InterMat Staff

InterMat senior writer T.R. Foley answers reader questions about NCAA wrestling, international wrestling, recruiting, or anything loosely related to wrestling. You have until Thursday night every week to send questions to Foley's Twitter or email account. Do you want to read a past mailbag? Access archives. This week's mailbag is massive, so I'll keep the proselytizing brief ... In an effort to create a wider base of support for the Olympic bid and to substantiate the sport's worldwide popularity, FILA is making a push for increased participation with their social media. Part of their outreach is to use my #WrestlingIsEverywhere as a drive of the campaign by collecting unique, engaging and heartfelt photos from around the world that tell the story of wrestling. FILA sees this user-generated series of photos as a robust social media successor to the popular and effective #SaveOlympicWrestling and #KeepOlympicWrestling campaigns that helped wrestling make it through St. Petersburg. With the long summer and a weariness of the general public to our message of quasi-desperation the tenor of the campaign needs to become more inclusive, upbeat and engaging. You can be part of the movement. In addition to liking the Facebook page and sharing the content with your friends, you can also submit your best wrestling photos to WrestlingIsEverywhere@gmail.com. The photos will then be used on the FILA Facebook page and distributed on Twitter. Check out the first 90 days worth of photos on my website WrestlingIsEverywhere.com and the first four official photos of the Facebook at FILA Official. Details of what to submit can also be found on my website. The #WrestlingIsEverywhere campaign is intended to capture the attention of the IOC voters, so remember that while photos of high-amplitude throws and Jordan Burroughs' double legs will be used, the campaign also needs photos that speak to the universality of the sport. We need photos that display humor, compassion, and inclusion. We want to inform and inspire. We want to show the IOC in one image what it would take 1,000 words to tell otherwise. Your photos don't have to be perfect. They just have to be yours. Choose to participate and we WILL create the type of organic social media campaign that can effect change and help influence the decision of IOC voters around the world. If the warm and fuzzy appeal of photography doesn't get you amped up to win the fight, here's empirical evidence that wrestling is in last place heading into the Sept. 8 meeting. Our goal should be to have 100k LIKES by Aug. 1. FACEBOOK: Squash2020: 42,291 PlayBall2020: 17,057 FILA: 11,540 #WrestlingIsEverywhere To your questions ... Q: There are two kids that have transferred from ODU in the last two months or so. What is going on down there? It seems that Coach Martin is doing great things at ODU. What are your thoughts or do you have inside information? -- Nick Foley: That number is now three. Justin LaValle (North Dakota State), Rob Deutsch (Rider) and John Nicholson (Iowa State) all left this season due to individual concerns. I don't like to speculate on why each left, but you're correct to wonder about the stability of the program. Retention is vital to medium-size programs with average support. Coach Martin is a proven winner, but his program has seen a small slide over the the past few seasons both on the mat and in anecdotes like the number of wrestlers leaving the program. Think of transferring like immigration. You might have your qualms with America (What the hell?!), but balancing how many people are trying to get in, versus how many are trying to flee is a good barometer. America is on the right side of that balance, ODU right now is not. As a Virginian, I pull for Old Dominion. As a journalist who will eventually have to answer the emails of alumnus Jason Bryant should something be misstated I'll leave it with you whether or not this is all cause for concern. My only advice is that if you're an alum of ODU, or even a fan of the Monarch program, now would be an exceptional time to show some financial support, and create some outreach among your community. Q: Nenad Lalovic seems to getting a lot of positive praise lately for spearheading FILA's much needed change. Does he deserve the credit he's getting or is he just in the right place at the right time making the obvious moves? -- Jeff N. Foley: Oof. I wrote a piece about Lalovic last month in which another FILA bureau member stated that it's too early to tell if he's the right guy. Essentially the response has been that he IS the guy, so we need to back our horse. All leaders have deficiencies (You've got to be kidding me?!) and Lalovic is not different. He's the son of a diplomat and successful businessman who so far has chosen the right time to say something in public and the right time to keep quiet. That's a lesson I wish I knew better. Lalovic will only be the savior of wrestling if he keeps the tent open for more participation and transparency. Already FILA is 100,000 times more transparent that FILA under Roi fainéant Raphie Martinetti. There are big actions in place that should they keep grinding correctly will change the face of the sport. However, FILA, and that means Lalovic, will be judged on their ability to stick to current reforms and expand opportunities for those outside the power three (USA, Russia, Iran). The IOC showed us that to be in their Olympics we need to play by their set of rules. Lalovic is making all the right moves in public, and should that continue of the next 91 days and wrestling earns reinstatement he will deserve much of the credit. Lalovic won't be alone in fathering this Olympic wrestling comeback story. Just on the American side there are a dozen individuals whose effort in this process has meant substantial and vital results. I won't name names because I don't want to leave off anyone whose played a key role, but there are plenty of men and women who are in a position to claim a piece of the success should wrestling be chosen by the IOC in Buenos Aires. The money, the labor, the intelligence and the overall collection of talent that has been assembled is remarkable. However, if wrestling is eliminated from Olympic contention it'll be Lalovic alone who suffers the brunt of the criticism. And it's because he chose in February to lead a movement that at the time had little hope of victory, that I'm happy to defer all public praise in his direction. Lalovic put himself in the crosshairs and that takes the type of courage we as wrestlers should all notice and respect. Q: I thought this might give you some ammo to write something comical for your mailbag in the midst of all the serious questions regarding money, the Olympics, and rule changes. What was the worst beating you took in college? For me two come to mind -- a non-competitive 7-1 thrashing by Travis Doto and a 16-4 thrashing that was borderline criminal by T.J. Williams. Doto took me down relatively quickly then proceeded to power half me without turning me. For what seemed like an eternity. Six minutes or so of power half time. And T.J. double legged me infinity times! Maybe only eight, but who is really counting? -- Scott G. Yoshi NakamuraFoley: Yoshi Nakamura from Penn teched me at the 2002 NCAA tournament in Albany. Whipped me silly. He wasn't just hitting takedowns, he managed to twice land five-point moves that were caught on film and later distributed on the NCAA highlight film. If you go back and watch the film you can see spindly legged me getting double overhook tossed twice and both times the referee was considerate enough to be out of the camera shot. The most comical part of being tossed around by the black belt judoka and two-time All-American was that every time he returned to top he tucked in the tag on the back of my singlet. I felt him do it, and thought to myself AS WE WERE WRESTLING, "Why did he tuck in my tag? Why? Seriously ... why?" Then he'd toss me on my head again and scramble my thoughts back to survival. Yoshi Nakamura. Guy laid a beating on me. Q: Thoughts on Spencer Lee announcing move from Saegertown High School (Saegertown, Pa.) to Franklin Regional? Seems a legit reason as his father took a job from the Saegertown area to Carnegie Mellon University. -- Ryan P. Foley: Sounds like you answered your own question! If my father took a job and moved the family, I'd also attend the high school in the area. Q: I think we need another event late this summer for freestyle wrestling to show its popularity and universality. It's great to rent out a Grand Central Terminal, but we need to sell out an arena. Pick a Midwest city (Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, etc.) and have an event where you can sell out an arena in a wrestling area. I think the event should be a four-team or eight-team event that shows off the global reach of wrestling. So many Olympic sports are dominated by one or two countries. It's a rare quality wrestling needs to show off. Have teams from all reaches (Mongolia, Georgia, Columbia, Egypt, Azerbaijan, India, Lithuania, etc.) I know this is a vague description, but I would like to see more stuff like this happen anyway. Soccer "friendlies" happen all the time. USA Wrestling should be a leader in bringing "friendlies" to prominence. -- Tom B. Foley: Excellent idea. We need another high profile event leading into the final month of the campaign to ensure that the IOC voters understand the universality of the sport, and its ability to bridge cultural gaps. My only critique is that we should do it outside the United States. Though we are the media capital of the planet, it might make more sense to move away from the American-centric approach to the sport, and towards something with more of a worldly component. Wrestling at the Giza Pyramids or under the Eiffel Tower might not mean much in terms of immediate viewership, but when reported it doesn't need a heavy coat of wax to shine the way we want. We could even go a step further and host an event in a place even more remote. I'd vote Mongolia or Tajikistan, but those might be too out of the way. I'm ready to hear some big ideas so please feel free to submit ideas to my email. Remember, #WrestlingIsEverywhere not just in the United States. Q: With everyone tired and bored with Greco-Roman at the world level (especially in the USA), is there a chance the two styles could ever be freestyle and folkstyle? -- Mike C. Foley: We very well could adapt a new style, and that style might be traditional or folkstyle, but it won't be American. Though there are big differences between freestyle and American folkstyle, the differences are nearly wide enough to generate worldwide interest. We like our scholastic style because it embodies a lot about what we like in America. Our wrestling style demands toughness, aggression and sacrifice over technique. We like action, but feel the need for fair results. Worldwide attitudes are much different and their traditional styles tell that story. My guess would be that beach wrestling, largely derived from traditional African wrestling would be the next style of wrestling to see in the Olympics. Takedowns are clear and easy to dictate, the action is bigger in the sand, and there is much more room for the marketability of the sport to the general sports audience who might not know how to score a leg lace but could tell you when someone earns a takedown in the sand. So, no, American folkstyle wrestling will never see the Olympics. I love it, and you love it, but for now we'll keep it American. Q: Regarding board shorts and rash guards, I have to disagree. Can you imagine Nico Megaludis trying to drop into the splits in the NCAA finals and getting caught up by his shorts, or Ben Askren's funk being stopped by his shorts? I think the shorts would limit the ability of funky and flexible wrestlers in a way that may affect the outcome of matches, which is basically the main thing you do not want in a uniform. Additionally, I'm not sure the wrestling community wants a change in uniform. Remember in 2007 when someone tried to popularize shorts/T-shirt (see video)? It faded pretty quickly. -- DB Foley: Your video shows the DoubleSport brand that was pushed in the middle of last decade. As you mentioned the changes advocated by many would be shorts and a rash guard, which have been improved over the past several years. As for the flexibility and funk argument, I think you're incorrect in assuming that fabric would hamper the flexibility. World-class grapplers who rely almost solely on their flexibility to create submission attacks have adopted this outfit as their uniform. Additionally, wrestlers wear these outfits EVERY DAY in the practice room. The only time American collegiate wrestlers don't wear shorts and a T-shirt is during competition, when suddenly we put on a tight, overly revealing piece of shiny spandex. It's totally odd once you think about it. We don't feel comfortable wearing only a singlet during practice, but suddenly in front of 17k people we are forced to wear them? Better uniforms mean more participation which means more fans, more dollars and more exposure. The singlet is dead. Lets parlay that highlight reel into a halftime dedicated to the marketing brilliance of BJJ and the Gracie Family ... MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME Who could argue that this is the type of highlight and hype that wrestling needs ... I want this for next year! Always enjoy watching how the other guys are promoting their product ... For equal rights ... Q: Who would win in a NCAA finals match: Jordan Oliver from 2013 or Brent Metcalf from 2010? -- Nick T. Foley: Metcalf, 3-1, with a takedown at the end of the third. Q: The new freestyle rule changes seem like an improvement to the sport, with the exception of the passivity rule. It seems complicated, making it difficult for the casual fan to understand. Plus, it seems that the best strategy for the non-passive wrestler would be to be defensive, not take risks, during the 30 seconds and get his penalty point. Why not just give the point if a wrestler is passive. Signal it, award it, keep wrestling. Simple and easy to understand. -- Clay C. Foley: The 30-second clock has been working to create more offense from the wrestler who has been warned for stalling. Like a reverse power play, the defensive wrestler has to be weary not to lose his advantage and can't risk nullifying the point by being pushed out of the circle. That creates an odd mentality where he or she has to continue interacting, even as one wrestler is more incentivized to score. Wrestling rules aren't often brilliant, but my guess is that most fans won't even know that there is a 30 second clock for the stall point which means they'll just see more action. Assume that no action takes place, then the match is stopped and the aggressive wrestler earns the point -- exactly what you wanted in the first place. I heart this rule change. Q: It seems you have recently amped up your displeasure with the Greco-Roman style. Is this style outdated? Or are their improvements that can be made to make this entertaining and viable? -- NGM Foley: "Outdated" is an interesting way to state the issues within Greco-Roman. I'll answer your question with a question: What simple solutions can be enacted in Greco to overcome the inaction? I'm optimistic, but the style has fallen behind freestlye both because of the boredom, and lack of gender equality. RANT OF THE WEEK! Q: Now that we've made the "Final Four" in Olympic inclusion (I count baseball/softball as two and along with squash and wrestling) the wrestling community may need to use a different tactic for the final vote in September. With that said, two arguments I haven't quite heard yet are as follows. First off, and this is the biased one, is the fact I've heard no "top of the sport" individual for baseball -- which I'll assume will get included as a package with softball -- come out publicly to support its inclusion. The major players of wrestling -- and you only have so many hours in the evening to read all their names so I won't print them -- have all either met in a public forum or gone out of their way to publicly plead the case for wrestling. Where's Albert Pujols? Ryan Braun? Justin Verlander? Derek Jeter? Not a word about it and I haven't seen anyone from the media ever inquire/ask about such a topic to any Major League baseball player. That alone should clarify the support, or lack thereof, of the influential individuals amongst the leaders of the sport. Secondly -- and I'd like to think this may be the "clinch" argument (if I may use a wrestling term for it) to get it in -- the sport of wrestling embodies what Pierre de Coubertin was describing when he brought back the Olympics in 1896. De Coubertin envisioned Olympics as promoting peace in a very volatile world at the time. (No one in over a 1000 years had seen a war that was about to commence about 18 years after 1896, but many feared such a conflict would occur.) De Coubertin wanted to promote cultural relativity, and lessening the dangers of potential war. All sports have had at least a fraction of accomplishing this, but anyone has to see that wrestling has done this the most. The best example I can make of this are the medal winners from our most recent 2012 Olympic Games. If you were to go to pretty much any weight class in any style you would find various political and economic ideologies as well as nations that are industrialized, post-industrialized, and even agrarian. For example, the Men's 60-kilo medalists are Azerbaijan, Russia, USA, and India. All four of these wrestlers were at the pinnacle of the sport at the same time and I venture to say that their paths to that stage were remarkably different. The United States and Russia have facilities for wrestlers in every corner of their country's geography. However, I'll guess that India and Azerbaijan aren't quite as fortunate in their training facilities. And speaking of geography, if you were to draw a line from each of these nations and connect the dots, you'd about circumnavigate the globe. Not too many other sports, or even events within sports (Think track & field and sprints as opposed to a distance event.) could do that. I'll go out on a limb and say that I don't think these nations, or even nations similar, were represented in the men's or women's 50-meter freestyle finals in swimming. I don't think I remember these nations in the lead pack at any point in the men's or women's marathon. And I'll bet this wasn't a safe assumption for the semifinals of tennis played on Centre Court at the 2012 Olympics either. I don't want to come across as facetious here, but what other sport at what other time every four years will there be "finalists" from Cuba, Estonia, Turkey, and Sweden (men's 120-kilo medalists)? None! These countries have vastly different economic systems; natural resources; imports; exports; cultures; languages; and belief and value systems. Yet they are unified in the sport of wrestling. When de Coubertin said, "The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well." Does that not fit the sport of wrestling; whatever mat, grass patch, earthen field, or any other piece of ground you may be doing it on in the world; better than any other sport? -- Gregg B.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Former Bakersfield wrestling coach T.J. Kerr has passed away. Kerr was 64. T.J. Kerr"Today is a sad day for the CSUB wrestling program as we mourn the loss of Coach Kerr," said current Roadrunners head coach Mike Mendoza, a former wrestler and assistant coach at Bakersfield for Kerr. "He was such a big part of this program and had a huge impact on so many lives. Coach Kerr was a big influence in my life and in the lives of the many wrestlers he coached at San Jose State and here at CSUB. He was demanding, pointed, and was not shy about telling it how he saw it. He wanted to get the most out of every one of his guys and that sometimes resulted in hurting feelings. But I along with many of his wrestlers respected him for that quality." Kerr spent 26 years as the 'Runners head coach. He was a three-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year, winning the award in 1996 when the Roadrunners won their first Pac-10 title. That honor was sandwiched by awards in 1991 and 1997, years in which CSUB placed second in the conference. In addition, Kerr was honored in 2005 by being inducted into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame and in 2007, was named the Amateur Wrestling News Man of the Year. Kerr led the Roadrunners to a second Pac-10 title in 1999. Since joining the conference in 1988, CSUB has finished in the top three of the Pac-10 on nine different occasions. Since moving the 'Runners up to Division I in 1988, Kerr led CSUB to a 236-142-4 (.624) dual meet record and seven top-12 finishes at the NCAA Division I Championships. The pinnacle of his success came in 1996 when the Roadrunners placed third at the NCAA Division I Championships behind Iowa and Iowa State. That achievement, coupled with a Pac-10 title in the same year, earned Kerr National Wrestling Coach of the Year honors from the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA). Before the move to Division I, Kerr coached Bakersfield for three seasons at the Division II level. During that time, the Roadrunners won three Division II West Regional titles and were national champions in 1987. In each of CSUB's three seasons in Division II under Kerr, the Roadrunners finished no lower than seventh place. Kerr was also named the Division II Coach of the Year in 1987, the same season that Darryl Pope was named Outstanding Wrestler. T.J. Kerr (Photo/Kirby Lee, Image of Sport)Kerr coached at his alma mater, San Jose State, for 12 seasons before coming to CSUB. In that time, the Spartans won 10 Pacific Coast Athletic Association titles and finished second in the other two years. For his dominating efforts at SJSU, Kerr won PCAA Coach of the Year honors seven times. The high point for Kerr in his tenure at San Jose State came in 1982 when the Spartans not only won the PCAA title, but also placed ninth at the NCAA Division I Championships, their highest finish with Kerr at the helm. In 2008, Kerr was inducted into the Spartan Athletic Hall of Fame. Kerr was awarded with the highest honor in wrestling in the state of California in 2005 when he was inducted into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame. That honor follows his earlier hall of fame induction in 1999 when he was inducted into the Bob Elias Kern County Sports Hall of Fame. KERR'S HIGHLIGHTS 236-142-4 (.624) dual meet record in 26 years Pac-10 conference champions in 1996 and 1999 11 top-25 national finishes Five top-10 national finishes Third-place NCAA Division I finish in 1996 10 top-three finishes in the Pac-10 (20 years) 2007 Amateur Wrestling News Man of the Year 1996 NWCA Coach of the Year Three-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1991, 1996, 1997) 1987 NCAA Division II National Championship Three NCAA Division I champions Six NCAA Division II champions 29 NCAA Division I All-Americans 17 NCAA Division II All-Americans 29 Pac-10 champions 166 Pac-10 placewinners Five Olympians One world champion Five world championships qualifiers Three world championship placewinners Five USA National Freestyle champions One USA National Greco-Roman champion Three Pan-Am Games Freestyle champions One Pan-Am Games Greco-Roman champion

