Leaderboard

https://nypost.com/2025/08/12/us-news/legendary-long-island-wrestling-coach-al-bevilacqua-dies/ Great man, great coach who touched my life and so many others, rest in peace.

While combing through all of these brackets, one stuck out in particular as maybe the most broken bracket I've ever seen. This is the 2006 157 pound bracket. #1 seed Trent Paulson upset in the 1/4's by #9 Joe Johnston (he would go on to take 4th) #2 seed C.P. Schlatter upset in R16 by (US) Andrew Flanagan, wins one match on the backside before being eliminated by (US) Tony Hook. #3 seed Alex Tirapelle upset in 1/4's by #11 Derek Zinck, and then is eliminated after his next match in R12 by #7 Dustin Manotti #4 seed Matt Lebe upset in the R16 by (US) Michael Chandler, and is eliminated after dropping his next match to #7 Manotti #5 seed Ben Cherrington is your national champion #6 seed Brandon Becker upset in R16 by #11 Derek Zinck (he would go on to take 7th) #7 seed Dustin Manotti upset in R32 by (US) Tony Hook, he would then battle all the way back for 3rd taking out #3 and #4 en route #8 Craig Henning wrestled to his seed with an 8th place finish Some interesting facts that come out of this bracket.. The #2, #3, and #4 wrestlers failed to place None of the top 4 seeds reached the semis The semis were #5 vs #9 and #10 vs #11 #5 Ben Cherrington won a national title without facing a wrestler seeded above him #10 Brian Stith made it to the finals without facing a wrestler seeded above him So, you had a national finals between a #5 and #10 and neither wrestler faced anyone seeded higher than #9 to get there. I'd be surprised if this has happened any other time in the modern era. Can anyone think of any other brackets that compare to this kind of combustibility?

Since 1979 when the 12 seed era began there have only been 67 semifinal matches that didn't include a top-4 seed. The following brackets didn't have a top-4 seed in the semis at all: 1981 - 190 (5, 8, 11, US) [Placers were 8, US, 5, 11, US, 1, US, US] 2006 - 157 (5, 9, 10, 11) [Placers were 5, 10, 7, 1, 11, 9, 6, 8] Fun Fact - Joe Johnson was in the semis against a non-top 4 seed in back-to-back years in 2005 (#8 vs. #5 Percival) & 2006 I think 1981 may take it.

Is that the red viking?

That's a shame, any time you can pair Fry and Bacon together feels like a win

Appreciate the knowledge; genuinely!

It blew up, but Branch did a lot of the damage. He upset #2 in R32. He also beat the #7 and #6. Branch's finals opponent, Laszlo Molnar, also did the job on his end beating #4, #5, and #1. So, for the most part Branch and Molnar blew-up the bracket by knocking off the big dogs themselves, where as in 2006, Cherrington and Stith were benefactors of upsets that led them to the finals without having to beat any of the top seeds themselves.

Sam was a legend, he was talked about ALOT back in the day, and he is still around. He works out with some kids at UCO some, and he has some highschool kids he rolls with quite a bit. BIG FAN of him, and he is a great guy

Wes Hand

Ian Miller coached my kid, and that is one bad MOFO. I think you could ask Jon Jon Millner and he would agree. My kid said there are coaches that are great at going through technique and then will "roll with you" then there is Ian Miller who is gonna beat the hell out of you. He said, we would be warming up, and if we saw Coach Miller tying his shoes, we knew we were screwed.

Well as a fan of USA Wrestling, I am glad that he is back. I see this as a positive for our team and that weight class.

ICE Receives 100,000 Applications from Patriotic Americans Who Want to Help Remove Murderers, Gang Members, Pedophiles, and Terrorists from the U.S. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/08/12/ice-receives-100000-applications-patriotic-americans-who-want-help-remove-murderers

I think they’re saying it’s not right to spend money and send more law enforcement out on the street when you can just change the numbers in the office.

It all comes back to swimming. As I pounded out the miles everyday I started distracting myself by doing math in my head. Especially fractions and percentages. I always wanted to know what was done and what was left. Sometimes I would do conversions. I would change from yards to feet to inches or convert from meters to yards. Now I like making pictures that explain numbers. I just had an "ah ha" moment about a question a client wanted me to work on, cranked out a compelling (I think) visualization for them, and now I can't wait to share it tomorrow.

Sounds like this Tony Hook guy should have been seeded. He took out the #2 and #7 seed.

