SocraTease

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.

One of the best pieces (actually two different videos) I've seen is Jason Nolf breaking down and discussing in detail the Ono vs. Lee match. He both talks about what Lee does well and shows what Ono is likely to do, including how Lee might reasonably respond. Nolf is a master technician and tactician and is clear with his explanations. Here is one of the videos:

They don't breathe (not "breath", which is the word you use) like humans outside of utero, but they do take in oxygen-rich blood from the mother's placenta through the umbilical chord. I would say that counts as a practical form of breathing unless we want to parse and define words narrowly. Fish also breathe, but not like us either. Same with scuba divers and astronauts, who are not breathing on their own but with the aid of a prosthetic device. PS: Since you want to get technical, I said they "shared the same breath in the womb". The breath came from their mother. I didn't say they breathed.

The Ferraris and Nickal are from the same high school in Texas, and they both possess Texas-sized egos. Some of us enjoy watching them lose. The Germans call that Schadenfreude.

Here's the baseball equivalent of wrestling from your knees (pic below). It shrinks your strike zone. I recall wrestling really short guys. It was very hard to get to their legs. (I looked forward to the second and third periods when I could throw in legs, then ride and work for the turn.) Guys that wrestle from their knees basically cut their height in half and greatly reduce their exposure to being taken down. Bernie Truax was another wrestler who was sometimes on his knees in neutral, though I seem to recall him doing it only for a few seconds and then come up for an attack, particularly a sweep single. This man was 26 year old, 3 feet, 7 inch tall Eddie Gaedel. Gaedel was signed by Bill Veeck to a Major League contract of $15,400 ($100 per game), which was the set minimum one could pay a little person performance act, per event. Gaedel was an evenly proportioned dwarf (the term for such a person at the time was “midget”, with dwarfs who were disproportionate in some way being called just dwarfs). When Veeck began scheming ideas to bolster attendance for his newly acquired, struggling team, the St. Louis Browns, he specifically requested a midget as it was more socially acceptable in that era where dwarfs were unfortunately often relegated only to the “back stage” or freak shows. Further, Veeck felt a midget would look more athletic in the uniform over other dwarfs. After reviewing several candidates, he settled on Eddie Gaedel, who already was something of a showman, appearing in circuses, rodeos, and the like, and was a member of the American Guild of Variety Artists. He also held more common jobs like being an errand boy for a newspaper and during WWII he worked as a riveter. His small size particularly suited him for this job as he was able to crawl into places on the planes that most workers couldn’t fit into.Veeck anticipated that Major League Baseball would be against this signing, so submitted the contract for review late on a Friday, which would result in it getting approved without anyone looking at it too thoroughly. On Sunday August 19, 1951 before the second game of a double header against the Detroit Tigers, Veeck had Eddie Gaedel pop out of a papier-mâché cake and announce to the crowd of 18,369 that he was the newest member of the St. Louis Browns. Initially people thought Gaedel being a member of the team was a joke and that he would not actually be playing. When he stepped up to the plate to lead off in the second game of the double header that day, to pinch hit for Frank Saucier, at first the umpire, Eddie Hurley, wasn’t going to allow him to bat. However, Veeck showed the umpire Gaedel’s signed contract and the official roster for the team and he was allowed to lead off. Veeck had given Gaedel specific orders that he was not to swing. Further, he was to crouch low in his batting stance to minimize the size of the strike zone (in this crouch, the strike zone was estimated to be just a few inches). Gaedel did not do the practiced crouch in the actual game. Rather, he stood up a bit more, so the zone was a little larger than it would have been, but still quite small. Veeck’s plan worked and Gaedel managed an easy walk. With the first two pitches, the opposing pitcher, Bob Cain, did try to throw a strike, but finding this too difficult, he just lobbed the ball for the next two pitches. Gaedel then took his base, stopping to take a bow twice on his way, and was lifted for a pinch runner, Jim Delsing. As he walked off the field, Gaedel was given a boisterous standing ovation. Two days later, American League President Will Harridge voided Gaedel’s contract and he was out of a job. Further, Harridge officially banned midgets from being able to play in the American League and removed Gaedel’s walk from the official records (it was put back in a year later). After this was announced, Gaedel complained in the media that Harridge had just robbed him of what would have been a lucrative baseball career. Veeck responded to the banning of midgets from the American League with, “Fine. Let’s establish what a midget is in fact. Is it 3 feet 6 inches? Eddie’s height? Is it 4 feet 6 inches? If it’s 5 feet 6 inches, that’s great. We can get rid of [MVP] Rizzuto.” Veeck even threatened to request MLB officially rule on whether Phil Rizzuto qualified as a midget or not. (Future Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto was officially listed at 5 ft, 6 inches, but that’s “baseball inches” which aren’t always too accurate, especially with shorter players whose height numbers tend to get padded.) Despite the public show, Gaedel hadn’t expected to get to serve out the whole contract and he even waved his normal right to 30 days of severance pay, which would have been about $3000 ($25,000 today). This had always been more of just a one day gig for Gaedel. However, had Major League Baseball by some miracle approved the contract, Veeck had planned to have Gaedel used regularly in such situations as when the bases were loaded and a walk would force in a run. Gaedel ultimately did get a lot more than just $100 out of this performance. He cashed in on his new-found fame, booking a variety of appearances including TV and radio spots and even playing in an amateur game (striking out in that appearance). All total, it’s estimated he earned over $17,000 ($140,000 today) in the few weeks following his Major League at bat alone. However, it wasn’t all sunshine lollipops for him after this. Due to the extreme discrimination against little people at the time and that his fame tended to result in a lot more attention (often negative) than he otherwise might have received, he understandably developed something of a temper with people who made fun of him for his stature. He also began to drink heavily, which compounded the problem, where he’d become combative even when no offense was intended. This all came to a head on June 18, 1961. Gaedel got drunk at a bowling alley and apparently got in verbal confrontations with several people before leaving. Whether as a result of this or that he simply got mugged, at some point between the bowling alley and arriving home, he was beaten up on his way home. His mother found him the next morning in bed, dead. He had been having heart problems and the beating he took exacerbated the issue, resulting in a fatal heart attack. He was just 36 years old.