Voice of the Quakers

I'm assuming this is the Alexander Leipold we all remember. Not holding his past sins against him, but I've always found elite wrestlers entering Veterans Worlds a bit of a mixed bag. They have every right to enter, and glad that Leipold is in great shape (78KG???) given his past medical issues. But, physical mismatches among Age 50+ competitors can be dangerous. I'll put it another way - Dan Chaid was one of my coaches in college and in "retirement" we are about the same size. He entered Veterans Worlds several years back. I would withdraw/forfeit if he was in my bracket. That dude would f--k me up. https://www.themat.com/news/2025/october/07/horton-earns-freestyle-silver-u-s-adds-five-bronzes-on-first-day-of-veteran-world-championships?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

So good defensively Baseball Reference has Concepcion at a career 33.8 WAR despite a .679 OPS. Still, he's at least 10-20 WAR below serious HOF consideration. (Ozzie Smith has a career 44.2 WAR.)

He takes the cash, he gets the hate. Times have changed. Don’t make college wrestling a professional sport and then not expect criticism.

With his track record, I wouldn’t be surprised if he never makes it to Blacksburg at all

Best part of these two films... Bas Rutten is featured as one of Mark's trainers in the documentary. 20+ years later, the role of Bas Rutten in the scripted film is played by...Bas Rutten. It looks like he hasn't aged a day.

Like Lesnar before him (NFL, UFC), Steveson's first priority seems to be chasing what he thinks is easy money. Whatever path he eventually chooses, he's going to have to work harder than he seems to be right now.

Longtime posters here know there is only one correct answer:

You can remain in school for that "redshirt" year so long as you have a bona fide injury and are enrolled in a 5-year undergraduate program. At Penn, that is typically a dual degree program from the business (Wharton) and engineering schools. Not sure what the 5-year undergraduate programs are at the other Ivys.

The amount of coffee one must drink to pop an NCAA caffeine test is insane. Pills are the most likely culprit, because if you shot-gunned 6-8 cups of coffee just before a race you would probably be going to the toilet and not the starting block. Did anyone on Drury notice their teammate talking like Boomhauer from King of the Hill during the meet or was this standard procedure for this kid?

I'm not sure what to make of the criticism of the team from Gaines, Lochte and Phelps. Clearly, there are leadership issues at USA Swimming - regardless of who is the acting CEO, who thought it was a good idea to book the training camp in a country known for contaminated food, communicable illness and general disorder? - but they also questioned members' training habits and sense of entitlement in a way that I'm not sure is fair. The reality is, for probably the first time in my lifetime, the best male and female swimmers in the world are not from the US. Plus, men's swimming is much more competitive than it ever has been. (Women's swimming remains, for the most part, a US-Australia dual meet.) And, the US swimming community seemed to understand in their heads but not their hearts at the Olympics and going in to this year's Worlds that the men's team is between generations. Ultimately, I'm very optimistic for the men's team at the next worlds and the LA games. (The resulys from the World University Games were outstanding.) The women's team will keep on keeping on as long as Walsh, Douglass, Ledecky, Smith, et al keep swimming and so long that China doesn't find any more 12 year old superheroes.

I don't know about the rest of the MAC schools, but it's hard to see the PSAC schools - which, of course, compete in D2 in all sports except wrestling - ever opting in to revenue sharing with their athletes, especially given their financial situations. All of Bloomsburg's roster spots should be safe - BU needs those tuition dollars to keep flowing. Long term, don't be surprised if schools that don't opt in market themselves as "no cut". They won't compete with PSU, Iowa, etc., but more kids wrestling at more schools is, in my opinion, a good thing.

Remember this take when we cheer for the inclusion of beach wrestling next to freestyle AND Greco-Roman wrestling at a future Olympics. That being said, as the father of a (maybe former) competitive swimmer, you can have breaststroke. My son and I joke its "anti-swimming" - swim slowly as fast as you can. My son is a sprinter and could never muster any enthusiasm for it it.

Chuck Mangione? The world of yacht rock mourns. https://variety.com/2025/music/obituaries-people-news/chuck-mangione-dead-feels-so-good-jazz-horn-player-1236469147/

LeBlanc grew up about an hour from Binghamton. He's done a fantastic job at The Citadel. If he wants this job, I hope he gets it.

BTW, you can see the windows in this picture. Wrestling room should run along/above the scoreboard.

"What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.” ― Billy Madison (movie)

Let the arms race continue. Pleased to see the hype video includes yours truly in a couple team photos. https://pennathletics.com/news/2025/7/22/penn-athletics-receives-20-million-gift-to-support-wrestling.aspx https://pennathletics.com/documents/2025/7/17/Penn_Wrestling_Lasting_Legacy_of_Excellence__2_.pdf

Thoroughly enjoyed this meet. Wish this would lead to a return of the dual meet tours of my youth - I remember attending many USA-USSR duals in exotic locales such as Brockport, NY. Well-promoted barnstorming tours would definitely attract fans. But, given how little the best wrestlers compete these days, I doubt there is much interest from many athletes to participate in these events.

The all time greats are all time greats for many reasons - talent, training and health all play a factor. We can't expect everyone to match the longevity and excellence of Taylor, Dake and Burroughs. Sure looks like injuries have caught up to Vito and Yianni, but I hope it's not the end of their days competing at the top level. Wish them them the best moving forward.

These stories break when someone is willing to come forward and put their name to accusations. Often, one person is enough to create the cracks in a dam of a story. Beau Bartlett putting his name to these accusations is not a "nothingburger".

Seems appropriate to paraphrase my thoughts from the Ohio State documentary topic here, especially given that the PSU police couldn't seem to find CS for an interview over a 6 month period... If you know anything about the way colleges operated then (and now)... Everyone knew. Plenty of people complained. Those who complained were told by the administration to pound sand. As such, friends and teammates warned their friends and teammates and told them to make the best of it.

To my knowledge, USA Wrestling never even acknowledged Kyle Snyder's arrest. I figured they would've posted something when he was temporarily suspended by SafeSport. (Kudos to FloWrestling.org for posting the story.) But, nope, the adults at USA Wrestling just closed their eyes, put their fingers in their ears and held their collective breath until the suspension was lifted. So, yeah, It's tough for me to blame the journalists when our programs don't want to act like their in charge.

The older I get, the more I realize that money is the source and solution to every problem in life. O/U for further college commitments by Bo Bassett: 1.5 O/U for transfers once Bo Bassett enrolls in college: 1.5 I'm so happy my alma mater, for the most part, is not in this line of business.

If you know anything about the way colleges operated then (and now)... Everyone at Ohio State knew about the doctor. Plenty of people complained about him. Those who complained were told by the administration to pound sand. As such, friends and teammates warned their friends and teammates about the doctor and told them to make the best of it. It's laughable to think that Jordan could've done anything about the doctor then. And, yes, whether you agree with Jordan's politics or not, his political opponents are going to make hay about it. They do not accept his denials, nor would they forgive him if he changed course and said he did know. Hopefully, one more documentary on this type of "incident" means there will be one less similar case in the future. But, be forever warned - predators are going to go where the kids are, and there's lot's of kids on athletic teams and at college campuses.

Guessing the money was right