Troy Letters recently completed his first season as head wrestling coach at Clarion. He qualified two wrestlers for the NCAAs and coached his first All-American as a head coach. He also landed the nation's No. 14 recruiting class. InterMat caught up with Letters and talked to him about this past season, recruiting, competitive days, and much more. In your first season as Clarion's head coach you went 5-10 in dual meets, qualified two wrestlers for the NCAAs, and coached your first All-American in James Fleming. How would you characterize this past season? Troy Letters (Photo/Clarion Sports Information)Letters: This past season for me was a big learning curve, taking over as head coach for the first time, really getting to understand the full scope of being a head coach. Here at Clarion we have a lot more responsibilities than other places I've been because we're understaffed. We have a staff of three guys. It was definitely an eye-opener on the amount of work that needed to be done. At the same time trying to get these guys to accomplish their goals. We were expecting to take four or five guys to NCAAs, and some guys fell short of their goals. That was a disappointment. The positive note was James Fleming leaving here a two-time All-American and tied for fourth on the all-time wins list. He's tied with Mark Angle for 126 college victories. That's something to celebrate. Our schedule is not easy. We wrestle the best teams. Next year we're wrestling the best teams. We're wrestling Oklahoma State and Penn State in a dual meet. That's something that I promised my guys and my recruits that are coming in. We're going to wrestle the best teams. We're going to seek out the NCAA champions at each weight class. We're going to try to put you in front of them as many times as we can. My ultimate goal isn't to go 20-0 in dual meets and beat up on a bunch of teams. My ultimate goal is to sit in the corner and watch my wrestlers win NCAA titles. For me, that was the ultimate ... You can't even put it into words. I was able to win a national title, and when I did it the feeling that you get it's just all emotions, and hard work, your workout partners, and your coaches, and your family, and support structure, everything at once just hits you when your arm is raised during that match. The feeling is really indescribable. I want to be there when my guys do it. I want to be a part of it again. That's what I'm coaching for. That's what I'm looking forward to doing. What was the biggest adjustment for you going from an assistant coach to a head coach? Troy Letters (Photo/Clarion Sports Information)Letters: More responsibility. When I was an assistant coach I could be a partner wrestling with the guys a lot more, banging heads, making them better. As a head coach, juggling working on the schedule, doing the recruiting, plus overseeing practice, I wasn't able to be in the room as much as I wanted to be this year. I was more on the road, talking to kids, talking to parents, recruiting. More of a role in recruiting, building this program back up, and filling our roster up, as opposed to being in the room three or four times a day wrestling with guys. I plan to get back to that this year. We really hustled and worked hard this year to make that possible. So the biggest adjustment for me was not being in the room banging heads with the guys as much as I wanted to be or needed to be. I was more running the workouts, overseeing practices, and obviously on the road recruiting more. There was speculation that James Fleming would possibly go the MMA route after his college wrestling career. Is that something he's pursuing? Letters: Coaching and/or MMA. I don't know what order. It's pretty close. People don't know this about James, but he's a two-time Golden Gloves boxer. Obviously, on the mats they know how flexible he is and how unique of a style he has. I think it will fit into MMA very well. I have some pretty good connections with wrestlers who are in MMA that could give him a shot to bring him to a training camp to see what he can do. So I do think MMA is a possibility for James Fleming. You have landed a large recruiting class. How are you feeling about your recruiting class? Troy Letters spent one season as an assistant coach under Matt Dernlan at Clarion prior to taking over as head coach (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Letters: I'm fired up about it. We have a great class coming in. More importantly, we have great character coming in. I recruit talent, obviously, but more so I'm recruiting an attitude. I'm going to take the guy who has a better attitude over the super talented wrestler any day of the week. This year, when I said I was focusing on recruiting, I was really focusing on getting to know these kids, finding out what their attitudes are like, talking with their coaches, talking with their parents. Attitude is what wins in Division I wrestling. Attitude takes you a long way. If you get attitude with talent, then you have something special. That's when you're winning NCAA titles and you're dominating. Attitude means a lot of things. When I say it I mean sacrifice, commitment, dedication, hard work, holding yourself to a higher standard than every student on campus. We're Division I athletes training to win a Division I title. Students here can't even fathom what it takes to do something like that. I want guys coming in knowing they have to sacrifice something. For everyone it's something different. For some guys it's cutting weight right. For some guys it's going to class every day. Sacrifice is different for everybody. But I need 30 guys to buy into that and realize they need to give up something to accomplish their goals. That's why I'm excited about this recruiting class coming in. I have a lot of guys who are on board with my coaching staff, my game plan of where Clarion is heading, where it should be, and the future of our program. They're on board with what we're doing and what we're trying to do. We're really going to look at these freshmen as leaders. They're going to be the majority of my team. We recruited a lot of guys. We're going to have a very, very young team. I'm going to look for these guys to be leaders immediately. I've already been telling them that. I have been telling them, 'I'm putting a lot of pressure and expectations on your back because I know you can handle it. But you guys are going to be leaders and we're going to create a big snowball effect here.' We're just going to keep building and building and building until we have 30 guys or a full roster of guys who are willing to sacrifice and dedicate themselves to being a Division I wrestler. For me, the standard is super high. Austin Matthews, a Pennsylvania state champion and three-time state finalist, is one of your most credentialed recruits. What do you like specifically about him? Austin MatthewsLetters: I've gotten to know Austin really well over the last few months. I look for a particular style when I watch guys. I watch little habits that guys do. He's got everything that I'm looking for from top to bottom as far as attitude, commitment, and the way he wrestles. He's a mat wrestler. I was a mat wrestler. People underestimate how good Pennsylvania mat wrestling is. That is one of the biggest challenges that freshmen have coming into a college room, getting out on bottom and holding guys down. Austin is very, very talented on the mat, riding, turning, and pinning guys, and getting out on bottom. He can come in ... and who knows, the sky is the limit for that guy. There is no glass ceiling on how good he can be, especially with the attitude he has. Is there a possibility that some of the true freshmen will be in the lineup immediately? Or do you expect to redshirt all of them? Letters: That's really been up in the air. I've been going back and forth on that. If a guy is ready to go, I'm putting him in there. That's the way we're going to do it. I'm going to start my ten best guys. In some situations I may have to redshirt guys. I have a kid coming in named Justin Arthur from West Virginia ... He could be anywhere from a 149-pounder to a 174-pounder. He has the body frame of guys I've coached in the past like David Taylor and Ed Ruth ... When they fill out, you don't know what weight they will end up. There is a good possibility we're going to see three to four true freshmen starting next year. A decade ago you were on of the most dominant wrestlers in college. You won an NCAA title as a sophomore and finished in the top three in each of your first three seasons. Obviously, your senior season you battled an injury that hindered your performance. When you reflect back on your collegiate career, how do you feel about it? Troy Letters after winning the NCAA title in 2004 over Oklahoma State's Tyrone Lewis (Photo/Danielle Hobeika)Letters: It's something I think about daily. Going into my senior year I was 99-3 and then injury-plagued and my attitude changed. I reflect on it daily. To tell you the truth it's something that eats at me. I came in as a freshman with a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to be the best right now. Why wait until I'm a senior to win an NCAA title? I want to do it right now. I feel like I've worked hard enough and I'm talented enough to do it. That's the kind of chip I had on my shoulder. I made it to the NCAA finals my freshman year. I didn't quite get there. But I kept that chip on my shoulder and won it the next year. Then I was undefeated going into the nationals my junior year and got upset in the semifinals and took third. I kind of lost that chip on my shoulder. Once you lose that chip on your shoulder that you want to be the best, that you want to prove to everyone in the country that I'm the best wrestler in Division I, not only in my weight class but in our sport. Once you lose that type of attitude and commitment to yourself, you fall short of your goals ... and then you add an injury to it. I think about it daily. I think about how maybe if I would have followed that path maybe I would have won a World title or been an Olympian ... Who knows? It's something I think about a lot. But as a coach it really helps me because I can tell these guys I've been on both ends of the spectrum. I've seen it all. I've been lucky enough to coach a national championship team. I've coached a team that was dead last when I first started coaching. As an athlete, I've been on both ends. I've wanted it to so bad. Lehigh was built on a mountain. I lived about a mile away from the university. I wouldn't take car rides. I would walk to every class. People would ask me if I wanted to be dropped off on top of the hill, and I would say, 'No, I'm going to walk the stairs.' I would think, 'I'm doing this and Johny Hendricks isn't going to do this. He would take a ride in that vehicle. Or Tyrone Lewis. Or whoever was in my weight class that I knew I would have to beat to be an NCAA champion. These guys aren't willing to make these type of sacrifices. They would jump in a car and take a ride. I'm going to walk or I'm going to run.' It's that type of attitude that wins at this level. Talent takes you so far. Attitude takes you a long way. That's what I'm going to preach to my incoming freshmen and what I'm preaching to these guys right now. Attitude takes you a long way in this sport. Add a little bit of talent to that, and a little bit of fight to that, and you're going to have a successful season. When you were going through your collegiate career, did you have plans to wrestle on the senior level when you finished at Lehigh? Or did you always know you wanted to get into coaching? Letters: During my collegiate career I considered wrestling. I spent time out at the Training Center wrestling with Joe Williams and Donny Pritzlaff, who was the guy. I was right there with those guys, going back and forth, beating them and them beating me. I thought, 'Hey, I'm going to be ready when I graduate to pursue this Olympic dream of mine.' And then something happened and I ended up getting right into coaching instead. I started realizing that I'm going to be a coach because I started doing camps and clinics and really loved working with kids and seemed to have a good chemistry working with the kids. I knew this is something I could be good at. I know what I'm doing. After I graduated from Lehigh, my roommate Derek Zinck, who had the same major as me, went on to law school, which was both of our plans at one point. I ended up going into wrestling. Now here I am head coach at Clarion University. I grew up 45 minutes down the road from here. My brother went to school here. So coaching kind of found me. I never really thought about it. I just kind of fell into it. It was just a natural transition. InterMat senior writer T.R. Foley was an ACC champion and NCAA Division I All-American in 2004 while wrestling at the University of VirginiaYou wrestled InterMat senior writer T.R. Foley during your college days, and came out on top 5-4. What do you remember most about your match against Foley? Letters: I underestimated T.R. Foley. I can tell you that much. I was on a run that year. I think I had majored, teched, and pinned everyone except four or five guys. I was a frontrunner for the Hodge Trophy. I was like, 'I'm wrestling a kid from Virginia.' I knew who he was. But I still thought I was going to go out and pin this guy. He was very goofy. You take a guy down, you expect him to fall a certain way ... well, he would fall the opposite way. I underestimated how good he was at scrambling and how funky he was. It ended up turning into a hard-fought match. He and I laugh about it today, but ... yeah, it was a tight match. I would say I underestimated how talented he was. I heard that you initially said no to joining the coaching staff at Clarion. What changed for you to decide to take a coaching position on the staff? Troy Letters was on Penn State's coaching staff when the Nittany Lions won the NCAA championship in 2011 (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Letters: I was a part of something so unbelievable at Penn State. Casey, Cody, and Cael are good friends of mine. The opportunity to coach there with them was awesome. I planned on staying there and not leaving. I loved it there that much. It was just one of those things ... I woke up one morning after I had said no to going to Clarion. I talked to my wife a little bit about it. She works in Pittsburgh, so she commutes every other week. I just said, 'How would you feel about moving to Clarion?' She said, 'It's up to you, Troy.' I just woke up and made the decision. I loved it at Penn State. I love my friends and the guys I was working with who I'm still very, very tight with ... Eddie Ruth, David Taylor, Nico, Quentin, the Alton boys. Those are guys I wrestled with every day and I still talk to them a lot. David Taylor comes over to my house a lot. I'm really close with his father and mother. It was hard for me to leave. But to tell you the truth, I just woke up one day and just decided to make the move. Eight months later I end up being named head coach at Clarion. I didn't expect it to happen, but it ended up working out pretty well. I do miss my friends and the guys I was working with dearly. But I'm not too far away from them. I have those guys to call when I need help. I'm a young coach who is learning the ropes right now. I've been blessed to have good friends that I can always call ... Pat Santoro, Greg Strobel, Cael Sanderson, Cody Sanderson, Casey Cunningham ... and ask for advice. That's the greatest thing about wrestling. I could call anyone in the EWL. I could call Coach Flynn from Edinboro for advice or John Stutzman, who is now leaving the EWL. I can talk to all these guys. They're all open and willing to give advice and help any way they can. I'm a lucky man. I have a good wife that is supportive of what I do. She knows me. She knows that I'm not going to stop until I have 30 guys that want to be NCAA champions. It might be 30 guys who don't have the talent to do it, but they want to do it. If they're willing to put in the sacrifice and dedication, I'm going to be happy coaching them. What's your vision for the Clarion wrestling program? Letters: My vision is to get into the top ten and have All-Americans and NCAA champions year in and year out. That's my vision and where I see it going. We're getting a brand new wrestling facility. It's going to be one of the biggest in NCAA Division I wrestling. We're getting all brand new mats. Brand new weight room. I'm in a good place. Right now everything is just piling up. We just need one more thing to tip it over and Clarion wrestling is going to be one of the programs that people are going to be afraid to wrestle. I want Penn State, Iowa, Oklahoma State, and all these top teams to want to wrestle us, and know that when they come to wrestle us they're going to have bring their A-game because we're going to fight you from whistle to whistle and line to line.

It's only been a couple of seasons, but I wonder if the people of Brazil are as bored with The Ultimate Fighter format as we are? In case you didn't know that the Brazilian TUF just finished up a season, this weekend's UFC on FUEL card will feature a bout between finalists Leo Santos and William Macario. Headlining the card is a heavyweight bout between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fabricio Werdum. Nogueira beat Werdum in 2006, but big Nog hasn't gotten older and punchier, while Werdum has steadily improved. Guess who we're picking? In other news, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is officially headed to Bellator, complete with his own reality show that will likely feature lots of "your breath stank" jokes. Is Bellator making a mistake by moving away from its format of signing and developing young talent? Time will tell. Speaking of time, we better find out soon before the average age of fighters in Bellator's 205-pound division hits 40. Do you want to listen to a past episode? Access archives.

Dan Gable will go "On the Mat" this Wednesday, June 6. "On the Mat" is a presentation of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum. The show can be heard live on the Internet at www.kcnzam.com or locally in Northeast Iowa each Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. CT on AM 1650, The Fan. This week's show will air from 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. due to a Chicago Cubs game. E-mail dgmstaff@nwhof.org with any questions or comments about the show. A podcast of the show is available on theopenmat.com. Gable was an Olympic champion in 1972 and the namesake of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum. He will discuss the Dan Gable Celebrity Golf Tournament, the Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame of Iowa, and the fight to keep wrestling in the Olympic Games.

PLYMOUTH, N.H. -- Plymouth State University has introduced a new head wrestling coach for the 2013-14 season. Ryan Schieding has been named the new head wrestling coach at Plymouth State. Schieding is a former standout wrestler at PSU who previously served one season as an assistant coach for the Panthers. He has been the head wrestling coach at Memorial High School in Manchester, N.H., since 2009. Ryan Schieding"I am very excited about being selected for the coaching position at Plymouth State," said Schieding. "I'd like to thank my two college coaches, Jason Holder and especially Tommy Prairie for helping me get here. I'm excited for the season and the challenge of taking over a new team, as well as bringing Plymouth wrestling back to being a conference contending team. Being a former Plymouth State wrestler myself it’s a great feeling to come back to my former school and be in the position that I am. We have a young team with a lot of promise and should make for a fun season." A native of Manchester, N.H./Memorial H.S., Schieding was a four-year wrestler and two-year co-captain for the Panthers from 2004-08, posting a 62-47 overall record. He was 17-13 in the 157-pound weight class as a junior, and went 23-10 at 174 pounds as a senior, earning All-New England honors with a fifth-place performance at the New England Championships. Schieding was also an assistant coach for the Panthers under Tommy Prairie in 2008-09. "We are excited to name Ryan Schieding as our new wrestling coach," said PSU Director of Athletics John P. Clark. "We know Ryan takes great pride in returning to his alma mater, and we look forward to watching him and working with him to build our wrestling program. He has great knowledge of the sport and a lot of positive energy and enthusiasm, and we know our student-athletes are now in good hands."

It's funny how things change. This week I come not to bury FILA, but to praise FILA. A friend suggested to me this week that the IOC board's recommended exclusion of wrestling might be the best thing that ever happened to the sport. He may be right. I hate to portray the IOC as a benign avian mother, but sometimes you need to toss the eaglet out of the nest if it's ever going to fly. Nenad Lalovic (Photo/Alexander Oreshnikov)To switch analogies, perhaps the IOC board's recommendation provided the dynamite blast necessary to uproot the misguided leadership which had a stranglehold on the sport. While it is too early to credit new FILA president Nenad Lalovic as the savior of wrestling, his rise to power seems to have spurred some positive changes. FILA has made some administrative changes in response to previous IOC criticism. It has increased its presence on social media (the previous presence was astonishingly close to zero), and redesigned their website. The last FILA congress resulted in a total overhaul of the rules of the sport which have yielded exciting early returns. FILA, and its product, look to be quite improved. Unfortunately if the IOC assembly doesn't vote for wrestling in September, these changes will prove to be for naught. The weight of a sport's meaningful existence now lay on the shoulders of Lalovic and the FILA leadership. If wrestling retains its Olympic status, we ought to all sing their praise. If the IOC assembly decides to throw wrestling into the bottomless abyss of irrelevance, then a heaping pile of blame should be at their feet. It's feast or famine, this time no credit is awarded for silver or bronze. My advice, for what it's worth, to FILA would be to keep implementing improvements between now and September, and implement those improvements as swiftly as possible. If I were in charge of international wrestling (maybe one day), my strategy would focus on three areas. First would be an expansion of national, continental, and World championships in the schoolboy/girl age group. Also seeing how English is one of FILA's two official languages, change the age group's name to something that doesn't sound so silly in English. Cadet and Junior are fine, but the thought of a "Schoolboy" World champion lacks a certain amount of gravity. Increasing the amount of international competition at a younger age could only have positive effects on the growth of the sport. Young wrestlers will have greater incentive to specialize in the sport sooner in their athletic lives. Additionally, wrestlers can start generating buzz for their eventual senior level debuts if they build a strong international pedigree at a younger age. Second, I would take a more active hand in providing worldwide high quality Internet broadcasts of importance and encouraging event coverage from a wider array of media outlets. I haven't a clue exactly how I would do either. Perhaps I would farm the broadcasts out to a capable third party. Attracting media coverage is outside my wheelhouse, but a good place to start would be in finding human interest stories among the athletes and floating these stories to interested corners of the media world. Third, I would commission a talent development wing of my organization to cultivate wrestling in far flung areas around the globe which are important but perhaps not as highly represented in worldwide wrestling as we would like. Because I couldn't develop the wrestling program in every country I would like, I would target the programs in four strategically important countries. First would be China and India. Both possess monstrous populations and growing economic footprints with millions of potential fans hungry to get behind a countryman (or woman) who will bring home World and Olympic medals. Particularly in India, wrestling holds vital cultural significance and its three world/Olympic medalists of the last decade have garnered attention from the country's mainstream media. Second I would target both Nigeria and Venezuela. Wrestling needs established powers in Africa and South America, and these are the best candidates. Both, two years ago, had male freestyle wrestlers in the bronze-medal match at the World Championship. Nigeria's Sinivie Boltic carried Nigeria's flag in London's opening ceremony, and while Daniel Igali won Olympic gold for Canada, he first learned to wrestle in his native Nigeria. While both of these countries lack general wealth, they are both members of OPEC. This sweetens the pot, as it is never a bad thing to have more petroleum money on the side of wrestling. Wrestling isn't out of the woods yet, but FILA has shown the ability to change and to shepherd the sport through a particularly hairy situation. The, hard work, however, is only just beginning. Wrestling could still do a great deal to help itself in the coming vote and secure its position in the future. Unlike before, I think that FILA might actually be listening.

