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Depending on Lee's health, I'd go Lee by decision. RBY would definitely employ the Rivera strategy of trying to run away in neutral

Should've went to Penn State, not been overworked then had the Bo Nickal gym to train at!

Derek White

Got any “Burwikk” updates for us?

I dunno, this doesn’t look very comparable to the wrestling version

Did anything ever come from those tampering allegations from last year? (Or was it 2 years ago?)

Is there a submission that can relate to arm bars?

He beat one of last year’s finalists, seems ready to compete with the best right now. No guarantee what will happen 5 years from now.

Well do you want to do what I said or do you want to match international weights lol? I think those are 2 slightly different things. So right now we have: 125/125.7 133/134.5 141/143.3 149/- 157/154.3 165/163.1 174/174.2 184/189.6 197/202.8 -/213.8 285/275.6 I kinda prefer my suggestion with more concentration around the middle weights

Can’t remember the specifics anymore but it was the pretty typical minimizer stuff. The main thing I remember was he was one of the “I don’t know anyone that’s gotten it, so it must not be real” people. At one point probably into 2021 I think he had claimed that no one at his academy ever even got it.

I think it’s only fitting that we get some Covid into the “Burwikk” thread, but Askren’s Covid opinions were pretty terrible. I like him for the most part otherwise though

Not saying it’s true, but wouldn’t the fact that Gross “filled in only after McD left” not really refute the claim that McD was pushed out? I have to think being on the college staff pays more than the RTC (except maybe at NLWC or HWC). Of course you can certainly argue that it is Bono’s prerogative to do what he wants with the coaching staff. Although allegedly promising jobs to current athletes is probably frowned upon to say the least…

Well yeah I think by definition it will do that, 197 too if you have 3 weight classes where there used to be 2. If you want the classes to be closer to international weights, I’d rather just change 184 to 189 or so, and 197 to 210, which would be basically in between 92 and 97 kg, and also give HS 215 lbers a better option.

Ok that’s a fair question. But technically, Brands can’t even make an attached wrestler wrestle if they refuse to. Making an unattached wrestler NOT wrestle is a good question that I don’t know the answer to. But I’m still betting that Minnow was “mistaken” by claiming Lee even wanted Ayala to MFF at all. I think Lee just didn’t want to wrestle and was likely planning to MFF himself. Alternate conspiracy theory (mostly joking): Brands made Lee wrestle because he wanted the Soldier Salute to seem like less of a low quality tournament?

Not sure if this was posted somewhere - Lee interview from after the tournament. https://www.hawkcentral.com/videos/sports/college/iowa/wrestling/2022/12/31/iowa-wrestler-spencer-lee-after-winning-soldier-salute-xtream-arena-coralville-ncaa-wrestling-result/10972957002/ Not too much info. Towards the beginning in talking about wrestling in this event at all he says “they pulled the trigger…well I pulled the trigger, I made the decision” He does comment that he “hasn’t wrestled much lately because he’s been hurt, but Drake was hurt too,” overall very complimentary of Ayala

Looks like Caffey didn’t officially get it until early this season

Some of the five year guys will definitely do it. That’s of course an asterisk but for ones that wrestled in 2020 they missed out on matches and 2021 was a shortened season. Perusing wrestlestat, Looks like Cam Caffey, Labriola, Lou Deprez, Mason Parris already have unless they don’t all count. Caffey might have even ended last season with 100 (again unless some of the wrestlestat ones don’t count). Ethan Smith could do it this year and he even has 40 losses not even counting his redshirt year. Sasso looks like a safe bet if he wrestles next year. Same with David Carr. O’Toole a good chance. Shane Griffith. Keckeisen. Maybe Trent Hidlay

Whatever you want to call it, it’s not uncommon. A 220 class in college is unnecessary

Spencer basically ruined Ayala’s chances to be a 4x AA by making him wrestle as a true freshman when he probably could have used a redshirt …somewhat joking

A true freshman 215 pounder just pretty much dominated a returning national finalist. This is just yet another example of “tweeners” having no issue with the weight differential against heavyweights.

Yeah. Would seem to fit the profile of “half-truths” from Minnow and would make more sense. Although it doesn’t really make sense in terms of how protective Brands typically is of him. You could probably argue it’s more safe to wrestle a teammate who likely won’t go after the knee or anything like that, but considering Lee supposedly said he didn’t want to wrestle, it’s an odd move. Cue the “Brands doesn’t care about his wrestlers’ health!” arguments, which could also cue the “Spencer Lee should go to NLWC!” arguments…

Meh. He also only won 15-5 against a true freshman with losses to Tristan Lujan, Jarrett Trombley, Trevor Mastrogiovanni and Liam Cronin.

I’m still having a hard time believing Lee wanted Ayala to forfeit, especially if it seems it wouldn’t have even counted. Is it possible Lee didn’t care who forfeited, and just didn’t want to wrestle, but Ayala did and for some godforesaken reason Brands said OK?

In other Soldier Salute news: Echemendia lost 4-3 to Rathjen who lost 7-4 to Murin. I think there were at least 5 Iowa guys in this bracket 2nd seed at 157 and NQ last year Andrew Cerniglia of Navy went 0-2 getting pinned twice Top seed at 174 and R12 last year Hayden Hastings of Wyoming got pinned by Lennox Wolak of Columbia in the semis Assad beat Bennett Berge in SV in the finals

Well his mom sure seems willing to share what she knows, might try messaging her on Facebook