CHROMEBIRD

Welp,

Ride like the wind, sir.

Didn't want to start a whole new thread just for this, so posting here: so yesterday, I'm out running in this ridiculous heat, decide to hit up a corner store for something cold. I spot this drink that says ENERGY, ZERO SUGAR, and BLUEBERRY, and am immediately like, "yeah, that sounds good" without really paying attention to the rest of the can. Only after buying it do I notice the bigass, extremely obvious Nittany Lion and Happy Valley United on the front. HVU sounded vaguely familiar, like maybe a PSU soccer club or somethign, and I didn't think too much of it at first. But when I got home I looked up the product and found out that it's a PSU NIL drink! HVU is PSU's NIL Collective and proceeds go towards the school's NIL slush fund. Ptoo! Ptoo! Next time, I'm either reading the can like a book or just sticking to water. Lesson painfully learned!!

The best part about these updates is that Askren still seems like Askren. Sharp, thoughtful, smart. Sounds more or less like the Ben we know, which is great to hear.

If we're just talking hs folkstyle/state credentials there's also Amar Dhesi, Ganbayar Sanjaa, and Alan Gelogaev, all with asterisks ofc

I think Ronnie Perry only wrestled at States twice in high school, finishing DNP and 7th(?), and then lost to Zain in the NCAA Finals his senior year. Some other guys that come to mind are Stephen Neal, Ben Kjar, and Bernie Truax? Not 100% sure. There's also the story about how Bobby Telford was a total fish for a couple of years in hs until he stopped cutting so hard and adjusted to a healthier weight, like six weight classes up.

From a dual perspective, Zain-Nolf was a particularly brutal 1-2 combo because it was really a gauntlet of Zain - Nolf - Cenzo - Hall - Nickal. Just a solid brick wall in the lineup

2016 might have been when back points were changed to 2NF/4NF, though idk if it had much effect on turns or matches not going into OT. Another explanation was that Nationals was held at Madison Square Garden that year and everyone was wrestling on New York time.

I hope the radio silence is because a staffer from the athletics dept asked ChatGPT to create a response in the voice of Starocci, and the AI just started threatening everyone

Jimmy rn: "Hayyyy, any of y'all got some of that sweet sweet Iowa wrestling content for me?"

Huge yikes for sure. I hope it isn't true.

Yeah, I'm 100% for due process. I'm saying, even if nothing happened, it's strange that Starocci, Cael, or PSU Athletics haven't said, "hey nothing happened" or at least, "we take the safety of our atheletes seriously and are looking into it"

Dunno if this camp is still happening next week: https://www.newberrywrestlingcamps.com/the-carter-starocci-camps.cfm

https://www.poconorecord.com/picture-gallery/sports/high-school/2025/06/30/photos-carter-starocci-wrestling-camp-brodheadsville-poconos-carmen-mercadante/84422356007/ EDIT: sorry, the one with Bartlett, Yianni, and Lovett was called True Champ Camp. Wrong champy camp. But the point still remains, Starocci is still out there teaching at camps and repping PSU wrestling, which is a little odd.

Is CARA still a thing in NCAA sports? It's pretty hard for coaches to require athletes to come in and practice or train at this time of year. I know a coach can "allow" kids to come in during the offseason for "voluntary" practice sessions, wink-wink nudge-nudge, but punishing them for not showing up is a little bit out of bounds. Like I get the hypothesis that Iowa might've been looking for any excuse to let Gabe go, but attendance seems like a shaky reason, esp for a program that allowed an assistant coach's kid to skip out on a mandatory compliance meeting not so long ago.

The story seems to have been spiked at least for now. Stuff like this spreads quickly through the mainstream & sports media, but there hasn't been very much about it in the news. Starocci was also at the Camp of Champs clinic last week. Dunno if Bartlett (I assume not) or Lovett or anyone else was there. Not even a statement from PSU Athletics denying or that they're even investigating the charges. The quietness is kinda strange

Think you forgot the first part of your question, bud. You know, when you were casting doubt on transfers obtaining a graduate degree

Brands would be doing Gabe's new program a solid if he transferred out as a Designated Student Athlete. The DSA status would follow Gabe and he wouldn't count towards his new team's roster limit. I don't see Brands doing it, but if he really wanted to be a dick, he'd Ayala, Caliendo, PK, Peterson, VV, and all seniors with no remaining eligibility after this season as DSAs.

I'm sure you were asking the same questions when Bernie Truax grad transferred into a business certificate program at PSU

Athletes aren't required to complete anything, but you already knew that

Grad, another team's DSA, or someone who gets a waiver from the NCAA I guess

Your path tool is pretty rad. If you have all of Billy Baldwin's wrestling connections, you could see all the college wrestlers that are 6 degrees or less away from Kevin Bacon. Billy is 1 degree of separation away from Kevin Bacon (Flatliners).

Buchanan and Teemer were grad transfers, yeah

Yeah, I think that just grandfathers in anyone on the current roster who are over the 30-athlete cap. Gabe would get a transfer exemption if Iowa says he was dismissed specifically because of the roster limit and named as a DSA, during which he'd have a small window to switch schools. I believe the DSA exemption would stick with Gabe at his new program, so Iowa would be doing his next school a pretty big favor by giving him Designated status on a 35ish man roster when it makes strategic sense to name other guys on the team.

Speaking of casuals, will RAF wrestlers be required to compete in standard UWW-style singlets, or nah?