scourge165

Yeah...sucks for us, but great for... Crookham or anyone else at 133. It'll make things even more interesting...the one year. Can he win it with the mat Wrestling. It's gonna be pretty fun either way.

Something change between his commitment and now? And if he flips to Iowa, will that be Iowa poaching him?

May he not grow up to be a @Jimmy Cinnabonor @Spencerlee!!! Or a 165LB Wrestler as Penn State still appears to have a logjam that may not clear out by the time he's around. More importantly, where are Miller, James and Duke going to College? So if a Soph gets a TD on a Sr in HS who had 5 techs and lost a single match 5-5 at the World Championships last year, is that really the flex Iowa fans seem to think it is?

This was a bit unreasonably angry.... The...audacity of him to say he looks more like a 97 pounder! Also...not for nothing, but Mirasola isn't really a natural HWT either. He's more of a natural '97 but so is his Brother and his Brother is a little bit better...or maybe just has had more success due to not having to be the one who goes up a weight.

Well...79KG would probably be an even better weight for him, but... we only have space for 6 Olympic weight classes because we have to have flip cup and and...wheelbarrow racing in the Olympics.

Among AWA kids it is. Those kids don't have "a style." I think that probably speaks to the level of coaching they get. Sinclair is slick and hits his shots or drags so smoothly. Mirasola's are physical and great and better at handfighting, Mesenbrink relentlessly attacks, Keckeisen is a...Jake Varner type Wrestler, he's sorta a mix. O'Toole was like Sinclair, but probably better in scrambles. They've all got different styles. Yes, that was the first name that came to mind. But also Terry and Troy Steiner. They used to have insane workouts(or stories about them) that I've heard about where they would spend literally 5-6 hours rotating Bike/treadmill and just training like that. When Dan Gable says "I've never seen anyone work harder or be in better shape," that's... telling. I may be articulating this poorly because in my mind, I'm just talking about the ability to maintain that pace. I'd also throw in another Mesenbrink trained kid, Jake Sueflohn in there. He had an incredible gas tank and came out and just kept firing off attacks all 7 minutes.

I'm absolutely not saying he doesn't have natural traits or athletic ability that make him special. He's got a kinda herky jerky style and his mis-direction is incredible. But just the pace he Wrestles...I do believe that is something anyone CAN do. It doesn't mean you'll be able to beat him, it takes insane dedication(I'd imagine), a gas tank plugged straight into the Alaskan pipeline and the desire to do it and even then you see Dean Hamiti who I think Wrestled at...a somewhat similar pace, but just that one aspect, I think you can get there through work. I don't know how many people are willing to put in that work and also have that competitiveness. What it really amounts to though is Mesenbrink will Wrestle a full 7 minute match like a guy who is down 2 points with 30 seconds left in the NCAA Finals. And again, I think we've seen guys who have done something similar in a couple older Iowa guys.

Fair.

And maybe he'd have won it this year and then gotten bogged down with injuries or a savant like...Lockett/Duke if he had 2 more years. Hard to say. He was REAL close several times. A poorly Wrestled Match vs Mesenbrink from being in the finals in '24, but he won it and he seems to me to be a GREAT fit at 74KG.

I mean...it's pretty much lose or lose at this point... Does Mesenbrink even have someone to Wrestle at FinalX with Dake going up?

I disagree. This is...kinda what John Mesenbrink was known for. First of all, it's how he Wrestled in his 40s(I mean, for a guy in his 40s) but it's how he wrestled and how he coached. Second, I think it's just effort and hours. I think it's obviously incredibly hard, but Mesenbrink was famous for two things as a coach. He'd finish the year with 12-15 kids as a lot of kids didn't want to go through the practices or the early morning workouts and he'd always have kids pulling off huge upsets. Then you add in AWA and all the teammates he had there and much more technical Wrestling and I think it CAN be replicated...but it takes a pretty intense mentality to do so. I don't know that it's so much different from a the Stieners or Mcllravy in attack rate.

So...does that mean he wasn't a Freshmen or that Buchanan hadn't already taken a couple of 3rds? Or are you just letting me know for...no discernible reason that Josh Barr is the same age right now that Bo Bassett will be by the time he Wrestles a match for Iowa? I'm confused, you really didn't make a point, but it sounded like you were TRYING to argue about something...

No, Lightening...as in "lightening" Spencer Lee's Medal count.

I hear Spencer's Mom wears contacts now...so...she could take out an eyeball in a hasty act, but...I suspect she'd stop at one.

LOL...you took a guy who'd taken a few 3rds and he still barely beat a PSU Freshmen. Not really sure that's the flex YOU seem to think it is.

Oh yeah...if Lightening Luke Takes a match someone with a lot of vowels in their name is gonna go after his knee!

...cool. LOL...he couldn't have made my point any better if he tried. The generic 'you all say,' comment and he doesn't see the hypocrisy. It's pretty clear he, "SpencerLee," and others are FAR more obsessed with PSU. I mean, look at SpencerLee? He's worried about their prized recruits beating a Penn State backup. LOL...I guess that is what comes with breaking the points record back....to back while Iowa spends on Teemer and Parco and it does not go well!

I feel like we can be reasonably sure. 11-0 this year. Lets assume Mirasola improved more his first year in College than Barr did his 2nd...was it an 11 point improvement? On the flip side, are we sure Connor beats Cochran? IF he could cut to '84...which seems like a BIG cut...he's still likely to get beat. So maybe Missouri makes sense?

Did @Le duke say it was BS that Grad Students were Wrestling at Iowa? I don't seem to really see him worrying about Iowa all that much. Or really saying anything that negative.

Somehow this guy and Jimmy are just...the same person... One is just pretending to be a PSU fan and one isn't. But yeah, you'd have to think very little of Kueter to not take him by major over the 197 who...MAY go 184.

Yeah...you kinda can though.

Ok...here's what needs to happen. Crookham transfers to PSU. He Wrestle's Ono early in the year. Ono...not having Wrestled much Folkstyle, he gets a TD or 3 in the first period, he goes down or Crookham takes top(either one) and Crookham turns him...3-4 times. 16 points+the RT. He wins the spot. Ono Redshirts, transfers to Okie State so he can Wrestle for DT.... Behind the scenes, DT has been talking to Crookham, but he planting the PSU bug in his ear. 'We'd love to have ya...just wish we could offer what the NLWC and PSU could...oh well, Okie State is good enough.' All designed to get Ono to Okie State...and it works. Move aside Uetake, Ono is the first, 4X undefeated National Champ with an Olympic AND multiple World Championships! I'm pretty sure after hearing all the theories about how things played out behind the scenes, this makes perfect sense, right?

Yeah...I don't think Wrestling lent itself to as many injuries back when Cael Wrestled. Not that it's even that long ago, but Wrestling was a lot simpler. Shoot, heavy hips. There were scrambles and re-shots, but you didn't put yourself in danger by twisting your knee the way MOST guys do. Just look at how Starocci hurt his his 4th year. It kinda just seemed dumb, but it's how guys do things. I think you're losing a lot more guys over 40 matches. I'll bet the knee injuries are up 200% or more and shoulder injuries are likely down.

This...is a brilliant post! How'd we get this far into the conversation without someone pointing this out!

No...it doesn't.