BruceyB

Your points on why you don't believe Kolat to be the answer are really strong, but I also admit while reading them, they seem to dismiss how truly good Kolat was. Forgive me for the assumption, but I imagine you'd agree that he probably should have had at least one world or olympic title in his prime. He was certainly on the level and likely could have won any of the years you previously mentioned had things gone slightly differently. He was without a doubt good enough to win an Olympic gold medal. Additionally, if you watch the FloFilm, or any interview and here the man talk about wrestling, I can't imagine having anything but an immense respect and wishing that things had gone better for him. Like you said, I think the injustices have lead to his legend growing and a certain need to justify how good he was despite the lack of a gold. Not to mention that he wrestled at 63kg.. Arguably the toughest weight in wrestling. Look at our overall medal count in 63kg/65kg since Kolat. Has anyone else been close to the level of Cary in 63kg/65kg over a four year span since? I think the fact that he was competing in a weight that is so hard to win is being dismissed. FRL talked about the incredible parity at 65kg not too long ago and how essentially no one repeats at the weight because it is just so dang tough to make a run to gold at the weight. It's getting into semantics, but there is a difference between the most decorated wrestler to never win an Olympic gold and the best wrestler to never win. Here is my question for the rest of you; Who was a better international wrestler? Henry Cejudo or Cary Kolat?

I'm listening. Or.. I'm reading.

Let's be honest here, the majority of wrestlers are not under 125 pounds or over 200 pounds. The average size of a healthy adult male falls somewhere between the two. And then consider participants in wrestling where the majority of athletes that are 200 pounds or larger and have the athleticism to be a competitive d1 athlete aren't choosing wrestling as their main sport.

No, I have been wondering the same thing. But the way the topic has been discussed on FRL, CP seems to think that using Ferrari in the dual is the correct move as well. I don't know if he's heard talk about what happens in the room, or if the assumption is that Arnold cannot beat Starocci, and that because we haven't seen Ferrari lose to anyone in so long, that his ceiling is somewhat unknown at this point.

I typically agree with this logic, but man is he good at winning boring matches. His only losses at 141; Mendez x2, Alirez, Real Woods, and Brocky Hardy. Mendez even when he wins lower scoring matches appears more dominant because he maintains pressure, moves forward, attacks, and is rarely in danger of getting scored on. Bartlett is much more willing to stand around and wait for a reattack score against tougher opponents. But it seems like Bartlett has cemented himself into the #3 spot at this weight until someone proves otherwise.

I am curious to see how much fire he has after not competing for over a year and a half. The fact that he was willing to step away from the sport after winning an Olympic gold to pursue WWE and NFL makes me wonder how much passion he has left. If someone can take a match to deep waters, it'd be interesting to see how he responds.

This. For all we know, it's just a financial opportunity. I would assume that tOSU has the money to keep their athletes, but who knows the conversations going on behind the scenes between boosters/coaches/athletes.

If i were to guess, coaching staff probably figured Kharchla (who is supposed to be competing second semester) has been a loyal guy and deserves one last go, and Rocco has a redshirt, so why not make that move and let KOT and Hamiti graduate and maximize your scoring potential with Welsh over the next three years.

I appreciate your comment. I was disappointed no one else chimed in with what they are most interested/hopeful to see.

I'd argue it's not the same at tOSU as OKST. The Tom Ryan regime has had several "faces" of the program during his tenure, and none more notable than Logan Stieber. Logan went to tOSU and with that came his brother Hunter, and high school teammate Tessari, and then you had the Jordans, Snyder, MyMar, NaTo, etc. etc. OSU is a great program, and I would still love to see Bo go there, but OKST has been (relatively) down for a number of years at this point, and with a new coach and hopeful resurgence to becoming a title contender, Bo has the chance to be part of the revitalization of the program. I love Tom Ryan and tOSU, but given the comments he's made, it seems like Bo is either going to go to the proven PSU or become a face of a new look OKST team. I'll eat my words when the decision comes out, but if I were putting money on it today, I actually think OKST is where he ends up. I'm sure you'll have a quippy one liner for this take as well.

I would hope so. The first two matchups aren't exactly going to be tough for Haines and O'Toole. And with Penn State's ability to make adjustments after seeing a matchup, and how well Keegan was able to make adjustments after his first meeting with Carr, I think both parties would view getting to see the match as their own advantage for NCAAs.