Jordan Oliver

Hoboken, N.J. -- After finishing college with a 4.0 grade point average, Brad Warren is the valedictorian of the Class of 2013 at Stevens Institute of Technology. Warren will earn a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science at the university's 141st Commencement on May 23, 2013. Brad WarrenWarren, a native of Brookeville, Md. and the son of a software engineer, excelled in math and programming classes in high school and decided he wanted to study computer science in college. A National Merit Scholar Finalist in high school, he came to Stevens on a full-tuition Ann P. Neupauer Scholarship, the university's most prestigious academic award. "I enjoyed programming and math and figured I could be an application developer," Warren said. "I was drawn to Stevens' location near New York City and also thought the Cooperative Education program at Stevens was an interesting opportunity." At Stevens, Warren developed an interest in the field of quantitative finance, taking extra math and financial engineering courses to prepare him for a career in the field. He learned more through self-study and, for his master's degree, did independent study research related to options and volatility modeling. He also acquired substantial work experience in the field through Co-op, holding analyst positions at two of the nation's top financial companies – Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – where he was exposed to derivatives operations technology, trading desk strategy and residential mortgages. "At Morgan Stanley, I got to work with the modelers and traders, building tools for the desk," Warren said. After graduation, Warren will begin his career in options automated market making at Morgan Stanley, where he will research and develop models and strategies for trading risk management. "I was really happy I was able to get this position in quantitative finance," Warren said. "It's a good combination of math and programming and really fits my interests." While Warren is proud of his academic accomplishments and excited to launch his career, many of his best times at Stevens came outside of the classroom. Recruited for both baseball and wrestling, Warren spent four years on the Stevens varsity wrestling team and consistently made the President's List, which recognizes academically-outstanding college athletes. Off season, he is a fitness nut who has competed in three Tough Mudder adventure races and is training in CrossFit. "Sports have always been a big part of my life," Warren said. "Wrestling especially taught me discipline and mental toughness that transfers over to everything in life." He is also an avid poker and blackjack player who used his math prowess to learn to count cards, but he said he never takes money from his friends. "I've probably won more than I've lost over the years, but at least in blackjack I'm usually just beating the dealer," he said. One of Warren's favorite memories is being named Castle Point King as the representative of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, where he was a brother for four years. Castle Point King is a popular male-only pageant hosted by a Stevens sorority. For the talent portion, Warren showed off his dance moves and even choreographed a dance performance using his computer science skills. "We made suits with electroluminescent wire and a chip to turn the lights on and off," Warren said. "I programmed it so we could dance in the dark. It was a lot of fun; one of my favorite times at Stevens." Warren's message to his peers on graduation day will be find their passion. "You'll be more successful if you really like what you're doing, in both work and other interests," he said. For more information on Stevens' 141st Commencement, visit http://www.stevens.edu/sit/commencement. About Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University®, is a premier, private research university situated in Hoboken, N.J. overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Founded in 1870, technological innovation has been the hallmark and legacy of Stevens' education and research programs for more than 140 years. Within the university's three schools and one college, more than 6,100 undergraduate and graduate students collaborate with more than 350 faculty members in an interdisciplinary, student-centric, entrepreneurial environment to advance the frontiers of science and leverage technology to confront global challenges. Stevens is home to three national research centers of excellence, as well as joint research programs focused on critical industries such as healthcare, energy, finance, defense and STEM education. The university is the fastest-rising college in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of the best national universities, and it is consistently ranked among the nation's elite for return on investment for students, career services programs, and mid-career salaries of alumni. Stevens is in the midst of a 10-year strategic plan, The Future. Ours to Create., designed to further extend the Stevens legacy to create a forward-looking and far-reaching institution with global impact.

InterMat senior writer T.R. Foley answers reader questions about NCAA wrestling, international wrestling, recruiting, or anything loosely related to wrestling. You have until Thursday night every week to send questions to Foley's Twitter or email account. Do you want to read a past mailbag? Access archives. Don't get comfy, wrestling fans. Wrestling is now the Olympic frontrunner, and while that should be cause for measured optimism, it means we'll have to be twice as smart about our messaging. The first 100 days of this movement were about shock and aww -- the final 100 need to be about outreach and growth. To win the final stage of the contest for Olympic renewal, wrestling will need to adopt new messaging. The word "Save" will be stricken from the wrestling nomenclature, and replaced by a simple message of unity, tradition and change. UFC interview specialist Ariel Helwani has already shown his growing agitation with the "Save" movement, when moments after the Olympics decision he tweeted "... hopefully if this happens we can cool it on the telethons et al." Annoying as he may be, Helwani is part of the core audience wrestling needs to retain (interested media figure) and though snarky, he makes a valid point. The strategy and focus of the Olympic wrestling movement needs to shift from "woe-is-wrestling" to something more proactive, interactive and intellectually stimulating. There are some great ideas being floated around, but no matter the PR strategy, or media support, wrestling will not remain the preferred darling of voters and the media for the remainder of the next 14 weeks. The leaders of the baseball/softball bid are already putting our issues with gender equality into focus, while squash has started to aim at wrestling's current inability to utilize technology (live video feeds and playback). The traditional wrestling mentality would be to take these affronts as a personal attack and fire back insults without regard for effect on the larger process. That cannot happen. Wrestling can't afford any missteps by high-ranking members of our community. We are the 180-pound Great Dane, the magnanimous and rightful leader of the sporting pack. We can't be seen trifling with the attacks of the smaller breeds. We need to keep our heads up and looking forward. Wrestling interprets these criticisms as constructive critiques and do even more to become gender equitable, and to improve the rules, fan experience and the competitiveness of Greco-Roman. There will be more disparagement over the next 100 days -- some justified, some not -- and our job as fans will be to stay focused on positive messaging and discussing the attributes of wrestling, not the pettiness of our detractors or the perceived lesser value of their product. Baseball/softball and squash are fearful because they know they are outmatched by something they can't buy, cajole or fake. Sure they can influence voters, but they can never duplicate our community's willpower to see this through or our willingness to volunteer. They know they will lose every poll, have fewer followers on social media sites, and lose out in discussion of historical merits or societal good. Their only hope in the public forum is to make us look provincial, to goad us into saying or doing something stupid. Wrestling needs to stay focused. We need to make decisions that lead to the advancement of our sport. Our victory won't come in the form of a snide Twitter remark or Facebook confrontation, but in Buenos Aires when a majority of the 101 voting members of the International Olympic Committee, put their pen to paper and make a majority decision to the first sport of man to continue its competition inside its rightful home. To your questions ... Q: You really think baseball/softball has a chance? This seems like a two-horse race between wrestling and squash. -- @GatorsWrestling Foley: Softball and baseball were eliminated in 2005 by a single vote. That vote should have been in place, but an Olympic voter with ties to the financial side of the sport decided to abstain from the voting rather than show a conflict of interest. Without his decision to sit in the dugout, they'd still be on the field. Wrestling is up against enormous organizations with sophisticated political actors and deep pocketbooks. To take them lightly, or disregard their ability to capture votes would be the death knell of our bid. Remember that it was baseball/softball that won the second bid, not squash. They certainly are facing a difficult set of obstacles, especially in the insistence by the MLB not to have their players participate, but given enough time, and with momentum, that could change. Put simply, we might be the top seed at the NCAA tournament, but that in no way guarantees us a national title. Q: The support people like Mike Novogratz have given to the Olympic Wrestling campaign has been phenomenal. Being a non-billionaire, how can the average wrestling fan help the cause? I have seen various petitions and the EB recommending wrestling as a finalist for the IOC vote in September is a great sign, but is there a centralized vehicle where we can let the IOC hear the collective voice of the wrestling world? -- NGM Foley: You don't have a billion dollars? Peasant. Novogratz, Barth, Bardis and many others have been exceedingly generous in donating their resources to the challenge of reinstating Olympic wrestling. For the rest of us the job is to simply interact with the organizations leading our efforts. For example, on Tuesday I was prompted by a member of FILA's social media outreach campaign into igniting a charge to get the Twitter numbers of FILA past that of squash. The count could have been used as part of the IOC's decision-making process, and with only short time before the vote, the wrestling community responded by almost doubling up squash in adding 10k followers in less than 24 hours. An absolute success that showed how powerful our community can be when focused on a single, well-defined goal. FILA and CPOW will set many more goals for the community over the next 100 days. From stuffing online ballot boxes to selling T-shirts and books, the guys in charge will let us know when it's time to act. Hell, I will let you know when it's time to act. Being an active member in these will help lessen the expected backlash discussed in the opening. Mouthpieces like Helwani will lose their ammunition and we can keep our core audience excited, while also branching out into new communities. Still a little socked you're not a billionaire. Pssh. Didn't you know to invest in Apple? Q: How much money do you think is needed to start up a Division I program? I know a lot of things need to go into it like the sustainability of the program, academics, and a whole lot of red tape, but do you have an estimate of how much money it would take to relaunch a program at say Syracuse or Notre Dame? A lot of Notre Dame football rivals (UM, MSU, Purdue, Navy, etc.) all have DI wrestling programs and with Notre Dame and Syracuse both joining the ACC, I wonder what the likelihood is of either school bringing back varsity wrestling. -- Justin W. Foley: The money isn't the problem. Given the right conditions a program like Syracuse could raise the $6 million to endow a program, but what it needs is a female counterpart to offset the roster numbers of the male team and stay Title IX compliant. This is doable with women's wrestling, or possibly competitive cheer, but so far the NCAA and members of the female athletic administration have deemed women's wrestling too combative for inclusion and women's tumbling too stereotypical. That's a problem. Wrestling leaders need to win over these administrators when re-launching a program, and to do that they need to think about this as a problem of marketing, rather than just money. Don't think so? Look at what has gone down at Rutgers over the past two months. Crazy and abusive coach is fired along with a possibly negligent athletic director, who was more-or-less collateral damage. That was a big sting for the Rutgers brand. Instead of thinking of Rutgers as "that Jersey school that did really well in football a few years ago," consumers (and that means potential college students) are now thinking of them as a place to get their butts whipped. To make matters worse when the school finally rehired an athletic director, her past abuse of players became a three-day media story. That type of misstep could cost Rutgers millions in tuition and donation dollars. As the money goes, the rankings drop, which causes fewer entrants with lower GPA's and test scores. More than 95 percent of the time you see or hear the name Rutgers it's because of sports, or something related to sports. Their medals for winning poetry contests aren't widely reported. And it's there, in the marketability of all sports, where wrestling can capitalize. We can go into a program and explain to the AD the myriad of positive press his program will receive by adding a men's program and a companion women's team -- the FIRST at the Division I level. Positive press means more money because students looking to enroll in school want to be associated with the positive. It's not about our money, it's about our ability to sell wrestling as a positive PR move for schools who can then generate more of their own income. Of course we'll still need big cash to do anything, but with creative leadership and the right combination of timing and marketing wrestling can see an expansion in our opportunities at the Division I level. Who knows, maybe the Olympic mess makes this the perfect time for a college to act in favor of wrestling? Imagine the press ... Jordan Burroughs is riding a 54-match win streak (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Q: Last week you mentioned that Jordan Burroughs will "likely" eventually lose at the international level. Though I agree in your theory of why, do you think with the new rules that he just got that much tougher to beat? I felt he was more likely to get a controversial decision against him in a shorter period with scores not being cumulative. -- Jeff N. Foley: The new rules do make him tougher to beat. However, that doesn't preclude him from simply having a bad day on the mats or getting caught in a tight leg lace. My point was although he's undefeated and on a large winning streak, the more important point is that he's dominant and will win the tournaments that matter for a world ranking. I'd love to see Burroughs win three straight Olympic gold medals and never lose a match. What's the line on that happening given the current fight for reinstatement? MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME I'm announcing the Beta launch of my website WrestlingisEverywhere.com at the site WrestlingisEverywhere.wordpress.com. What I need from you is your very best wrestling photos, preferably high-definition and that help tell the story of wrestling. I DO NOT WANT or NEED every high-amplitude throw from the past 100 years. I want cowboys wrestling Indians, your grandfather head-locking your son, and a photo of an Grecian bowl with wrestlers engraved on the side. I want tradition and storytelling, something that is instant in its connection and shareable over multimedia. Please make sure that you OWN these photos, and that you describe the Who, What and When of the submission. Photos submitted to WrestlingisEverywhere@gmail.com will become mine to distribute across social media, and may be put into print. More details will be mailed to those who submit photographs, but those whose work is accepted can expect a very large distribution and credit for the submission. Categories: Save Olympic Wrestling Efforts (National Photos, Banners, Images Created) Historical Artifacts, Fine Art and Sculptures Non-Traditional Historical Photos (Tierra del Fuego, Cowboys, etc) Women-Only Traditional/Folkstyle (By nation, geographical area, ethnic group Traditional/Folkstyle Pre-1990's (same) Appearance in Other Sports: Rugby, MMA, Football, Kabbadi, etc. Famous People: Politicians, religious leaders, businessman Quirky: Anything and everything else you can imagine Wrestling in Nature All Ages: Youth, Babies, the Elderly Olympic Freestyle: Men (1920-) Olympic Freestyle Women (1992-) Olympic Greco-Roman (1920-) Though you can see all the examples you want on the website, and at my Instagram, @WrestlingisEverywhere, I thought I'd share my favorite of the project and one that matches well with my favorite-ever wrestling quote: Day 106: Wrestling is Everywhere. Sketching of Vermont Scufflers "Irish Wrestling" in 1880. (Braintree, VT, USA) "Almost certainly wrestling is the oldest sport of mankind ... It came to town with the Olympiads of Ancient Greece and went back to the country after the decline of Rome -- there to remain, at least in greatest part, for nearly two thousand years. Preponderantly in and because of the country the sport has lived on in the general manner of pasture bluets, or field daisies, or other more or less global and substantially invincible wildflowers. Time and time again pasture bluets can be and have been burned away by the heavy hoofs or close-grazing herds. Yet with mystic stubbornness and effectiveness the pasture bluets somehow rise and bloom again. Wrestling is like that. It thrives, meets apparent destruction or widespread abandonment only to rise again, taking resurrection from a good and folkish earth. This has come to pass in many nations and it keeps happening in our own." -- Charles Morrow Wilson, The Magnificent Scufflers, 1959 Q: By all accounts, the new freestyle rules are a positive change and a step in the right direction. Freestylers were able to adapt to the changes in a matter of hours and make the LA event entertaining for spectators. Participants University Nationals & FILA Cadet Nationals were putting up HUGE points. But what is preventing the NCAA from taking note of this success, and making drastic changes to simplify college wrestling? Some recognize the need for rule changes and are creating a tournament with new rules called Tour ACW. I personally feel that we need rule changes that cater to non-wrestling junkies. If you look around at a college dual meet, you will not see members of a school's student body. The extremely well-attended Penn State, Iowa, Oklahoma State, and the like matches garner such tremendous attendance because they have storied programs with great alumni networks and tradition. Which preventive measures do you feel we should be taking to ensure that we preserve NCAA wrestling before it gets placed on the chopping block? -- Jordan L. Foley: American collegiate wrestling is the traditional form of the sport developed over generations from a combination of Irish collar-and-elbow wrestling and catch-as-catch-can. These traditions tell a story and it's meaningful. Over the course of the last 80 years every rule change, every outfit improvement, every legendary program happened for a reason. Following that path and investigating the influences helps Americans understand the values of the past. They act as a living and breathing history of our nation and culture as much as they do the sport that we both love. American collegiate wrestling has never been healthier, and though excitement wanes, I will never accept the idea of abandoning it in the hopes of winning more Olympic medals. We are doing just fine on the international stage. For more on the power of traditional wrestling be sure to check out the work of my non-profit, WrestlingRoots.org. Good luck with Tour ACW! Q: As a follow up to your recent mention of the Indian wrestling league, is this an opportunity for graduating American college wrestlers to have a professional sports outlet (other than MMA) after graduation? If so, would participation in this league affect their amateur status? -- NGM Foley: Absolutely, and if anyone is interested I can put them in touch with the organizers. I'm waiting for someone to understand that I'm 100 percent serious about the idea of a takedown-only wrestling league. There are a million ways this thing could fail, but another million on how this could be the world's most popular new sporting event. Here are five ideas about how this would work. If anyone is interested in helping me finance this and learning more, I'm at the ready. Sand or soft dirt Takedown-only (combo of any three points, side/buttocks, both knees) Teams of 11 (7 male, 4 female) First team to six wins is declared the winner Hour long television program There are 100 more ideas, but I can't focus on creating this league at the moment. However, if interested, please feel free to shoot me an email. Q: I am curious why international wrestling has not followed the model of all other adult sports. If we look at basketball, football, and baseball, the length of the contests increases as the age of the contestants increases. For example, college basketball is a forty-minute game and the NBA is a forty-eight minute game. Why then is the current match length for international wrestling a minute less than NCAA matches? I think the international matches should be at least eight minutes long thereby truly testing the conditioning of the adult athletes. -- Ken S. Foley: I like your thinking. College is longer than high school, but when it comes to international their rules aren't based off American traditional wrestling and therefore there is no substantial correlation. Q: I know you continually push for the expansion of women's wrestling. I am a supporter as well. Can you explain what steps need to occur to expand this side of wrestling? Also, what can we do to convince states, like high school powerhouse Pennsylvania, to add women's wrestling as a high school sport? How do we grow it? -- Beau E. Foley: The online forums are filled with people willing to help, and then nameless others that never want to see a female wrestle. Promotion starts at the grassroots level. We need coaches willing to start women's wrestling programs and recruit the girls to come out and compete. We also need for the larger wrestling community to understand that our gender imbalance is what got us axed from 1972-2013, and yet we've been slow to see that correcting the imbalance will help save male opportunities. Finally, if your kid loses to a girl, so freaking what?! Not wrestling them just shows that you're incapable of understanding they have the right to act how ever they want, when ever they want. No amount of patronizing is going to get them off the mat. Wrestle, and if you win, great. If you lose, shake her hand and go train harder. Women benefit from wrestling, and wrestling needs women to survive. That simple. Maybe the takedown-only league will help change minds?! Q: I saw James Green wrestle at 66 kilos (145.5 pounds) this past week. Is wrestling 149 pounds something he might pursue next season? -- Reed K. Foley: Something needs to happen to accommodate for Destin McCauley. If James Green going to 149 allows a shuffle to occur that gets McCauley in, then I'm sure Nebraska will attempt it. Let's see where the rest of the fellas shake out in the early season tournaments. Q: Your point on fight shorts and rash guards replacing the singlet is interesting. How would you propose implementing this idea? Does the NCAA have to be first? FILA? -- NGM Foley: On the international level it would start with FILA Cadets and then progress to FILA Juniors. After 3-5 years we could start seeing it at the senior level. Or FILA could just mandate it happen at the start of the 2014 season on January 1. As for the United States, it's a no-brainer. Youth league coaches I've spoken to are already starting to eliminate it. We are standing at an obvious choice, and only our nostalgia is standing in the way. Wrestling will increase in popularity and profitability the MOMENT we allow for fight shorts and rash guards. The singlet is dead. RANT OF THE WEEK! Q: Why is Greco still an Olympic Sport? I love the new freestyle rules, so much scoring. No forced par terre, but if you can't stop from being turned, the match is over quickly. Greco on the other had I think is incapable of being fixed. It is so hard to understand, the scoring is still non-existent, and worst of all it is boring. But most importantly against Greco is we are fighting for our Olympic life as a sport. Arguing for Greco and freestyle, having a mismatch of weights between men and woman is just stupid at this point. I love wrestling. I wish sambo and beach and every type of wrestling was in the Olympics, but the IOC is challenging the existence of our sport, why can't we put away our pride and find one style we all enjoy? One style, equal amount of weights woman and men, and let's go. That's it. Greco can still have their World Championships and people can compete in it, just not in the Olympics. Would a Greco guy rather have wrestling dropped completely or learn how to adapt his style to freestyle. Sam Hazewinkel made the transition. It is not impossible. I saw plenty of great throws this weekend too. Tyrell Fortune could be a great Greco guy. Why don't we adapt the new freestyle rules to the NCAA rules? I understand waiting a year or two to see if the success is maintained. But it is so much better. The pushout is great as it keeps the guys wrestling the whole time, but with the takedown being worth two they are trying to finish most of the time. Then with no escape point the takedown is worth so much more. The shot clock needs some small adjustments, but as the refs get more used to the rules I think it will work itself out. The quicker techs are great too. Guys can't hang around anymore and steal matches. I don't know, maybe I got too excited with this weekend but I bet this will be the best World Team Trials in a long time. Slowly start a grassroots movement to change NCAA wrestling rules. Let's go. -- Rob H.

