Wrestling wins Ivies

Wrestling crushes Harvard 37 to 9 to clinch its sixth consecutive Ivy title. In the process, the team extended its Ivy dual meet winning streak to 33. Great job considering all the injuries.

BillCharlton
Wrestling crushes Harvard 37 to 9 to clinch its sixth consecutive Ivy title. In the process, the team extended its Ivy dual meet winning streak to 33. Great job considering all the injuries.

Agree 100%, but, to be fair, Harvard's team was decimated by injuries this year as well.

Al DeFlorio

BillCharlton
Wrestling crushes Harvard 37 to 9 to clinch its sixth consecutive Ivy title. In the process, the team extended its Ivy dual meet winning streak to 33. Great job considering all the injuries.

Agree 100%, but, to be fair, Harvard's team was decimated by injuries this year as well.

Al, I didn't realize that Harvard was missing as many as eight of its top ten wrestlers. That certainly explains their record. People who don't follow wrestling just don't understand how punishing it is. Considering the likelihood of getting injured in college wrestling, Cael Sanderson's 159-0 record and four NCAA titles at Iowa State is an almost miraculous feat. I consider Sanderson's accomplishments to be far more improbable than Villanova's upset of Georgetown in 1985.

BillCharlton

Al DeFlorio

BillCharlton
Wrestling crushes Harvard 37 to 9 to clinch its sixth consecutive Ivy title. In the process, the team extended its Ivy dual meet winning streak to 33. Great job considering all the injuries.

Agree 100%, but, to be fair, Harvard's team was decimated by injuries this year as well.

Al, I didn't realize that Harvard was missing as many as eight of its top ten wrestlers. That certainly explains their record. People who don't follow wrestling just don't understand how punishing it is. Considering the likelihood of getting injured in college wrestling, Cael Sanderson's 159-0 record and four NCAA titles at Iowa State is an almost miraculous feat. I consider Sanderson's accomplishments to be far more improbable than Villanova's upset of Georgetown in 1985.

No argument on that from me, Bill. Brutal sport. Hats off to the guys who participate.

BillCharlton

Al DeFlorio

BillCharlton
Wrestling crushes Harvard 37 to 9 to clinch its sixth consecutive Ivy title. In the process, the team extended its Ivy dual meet winning streak to 33. Great job considering all the injuries.

Agree 100%, but, to be fair, Harvard's team was decimated by injuries this year as well.

Al, I didn't realize that Harvard was missing as many as eight of its top ten wrestlers. That certainly explains their record. People who don't follow wrestling just don't understand how punishing it is. Considering the likelihood of getting injured in college wrestling, Cael Sanderson's 159-0 record and four NCAA titles at Iowa State is an almost miraculous feat. I consider Sanderson's accomplishments to be far more improbable than Villanova's upset of Georgetown in 1985.

Plus staph infections.

BillCharlton
Considering the likelihood of getting injured in college wrestling, Cael Sanderson's 159-0 record and four NCAA titles at Iowa State is an almost miraculous feat. I consider Sanderson's accomplishments to be far more improbable than Villanova's upset of Georgetown in 1985.

So what you're saying is that you think a 4-year undefeated streak having to constantly face some of the strongest competitors across the nation is more impressive (and improbable) than a single-game "any given night" one-and-done upset in a basketball tournament? Yeah, I think I can buy that. Big leap, there Bill.

We've already seen this year that going 19-0 in the NFL is very difficult. Sanderson's record is remarkable. I've also mentioned on this forum Trinity's squash streak, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of their last loss on Feb. 22. They also wrapped up their 10th straight national championship recently. It is the longest winning streak in collegiate sports history, in any sport. 183 and counting.
[sports.espn.go.com]
[www.courant.com]


Also, check out the fan t-shirt at 3:58 of the following video:




Now having an undefeated, untied NCAA championship hockey team would be impressive. I wonder if anyone has ever done that? BTW, everytime I think of 29-0-0, a little part of me thinks about Maine's 1993 season and sticks out its tongue.
[en.wikipedia.org]

RichH
BTW, everytime I think of 29-0-0, a little part of me thinks about Maine's 1993 season and sticks out its tongue.
[en.wikipedia.org]

in 1992-93 the Black Bears finished 42-1-2, which is the modern day's closest thing to perfection

1970 is not the modern era in college hockey? I think that article needs some editing.

nyc94
1970 is not the modern era in college hockey? I think that article needs some editing.

