Interviewed_at_Weehawken

I spent a couple weeks at the OTC around the time Cael made his debut. I had conversations with a prominent coach or two and the topic of bribery came up. The gist at the time was: "other countries do that... the US cannot and will not." I'm not saying it is impossible that Romero was bribed, but seemed unlikely a few years before. I generally saw Cubans taking dives in finals, too. Didn't they have a ridiculous finals losing streak at some point? Like 8 straight losses or something?

Are you saying the US may have bribed Yoel Romero?

Sanderson was never in the argument for "best in the world." The other two have been. Sanderson is an all-time American great, but no one out the the US would consider him much more than a one hit wonder. His NCAA and coaching accomplishments have inflated his international achievements. Similar stuff happened with Dan Gable.

If I remember correctly, Gable wasn't even there. He relayed the instructions to Zalesky. This was covered in "A Season on the Mat," and my copy is in another state at the moment.

I thought he was also trying not to torpedo Hand's confidence?

There is a lot going on here. Big brother-y type stuff can come into play. Familiarity The fact that Snyder has the fatigue associated with going hard every single day, whereas Cael can pick and choose when he goes hard. Coaches also are known for picking advantageous times to wrestle a fatigued athlete during practice. If only there was a data point of Coach Cael putting it on the line vs. the best in the world! Alas, he retired in 2004...

Wow! Hopefully he was a nice guy! Never went to one wrestling practice at Lock Haven, or he could perhaps be eligible for this list!

I've "only" been following since '83-'84ish. I'd say this is a pretty good list, but night put Neal over Snyder. Snyder has that 3rd NCAA title, but no way can I see prime Snyder beating prime Neal 6 out of 10 times. I can't see it. I also have a soft spot for Haselrig (same d2 conference, same era). There are other worthy additions, but this is pretty good. It would obviously be different it it were "285."

Supposedly folkstyle is what catch (without submissions) has evolved into. I suppose kind of like both 2024 sport Judo and sport BJJ are evolutions of Japanese jujutsu.

That was pro sports at the time...

He also always abstained from whiskey while posting.

and split up over the next 50 years!

I am old enough to remember when Adam Coon was destined to be the next All-Pro Offensive Tackle...

And current Hawks don't run away when par terre defense is being practiced...

Hold on Vak... Plott was HEW, don't you understand? The win is meaningless.

197? Why would he wrestle that heavy? Looks like a 174 at most, under the previous regime.

Yes. Not like they are dominating weak guys and getting overseeded. Something has just been happening at nationals.

They beat some pretty good guys! Scott, not so much, but he was also a returning placer. Championship Results 157 – #12 Ed Scott (NCSU) dec. #32 Sonny Santiago (UNC) – 8-2 165 – Nick Hamilton (UVA) dec. #21 Connor Brady (VT) – 7-2 174 – #2 Mekhi Lewis (VT) dec. #16 Justin McCoy (UVA) – 8-1 184 – #15 Thomas Stewart, Jr. (VT) dec. #10 Dylan Fishback (NCSU) – 8-5 197 – #2 Trent Hidlay (NCSU) over #23 Max Shaw (UNC) – medical forfeit 285 – #14 Owen Trephan (NCSU) dec. #19 Hunter Catka (VT) – 4-2 125 – #10 Jakob Camacho (NCSU) dec. #6 Cooper Flynn (VT) – 4-2 133 – #4 Kai Orine (NCSU) def. #15 Sam Latona (VT) – 4-0 141 – #4 Ryan Jack (NCSU) def. #14 Cole Matthews (Pitt) – 4-1 149 – #5 Jackson Arrington (NCSU) def. #2 Caleb Henson (VT) – 4-1 SV-1

I mean, I was a middling D2 5'10" 150 lber and I could grab rim with both hands. Our 158 could dunk.

Mookie Betts= phenomenal bowler

and I agree.

I think the problem with that is: there are way more high school coaches who do not understand the rules or interpretations. Many high school coaches thought that it was 3 swipes for a 2 point nearfall in recent years!

We will never know. Alirez went on record that Woods was a lot better at Iowa, despite losing to him at Stanford and beating him at Iowa in the finals.

But then NC State has been getting outperformed by Vtech at nationals. So I'm guessing it is not just the unilateral domination over a weak conference that we saw with Mizzou in the MAC.

I don't think anyone that wrestled under Gable could be called a Cael clone, or even a Gable clone. However, between Brands, Zalesky, and Tom Ryan, the Gable proteges have done ok. I would imagine that Taylor would do a lot of the same stuff Cael does. He will likely have a lot more patience than Smith, as he has shown that he is successful working with youth level kids. For M2, he has said he is somewhere in between his high school experience (almost no drilling during the season and just banging heads for 2+ hours) and PSU (lots of drilling and sparring, the drilling is probably very active). I would think that he would be more Cael-like for the college studs he will have.