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As much as everyone seems to hate his wrestling style... I think this should go to Beau Bartlett. Last year he was a micron away from being a NCAA champ but lost to Mendez and he still walked off the mat smiling and head held high. Mendez beats him again this year OT (just barely) after Bartlett beat him twice in the regular season and Big 10s. Bartlett fights back to finish 3rd. Finishes his career never a champ, and wrestled up a weight for his team for two seasons. Guy always has a smile on his face and never says anything negative. Great attitude, great sportsman....someone to be admired.

Do they let high schoolers wrestle in NCAA’s now?

If you watched any of Steveson's WWE work you would know how horrible he was at staged/scripted wrestling which is all the proof you need to know that Hendrickson's win was 100% legit.

Nebraska outperformed expectations by the most. We didn't really need the math to know this. If you had eyes to see... But now we can assign a number to it. And you know it means nothing to me without a number assigned to it. Observations: Nebraska beat their expected points by a whopping 62%. Not the highest, but anyone with a higher % had a much lower starting point. All four podium teams outperformed their expectations. As it should be. In addition to Nebraska, Oklahoma State beat by 38%, PSU beat by 14%, and Iowa beat by 6%. After North Carolina State had possibly the worst tournament ever in 2024, they bounce back nicely in 2025 to beat their expectations by 60%. Call it the Hoagie Hidlay Bump. Anyone who was in the Dark Horse Derby is not surprised to see Indiana and Northwestern near the top of the outperformers list. On the other end, Virginia Tech has to be a little disappointed this morning. But as underperformance goes, it was not that extreme. Overall, teams scored 21.5 fewer points than my expectations, an average of about 0.3 points per team. Not too bad for the model.

True Freshman: (PSU) Blaze (PSU) Duke (OKST) Lockett (OKST) Vega (I think he probably redshirts unless he is clearly better than Hughes) (OKST) Robideau (MISSOU) Mendoza (Cornell) Knox (I heard he may grey shirt not sure if there is any substance to that in my opinion he should go right away at 125) (Cornell) Correa (V-TECH) Seidel (V-TECH) Burton (Iowa) Deluca (PITT) Vince bouzakis (feels like a guy that would go right away for them not sure he reaches the same level of success as the others) Grey shirt: (Cornell) Jaxon Joy (ASU) Larkin RS/MS (Iowa) Ferrari (PSU) Ryder (PSU) Mirasola (PSU) Mirasola (Connor not sure how he gets in the lineup) (OKST) Merill (Nebraska) Lauridsen (beat smith in the wrestle off) (Missou) Sinclair (ASU) Older Larkin None freshman coming off RS or MS: (Lehigh) Crookham (Lehigh) Stanich (Lehigh) Brignola (Lehigh) Taylor (PSU) Nagao (Michigan) Ghadali (ISU) Bastida

Boys, I'm a half inch or so away from a gold medal

I'm also going to throw out the bald duo of Brock Hardy and Parker Keckeisen. You're never going to hear anyone say anything bad about those two because they are great dudes who show respect to all their competition. Mendez said as much in his post-match interview and his presser later on. I was also quite impressed with Gable Steveson on the podium.

Always gets up gets his butt to the center shakes hands and always turns and goes to opposing coaches to shake hands! Never a personality crisis.

This is a very touchy subject and only fed by accusations. Shapiro saying what he said, did come across to me as him accusing Kasak and being a little salty, but he did not go overboard about it. The steroid accusations about Kasak that are flying around I think are a generalization, but I also think they are horrible. I'm a High School teacher and coach and I see students with horrible acne quite often and most of them are not even athletes. My own daughter who is a freshman wrestler in college has horrible acne right now and she is definitely not taking steroids. Sometimes it is just unfortunate that these young kids get it and personally I hate reading about it.

weird take. he wrestled. he likes the sport. its well documented. he's not running for office. he has nothing to gain by coming.

