredible talent. A generational talent. Since 2015, he has gotten a medal every year except last year and he was in the Bronze medal match. He is an incredible talent. First Sad was his nemesis. He could not figure him out completely. I believe they are friendly with each other. Then Taz came along. Taz beat them both. Who saw that coming? Taz backed it up the next year. Casey and Cael don't seem to have the secret sauce for him. I was going to say maybe Taylor but he was there with Taylor the last number of years and that didn't help. But Taylor was not in coach mode, maybe it would be different. It might be good to go back to Tervel. But what would really good is if Casey or Cael could figure out what needs to be done and adjust. Kyle is strong as an ox. He seems to have lungs. He needs something new to resurge at the world level. He is elite and will be in the medal hunt for the foreseeable future as I see it. I'm hoping so anyway. mspart

Amen. Imagine having to explain the rules to the refs the day before the tournament?

Mesenbrink- easy on the "s" Pindrickson - there's no "fall"

Snyderman has only gotten worse since moving to Penn State. He is one of the few athletes to ever have that happen, obviously he is very good still, but he is 100% the wrong build for the style that they teach in that room. Dude is a fire plug, that's not exactly a build is great at getting to anklepicks. Sorry to say it, but he was at his best with Tervel. I'm sure NLWC takes care of him very well, as they should, but NLWC in my opinion has put a lid on his ability. NLWC are absolute garbage on the mat and garbage at freestyle-focused transitions and turns. No belly whizzer, no crotch lift, nobody since frank molinaro has had a dirty head pinch, they just play the takedown game and assume their overall wrestling ability will be enough which, usually it is. This approach really removes a lot from guys like snyder, since what they preach doesn't work when you are a human wario.

Listening to Bo on FRL, he seems far more concerned with being Joe Rogan than anything else... His description of his podcast was an almost word-for-word rip off of Rogan's description of his own show. He then went on to talk about big game hunting in the mountains... I figure he will move into standup and hosting some sort of gross out/extreme stunt game show in the near future too.

Teague Travis. He's the darkest of horses. To even make the NCAA tournament, he needs to earn one of the now only *four* conference allocations (down from 6 because Carter Young and Jesse Vasquez aren't going). He's coming off a long layoff from injury where the plan had been to medically redshirt him. And he's going down a weight class.

I'd actually like a Jombo emoji at some point in the future after obtaining his families permission

I didn't get to my predictions in time but here is the interative bracket for the the tournament: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OdkcElKLXNzwsy6Im5Esp2klyP_iyR5I/edit?gid=408008007#gid=408008007 Team Predictions (based off seeds and how ACC scored tournament last year, no bonus) 1. Cornell - 102.5 2. Penn - 74.5 3. Princeton - 55 4. Columbia - 37.5 5. Brown - 18 6. Harvard - 12.5

I mean, this guy had some of the best balance and body awareness of anyone outside of the gymnastics world in the history of the planet. I'm sure he just randomly fell out a window,

