SocraTease

He's more likely to start an insurrection, impose tariffs, hawk some cheap product with his image on it, or request construction on the arena and stiff the Philadelphia workers by never paying them.

24 hours until the end begins .... of this season.

Wow, I didn't realize there were that many 3-timers. Surely, some of them would have won a 4th if given the opportunity. Crazy that 4-timers are becoming more common even if there are only 6 of them.

Nickal might be hawking these soon. It's hard to believe they actually exist. I remember wrestling a guy in a tournament who had his girlfriend's photo taped to his sock. The older guys on my team saw it and told me, "There is no way you can let this guy win". I deliberately ankle-picked him on that photo.

I'm going with Nolf. 117-3 career with really only 2 losses his freshman year to 2-time NCAA champion IMAR (the other "loss" was an injury default), whom he also pinned. 60 pins (an average of 15 per year; something rarely done even once a year anymore), the most pins in PSU history. 103 bonus point wins. And perhaps the most innovative, fierce, and fun guy to watch in his generation

I wish all the other teams the best in their chance to fight it out for second place.

I don't know if these brackets will give you more space, but I've tried to attach a set below. Good luck finding what you need. 2025 NCAA brackets 2.pdf

Here's the press conference with three wrestlers following Sanderson:

Sanderson Press Conference today:

A possible 5-timer this year? Carlton Haselrig says "Pfffff ... I had to use a second hand to count my titles". "Competing for Pitt-Johnstown in the late 1980s, Haselrig won an unprecedented six NCAA heavyweight wrestling titles. How? Through a quirk in the NCAA rules at the time. When Haselrig competed, wrestlers in Division II also could compete in the NCAA Division I championships. Haselrig wrestled for Division II Pitt-Johnstown, where he compiled a career record of 143-2-1. Haselrig was particularly successful in March. From 1987-89, Haselrig won three NCAA Division II championships at heavyweight. Two weeks after winning those titles, Haselrig went to the NCAA Division I championships, where he also won three heavyweight titles. Haselrig sent an NCAA record by winning 122 consecutive bouts at Pitt-Johnston, according to his National Wrestling Hall of Fame biography. He was particularly dominant at the national tournaments. Haselrig went 15-0 at the NCAA Division I championships. Until 1990, national champions in Divisions II and III earned bids to the NCAA Division I championships, according to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. After Haselrig won three Division I titles, the NCAA rescinded those bids, as Division I coaches suggested they provided lower-division coaches with a recruiting advantage. The decision became known as the "Haselrig Rule." As a result, wrestlers no longer can compete in multiple NCAA wrestling championships, meaning Haselrig's record is unlikely to be broken. Even Starocci's potential five titles would go down as an outlier. Haselrig also was well known for what he did after college. In 1990, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Haselrig in the 12th round of the NFL Draft. Haselrig played five NFL seasons, four with the Steelers, and was a Pro Bowl offensive lineman in 1992. Haselrig died in 2020 at age 54. "At the time, I definitely didn't understand the magnitude of it," Haselrig told the NCAA for a 2018 story. "It was no easy task to win even just one, but it makes me happy and proud to look back at what I accomplished." Penn State's Starocci begins his quest for a fifth national title Thursday at the 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. He is the No. 1 seed in the 184-pound weight class, bringing a 21-0 record to his fifth NCAA championships." https://www.si.com/college/pennstate/wrestling/penn-state-carter-starocci-chases-ncaa-wrestling-history-one-record-elusive

For Whom the Balloon Blows ... only Penn State (and perhaps Banksy) knows.

Floyd "Shorty" Hitchcock excelled as a wrestler during his days at Bloomsburg University. He posted an 84-7-2 dual meet record and won 3 PSAC Championships. His senior year he won both the Division I and II National titles in the 177-pound weight class and was named the Outstanding Wrestler in both tournaments. He also won a silver medal at the 1973 World Games in Moscow. During his high school coaching days at Lake Lehman, he guided the Knights to 4 District 2 Titles and was a 4-time district coach of the year. In 1981, he coached Lake-Lehman to the PIAA Class AA State Championship. Two of his former high school stars were Rick and Rock Bonomo, who later achieved All-American honors at Bloomsburg.

