SocraTease

8 of Penn State's 10 wrestlers have their first match in the quarters so that makes the pin count much tougher to accumulate b/c they are up against relatively tough opponents usually. And the other two guys at 125 and 133 (who have round of 16 matches) are not pinners. In some ways, it is probably easier to pin at NCAAs because of softer early round opponents and also the consolation matches. Plus, guys might wrestle more conservatively at BIG 10s because your first goal is to make the Big Dance, whereas at NCAAs more fur may fly since it is a last chance to do or die

Despite having a virtual Murderer's Row from 141 to 285, this team is not big on pinning. Not like guys in the past: DT, Nolf, Nickal, Retherford, Ruth, Hall, and Q. Wright: https://pennstatewrestlingclub.org/career-falls-leaders/ The guys at 149, 174, 184, 197, and 285 might have the best chance of getting falls in the early rounds. Here are the number of pins for this season: Barr 6 Van Ness 5 Haines 7 Starocci 6 Kerkviliet 5 ----- BB 3 TK 3 LL 1 MM 0 (Tech falls, yes, by all means) BD 0

For what it is worth, it looks like Track Wrestling has the brackets up. I assume they represent final seeds, but I haven't looked to see whether anything has changed. Penn State's seeds are apparently the same (see post above your own). https://www.trackwrestling.com/predefinedtournaments/MainFrame.jsp?newSession=false&TIM=1741376244318&pageName=%2Fpredefinedtournaments%2FBracketViewer.jsp&twSessionId=gqxgbcfbrv

I believe it is often concurrent with Distended (aka bloated) Ego, associated with abuse of mirrors, fast cars, and frequent use of "I", "me" and "my". Questions of causation and correlation are still debated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Penn State Nebraska, Ohio State, Minnesota, Michigan, Rutgers, and Illinois all have at least one marginally seeded guy relative to the number of allocations. Some of these teams might get 9 guys qualified. Iowa perhaps 10 (141 is their outlier) if the cards fall right for them

I suspect the Big Ten decides seeds the way the Vatican conclave chooses the Pope (and similar to the way the Politburo in the USSR and now China have selected leaders). Lean in: I will whisper the answer . . . IT'S A SECRET

I don't see the Orange Shirt on this grid. Meaning: "Athlete picks up roadside trash and either studies law to make his legal case to the jury or studies exit routes from the Big House in planning an escape". Perhaps he will transfer from Cornell to the Poison Ivy League and the School of Hard Knox.

I admire Penn State's wrestling program, but I have to make an exception with Nickal. He's is often an example of things gone haywire and wrong. He exudes toxic "bro" culture and exaggerated macho-ness. He has a Texas-sized ego that often rivals Ferarri for it's wounded narcissism. (The two are from the same high school.) He is blindly ambitious in that sense made famous by Oscar Wilde's line, "Ambition is the last refuge of failure". He has no sense of proportion. Listen to the tone of his words as well as the content. He is hyperbolic and usually self-referential. He invokes Jesus as some kind of culture warrior, but clearly knows little to nothing about biblical history, the New Testament, or his occasional "hero's" life and words. He hitches a ride off the bluster, blatant jingoism, and authoritarianism of a dangerous politician who will remain unnamed. He has athletic talent but imagines he is the second coming of something special in MMA. He's not. When he gets plastered to the floor in MMA the way Askren got humbled, I expect we will hear a litany of excuses. As for his jealousy of David Taylor, Nickal shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence.

I bet they couldn't beat the All Allah (or Mohammed) Team when you include Dagestan and Iran. I'm personally rooting for the All Atheist, Agnostic or Buddhist Teams ... though they aren't as noisy and vocal about their views as the rah rah religious wrestlers.