Sheesh. The other day we learned anything pre-1985 was "pre-modern."

RichH

BillCharlton
Considering the likelihood of getting injured in college wrestling, Cael Sanderson's 159-0 record and four NCAA titles at Iowa State is an almost miraculous feat. I consider Sanderson's accomplishments to be far more improbable than Villanova's upset of Georgetown in 1985.

So what you're saying is that you think a 4-year undefeated streak having to constantly face some of the strongest competitors across the nation is more impressive (and improbable) than a single-game "any given night" one-and-done upset in a basketball tournament? Yeah, I think I can buy that. Big leap, there Bill.

While I think Sanderson's record is the most impressive college sports accomplishment ever, Villanova's run through the tournament, culminating in the upset over G'town, is the better comparison. Nova wasn't supposed to be anywhere near that title game.

ugarte
While I think Sanderson's record is the most impressive college sports accomplishment ever, Villanova's run through the tournament, culminating in the upset over G'town, is the better comparison. Nova wasn't supposed to be anywhere near that title game.

OK, that's a better point. How would George Mason's run compared to Villanova's had GM finished the job 2 years ago? Just to give some historical, comparative perspective?

RichH

ugarte
While I think Sanderson's record is the most impressive college sports accomplishment ever, Villanova's run through the tournament, culminating in the upset over G'town, is the better comparison. Nova wasn't supposed to be anywhere near that title game.

OK, that's a better point. How would George Mason's run compared to Villanova's had GM finished the job 2 years ago? Just to give some historical, comparative perspective?

If George Mason won the national title, it would have made Villanova's title seem like another ho-hum Duke championship. LSU once made a final four run as a 12 or 13 seed, but Villanova and LSU are both big-conference schools - they have budgets and recruiting advantages that George Mason didn't have. No matter how often Bill Simmons abuses the analogy, the George Mason run was like watching Milan High in Hoosiers.

Still, a George Mason championship wouldn't compare with Sanderson's record because, well, there was a reason that GM was a 12 seed and it involved regular season losses to similarly seeded schools. GM played its best when it 'counted', but Sanderson actually was the best in all of his weight classes for his entire college career.

ugarte

RichH

ugarte
While I think Sanderson's record is the most impressive college sports accomplishment ever, Villanova's run through the tournament, culminating in the upset over G'town, is the better comparison. Nova wasn't supposed to be anywhere near that title game.

OK, that's a better point. How would George Mason's run compared to Villanova's had GM finished the job 2 years ago? Just to give some historical, comparative perspective?

If George Mason won the national title, it would have made Villanova's title seem like another ho-hum Duke championship.

Still, a George Mason championship wouldn't compare with Sanderson's record because, well, there was a reason that GM was a 12 seed and it involved regular season losses to similarly seeded schools. GM played its best when it 'counted', but Sanderson actually was the best in all of his weight classes for his entire college career.

And to me the most important feature is that in a sport like wrestling, it's you and you alone. You can't have an off night and expect your teammates to cover you. Much more impressive, even than Trinity squash.

RichH
So what you're saying is that you think a 4-year undefeated streak having to constantly face some of the strongest competitors across the nation is more impressive (and improbable) than a single-game "any given night" one-and-done upset in a basketball tournament?

No, I said it was far more improbable. The reason I used the Georgetown-Villanova comparison was that it is widely considered to be the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history. Also, what are the odds of shooting 79 percent for the game and 90 percent in the second half, and still only winning by two points?