Pretty straightforward. Not that there won't be upsets, but happy to know there will be a lot less random "occurrences" in a 6 team tournament than an 18 team tournament. https://ivyleague.com/news/2025/3/3/pre-seeds-and-brackets-set-for-inaugural-ivy-league-wrestling-tournament.aspx 125 Pounds (3 automatic bids) 1. Marc-Anthony McGowan, Princeton 2. Max Gallagher, Penn 3. Diego Sotelo, Harvard 4. Marcello Milani, Cornell 5. Sulayman Bah, Columbia 6. Jared Brunner, Brown 133 Pounds (2 automatic bids) 1. Tyler Ferrara, Cornell 2. Ryan Miller, Penn 3. Hunter Adrian, Brown 4. Danny Jones, Princeton 5. Logan Brzozowski, Harvard 6. Connor Smith, Columbia 141 Pounds (4 automatic bids) 1. CJ Composto, Penn 2. Joshua Sanders, Cornell 3. Eligh Rivera, Princeton 4. Lorenzo Frezza, Columbia 5. Ian Oswalt, Brown 6. Dante Frinzi, Harvard 149 Pounds (3 automatic bids) 1. Cross Wasilewski, Penn 2. Ethan Fernandez, Cornell 3. Ty Whalen, Princeton 4. Kai Owen, Columbia 5. Joey Iamunno, Brown 6. Jaden Pepe, Harvard 157 Pounds (3 automatic bids) 1. Meyer Shapiro, Cornell 2. Jude Swisher, Penn 3. Blake Saito, Brown 4. Jimmy Harrington, Harvard 5. Jacob Mann, Princeton 6. Richard Fedalen, Columbia 165 Pounds (2 automatic bids) 1. Julian Ramirez, Cornell 2. Cesar Alvan, Columbia 3. Blaine Bergey, Princeton 4. Keegan Rothrock, Brown 5. Andrew Troczynski, Penn 6. Cael Berg, Harvard 174 Pounds (2 automatic bids) 1. Simon Ruiz, Cornell 2. Jack McGill, Columbia 3. Nick Incontrera, Penn 4. Drew Clearie, Brown 5. Xavier Giles, Princeton 6. Haden Bottiglieri, Harvard 184 Pounds (4 automatic bids) 1. Chris Foca, Cornell 2. Maximus Hale, Penn 3. Kole Mulhauser, Princeton 4. Nick Fine, Columbia 5. Andrew Reall, Brown 6. Luka Rada, Harvard 197 Pounds (2 automatic bids) 1. Luke Stout, Princeton 2. Mikey Dellagatta, Cornell 3. Joe Curtis, Columbia 4. Max Agresti, Harvard 5. Thomas Sandoval, Brown 6. Nathan Taylor, Penn 285 Pounds (1 automatic bid) 1. Ashton Davis, Cornell 2. John Pardo, Penn 3. Sebastian Garibaldi, Princeton 4. Vincent Mueller, Columbia 5. Alex Semenenko, Brown 6. Logan Marissal, Harvard

That was special. The way that kid lit up was amazing.

Sad to hear that Mike Allen passed away last Friday. Seemed like he always had the respect of wrestlers, coaches & fans at the events he reffed. His presence & smile will be remembered. RIP Mike.

Funny you should ask, I’m just letting Betsy rest a little bit before I flattop the eggs.

The Babylon Bee mixes topics. It is a raw and biting. Rough humor. https://babylonbee.com/news/germany-commits-to-100-electric-vehicle-terror-attacks-by-2035

Sad to hear. I will be rooting for the Illini for him

It was kind of funny that people would spell Diakomihalis correctly but write "Yanni"

The rain and wind abruptly stopped, but the sky still had the gray swirls of storms in the distance. Dave knew this feeling all too well. The calm before the storm. He only had a limited amount of time before all Hell broke loose, but he stopped to admire the calmness. Maybe it would be different this time, he thought, with the knowledge deep within that it wouldn't. The opened package of potato chips held the answer to the mystery. Both detectives looked at it but failed to realize it was the key to solve the crime. They passed by it assuming it was random trash ensuring that the case would never be solved. Trees. It was something about the trees. The way they swayed with the wind in unison. The way they shaded the area around them. The sounds of their leaves in the wind and the creaks from the branches as they sway, The trees were making a statement that I just couldn't understand.

YES I AM!

Freestyle rules were used only in 1948. They were used only in the NCAA tournament itself.

No that's definitely not the case. I’m one of the biggest PSU homers on here. They make most guys better. They’ve made snyder worse.

That's because the talent level at the weight was less than it has become. 97kg now has a lot of talent. Especially the younger guys. Other than his lack of upping his par terre he's still performing fairly well. People are getting delusional.

I am predicting an AA finish for Dean, as it seems Rider has some magic with one guy year in and year out.

