JVStateChamp

I am perfectly fine with not assuming that Gable would have won that year, I am more in favor of Snyder having a better career. But when you list accolades it is important to add the caveat that Gable did not have the opportunity of a national tournament in one of his four years.

Their careers are very similar Snyder is a 4x finalist and 3x Champ, while Gable is a 2x Champion and has a 3rd place finish (I would also assume that had the 2020 year happened Gable would have won) But there is definitely an argument to be made that Snyder is the best heavyweight.

I would say Snyder has a pretty good argument for a better heavyweight career. Has an Olympic gold medal and 3-time NCAA champion.

At the high school level I don't agree with 20 point techs. There is huge skill variations at the high school level and with one person up by 15 points I think that is sufficient to end the match. Some matches are already unbearable to watch when a kid with much superior skill plays catch and release against a much weaker opponent. I for one do not want to see a kid get embarrassed and taken down 10 times at will.

I'm not sure participation numbers are a huge factor in the potential to be successful. While numbers help and show data to prove representation, in the wrestling world culture has a huge impact on success. Right now Texas does not have the culture/history that is shown to be needed to be a "top" wrestling state. The Lehigh Valley for example is not a large population size but has the tradition and culture within their community that promotes wrestling which has a direct correlation with the success of the area.

I'm not completely disagreeing with you but Penn State has a lot of history and fan support even before Cael arrived. While they may not have been an Iowa or Okie State, even before Cael PSU teams would still be a top 15 program. I would consider that still good by many teams standards. Cael has brought them to the best program we've ever seen, but by no means were they a bad wrestling program at any point in history.

I think that Okie State is one of maybe 3 schools that would be willing to provide the resources necessary to shake up the wrestling world. There is no shortage of candidates that could make a big splash in the world of college wrestling but more universities are willing to pump out the $$ that Okie State, PSU, and Iowa are willing to. ADs and Universities do not see the ROI of hiring a multi-million dollar staff and resources.

Former App State 133 Ethan Oakley signed with North Carolina.

McGonagle to Vtech. Posted on his instagram this morning. Good pick up for the Hokies

Good pickup for NC State. This may be bigger news for USA wrestling, there has been a lot of turnover for the freestyle development coach in recent years.

I agree with that this year the PIAA wanted to spotlight the Girls wrestling tournament by putting them on the center mats for both finals and semi-finals. I think this year was a trial run for scheduling as well as how they could format the tournament to make it both efficient and enjoyable from a viewer standpoint. As for the schedule, I would consider it a fail, consi-semi round did not start until 9 PM, and then the wrestlers had to be up and at the arena for 8:00 weigh-ins the following morning. The quarter-final round for AAA also began 30 minutes behind the scheduled time. But it will certainly be interesting to see how the PIAA manages these flaws going forward, there were rumbles around the Giant Center that they may be considering moving the boys back to 16-man brackets, whether that is true I am not sure. I imagine as girls wrestling grows which it undoubtedly will, they will get their own governing committee that will organize and coordinate postseason. This will separate them from the boys but also allow them to have some autonomy on how they will begin their own traditions without being compared to the boys.

They do force you to pay online, I was at PA States this year and you could purchase all-session tickets for $50/person, this may seem steep but considering it covers girls, AA, and AAA it is not terrible. Online tickets are a pain in the butt and come with extra fees but its just the way things go now. I also agree that a spotlight final or something better than girls, AA, AAA finals is a necessary change for next year. The state finalists and state champions were given a disservice, the parade of champions was a joke and did not recognize any of the athletes competing in the finals. PIAA needs to figure out how to handle adding girls wrestling to the tournament as the schedule was a mess and fans missed the first two weight classes for the semi-finals Friday night due to lines outside the Giant Center.

How hard is it to enter the correct wrestler at the designated time? If there is a late entry should the tournament even accept it? I believe the idea is that the conference wants to get the names of the entries in so that they can begin the seeding procedures and release brackets/seeds in a timely manner. The thought is that the late entry automatically gets the last seed which they are more likely to take a first-round loss. If they allow late entries and reseed the whole weight class brackets would be changing more frequently causing even more confusion over how wrestler "C" got seeded over wrestler "A" and so on

Mike Macchiavello comes to mind when discussing wrestlers that "overachieved". He was a one-time state champ from North Carolina which is not exactly known as the toughest state. I believe I remember in an article that he had a negative record as a freshman in college. Either way, it was an impressive progression from HS to College.

I do not mind the idea of home and away singlets, I think this could be easily accomplished where there are specific base colors that count towards home and others that are away. Some teams have tried to implement shorts and a shirt for competitions like ASU or Mizzu but it just has not seemed to get any traction. I personally think the singlet is better but I would be all for shorts and a shirt if it correlated to a spike in participation.