Pre-seeds for the 2025 Ivy League Wrestling Tournament are listed below. Brackets and entries are subject to change. 125 Pounds 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. Ashton Davis, Cornell 2. John Pardo, Penn 3. Sebastian Garibaldi, Princeton 4. Vincent Mueller, Columbia 5. Alex Semenenko, Brown 6. Logan Marissal, Harvard

Top Eight Seeds by Weight Class 125 Pounds Richard Figueroa – Arizona State Stevo Poulin – Northern Colorado Jett Strickenberger – West Virginia Troy Spratley – Oklahoma State Tanner Jordan – South Dakota State Antonio Lorenzo – Oklahoma Trever Anderson – Northern Iowa Kysen Terukina – Iowa State 133 Pounds Evan Frost – Iowa State Dominick Serrano – Northern Colorado Julian Farber – Northern Iowa Reece Witcraft – Oklahoma State Kyle Burwick – North Dakota State Cleveland Belton – Oklahoma Derrick Cardinal – South Dakota State Kade Moore – Missouri 141 Pounds Andrew Alirez – Northern Colorado Cael Happel – Northern Iowa Jacob Frost – Iowa State Tagen Jamison – Oklahoma State Mosha Schwartz - Oklahoma Josh Edmond – Missouri Haiden Drury – Utah Valley Julian Tagg – South Dakota State 149 Pounds Colin Realbuto – Northern Iowa Paniro Johnson – Iowa State Willie McDougald – Oklahoma Gabe Willochell – Wyoming Gavin Drexler – North Dakota State Paul Kelly – Cal Baptist Logan Gioffre – Missouri Benji Alanis – Northern Colorado 157 Pounds Cody Chittum – Iowa State Caleb Fish – Oklahoma State Ryder Downey – Northern Iowa Cobe Siebrecht – South Dakota State Jared Hill – Wyoming Vinny Zerban – Northern Colorado James Conway – Missouri Drayden Morton – Cal Baptist 165 Pounds Terrell Barraclough – Utah Valley Peyton Hall – West Virginia Cameron Amine – Oklahoma State Drake Rhodes – South Dakota State Cam Steed – Missouri Nicco Ruiz – Arizona State Jack Thomsen – Northern Iowa Aiden Riggins – Iowa State 174 Pounds Dean Hamiti – Oklahoma State Keegan O’Toole – Missouri Gaven Sax – Oklahoma Jared Simma – Northern Iowa Cade DeVos – South Dakota State Brody Conley – West Virginia MJ Gaitan – Iowa State Riley Davis – Wyoming 184 Pounds Parker Keckeisen – Northern Iowa Dustin Plott – Oklahoma State Bennett Berge – South Dakota State Evan Bockman – Iowa State Deanthony Parker Jr. – Oklahoma Eddie Neitenbach – Wyoming Dennis Robin – West Virginia Colton Hawks – Missouri 197 Pounds Luke Surber – Oklahoma State Joseph Novak – Wyoming Wyatt Voelker – Northern Iowa Zach Glazier – South Dakota State Ian Bush – West Virginia Nathan Schon – Iowa State Brian Burburija – Air Force Bradley Hill – Oklahoma 285 Pounds Wyatt Hendrickson – Oklahoma State Cohlton Schultz – Arizona State Lance Runyon – Northern Iowa Seth Nitzel – Missouri Juan Mora – Oklahoma Daniel Herrera – Iowa State Luke Rasmussen – South Dakota State Sam Mitchell - Wyoming

When does parity arrive? Well, the life expectancy for a male born in 1979 (Cael Sanderson) was estimated to be 70 years. So, simple math suggests parity might arrive around 2049 if Sanderson keeps on ticking with gratitude and beatitude. But since he looks to be in good health and excellent shape, you might want to add another 10 years to the reign of the Empire. What's the PSU win streak now? 71 matches? At approximately 15 matches on average each year, we are looking at a possible streak of about 450 matches. However, it might conceivably end much sooner as humans fully become cybernetic organisms and Robo-Sapien wrestling supplants the present form with the arrival of the Singularity. Just sayin'. As you can see in the image below, NCAA rules might need to change to make sense of moves that start from a "3 on 1" or "triple boots" and so on. This r/evolutionary possibility (below) could present even greater challenges, including even how much to extend the size of the mat as well as the ceiling of the building:

His own concussed skull perhaps? Actually, I would like to see him against Kasak, too.

