Jason Bryant

I didn’t think supporting a duel championship was a thing in PSU threads …. oh wait. D-U-E-L. My bad.

I’ve got an Everblades puck around here somewhere from their expansion season.

Christiansburg didn't start to become a factor until 1999 (Dresser's third year when they were second behind my alma mater in Group AA). Cburg didn't win its first state championship until 2002. They did have quite the run from 2002 until 2018, so that's the era I'd equate with the Blue Demons vs. the 80s and 90s. There was a lot more than Great Bridge and Grundy making national waves back then too. Cox, and Western Branch were consistently nationally ranked and good ol' Poquoson (the aforementioned alma mater) had some good runs in the 80s and 90s. Numerous "Fargo" AA's and D1 wrestlers. Up north, there were some pretty good Robinson teams too, although my knowledge of NOVA wrestling prior to jumping into the sport in 1995 was pretty sketchy.

There’s always exceptions in both directions - so I feel the hometown distinction BY THE ATHLETE will balance out - for every Bartlett, there’s a counter so it’ll all be a wash in the long run anyway. i’ve lived in my current house longer than any other place. I’m a Minnesota resident but I will always claim Virginia as where I’m from. And I don’t think there’s a solution that can be easily deduced. Unless my time gets paid for to go year by year, athlete by athlete - and even then, that decision can come under added scrutiny.

I take what the athlete lists as their hometown on their school bio. I can also do “by high school state” … that could sway more to PA (Sem) and NJ (Blair) given they are boarding schools that have a lot of out-of-state students. HS state is trickier in the cases where wrestlers transfer across state lines - i’ve typically used the last place they wrestled (non-PG) as the high school. I don’t do per capita, because it assumes every person in highly populated states have the same access to the sport as they do in places like Iowa. If I were to compare this to a state’s population, it would be to NFHS participation numbers - the prospective college wrestlers, in my estimation, come from who is wrestling in high school, not a general population count.

I didn’t want to put 40+ states of text on a social graphic, so I went with approx the top 15 (with ties)

He calls a damn good match.

Greatest goal song ever …

Tyrone wrestling for a medal. Would be the first for the Dutch in Greco at Euros since 1937 …

FILA's ineptitude as a whole and their reluctance to accept women's wrestling was definitely a factor - it wasn't exactly ancient history when they were awarding "prettiest wrestler" awards and vacuum cleaners for prizes at tournaments. Women's wrestling had four weights in 2004, 2008 and 2012. The upheaval and move to six weights helped save the sport on the Olympic programme. That's documented.

Fact: If there wasn’t women’s wrestling, we wouldn’t be in the Olympics at all. It’s easy to say they’ve “cost” “us” … when without women’s wrestling, the entire international sport would be crippled. Now go back in your cave.

You missed the joke.

and oddly, only caused a $1 difference in products from Temu …

Six times Gray Simons - 7.

BIG passed away a while ago. He was one of the OGs on themat and TWT.