Not one mention of Ben Davino is really disrespectful. Arguably the the top guy on this list IMHO

Bryce Hepner from Ohio State has entered the portal.

“Remember, I’ll let you take me down with 30 seconds left in the third period, as per the script.”

It's clear what the secret sauce was at Ohio State, given Nebraska's rise and Ohio State's decline.

Most people here seem to be equating his athleticism to being able to quickly pick up the skills to wrestle on bottom, and learn to how win in scrambles that he's never experienced before. I've said it before, freestyle is a much simpler style to learn because there are far less positions and techniques that you'll encounter. He's going to have to learn how to defend a leg coming in, a crab ride, not giving up a wrist on bottom while trying to improve.. these are things that can be a struggle for our best high school wrestlers when they are coming into college after wrestling folk their entire lives. It will be interesting to see. I'm definitely not saying that he can't do it, but it will be a lot to learn. I'm more curious about why a 21 year old that is a World Champion would want to use these years learning a completely different style? I wonder if he is kind of bored of just training the same things every day for freestyle and wants to develop by learning a new style while wrestling in America. I've wondered what guys like Burroughs, Dake, and Taylor would do in practice after spending 10+ years training specifically in freestyle. Training gut/gut defense and leg lace defense has to get out pretty quickly you'd think.

Doesn’t help his Hodge chances

My guess for Mizzou: 125 Walker 133 Crapps (please no more Kade Moore) 141 Edmond 149 Gioffre (Ugh) 157 Conway (Double Ugh) 165 Cole 174 Steed 184 Sinclair 197 Hawks Hwt Elam What I'd like to see? 125 Walker 133 Mendoza 141 Edmond 149 Transfer 157 Rath 165 Bambinelli 174 Steed 184 Sinclair 197 Elam Hwt Stillwell

just meant for Iowa and true freshman!

he spoke about needing a visa and said he will not be back in America for a long time. I want it to be known absolutely nobody is going with this kid on their feet but folkstyle rules will allow good guys to potentially limit the damage. He is incredible and I am sure he will learn fast but I think he is going to have serious issues on the mat at least in year one if he is not training here over the summer and only has the fall to work on that. He is also probably the most scouted wrestler I can think of in recent memory. If you were asking me to pick Blaze vs Ono in folk though I am taking Blaze all day right now. I think guys like Nasir or bouzakis would be able to put up a lot of points on him from the top position as well its just hard to predict a guy that talented and skilled how quickly he can bridge that gap.

I'm not always the kindest to PSU wrestlers and fans. I think "Coach Cal" is highly suspect. But I feel a little bad for Kasak. He is basically being targeted because he went of three weight classes and has horrible acne. Even at 149 last year, it was said that he was growing during the season and was going to have to be 157. The kid is having a really tough time with a significant dermatological issue. He probably doesn't need any additional piling on.

RockLobster has a new alias I see.

You do know Trump wrestled in high school, right? He’s been a huge fan of combat sports for decades—helped the UFC in its early days, attended old-school UFC events before it was mainstream, and has been a regular at major boxing matches. Almost everything humans do is transactional to some degree, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. He showed up to bring eyes to the sport and support wrestling—something he has a long-documented history with. If that bothers you, it seems more like a personal issue than an actual critique of his presence at the event Let’s also not ignore the fact that Trump has never attended an NCAA Basketball championship, a sport which dwarfs the NCAA wrestling championships in terms of viewership and media attention. Wouldn’t you think he’d attend that instead of a niche NCAA wrestling tournament with maybe 50k viewers if he was simply seeking attention?

Lost your job at The National inquirer?

6 feet 3 inches, 215 lbs

I think ASU is literally the last school he should go to. Talk about temptations of the flesh..

