[Wrestling] NCAA Championships

[ugarte]

That wraps up the first round. Cornell goes 7-2 with a couple of close calls and only one disappointing loss.

Iowa went 9-1 in the first round.  Oklahoma State went 5-5.

Iowa went 10-1. They had 9 wrestlers and won 2 pigtails. They had one MD. Penn State went 8-1 with 2 pins and 2 MDs.

For bonus points, Cornell got a MD and a TF.

The evening session starts at 6:30. I believe the consolation matches first, then Round 2.

[upprdeck]

caldwell at 149 defaults out with an arminjury in round 2..

[gjk22]

caldwell at 149 defaults out with an arminjury in round 2..

This is big for Dake, as it opens up the top half of the bracket for him to make the final.

[gjk22]

Things going well so far this evening. Parelli lost his 11/6 match, but Grey and Dake are into the quarterfinals, and Manson won his match in the consis.

[upprdeck]

looks like Kerber lost in extra time on an escape but the other top 3 won 2 by fall.

[nshapiro]

165: #9 Kerber wins 2-1 over Abdurakhmanov (Clarion) on a late penalty point for fleeing the mat. He'll face #8 Winston (Rutgers), who beat him at EIWA.

This was the worst call of the session.  Kerber was down 1-0, Abdur...ov was getting close to a riding time point, when Kerber finally decided to do something (not one shot the whole match) late in the third period.  It looked like he got the reversal, and then Abdur...ov escaped, which would have made the match 2-2.  Instead, the ref gave Kerber just an escape.  Abdurakhamov knew he had been reversed, and broke away from the bottom position, breaking contact with Kerber and stepped off the mat, which happens ALL THE TIME.  

In general, I thought most Cornell wrestlers were not very aggressive.  Most of the points were scored in counters, with Cornell wrestlers rarely taking shots.  Lewnes didn't wake up until he was almost taken down.  Grey had a tough opponent, but he could have worked harder and earned the major decision.  Dake only got the points for the major in the last second, in a match that he should have won with a tech fall.  Bosak was the only one who seemed really fired up.

One thing Cornell can't do is complain about the refs.

[Chris '03]

Standings through 157-consolation round one:

Penn State 30.5
Cornell     29.0
Iowa 24
OK St 24
American 21

Same link as above: http://www.nwcaonline.com/nwcaonline/teamstandings.pdf

[jkahn]

How does one know on which mat the Cornell guys will be?

Edit: Figured out how to get a four mat view, so if I pay attention that should work.

[Chris '03]

How does one know on which mat the Cornell guys will be?

I've been wondering the same thing.

[ugarte]

Scores after Session 2:

Code Select Expand


               Score   Ch  Co
1  Penn State  30.5    7   1
2  Cornell     29.0    5   4
3  Iowa        25      5   4
   OK St       25      4   4
5  American    23.5    3   2

Other notables

11 Lehigh     18       2   4
24 Penn       11       1   4
39 Columbia    6       0   2
   Harvard     6       0   2
65 Princeton   0       0   0

[CUJacob]

Looks/sounds like Cornell is performing roughly to expectations thus far.  Is Penn State wrestling above expectations or is this about what the standings were expected to look like at this point?

[Al DeFlorio]

Looks/sounds like Cornell is performing roughly to expectations thus far.  Is Penn State wrestling above expectations or is this about what the standings were expected to look like at this point?

Penn State is wrestling lights out.  Very aggressive.  They deserve to be ahead at this point.  I expected it to be very close and still do.

[ugarte]

Looks/sounds like Cornell is performing roughly to expectations thus far.  Is Penn State wrestling above expectations or is this about what the standings were expected to look like at this point?

Penn State is wrestling lights out.  Very aggressive.  They deserve to be ahead at this point.  I expected it to be very close and still do.

Specifically, of the 7 wrestlers still in the top bracket, 5 were expected to be there and 2 were 9 seeds that beat the 8 seed. I fear that Penn State was underseeded at a couple of weights. I was hoping that Perrelli and Kerber were underseeded but, sadly, they haven't (yet) outperformed their seed. Fortunately, there's still time.

[gjk22]

125 - I think Perelli can win 2-3 more matches. He has no seeded wrestlers down in his area of the wrestlebacks. This will help the team a lot if he can go on a run.
133 - Grey could pull a big upset and stay up top, but likely will fall down. Only needs one more win to get to All-American.
141 - Manson is likely eliminated in his first match tomorrow.
149 - Big match for Dake to beat #5 and make the semifinals. If he wins, he'd face unranked or #8 in the semis. Great shot at finals.
157 - Meagher needs to avenge a prior loss to Harvard's Peppelman to stay alive. This is a winnable match for him.  
165 - Tough, tough loss for Kerber, now he needs to win 3 matches for all-American. Do-able, but he needs to be sharp.
174 - Lewnes looking good, should handle Bennett to make semifinals for a potential HUGE showdown with #2 Ruth from Penn State.
184 - Bozak faces unranked, should make semis.
197 - Simaz looking at #8, and then 4/5, to make the final.

Overall Friday prognosis - We really need to win in the quarterfinals at 149,174,184, and 197, and get runs in the wrestlebacks from 165 and 125 tomorrow. Also we should hope that Penn State only gets 4 or fewer into the semifinals.

Still think we have a great chance of winning. What will it take? Not sure, but my guess is 3 in finals with 1-2 winning, plus 6 all Americans total would do it, or at least put us close.

[Al DeFlorio]

My take as well, gjk22.  This morning's consy's are key.