Idaho

Yep... looking forward to the quad at Binghamton this year. He does a good job of scheduling teams that will benefit greatly. They came clear out to Oregon State two years ago - was the largest crowd in Gill that year and the largest dual meet ever I believe.

Yeah, he's not listed on their roster at NDSU.

Not necessarily a portal, but did Max Petersen of NDSU (R16) end up somewhere else?

Sit here and look at the fields and mountains with a cup of coffee.

Yep - Fall has arrived... laptop and TV going at the same time with wrestling and CFB.

Hmmm... good to know. I can see that. At the end of the day, do those tournaments just change the name to "invitational" and keep doing what they are doing? All they need to do is send invites out to all the schools that are local and all the schools that typically send kids. I don't think that it's going to mean much for the Roadrunner Open to be changed to Roadrunner Invitational. I think most or all of the same teams will still be there. I can see high school kids being affected by it not being an open because they technically would not be part of an invite. I think it will also be at the determination of the coach for each wrestlers development as well. Sending a #3 or #4 guy on the depth chart to the same tourney as your #1 and #2 might not be what is best for their development.

Science, Technology & Society

A lot of invitationals only allow for one wrestler per weight. If that continues to be the case, then I would think you would want to attend opens in order to get your backups some matches throughout the season. That's one of the good things about an open is you can have as many per weight as you want. It's also a good way to determine starters in weights where you have two guys that are pretty close. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Utah Valley is going to have a lot of new names in the starting lineup. They have some good young talent. Hall doing a great job. Results: Friday's Probable Matchups 125 | Talen Eck vs Geronimo Rivera 133 | Layne Kleimann vs Jake Castagneto 141 | Owen Proper vs Smokey McClure 149 | Jason Worthley vs Josh Fish 157 | Ian Fritz vs Keegan Goeas 165 | Ryker Fullmer vs Moses Espinoza-Owens 174 | Hudson Rogers vs Marcus Espinoza-Owens 184 | Trevor Frank vs Jay Singer 197 | Kael Bennie vs Chander Thompson 285 | Elijah Schunke vs Will McCleary Wednesday's Results 125 | Talen Eck major decision Thunder Beard, 12-3 125 | Roman Luttrell decision Czar Quintanilla, 2-0 174 | Marcus Espinoza-Owens tech fall Kaden Bennie, 20-4 174 | Trevor Franks decision Christian Smoot, 4-2 165 | Ryker Fullmer decision Zyon Trujillo, 4-2 197 | Chander Thompson decision Devin Alarcon, 5-1 125 | Talen Eck decision Roman Luttrell, 9-2 174 | Marcus Espinoza-Owens tech fall Trevor Franks, 17-2 174 | Christian Smoot major decision Kaden Bennie, 17-7 285 | Will McCleary decision Aiden McGinnis, 7-2

Whatever it takes

I agree - Mangrum was a big time recruit, I was just comparing him to Bresser who was also a top 10 recruit and won several Fargo titles. He was just small and needed to grow into a 125. 118 would have been perfect for him in the old weights. IMO Oregon and Washington HS wrestling has been down for a few years. I agree - there was a time when WA and OR were producing great talent - unfortunately it came at a time when OSU was not at their best. I feel like we have gotten some of good ones in the last 5 years - Rademacher, Singleton, Whisenhunt, D. Lamer, etc. ...but we also missed on a few as well. We recently landed Larwin and Armstrong out of Idaho. There is now a big push by OSU to elevate Oregon wrestling as a whole. They are part of a group doing that - having best on best practices at OSU - they just had a very well attended match day at OSU. Coaches are also getting more involved with HS coaches and programs as well. So, there are some good things going on. As far as make it or break it... This roster will be completely this coaching staff's guys. Many of them have been on the cusp of AA. For some of them it's their last chance. At the end of the day, people want to see results and so do the coaches and wrestlers above anyone. IMO the results of this season is the one that will either take us to the next level, keep us status quo or possibly a step backwards. That affects recruiting, fan support, alumni giving, attendance.....all of those things. It's the same for any team really.

I will weigh in here (pun intended) as well and add to what you and @ScottishSteel have mentioned. This year we have one of the best rosters top to bottom that we have had in a long time. It's also filled with a lot of great kids - very fun and hard working. When you look at the number of big boarders and top 20 weight class ranked kids, we have many. We have 6 returning NQ - Whisenhunt, Singleton, Hamblin, Lamer, McDonnell and Rademacher... on top of that we have WT member Saldate, U23 national champ Tolentino, WT member Joel Adams and a lot of good young kids on the ladder. I say all that because IMO this is a make it or break it year. Last year the NCAA's were terrible as @ScottishSteel mentioned. We are set up really nice to have a good number qualify and some guys to jump levels, get over the hump and get on the podium. The question will be if the coaches get them there. It's time to get these guys who have been middling around in the 17-30 rankings for two years to make some improvements and get on the podium. On another note, our recruiting has improved a ton. We are getting some good quality kids out of CA. The funny thing, is that a lot of them love Corvallis. If you follow them on social they are definitely taking advantage of the hikes and the ocean. I don't think that's as big of factor as it used to be. Up to this point, we have not lost any of our good kids to the portal except Stiles, who we got from the portal as non-starter, made him into an All-American, then he left for money and didn't AA. That says something as well. It's interesting that you say Mangrum was a big time recruit, but Bresser was a middling recruit, when Bresser had the better career and was a 2x AA. Meeks out-placed Mangrum as well. That stuff doesn't really matter any more though- different times, different staff. Recruits now are getting paychecks. At the end of the day, whether we like it or not, it's going to be tough to land a top 5 recruit who is getting offered crazy money to go to the Big10. It's reality. So we depend on other things to get recruits.... personal relationships, a good culture and team atmosphere, good facilities and nutrition program, great outdoor activies, a good education, great wrestling schedule opportunities to still wrestle B10 teams, and the idea that you can make world teams and win world titles at Oregon State. There's a lot of positive... but I will circle back to the point -this year we are set up to have a good season so we will see what happens with it. I also agree, we need more opportunities out west. And that's all I've to say about that.

A state level executive order does not bypass a federal court pause. A lawsuit is the way to go. See later. It did not - It was not "their" fifith year. They had four seasons of eligibility under "their" rules. The class of 2022 got caught between COVID years and the new 5 for 5, but they were able to get their 4 years. If Mendez wants to wrestle this season, he needs to go by the playbook offered by two Oregon State football players - Wells and Patterson. They filed a lawsuit in Oregon State court and the judge granted a TRO. The judge then escalated it into a preliminary injunction against the NCAA for breach of contract. They are able to play out the season under this while the whole mess gets figured out.

With all the wrestling fans calling in to identify Davis, and potentially other wrestlers, to State College police, I was expecting arrests by now.

Great news! Hopefully they can sustain. Another opportunity in PA is a plus. If we could just get another one out in CA...and many other states.