peanut

My wife named our son after her trainer, first, middle, and last name, and it was just because she liked the name. The one part I never understood was why she added “Jr” at the end.

125- LL / Desmond 133- LL / Davis / Nagao / Ono / Blaze 141- Davis / Nagao / Ono / Blaze 149- SVN 157- Kasak / Duke 165- MM 174- Haines / Welsh 184- Barr / Ryder / Welsh 197- Barr / Con Mirasola 285- Col Mirasola Is this above in the neighborhood of possible? (Edit: BarSeries mentioned Duke)

??

I don’t know much about MMA, but I do understand that it offers some athletes fame and money. And I assume it also comes with the potential for brain injuries Anyway, which (if any) 2025 seniors have announced plans to pursue MMA?

I get the questions about Ono’s mat wrestling. And those are valid. But I just want to emphasize that at 2024 worlds he beat Uguev 10-2 and teched everyone else—including Vito. There’s never been international freestyler come in with credentials like that. (Uetake, of course, won an Olympic gold after his sophomore year.)

Why would Blaze need to RS? He gave Ono his closest match last summer (between senior level and U20s). He’s ready right now, so why not let him cook?

The closer folkstyle is to freestyle, the more often you might see top international talent compete here. It would potentially provide a new source if talent for programs like Iowa and OkSt. To all you freestyle skeptics: just think about it

I assume Blaze is better at folkstyle, and I’m guessing he’ll get to pick his weight class next year. It’s not at all clear how good Ono is at folkstyle. It’s not even clear he can beat Davis or Nagao. (In freestyle, of course, only guys like Uetake and Smith are even comparable.) Nevertheless, Blaze and Ono will only improve one another.

Ono is much more talented than nearly all D1 wrestlers, ever. However, he will have three significant challenges: 1) getting through his schoolwork; 2) getting by Davis and Nagao (in folkstyle); and 3) mat wrestling—most critically bottom. Of course, other international wrestlers have done well in D1 wrestling, so there’s good reason to think he can adapt.

Perhaps not. Not sure if cael cares about coaching records, but I noticed that Gable coached Iowa to 15 team titles, while Cael now has 12. It seems possible for Cael to catch Gable on that front. Also, Gable had a bunch of his athletes go out and coach elsewhere. I wonder how many Cael-trained athletes eventually become head coaches.

He’s also coached athletes who won five titles on down to one.

Great points about the difficulty of repeating as champ — much less repeating four times. So many factors come into play: getting scouted well, losing motivation, injuries, bad calls, bad luck, evolving techniques, surging new competitors, etc. Winning five in a row without losing on the mat for more than four years is remarkable. I’d add that this year, CStar had a higher bonus rate than Hendrickson, he beat one of the weight class’s best in Ferrari without being sure he would even face him, and he beat an extremely tough Keck who was a Hodge candidate last year. IMO CStar is insanely good. Now I wonder whether he’ll pursue freestyle, MMA, or something else.

PSU got 177 team points (a record)

Heavyweight features two of the remaining four undefeated wrestlers (along with MM and CStar)

Hamiti mentioned enjoying the process just like Mesenbrink did