BruceyB

+ advancement, so 13 / 3.5 in total.

Perry with 5 in the semis and 9 of his 11 wrestlers are still going. Wow.

Young guys haven't been making world teams because they have had world medalists/champions blocking their way for the last quad and then some. Guys like Gilman, Lee, Green, Retherford, Dake, Burroughs, Taylor, Cox, Snyder.. it's not an indictment on folkstyle wrestling that other domestic wrestlers haven't been able to dethrone these legends.

I'm going to assume this is disingenuous.

1x AA/Champ

Only 1 of Braeden Davis, Nasir Bailey, and Evan Frost will AA.

At least LL and Davis losing here doesn't hurt Carl's record in the semis/finals.

I bet these boys wouldn't be running from Erin.

Woods and Eierman did not transfer to Iowa as seniors and each also had their best NCAA performance while donning the black and gold. Correlation does not equal causation, but still worth noting.

I agree with you. I think it's also so much different now than it was even 15 years ago. For the most part, 15 years ago guys wrestled their high school schedule, NWCA nationals, Fargo, and maybe another big event or two. Most blue-chip recruits would only be truly tested in a handful of matches each year in high school, and cruise their way through most of their high school careers. Now, guys are beating up their bodies through high school with things like WNO, 16u WTT, 20u WTT, Super-32, and already coming into college with more wear. They then beat their bodies down further by prolonging eligibility with the ease of medicals, covid-years, frequency of Olympic redshirts, etc. The rigor of a college wrestling schedule is not conducive to what a 24-25 year body requires to perform at it's peak.

To be fair, I am a huge KOT supporter, but I don't think this is a fair statement. KOT has a quality in him where he can just get it done. Even in his post-match interview, he acknowledged that he thought he might lose the match, but the difference between Norman and Keegan was that Norman tried to survive on his lead and shut down his own wrestling thinking he had enough separation to get the win. He did not. I think Lorenzo Norman is going to be an absolute force for the rest of this tournament and the next three, but this was likely a big learning lesson. That being said, I am very nervous for KOT assuming he makes the finals against either Hamiti or Haines.

I said it after CKLV.. I thought we was a problem. I was nervous for KOT when I saw the draw and that it was going to be an evening match when Norman was going to be feeling good. As for the original question, I can't recall a 1/4 Finals round that I have been as excited for as this. You have a number of guys who could be surprise semi-finalists, elite guys facing off in the quarters. It's always a good round, but this year it's a step above IMO.

125: Strickenberger 133: Romney 141: Jamison 149: Webster 174: Norman could be as I'm curious if his weird losses were due to weight issues. 197: AJ Ferrari says he'll be 215-220 Saturday night. Whether or not he's wrestling, we'll see. 285: Schultz

I'm sorry. I actually almost deleted it because it felt like too much salt in the wound. The hawks are back ahead now.

I missed who initiated the challenge.. when the swipes were wiped off the board, I assumed OKST challenged. Brutal turn of events.

20 points after two rounds is crazy. Flyingcement and Jmoney would be tied for 4th over Iowa.

Overall I think freestyle is a much easier sport to learn than folkstyle. You basically need to learn how to wrestle in neutral, learn a gut/lace, and defend a gut/lace, and largely gain a feel for avoiding exposure. You just don't need to wrestle the style your whole life to be the best in the world. Folk is much more nuanced and you have to be proficient in so many more positions to be successful. For the most part, even 15 years ago, guys would wrestle freestyle from March until April, and then maybe a training camp before Fargo. Freestyle was just a way to keep wrestling, but didn't garner nearly the focus that it does with today's athletes. How many guys were competing at cadet and junior worlds 15 years ago? Younger guys are wrestling plenty enough freestyle now to be ready to make world teams even while in college. The only reason we haven't seen more young guys making teams is because we've had so many stalwarts holding down weight classes for more than a quad. In my opinion, many of the attributes we credit wrestling for instilling in us as athletes derives from it being primarily folkstyle focused in the U.S. Wrestling gets credit for building toughness, discipline, hard work, etc. But you just don't necessarily need to have those attributes nearly as dialed in to have success in freestyle. Chamizo, Musukaev, and all of the other gassers throughout the years could never have the same kind of success that they've had in freestyle if they were to wrestle folkstyle unless that made changes to their training habits. That is what I think you'd lose in American wrestling culture if we switched fully to FS. You lose a lot of the toughness and grit that folkstyle instills.

mat 6

to be fair, he didn't wrestle at all in that third period, he got pushed around like he was on skates trying to avoid action.

He was literally holding him on his back.. when time expired.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Robinson with the superduck on the reset with 9 seconds to go..

Voelker vs Salazar and Surber vs Braunagel in first round of consis. Tough.

To be fair, it's easy to be relaxed when you know you're on a different level than anyone you're going to wrestle in a tournament.

They'll win the title without any challengers. But they also have 10 wrestlers that are going in believing they can win a national title. PSU's winning percentage in the semis is an absurd 83%. If they all of the sudden have a number of wrestlers on the backside after Friday night, that would be a disappointment by their own standards they have created.

This is my purpose of the post. If they fall short, it just brings them back down to reality. What they've done over the last decade plus is just unheard of. This year just seems like they may regress to the mean more than in recent years. If they continue their ridiculousness this year, I will just have to defer to the penn state bump from here on out.