I'd be curious if Flo put out a poll on social media what the result would be. The input of a wider variety of casual to serious fans would be interesting.

I can admit when I was wrong. The change happened before I started wrestling. I have always thought that they essentially got rid of 118 and then adjusted all of the remaining weights so their would still be 10. I never realized that they literally just added 7 pounds to each weight. But that's still moot to my point that not enough athletes could safely fill the weight class for it to be worth keeping as is.

Having to go through the big10 dual schedule and big10s really gives them more high end competition than most non big10 teams see all year. Who should PSU wrestle that's tough out of conference? Ok State is probably the best dual team not in the big12 and they would be favored in every match other than 125, and I'm sure there are more than a few people that would put their money on Lilledahl in that matchup. I am in no way a PSU fan, but it's hard to make a tough schedule when you're just so far ahead of the rest of the field.

Is there a video? Any idea how the match played out?

You probably wear ankle socks with your wrestling shoes.

Show me any event in the sport of wrestling that has 10% of the viewership of the NCAA championships in the US. College is king of viewers and fans. They got rid of the lowest weight and slightly adjusted the other weights to compensate. Saying they moved all of the weights up 7 pounds makes no sense. You could equally argue that they actually lowered 126 to 125, and 134 to 133, etc as a response to removing the lowest weight. 118 wasn't a weight that many grown men could make without cutting a severe amount of weight (not enough healthy 118s).

Wrestling fans and people involved in wrestling, while there is some overlap, are largely two different groups entirely. Fans are watching and following the sport (viewing numbers, ticket sales, merch sales, subscribers to whatever platform is streaming the event they want to watch), while your "first tier supporters" often watch their athlete and that team compete without being an overall fan of the sport. That is why professional baseball is bigger than tee-ball despites more kids playing tee ball than in the MLB. College is king in wrestling because regardless of who is wearing the singlet, most fans have a team (or teams) they cheer for, and teams they like to root against. The team aspect, and the following of the "season" is just more conducive to viewers and followers.

A lot of guys change weight classes over their 5 years of college regardless of weight class. But when it comes to weight distribution, just like we no longer have a 118 weight class in college because the weight doesn't have enough athletes to justify it, adding a weight for few competitors that can't make 197 but aren't big enough to compete at 285 doesn't make sense either. The number of high level wrestlers in this situation is just not high enough to make an entire weight for those individuals. This is especially true if the cost is removing a middle weight class where the majority of the athletes in our sport compete.

I'd imagine if he wants to be a starter, he would transfer after this season. After this season Kasak and Mesenbrink will still have two years each, Levi will be back for his senior year, and Sealey is in redshirt this year and PJ Duke is coming in. Facundo is really tough. I'd hope he gets to compete as a starter more than his RS freshman year.

Looking at this matchup really shows how much Iowa has struggled to develop talent from within. Ayala and Arnold are the only guys on the roster that originally committed to Iowa and seem like solid bets to AA this year. Brands went on an unforeseeable run a couple years ago to AA but he hasn't impressed so far. Kueter could AA this year, and I think he'll be a title contender once the top guys clear out following this season. Ferrari should be ready to compete at a high level next year, but they don't have anyone else truly notable on their roster. FWIW I am not a fan of Iowa and their bravado, but the sport is undoubtedly better when Iowa is thriving. And before anyone starts listing off transfers on the OSU roster or any other teams, this is not an anti-transfer post. It's just notable that Iowa has brought in returning AAs at 4 different weights and still have two weights without a top 20 guy, and two weights with fringe AA/r12 guys.

Based on what? His 100% bonus rate this year? He's a Jr World Champ that I'm fairly certain has Worlds and Olympics on his mind.

That is interesting. I haven't heard of anyone utilizing that since the 5 free date rule went into effect. The wording seems pretty ambiguous.

The 5 attached events only applies to true freshman. So Welsh unless they pull his redshirt will not be competing in the OSU singlet this year.

I don't disagree with you. I phrased the question for this kind of discussion. Should they be viewed equally? Should Keegan get the benefit of the doubt until Haines notches a folkstyle win that proves he's on KOT's level? Does Haines freestyle win make him the favorite? I think all views are fair, and that is the fun of talking about the matchup.