Voice of the Quakers

53 going on 12

God bless all the wrestlers competing for 3-8. But, Friday is a long liquid day and I need my rest and my Market before Finals Saturday night.

I'm a Pat's fan. Some people like Geno's. Some people, for whatever reason, like Jim's on South Street. To each their own. Honestly, any food cart cooking in the morning will probably make you a great cheesesteak.

Recollections from my six total years in Philly, the last NCAA tourney there and some other generic spitballing... Definitely recommend the SEPTA Orange Line to get to the arena. The trip from City Hall is not very long, but do plan on an hour given crowds on the train and crowds getting into the arena. And, Philly is a relatively inexpensive big city. Everyone has their favorite neighborhood, so I won't make a specific recommendation. But, if you stay east of the Schuylkill River and south of Spring Garden/Northern Liberties/Fairmount you will find a wide variety of bars and restaurants at various price points. Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are east of Center City and also readily accessible by the SEPTA Blue Line. That being said, I think you will find it inefficient to go back and forth from the arena to your hotel in between sessions. Xfinity Live will definitely keep you hydrated. A couple other recommendations if you're feeling adventurous: Call an Uber and have them take you and your group to Pat's/Geno's for the mandatory cheesesteak taste test. If you're looking to do something really different, Eastern State Penitentiary is amazing, and the Fairmount neighborhood is really cool. I'm partial to my old campus. Penn has the Palestra, Franklin Field, College Hall (the model for the Addams Family, mansion) and people will be generally nice enough to let you in to take a look around. (Franklin Field is almost always open to runners.) I plan on being at Reading Terminal Market for "breakfast" on Saturday to keep my streak of missing Session 5 alive. It's the largest food hall you can imagine, for lack of a better term. Enjoy your trip!

Looks a lot better when your school finishes 10th instead of 16th at your conference tourney. To earlier posts, all other factors being equal, it's much more likely LIU and SHU wrestlers qualify for NCAAs in a smaller EIWA tournament. Less kids fighting for the automatic spot as champion, and much more likely an underdog can sustain a "heater" over a smaller number of matches to take one of the other available bids.

Pretty straightforward. Not that there won't be upsets, but happy to know there will be a lot less random "occurrences" in a 6 team tournament than an 18 team tournament. https://ivyleague.com/news/2025/3/3/pre-seeds-and-brackets-set-for-inaugural-ivy-league-wrestling-tournament.aspx 125 Pounds (3 automatic bids) 1. Marc-Anthony McGowan, Princeton 2. Max Gallagher, Penn 3. Diego Sotelo, Harvard 4. Marcello Milani, Cornell 5. Sulayman Bah, Columbia 6. Jared Brunner, Brown 133 Pounds (2 automatic bids) 1. Tyler Ferrara, Cornell 2. Ryan Miller, Penn 3. Hunter Adrian, Brown 4. Danny Jones, Princeton 5. Logan Brzozowski, Harvard 6. Connor Smith, Columbia 141 Pounds (4 automatic bids) 1. CJ Composto, Penn 2. Joshua Sanders, Cornell 3. Eligh Rivera, Princeton 4. Lorenzo Frezza, Columbia 5. Ian Oswalt, Brown 6. Dante Frinzi, Harvard 149 Pounds (3 automatic bids) 1. Cross Wasilewski, Penn 2. Ethan Fernandez, Cornell 3. Ty Whalen, Princeton 4. Kai Owen, Columbia 5. Joey Iamunno, Brown 6. Jaden Pepe, Harvard 157 Pounds (3 automatic bids) 1. Meyer Shapiro, Cornell 2. Jude Swisher, Penn 3. Blake Saito, Brown 4. Jimmy Harrington, Harvard 5. Jacob Mann, Princeton 6. Richard Fedalen, Columbia 165 Pounds (2 automatic bids) 1. Julian Ramirez, Cornell 2. Cesar Alvan, Columbia 3. Blaine Bergey, Princeton 4. Keegan Rothrock, Brown 5. Andrew Troczynski, Penn 6. Cael Berg, Harvard 174 Pounds (2 automatic bids) 1. Simon Ruiz, Cornell 2. Jack McGill, Columbia 3. Nick Incontrera, Penn 4. Drew Clearie, Brown 5. Xavier Giles, Princeton 6. Haden Bottiglieri, Harvard 184 Pounds (4 automatic bids) 1. Chris Foca, Cornell 2. Maximus Hale, Penn 3. Kole Mulhauser, Princeton 4. Nick Fine, Columbia 5. Andrew Reall, Brown 6. Luka Rada, Harvard 197 Pounds (2 automatic bids) 1. Luke Stout, Princeton 2. Mikey Dellagatta, Cornell 3. Joe Curtis, Columbia 4. Max Agresti, Harvard 5. Thomas Sandoval, Brown 6. Nathan Taylor, Penn 285 Pounds (1 automatic bid) 1. Ashton Davis, Cornell 2. John Pardo, Penn 3. Sebastian Garibaldi, Princeton 4. Vincent Mueller, Columbia 5. Alex Semenenko, Brown 6. Logan Marissal, Harvard

Haven't seen an elite wrestler enjoy the journey as much as Snyder since Dave Schultz. Who else enters multiple events in a given month, let along a week like Snyder did last week? He'll have his ups and downs, like Dave did after 1984, but I'm not wishing him away anytime soon.

