JMill

No. Wick weighed in at 174.6 and Nolf at 174.4 for RAF 01. I’m guessing making 74kg negatively affects Wick far more than Nolf.

246.2

That’s awesome and crazy at the same time… ESPN can go ahead and engrave Askren’s name on the Comeback Athlete of the Year Espy now. In his U20 recap on YouTube, he said that was the first tournament he got to coach at, and it was because there weren’t many people there.

Nolf has looked much better since RAF 01…like he might actually practice wrestling every so often now. I wonder what his training situation is like for wrestling, and, if he were to make a run in 28, would he go back to State College? Seems like he has a lot going on down in Texas.

Didn’t Brandvold leave coaching for the real estate world? Is he still coming around the RTC? It was a good look for Jones. Fans got to see his humble side, and that he has a lot of respect for the wrestling world. It’d be great to see his “second act” being an ambassador for wrestling. It’d be beneficial for both his image and our sport. I think I paid like $35 for a year Fox Nation subscription (not much more than I paid for a month of ESPN to watch the NCAA’s). Definitely worth every penny and highly recommend anyone putting it off to take the dive.

Merab should just have his nose amputated. Frankie Edgar got after it for a 45 year old. Not great wrestling, but still fun to watch, and Merab is just a likable character. Snyder teched Givi, who dinged his knee up and couldn’t really put anything together. Colby beating Weidman was a surprise… I hate when the commentators act so confused about the score. And where did that brick come from? That’s the first one since they were taken away after RAF 01. Gable wins his debut without too much effort. Looks like Romanov probably ruptured his tricep but finished the match out. I think we’ll be seeing Jon Jones in RAF in the near future… which would be huge for the promotion. Also, there is going to be a RAF reality show called Undiscovered or something like that.. sounds like it’ll be like The Ultimate Fighter and/or American Idol. Obviously, things must be going alright for RAF as they’re expanding the concept with the youth series and reality show. RAF 10 in STL looks like a good card. RAF 11 in MKE could even be better, especially if Nickal doesn’t duck Parker.

Woods with a pin for the belt. He’s turned it up a notch. Woods vs Bassett is going to be good.

Some awesome matches tonight… those people who were talking down RAF are looking dumber every event. Lovett taking out Bajrang. Zain over Taylor Minto looked good losing to Nolf Parker downs a world champ and calls out Bo …

Not really. Football and basketball coaches are on board. Hockey coaches want the clock to start at 19, not graduation. The NCAA said no sport-specific carve-outs or exemptions. The only way it holds up in court is if the rules are black and white, no “special cases”, because then everyone thinks they’re special, too.

https://www.ncaa.org/news/2026/5/22/media-center-division-i-cabinet-continues-discussions-of-age-based-collegiate-eligibility-model.aspx Memo from May 22… Last paragraph basically says athletes have to put their claims in for redshirts by July 31, then they’re gone. Specifically, the implementation options currently contemplated include: Student-athletes whose fourth season of collegiate eligibility was completed by spring 2026: No additional eligibility. Currently enrolled student-athletes with eligibility remaining after the 2025-26 academic year: Flexibility for schools to apply the age-based model or continue with the previous eligibility rules (four seasons to compete with five total years of eligibility), whichever is most beneficial to that individual. Prospects expected to graduate from high school in spring 2027: Age-based model only. Prospects expected to graduate from high school in spring 2026, regardless of planned enrollment date: Age-based model only. Prospects who graduated prior to spring 2026 and have not enrolled: The NCAA Eligibility Center will review the prospect's individual circumstances and apply the age-based model or existing delayed enrollment eligibility rules, whichever is most beneficial to that individual. For schools with current student-athletes who may be eligible for hardship waivers or extensions of eligibility, the Cabinet indicated that the deadline to submit any waiver requests to NCAA staff is July 31. After that date, waivers would no longer be available for current student-athletes or prospects.

… and is it really too much to ask people to type out National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Individual National Championship instead of “Natty Daddy”?

He doesn’t care about such trivial things. He prioritizes joy and finds fulfillment in the process, not seeking futile theoretical message board titles.

How the rule is being proposed it’s five years starting the year after the athlete turns 19, so a guy like Bo Bassett who turns 20 in August (meaning he was 19 for the totality of his senior year) will still have five years of eligibility. I know in Illinois, a high school athlete becomes ineligible to compete on his 20th birthday, and I’m guessing it’s similar in many states. High school kids who become ineligible to compete due to age in high school would be the only ones who would run into issues with age under five for five. I’m totally fine with that. Any kid with the ambition to compete in collegiate athletics for five years will find the ambition to graduate early enough to get their five years. We can’t make rules to “protect” those who refuse to help themselves at the expense of everyone else, and trying to come up with rules and exemptions to cover every random, extreme scenario is how we ended up in this jumbled mess with 27-year-old, former professional basketball playing freshmen.

The kid would in almost all instances have to be held back two years. If we are talking about a kid getting sick in elementary or middle school, there are now so many avenues for kids to catch back up to their class, and using an extreme outlier case as an example of the injustice that could occur with five for five for a reason against it, it would simply fall into the cult of victimhood mentality that’s so prevalent today and deserves no acknowledgement.

Saw this on the Instagram the other day…Apparently, if you randomly show up to Gable’s house, you’ll find him and Barry getting a 3:30 workout in… the Mountain Dew sign in the background make the photo even better.

It sounds like the current athletes will have the choice between the old and new rules but have to declare it this summer. I could be wrong, but I’d assume that means med and Olympic redshirts would be available to those who choose the old rules (wrestlers who have already taken a redshirt). That said, I forgot Duke never took a RS, so he’d take the new rules (and no Olympic RS in 27-28).

Let’s not forget Ken Chertow… he’ll take any coaching gig just to plug Gold Medal Training Camps in the press release.

Five for five is going to be the law of the land in a few weeks, barring something absolutely crazy happening. I think Mesenbrink not wrestling at trials points to him moving to 174. He can let himself grow without having to focus on conditioning and making 74kg in late October. Right now, the guy to beat at 174 is Minto, who Mesenbrink likely techs. It’s quite possible I really don’t see James not being in the lineup, nor does anyone who watched him wrestle last weekend. He was light at WTT, and he looks like he could make 157, which lets Duke move to 165. Both are title contenders, if not outright favorites, at those respective weights. Kasak takes the year to get his head straight with a med redshirt and comes back at 157 in 2027-28, letting James go up to 165 and Duke continue to grow into 174 (or take an Olympic Redshirt). If there was ever a year where PSU’s bench could win the NCAAs, it will be this year.

125- LL 133- Blaze 141- Desmond 149- Van Ness 157- James 165- Duke 174- Mesenbrink 184- Welsh 197- Barr 285- Mirasola I’d take the over on an O/U of 6.5 NCAA Finalists.

Tim McCall announced as the new head coach at The Citadel. https://citadelsports.com/news/2026/5/20/the-citadel-announces-tim-mccall-as-wrestling-head-coach.aspx

The world let Germany host the Olympics a couple decades after they were gassing Jews by the trainload.

Fewer periods = fewer ring girls.. they need to earn a paycheck, too. Personally, I’d pay to watch Dillon Danis get embarrassed like he did daily.

With some tribal wings…