Psalm 1 guy

Plebe. Reminds me of that quote in The Breakfast Club, "You guys think I'm just some untouchable peasant? Serf? Peon?" by the janitor, Carl. I love the scene where it pans across photos on the wall at the high school and you see that Carl was once the Man of the Year at that school.

For what it's worth, he's still listed on the Newberry College wrestling roster. For those who don't know, Newberry College is a small DII Lutheran school in South Carolina with approximately 1500 students. Regarding the wrestling program, they only sent two wrestlers to last season's National tournament. Both wrestlers went 1 and 2.

They are DII.

Ono seems to be thoroughly enjoying his time at Penn State. I remember seeing a video of him at Rec Hall for a Penn State dual and he was obviously having a grand time. He is a young man who seems to live life to the fullest. He is getting to enjoy college life, make new friends, and experience America up close. Not every world class athlete wants to make their life all about their athletic pursuits. Ono is also young enough that he can afford to take this wrestling "detour" and get back to his freestyle pursuits. In short, I think Ono is "living his best life." Kudos to him for taking the "road less traveled".

Blaze's stance, hand fighting and head/hands defense frustrated him so much that he looked totally helpless by the end of the match. The way Blaze wrestles is built for freestyle, much more than folk. I'm really looking forward to how he does at Senior Worlds.

@LJBI have a question for you since it is kind of Greco-centric. I noticed several beautiful arm spins today, but none from U.S. wrestlers. I was wondering if you have an opinion about why we see so few arm spins by U.S. freestyle wrestlers? TIA

USA Wrestling just came out with their new qualifying procedures for Worlds and the Olympics. One change they made is that any delayed wrestle-off has to be completed by the end of July. That particular rule change is touched on in the latest Baschamania video which I listed below. The video starts at the beginning of that particular discussion. https://youtu.be/B-ESkNyV8eA?t=773

One thing regarding Flo that drives me a little crazy because it has consistently occurred over the last few years is that in freestyle matches they list the weights as 57 lbs., 61 lbs., etc. In the big scheme of things it is nothing important, but I am still surprised how often Flo makes that mistake. I know Flo gets a lot of grief, but $150 a year is well worth it for me for all of their content.

In Pyles' recent interview of Cael, Cael said this regarding if Ono will be wrestling in a Penn State singlet: "It could be this year, it could be next year, but he's definitely going to wrestle at Penn State, hopefully for a couple years."

Mark never making a Senior world team was surprising also. It just shows the depth in the U.S. It didn't help him that Dake and Burroughs were at his weight.

On the other end of the scale is Russia, with eleven time zones.

Something seemed off with him in both his greco and freestyle matches.

Caliendo wouldn't be eligible. Per the University of Iowa: Wrestled unattached in 2021-22 in his redshirt season, going 14-2 overall

Crazy to think James just turned 18 five weeks ago. It will be interesting to see him compete against these older wrestlers.

The above video starts at Ono's second match, which is bout 24. Ono's matches are 11,24,35 and 56. All the bouts are sequential, so you can look for them easily. The bout numbers are in the upper middle portion of the match box. Ono has a nice arsenal from his feet that will translate well to folk style. In these four matches his takedowns included an ankle pick to both sides, snap down to an ankle pick/low single, snap down to a high single, underhook throw-by to a high single, go-behind on the mat from head/arm control and a straight double leg. Also, his strong underhooks will most likely get some stall calls on his opponents this folk style season for "leaving the wrestling area" or cause his opponents to drop down to their knees, opening themselves up to Ono's go-behinds. I foresee a lot of "take 'em down, let them up" this season from Ono.

Nerfstate, over on the Penn State forum, posted Ono's matches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQpYOjInPMw&list=PLcd_RgjpI2eSm3wy0RcBHDwMdKkejKdXv

Her son was born Jan. 23.

