NewYooper

For two years and then two years at Oklahoma State?

9: 126 JV 10: 145 JV 11: 167 V (weighed about 158; 132, 138, 145, 155 weights below were all-state, so no reason to pull weight) 12: 185 V (weighed no more 162; same as above except now 167 was also all-state; at the end of the year I had to make sure I weighed at least 158 to wrestle 185) Current weight not applicable as I went to college and grew 2+ inches but in my mind I could have been pretty damn tough at the current HS 190/215 weight classes if only I could have grown up earlier...

Senior year in HS. Wrestling at 185. District meet. My teammate (placed 2nd at state the following year) wrestling at 167 gets a guy up in the air on a takedown and slams him (accidentally) to the mat. Yes, it was a slam. The kid was fine. Just as he starts to get up, his coach yells out (loud enough for he whole gym to hear) "Stay down." The coach runs out to check on his kid. Sure enough he is "injured" so the kid wins and my teammate loses on a DQ for the move. Later that evening in the finals, I am wrestling a kid from that same school in the 3/4 match. Sure enough their kid picks me up and slams me to the mat (again, unintentionally). Just as I hit the mat, the whole gym goes quiet. Then, everyone in the gym all yelled at the same time "stay down!" I busted out laughing. I got up and looked at their coach (who was hiding behind his hands) and yelled "Nope coach, not stooping to your level." Everyone in the gym heard it and gave me a standing ovation. The ref looked at me and couldn't stop laughing. He says I should hit you with unsportsmanlike conduct for talking to the coach, but he deserved it. I did manage to get the decision.

And Northern Iowa at one time won something like 23 straight Western Wrestling Conference/League/Region titles. So, that looks like a Dynasty to me.

Unfortunately, the number of medals is not the most important criteria for the IOC. They are focused on limiting the number of athletes. Three more weight classes in men's free style is ~ 60 more athletes. This is not what the IOC wants. Wrestling (and a few other sports) get tossed a bone with two bronzes to "make up" for the fewer weight classes. What the IOC wants is more medal events, but fewer overall competitors. Hence the mixed relays in track and field and swimming, for example. Most of those athletes were already at the games for their main event so they can "easily" add the extra event. More events, more finals, more winners, more television moments, but less athletes.

For South Dakota - already mentioned: Randy Lewis Lincoln Mac Jim and Bill Scherr Some high school greats: Logan Storley 6 titles Kirk Wallman 6 titles (his dad Gary "Smokey" also won 4 as did his brother Troy and brother Cory) not quite the Peery's from Oklahoma, but better than my family... Gary AAed twice at Iowa State. I think one of the boys AAed at Iowa State and one at Wisconsin. Lincoln Mac 5 titles

If the new conference doesn't sponsor wrestling, why would they be upset or not want N. Colorado because it wrestles in the Big 12? Boise St. (at one time was in the Mountain West and wrestled in the PAC-X (where X sadly is now smaller than it used to be; and where sadly, Boise St. no longer wrestles). UVU is in the WAC and wrestles in the Big 12. Forming a new "conference" within an existing conference is a way of life today. Just look at Big 12 Women's rowing which has Alabama and Tennessee in the conference. In the big picture, for many of these conferences, wrestling and rowing really don't matter. They may matter to us, but in general... The ADs have figured this out and and have found innovative ways to keep particular teams in a conference where they can get the necessary competition.

Northern Colorado has wrestled in the Big 12 (along with SDSU, NDSU, UVU, Air Force and Wyoming) since the Western Wrestling Conference merged with the Big 12 for wrestling. Other schools were subsequently added.

LJ Helbig was partially/mostly deaf and wrestled at Wyoming from ~2009-2013. As a freshman wrestled at 184 behind Joe LeBlanc (who was All American). As a sophomore, wrestled at 197 - qualified for NCAA tournament. As a junior wrestled at 285. Lost 3-2 in the WWC finals to Christian Brantley from UNI and didn't make NCAA. As a senior wrestled at 174 and qualified for NCAA tournament. Referees always had to remember to use hand signals for him on restarts and to touch him in some way to let him know the whistle had sounded. Not quite Kyle Dake, but four years and four weights - with the smallest weight last.