Wrestling versus Binghamton

Quote from today's Press and Sun:

Mike Mangan
After a near-upset of 12th-ranked Oklahoma on Tuesday, the Binghamton University wrestling team didn't have to wait long for another shot at a national power.

In its first dual meet at the Events Center, 24th-ranked BU will host fifth-ranked Cornell University at 5 p.m. today in a contest televised live by Time Warner Cable.

The two teams met nearly a year ago on Jan. 28 at Cornell, with the then-No. 2 Big Red winning 35-3.

BU coach Pat Popolizio, whose team lost 20-15 to Oklahoma on Tuesday at the West Gym for its first loss this season, knows his team could be in for a stiffer challenge ...

profudge
Quote from today's Press and Sun:

Mike Mangan
After a near-upset of 12th-ranked Oklahoma on Tuesday, the Binghamton University wrestling team didn't have to wait long for another shot at a national power.

In its first dual meet at the Events Center, 24th-ranked BU will host fifth-ranked Cornell University at 5 p.m. today in a contest televised live by Time Warner Cable.

The two teams met nearly a year ago on Jan. 28 at Cornell, with the then-No. 2 Big Red winning 35-3.

BU coach Pat Popolizio, whose team lost 20-15 to Oklahoma on Tuesday at the West Gym for its first loss this season, knows his team could be in for a stiffer challenge ...

This will be one tough dual meet. Bingo has a few highly-ranked wrestlers and Koll has been shuffling the Cornell line-up for the last three meets. Dake did not wrestle against Penn or Princeton yesterday, and a couple of our guys were beaten badly, and unexpectedly, in yesterday's matches. Should be worth watching if you get TWC.

Cornell wins on a tiebreaker after meet ends 21-21. Total points in all individual matches, I'm told, decides it.

Binghamton wrestled an unbelievable match. Kudos to their guys. Not that Cornell didn't want to win but there is nothing like the adrenaline generated by being an underdog. I think that tonight we did great things for the future of their program.

Yeesh. Cornell won 2 matches by 7, barely missing bonus points, Bosak won by 8 and Simaz needed late back points to get the TF. What an insanely close match.

It is hard to know what to read into these results since Koll is still screwing around with the weights. Peppleman may be overmatched at 174 and Villalonga the same at 149 but both may be having trouble cutting to the "better" weight. I'm sure Koll would have preferred to have Dake at 157 to match up with Lister and Pep at 165.

I also think the officials influenced the outcome of this match. I am not criticizing the officiating because I don't know nearly enough to make a judgement but the officials were mic'ed so we could hear what they were telling the wrestlers. At least one of the guys did not tolerate any passive behavior. He was always telling the guys to "wrestle out there," he seemed very quick to call a stalemate and he awarded a lot of points for stalling. This might have affected some guys more than others, based on their wrestling style or the strategy they wanted to use in their match. Peppleman for instance was a real target for this official who didn't think marshall was being nearly agressive enough. Whether he was tied up by his opponent in such a way that he couldn't make a move when instructed to or whether he was waiting for just the right moment, he lost more than one point for stalling. On the other hand, at least one of our extra team points was earned when the same thing happened to a Bingo wrestler who was trying not to get pinned.

Missed the match because of family obligations and that may have been the best thing for my health (and that of my computer). Hats off to Binghamton for their effort and the program's overall trajectory.

It is facinating to watch Koll try to find the right line-up and find a way to get results from Villalonga and Peppleman that match their pedigree. Over on Wrestling Report, someone said that after match Koll announced that Peppleman will be going back to 165 as soon as he can under the weight certification process. I wonder if Eifert cuts to 149 to challenge CV or bulks up to 165 to push Marshall?