Eagle26

Who was Penn State’s last world team member at heavyweight? Kerry McCoy? Lehigh had Zach Rey much more recently. Now both are coaching at Lehigh. Yeah, we can speculate that maybe Snyder is moving up, or maybe Greg didn’t like the whole Starocci situation. But, it could simply be that Lehigh is the better place for a heavyweight to train. I know it’s hard to believe Happy Valley may not be the best place for EVERYONE

I agree for the most part about his draw except I consider his win over Sujeet a pretty big upset. It all depends how you look at it. Like you said no expected a bronze out of him, so to me, that’s what makes it the most surprising… even if the draw was part of it. Honestly, I wouldn’t have called Real to take bronze even after seeing his draw, so I think he over performed

My bad. Down 10-2, huge difference

That’s true. I was just looking at our results, but they were definitely impressively

We had a lot of great performances at worlds. Which one was the most surprising and most impressive to you? Some of my top choices include 1. Real Woods taking bronze in a loaded weight. Even though he didn’t have quite as good of wins as some others, I would have never picked this result! 2. Levi beating a former world champ on his way to the finals! Didn’t know what to expect from him. Honestly was predicting DNP and never would have picked him over Usmanov but glad he proved me wrong! 3. Zahid dominating everyone including Ghasempour. I did have Zahid picked to win, but never would have guessed the margin of victory and out scoring his opponent 49-0. 4. Jax being so close to a bronze medal while still in high. Not exactly surprising but incredibly impressive. I was very impressed with his win over Suda and wouldn’t have called that one. 5. Trent coming back from 8-0 to win his world title. I thought he had a decent chance at gold, but it was a bit of a wildcard. I certainly wouldn’t have expected such an amazing comeback! 6. Helen winning another gold, pinning her way to the finals and getting a last second takedown to win the championship! I knew she was still amazing, but what a tournament for her! 6. Snyder winning another gold with Taz and Azarpira in the weight. He didn’t have to beat Taz but I didn’t have him picked to beat either one. I did figure he would be right in the mix so not quite as surprising to me. I think that’s my order. I chose Real as number 1 simply because if you would have told me these before the tournament started, it’s the one that I would say was the most unlikely. What do you all think? Any others to add?

I agree with those that said it’s not fair to compare women vs men. Think of it this way… if Caitlyn Clark smashes every single WNBA record and wins 10+ titles, do you think people will consider her the best basketball player of all time? No, because they know Jordan or LeBron would smash her one on one. So it’s just not fair. So let’s just let Helen be the women’s GOAT and Burroughs be the men’s GOAT (yes I know both are debatable, but you get the point).

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17U8AgMM1K/?mibextid=wwXIfr Spencer answers the question himself here. The interviewer was very direct and almost brutal (maybe some cultural differences), but I think Spencer handled it well. Kudos to him for that!

He was so fun to watch at this tournament and extremely impressive (other than his conditioning lol). I wouldn’t doubt him, but I have to agree with others that are saying it will be a difficult path for him. It’s historically tough at 65-74, and he probably is caught in the middle. Can he put on enough size to be an effective 74? Can he stay small enough to be effective at 65 in 2028? I highly doubt the latter. Heavyweight definitely seems to have more longevity, so the odds would say Zare has a better chance for that title.

No disrespect to Adeline, but IMO, you can’t be considered the GOAT if you haven’t reached the pinnacle of the sport with an Olympic gold. My vote goes to Helen

That is totally true. It’s sounds pretty crazy that Woods took bronze in a bracket with a top 2 like Amouzad and Kiyooka, but he definitely had a better path to that bronze. I was impressed by his win over Sujeet, but I was more impressed with Jax beating Suda. If Jax and Blaze fill out to a full size 65 (they likely will), they are probably the favorites. Just saying Real should be included in the conversation at least.

Ok. So we are in agreement that part of it was mental. I’m just speculating why that may have happened. Maybe I’m wrong. Either way I hope he figures it out. He’s fun to watch when he’s on!

Yes, his full potential is Olympic Gold (or silver as you say). The point of this topic is asking why he didn’t reach his full potential this weekend. How about giving your own theory instead of just criticizing others?

I think after this performance, you have to include Real Woods in the conversation. He medaled in a heavier and tougher weight than Jax was in. He obviously made big strides and is pretty new to freestyle, so he probably has a good learning curve.

I don’t necessarily disagree but that’s not the point of this topic. Spencer Lee was arguably a better recruit than anyone Penn State has had in the past (up until maybe Blaze and Duke). Why is he not having fun and/or reaching his full potential? We are all speculating here and I’m not trying to put down Lee. But it sure seems like part of it might be mindset and putting too much pressure on himself. I hope he figures it out and wins an Olympic gold in 2028!

To be clear, I’m not a Penn State fan. I believe Cael is a win at all costs guy just as much as Brands, Taylor, and just about every D1 coach. I don’t think Cael is on some moral high ground that he won’t do what it takes to win. But I think you have to respect that he’s not promoting that with his athletes. They are already ultra competitive. He’s getting them to buy into down playing the importance of winning to help them relax, perform better, and in turn, the winning comes.

Please elaborate

That’s my take as well. You see Penn State and many other programs adopting the mindset of just “having fun and scoring points”. Iowa is still stuck on winning is everything. Even though PSU is super competitive and wants to win as bad as Iowa, the mindset they promote is much more freeing. It allows their guys to wrestle without all the pressure

Well that aged poorly lol. I guess if you wrestle amazing enough for 3 minutes, that is good enough!

Or at least go grocery shopping with him haha

That’s true. Get him on Ghasempour’s strength training program or get him in with the Russian State Lab and he will be fine ha

That’s a good thought… not sure if it’s the weight cut or just cardio, but it sure seems like the weight cut probably has something to do with it. At 70, I think he’d be a beast! Problem is it’s not an Olympic weight and I’m not sure he could fill out to be a full sized 74 any time soon. We all know 74 is LOADED, so I just can’t quite see him having the horsepower to compete them in the next year or two. But 2028 is still a long way off, so if he starts right now maybe that will be his best shot?

I have to think it will be. Amouzad has looked amazing for about 4 minutes, but that’s not going to cut it against Kiyooka.

Dang. That’s about the worst way to lose after you thought you won. scoring was a little sus. There were 3 turns in that first challenge. Should’ve been either 11-8 Kaz or 10-8 Jax depending on who you say initiated the last one… I think Jax but it’s a 50/50 at best. I think there definitely should have been 4 plus 2 for Jax earlier, but you aren’t going to challenge when they gave you 4. But fun match. Other than that one position, Jax looked better. His future is bright.

Wow! What a match by Haines! He earned that win!

Trent looked good, but I am a little worried that jump go behind will get him in trouble against a tougher opponent