There are some posters on this board who sure don’t like Starocci, Steveson, JB, DC, and Rock in the commentary booth with comments calling them “narcissists” and suggesting they lack humility among other things as they keep go on and on about a “blue room” and wanting “good role models for children” while cheering on a literal 34-time convicted felon and assailant found liable as he interrupted the first, and possibly only, five-time NCAA Division I Champion’s interview in history. It’s even more ironic that he shows up to a school event while trying to dismantle the Department of Education. It’s less of criticism and more of an observation. These guys who’ve done great things for the sport and are great ambassadors of it are judged harshly yet a literal felon and civilly liable assailant is being cheered in a room where wrestlers who fit a certain image are praised as “heroes.” Why is that?

I was going through the channels this morning and happened to stumble on a a national news channel called “The National Desk” who was showing our president at the NCAA wrestling event this weekend. Then I decided to Google who else covered this and am pleased to report a few others just before I decided to share the “good news” with the rest of you. Every one of you, regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, should be proud of our sport and of course our country. AP News Yahoo Sports USA Today Newsweek The New York Times Fox News Centre Daily Times ….and too many to count state and local news outlets. Good for our sport? ….you bet your azz it was!

Wow. I'm amazed by the growth in several of the Okie St. guys. I thought DT would be able to recruit and build an NIL program at elite levels. But I never thought he'd have the selflessness and mentoring mentality to develop guys' wrestling like Cael and Manning, for example. I still won't cheer for them anytime soon, but I have to give huge props to DT and his guys for the preparation and individual progress they showed.

125: McCrone probably 133: Davino/Bouzakis 141: Mendez/Davino/Bouzakis 149: Mendez/Cannon 157: Cannon/Shaw/Paddy/Birden 165: Paddy/Birden/Shaw 174: ??? 184: Rocco 197: Shumate/Rogotzke/Geog HWT: I could see Feldman taking a medical, Neves is good, maybe Swenski.

Think he will be ok. Not that hard to learn a standup, switch, half nelson, and tight waist. Stance, motion, level change, back arch, back step, and fighting like demon possesed - he already has those at the highest level and they are not evaporating with some mat wrestling.

I've yet to hear a decent explanation as to why the free COVID year was 2021 and not 2020. What on earth was the reasoning behind giving 3 years of eligibility to the class that had their national championship cancelled, but 5 years to the class whose championship wasn't cancelled?

But my second cousin's mailman's brother's sister's dentist wrestled D-1 and said he was never tested!!!!

Andy Hrovat on Twitter: "College athletes I'm pretty sure are only tested for street drugs" also goes on to say that he only knows of 1 wrestler in the past 30 years who has failed any test at NCAAs and it was for pot. "it's pretty fishy". Too many wrestlers are confirming that their teammates have used in the past and were never even tested. IF testing occurred, they were notified prior and somebody clean would piss. When so many high level guys such a Hrovat are calling it out, it's gotta be true. No reason to jump down Shapiro's throat for actually having the balls to say it.

If you think about it he doesn't have to figure out how to get out from bottom, he just has to figure out how to not get turned. Giving up one RT point isn't going to matter when he plays catch and release the other five minutes of a match. That being said, with his skills and as hard as he works he'll figure it out pretty quickly. He'll be working with some all-time hammers on top in the room (Zain, Nick Lee) which will accelerate his development.

I assume Blaze is better at folkstyle, and I’m guessing he’ll get to pick his weight class next year. It’s not at all clear how good Ono is at folkstyle. It’s not even clear he can beat Davis or Nagao. (In freestyle, of course, only guys like Uetake and Smith are even comparable.) Nevertheless, Blaze and Ono will only improve one another.

