SocraTease

When are pre-seeds and then seeds released? Anyone know what day it is this week?

Can't Zahid still transfer to Mexico? I know there is a waiting period, however (a year maybe?), for guys who transfer. Unless it is the case that once you compete internationally for one country that you can't transfer; not sure. (I think that is the case with soccer, for example). Anyone know for sure?

Conference championships will remove a few from the ranks of the undefeated: 133- Fix 133- Crookham - might get taken out by Vito 141- Bartlett. - has a few serious challengers (Woods, etc.) 157- Haines - might get tested 157- Zerban 157- Lee (6-0) - might be defeated by Haines or someone else at BIG Tens 165- KOT. - could go down to Carr 165- Mesenbrink - needs to get by Hamiti 174- Starocci. - might have to default out at Big Tens 174- Lewis 184- Keckeisen 197- Brooks 197- Hidlay 285- Hendrickson - could get taken out by Bastida (or vice versa) 285- Kerkvliet 285- Bastida

Strange to think that Starocci only has 73 total matches in four years of wrestling. Sanderson had something like 80 matches in his first two years and somehow managed not to be seriously injured during that time.

Brooks had a hard time scoring on him. Only got one TD if I recall.

His brother Anthony wrestled 86KG at the Pan Am qualifier. Won his first match but lost the next one. At the moment, Zahid is still pursuing a US place at the Olympics. He's a long shot because he has to get past Brooks, Hidlay and/or Deiringer in order to go against DT. I think he won a bronze at Worlds at 92KG for the US. My bet: he would have qualified 86KG for Mexico. But he is a bit inconsistent at the international level. Sometimes he looks great and other times he gets sloppy or is broken by an opponent.

In this interview after Pan Ams he says he wants to win another Big Ten title: https://www.flowrestling.org/events/11896599-2024-pan-am-qualifiers/videos?playing=12223775&limit=60

Some people are discounting the fact that the US has in recent history dominated Pan Ams. We just swept the preceding Pan Am Championships (not the Olympic Qualifier) in all ten weights and many of the US wrestlers tech-ed or pinned their way through the brackets without giving up a single point. And many of the very top US guys weren't even there (e.g., Taylor, Vito, Zain, Borroughs, Cox). My point: it was reasonable for other guys at 57KG and 65KG to believe that Nick Lee and Richards would qualify the weights given US dominance, especially since they only had to finish in the top 2. Yes, Retherford failed to qualify 65KG a few years back but in my view that was a fluke. He was beating his opponent and had him in a leg lace but got caught and pinned.

Who are the 4 from P.R.? Cruz and Rivera and ?

My guess (and it is just speculation) is that Gilman (a) thought Richards could likely get it done at Pan Ams, especially since Richards had previously beaten him; (b) cutting a lot of weight that close to trials wasn't especially alluring; and (c) being with his family and new kids was important to him. As for German philosophy, I think Gilman is drawn more to the Stoics and the Pragmatists. PS: I don't know what he said exactly about Yianni, but Gilman fancies himself a warrior who goes into battle full on and so that may have been his stance toward Yianni. He apparently reads a lot of history, particularly military history. That's a possible explanation rather than justification for his words or tweet or whatever smoke signal he sent into the ether.

Sometimes ... unless your country is ruled by a dictator, authoritarian, theocrat, or clown and is oppressive to its own people and/or other people. In such cases, it might be better to fly a kite than a flag.

In the new wrestling world of permeable borders, we cheer for laundry:

The list of US-trained guys wrestling for other countries who will be in the Olympics is long and growing. RBY Cruz Gomez Amine Micic S. Rivera Dhesi Jonovan Smith Ethan Ramos Who else have I missed?

Mexican wrestling is kicking America's butt. Never thought I would see or say that. And it's emigration not immigration problems. The Brawn Drain (as opposed to the so-called Brain Drain).

Lost Chance, now Last Chance, Last Dance, For (Olympic) Romance

Beware the Ides of March.

This "diary" entry reminded me of the opening to Dostoevsky's *Notes from Underground*: I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don’t consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can’t explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot “pay out” the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don’t consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well—let it get worse! I have been going on like that for a long time—twenty years. Now I am forty. I used to be in the government service, but am no longer. I was a spiteful official. I was rude and took pleasure in being so. I did not take bribes, you see, so I was bound to find a recompense in that, at least. (A poor jest, but I will not scratch it out. I wrote it thinking it would sound very witty; but now that I have seen myself that I only wanted to show off in a despicable way, I will not scratch it out on purpose!) When petitioners used to come for information to the table at which I sat, I used to grind my teeth at them, and felt intense enjoyment when I succeeded in making anybody unhappy. I almost did succeed. For the most part they were all timid people—of course, they were petitioners. But of the uppish ones there was one officer in particular I could not endure. He simply would not be humble, and clanked his sword in a disgusting way. I carried on a feud with him for eighteen months over that sword. At last I got the better of him. He left off clanking it. That happened in my youth, though. But do you know, gentlemen, what was the chief point about my spite? Why, the whole point, the real sting of it lay in the fact that continually, even in the moment of the acutest spleen, I was inwardly conscious with shame that I was not only not a spiteful but not even an embittered man, that I was simply scaring sparrows at random and amusing myself by it. I might foam at the mouth, but bring me a doll to play with, give me a cup of tea with sugar in it, and maybe I should be appeased. I might even be genuinely touched, though probably I should grind my teeth at myself afterwards and lie awake at night with shame for months after. That was my way. I was lying when I said just now that I was a spiteful official. I was lying from spite. I was simply amusing myself with the petitioners and with the officer, and in reality I never could become spiteful. I was conscious every moment in myself of many, very many elements absolutely opposite to that. I felt them positively swarming in me, these opposite elements. I knew that they had been swarming in me all my life and craving some outlet from me, but I would not let them, would not let them, purposely would not let them come out. They tormented me till I was ashamed: they drove me to convulsions and—sickened me, at last, how they sickened me! Now, are not you fancying, gentlemen, that I am expressing remorse for something now, that I am asking your forgiveness for something? I am sure you are fancying that ... However, I assure you I do not care if you are....

Palacio looked terrible today. He could have been taken down by a 90 year old blind grandmother on crutches.

Yes, "Alien Hour" or whatever it was called was the worst. I slid the play bar through that complete crapola. They do like to talk about hotels, food, weather, clothing, road trips, TV shows, and the proverbial price of tea in China. If it is in passing, short, and humorous, I'm okay with it. If not, it should be curtailed.

He also lost to Gomez (in folkstyle).

RBY wins 10-6 after a couple of cautions on RBY at the end. RBY used a couple of nice head and shoulder turns.

RBY up now. Mat A

RBY hasn't wrestled his quarterfinal match yet and they are skipping around in weights.