wrestle87

Aged the way I was hoping it would. I am a jersey homer, can't help but root for the banner program from place that taught me wrestling. Rutgers getting beat up by Penn is not a good look for that program. Their upperweights definitely came to party. Especially Turley with the Jersey Mikes Whizzer kick.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/02/sen-bernie-moreno-questions-cleveland-states-decision-to-cut-wrestling-program.html We should not just sit back on this one. We need to Stanford this bad boy back into existence. The freaking US senator from Ohio is calling shenanigans on the institutional decision to cut the sport. It’s simple, get loud enough to give the school a black eye and to threaten administrative jobs, bc this is ultimately all about PR, and the program will come back. It is a flip of the switch decision, especially considering the sport is actually in the black for the school.

I do believe the names in this thread title need to be reversed. Starocci is a solid half-head above keckeisen as a wrestler, he's just been so unchallenged he hasn't really gotten to let his hair down so to speak. Keckeisen is the type of wrestler who mauls everyone he feels good against, but he has zero chain attacks or flow to his style beyond "club-club shot, circle, club, shot". Barring a massive strength advantage, which he doesn't have, the only people PSU guys lose to are those who are able to flow from and through positions in a more sophisticated fashion than their PSU opponents. That is...very rare. Keck has not shown that he is that dude yet in his college career. He's obviously an absolute killer, but he's kind of like the second coming of Andrew Howe. Bruiser, out there to put you through it, but not a ton of tricks in the bag. Let's also keep in mind that Starocci has the last guy who stomped keckeisen in the room with him. This is a wrestler that the PSU machine has game planned for before. Can schwab, roper, and keck come up with a plan that stuns starocci and his coaches? It's technically possible. Is it likely? No, no it is not.

….That’s not what I said, for either option here. This is the definition of reading what you want to see, not what’s actually been written. I think if he wrestles, he has a high chance of winning. I also think there is a much greater than zero chance he doesn’t wrestle. ”Meh, word milkshake says 4th now.” No…that’s not what I said.

Rutgers won all five matches in the second half and took the dual.

This is precisely the sort of energy that keeps me coming back to this board. bravo bravo, very well played.

Turley with just that little bit of Andonian blood in him.

Rutgers is putting on the most deflated performance that they have all year right now. They're at home, and just getting embarrassed by Penn through 5 matches. Penn has taken 4 out of the first 5.

I think he's just as likely to win NCAA's as he is to not even compete in the conference qualifiers.

Hendrickson if he taps into some sort of Arujau-level god mode. It's a 5% chance at best, but he's got the best chance in the field. Kirk doesn't have the variability in performance to bring that level of upside to his performance.

Came here looking for this. Was this just a sideways way of approaching the concept of “who had the coolest pin”? Ramos and Rohn take the cake on that front, followed by kyle dake winning the olympic spot in 2021.

Adding onto that, what's happening with the Larkin brothers? They're both super funky (no surprise obviously), and the younger is a hell of a videographer as well.

I just did a speed run of the ASU/Oklahoma match. Good lord, ASU is a shell of it's former self. It is really starting to feel like the whole program is going down the drain. Just dead in the water, no momentum, and it feels like something bigger than a head coaching issue. How long do we think before we find Zeke heading up a program with more institutional support? He's never been one to stick around a stagnant or unsupportive institution. And now that his only athlete of any real reputation has jumped ship, it feels like it's time for some turnover.

He is amazing. There is no doubt that he is an absolute pioneer in the headspace portion of competing effectively.

Because Nelson had been working on that arm spin all year, and needed to air it out one last time. Kennedy is going to get the start. He's been THE dude for years. This is silly.

Amazingly, this wasn't the only -1 score of the day either! I missed it, but something happened in the Princeton Penn match such that Princeton was dragging around a -1 score midway through the dual.

This is a fair point, though I would contend that, for who he was, how he was wrestling overall at that time, and his other big stage successes leading up to that point in his career, he had a slow start. I still think it is about 9 months early to sound the alarm for sealey. He could be a bench guy, because obviously for every starter at penn state there are 2 or 3 other guys who are very good but they can't even make the starting lineup.

100%. This is a move that was made popular in an mma setting because it was such a wild adaptation to falling off the back with legs in. But it is a brutal move. The only reason that ref isn't being torn a new one and this isn't a new rule in officiating is because Orine has an immaculate mobility and flexibility program. Him not being on the ground with a hamstring torn off the bone was one of the most impressive things I've seen this year.

This right here. Getting decked on a big stage probably raises his placing at NCAA's this year.

Have you actually watched wrestling in the past ten years? Mark Hall is remarkable because he got it figured out. The turnaround from his slow start, getting stuffed at that iowa dual and losing to bo jordan to being the ncaa champ two weeks later was the defining event of his college career.

This syndrome is why transfers always take a step down their first year, and why PSU grad transfers have such a low success rate at PSU. Nobody talks about it, but every new wrestler to that room looks like a whipped puppy their first year. Happened to taylor and bo, I specifically remember looking at their first matches being underwhelmed based on all the hype around them. Happened to Hall in his first dual against Iowa. Yeah, kid got ridden like a dog, but he’s a RS, and being resilient to getting scrubbed is definitely a part of progressing in the room. Go listen to any of the guys who win titles there. The process to an NCAA title is being the ragdoll for a whole roster of olympic medalists. If you can have olympic gold medalists just embarrass you all day and you still love wrestling, you’re going to be good when it matters. But the dismantling and reassembly of the ego is a difficult process.

I gotta go with Gable. Messenbrink can score with gas pedal and motion, but guys can grab him and slow him down a bit. Gable is out there with the biggest, strongest guys on each team, and he treats them like they are made out of paper mache. The only reason someone in college stays on the mat all seven minutes with Gable is because Gable doesn’t feel like working too hard that match. I know Keuter’s not likely AA level, but he’s in R12 discussion. Gable treated him like he was a 5th grader. He legitimately might have been able to beat him using just one arm. And that’s nothing against Keuter, that’s just Gable being an alien level wrestler. Legitimately generational. I’d go so far as to say that the last time a whole field was this outclassed by one guy was Cael’s senior year.

Levels to levels. That was absolutely savage. Legitimately asking an age group world champ “you alright?” with concern in a d1 wrestling match is incredible.

I’m glad bartlett and arnold didn’t shoot in their matches so salazar could have a few shots in the bag to throw at buchanan a go in the last 30 seconds. Word on the street is the three of them aren’t permitted more than a combined ten shots in a given 24-hour period.

Salazar is an ox. I bet that cut down to 184 was not fun.