They should invite the D2 and D3 champs to participate in D1 championships a week later. Give them the 32 and 33 seed if you don't know where to put them. It would add excitement to the tournament.

Mark Hall played the recorder during one interview with Shane Sparks: https://www.instagram.com/b1gwrestling/reel/CvfllFNgZ2w/

I found this interview with Jason Nolf to be really humorous because of the interviewer's questions and demeanor, along with the guy eating ice cream and watching:

Here's some advice from a great poet. “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke

Penn State Wrestling: Josh Barr Gets Positive Injury Update Before NCAAs On the Penn State Coaches Show, Cael Sanderson delivered some good news regarding Barr, who was injured at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. https://www.si.com/college/pennstate/wrestling/penn-state-wrestling-josh-barr-gets-positive-injury-update-before-ncaas-01jp8z95pt4r

Penn State 197-pound starter Josh Barr drew the number four seed for next week’s 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships on Wednesday night. On Thursday, Nittany Lions head coach Cael Sanderson offered his first update on the status of the redshirt freshman after he suffered an injury at Big Tens. After losing in the quarterfinals in sudden victory to Michigan’s Jacob Cardenas, Barr was forced to medically forfeit his consolation semifinal match with Minnesota’s Isaiah Salazar due to a left leg injury. Following an early scramble in which he appeared to hurt himself, the Nittany Lion was taken down off the restart, asked for the match to be stopped, and was eventually helped off the mat with the help of staff members. He was putting little to no weight on his left leg at the time. Barr also medically defaulted out of his fifth-place match. Speaking on the Penn State Coaches Show with Steve Jones, Sanderson said he will be ready to go for nationals. “We kind of had to carry him off the mat a bit last week. But, he’ll be ready to go and scrapping next week,” Sanderson said. “We’re happy for him.” https://www.on3.com/teams/penn-state-nittany-lions/news/josh-barr-injury-update-whats-the-latest-on-the-penn-state-wrestling-197-pound-starter-before-nationals/

Wow, Nolan Wertanen of Michigan qualified at 133 with a record of 7-18. That has to be among the worst records for an NCAA qualifier. His photos make me wonder if he is in a boy band.

Aristotle wasn't much interested in hypotheticals. His approach to ethics was virtue and character-based. It was about striving for excellence—aretê, to use the ancient Greek. Also, Plato (Aristotle's teacher) was actually a very good wrestler and would have kicked Aristotle's butt and counseled Keckheisen to strive for the highest goals, even if they were unreachable. On a slightly lighter note, here's an article that might be of interest. Thanks for the banter. I'm looking forward to the beginning of the games. May all the wrestlers rise to the occasion: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2021/08/77088/

Can't believe the length of this thread. Keckheisen earned and deserves the #2 seed. But regardless of what one thinks about the seeding, this is in fact the seed he now has. The original assertion that K. should not have wrestled the All Star classic is absurd. It's what philosophers call a "counterfactual". It's counter to the facts (hence a hypothetical). He chose to wrestle it and he did. Here's also why he should have wrestled it (which he did). He's an outgoing senior. He's an NCAA champion at that very weight. He probably wanted to test himself against one of the best. And, he no doubt learned something about Starocci that he never could have learned by just watching him on videos. He likely figured this experience would help him if and when they meet up (which they likely will at NCAAs). He had (and perhaps has) no reason to fear Plott or MacEnally. Yes, of course, Starocci would also learn something about K. during the All Star match. But these two are both NCAA champions, and guys like this want to step up to challenges. That is what makes greatness great. If you focus on the outcomes (results) rather than the process, you fall prey to one of the most worst traps in life. Act and let go of consequences. You have the right to your actions but not to the fruits of your action. Let go of this counterfactual and enjoy the ensuing competition. It's just a tiny drama in a grand spectacle of the universe playing with itself, appearing and disappearing, generating forms and then transforming them.

Slippery Rock (which doesn't have a D1 Team) ... just because I like the name and I'm a PA guy. Actually, I don't follow them, though apparently the women's team at Slippery Rock is called "The Rockets". More seriously: Dagestan.

Penn State's Average Seed = 2.6. Who has the second, third and fourth best average seeding? I'm also curious if anyone has posted the number of wrestlers each of the top teams has qualified. Seed / # of wrestlers #1 4 #2 2 #3 2 #4 1 #8 1