The 2025 NCAA tournament has concluded. As we now look forward to a new season, I cant help but think we are still plagued by the same issues year after year. 1. Stalling - As usual, edge wrestling and lack of stalling constitute the worst part of our sport. I'm not saying the refs should've handed Byrd his victory earlier, but I would have understood it. 2. Rideouts - Can we do away with OT riding time rideouts? Isn't everyone dissatisfied by winning in this fashion? For too many years now I have seen lesser wrestlers employ the "Escape only try to win in ride outs with no offense attempted" to steal matches. It only leads to more snoozefests. Maybe change the rule so if you don't score an offensive point you can't win in OT based on rideouts? Then head back to neutral. Hell, I'd prefer only neutral 2 minute rounds until a takedown settles the match. 3. Lung Bricks/Challenges - There desperately needs to be a penalization for these fake challenges. It's crossed the threshold of acceptability now. Coaches are strategizing key moments to give their guys a rest with these BS bricks. Get them out. Anyways, here's some thoughts I had on the tourney. 125 - Gross final. The guy I wanted to win won, but that was ultimately one of the most forgettable finals I've ever seen. Did The Right Guy win the Weight - No, I thought Lilledahl was the best of the field. Random Thoughts - Has 125 gotten markedly worse recently or is it just me? Perhaps it's time to modify the classes. 133 - Thought both finalists were considerably better than the field. Honestly, was shocked that Byrd had such a better gameplan than Ayala, but that's par for the course with Iowa in recent years. Ayala was over-reliant on his bread and butter and Byrd totally neutralized it. Ayala should've definitely be dinged earlier too. Did The Right Guy win the Weight - Yes, he was the aggressor the entire time. Random Thoughts - Nasir Bailey will be dangerous once he gets that hands transplant. 141 - Great match, Mendez is just really really good at wrestling. No real weaknesses, and he can turn it on like Jaggers before him. Hardy clearly jumped a level this year too, he was a pleasure to watch. Wish I could say the same about Bartlett, but he just never opened it up. Did The Right Guy win the Weight - Yes Random Thoughts - Bartlett kind of looks like Bruno Mars with the stache. 149 - Awful match, horribly officiated where the wrong guy won. Not sure how you overturn that TD. An unconvincing 1-0 win for a championship where you definitely taken down. Not my favorite celebration of the night either. Did the Right Guy Win the Weight - No, Henson was better and got robbed. 157 - It's better to be lucky than good right? Feels like that sums up Taylors tournament. Not saying he isn't an elite wrestler, but things broke for him in an amazing way, and then he was allowed to LITERALLY run away for just about a minute. Blaze didn't get the TD sure, but he couldn't catch Taylor either. I don't think we ever see him place close to this high again. Did the Right Guy Win the Weight - Nah, Kasak was the best here. Credit to Blaze for taking him out with savvy edgewrestling and a little luck. 165 - No real comments here, Caliendo's vision quest came up just short. Credit to him for getting close to the MM pace and still being able to fight back. They've both separated themselves from the field by quite a bit. Did the Right Guy Win the Weight - Yes. 174 - All I could think about after watching Hamiti dispatch Haines and O'toole was how different his career would've been at a better program. DT fully maximized this due and he looks amazing now, he was at the wrong weight and not utilizing his skills fully until now. Did the Right Guy Win the Weight - Oh yeah, beating 2 elite champs and looking better than both is no small feat. 184 - The Keck-Mec Semi was one of the best bouts I have ever seen in my life. An absolute war with no one backing down or ceding ground. Truly an awesome match, best of the tourney by far in my eyes. And Starocci is just that much better, which is wild. Did the Right Guy Win the Weight - Yes, say what you want about the persona, but he is excellence personified on the mat. 197 - I have no idea how Barr did what he did, extremely impressive. Between him and AJ it kind of highlighted how unskilled this weight was this year. Did the Right Guy Win the Weight - Yes absolutely. AJ Ferrari - So, I think AJ Ferrari might actually be a genius. Hear me out...the ironically named MrFastTwich (who appears to have no real fast twitch movements) is made out of freaking steel cables. It was incredibly apparent all tournament long how much stronger he was than everyone. His entire strategy revolves around grinding people into the ground, knowing he can escape and hold you down. Takedowns don't matter, skill doesn't matter. You can't move the damn guy and you can't move once he's on top of you. Piss poor scouting with everyone taking bottom against him as well. I was SHOCKED to hear the pop for the splits after the medal round. 285 - Gotta tell you, I felt this happening in my plums. Not the way it did, I thought Gable was going to foolishly take down after being winded, and wind up getting stuck in a pinfalldrickson. What actually happened was more surprising. He got outwrestled! What a phenomenal gameplan they had in place. Did the Right Guy Win the Weight - Absolutely, you can't disrespect the sport and generate positive juju, came back to get Gable big time.