Manheim, Pa. -- The National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Scholastic [1] Board of Directors is proud to announce Paul Gillespie, Adam Coon, and Al Miller as the recipients of the NWCA scholastic awards for National Coach of the Year, National Wrestler of the Year and National Assistant Coach of the Year. To be eligible for the national award the recipients were first selected as the state and then regional award winners in their respective categories by a panel of NWCA scholastic representatives. Gillespie, recipient of the 2013 NWCA National Coach of the Year award and head coach of 33 years, coaches for Wantagh High School in Wantagh, New York. If I could split this award into 100 pieces I would give a piece to each person that has helped me along the way,” said Gillespie. “This year's team was a team that knew how to overcome adversity and win at each level. The staff was a group of outstanding coaches, administrators, and parents who helped contribute to this great season.” During the 2012-2013 season Gillespie coached his team to a section eight Nassau County dual meet championship, Nassau County regular individual championship and New York Division I state championship, in addition to 40 consecutive match wins. Gillespie further coached five wrestlers in 2013 to All-State wrestling honors. Gillespie’s team was also ranked first in New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division I wrestling by New York state reporters during the 2012-2013 season. Prior to coaching at Wantagh High School, for 19 years Gillespie served as the head coach at Long Beach High School in Long Island, NY. During his tenure as coach, the Long Beach High School wrestling team won two New York state championship titles in 1982 and 1987, and earned a 13th place national ranking by Amateur Wrestling News. In addition to the recent NWCA honors, Gillespie is a six-time Nassau County Coach of the Year, and was elected to the New York State Hall of Fame in 2005 and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006. Coon, recipient of the 2013 NWCA National Wrestler of the Year award, wrestled for Fowlerville High School in Fowlerville, Michigan. “It is truly an honor just to be in the running for this award, said Coon. “There are so many fantastic wrestlers out there to choose from so it is truly an honor to win this award.” Coon wrestled to an undefeated, 55-0, senior season and state championship at 285 pounds. Currently Coon is the number one ranked high school heavy weight wrestler. While in high school, Coon, a four year captain, wrestled to four state individual championships in four years. Coon holds the school record for most pins, 166, and has a personal takedown record of 526 to 11 in four years. In addition to his scholastic wrestling success, Coon has excelled nationally and internationally in wrestling. Coon was the 2010 Cadet freestyle and Greco-Roman national champion. In 2011 Coon was the FILA Cadet freestyle world champion, FILA Cadet freestyle Pan American champion, FILA Cadet freestyle USA national champion, FILA Cadet Greco-Roman USA national champion, national Greco-Roman champion, and represented the USA at the world championships in Greco-Roman wrestling. The following year, in 2012, Coon was the Junior national freestyle champion, national Greco-Roman champion, FILA Junior Greco-Roman national champion, USA national folkstyle champion and winner of the Triple Crown. Coon completed his high school wrestling career with a record of 211-3, with the last 194 wins earned consecutively. Following high school, Coon plans to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he will major in aerospace engineering. Miller, recipient of the 2013 NWCA National Assistant Coach of the Year award, coaches for Cleveland High School in Cleveland, Tennessee. He was an integral part of the coaching staff that led Cleveland's sweep of the state duals -- which included a 78-4 championship victory -- and the Blue Raiders' near 100-point victory in the traditional tournament. During his tenure as coach, Miller has coached seven teams to state championships and has been a member of various national and international teams. In addition, Miller has taken hundreds of athletes across the United States and the world so that they can experience the sport of wrestling. Miller is also credited for building a significant amount of support for wrestling in the Cleveland community and in the state of Tennessee. For their home dual meets, their program often packs at least 2,000 fans in the gymnasium each year for a match with their rival. "I truly believe Cleveland is one of the coolest wrestling communities in America, and it is largely due to the heart and passion that Al Miller has had for this sport over the last 40 or so years," said Cleveland High School Athletics Director Eric Phillips. Region Regional Award Recipient Nominee School (State) 1 Coach of the Year Paul Gillespie Wantagh High School (NY) 1 Assistant Coach of the Year Dean Duca Paulsboro High School (NJ) 1 Wrestler of the Year Anthony Ashnault South Plainfield High School (NJ) 2 Coach of the Year Chris Mary Canon-McMillan High School (PA) 2 Assistant Coach of the Year Glenn Haynes Cannon-McMillan High School (PA) 2 Wrestler of the Year Bo Jordan St. Paris Graham High School (OH) 3 Coach of the Year Tom Begulas Archer High School (GA) 3 Assistant Coach of the Year Al Miller Cleveland High School (TN) 3 Wrestler of the Year Kevin Norstrem Brandon High School (FL) 4 Coach of the Year Jeff Voss West Delaware High School (IA) 4 Assistant Coach of the Year Mark Shell Wilmington High School (IL) 4 Wrestler of the Year Adam Coon Fowlerville High School (MI) 5 Coach of the Year Greg Buckbee Arkansas City High School (KS) 5 Assistant Coach of the Year Shawn Lewis T.F. Riggs High School (SD) 5 Wrestler of the Year J’Den Cox Columbia Hickman High School (MO) 6 Coach of the Year Jerry Best Allen High School (TX) 6 Assistant Coach of the Year Mike Bejar Piedra Vista High School (NM) 6 Wrestler of the Year Oliver Pierce Allen High School (TX) 7 Coach of the Year Omar Delgado St. John Bosco High School (CA) 7 Assistant Coach of the Year Shawn Rustad Mesa Mountain View (AZ) 7 Wrestler of the Year Isaiah Martinez Leemoore High School (CA) 8 Coach of the Year Conrad Garner Bonners Ferry High School (ID) 8 Assistant Coach of the Year Dave Herndon Post Falls High School (ID) 8 Wrestler of the Year Lucas Randall North Marion High School (OR) Region National Awards Name School 1 National Coach of the Year Paul Gillespie Wantagh High School (NY) 5 National Assistant Coach of the Year Al Miller Cleveland High School (TN) 5 National Wrestler of the Year Adam Coon Fowlerville High School (MI) For more information about the national recipients and other scholastic winners visit the NWCA website at www.nwcaonline.com. About the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) The National Wrestling Coaches Association, established in 1928, is a non-profit organization for the advancement of all levels of the sport of wrestling with primary emphasis on developing coaches who work in academic environments. The membership embraces all people interested in amateur wrestling. The three core competencies of the NWCA are: coaching development, student-athlete welfare, and promotion of wrestling.

The countdown has begun. After passing the first obstacle in St. Petersburg, Russia, Olympic wrestling has little more than three months until the full meeting of the IOC Congress in Buenos Aires. What happens from now until then will help decide the future of the sport, and here's some background on each bid, their strengths and weaknesses and what you can expect to see from them in the coming months. Baseball/Softball Not mentioned among the favorites heading into the vote in St. Petersburg, their bid was buoyed by the interest of IOC executive board members Willi Kaltschmitt Lujan of Guatemala and Ching-Kuo Wu of Taiwan. Both are huge supporters of the sport and only needed a few runoff votes in the eighth round of the second ballot to ensure that they rose above the muck to find themselves shortlisted. It was a coup for the sport that was originally only dropped by a single vote in 2005. At the time the sports were the first to be dropped since polo got the axe in 1938. Baseball is a very long shot to be reinstated, but it does have powerful support on the executive committee and among the IOC delegation from Japan, Singapore, Central America and South America. Weaknesses: The largest baseball organization in the world, Major League Baseball, has so far been tepid in their support of the sport's Olympic bid. They have the World Baseball Classic to consider and given their existing contracts with sponsors, it would be economically foolish of them to full on support the competition, thereby weakening their own product. The MLB was all but forced to send a letter to the IOC executive board that declared their professional players would "find a way" to be available for competition. However, when looking at the MLB's talent pool there isn't a wide distribution of talent, and does seeing one or two stars bat every three innings make for compelling television? Also, baseball is expensive and time consuming. Strengths: Many. The governing body is well organized and has deep pockets. It's likely that they will try to outspend their competitors in media ads targeted at IOC voters. The sport also has gender equality, reduced costs and nostalgia working on its side. Overall: Baseball/softball is the sleeping giant of the shortlisted group and one that could cause massive upheaval in the voting process. It's vital to remember that Tokyo, where baseball is huge, will be up for the 2020 host city along with Istanbul and Madrid. The Japanese contingent will be trading baseball votes for city votes, and asking others to do the same. The politics of it all is a dangerous calculus to try and guess, but adding baseball and Japan into the same mix will impact the process. Squash The longtime leader in the bidding process, squash has been most perturbed by the IOC's decision to drop wrestling. Before wrestling was cut, squash was essentially a shoe-in for the 2020 Games due to its diversity of athletes and wild popularity among the executive board. It was assumed in January that by now squash would simply be counting the days to final approval. This setback is testing the sport's resolve, as this is their third attempt at inclusion in the Games. Weaknesses: Though popular among the executive board and members of the IOC, squash is having a difficult time gaining traction with the international media. It's possible that the IOC doesn't care about press, but why then would they have added wresting back into the mix so soon after removal? Also, the sport has been denied twice before, is seen as egalitarian and has no existing professional league that has proven to be economically viable. The IOC has little incentive to add squash, if in doing so they irritate hundreds of millions of wrestlers and nostalgic ball players. Strengths: Squash has the money and organizational composure to continue their Olympic fight, but their biggest asset is experience. They understand exactly how the process works, and the power of PR. When wrestling announced they they'd be hosting an American vs. Iranian dual meet, squash countered with a story about teaching 400 women how to coach the sport to the underprivileged in Tehran. Equally important is the connection many on the committee have to the sport. Many played in college, and still play daily. It's part of their life and that might give the sport an emotional edge they need to progress past the next round. The sport also changed to rally scoring in tie matches, which reportedly builds excitement around the game. Finally, unlike baseball and wrestling, the IOC hasn't already acted to eliminate these sports, meaning it won't have to overcome any bureaucratic face-saving some on the IOC might feel is necessary after the humiliation of cutting popular sports. Overall: The strongest competitor to wrestling, squash has an excellent chance of making it into the 2020 Olympics. They'll be running massive media campaigns both online and in print. Expect to see the glass cube on display at monuments around the world, and their two impossibly attractive spokespersons to be trotted out in front of the cameras in countries with vulnerable IOC voters. They will also likely go under a rebranding campaign to ensure they aren't seen as elitist. Wrestling The last addition to the 2020 candidacy, wrestling has become a darling of the media over the past 106 days. The IOC executive board has long been derided for being out of touch with the wants of the public and the needs of those who watch the Olympics, and the decision to cut wrestling only verified the media's suspicion that politics, more than fair play and equal opportunity, determined the outcome of many important decisions. Wrestling has faced many challenges, including early anger by fans at its governing body for a lack of communication the past several years, and the reemergence of their failed president Raphaël Martinetti. However, the sport made several significant improvements to its governance, electing Nenad Lalovic of Serbia to their presidency and changing the rules to something much more understandable to casual fans. Even though it faced adversity and some challenges to its future wrestling passed on the first ballot by a simple 8-6 majority. A very powerful message to the full body of the IOC and FILA. Weaknesses: Despite some big money donors in America and Russia, wrestling is not necessarily as well funded as their competitors. The spot has also been running their campaign for the shortest amount of time and that lack of time means less lobbying. Fewer contacts and big ideas could hurt the sport's chances to make a significant impact on the voting process, especially since there are no former wrestlers among the entire IOC Congress. Wrestling is also outside of gender equality with 12 spots for men and only 6 for women. There is also some frustration among IOC members about uniforms, the viability of Greco-Roman and the marketing appeal of the sport. More distressing is that with baseball's addition, Japan will likely be split or fully support the baseball bid along with Tokyo. Madrid also isn't playing for special wrestling venues and though they have a serious wrestling tradition, the sport isn't of high value to their administrative bodies. Strengths: Wrestling has without question become the consensus choice among the media to be included back in the 2020 Games. Though in the coming weeks there will be arguments made for other sports, wrestling is uniquely positioned to appeal to the founding principles of athletic competition and the Olympic Games. The organizations running the process are well funded and will likely be receiving more in the weeks following the decision to shortlist the sport. The members responsible for running the ad campaigns will be rebranding their efforts and setting up outreach programs to voters who've so far not seen the sport, or understand it's local and global appeal. Wrestling is the last added which could mean that it'll be last to fatigue the IOC voters. The arguments presented to the full congress will resonate with messaging they've heard in the media, and be difficult to strike down. The sport's image is as one that has been wronged by a political process. Wrestling also has the assistance of the 2014 Games being held in Russia, who has already sank $5.1 billion into those Games and who has consistently supported the idea of wrestling being added back into the Games. Also, Thomas Bach (Germany), the favorite to take over as President of the Olympics, has shown support for the sport. The up-and-coming candidate Sergei Bubka of the Ukraine may also be a fan of wrestling though he's made no public comments. Wrestling's biggest asset is the passion of its fan base. No other sport comes close, and in a race to make an impact the power of the motivated masses might mean more than money. Overall: The IOC is bound by nothing and can make decisions however it sees fit. Right now the only things that matter are messaging in the media and influencing the 101 voting members of the IOC Congress. As a supporter of wrestling I see a bright future filled with media events that are unique and create an impact on voters. Fans will need to stay vigilant and access the information they are given and also share it with members of their social media circles. Continued support of the sport and pushes for change will help the sport make its long and twisting journey to reinstatement. Wrestling needs to close out this process as strong as it opened. No mistakes, no mental lapses, just a positive approach to the process that invites new ideas and room for growth.

On Wednesday, wrestling was one of three sports recommended by the Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the final provisional sport spot in the 2020 Olympic Games. Baseball/softball and squash were the other sports recommended. The announcement came at the IOC's meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. The EB selected the three sports by secret ballot from a list that also included karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. The voting took place after 30-minute presentations by the eight International Federations. The full IOC membership will meet for the 125th Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina from Sept. 7-10 and will vote on which of the three sports to add to the Games in 2020. "The Executive Board received excellent presentations today from eight International Federations," said IOC President Jacques Rogge. "It was never going to be an easy decision but I feel my colleagues on the Board made a good decision in selecting baseball/softball, squash and wrestling to be put forward in Buenos Aires. I wish the three shortlisted sports the best of luck in the run-up to the vote in September and would like to thank the other sports for their hard work and dedication."

So UFC 160 saw Cain Velasquez beat Antonio Silva quite handily and Junior dos Santos prove to be just a bit too much for Mark Hunt to deal with. Not surprising, really, nor is it shocking that the two best heavyweights in the world will likely square off for a third time to settle the rivalry. But what's left for the heavyweight division once dos Santos and Cain square off again? Not much. The lightweight division, on the other hand, always seems to be in flux, and TJ Grant stirred things up even more with an upset TKO win over Gray Maynard. How will he fare against current UFC champion Ben Henderson? Lastly, questionable judging surfaced once again on the MMA scene. Richard and John don't know how to fix it, so really they just whine about the ineptitude of the sports official scorers and how fans think every close call is a "robbery." Do you want to listen to a past episode? Access archives.

2013 Recruiting Class Rankings 1. Michigan 2. Virginia Tech 3. Pittsburgh 4. North Dakota State 5. Illinois 6. Nebraska 7. Penn State 8. Iowa 9. Missouri 10. North Carolina State 11. Ohio State 12. Stanford 13. Rutgers 14. Clarion 15. Oklahoma State 16. Virginia 17. Arizona State 18. Minnesota 19. Princeton 20. Indiana 21. Harvard 22. Oklahoma 23. Rider 24. Purdue 25. Cal PolyWhen it comes to success in college wrestling -- be it at the team or individual level -- there is no substitute for pure talent and ability. The key driver in team success at the college level is procuring those talented individuals, and rankings are one indicator of that. Rankings include the individual weight class rankings and grade-level rankings, as well as these recruiting class rankings that seek to measure how Division I programs did in procuring the talent of the present class. An analysis of the lineup for Penn State this past year confirms that premise. All ten wrestlers qualified for the NCAA tournament, and out of that group nine of them won at least one state title; eight of those wrestlers won their titles in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or at National Preps. In terms of how the national finalists from 2013 stood at the end of their senior year, sixteen were ranked inside the top 50 of their grade level, with over half inside the top 20. Without further ado here are the 2013 team recruiting class rankings. 1. Michigan Top 100 recruits: No. 2 Adam Coon (Fowlerville, Mich.), No. 4 Ben Whitford (St. Johns, Mich.), No. 11 Domenic Abounader (St. Edward, Ohio), No. 27 Brian Murphy (Glenbard North, Ill.), and No. 98 Payne Hayden (St. Johns, Mich.) Weight class ranked: George Fisher (Marmion Academy, Ill.) Other notables: Aaron Calderon (Brighton, Mich.) and Cameron Kennedy (Richmond-Burton, Ill.) Commentary: This haul for the maize and blue is bar none the best in the nation this year with four truly elite prospects and two others that appear in the weight class rankings. A second consecutive super strong recruiting class validates the commitment that the administration and boosters have recently put into the wrestling program -- building the Bahna Wrestling Complex, retooling the coaching staff, and launching a rather strong Cliff Keen Wrestling Club RTC program. Now the onus is on the coaches and wrestlers to return the program to top ten and above finishes that the Wolverines had throughout the 2000s, eight consecutive from 2001-2008, including a runner-up trophy in 2005. Read analysis for all 25 teams. Not an InterMat Platinum subscriber? Subscribe now!