A better comparison is Edwin Moses' streak of 122 wins (including 107 finals) in the 400 intermediate hurdles. I think Moses' feat is even more impressive than Sanderson's.

Al DeFlorio

nyc94
1970 is not the modern era in college hockey? I think that article needs some editing.

Sheesh. The other day we learned anything pre-1985 was "pre-modern."

Perhaps my choice of words was unfortunate; "pre-split" might have been a better adjective. Yet, I will have to remind you that, while the "pre-split," or "pre-modern," era of the ECAC lasted for 23 years, we are now in the 24th year post-split. The ECAC has now been its diminished 12-team self for longer than it was something else. Hunh.

Scersk '97
Perhaps my choice of words was unfortunate; "pre-split" might have been a better adjective. Yet, I will have to remind you that, while the "pre-split," or "pre-modern," era of the ECAC lasted for 23 years, we are now in the 24th year post-split. The ECAC has now been its diminished 12-team self for longer than it was something else. Hunh.

Scersk, I'm just having some fun with it. And you're right: It's been a long time.

I suppose it's natural to think that the "modern era" began with yourself. I'm still having trouble coming to grips with the tearing down of the "new" stadiums built in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and, now, Flushing Meadows--because I remember them being under construction. I'd guess most here view Ned Harkness the way I view Gil Dobie.

1985 is a natural dividing line for the ECAC, in the way that 1970 is a natural dividing line for the NFL. Having started following when the merger was recent history, I'm amazed at home many super bowls there have been at this point...

RichH
I've also mentioned on this forum Trinity's squash streak, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of their last loss on Feb. 22. They also wrapped up their 10th straight national championship recently. It is the longest winning streak in collegiate sports history, in any sport. 183 and counting.
[sports.espn.go.com]
[www.courant.com]

And it ended last night, nearly 4 years after the above post in a 5-4 defeat at #2 Yale. Trinity's first loss of the century. At nearly 14 years, there were 252 straight wins.

[www.courant.com]
[www.yaledailynews.com]

I like how the Trinity coach said, "Losing sucks, not a relief. This isn't fun, I hate losing..."

I was just talking to a Trinity faculty member on Tuesday, and he was convinced that the streak would end this year, and even pointed to the Yale match. Of note to us, #6 Cornell was win #251 in the streak, a 7-2 result just this past weekend. Before last night, CU was the only team to win more than 1 game against Trinity this season. That Cornell is ranked #6 in the country was news to me. Quite the quiet rise for CU Squash.

Trinity’s streak far surpasses the number of wins of other notable intercollegiate winning streaks. Yale’s swimming team had a 201-meet winning streak between 1940 and 1961. Miami’s men’s tennis team won 137 matches between 1957 and 1964, and the UCLA men’s basketball team won 88 in a row under John Wooden in the early 1970s. More recently, Penn State’s women’s volleyball team won 109 matches in a streak that ended in 2010, and the UConn women’s basketball team won 90 games in a streak that ended last December.

RichH
Quite the quiet rise for CU Squash.

Color me stunned that this hasn't led SportsCenter yet.

The squash team has been good for the past 3 years or so, certainly a rise from where they had been in recent decades. But this is not the first time at this national level. The 1963-64 team (on which I played) may have been Cornell's best. It's hard to compare eras, and there are a lot more teams playing now. We beat Yale and Penn for the first time in the program's then short history. Rankings were only informal, but we were fourth nationally behind Harvard, Princeton, and Army (Navy was also good, but we did not play them because of some lingering dispute). (There's a similarity in wresting, with some reports of its recent success not aware of the power Cornell was in the '50s.)

Cornell's bid to close out an undefeated Ivy season (which was never really in doubt) is off to a good start. Cornell has won the first three matches 13-0, 4-0, 15-0 against Columbia.

ugarte
Cornell's bid to close out an undefeated Ivy season (which was never really in doubt) is off to a good start. Cornell has won the first three matches 13-0, 4-0, 15-0 against Columbia.

Meet score 19-3 after six matches. Tougher match with Hofstra coming up at 3pm.