Wrestleknownothing

BTW, I haven't taken the time to research it, but there was a single true freshman AA this year (Luke Lilledahl), does anyone know the last time that happened?

I think this chart sums up the impact of the NCAA's decision to take away a year of eligibility from the 2016 high school graduating class (approximately) and transfer it to the 2017 and beyond classes (approximately) in college wrestling. Using Willie's Big Board data, out to his top 100 ranked recruits I show the number of All-American honors won by each high school graduating class. Notes: The 2016 graduating class was poised to become the most decorated of the era before the NCAA decided to cancel the 2020 tournament. As it stands, without their final year of eligibility they were only 1 AA behind 2014, equal with 2015, and 5 AA's ahead of 2013. The 2017 - 2019 classes effectively received an extra redshirt allowing them to complete their careers a year older than they would have otherwise. While not all took advantage of the extra year, enough did that is shows up in the data. Curiously, the 2020 class, the direct beneficiaries of the fifth year, did little with it. While 40 of the 100 still have remaining eligibility, only 11 of the 40 have AA'd in the past. The class of 2020 is likely to finish with 50 - 55 AA's. The class of 2021 is a bloodbath. With only 16 total AA's from 9 wrestlers among the top 100 through four years, it is not looking good. The story can be told by its top 2 ranked high schoolers. Paddy Gallagher and Alex Facundo have zero AA's between them. While Facundo still has two years left (3? who really knows for sure at this point?) and Gallagher still has one, even if they AA out it will be historically low.

Oof. I am not sure I have that energy. But the real problem is I think it would be more than just height. The ratio of torso to height (or legs to height, either way) probably matters. I imagine the difference between wingspan and height is also indicative to a predisposition to be a better wrestler. And where are you gonna find those stats?

Yeah. Me neither.

We have already discussed the democratization of bribery that $TRUMP and World Liberty Financial has allowed. But now there is this. Of course there is. From The Financial Times: "A small group of traders earned a $99.6mn windfall by buying Melania Trump’s cryptocurrency token in the minutes before it was made public, an analysis by the Financial Times has found. Melania Trump unveiled the $MELANIA coin in a social media post late on January 19, just hours before her husband was inaugurated as the US president. In the two and a half minutes before her post went live on Truth Social, two dozen digital wallets bought $2.6mn of the tokens from the crypto marketplace where they had been deposited. The traders profited when Melania Trump’s post sent the price of the tokens soaring. The wallets offloaded most of their coins rapidly, with 81 per cent of their sales taking place within 12 hours." Hey, if we can use crypto for bribery, why not use it to normalize insider trading? If you can use cheap Chinese labor to make bibles, hats, and other tchotchkes to extract dollars from followers, why not use crypto to extract every possible dollar from followers?

@BobDole @Husker_Du WTF

I knew that when I responded, and debated whether to qualify my statement, or not (3 out of 4). I decided to not qualify, but am torn. The tie breaker for me was I could not find any international achievements for Branch. This is certainly not a hill I would choose to die on, more of a hair split on what constitutes THE top. As an aside, I love that his bio on the Wyoming website barely even mentions that he wrestled. There is paragraph after paragraph about the athletes he coached and coaching achievements, but only a few sentences about his wrestling.

The rule reads that the injury occurs before the start of the second half of the season, which is the 10th date for wrestling, AND the injury occurs when the athlete has not participated in more than 30% of eligible dates, which in wrestling is defined as six. He is fine on the number of competition dates (four) but his last competition date was the eleventh for the team, so he participated in the second half of the season. Given that, I am not sure how he gets another year for 2024.

This got me thinking about the ways that Gary Hall Jr. and I are complete opposites. Hall Jr.'s father and grandfather were world class swimmers, too. I do not every recall seeing my father in a pool, and my grandfather was a coal miner. While he passed before I was born, I just can't imagine him in a pool either. Hall Jr. was a drop dead sprinter. World class at 100m and under. Never saw a 101st meter. I was a distance swimmer's distance swimmer. It took me 500m just to get going. Hall Jr. medaled in three Olympics. I once qualified for a lone Olympic Trials. So, I'm real close on this one. At 218 lbs. Hall Jr. needed 6'6" to carry that weight. Very inefficient. I get within a biscuit of that while only using 5'10".

Give me two weeks with Terry and I will have him beating Tom.

It seems like those are examples of guys who faught their body type to get close to the top, but not THE top.

https://usawrestlingevents.com/event/2500181702/schedule May 15 at 7:00 pm EST per above

"With a professional swimming record of zero and zero...." Love it.

It raises the question, what is the perfect body type for wrestling? I heard a TED talk a while back that argued part of the progression of records in sports is attributable to specialization by body type. For example, in the early Olympics the shot putters and the sprinters looked very much alike, now there could not be a more stark contrast in sports. Michael Phelps with his long torso, short legs, big feet, long arms, extreme shoulder, knee, and ankle flexibility is the perfect body type for swimming. Sadulaev also has a long torso and short legs. Is this the perfect wrestling body type? Would Phelps also have been a world class wrestler?

It doesn't look like NLWC has submitted any entries yet. They do like to wait until the end.

The single attribute Donald Trump demands from everyone who works for him is the blind allegiance of a yes man. To turn around and claim he is only following his lawyers' advice is to ignore that they only tell him what he wants to hear.

When Biden was in office you guys were a bunch of investigators. Now, it is - shrug - he says a lawyer told him to do it, it must be right.

She left Stanford a couple years ago to train with Anthony Nesty at Florida and has been steadily getting back to her best. She now has 23 of the 25 fastest times in the 800, and all of the top 10.

Amen. She would melt people.

My neverending work to bring culture and refinement to my wrestling brethren.

Simpleton

It's like you guys don't know who the president is.

True, but what he describes is a permanent inflationary effect for the US, too. If US companies are forced to abandon China to find the next best labor deal, it will still be the next best. So prices will still go higher. Worse for China, sure. But still very bad for the US. That said, China is the biggest culprit when it comes to unfair trade practices, and should be the target of hard negotiations. But I believe the tariffs need to be targeted at unfair trade practices, rather than the current across the board craziness of using a made up formula that equates any and all goods imbalances as unfair, while ignoring services imbalances that typically go in the other direction, and the fact that many imbalances are structural (i.e. China has cheaper labor, and nothing will change that). And a policy needs to be well thought out, rather than the willy nilly, reactionary, at the whim, set of "policies" Trump is currently pursuing.

Don't leave out her math skills as being off.