Not accounting for what they did after and simply what they did in college -DT -Askren -Gable I think that's kind of a tier of their own all 3 won the hodge the two times they won the title.

Folks that are making accusations about steroid use do not understand what happens to the body when you manage weight. As soon as you change diet to grow, and lift to grow, it doesnt take long to add on. You can do the experiment yourself. Lean way out and starve your body. Then switch to a high protein caloric intake with lifting. Granted, 18-25 yr olds will have better results

Yep, my seats weren't too far from where Trent was standing for the finals and the whole match he was "shadow wrestling" and yelling support/technique. Honestly it was a blast to watch, you can tell how much he cares for his NC State guys.

wrong forum. Seek help.

They eliminated football a while ago. But they had a rivalry with another nearby college where much worse things happened and were said between them. One year the opposing coaches got into a fist fight after the game.

good.. keep this politics crap in its own thread

I've never eaten artichoke, but I remember a story from a newspaper years ago that might be related. A convict wanted to kill the judge that put him away and tried to find a hit man. Eventually he found a hitman named Artie who loved killing so much that he agreed to kill the judge for a dollar. That night the hitman broke into the judge's house and strangled him to death, but the struggle awakened the maid, so he had to strangle her too for being a witness. As he was leaving the judge's wife walked out of the downstairs bathroom and saw him, so he strangled her too. Unfortunately for him a neighbor saw him breaking in and he was soon captured by the police. The next day the newspaper headline stated "Artie Chokes three for a dollar".

I think the Brands boys drive their boys too hard and that's one of the reasons they limped home to a 4th place finish this year. That's a guess because I've never visited their barn, sorry, "wrestling room", during a practice. The Hawkeyes just looked burned out, even their lone champion Buchanon looked like he was pooped in that tournament, and the less said about Teemer and Parco the better. Working hard to improve is laudable, but you got to let the boys fully recover their strength by the end of the regular season, and I don't think "take it easy for a couple weeks" is in the Brand' boys' natures. I think they are trying to catch up to Cael with pure hard work and driving their kids too hard, and that just isn't gonna do it. "As long as it takes" is the wrong answer to the question below, that's how you crush team morale and wear the kids down.

For all you PSU people crying foul about how low it was of Shapiro and he's a hater, your boy Bo Nickal went on the biggest podcast in the world (JRE) and said the reason he lost to the Iranian is cuz the guy was juiced to the gills. Said it was obvious. What evidence did he have other than he felt his strength and looked at him? Same thing here. And it's obvious our wrestlers are using too, if we can go head to head with nations that are obviously doping like Russia. To believe our guys can compete with roid raging Russians just cuz we like our steaks is naive and asinine. Lemme get some of Mr Kasak's home grown beef, doubt it drastically changes my hormone profiles like it did for Kasak and Barr.

This thread is legitimately a baseless witch hunt. Mfckr can swim! WITCH!!

my sister in law is a dermatologist and a damn good one. she mentioned a million and one reasons that someone can have an acne spike up. to automatically assume steroids is to be mean-spirited and intentionally disparaging. there simply isn't enough evidence

I think people should strive to be better than holding that level of conversation. I believe in presumption of innocence, and we have nothing but pseudo-dermatology assessments from wrestling fans who have zero knowledge of any wrestlers medical information. If it turns out it wasn't true, will we find all of the same people coming back to publicly apologize? Of course not. And coming from another wrestler (instead of a fan) it comes off as a sore loser excuse.

I find it very strange to speculate about whether a college athlete has done steroids.