2013 Recruiting Class Rankings 1. Michigan 2. Virginia Tech 3. Pittsburgh 4. North Dakota State 5. Illinois 6. Nebraska 7. Penn State 8. Iowa 9. Missouri 10. North Carolina State 11. Ohio State 12. Stanford 13. Rutgers 14. Clarion 15. Oklahoma State 16. Virginia 17. Arizona State 18. Minnesota 19. Princeton 20. Indiana 21. Harvard 22. Oklahoma 23. Rider 24. Purdue 25. Cal PolyWhen it comes to success in college wrestling -- be it at the team or individual level -- there is no substitute for pure talent and ability. The key driver in team success at the college level is procuring those talented individuals, and rankings are one indicator of that. Rankings include the individual weight class rankings and grade-level rankings, as well as these recruiting class rankings that seek to measure how Division I programs did in procuring the talent of the present class. An analysis of the lineup for Penn State this past year confirms that premise. All ten wrestlers qualified for the NCAA tournament, and out of that group nine of them won at least one state title; eight of those wrestlers won their titles in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or at National Preps. In terms of how the national finalists from 2013 stood at the end of their senior year, sixteen were ranked inside the top 50 of their grade level, with over half inside the top 20. Without further ado here are the 2013 team recruiting class rankings. 1. Michigan Top 100 recruits: No. 2 Adam Coon (Fowlerville, Mich.), No. 4 Ben Whitford (St. Johns, Mich.), No. 11 Domenic Abounader (St. Edward, Ohio), No. 27 Brian Murphy (Glenbard North, Ill.), and No. 98 Payne Hayden (St. Johns, Mich.) Weight class ranked: George Fisher (Marmion Academy, Ill.) Other notables: Aaron Calderon (Brighton, Mich.) and Cameron Kennedy (Richmond-Burton, Ill.) Commentary: This haul for the maize and blue is bar none the best in the nation this year with four truly elite prospects and two others that appear in the weight class rankings. A second consecutive super strong recruiting class validates the commitment that the administration and boosters have recently put into the wrestling program -- building the Bahna Wrestling Complex, retooling the coaching staff, and launching a rather strong Cliff Keen Wrestling Club RTC program. Now the onus is on the coaches and wrestlers to return the program to top ten and above finishes that the Wolverines had throughout the 2000s, eight consecutive from 2001-2008, including a runner-up trophy in 2005. Read analysis for all 25 teams. Not an InterMat Platinum subscriber? Subscribe now! 2. Virginia Tech Top 100 recruits: No. 8 Joey Dance (Christiansburg, Va.), No. 26 Zach Epperly (Christiansburg, Va.), No. 42 Kevin Norstrem (Brandon, Fla.), No. 68 Jared Haught (Parkersburg, W. Va.), and No. 81 Dennis Gustafson (Forest Park, Va.) Commentary: Five Top 100 recruits as part of this class continue the upward trajectory that head coach Kevin Dresser has going for the Hokie wrestling program. Yet another strong haul in recruiting gets to ride the momentum that an ACC tournament title, and more importantly, a top ten finish at the NCAA tournament with four All-Americans brings to the table. It certainly helps Dresser that neighboring Christiansburg produced two excellent prospects this year, but he's done an excellent job identifying and procuring talent "up-and-down" the eastern third of the country. 3. Pittsburgh Top 100 recruits: No. 14 Cody Wiercioch (Canon-McMillan, Pa.), No. 21 Ryan Solomon (Milton, Pa.), No. 23 Mikey Racciato (Pen Argyl, Pa.), and No. 51 Edgar Bright (St. Edward, Ohio) Other notables: Luke Fleck (Franklin Regional, Pa.), Aaron Rothwell (Sheboygan North, Wis.), and Nick Zanetta (Keystone Oaks, Pa.) Commentary: The Panthers will be making transitions on multiple fronts heading into the 2013-14 season. They move from the EWL to the ACC, and Jason Peters steps in for long-time head coach Rande Stottlemyre. One of Peters' many tasks as a primary assistant at Pitt was the recruiting trail, and during this season he certainly got an A-plus. He landed four of the nation's best seniors, all of them in about a three-hour radius of the campus. If Peters and staff can continue to identify and get commitments from key wrestlers in this area alone, the Panthers will be well on their way to potential top ten in the nation finishes. 4. North Dakota State Top 100 recruits: No. 34 Mitch Bengtson (St. Cloud Apollo, Minn.), No. 46 Preston Lehmann (West Fargo, Minn.), and No. 59 Clayton Ream (Holt, Mo.) Impact newcomer: Tyler Lehmann (West Fargo, N.D./OTC) Weight class ranked: Tommy Petersen (Lakeville North, Minn.) Other notables: Mitch Friedman (Oconto Falls, Wis.), Kyle Gliva (Simley, Minn.), Grant Nehring (St. Cloud Apollo, Minn.), and Cole Sladek (St. Michael-Albertville, Minn.) Commentary: As Roger Kish comes off his second season as head coach with a maiden All-American in Trent Sprenkle, the Bison seek to make the next step up the ladder in the way of relevance on the national landscape. This recruiting class is certainly one that can provide the necessary pieces to accomplish that goal with three Top 100 Class of 2013 prospects, another in Tyler Lehmann that was a Top 100 prospect his senior year, and multiple other credentialed scholastic wrestlers. Kish and staff have done well in selling their program and vision in a wrestling-receptive area of the country. 5. Illinois Top 100 recruits: No. 5 Isaiah Martinez (Lemoore, Calif.), No. 12 Brooks Black (Blair Academy, N.J.), and No. 25 Kyle Langendorfer (Lincoln-Way East, Ill.) Commentary: What this class may lack in quantity, with only three identified commitments to InterMat at present, it certainly compensates in the quality bucket with three of the nation's top 25 prospects from the Class of 2013. Associate Head Coach Mark Perry tapped into two areas where he has strong relationships -- California and Blair Academy -- to snare Martinez and Black for the Illini; while two-time state champion Langendorfer wrestled at Lincoln-Way East for former Illini wrestler Tyrone Byrd. All three -- Black and Martinez in particular -- will be expected to help the Illini sooner rather than later, and perform at a high level. 6. Nebraska Impact newcomers: Eric Montoya (Campbell/Volcano Vista, N.M.). Anthony Abidin (Nassau Community College/Half Hollow Hills East, N.Y.), Patrick Downey (OTC/Oviedo, Fla./North County, Md.), and Destin McCauley (OTC/ Apple Valley, Minn.) Other notables: Joey Dedick (East Troy, Wis.) and Colton McCrystal (Sgt. Bluff-Luton, Iowa) Commentary: The clear lynchpins in this recruiting class for the 'Huskers are the four impact newcomers. Montoya was a national qualifier this past year at 125 pounds as a true freshman, and brings three remaining years of eligibility to the table; Abidin was a NJCAA national champion in 2012 and also has three remaining years of eligibility; McCauley was the nation's No. 2 recruit in the Class of 2011, while Downey was also a superlative Class of 2011 wrestler and a FILA Junior freestyle world silver medalist in 2012. 7. Penn State Top 100 recruits: No. 3 Zain Retherford (Benton, Pa.), No. 49 Matt McCutcheon (Kiski Area, Pa.), and No. 70 Garrett Hammond (Chambersburg, Pa.) Weight class ranked: Cody Law (Forest Hills, Pa.) Other notable: P.J. Steinmetz (Council Rock South, Pa.) Commentary: Cael Sanderson certainly has it all going right in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions have won three consecutive national titles, are well-positioned to make it four in a row; and the Sanderson/Penn State brand continues to be an easy sell. There's an extremely loyal fan base, a strong commitment from athletics and boosters to wrestling, an excellent coaching staff, and the local talent in the Keystone State is second to none. This recruiting class takes clear advantage of that talent, signing four who have won PIAA state titles. While probably not going to be called on for immediate action, these are wrestlers who will be ready to perform -- and perform well -- when their turn comes calling. 8. Iowa Top 100 recruits: No. 32 Aaron Bradley (Nazareth, Pa.), No. 55 Broc Berge (Kasson-Mantorville, Minn.), No. 62 Brandon Sorensen (Denver-Tripoli, Iowa), and No. 65 Jake Marlin (Creston, Iowa) Commentary: Even though this Hawkeye class is not rated number one, and falls outside of the top five in the rankings, it is still a solid group for Tom Brands and staff. The ability to bring in four top wrestlers who combine for eleven state titles between them in the midst of what else is on the roster speaks to the cache of the Iowa brand. Berge and Bradley will provide depth in the upper-weights, while Sorensen and Marlin do the same for the middle-weights. 9. Missouri Top 100 recruits: No. 6 J'den Cox (Hickman, Mo.), No. 72 Joey Lavallee (Reno, Nev.), No. 74 Barlow McGhee (Rock Island, Ill.), No. 79 Parker Vonegidy (Piedmont, N.C.), and No. 92 B.J. Toal (Troy Christian, Ohio) Other notable: Tim Miklus (Southeast Polk, Iowa) Commentary: In recent years under Brian Smith, the Tigers have been known for balanced quality across all ten weight classes of the lineup. This group will do nothing to deviate from that track, as it addresses the lightest weight (McGhee), middleweights (Lavallee/Miklus/Vonegidy/Toal), and upper-weight (Cox). In the five years of compiling recruiting class rankings at InterMat, this is the best class that Smith has brought in (the 2009 group rated No. 15 overall). Cox is the clear star of the group, and it will be interesting to see if he can develop into a champion in the upper-weights like the Askren brothers, Mark Ellis, and Dom Bradley did before him at Mizzou. 10. North Carolina State Top 100 recruits: No. 54 Peter Renda (Brandywine Heights, Pa.), No. 73 Scott Delvecchio (South Plainfield, N.J.), and No. 77 Peter Santos (Oakmont, Calif.) Other notable: Shayne Brady (Carthage, N.Y.), Brendan Calas (Seton Hall Prep, N.J.), Beau Donahue (Westfield, Va.), Brian Hamann (Jackson Memorial, N.J.), Michael Macchlavello (Sun Valley, N.C.), Micah Perez (Central Union, Calif.), Chad Pyke (Woodward Academy, Ga.), and Chris Wilkes (Whitfield, Mo.) Commentary: This marks the first true recruiting class for Pat Popolizio at the helm of the Wolfpack, and he has scoped the country from top to bottom looking for a group of wrestlers to remake the roster in his staff's image. Three weight-class ranked wrestlers anchor the group, with at least six other additional wrestlers having state titles on the resume. It is a group that marks the commitment to recruiting from Popolizio and staff, and for their sake, hopefully one that is a building block towards contending for ACC titles and more. 11. Ohio State Top 100 recruits: No. 1 Bo Jordan (St. Paris Graham, Ohio) and No. 15 Nathan Tomasello (CVCA, Ohio) Other notable: Jake Ryan (Olentangy Liberty, Ohio) Commentary: Typically a recruiting class with just two notable commitments is not going to be ranked this high. However, four-time state champions Jordan and Tomasello are not two typical notable commitments. Jordan is the nation's best recruit in this class, while Tomasello is the best projected 125 in this class, and likely to be that weight for his career as well. Each has the potential to thrive early and throughout their careers, and Jordan in particular may be pressed into service as a true freshman (with Taylor Massa's round of 12 finish this past year kind of an interesting benchmark comparison if you ask me). 12. Stanford Top 100 recruits: No. 24 Connor Schram (Canon-McMillan, Pa.), No. 41 Garrett Krohn (Arvada, Colo.), and No. 64 Nathan Butler (Leavenworth, Kans.) Other notables: Tommy Pawleski (Montini Catholic, Ill.) and Keaton Subjeck (Oak Ridge, Calif.) Commentary: Jason Borrelli continues the incremental build of his program on "The Farm" with a fourth top 20 recruiting class in five seasons at the helm. Stanford did take a step back this past season, finishing without an All-American after finishing 16th with a pair of medalists in 2012. However, the Cardinal continues to find capable wrestling talent with the academic tools necessary to compete in Palo Alto. This year is no exception with the three Top 100 ranked wrestlers, in addition to a career lightweight with a previous state title and a two-time California state placing middle-weight. 13. Rutgers Top 100 recruits: No. 7 Anthony Ashnault (South Plainfield, N.J.), No. 44 Tyson Dippery (Central Dauphin, Pa.) Weight class ranked: Corey Stasenko (South Plainfield, N.J.) Other notables: Nick Gravina (Northern Highlands, N.J.), Taylor Jackson (The Villages, Fla.), Anthony Messner (Franklin, N.J.), Dylan Painton (South Plainfield, N.J.), and Joshua Patrick (Ligonier Valley, Pa.) Commentary: Much has been made about the lack of an All-American while Scott Goodale has been head coach in Piscataway. However, much has been accomplished in his reign -- the program has achieved a degree of relevance unseen previously, the administration has committed resources towards the program's success, and the talent recruited to the roster has seen a massive upgrade. That pattern continues with this year's recruiting haul consisting of the first-ever undefeated four-time state champion in the Garden State, along with a group of other wrestlers that have placed high and/or multiple times in elite state tournaments. 14. Clarion Top 100 recruits: No. 28 Austin Matthews (Reynolds, Pa.) and No. 97 Justin Arthur (Huntington, W. Va.) Impact newcomer: Quinton Muprhy (Holley Central, N.Y./Indiana University) Other notables: Seth Carr (South Fayette, Pa.), Dustin Conti (Jefferson Morgan, Pa.), Cam Cyphert (Cochranton, Pa.), Evan Daley (Fort LeBoeuf, Pa.), and Tim Schaefer (Warsaw, N.Y.) Commentary: This marks the first recruiting class for head coach Troy Letters, who just completed his first year as head coach of the Golden Eagles. As James Fleming finished his career with a second All-American finish, Letters turned his eye towards strengthening the Clarion roster for years to come; something that has been clearly accomplished with this group. It addresses all areas of the lineup, and provides credentialed wrestlers in all areas. The group is anchored by a pair of Top 100 recruits in state champion Matthews and NHSCA Senior National runner-up Arthur, as well as impact transfer Murphy who was a Top 100 recruit in the Class of 2012. 15. Oklahoma State Top 100 recruits: No. 17 Dean Heil (St. Edward, Ohio) and No. 20 Anthony Collica (Solon, Ohio) Other notables: Davey Dolan (Berryhill, Okla.), Zac Gentzler (Andover Central, Kans.), and Keilan Torres (Altus, Okla.) Commentary: The five listed commitments here combine for 18 state titles during their high school career; Heil, Dolan, and Gentzler won four each, while Collica and Torres won three respectively. Heil and Collica are elite talents out of Ohio, possibly the first such wrestlers to end up in Stillwater since Alan Fried; while the other three are more local in nature. It's a group of wrestlers that augments the depth already present in the first half of the lineup and provides a couple of potential near-term starters. 16. Virginia Top 100 recruits: No. 56 Tyler Askey (Northgate, Ga.), No. 57 T.J. Miller (Camden Catholic, N.J.), and No. 100 Andrew Atkinson (Liberty Christian Academy, Va.) Weight class ranked: Emilio Martinez (Greeley West, Colo.) Other notables: Addison Knepshield (Blair Academy, N.J.), Richard Robertson, Jr. (Maple Hts, Ohio), and Alex Uhre (St. Thomas Aquinas, Fla.) Commentary: Steve Garland and crew have the Cavaliers on the positive track coming off an NCAA tournament, which featured a pair of All-Americans and two others who lost in the round of 12. This is yet another high quantity recruiting class that also has solid quality with three Top 100 prospects and another ranked wrestler, all who are positioned to help the front half-to-two-thirds of the lineup. 17. Arizona State Top 100 recruits: No. 82 Kaleb Baker (Christian Brothers, Tenn.), No. 94 Mech Spraggins (Belleville West, Ill.), and No. 96 Lawrence Otero (Volcano Vista, N.M.) Impact newcomers: Kyle Colling (Pioneer, N.Y./Oklahoma), Josh DaSilveira (Cardinal Gibbons, Fla./North Carolina State), and Coltin Fought (Benton, Pa./North Carolina State) Other notables: Deshun Brown (West Mesa, N.M.) and Seth Monty (Mesa Mountain View, Ariz.) Commentary: There have been isolated pockets of success in Tempe in recent years with national titles won by Anthony Robles and Bubba Jenkins. However, that has not necessarily translated into solid performances up and down the lineup on a consistent basis. However, head coach Shawn Charles and primary recruiting assistant Lee Pritts hope that this recruiting class is the catalyst to broader success. This group features three Top 100 Class of 2013 prospects and three potential impact transfers; DaSilveira and Colling can fill the back two weights capably, while Fought can potentially make significant contribution at a lower-weight having qualified for nationals as a true freshman. 18. Minnesota Top 100 recruits: No. 22 Nick Wanzek (Simley, Minn.) and No. 30 Jake Short (Simley, Minn.) Other notables: Judson Preskitt (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.), Jordan Rothers (Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, Minn.), and Nate Thomas (Kasson-Mantorville, Minn.) Commentary: Interestingly this is a third consecutive class for the Gophers that is ranked outside the top ten. However, the Gophers at present have a high quality starting lineup, with solid complimentary depth. Coach J. Robinson has perennially done an excellent job of recruiting and developing quality wrestlers, and the group here should fit that bill well. Short and Wanzek are the obvious stars with seven state titles and multiple Fargo AA's between them, while Preskitt, Rothers, and Thomas come in with strong credentials and development potential. 19. Princeton Top 100 recruits: No. 40 Raymond O'Donnell (Saucon Valley, Pa.) and No. 45 Brett Harner (Norristown, Pa.) Other notables: Trey Aslanian (Edgemont, N.Y.), Jordan Laster (Montini Catholic, Ill.), Troy Murtha (Georgetown Prep, Md.), and Jake Moore (Rootstown, Ohio) Commentary: Seeing the Tigers in this type of recruiting position can only be viewed as a good thing. It's not a team that has been viewed as strong on a year-to-year basis, and recruiting wrestlers to Princeton can be a "hard sell," though it's an excellent academic school. However, Chris Ayres and staff have been working hard, and hope that this group can mark a new positive beginning. Harner and O'Donnell are both Top 100 recruits, were both Super 32 Challenge runners-up, and combine for seven PIAA state tournament placements. Aslanian and Laster fit the bill of solid career light-weights, while Murtha and Moore are multi-time state placers and will bolster the upper-weights along with O'Donnell and Harner. 20. Indiana Top 100 recruits: No. 38 Neal Molloy (Danville, Ind.) Impact newcomer: Ethan Raley (Indian Creek, Ind./Lincoln College) Other notables: Luke Blanton (Alexandria, Ind.), Gabriel French (St. Xavier, Ky.), Jake Masengale (Perry Meridian, Ind.), Brant Schafer (St. Johns, Mich.), and Kyle Springer (Davenport Assumption, Iowa) Commentary: This marks a fifth consecutive top 25 class for the Hoosiers, yet the tangible measures of improved performance within the Big Ten and NCAA tournament prism is not apparent to the general fan. It goes to show you that there is more to program success than just recruiting. Hopefully Coach Goldman and staff can find the right formula to retain and develop this group of young men, which is anchored by two-time state champion Molloy and 2012 NJCAA runner-up Raley (also a multi-time Indiana state champion). The other five young men noted here have at minimum appeared in a state final and are multi-time state placers. 21. Harvard Top 100 recruits: No. 16 Eric Morris (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.) and No. 61 Brad Perkins (Oak Park, Mo.) Weight class ranked: Tyler Grimaldi (Half Hollow Hills West, N.Y.) Other notable: Colby Knight (Urbandale, Iowa) Commentary: This marks a second consecutive top 25 recruiting class for the Crimson, which will provide another positive injection of talent onto the roster. The top four wrestlers in this class combine for 11 state/National Prep finals appearances between them, with all winning at least one title along the way; anchored by the pair of National Prep titles won by Morris. The group features two among the Top 100 in the Class of 2013 (Morris and Perkins) and an additional weight class ranked wrestler in Grimaldi. 22. Oklahoma Top 100 recruit No. 9 Oliver Pierce (Allen, Texas) Impact newcomer: Danny Chaid (Bellarmine, Calif./OTC) Other notables: Jon Townsend (Comanche, Okla.), Shayne Tucker (Bella Vista, Calif.), and Sean Williams (Lemoore, Calif.) Commentary: Though this might be perceived as a low ranking for the Sooners' recruiting haul, it is still a very positive one for Mark Cody and staff. Pierce has been a two-sport star through his high school career, serving as a key figure on a state title winning football team in Texas's biggest and best classification this past fall in addition to his many wrestling exploits. Chaid was a two-time California state placer, spending this past year at the OTC in Colorado Springs. Among the others, Towsend finished his career as a three-time state champion; while Tucker was a two-time California state runner-up and Super 32 placer, and Williams was also a state runner-up this past year in the Golden State. 23. Rider Top 100 recruits: No. 10 B.J. Clagon (Toms River South, N.J.) and No. 85 Wayne Stinson (Northern Burlington, N.J.) Impact newcomer: Robert Deutsch (Old Dominion/Eastern Regional, N.J.) Other notable: J.R. Wert (Christiansburg, Va.) Commentary: With Rider being in such a wrestling rich area, they certainly have the potential to build an excellent program. Even though recent results do not show this to be the case, this is the type of recruiting group that can help turn things around as they move into the EWL. It is anchored by two-time state champion and four-time NHSCA grade-level champion Clagon, as well as fellow Top 100 prospect and New Jersey state champion Stinson. The Broncs also added a pair of impact lightweights in Deutsch, who was an NCAA qualifier this past season; as well as two-time Super 32 Challenge placer Wert, who also won four state titles in his high school career. 24. Purdue Weight class ranked: Aaron Assad (Brecksville, Ohio), Josh Farrell (Greenfield Central, Ind.), Andrew Geers (Neuqua Valley, Ill.), and Jacob Morrissey (Oconto Falls, Wis.) Impact newcomer: Garth Lakitsky (Tamaqua Area, Pa./Lackawanna College) Other notable: Luke Welch (Castle, Ind.) Commentary: Though the Boilermakers' class lacks a true elite wrestler, it is one that possesses a high quantity of quality with four wrestlers that finished their senior season in the weight class rankings. The five Class of 2013 wrestlers listed here all appeared in the state final this past year, with Assad, Farrell, and Morrissey earning championships. Lakitsky was a 2011 state champion and Dapper Dan participant. This class provides head coach Scott Hinkel with talent across the weight classes. 25. Cal Poly Top 100 recruits: No. 36 Spencer Empey (Reed, Nev.) and No. 89 Luke Wilson (Righetti, Calif.) Weight class ranked: Travis Berridge (Brandon, Fla.) Impact newcomer: Trent Noon (Oakdale, Calif./Clackamas C.C.) Other notables: Tommy Espinoza (Otay Ranch, Calif.), Tyler Hecht (Franklin, Calif.), Nick Johnson (Murietta Valley, Calif.), Sohrab Mohavedi (Granda Hills, Calif.), Colton Schilling (Sweet Home, Ore.), Nick Troquato (Ponderosa, Calif.), and Victor Trujillo (Bella Vista, Calif.) Commentary: This marks a second straight top 25 recruiting class for Brendan Buckley and the Mustangs. The group features a pair of Top 100 recruits in NHSCA Senior runner-up Empey and third place finisher Wilson, along with a weight class ranked wrestler in Super 32 Challenge placer Berridge. Noon was a NJCAA champion this past year, while the five California natives listed in the other notables all finished inside the top four of the single class state tournament this past year, and Schilling is a three-time state champion in Oregon. The talent yet again spans across the lineup, with the bulk focusing on the middle and upper-weights. Honorable Mention: Iowa State, North Carolina, and Northwestern