Over on Iowa's wrestling board, jrod65 had the following question regarding when Luke Lilledahl was awarded a step out point against SpencerLee in their match at the U.S. Open, making the score 4-1 at the time: "I still have a question on the situation with Lilledahl and Spencer that I'm not quite grasping. I understand that when Lilledahl was on his knees, he's grounded and chest/shoulders would determine oob. But once he comes off his knees, wouldn't he no longer be "grounded" and regular stepout rules apply?" I decided to email Casey Goessl from USA Wrestling, who made the video referenced in this thread and which is attached here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qk1marsuxh2l0ewrfelkl/2026-Rules-Modifications-02-27-2026.mp4?rlkey=1fu9rp6zz8abk1233x0br6slk&e=1&dl=0 Here is his gracious and thorough reply: I highlighted in blue where he addresses the specific question jrod65 had. Sorry about the black backround to my text. Normally there is the option of removing that background when copying text, but for some reason this time that option wasn't available: Hi Gaylon. I'll see if I can help answer these questions. Please understand the evolution of the "grounded out-of-bounds (oob)." In previous years, wrestlers would be under attack from standing and then drop to their knees near the zone to avoid a standing stepout. The onus was on the referees to determine if this was correct defense and no points, or a tactic to avoid going out-of-bounds whereby fleeing the mat would be called. To avoid these types of tactics going forward, the "grounded oob" provision was added to the UWW rules this year. Please understand, fleeing the mat from this position is still an existing application if an athlete intentionally leaves the wrestling area, but hopefully this modification increases action towards the edge and takes some of the referee subjectivity out of the equation. If the athletes are standing and facing one another, then per Olympic style rules, each athlete can score a takedown. If the athletes start in this position, but then transition to a knee/s without one wrestler showing dominance (meaning no score during this transition), and then go oob, a point for grounded stepout shall be awarded assuming that a clearly offensive wrestler does not go oob first (think of a go behind situation). If neither athlete is clearly offensive or if the athletes are just in a scramble for position, a grounded oob should be scored. If the athletes score during the transition (takedown, or turn from par terre), the sequence for grounded oob will not restart again until the athletes come to a standing position, facing one another since each athlete would then be eligible to score a takedown again. The only other exception to going out of bounds in par terre where no point is awarded would be an ordered par terre situation. In this case, it is only fair to allow the bottom athlete an opportunity to defend without fear of penalty by going oob. To clarify the situation at 2:00 in the bout in the Lee v. Lilledahl match, the interpretation of this position comes back to Article 34 in the UWW rules: "any momentary loss of contact of the knees from the mat once the athletes have established parterre position will not be considered a standing action." Lilledahl comes off his knees but Lee maintains his chest on his back, never allowing him to come to a fully standing position. Think of it from these terms: if Lee would do a front headlock on Lilledahl in this position (knees slightly off the mat) , it would only be judged as two points, not four points, meaning Lilledahl is still in parterre, not standing. By the time Lilledahl comes back to what I would consider standing, he is already well in bounds and then gets the stepout on Lee. And please do not be confused; grounded is par terre, only in that grounded implies no wrestler is dominant. I apologize but the pictures you sent in your message aren't coming up for me. The last highlighted point you sent is in regards to "push-outs." I make sure to cover this topic in every rules clinic because the American wrestling audience often mixes "push-outs" with stepouts. Pushing your wrestler out of bounds in all styles is not allowed, even though no real penalty exists. It generally involves a break in contact near the zone and one athlete extending his arms to attempt to get a cheap point, although we don't consider this a wrestling action worthy of a point.

Doing away with the finger grabbing prohibition last year was a big mistake in my book. I really think they need to bring it back in some form. This was what the Rules Committee said as to why they did away with the rule: "l. Interlocking Fingers in Neutral Position (Rule 5.8.1). (1) Recommendation. To eliminate the Interlocking Fingers in Neutral Position infraction. (2) Effective date. Immediately. (3) Rationale. This situation can naturally occur during a wrestling match and the referee is currently tasked with calling a stalemate on the first offense and then penalizing a wrestler for stalling for subsequent violations. It is both challenging and difficult, if not impossible, for the referee to ascertain which wrestler initiated this position and with the current rule, may result in a wrestler being unfairly penalized." Deciding who to penalize under the previous rule doesn't seem that difficult to me. Most of the time the same wrestler grabbing the fingers is also the one blocking off, backing up, dropping to a knee, etc. It is overwhelmingly used by the wrestler who is trying to avoid action, i.e. stalling. There is a reason freestyle doesn't allow it, as it slows down matches and rewards the defensive/stalling wrestler. Here is the UWW rule on it: "Anytime the refereeing body agrees a wrestler is blocking, interlocking fingers, thwarting his opponent and/or generally avoiding wrestling: the referee signals to the wrestler “Caution blue or red”. First offence, the action is stopped briefly to give a verbal warning (V): “Attention”. Second offence: the action is stopped briefly to designate the guilty wrestler and a 30-second mandatory-score period begins." In my opinion, the UWW rightfully includes "interlocking fingers" in the broader category of what folkstyle calls stalling. Bringing back the prohibition should be a priority.

I'm thinking Jax's four votes were Taylor's two and one each from Hendrickson and Dieringer, but who knows.

I would like to see it go to ranked choice voting. That makes more sense when you have multiple wrestlers, especially from the same team.

Your point is valid, but Nolf (not including the injury match loss), Retherford, Mesenbrink (one more season) and others, never lost after their freshman season. If you are going to lose, odds are it is your freshman season. Even Cael lost one match his freshman year when he was redshirting. Vega's lack of offense works against him to go undefeated, and Jax's crazy style might make him susceptible to getting put on his back.

For those who subscribed to ESPN+ for the NCAA tournament like me, I am in the process of scrolling through every mat feed for every session. There is just so much you miss during the tournament. Also, don't forget to cancel your subscription if you only purchased it because of the tournament.