Eagle26

I know this is totally trolling but I’ll bite. No way he would have done better at Penn State. At Lock Haven he got a ton of attention and mentorship from the coaching staff. Not that Penn State would’ve ignored him, but he would not be one of the guys that is their main focus. I think going to another big university would have had similar results as OSU

That’s my understanding as well. Live wrestling in the Penn State/NLWC room must be brutal though! Imagine the kind of shape you have to be in to withstand someone like Nolf, N. Lee, or Brooks constantly attacking you! It’s probably more grueling than any kind of conditioning you can do.

I’m guessing maybe they just train hard? Not sure why they would do that though… don’t they know winning on conditioning is an outdated strategy only used Iowa coaches living in the past??

Well, why not go for another quad and possibly GOAT in any country? I don’t really disagree with you… just making a point. I do believe injuries played a factor in Smiths decision to retire, but I also believe having to make an actual living back then was a big factor as well.

FIFY

I guess, but I feel like he has lived up to these. Everybody wants him to come out with an excuse, but he won’t make excuses. He’s clearly struggling with some sort of injury but he doesn’t use it as an excuse. Instead he gave Ramos the credit. I respect that. I’m just tired of the double standard and the ridiculous criticism he is up against. For example, you didn’t hear one peep about Starocci MFF out of the tournament (rightfully so). He finished his match in the championship bracket, so why couldn’t he finish in the consis? We all know the answer… it wasn’t worth risking further injury at that point. Same exact thing for Lee at NCAAs… wasn’t worth risking further injury with the open coming up. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough time to heal, and now people still think he is just mentally weak?? That’s crazy

I’ve always been in the camp that the world medalists have earned that right. However, I think you bring up a fair point. Our depth right now is really good (in freestyle anyway). Last year, the men medaled in 8 out 10 weights. Winning a bronze medal doesn’t really make you an all-star on Team USA anymore. I would be fine with World champ gets a bye to Final X, and bronze or silver gets a bye to US open finals or something like that. It would make sense to have a distinction for world champions.

Why did Gable and Smith stop wrestling when they were both in the peak of their career then? Just playing devils advocate here, but Spencer has already wrestled through worse injuries than those listed. I mean the guy won NCAAs with two torn ACLs! I remember watching him wrestle the state tournament in high school and we could tell something was wrong but he told no one beforehand and decided to wrestle anyway. As we learned later, he had torn his acl just a few weeks before and I remember being impressed with how tough he must be for a high school kid to make that decision. Most people would have simply retired with the slew of injuries he had (like Smith and Gable did). What does the guy have to do to be tough enough for you?! I’d love to see all the internet tough guys try to compete at that level with those kind of injuries lol

Is that actually what was said? That sounds more plausible. I was just making a joke.

I would say when the match ends, they declare a winner, and they raise his hand. Or at least before the wrestlers leave the mat. If a coach wants to challenge the final score, they need to throw the brick and stay there. They need to take time to get it right before they walk away and officially end the match. It looks really bad to change it after the fact. Do any other sports reverse entire outcomes after a winner has been declared? (Honest question…not sure).

But they had Bartlett winning on the scoreboard and raised his hand. It was only 3 seconds left but he deserves to know if he is losing and have chance for a quick score. What if it would be 10 seconds, or 30 seconds, or a minute? What’s the cutoff where it’s ok to just reverse the winner? They to pause the match to make sure the table has criteria right

Gable: “Man, you are lucky I decided not wrestle NCAA this year so you could win the National Championship and Hodge trophy.” Parris: “Yeah, you are right. Thanks. I appreciate it. Please go back to WWE for 2024”

So sad to hear about Lee. I hope he takes time to fully heal and comes back with a vengeance next year and wins an Olympic gold! It’s a shame the process has to start so early for qualifying for worlds. Maybe he would be healthy by that time but we will never know

Maybe we could have an individual tournament that crowns the best individuals and a team tournament that crowns the best team???Crazy concept, I know…

I would guess he is thinking it is the best place to help him become a national champion and then be able to give the glory to God on national TV. It’s more about having a platform to share your faith. If he went to a private Christian school, who would he have to share his faith with?

My biggest takeaway from all these stats is how on earth did Jason Nolf never win the Hodge Trophy?!

Well, at least the title of the thread still applies to what it has become…

Is nhs67 Pat Mineo’s username?

It’s not ideal for people that have to fly in, but Harrisburg should have some affordable flights and it’s not too bad of a drive from there. What makes it a great location is that is centrally located in PA. The majority of the fans will be driving there, and the state’s hotbeds for wrestling are Pittsburgh area and Lehigh valley. Both are opposite ends of the state, so if you have it in say, Philly, it would be an easy drive for the Lehigh Valley guys but Pittsburgh would be too long for most to make the trip. State College will draw people from all over the state and surrounding states.

What offer did he allegedly get?

I don’t have time to look up all the data… maybe @Wrestleknownothing has a chart for us ? But a quick search shows we are headed in the right direction https://uww.org/article/wrestling-enjoys-record-viewership-world-champs-108-athletes-qualify-spots-olympic-games https://uww.org/article/wrestling-scores-big-world-cships-706-percent-jump-engagements

Good point. I’m not sure… probably a 50/50 at best, which is sad

Seriously… how can anyone compete with Penn State right now?! I don’t blame the top kids for wanting to go there, but it’s no fun for everybody else. Sucks knowing in April who is going to win the NCAA championships in March. What kind of odds would you need to take the field over Penn State right now?

Point 1 is clearly not true. I don’t even really follow others sports to know if it has happened elsewhere, but freestyle wrestling has made huge gains in popularity and viewership as a direct result of rules changes. Compare the world championship viewer ratings now to the “ball grab” era. Rules were horrible back then and the changes they made brought more fans to the sport