I remember responding once to a long post about what death to America means to those saying it and how it’s different for those who hear it. I found that those saying it don’t care how the people hearing it feel. They don’t want to understand that using the term negates what they believe they intended it to mean. When you question them they run straight to the “you have a full belly and will never understand” card. They also don’t understand that just because you’re rural or maybe a wrestler that you may be educated but just have different viewpoints than they do. Especially different beliefs than the countries they live in, complain about yet do nothing about. They tend to talk while sitting on their hands letting it continue even though they have no freedom to speak of. And they certainly don’t understand that even the worst extremists in America are nothing compared to extremists in the rest of the world. And that in America we’re allowed to be extreme based on our beliefs unlike other places around the world. It’s called free speech, something treasured more than anything else in the world. And here’s something I figured out: They will never do anything about it. They will continue allowing things like arranged marriages, electing puppet Presidents and bowing down to a crooked and corrupt regime.

Darn WKN.... did you major and minor in statistic.....maybe a double major, statistics and swimming perhaps???? Asking for some friends.

swear to god i thought of this one when i saw the title.

The 1981 190 bracket gets a -80.5 using my metric. But that is a little meaningless as three of the seeded wrestlers lost to non-semifinalists and were eliminated after going 0-1. Back then only the losers to the semifinalists/finalists made the consolation bracket. Without the opportunity to wrestle back it is really hard to compare across eras.

That would be correct. I think these 2 are the clear front-runners with some debate on which takes the cake. Rough math says there were 45 tournaments between 1979-2025. 450 brackets. 2 had no top-4 seed (0.4%) in the semifinals. 900 semifinal matches. 67 of those didn't include a top-4 seed (7.4%). You'd expect 0.56% brackets to not have a top-4 seed, which lines up.

Ian Miller was like a kid who only hit the cool looking homerun moves, but then when he made it all the way to the top level of college wrestling with that stuff, coaches have to re-think what they call "junk moves". Dylan Ness is probably the only wrestler to get to the level he did without learning how to sprawl. I'm going to throw out a name to discuss: Tony Davis. He, Drew Foster, and Parker Keckeisen are the most recent modern era NCAA champs from UNI, but something that made Tony's story different is that he didn't wrestle his senior year of HS and was caught up in Chicago gang lifestyle, which was WAAAY worse in the 90's. JUCO and Mark Manning helped him turn it around and win a natty. He was considered one of the best kid's wrestlers in IL history and I don't think he lost at all through youth, middle school, and his first 3 years of high school. He lost in the IL state final to Reggie Wright as a junior (one of the best HS matches ever), and his life completely spun out of control after the loss.

It sounds like he had flower and not vapes/carts. A tiny little jar of today's nugs will stink up an entire room, much less a car. In terms of marijuana consumption, smoking flower is absolutely the least discreet way of going about it. Vape pens and especially edibles barely have any odor that a human (K9 might be different) would notice in a routine stop.

I don't use any sort of numerical data to make my picks. I try to find a balance between the star-power in the bracket and being realistic to who they were at the time. I'm glad you brought up the 2011 bracket because it's a great example of my thought process.. Yes, there are three champs in that bracket, and another finalist. However, DT, St. John, and Welch were all Freshman in this tournament. Wunderkind David Taylor had been on a bonus tear during that season, but many were still wondering how he would do against a guy like Steve Fittery, who, while very good, isn't a name many would know outside of hardcore fans. Adam Hall as well, many probably remember him as a very solid multi-time AA, but he's far from an all-time guy and was the top seed going into the tournament. IMO it's hard to consider a bracket for All-Time best when the top two seeds aren't particularly noteworthy. It's far from perfect as it's really my subjective opinion that is leading the cause, but that's why I am interested to hear others make the case for other years. I do the subjective analysis based on research and my personal bias, and then @Wrestleknownothing comes with the hard numbers. PS: Tomorrow has one of the most intriguing brackets so far, imo! Stay tuned.

The most busted bracket of all time is all ten in 2020:

Otto Olson-seemed like he was around foooorever. Always make jokes about him seeming to be the first 6th, 7th, 8th year wrestler.

The final results might favor 1981, but Martucci beat the #1 and #5 en route to the finals, while Mantella had an easier path facing #6 and #11. It's definitely a crazy bracket, but I'd still lean towards a #5 and #10 making the finals without recording any upsets themselves as the craziest.

Raymond Jordan, Matt Pell, Dorian Henderson

Oh, Doug Wilson and Pete Hegseth are Muslims? I learn something new and brilliant from you ever day.

