Eagle26

Exactly. In that same year, they could’ve been on scholarship training at that same RTC instead of giving up their senior year of high school and paying for housing on their own.

I often wonder if any of the phenoms actually regret being held back? Clearly many of them are ready for NCAA competition now and they are stuck competing another year or two with high schoolers. Your body only has so many years of this kind of grind. Especially the ones that have senior level aspirations, why not get to the better stuff sooner rather than delay it?

You really think Duke could beat Mesenbrink out for a spot this year?! No way that’s happening.

What makes you say that? Not too long ago he shrunk his body to 74kg. With his frame, I don’t see him getting over 180-185 unless he got really out of shape. Even if he’s 185, a 12 pound cut is going to seem easy for him.

Don’t know if he was at the open, but Rowdy Neighbor needs mentioned

I have to agree with your synopsis that the future is bright, but we do seem to be rebuilding a bit in several weights. We were spoiled a bit with 4 of the top six USA wrestlers of all time competing at the same time. Snyder still going strong and Dake will adjust to 86… not sure if Burroughs is done or not yet? Honestly I think there’s a better chance we see JB or Nolf at 79 than Dake or Chance. No way Dake concedes to Valencia IMO. Chance probably could go to 79 but he spent a lot of time bulking up to 86, so I doubt he wants to go backwards on that. We always seem to have a first year team member burst onto the scene with a medal, so I think we do get at least one or two from the weights you listed. Mesenbrink took it to Carr who just beat Takatani, so he should medal. Hendrickson is certainly capable too. If we add in Brooks and Burroughs/Nolf that’s a pretty darn good team.

The majority of people don’t like what is foreign to them. In my experience, most wrestlers and fans that truly get to know both styles end up preferring freestyle. I know that won’t change your mind and that’s ok. I agree we don’t have to completely change folkstyle. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with changing the rules to make a good product better.

I don’t think they (UWW) care what America does with its folkstyle. I do think we would be better served and have a better product if we could work some freestyle concepts into folk. Step outs would be a huge improvement. I also would like to see some way stop the boring endless riding (ex. The ref brings them up after a certain amount of time). I do like the control aspect of folkstyle but overall the rules are better in freestyle. We could definitely make folk a little more like free while still maintaining the core concepts of folkstyle

And when they added multiple turns and when they added step outs. Techs are a lot easier to come by in Freestyle. I love almost everything about the current freestyle rules, but I would personally like to see us go back to one turn and then you have to change holds. We got to see a lot more great wrestling IMO

I would have to think the pickings are slim in the USA. I mean what percentage of the population has even a basic understanding of freestyle wrestling? It’s probably less than 10% of the wrestling population which is a small percentage to begin with.

I saw a lot of people on social media act like they are surprised by this too. Stanich is a beast. He placed 5th in the country as a true freshman in 2024. Beat several AAs as a redshirt this year. Has two years in a D1 room. The fact that Bassett is even close to that level is impressive. Definitely not an upset

That’s got to be some kind of record lol

I mean it’s literally called the US Open… that’s kinda the point that anyone can enter. So you are going to have big brackets. I think most competitors like the challenge and welcome the opportunity to get a bunch of matches!

Excellent summary. The years tend to run together after a while and it’s hard to remember what happened when lol.

Glad to hear it seems he might compete at the WTT. I don’t totally agree that skipping the open was the best strategy though. He would very likely win the 79 kg bracket and get a bye to final x. That has served him well in the past. Especially if Nolf decides to join WTT, that would make his path a lot tougher. I guess it’s really not much difference now that WTT are different dates than Final X. And he had no way of knowing what Dake, Nolf, and others are doing, so I understand the decision.

Davis to West Virginia??

I don’t think he ever made an announcement, but his absence from the open would suggest he may be done competing. I don’t think he ever sees 74 again, but I thought maybe he might try 79kg one more time to try to end on a high note. He certainly deserves a grand retirement. With Dake moving up, and 79 seemingly wide open, do you think he makes an appearance at WTT?

Whether it’s right or not, I personally would prefer it. I do think 12 weights is a bit of an overkill and it would probably be more likely to do 9 men’s and 9 women’s weights if we are stuck on 18. It would probably be more fair to do 10 men’s and 8 women’s but I’m guessing they would rather keep it equal. Honestly I’m surprised, Greco has made it this long without an equivalent women’s sport.

From Wikipedia…. “Executive director of the Russian Wrestling Federation, Makhmud Magomedov, stated that Saitiev died of cardiac arrest, and Russia's minister of sport Mikhail Degtyarev said Saitiev had been ill, frequently visiting medical centres. Saitiev's widow, Indira, stated Saitiev had fallen out of a second-storey window before his death. Russian outlet Baza [ru] reported that a janitor found Saitiev lying injured on the ground near a residence on Minskaya Street, and called for an ambulance. Baza said Saitiev later died in hospital.” Crazy that there are such varying reports of his death, but no answers yet. You would think he’s a huge celebrity in Russia and it would be big news. But then again… I guess the media there knows when they have to keep quiet

I don’t think college wrestling really needs a weight class between 297 and 285. It will definitely just make the upper weights even weaker. If they do want to add a weight, that’s not necessarily a bad thing though. They just need to disperse it better among the lighter guys then. The weight before hwt should be no more than 210 IMO. Maybe something like this? 126 133 140 147 154 162 170 180 192 207 300

True that it’s very impressive they gave up a year of eligibility to stay with Brands. Honestly, I may have been misremembering some of the details. I remember a lot of controversy around that recruiting class. I was thinking it was mostly because they basically combined with Iowa’s recruiting class to get a double recruiting class. But maybe it was more just that they transferred and VT wasn’t happy.

To be fair I’m not anti Iowa, but I’ll crack a joke at any of the big programs. I agree that’s actually very impressive he got some real blue chippers to give up a year of eligibility to wrestle for him. I believe Brands is a great coach and a great recruiter… he’s got a few flaws but so does every coach - even Cael But you have to agree it is a bit ironic that Brands best recruiting class of all time committed to attending VT not Iowa.

I guess Brands was better at recruiting kids to VT than to Iowa then

Wasn’t that class with Metcalf the infamous “double recruiting class” though? Half of them went to VT originally and then joined in with the Iowa class. So that group needs an asterisk . Does anyone remember how many were recruited by Tom to VT? I know Metcalf was.