Olympic Wrestling needs to jump through two sizable hoops which stand between it and its salvation. The first is this week as the IOC executive board meets to tap one to three sports for consideration for addition to the Olympic program. The executive board, if you remember, is the body which, months ago, recommended a revised block of Olympic "core sports" for the 2020 Olympics and beyond. Wrestling was not one of those included in the block. This meant that wrestling got thrown into the hopper with a bunch of non-Olympic sports seeking new admittance into the Games. The executive board will now determine whether one to three of those sports are worthy of Olympic consideration. If wrestling is not among one of those three, it will not be an Olympic sport in 2020, and probably beyond. If wrestling is picked by the executive board this week, its future is still uncertain. It must face the scrutiny of the assembled IOC this September in Buenos Aires. This fall's IOC assembly will pick the host for the 2020 Olympics, pick a new IOC president (Jacques Rogge is on his way out), vote on the executive board's core sport recommendation, and then vote on whether to add one of the sports picked from this week's proceedings. It's the last of those votes which are of particular interest to wrestling. Technically it is possible that the IOC assembly does not ratify the executive board's new core sport block, thus reverting the Olympic program back to its 2012 form. I say technically possible, because this scenario is not likely. All that is required for ratification is a simple majority of IOC members, and if no majority is reached on the first vote, IOC president Rogge may ask for as many re-votes as he sees fit. The procedures really favor the executive board's recommendation. So if wrestling survives past this week, it must beat out the other sports that survive the present cut, and be accepted by the IOC assembly with a majority of votes. There is no guarantee that wrestling will edge its competition, or even that the assembly will choose to add any sports to the newly established program. The assembly, in the past, has declined to add new sports given a similar opportunity. Wrestling will undergo a serious trial in the coming days, and even if it survives, its future is still far from certain. Thoughts on University Nationals ... Tyrell Fortune's wrestling career has certainly been an odyssey with many twists and turns. He may never compete for a Division I national championship, but at least wrestling has afforded him the chance to receive a college education, and to vie for an Olympic spot. He's going to be dangerous come 2016. I guess I simply forgot how special Andrew Howe is. If this tournament truly indicates that he is back and healthy, our country has one of its very best pound-for-pound wrestlers back. Too bad he isn't 20 pounds lighter or heavier. Ed Ruth earned OW honors at University Nationals (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Ed Ruth hasn't looked quite as good at senior level freestyle events as I would have expected in the past. Regardless, I still see him as one of the favorites to make the 2016 Olympic Team in 2016 at 84 kilos. Yes, I know it's freestyle, but Cam Simaz was an NCAA champ two weights up from Ed; for Ed to go out and beat him says a ton about his talent level. Speaking of the future, I unabashedly believe that Andy Hrovat has the potential to become one of the brightest freestyle coaching minds in this country. His time spent in Ossetia provides him with a unique and invaluable perspective. It's good to see that he'll be one of our coaches for the University World Team. What the hell is Nebraska going to do with its middle weights next year? I'm not sure if this tournament means that James Green is a 149 next year, but I would think it definitely shows that he's too small for 165. That means that Nebraska has two weights for three very good wrestlers in Green, Destin McCauley and Jake Sueflohn. I guess this is the kind of problem that Mark Manning wants to have in Lincoln. I said it before, Ohio State's Nick Heflin should have gotten the award for the most absurdly oversized wrestler at his weight last year in Division I wrestling. I have no clue how he made 174, and the fact that he was only slightly undersized at 211 pounds this past weekend says a great deal about just how big he actually is. He'll be interesting to watch next year at 197. That duck of his will be more effective when he's not trying to hit it under the arms of someone like Matt Brown, where Nick would be working to fit underneath a space about a foot off the ground. Finally the new rules make freestyle wrestling (I didn't catch much of the Greco) into a fantastic spectator sport. I've heard complaints that there are too many tech falls, but I think that the jury is still out on this, and something that makes wrestling events move faster probably helps the sport in the end. Additionally, I think allowing multiple moves on one hold may be the one wild card which allows for the possibility of some dramatic and unexpected upsets; wrestling needs its Cinderella stories. Overall, though, the new rules felt like a breath of fresh air for a sport that has been buried under the debris of disastrous regulation for far too long. Let's all hope wrestling survives the next couple days.

42 kilos: 1st: Austin Gomez (Illinois) dec. Brent Jones (Minnesota), 9-7 3rd: Kaden Gfeller (Oklahoma) dec. Kirk Johansen (Illinois), 9-7 5th: Randon Miranda (California) dec. Drew Mattin (Ohio), 14-10 *True 2nd: Kaden Gfeller (Oklahoma) tech. fall Brent Jones (Minnesota), 14-4 46 kilos: 1st: Devin Brown (Pennsylvania) tech. fall Ian Parker (Michigan), 13-3 3rd: Matthew Schmitt (Missouri) tech. fall Coltan Williams (Texas), 10-0 5th: Ben Freeman (Michigan) tech. fall Jarod Bronstrup (Ohio), 11-0 *True 2nd: Matthew Schmitt (Missouri) tech. fall Ian Parker (Michigan), 11-0 50 kilos: 1st: Spencer Lee (Pennsylvania) tech. fall Daton Fix (Oklahoma), 13-2 3rd: Jack Mueller (Texas) tech. fall Andrew Mehrholz (Illinois), 15-4 5th: Isaac Jimenez (Texas) tech. fall Noah Baughman (Ohio), 10-0 *True 2nd: Daton Fix (Oklahoma) tech. fall Jack Mueller (Texas), 10-0 54 kilos: 1st: Stevan Micic (Indiana) tech. fall Kaid Brock (Oklahoma), 10-0 3rd: Jens Lantz (Wisconsin) dec. Austin Assad (Ohio), 9-5 5th: Jose Rodriguez (Ohio) dec. Kyle Norstrem (Florida), 15-7 58 kilos: 1st: Sean Fausz (Kentucky) tech. fall Nick Lee (Indiana), 11-1 3rd: Bill Crisco (Pennsylvania) tech. fall Mark Voss (Minnesota), 10-0 5th: Lincoln Olson (Michigan) won by forfeit over Isaiah Locsin (California) *True 2nd: Nick Lee (Indiana) tech. fall Bill Crisco (Pennsylvania), 11-0 63 kilos: 1st: Aaron Pico (California) tech. fall Tyler Berger (Oregon), 10-0 3rd: Logan Massa (Michigan) tech. fall Larry Early III (Illinois), 10-0 5th: Joe Smith (Oklahoma) tech. fall Luke Rowh (Minnesota), 10-0 *True 2nd: Logan Massa (Michigan) dec. Tyler Berger (Oregon), 14-11 69 kilos: 1st: Jon Jay Chavez (Idaho) dec. Nick Reenan (Texas), 7-4 3rd: Anthony Valencia (California) tech. fall Taylor Lujan (Georgia), 11-0 5th: Weston Dobler (North Dakota) dec. Tyler Mann (Arkansas), 7-4 76 kilos: 1st: Bo Nickal (Texas) dec. Mark Hall (Minnesota), 8-6 3rd: Chandler Rogers (Washington) pinned Myles Martin (New Jersey), 2:14 5th: Xavier Montalvo (Illinois) pinned Chris Weiler (Pennsylvania), 6:00 84 kilos: 1st: Angus Arthur (Michigan) tech. fall Bobby Steveson (Minnesota), 12-2 3rd: Andrew Marsden (Illinois) pinned Josh Murphy (Ohio), 2:04 5th: Armani Robinson (Ohio) dec. Andrew Fenton (Ohio), 4-0 *True 2nd: Bobby Steveson (Minnesota) tech. fall Andrew Marsden (Illinois), 20-8 100 kilos: 1st: Lance Benick (Minnesota) dec. Roy Nash (Utah), 16-15 3rd: Connor Tolley (Indiana) tech. fall Christian Jenco (New Jersey), 12-0 5th: Jimmy Russell (Michigan) tech. fall Michael Smith (Maryland), 10-0 *True 2nd: Connor Tolley (Indiana) dec. Roy Mash (Utah), 14-6 125 kilos: 1st: Adam Lemke-Bell (Illinois) pinned Nicholas Nader (Ohio), 2:03 3rd: Cordell Soileau (Virginia) pinned Hunter Toppel (Wisconsin), 1:10 5th: Kevin Vough (Ohio) won by forfeit over Gavan Jolley-little (Indiana)

55 kilos: 1st: Nico Megaludis (Nittany Lion WC) won 2 matches to 1 over Zach Sanders (Minnesota Storm), 0-4, 10-0, 4-0 3rd: Thomas Gilman (Hawkeye WC) dec. Evan Silver (Stanford Unattached), 4-2 5th: Dylan Peters (Panther WC) pinned Dominique Price (Midwest RTC), 1:01 7th: Britain Longmire (San Luis Obispo) pinned Jordan Wigger (Citadel Old Timers Club, Inc.), 4:09 60 kilos: 1st: Tyler Graff (Badger WC) won 2 matches to 0 over Cashe' Quiroga (Midwest RTC), 10-0, 5-4 3rd: Joseph Colon (Panther WC) tech. fall Cory Clark (Pleasant Hill), 10-0 5th: Mark Grey (Finger Lakes WC) tech. fall Jade Rauser (Wolverine WC), 11-0 7th: Shelton Mack (Pittsburgh WC) dec. Erik Spjut (NRV Mat Club), 6-5 63 kilos: 1st: Sam Sherlock (Clarion WC) won 2 matches to 0 over Brandon Wright (Viking WC), pin, 13-3 3rd: Jamel Hudson (Blue & Gold WC) dec. Matthew Rappo (Husky WC), 8-2 5th: Ethan Owens (Hawkeye WC) dec. Mike Labry (NYAC), 5-1 7th: John Meeks (Iowa State) dec. Avery Garner (Wolverine WC), 8-2 66 kilos: 1st: James Green (NWTC) won 2 matches to 1 over Jason Chamberlain (Titan Mercury WC), 4-2, 4-5, 3-0 3rd: Kevin LeValley (Minnesota Storm) won by injury default over Joshua Kindig (Columbus WC), 0:29 5th: Nick Dardanes (Minnesota Storm) dec. Hunter Stieber (Ohio State), 6-4 7th: Josh Dziewa (Hawkeye WC) pinned Colin Johnston (Quest), 4:51 70 kilos: 1st: Justin Deangelis (Oklahoma) won 2 matches to 0 over Brandon Kingsley (Minnesota Storm), 8-1, 6-4 3rd: Michael Hooker (CWC) dec. Thomas Gantt (Wolfpack WC), 12-4 5th: Alexander Richardson (VBRTC) pinned Pat Smith (Minnesota Storm), 3:23 7th: Chris Castillo (Bronco WC) tech. fall Mitchell Minotti (Lehigh Valley Athletic Club), 11-0 74 kilos: 1st: David Taylor (Nittany Lion WC) won 2 matches to 0 over Quinton Godley (Wolfpack WC), 3-0, pin 3rd: Michael Moreno (Iowa State) pinned Ian Miller (Golden Pride WC), 5:14 5th: Nestor Taffur (Boston) pinned Taylor Massa (Michigan WC), 1:56 7th: R.J. Pena (NWRTC) tech. fall Alec Ortiz (Minnesota Storm), 22-11 79 kilos: 1st: Andrew Howe (NYAC) won 2 matches to 0 over Logan Storley (Minnesota Storm), 10-0, 13-3 3rd: Matt Brown (Nittany Lion WC) tech. fall Tyler Wilps (Pittsburgh WC), 13-2 5th: Jesse Shanaman (Cornell) won by injury default over John Staudenmayer (Cardinal WC) 7th: Mark Martin (Ohio State) dec. Duke Pickett (Cornell), 5-1 84 kilos: 1st: Ed Ruth (Nittany Lion WC) won 2 matches to 0 over Cam Simaz (Finger Lakes WC), 6-4, 10-0 3rd: Max Thomusseit (Pittsburgh WC) dec. Kenneth Courts (Ohio State), 3-0 5th: Alex Meyer (Hawkeye WC) dec. Gabe Dean (Finger Lakes WC), 6-5 7th: Jack Dechow (VBRTC) won by injury default over Nathaniel Brown (Lehigh Valley Athletic Club) 96 kilos: 1st: Micah Burak (HWC) won 2 matches to 0 over Dustin Kilgore (Suples WC), 10-6, 5-2 3rd: Travis Rutt (Oklahoma) pinned Taylor Meeks (NWRTC), 0:34 5th: Evan Brown (Cyclone WC) tech. fall Cayle Byers (Titan Mercury WC), 10-0 7th: Nick Heflin (Ohio State) won by forfeit over Timmy McCall (Badger WC) 120 kilos: 1st: Tyrell Fortune (Grand Canyon WC) won 2 matches to 0 over Tony Nelson (Minnesota Storm), 7-2, pin 3rd: Nick Gwiazdowski (NYAC/Wolfpack WC) dec. Austin Marsden (Cowboy WC), 7-5 5th: Connor Medbery (Badger WC) dec. Adam Fager (Wolverine WC), 5-0 7th: Spencer Myers (Terrapin WC) dec. Cole Tobin (Badger WC), 7-0

A strong contingent of Penn State Nittany Lion wrestlers competed in the 2013 Asics Freestyle University Nationals, held this weekend at the University of Akron. Four of Penn State's 2013 NCAA finalists placed at the event with three coming home as 2013 University Nationals freestyle champions. Sophomore Nico Megaludis (Murrysville, Pa.) blazed through the 55 kg weight class, going 5-0 with three technical falls to claim the title, including a 4-0 shutout over top seeded Zach Sanders, former Minnesota Golden Gopher All-American. Junior David Taylor (St. Paris, Ohio) was untouchable at 74 kg, going 7-0 with four tech falls and three pins to win the championship. He pinned Wolfpack Wrestling's Quinton Godley in the finals. Junior Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.) was dominating at 84 kg, posting a 6-0 mark to win the championship. Ruth had four tech falls in the tournament, including a devastating 10-0 tech fall over Cam Simaz of Cornell's Finger Lakes Wrestling Club in the finals. Sophomore Matt Brown (West Valley City, Utah) came back from a third round upset loss to reel off six more wins, going 8-1 overall to take third at 79 kg. Brown had four tech falls and two pins, including a tech fall over Tyler Wilps in the third place match. Four other Nittany Lions competed on day two of the event, capping off solid tournaments in the consolation bracket at the event. True freshman Jimmy Gulibon (Latrobe, Pa.) went 3-2 at 60 kg while red-shirt freshman Mike Waters (Advance, N.C.) was 4-2 at 63 kg. True freshman Zack Beitz (Mifflintown, Pa.) went 4-2 at 66 kg and junior James Vollrath (Richboro, Pa.) went 3-2 at 74 kg, advancing to the quarterfinals before dropping two straight. A total of 19 Nittany Lions competed at the two-day event, with a number of young Nittany Lions turning in strong performances. In addition to the eight grapplers above who wrestled into day two, 11 other Lions took part in the national championship event. At 60 kg, sophomore Frank Martellotti (Pittsburgh, Pa.) went 3-2 and red-shirt freshman Jordan Conaway (Abbottstown, Pa.) went 2-2. Freshman Caleb Livingston (Drexel Hill, Pa.) went 1-2 at 70 kg and red-shirt freshman Rex Lutz (Easton, Pa.) went 3-2 at 74 kg. Junior Andrew Church (Erie, Pa.) went 2-2 at 79 kg and red-shirt freshman James Frascella (Carmel, Ind.) went 1-2 at the same weight. True freshman Wes Phipps (Grove City, Pa.) and red-shirt freshman Scott Syrek (Chester Springs, Pa.) each went 1-2 at 84 kg while classmate Dylan Dailey (Danville, Pa.) also competed at that weight. Red-shirt freshman Josh Rogers (Pottstown, Pa.) wrestled at 96 kg while sophomore Nick Ruggear (Oxford, Pa.) competed at 120 kg.

