peanut

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

Wow, great match. And great performance by Hamiti to get by Haines and KOT

Penn State with 177 points

Why again?

Great match. Fun to watch. Fantastic effort from both athletes.

A step out rule would incentivize athletes to stay in the center, and more often than not it would penalize athletes who back up

A step out rule would have made matches like the 133 pound match better IMO

Not a lot of offense so far in the first three matches

And yet people don't want to reform the rules for some reason.

I love how both athletes and coaches remained composed the entire time. Congrats to both athletes on amazing performances. Congrats to Carter on a historic career.

5x champ!

You can turn the volume off if you would like.

I get putting Gable last. But why not put Keck-CStar second to last? My sense is that for a lot of wrestling fans, that’s the biggest match of the night.

What will their lineup look like? 125- LL / Desmond 133- LL / Davis / Nagao / Ono 141- Blaze 149- SVN 157- Kasak 165- MM 174- Haines 184- Barr / Ryder 197- Barr / Con Mirasola 285- Col Mirasola ??? (Added Ono as a possibility, per Cinnabons)

Both are fantastic wrestlers. I wonder who PSU will have at 184 next year.

169 team points with three in the finals to go. Sounds solid to me

We’re down to seven undefeated wrestlers at five weight classes : 149- Henson 165- MM 174- KOT 184- CStar, Keck 285- Hendrickson, Gable