Through the years, I've heard a lot of folks within the wrestling community express the point or concern that the college season is too long. It commences roughly in October and closes at the very end of March (roughly 6 months). And then, of course, freestyle "season" kicks in for many. Is one reasonable way of shortening it slightly to move the conference tournaments up a week? There is typically two weeks (sometimes even more) between the last dual for most teams and their conference tournaments. Part of the merits to that gap is that you can try to get your team healthy and rested. On the other hand, it lengthens and draws out the season for everyone, including fans. [Yes, fans on forums begin more promiscuous in looking for something to discuss or debate. ] The same goes for NCAA championships, where there is gap of about 10 days between conference tournaments and the Big Dance. What is to be done, if anything? We've all seen more radical proposals like a one semester season, for example.

And the write-up on USA Wrestling: https://www.themat.com/news/2025/february/27/ncaa-division-i-wrestling-committee-releases-qualifying-tournament-allocations-for-2025-championships Each qualifying tournament was awarded pre-allocations to the national tournament based on regular season performance by conference wrestlers through February 23. The pre-allocations were determined by using a sliding scale of the three standards, win percentage, coaches’ rank, and RPI ranking; while never going below the base of .700 winning percentage, top 30 coaches’ ranking and top 30 RPI ranking until reaching the maximum of 29 wrestlers per weight class. For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class. Each conference is awarded a minimum of one automatic qualification per weight class, which will go to the tournament champion, even if they did not have any wrestlers reach at least two of the three thresholds. NCAA championship spots for each qualifying event will be awarded at conference tournaments based solely on place-finish. After all the conference tournaments have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 43 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 11, while brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 8 p.m. on March 12. All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers.

Here's another image of the above: Full allocations, by conference, can be viewed below. Conference 125 133 141 149 157 165 174 184 197 285 Total ACC 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 3 3 5 38 Big 12 7 6 7 6 7 7 6 7 4 4 61 Big Ten 9 10 7 8 8 9 8 8 10 10 87 EIWA 2 1 3 1 1 2 4 1 4 3 22 Ivy League 3 2 4 3 3 2 2 4 2 1 26 MAC 1 3 1 3 3 2 3 3 1 3 23 Pac-12 2 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 3 2 17 Southern 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 13 Pre-Allocations 29 29 29 29 27 29 29 28 29 29 287 At-Large 4 4 4 4 6 4 4 5 4 4 43 Print Friendly Version

My sense is that both Mesenbrink and Steveson would both have bonus-ed their way through the season even if the TD was only 2 points. Here is Mesenbrink's record this year. Only one match was remotely close (10-1), and I think M let off the gas because he knew he couldn't get to the TF with the time remaining: 2025 11/17/2024 165 Cody Walsh (Drexel) WTF 21-4 (5:19) 1-0 2025 11/24/2024 165 Carter Baer (Binghamton) WTF 18-3 (5:37) 2-0 2025 11/24/2024 165 Cam Adams (Michigan State) WTF 18-1 (4:01) 3-0 2025 11/24/2024 165 #32 Tony White (Rutgers ) WTF 19-4 (5:46) 4-0 2025 11/24/2024 165 Gunner Filiopowicz (Army West Point) WTF 17-2 (4:50) 5-0 2025 12/8/2024 165 Thayne Lawrence (Lehigh) WTF 18-1 (4:37) 6-0 2025 12/15/2024 165 Cooper Voorhees (Wyoming ) WTF 15-0 (3:17) 7-0 2025 12/22/2024 165 #21 Joey Bianchi (Arkansas-Little Rock ) WTF 17-1 (5:27) 8-0 2025 12/22/2024 165 () WFT 9-0 2025 12/22/2024 165 () WFT 10-0 2025 1/10/2025 165 Jay Nivison (Michigan State) WTF 20-5 (3:57) 11-0 2025 1/17/2025 165 #7 Bubba Wilson (Nebraska) WTF 20-3 (5:39) 12-0 2025 1/24/2025 165 #26 Anthony White (Rutgers) WTF 19-3 (6:30) 13-0 2025 1/31/2025 165 #2 Mikey Caliendo (Iowa ) WTF 19-4 (6:24) 14-0 2025 2/7/2025 165 #10 Beau Mantanona (Michigan ) WMD 18-4 15-0 2025 2/9/2025 165 Alex Uryniak (Maryland) WTF 18-3 (4:59) 16-0 2025 2/14/2025 165 Brock Herman (Ohio State) WTF 19-4 (4:39) 17-0 2025 2/16/2025 165 #14 Braeden Scoles (Illinois) WMD 10-1 18-0 2025 2/21/2025 165 Kaden Milheim (American) WTF 19-2 (5:20) 19-0