AKRON, Ohio -- The twelve hours of wrestling over three sessions, two covering all day Saturday and one on Sunday morning, concluded with a set of championship bouts at the FILA Cadet Nationals that were mostly one-sided. Six of the eleven championship bouts ended in technical falls (margin of greater than ten points), five of those not making it out of the first three-minute period; while a seventh match ended in a first period fall. Most notable among the technical fall victories was the one earned by Aaron Pico of California at 63 kilos (138.75 pounds), who was also named the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler. It was the ninth such victory for Pico, the nation's No. 1-ranked overall Class of 2016 wrestler, in as many matches over the two-day event. That victory over Tyler Berger of Oregon came by a 10-0 score at the 2:16 mark. Scores for Pico came in the form of a takedown, push-out, takedown, push-out, and one last takedown followed by a turn. Of significance is that just over ten months ago -- obviously under the "old" rules -- these two wrestled in a three-period bout during the round-robin of Cadet freestyle, a match that Pico won 0-2, 1-0, 1-0. "I was able to make some adjustments (from their previous meeting) against this very tough opponent." said Pico, "I got my offensive attacks and pace going, and was able to break down and through him." This finals match was so reflective of all the matches wrestled this weekend, and of all his matches regardless of style: relentless pressure, precise positional execution, and crazy good hand-fighting. "It's something that my coach (Valentin Kalika) works on with me. I feel very comfortable going forward, not as comfortable going backward, so I aim to always attack." A pair of wrestlers from Saegerstown, Pa., made the FILA Cadet freestyle world team with first period technical fall victories in the championship bout. Devin Brown earned the title at 46 kilos (101.25 pounds) with a 13-3 victory over Ian Parker of Michigan, his fifth technical fall out of six matches wrestled in the tournament. "I can't wait to go to Serbia," said Brown. "It's one of the best feelings ever in my life, and such an honor to represent my country." Spencer Lee, ranked No. 1 overall among junior high wrestlers earned his title at 50 kilos (110.25 pounds) with a 13-2 victory at the 1:19 mark against Daton Fix of Oklahoma, who is ranked No. 7 in the junior high group. This cemented a weekend of eight dominant victories, four by fall and four by technical fall. "I'm looking forward to what's ahead of me (as a wrestler, be it Cadet Worlds or high school)," said Lee, who has already finished as a runner-up in high school level competition at the Super 32 Challenge and FloNationals, and won a fourth consecutive PJW championship two months ago. "There is obviously some pressure, but I think I can continue to even improve." Also winning in dominant fashion was Stevan Micic of Indiana at 54 kilos (119 pounds), who won all seven of his matches by technical fall, and also not giving up a point to any opponent. His last three matches against a trio of top 40 Class of 2015 wrestlers lasted under five minutes in aggregate with the point margin being 32-0; those being against No. 36 Jose Rodriguez of Ohio, No. 38 Austin Assad of Ohio, and No. 27 Kaid Brock of Oklahoma (whom he beat 10-0 in the final at the 2:30 mark). The finals match for Micic featured two takedown/lace sequences and a final takedown to end the proceedings. The five matches prior to the Assad match on Sunday morning were all takedowns followed by a series of laces that ended the proceedings in less than 45 seconds each. This was the third placement finish for Micic at FILA Cadet Nationals, as the No. 31 ranked Class of 2014 prospect had finished fifth and second the prior two years in Akron. "I come ready to wrestle hard and perform my best in these big events (FILA Cadets, Fargo, etc.)," said Micic. "I want to get after it and make a name for myself on the national landscape. Going forward, I would love to thrive in college and compete at the senior international level." Joining Micic as a Class of 2014 wrestler to win his final by technical fall was Sean Fausz of Kentucky at 58 kilos (127.75 pounds). He improved upon last year's third place finish with an 11-1 victory at the 1:47 mark over Nick Lee of Indiana, who is ranked No. 5 overall among junior high wrestlers. This was the seventh technical fall for Fausz out of eight matches, the first six matches of which he scored shutout technical falls. "This was my final year as a FILA Cadet, and I was pretty close to making it last year," said Fausz. "So making the team (this year) was a big goal of mine, and it feels great to have gotten it done. "I am so much better at my turns (from par terre). Last year I scored on only one in the whole tournament, while this year I scored in bunches on top." Two of the three tightest finals matches were also won by Class of 2014 prospects. At 69 kilos (152 pounds), Jon-Jay Chavez of Idaho added a freestyle title to the Greco-Roman title that he won on Friday with a 7-4 victory over Nick Reenan of Texas, who is ranked No. 10 in the Class of 2016, in the final. Reenan scored the match's opening takedown, but Chavez was able to respond with a reversal at the edge and a pair of push-outs to take a 3-2 lead after one period. In the second period, Chavez scored a leg-attack finish at the edge of the mat to stretch the lead, Reenan did respond with a takedown to cut it to 5-4, but Chavez sealed the deal with a fireman's takedown finish inside the last 30 seconds. "It feels awesome and is an amazing accomplishment," said Chavez about his double titles, "I really worked hard for them." He also is undecided about which of the two styles (freestyle or Greco-Roman) he will participate in at FILA Cadet Worlds in Serbia come August. The most anticipated match of the tournament came at 76 kilos (167.5 pounds), where Bo Nickal of Texas (ranked No. 10 overall in the Class of 2014) scored his third victory over Mark Hall (ranked No. 2 in the Class of 2016) in the last calendar year. Last spring, Nickal had victories over Hall at the Cadet Folkstyle and the FILA Cadet freestyle tournaments. Late on Sunday morning, Nickal overcame unfavorable circumstances early in the match to earn a relatively decisive 8-6 victory. "I feel very comfortable going offense verse offense," said Nickal about having Hall's number. "I feel very comfortable working up top (upper-body ties), and that I can beat anyone that I face in any position." About bouncing back from the early 3-2 deficit, a sequence that probably should have been scored as either 3-3 or a 5-3 Nickal lead, "I just kept focused mentally, and felt that I would out-perform him over the six minutes." The bounce back was not immediate, as Hall scored the next takedown to make it 5-2, but then Nickal answered with a takedown of his own to trail 5-4 at the intermission. Then after the intermission, Nickal scored a takedown to gain the lead, and made it 8-5 with a trap-arm gut-wrench right off that. Hall did get a push-out very late in the match for the final margin. Last in this string of matches was a battle of returning Fargo doublers at 100 kilos (220.25 pounds) between Lance Benick of Minnesota and Roy Nash of Utah, Benick also winning Cadet folkstyle last year to earn a triple corwn. On Friday afternoon, Nash earned the finals victory over Benick in Greco-Roman. However, late on Sunday morning, Benick - also ranked No. 6 overall in the Class of 2015 - earned the 16-15 victory in a high-scoring shootout on a takedown with two seconds remaining in the bout. The match went back-and-forth with Benick dominating situations in which he could finish leg attacks, while Nash scored via upper-body-based attacks and the occasional counter. The first period ended in a 7-7 tie. Then with less than a minute to go it was tied at 14-all, Benick having the edge due to scoring the match's only three-point move in the first period via a takedown finished on a gut-wrench. However, Nash scored a pushout to go ahead 15-14 to set up the end of match heroics. "Winning at the buzzer (like I did) feels great," said Benick. "However, I wasn't in shape for the new format (two three-minute periods), and think I could have won by more if in better condition." Rounding out the FILA Cadet World Team members are Austin Gomez of Illinois, champion at 42 kilos (92.5 pounds), and Angus Arthur of Michigan, champion at 85 kilos (187.25 pounds). Gomez scored a 9-7 victory over Brent Jones of Minnesota, the second time Jones lost in the championship match this weekend. He scored the opening takedown, but then trailed 6-2 midway through the first period. That deficit was cut to 7-5 by the intermission. During the second stanza, Gomez tied the match -- going ahead on criteria - as he caught Jones in a scramble for two points. However, that was rendered moot when he scored on a throw, winning the sequence by securing a half-nelson. "I've been waiting for my Cadet year, and the opportunity to make this world team," the freshman-to-be at Glenbard North commented after the match. "I just didn't give up, and listened to my coaches." Arthur joined Chavez in winning both the Greco-Roman and freestyle tournaments this weekend. The nation's No. 47 ranked Class of 2015 wrestler upended Robert Steveson of Minnesota, who is ranked No. 20 in that grade, with a 12-2 technical fall victory at the 3:46 mark. Steveson did earn the match's opening takedown. However, Arthur responded with a takedown ran right into a pair of two-point exposures to make it 6-2 after one. In the second period, Arthur scored four more via a takedown followed by a gut-wrench turn, and finished the deal with a pair of push-outs. "It feels good, and shows that my training has paid off," said Arthur about winning double titles this weekend. "I'm not sure which style I'm going to do (at FILA Cadet Worlds in Serbia) but I know that I can only do one." Rounding out Sunday's titlists was Adam Lemke-Bell of Illinois, who won at 125 kilos (275.5 pounds), a weight class that is not conducted at the FILA Cadet Worlds, with a fall over Nick Nader of Ohio at the 2:03 mark. Of interest here is the fact Lemke-Bell is only a second year wrestler, having picked up the sport during his freshman year of high school at Oak Park-River Forest. "I give all the credit in the world to the OPRF program," said Lemke-Bell. "There is no better coaching staff out there, and I'm incredibly lucky to be in this position to accelerate so quickly." He is also a second-year Cadet in USA Wrestling, and indicated he is looking forward to Fargo this summer, and hopes to make a run at double titles. Finals Results: 42 kilos (92.5 pounds): Austin Gomez (Illinois) dec. Brent Jones (Minnesota), 9-7 46 (101.25): Devin Brown (Pennsylvania) tech. fall Ian Parker (Michigan), 13-3 50 (110.25): Spencer Lee (Pennsylvania) tech. fall Daton Fix (Oklahoma), 13-2 1:19 54 (119): Stevan Micic (Indiana) tech. fall Kaid Brock (Oklahoma). 10-0, 2:30 58 (127.75): Sean Fausz (Kentucky) tech. fall Nick Lee (Indiana), 11-1, 1:47 63 (138.75): Aaron Pico (California) tech. fall Tyler Berger (Oregon), 10-0 2:16 69 (152): Jon-Jay Chavez (Idaho) dec. Nick Reenan (Texas), 7-4 76 (167.5): Bo Nickal (Texas) dec. Mark Hall (Minnesota), 8-6 85 (187.25): Angus Arthur (Michigan) tech. fall Robert Steveson (Minnesota), 12-2 3:46 100 (220.25): Lance Benick (Minnesota) dec. Roy Nash (Utah), 16-15 125 (275.5): Adam Lemke-Bell (Illinois) pinned Nick Nader (Ohio), 2:03 True-Second Match Results: 42 kilos: Kaden Gfeller (Oklahoma) tech. fall Jones, 14-4 46: Matthew Schmitt (Missouri) tech. fall Parker, 11-0 50: Fix tech. fall Jack Mueller (Texas), 10-0 58: N. Lee tech. fall Will Crisco (Pennsylvania), 11-0 63: Logan Massa dec. Berger, 14-11 85: Steveson tech. fall Andrew Marsden (Illinois), 20-8 100: Connor Tolley (Indiana) dec. Nash, 14-6

InterMat senior writer T.R. Foley answers reader questions about NCAA wrestling, international wrestling, recruiting, or anything loosely related to wrestling. You have until Thursday night every week to send questions to Foley's Twitter or email account. Do you want to read a past mailbag? Access archives. The United 4 Wrestling event in LA attracted 3,500 fans (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Wrestling has never looked better. From the wild success of Rumble on the Rails, to the last-minute heroics that defined the salvation and execution of United 4 Wrestling ever, the cause to save Olympic wrestling had a stellar week in terms of dollars raise, media attention, and showmanship aimed at impressing the IOC. The success of the event wasn't just a much-needed media boost here at home, but a well-timed international publicity coup that corresponded with FILA's Extraordinary Congress. Not only was the media forced to write 1,000-word missives on the innate diplomatic successes of the sport, but also the gains made by a governing body eager to make sweeping changes. There is a long way to go, but if the response of the IOC's Jaques Rogge is an indication, the Congress and President Lalovic did more than enough to impress the executive committee. More needs to be done to spotlight the positive effect wrestling has on women and ethnic minorities in developing countries. If wrestling makes the journey to Buenos Aires we will need to see programs developed to not just profile these individuals, nations and causes, but to make sure they are financially supported. In fact, FILA already operates a Colorado Springs-like facility in Dakar, Senegal that draws in the top six wrestlers from Sub-Sahara Africa to train under the tutelage of a World champion coach -- many of whom are women. FILA, under roi fainéant Raphael Martinetti, did little to sponsor this type of outreach. Under Lalovic that will change, as their PR efforts will be improved and their commitment to the global reach of wrestling expanded and promoted. The wrestling community shouldn't become complacent. We are still weak in many areas and have to do much, much more to adapt our sports to modern times. We need to fix our uniforms in America and abroad, we need to further increase the number of women involved in the sport, and we need better coverage for international events. Oh, and one of you enterprising young readers needs to reach out with the idea of a takedown-only wrestling league. Send me the basics and I'll help you mold that sucker into an attention-grabbing style that would be internationally successful and the next discipline of the soon-to-be-rescued sport of Olympic wrestling. To your questions ... Q: Do you think it would have made sense to invite several members of the Mexican wrestling team to participate in the Beat the Streets event held in LA last week? I know the Mexican team isn't very good, and two of their last three Olympians were born and raised in the U.S., but Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic in the United States, and LA County is 48% Hispanic. If USA Wrestling wants to "beat the streets" in the southwest part of the country they might want some help putting a familiar looking face on the product they are selling. -- Dan K. Foley: The Mexican team is a little weak, but there were serious efforts put towards making contact with members of their national team. In the end, time became the primary consideration and the event couldn't afford another no-show. I've been told that next year's event will capitalize on the local demographics. I should also mention that there were plenty of interesting ideas being offered up by interested parties. Without consulting them, I suggested flying in Turtogtokh and Ugi from Mongolia. Ended up that there was little to no chance they would have made it in time. It's a shame, but understandable since my flight from Ulaanbaatar last week was delayed for 36 hours. Can't overstate how impressive it was that CPOW, Beat the Streets-LA and USA Wrestling were able to salvage the event. Very cool stuff. Q: Do you think Logan Stieber has the tools and skills to be the next four-time NCAA champ? -- Gregg Y. Foley: YES! Stieber beat Opan Sat of Russia, the world's No. 1 wrestler at the Rumble on the Rails. On the college mats he seems unchallenged and has the type of focus and certainty of skill that convinces me he can win two more titles without dropping a match. Q: So Jordan Burroughs is 54-0 on the senior level. I believe this is the best starting record of any U.S. wrestler's international career. Has anyone else started out going undefeated for this long? Does anyone else have a comparable streak? John Smith? -- Danny C. Foley: No comparable streak comes to mind outside of the longer runs by both Alexander Karelin and Saori Yoshida. Karelin's number hasn't been accurately recorded, though it was 13 years long, and could be estimated at well north of 200 straight victories. Saori YoshidaRegarding Yoshida, according to Wikipedia, "Until January 20, 2008, Yoshida had never lost an international match at the senior level and held a streak of 119 consecutive victories (until) American Marcie Van Dusen defeated her, 2-0 during the Team World Cup series in Beijing, China." She also went on to have another 58-match winning streak, which was then broken, but didn't preclude her from winning her third Olympic gold medal in 2012. Burroughs is the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world today. His streak is the longest in the sport and he seems untouchable under the new rules, but it's important to remember that he will, at some point, lose a match. It might be a bad call. It might be to a teammate that has spent years training with him. Hell, it might even come due to injury, but streaks are meant to end and like Karelin's and Yoshida's it won't be only sad -- it'll be a moment for reflection and a celebration of greatness. Multimedia Halftime No kidding, you have to check out FILA on Facebook. I've been helping them build their presence, and there are plenty of awesome photos and videos on their page. Like 'em and be sure to engage with the product. This WILL directly help our cause for reinstatement. Few examples of articles and photo essays I've done for FILA over the past month. Share them! Mongolian Open African Traditional Wrestling Profile of FILA President Nenad Lalovic Somebody got the message that Wrestling is Everywhere, (WrestlingEverywhere.com) and maybe lifted some footage from WrestlingRoots.org. Cool video. Q: I really like your ideas about making the sport of wrestling more understandable. With that in mind, has anyone thought about lining up our weight classes with MMA (lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, etc.)? -- Dave in Norfolk Foley: FILA, at the behest of the IOC, has decided to eliminate their support of grappling and amateur MMA after the 2013 championships. That separation means they need to grow a distance between themselves and these disciplines. Support for MMA and grappling has ALWAYS been an issue between FILA and the IOC. Always. From French wrestling historian Guy Jaouen: The inaugural international Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896 included a small wrestling meet, commonly and incorrectly referred to in history books as Greco Roman style -- which is absolutely wrong. The style of wrestling at these Games was actually arranged in a dirt pit at one end of the Panathenaic Stadium under local Greek rules, called Palema, which had effectively been trialled at the predecessor events of the IOC Olympics, or the Zappas Olympic Games. Not surprisingly, leg takedowns were permitted in these competitions. The Zappas Olympics were held in Athens in 1859, 1870 and 1875 and there is even a thorough sporting record kept of champions at these events. The next IOC Olympics were held in Paris in 1900 as part of the Exposition Universelle and were such a debacle that they did not even include a wrestling meet. Apparently no amateur wrestlers could be found because one of the highlights of the Exposition was the Professional Greco Roman World Championship, which was being held at the same time. The 1904 Olympic Games were then moved across the Atlantic to the USA city of St. Louis as part of the World's Fair and just as in Athens the wrestling was conducted under the rules of the most popular local style, Catch as Catch Can wrestling. The European's were offended because nearly all the wrestling medals were won by Americans. The following year the "Deutsche Athleten-Verband" was formed in Duisburg, in true German fashion they took command of all amateur Greco-Roman wrestling and weightlifting competitions in continental Europe. The DAV conducted an amateur Greco Roman World Championships from 1904 till 1913 but after WW1 the IAWF (now FILA) took over the event. The 1906 Intercalated Olympics returned to Athens and despite protests against it, the wrestling was once again held under the now extinct Greek Palema rules (freestlye). At the 1908 London Olympics an attempt was made to run concurrent competitions in both Greco Roman and Catch as Catch Can at the White City Stadium but this didn't stop the growing sense of rivalry between the popular styles. By the time of the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, only Greco-Roman wrestling competitions were permitted to be held and in a further sub to the organizers of Catch as Catch Can, demonstrations of the Icelandic folk wrestling style called Glima were also conducted. The following year there were plans to create an international body just for wrestling but this was put on hold as it had instead morphed into the "Internationaler Verband fur Schwerathletik" that included not just Greco-Roman wrestling but also Weight Lifting, Boxing and Tug of War, once again with the exclusion of the Anglophone Catch as Catch Can style. The Great War prevented an Olympics in 1916 and stifled any further developments but at the first post war 1920 Antwerp Games & IOC Conference it was decided that each sport should have its own international body and that the International Amateur Wrestling Federation (FILA) should conduct tournaments in the two popular international styles, Greco Roman and Catch as Catch Can, the latter having its rules modified and name changed to Freestyle to apparently make it more appealing as a global sport, or at least not offend the Europeans anymore. All of the submission finishes that gave Catch as Catch Can its unique character were forbidden and the 3-second supine pinfall was replaced by a supine touch fall the same as in Greco Roman. Outside of the control of FILA in the USA, Catch as Catch Can wrestling further evolved into two separate offshoots, the performance art called professional wrestling and the competitive scholastic sport of collegiate folkstyle wrestling.Q: Where is the line? FILA may recommend going to six weights to appease the IOC. Let's remember there used to be 10. Is there a point when being in the Olympics is a loss? -- Matt C. Foley: We have to accommodate for women's wrestling. Don't like it? Too bad. Equality is necessary, and if we improve our product, specifically the dreadfully boring Greco-Roman style, then we can have more medals. Q: Cael Sanderson after winning four NCAA championships went on to win an Olympic gold medal and now is a successful coach. Do you think Kyle Dake will have such a career after winning four NCAA titles? Why or why not? -- Gregg Y. Foley: I find it difficult enough to predict winners and losers on a weekly basis, much less the possible future coaching talents of current wrestlers. My instinct is that he'll stay committed to wrestling through 2016 and become a coach after he meets his on-the-mat needs. After that, he'd certainly be a great addition to any staff, and possibly, one day, a head wrestling coach. Rant of the Week! Q: Hey, you need to start calling out wrestlers/wrestling styles too. Why on earth is Kyle Dake being promoted as some savior? His style is so BORING!! Last week in NYC just showed what he did his entire college career. Attempt no shots and go to overtime. Yawn! I'm done promoting wrestling if that is what is considered wrestling. -- Steve M. Keep this family in your thoughts: Jonathan Kaloust, a Navy Seal and former wrestler at Binghamton died last week during a training exercise in Fort Knox, Ky. He was 23.