HWTs don't get enough respect. By medals and longevity, Baumgartner is the US's best ever, but "moving brick walls" don't attract the admiration lightweights do.

January 20, 2023 #24 Penn 23 | #20 Lehigh 11 125: #30 Ryan Miller (PENN) dec. Carter Bailey (LEH), 4-3 (3-0) 133: #9 Michael Colaiocco (PENN) maj. dec. Killian Delaney (LEH), MD 13-4 (7-0) 141: Malyke Hines (LEH) dec. Carmen Ferrante (PENN), 7-2 (7-3) 149: #11 Doug Zapf (PENN) dec. #26 Max Brignola (LEH), 11-4 (10-3) 157: Cole Spencer (PENN) dec. Paul Watkins (LEH), 6-4 (13-3) 165: Lucas Revano (PENN) maj. dec. Connor Herceg (LEH), MD 12-4 (17-3) 174: #17 Nick Incontrera (PENN) dec. Jake Logan (LEH), 7-3 (20-3) 184: #19 Tate Samuelson (LEH) dec. Maximus Hale (PENN), 4-2 (20-6) 197: #3 Michael Beard (LEH) tech. fall #33 Cole Urbas (PENN), TF 20-4 (20-11) 285: #32 Ben Goldin (PENN) dec. #31 Nathan Taylor (LEH), 2-0 (23-11)

FOFY. O/U 1.5 Bachelor Bo: HS Jr. - How many times does he flip?

Looking forward to 2030 when Estrada successfully petitions for this year back at a different school.

Like white smoke from the Vatican, we have a new yokozuna: Hoshoryu! https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20250127_22/?utm_source=semafor

Comcast has actually been running promos for NHK's coverage in the DC area, and a local sports net has picked up summaries of past tournaments. Great fun. And, always interesting to see the non-Japanese wrestlers; one recent program featured a now-retired wrestler from Georgia (the country). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tochinoshin_Tsuyoshi

Team titles seem to be dominated by streaks - earning one often could be as "easy" as walking on to the right team. Individually, every AA has to earn it the hard way.

Can confirm allocations are being released to teams shortly. In the meantime, individual sessions are for sale on the NCAA site. Thursday night is pretty inexpensive. https://www.ticketmaster.com/2025-ncaa-division-i-mens-wrestling-philadelphia-pennsylvania-03-20-2025/event/30006150C6B83BA1?utm_source=NCAATickets&utm_medium=ticketoptionsbutton&utm_campaign=MWRSession2&_gl=1*csivxs*_gcl_au*MTA1MDIyNTEzNy4xNzM2OTY1NjEz

I'm still confused - I thought Scott was at OREGON State.

Can't we just get a USA-Japan dual meet at this point? That would be awesome.

Footwork is vital in GR, but you typically don't need the deep penetration steps of a leg attack. I was comfortably able to wrestle GR without an ACL in my left knee post-college. Hopefully DeSanto finds similar good health.

Agreed. I do not agree with Coach Haight that it takes years to learn the hand fighting and positioning needed at the elite GR level. What we need are better athletes in the elite GR system - period.

Garrett Lowney was on an amazing heater in 2000.

https://www.eiwawrestling.org/sports/wrest/2024-25/releases/20241120cwsrxp?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email After the departures of Rutgers, Syracuse, Wilkes, etc., for various reasons, I thought the EIWA had great balance as a combination of the Ivy League and the Patriot League wrestling schools. This new format almost seems to invite the Patriot League teams to follow the Ivy League right out of the EIWA. Note that F&M is the only team in the Independence Division that has been in the EIWA since 2011. Independence Division Patriot Division Binghamton Drexel Franklin & Marshall Hofstra Long Island University Morgan State Sacred Heart American Army West Point Bucknell Lehigh Navy

Gable Steveson wrestling in college is wasting everyone's time. Yes, he will win NCAAs - good for him. But, if he wants to focus on being the best wrestler he can be, he should be solely competing in FS. On another front, 7th year "seniors" do not belong in college sports. Unfortunately, I fear we're about to see a new batch of "abuse" of the Olympic redshirts coming to college wrestling shortly.

Billy Pierce had a 25 minute match via ultimate OT at the 2000 Olympic Trials in Dallas. Can't remember his opponent. The match was glorious - much more action packed than you would've imagined given the style and the weight class.

Dake will not age backwards forever. I think the only one who repeats is Snyder. Are we sure Spencer Lee wants to continue wrestling?

And yet, Sad might be done after tomorrow given injury and Snyder may compete for one or two more cycles.