We're just trying to adopt some of qualities of the middle east. Diversity makes us better. Add to the melting pot. It's unreasonable to ask people coming here to assimilate. No education for females either.

Earl Walker Sheldon Thomas Matt Valenti Dustin Schlatter

How bad did the bracket blow up Branch's freshman year? Feel anytime a guy w/ a losing record wins it there's a chance at chaos

Keaton Anderson

Dang.....interesting. You would know....

My boy knew about this one and was involved in his move. This came down to a few different schools, Carter is good, he should be at 149 I believe.

The unimpressable Mike Evans

David Craig

Dake has to be the worst best fantasy wrestler ever. Surely Wkn has a chart on this.

He said he will be going after Chicago next. Get in line.

It may or may not work out, but how is it an awful idea for sure? Igor Rosotorotsky was the second best wrestler on the planet when he was a young man. He should have been at minimum a 2 or 3 time Olympic medalist with many World and European medals. But because of wrestling's unfair ways of selecting athletes to compete and the lack of transferring in his era, he was denied a full career (retired at 26). Now he's just a foot note, a trivia question about someone else's career. I wish transferring was a thing back in the 80s and 90s. I think Igor would have been part of many special moments. Other sports don't do this. They let people compete from more than one country if they're that good. Why do wrestlers have to sacrifice themselves for seemingly these arbitrarily designed processes (when there is an obvious out). You're only young once and time goes quickly. If you want to have a wrestling career and you can go somewhere where you can qualify, what's the downside exactly? Unless Masoumi is angling to be a politician in Iran after he retires? But you still need to have a good career even for that to happen. Well Ali Arslan is not a 2 meter tall super heavyweight, I don't know why he transfered. Masoumi can't chop his leg off and make 97 to help Iran. So he's either not on the team or he beats Zare (or whoever else comes up). Either way, a really good wrestler is not contributing (besides other countries not having them). It's not just about beating Zare. There's more to wrestling than beating one opponent. What if Zare is just a bad match up for him? What if someone else can beats Zare for him in a tournament? Masoumi can never beat Zare again and win an Olympic, it's not that far fetched. Plus he can win silver and bronze medals at all the biggest tournaments even if Zare stops him every time. He has the option of trying to beat Zare or aging him out. But Zare is only 24. Are you going to wait 10 years for a guy you're only 3 years the junior of. And you won't be getting that time back. Personally, I'd just be proud that my nation produced a great athlete like that. I'd be mad at the dumb rules that forced his hand to transfer and cheer for them anyways.

It's people like you, that if they truly got their way, would absolutely destroy America. What happens every year, people that "lost" the election jump up and down how terrible it is going to be and the world is going to end, then 4-8 years later a person from the other side gets elected and the same thing happens, people that lost the election jump up and down about how terrible it is going to be and the world is going to end....but guess what happens in the end...very little to anyone on a personal level...some things get a little better and some things get a little worse...to each side. However, you continually applaud the demise and failure all things America...and it is absolutely pathetic!

He was planning to go to Little Rock, but decided to pivot plans and will be joining the military.

165 - Max Brignola, Lehigh, returns. Went 18-0 in a redshirt season last year (wins over Ramirez and Mantanona, top 8 seeds at NCAAs); that doesn't count two wins over Louie Cerchio. Lehigh returns four redshirts. Crookham and Stanich were A/A's two years ago, Nathan Taylor was R-12 with two wins and two s/v losses. If everyone stays healthy, this could be our best tournament team in more than a decade.

Translation: "Oops, they noticed."

only added some that weren't mentioned already: 125: Nico Provo (Stanford), Tyler Klinsky (Rider), Conrad Hendriksen (Oklahoma) 133: Aaron Nagao (Penn State), Max Leete (American), Gable Strickland (Lock Haven) 141: Jack Maida (American), Pat Phillips (F&M), Eric Howe (F&M) 149: Joey Zargo (Wisconsin), Jimmy Nugent (Central Michigan), Caleb Tyus (SIUE), Jacob Silka (Citadel), Dylan Layton (from Cleveland State to RIder), Dashawn Farber (Lock Haven) 157: Jackson Arrington (NC State), Sloan Swan (Wyoming), AJ Rodriguez (Maryland) 165: Connor Euton (Iowa State), DJ Shannon (Michigan State), Mason Reiniche (Oregon State), Jake Slotnick (Hofstra), Seamus Casey (Wyoming) 174: Sal Perrine (Ohio), Joey Arnold (Edinboro), Tanner Lofthouse (Utah Valley) 184: James Rowley (Purdue), Zayne Lehman (Ohio), Dominic Solis (Maryland), Tomas Brooker (App State) 197: Gavin Nelson (Minnesota), Justin Rademacher (Oregon State), Martin Cosgrove (Penn) 285: David Szuba (Rider to Arizona State), Josiah Hill (Little Rock), Ryan Catka (Virginia), John Meyers (Clarion), Thadd Huff (Bellarmine)

I literally gave you the link to see for yourself, but you’re so intellectually lazy you couldn’t be bothered lol.