The FILA Cadet and University Nationals will be held this coming weekend on the campus of the University of Akron. Greco-Roman competition will be held on Friday, with freestyle competition slated for Saturday and Sunday. Wrestling will start at 9 a.m. ET on each day. Championship matches for Greco-Roman will be held as part of the second session on Friday, which starts at 3 p.m., while freestyle finals will be held during the Sunday morning session. Here are five things to watch across the events. 1. Cadet star gazing If the initial grade level rankings for the 2013-14 season were to be published today, four of the five number one ranked wrestlers would be slated to compete in the FILA Cadet freestyle competition to be held on Saturday and Sunday. The following is a breakdown of each of their respective weight class fields. California native Cade Olivas is projected to be the nation's top junior high wrestler for the 2013-14 season. He is registered at 46 kilo (92.5 pounds) for this weekend's event. His resume could already be an article in and of itself: two Super 32 Challenge middle school titles, multiple Ohio TofC titles, multiple Roller World of Wrestling triple crowns, the 2013 Cadet National folkstyle title, et al. Others in his weight bracket include 2013 Tulsa Nationals champion Austin Gomez (Illinois); Kade Gfeller (Oklahoma), 2012-13 runner-up at Tulsa KOC and Tulsa Nationals to Olivas and Gomez respectively; as well as 2011-12 Tulsa KOC and Tulsa Nationals champion Louie Hayes (Illinois). Spencer Lee (Pennsylvania) is currently the nation's top junior high wrestler, and is projected to be the top Class of 2017 wrestler come next month. This weekend he is registered in the 50 kilo (110.25 pounds) weight bracket. During the 2012-13 season, Lee finished runner-up at both the Super 32 Challenge and FloNationals, and won a fourth consecutive PJW championship. Primary challengers for Lee include Kyle Norstrem (Florida), who is ranked No. 16 in the Class of 2016 and is the defending Cadet National and FILA Cadet National champion in Greco-Roman; defending Junior National freestyle champion Tanner Rohweder (Iowa); National Prep champion Jack Mueller (Texas), runner-up at the Preseason Nationals; Cadet freestyle third-place finisher Nolan Hellickson (Iowa); returning FILA Cadet freestyle runner-up Chris Cuccolo (New York); and returning FILA Cadet freestyle third-place finisher Doyle Trout (Nebraska). Zahid Valencia (California) is the nation's top-ranked Class of 2015 wrestler, and has already won a pair of USA Wrestling titles while in high school; a Cadet National freestyle title last summer, and a Junior National folkstyle title this spring. This weekend, he headlines a solid field of wrestlers at 58 kilos (127.75 pounds). Primary challengers include two of the nation's top 50 seniors-to-be (Class of 2014): No. 36 Cole Weaver (Michigan) and No. 48 Coy Ozias (Virginia). Four other notable Class of 2014 wrestlers in this field include three-time state finalist, and 2012 state champion, Isaiah Locsin (California); Sean Fausz (Kentucky), who was third in this event last year; Mark Voss (Minnesota), who was fourth in this event last year; and Jacob Rubio (Texas), who finished fourth in both styles at the Cadet Nationals last summer in Fargo. Others to watch include Julian Flores (California), who is ranked No. 18 in the Class of 2016, and Nick Lee (Indiana), who is ranked No. 5 among junior high wrestlers. Lastly Aaron Pico (California) is the nation's top Class of 2016 wrestlers, and among the best overall high school aged wrestlers. Pico has already won a pair of Cadet National double titles, and this spring added a Junior National folkstyle title and a FILA Junior National double championship. Though one might call Pico a strong favorite, it isn't for a lack of competition with six other grade level ranked wrestlers in the field: Logan Massa (Michigan), ranked No. 8 in the Class of 2015; Ronnie Gentile (New Jersey), No. 12 in the Class of 2015; Joseph Smith (Oklahoma), ranked No. 16 in the Class of 2015; Fredy Stroker (Iowa), ranked No. 17 in the Class of 2015; Tyler Berger (Oregon), ranked No. 38 in the Class of 2014; and Larry Early (Illinois), ranked No. 40 in the Class of 2015. In addition, the list of registrants includes two-time Cadet freestyle champion Seth Gross (Minnesota), who also won a FILA Cadet national title last year; FILA Cadet runner-up Anthony Giraldo (New Jersey); as well as a pair of excellent Michigan natives in Nick Bennett and Justin Oliver. 2. New rules will be in effect Last week, FILA held an Extraordinary Congress in Moscow, Russia as a result of the IOC's decision to remove wrestling from the Olympic Games -- at least tentatively -- effective in 2020. Part of FILA's reaction, in an attempt to keep wrestling in the games, was a revamp of the rules. These new rules go into effect immediately in FILA events, and therefore will be utilized this weekend. Please note that USA Wrestling has yet to decide if these new rules will be adopted during 2013 for domestic competition at the Cadet/Junior levels and below. Much has been stated about the new rules. However, some of the key concepts in freestyle competition are the following: Matches consist of two three-minute periods (as opposed to the old best-of-three format with two minute periods). Matches will have cumulative scoring; end of match ties will be settled by the same criteria that used to decide periods. Passivity has been brought back into play with a warning system, and the eventual placement of the passive wrestler on a "shot clock," where they have 30 seconds to score or else the other wrestler gets a "caution-and-one." If the first period is scoreless, the officials will determine the wrestler whom is more passive, and place them on the "shot clock." The technicall fall, which will end the match, comes at a ten-point advantage (instead of a six-point advantage, a five-point move, or two three-point moves ending a period). Takedowns are to be worth two points (instead of one point) with additional revisions to the scoring structure for higher amplitude moves. While it is my opinion that the wrestlers (and coaches) will -- more or less -- effectively adapt to the new rules, it will still be interesting to see how things play out. Things to watch include potential changes in match techniques and tactics, as well as the flow of the matches. I am also interested to see how effectively the new rules are conveyed to the officials, and how effectively the officials are able to navigate the changes. Fan and spectator perception will also be interesting to track, though I think greater sample size than a couple of events will be needed to determine that. 3. Deep Cadet weight groups At present, 39 wrestlers in the FILA Cadet Nationals freestyle competition are nationally ranked for their grade level. The breakdown by weight classes is as follows: 42 kilos (92.5 pounds): 1 46 (101.25): 1 50 (110.25): 2 54 (119): 4 58 (127.75): 5 63 (138.75): 7 69 (152): 5 76 (167.5): 8 85 (187.25): 3 100 (220.5): 3 125 (275.5): 0 All weight classes but 125 kilos (275.5 pounds) qualify their champion to the FILA Cadet World Championships to be held later this summer. Of particular interest to me is the field at 76 kilos (167.5 pounds). Based on registration, the joint favorites would have to be Mark Hall (Minnesota) and Bo Nickal (Texas), each of whom won Cadet National freestyle titles last summer in Fargo. While one could say Hall has a greater resume, and success against the field at large, Nickal has demonstrated an ability to beat Hall -- pair of victories last year in folkstyle (Cadet Folkstyle Nationals) and freestyle (FILA Cadet Nationals). Three other wrestlers in this field were runner-ups last summer in freestyle at the Cadet Nationals: Myles Martin (New Jersey), Kimball Bastian (Utah), and Chandler Rogers (Washington); Martin lost in the final to Hall, Bastian to Nickal in a battle of Greco-Roman national champions, and Rogers fell to Christensen whom he beat in the Greco-Roman final. Additional nationally ranked wrestlers in the field at 76 kilos include Beau Breske (Wisconsin), second at the Cadet Folkstyle Nationals this spring; Chris Weiler (Pennsylvania) and Xavier Montalvo (Illinois), Cadet National double All-Americans last summer; as well as Jelani Embree (Michigan). 4. Filthy good University Nationals talent Just take a check of the registration list for the University Nationals freestyle competition to be held on Saturday and Sunday. There are national champions and All-Americans through virtually every weight class, in addition the normal crop of younger wrestlers seeking the chance to compete and develop heading into a succeeding season where they'll be seeking spots in lineups and on the NCAA podium. Winners in the University Nationals qualify for competition in the World University Games this summer, and top two finishers qualify for the World Team Trials to be held in late June in Stillwater, Oklahoma. At the 55-kilo (121 pounds) weight class, one can look forward to a possible Nico Megaludis vs. Zach Sanders showdown. In two years of collegiate wrestling, without taking a redshirt, Megaludis has finished as national runner-up in both seasons; while Sanders capped off four All-American honors with a third-place finish in 2012. In fact, it was Megaludis who sent Sanders to the consolation bracket in 2012, his 7-4 quarterfinal victory was at the time viewed as an upset (the seventh seed beating the second seed). Also here will be defending champion Evan Silver. Defending University Nationals champion and NCAA runner-up Jason Chamberlain headlines a field at 66 kilos (145.5 pounds) that features five other past and present All-Americans: Evan Henderson, James Green, Kevin LeValley, Nick Dardanes, and Mike Nevinger. Also in this weight class is the very talented Josh Kindig, who has made significant noise in age group freestyle competition over the course of his career. The friendly rivalry between Kyle Dake and David Taylor has the chance to list another chapter this coming weekend in the 74-kilo (163-pound) competition at the University Nationals. Dake beat Taylor 5-4 in the NCAA final just over two months ago to cement arguably the greatest college career in history; four titles, four years, four weight classes, all without a redshirt. Taylor's collegiate resume is not too shabby either -- three NCAA finals appearances, including a title in 2012 to cement a season in which he won the Hodge Trophy. The two wrestled at the Olympic Trials last year, a match that Dake also won. (Editor's note: It's now being rumored that Dake will not be competing this weekend despite being registered.) To be forgotten in this weight class -- though he really shouldn't be -- is fellow NCAA champion Derek St. John, who won the 157-pound weight class this past year, and has the chance to repeat as national champion next year; St. John was fourth and second (to Dake) in his two prior collegiate seasons. Also present here is Ian Miller, who won the University Nationals at 70 kilos (154 pounds) last year. The next weight class, 79 kilos (174 pounds), features three excellent wrestlers in Andrew Howe, Logan Storley, and Matt Brown. Howe has a trio of top three finishes at the NCAA tournament, including his title in 2010, was runner-up to Burroughs in the 2012 Olympic Trials, and was also a University Nationals champion in 2011. Storley has earned a pair of NCAA All-American honors (sixth and fourth) in his two years of collegiate competition after graduating high school in 2011; while Brown was runner-up at the NCAA tournament this past year in the 174 pound weight class, including a 3-2 semifinal victory over Storley. Ed Ruth, arguably the nation's most talented collegiate wrestler, anchors the field at 84 kilos (185 pounds). He has dominated his way to national titles each of the last two years after finishing third as a freshman. Primary challenger in this weight class is Cayle Byers, who was third at 197 pounds in the 2012 NCAA tournament. Dustin Kilgore is the lead figure at 96 kilos (211.5 pounds), and seeks a repeat University Nationals title. He also was a two-time NCAA finalist at 197 pounds (champion in 2011, runner-up in 2013), finished third in both the 2011 University Nationals and World Team Trials, and finished fourth at the Olympic Trials in 2012. Additionally in this weight class is Taylor Meeks, who finished fourth at the NCAA tournament this year after losing 8-6 to Kilgore in the national semifinals. Lastly the competition at 120 kilos (264.5 pounds) is loaded with collegiate champions from three different divisions: Tony Nelson (Division I), who is also the defending University Nationals champion; Tyrell Fortune (Division II); and Eric Thompson (NAIA). Also present here are a trio of past Division I All-Americans: Nick Gwiazdowski, Spencer Myers, and Jeremy Johnson. Projected favorites in the other two weight classes would be Tyler Graff, a three-time NCAA All-American coming off third-place finishes at the NCAA tournament and U.S. Open, and two-time NCAA fifth-place finisher Tyler Nauman; Graff is registered at 60 kilos (132), while Nauman is entered at 70 (154). 5. Picking FILA Cadet freestyle champions Based on registered participants, the following wrestlers are my picks to win their weight classes … 42 kilo (92.5 pounds): Cade Olivas from California 46 (101.25): Daton Fix from Oklahoma 50 (110.25): Spencer Lee from Pennsylvania 54 (119): Stevan Micic from Indiana 58 (127.75): Zahid Valencia from California 63 (138.75): Aaron Pico from California 69 (152): Mason Manville from New Jersey 76 (167.5): Mark Hall from Minnesota 85 (187.25): Robert Steveson from Minnesota 100 (220.5): Lance Benick from Minnesota 125 (275.5): Gavin Jolley-Little from Indiana Note: Information related to entrants is based on registered wrestlers as of 9 p.m. CT on Tuesday. Josh Lowe will be providing coverage of the FILA Cadet and University freestyle Nationals on Saturday and Sunday with primary focus on the Cadet (high school aged) competition. A recap story will be posted on InterMat about the Cadet tournament, while periodic live updates will be provided through the weekend via twitter (http://www.twitter.com/JoshMLowe).

It's not often you get a UFC pay-per-view card with a fairly lopsided main event that offers a pretty strong card. But UFC 160 does just that, even though there isn't a ton of doubt that heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez will pulverize Antonio Silva's face for the second time in 12 months. Richard and John break down the main card and then discuss other news of the day. Vitor Belfort may have earned the knockout of the year, but his use of testosterone replacement therapy was an equally prominent storyline. Also, it's time for the debut of "Who's the dumber MMA agent?" Do you want to listen to a past episode? Access archives.

Despite there being plenty of rumors about who is applying for which job and why, these lists are difficult to verify. Some coaches will miss out on one position and apply to another, while some will pull their names from contention for personal reasons, or because their current bosses were able to raise their salaries. These are probably not the only coaches in contention for a job, but they are some of the most often mentioned, and well-qualified candidates. Bloomsburg John Hughes: A 1995 NCAA champion or Penn State, Hughes has been on the coaching circuit since 2000 when he took a position with the Pittsburgh Wrestling Club. Since then he's put in a lengthy tenure as the head of the Nittany Lion Wrestling club, as an assistant to Troy Sunderland at Penn State, and just finished his third full season in Lehigh where he's helped head coach Pat Santoro rebuild the Mountain Hawks' winning tradition. Were Hughes to be hired he'd only be 20 minutes from his home in Stillwater, Pa. Brad Dillon: Pat Santoro's most trusted advisor, Brad Dillon has coached with the highly successful head coach for nine years, including four years at Maryland and five at Lehigh. A widely respected coach at 30, Dillon is among the youngest of the coaches to be placing his name in contention for top jobs. Dillon is from Allentown, Pa. Todd Beckerman: A two-time All-American at Nebraska, Todd Beckerman has been with the Maryland Terrapins program for nine seasons. Originally hired away from a two-year coaching stint by then-head coach Pat Santoro, Beckerman remained on staff when Kerry McCoy took over five seasons ago. Not only has Beckerman played a part in creating several All-Americans for the Terrapins, but he's also one of the most active and well-known advocates for social media within wrestling. Josh Moore: Popular and charismatic, Josh Moore is a 2004 NCAA finalist from Penn State. Since graduating Moore has spent the last nine seasons as an assistant coach at Kent State. Moore's arrival sparked that program's turnaround, which has included several All-Americans and the programs first NCAA champion since 1983, Dustin Kilgore. Moore, who is from Western, Pa., had been rumored to be looking at head coaching positions in the past, but has taken few interviews, due to his stated loyalty to the Golden Flashes. What they need: Bloomsburg is replacing an incredible mat coach in John Stutzman. His guys worked hard, stayed (mostly) out of trouble and were able to churn out All-American performances. With that as a base, the program could use an infusion of energy, like Moore's, that might help capture more Pennsylvania recruits, or the confident and well-structured leadership of Hughes and Dillon. Beckerman would bring the program into more national notoriety through his outreach. Whoever they choose, Bloomsburg needs to keep their momentum going forward, and none of these applicants pose much of a risk to the programs stability, though it'll be important to the administration to see which of these candidates provides the clearest, and most economically solvent, plan for the future. Brown Todd Beckerman: See above. Brad Dillon: See above. Jeff Buxton: Arguably the best high school coach of the last fifty years, Jeff Buxton is hoping to parlay his success at Blair into a college coaching career in Providence. A native of Rhode Island, Buxton's six national titles in 30 years at Blair stands as some testament to his overall coaching ability, to say nothing of the dozens of future NCAA champions who wrestled for him at Blair. Jared Frayer: The 2012 Olympian and two-time NCAA All-American for Oklahoma has been on the assistant coaching circuit since 2003. He's put in stints at Harvard, Iowa, Wisconsin and currently Oklahoma. Well-liked by his wrestlers and with a string of successful weight class coaching successes, Frayer is one of the most accomplished wrestlers looking for a head coaching position this spring. John Clark: A two-time All-American for Ohio State, John Clark has been an assistant coach at Brown for the past five seasons. An intelligent guy and capable recruiter, Clark was on staff when the Brown program was close to being dropped in 2011. The campaign to keep it alive was successful. What they need: The Brown program has struggled for many years. There have been few wins, and even less excitement. That tradition doesn't bode well for the incumbent coaching staff, as many athletic directors look for change in these situations. Beckerman's forward thinking and Frayer's status within the community are both awesome, but it's difficult not to be intrigued by the idea of Buxton as head coach. Kevin Dresser (Christiansburg, VA Tech) is an example of how a high school coach can make an immediate impact on a major Division I program. Brown needs a major, substantive spark. Unlike other programs they need to win and win quickly, a thought that will likely guide their hiring process. Lock Haven Technically opens in two weeks Scott Moore: The two-time All-American spent seven seasons as the head assistant coach at Virginia, before taking the assistant coaching position at Lock Haven in 2011. Like his brother, Josh, Scott is well-liked and has name identification in Pennsylvania. He's currently the acting head coach of the program and is from Western Pennsylvania. Dennis Papadatos: Currently an assistant coach under C.D. Mock at North Carolina, Papadatos earned his reputation as an assistant coach at Binghamton under Pat Popolizio for five seasons where he helped coach 16 NCAA qualifiers and two All-Americans. What they need: After the sudden dismissal of Robbie Waller, the Lock Haven fans are looking for a stable leader who can build some excitement around results. Though not well supported by the university the program has massive resources in the area and deep pocketed donors who with winning could be compelled to contribute. Papadatos was part of Binghamton's transformation and has seen what it takes to build a winning program. Moore, who saw the same thing under Garland at Virginia, might look to diversify his application by bringing on a head assistant coach with the same last name. If that happens, then there is little question that they would bring a momentum to the school that would otherwise be impossible to replicate. Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Alex Clemsen: The head assistant wrestling coach at Virginia, Alex Clemsen has been an assistant coach since graduating Edinboro in 2007 splitting time between Oregon State (two seasons) and Virginia (four seasons). The Missouri native was an All-American for Edinboro, and has been pivotal in the development of UVa's upperweights, including the program's first-ever three-time All-American, Chris Henrich. Tony Ersland: An assistant coach for the past 13 seasons, Ersland is the most experienced candidate for any of the open positions. Currently the assistant coach at Nebraska under Mark Manning, Ersland has been the upperweights coach for some of Nebraska's biggest success stories. Matt Lackey: A 2003 NCAA champion for the University of Illinois, Lackey has spent the last three seasons as the assistant coach at Buffalo, but was let go when head coach Jim Beichner was fired. Prior to joining the Buffalo staff, Lackey spent two years as an assistant at Lock Haven. Jeremy Spates: Cornell assistant Jeremy Spates has been assistant coach for nine seasons, with his first five being accumulated at Oklahoma. The 2004 All-American for Missouri, Spates is from coaching royalty, as his father Jack Spates was the head wrestling coach at Oklahoma form more than twenty seasons. In addition to the consul of his father, Spates has the advantage of participating in the inner machinations of the Cornell program, arguably the best run of any Division I wrestling program. What they need: The newest of Division I programs, SIUE needs a coach who knows how to implement the structure of a winning program. It's vital to the school, and to wrestling as a whole that the candidate chosen doesn't just focus on mat success, but also in what it takes to create fundraising and fan support. Spates' pedigree is going to be difficult for other candidates to outclass, but Clemsen has experience in a similar situation and Ersland has a mountain of understanding on how to run a big time college program.