I'm not particularly interested in defending Nickal, but Ono has been training at Penn State for 2 or 3 months, particularly with Zain Retherford, Jordan Conaway, and Cody Sanderson. Nickal has his MMA facility there and so I'm sure he is in the room alot. He also probably just enjoys taunting the Iowa faithful.

Lee never threatened Ono. Couldn't get to his legs or break the head-hands defense. If you can keep Lee from scoring in the first period, you have a good chance to winning against him. He's not known for his gas tank. It will be interesting to see if Ono goes to 57 KG. I'm curious how Blaze might fair against Lee. RBY kept it reasonably close recently. Carr, I guess, was tonight's U.S. star.

Winners in red: 62kgs: Nathan Tomasello vs Daniel DeShazer 97kgs: Marcus Coleman vs Jay Aiello 62kgs: Xochitl Mota-Pettis vs Melanie Nahomi Jimenez 57kgs: Amanda Martinez vs Zeltzin Hernandez 86kgs: Nate Jackson vs Kennedy Monday 62kgs: Austin DeSanto vs Seth Gross 72kgs: Bryce Andonian vs Austin Gomez 88kgs: Zahid Valencia vs Trent Hidlay 76kgs: David Carr vs Daichi Takatani 59.5kgs: Spencer Lee vs Masanosuke Ono

Winners in red: 62kgs: Nathan Tomasello vs Daniel DeShazer 97kgs: Marcus Coleman vs Jay Aiello 62kgs: Xochitl Mota-Pettis vs Melanie Nahomi Jimenez 57kgs: Amanda Martinez vs Zeltzin Hernandez 86kgs: Nate Jackson vs Kennedy Monday 62kgs: Austin DeSanto vs Seth Gross 72kgs: Bryce Andonian vs Austin Gomez 88kgs: Zahid Valencia vs Trent Hidlay 76kgs: David Carr vs Daichi Takatani 59.5kgs: Spencer Lee vs Masanosuke Ono

Ben is searching for tickets to attend this year's NCAAs in his home-town of Philadelphia and, if necessary, to revise his reputed remark with the conditional: "... and perhaps Penn State wrestling."

My only personal hope is that for the sake of fans in the stands and online that the dreaded match-ending leg lace or trapped arm turn doesn't come into (near) immediate play and thus transform the bout into a less than 10 second termination for either of these guys. Let's see what they can both do on their feet and in different wrestling positions, scrambles, and attacks/re-attacks, and defenses. I'm not the first (and won't be the last) to suggest that the UWW needs to place a limit on turns—let's say 2 turns (4 points) in a row and then stand the wrestlers back up. Like most good things if life, athletics is (and should be) based on necessary limits within which excellence can occur. Time limits, space limits, limits to weight, and limits to allowed repetitions.