Isn’t that precisely why they don’t label the expenditures with where / what it is or what it is going to. That is the fraud. That is the falsification of what they are spending money on. If a public company did this their c suite leadership would end up in jail.

I am very, very sorry to hear this news... a most well liked gentleman! Peace, always. D3

Now that would be something useful for the DOGE crew to be tasked with. If they are looking for fraud, there it is... and it's been going on for a looong time, regardless of party affiliation.

the problem is, he always said he wants safe, effective, tested vaccines. but people hear what they want to hear.

Nickal hates Taylor cause Taylor lied about his injury in order to make sure NIckal stayed at 92k as opposed to dropping down, placing at worlds and getting to sit in the finals of the OTTs.

Bo is jealous of Taylor. Despite Bo's unreserved devotion to the cult of Cael, David Taylor is the first name people think of when they think of the Cael era. David had the international success that Bo probably dreamed of all his life. He even blanked him in back-to-back matches and retired Bo from the sport. And then he did something unforgivable in Bo's eyes, he left the cult. Bo's a great athlete, but he's a weird dude.

One actually apologized for his posting behavior after a bender one night, so I/m pretty sure about him. The other maybe not, but he went out strong the last time I saw him posting. A coach lost me as a fan/supporter after that.

From #31 at 157 to #5 at 149. Like a rocket.

Ethan Stiles shouldn't be a dark horse, but you don't see him mentioned many places. He's had an incredible year especially down at 149.

It seems that he has only gotten more one dimensional. Par Terre never developed at all really. Could have been a game changer. Honestly seemed to be at his best internationally while wrestling for tOSU.

Beat me to it. Ironically he went to St. Edward's catholic high school.

LOL...we get it...this is your schtick...you hate everything Trump...you don't engage in any civil debates or back and forth...you don't answer anyone's questions when asked about the emotional nonfactual statements you make on here so you literally provide no value...please either engage or stop. By the way...how are the tunnels under the Gaza strip??

It's not regional qualifiers, but I'll be out at D3 Champs tweeting out stats and data live. Should be a great time and can't wait. (I'll also be out at the women's NCWWC championship this weekend doing the same thing.) You can follow me on Bluesky

We need a topic where we discuss which members of team jesus are faking it...

If I'm picking an all time fantasy team I'm taking all the zealots. My atheist, agnostic, and buddhist buddies are rational enough to understand why

If cost isn't an issue then The Ritz, Four Seasons, or The Logan. All in Center City. For proximity there is no closer place than Live Casino & Hotel. I've thought of making a thread for the board on recommendations for places to eat and things to do. If you guys are interested I'll post it this week.

Why would McNelley be seeded over Plott? Not that Plott should mind, he'd prob rather be on opposite side of Keck. Of course we don't know ... Keck could get the 1. Now sure if Ferrari wrestles and McNelley beats him then makes sense.

I think the package deal aspect makes them more sought after than any of those guys individually. Say the other 3 win a national title that's what 20 points before bonus? Even if neither of them wins a title if you get a high AA out of both of them you are probably netting more overall points. I think you can potentially bank in more upside for them as well given their current training environment is each other and whenever they can get to Illinois. I think PSU and Okie state are probably out on them just because of lineup issues. They probably project at 133/141 or 141/149 and both of those schools are going to have some serious overlap so I would think Iowa or Illinois are the two likeliest landing spots? Perhaps V-tech or missouri throw their hat in the ring.

Iowa has both penciled in already. Bob has visited them with a bag.

Maybe of 100 Americans

From Reddit: Buvaisar is as legendary as it gets in wrestling and his wrestling prowess is borderline mythical in quality. Guy comes in scrawny, hits everyone with a bunch of bull*I poop my pants, don't laugh at me* moves you’d never even think to teach your wrestlers, he wins 3 Olympic golds and a bunch of world medals using that, refuses to elaborate, leaves. Legend. Greatest 74kg of all time. Possibly the best wrestler ever?