Gandering through the Top 10-20 on Wrestlestat, if we are going off of non-Frosh redshirts...: 125 - G. Diakomihalis (Cornell), J. Volk (Minny) 133 - R. Crookham (Lehigh), D. Ragusin (Michigan), B. Ungar (Cornell) 141 - L. Stanich (Lehigh), A. Echemendia (Iowa State), R. Jack (North Carolina), V. Cornella (Cornell), T. Crook (VTech), F. Tal-Shahar (Northwestern) 149 - C. Swiderski (OSU) 157 - D. Cardenas (Stanford), T. Watters (WVU), V. Voinovich (Iowa) 165 - P. Kellar (Oklahoma), B. Hepner (tOSU) 174 - A. Facundo (OSU) 184 - B. Soldano (Oklahoma, maybe?), J. Conway (FA&M) 197 - R. Elam (ISU), L. Geog (tOSU) 285 - Y. Bastida (ISU), N. Taylor (Lehigh), T. Ghadiali (UofM), B. Amos (Wiscy), K. Doucet (tOSU, maybe?), H. Catka (Rutgers, maybe?)

Do you use AI searches and regurgitate information without actually verifying? If you actually go on https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/ sections 9 and 10 are no longer there in article 1 or anywhere. If you control f search there is no mention of habeus corpus anymore

This is great analysis- thank you! Here's what I'm thinking...you can book it now! 57kg - I think DNP is a little hard on Knox. I think he takes BRONZE. I think Sakamoto (JPN) is the favorite and beats Knox H2H. Other Challengers: Aitanov (KAZ)- he wrestled Lilledahl tough at Cadets two different years. I haven't seen Ozdamirov (RUS) enough and I'm not ready to anoint Zangaladze (GEO) quite yet. 61kg - Blaze for GOLD. Besides Toktamotov (KRG), I think Begoyan (ARM) is toughest (and beat Saitiev at Euro U20). Khateri (IRI) is capable of medaling here too. 65kg - is TOUGH TOUGH! Stanich is BRONZE. I think Dhzandubaev (RUS) is the favorite, followed by Toprak (TUR), but I can also easily see Uulu (KRG - U17 World Champ who beat Jordyn Raney) or Ashwani (IND) finding their way to Gold- neither will be an easy out. Sleeper is Karimov (AZE) who is former U17 Euro Champ and beat Magomedov in a wild one. 70kg - As strong as 65kg is, 70kg is just as weak. Duke for GOLD. I think Elahi (IRI) will be his biggest test, and maybe Ito (JPN) who beat Melvin Miller at U17 last year. 74kg - This weight is also underwhelming to me. Lockett for GOLD. Khaniev (RUS), Wagin (GER - who I still can't get behind) and Mamivand (IRI) will be his stiffest tests but keep an eye out for Yamaguchi (JPN), a former U17 Silver medalist. 79kg - I don't think Henckel finds the podium DNP. Too many tough guys here- Yousefi (IRI) is the favorite. Begenjov (TRK) and Amit (IND) will also be factors. Sleepers are Omarov (AZE) and Tchetchelashvili (GEO). 86kg - McEnelly for SILVER. If he can avoid being turned in par terre, he beats everyone in this group except Rahmani (IRI) who is my pick to win this weight. 92kg - Conner for BRONZE/DNP. Depends on the draw. Poyonov (UZB) is the favorite, and Sachin (IND) is one to watch out for- I think both beat Conner H2H. I don't recognize too many of the other guys 97kg - Rademacher for SILVER. He always looks undersized, and I can't figure out why?!? Alizadeh (IRI) gets this one done. Iran sending a strong team. Petriashvili (GEO) and Magamedov (RUS) are neck and neck but neither quite there yet. 125kg - I didn't pay too much attention to HWT so I'll pass on prediction.