General 2012-13 Wrestling thread

[Al DeFlorio]

Surprised no mention of the Southern Scuffle.  Cornell placed 5th, with the highlight obviously being the Dake-Taylor rematch, which Dake won (semi-controversially?).  I'd be curious what some people who are more familiar with wrestling than I am thought of the supposed controversial calls.

You might check this thread on the Cornell forum at WrestlingReport.com: http://wrestlingreport.com/current_news/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=40640

[ugarte]

Surprised no mention of the Southern Scuffle.  Cornell placed 5th, with the highlight obviously being the Dake-Taylor rematch, which Dake won (semi-controversially?).  I'd be curious what some people who are more familiar with wrestling than I am thought of the supposed controversial calls.

You might check this thread on the Cornell forum at WrestlingReport.com: http://wrestlingreport.com/current_news/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=40640

Follow the link there too. Really good discussion over at themat.com. The general belief is that Dake's controversial takedown was definitely the right call but Taylor may have escaped it the last few seconds. It looks like the refs got it right, but if the match went to OT nobody on the Cornell side could have complained much about the result.

Big win for Nevinger at 141 and Garrett at 125 placed a very impressive third.

[Al DeFlorio]

Long article on Kyle Dake here at ESPN Playbook: http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/18432/titles-one-of-wrestler-dakes-many-routines

Wrestlers advanced to quarterfinals of National Duals by whitewashing Hofstra and nipping Nebraska 19-17 this past Sunday.  Now seeded #7, they will face #2 Iowa in Minneapolis this Friday night.

[ugarte]

Really good loss yesterday for the team in the National Duals against Iowa. We lost 21-16, but, impressively, split the matches 5-5. We lost because Iowa got a pin and three majors among their 5 wins, whereas only Kyle Dake got bonus points in his match for Cornell.

Big wins for Nevinger, Villalonga and Bennett and a surprisingly close win from Bosak. Nahshon Garrett kept it somewhat close against the defending champ at 125 and Aiken-Phillips didn't get pinned at 285 against a returning AA.

This was a very good match for us. I'm more optimistic than I was about EIWAs and NCAAs, though it will still be a comedown from the amazing highs the team hit the last few years.

[ithacat]

NY State HS Champioships wrapped up tonight in Albany. Some results that may be of interest:

William Koll (Jr) won the 126 title in Division 2.
Incoming recruit Dan Choi won the 195 title in Division 1.
Incoming recruit Dylan Realbuto placed third at 126 in Division 1.

Troy Nickerson's nephew, Kyle Kelly failed to win his 3rd title, placing 2nd at 113 in Division 1.
Nick Arujau's brother, Vito (8th grade) placed 2nd, losing in 3OTs at 99 in Division 1.

[ugarte]

Nick Arujau's brother, Vito (8th grade) placed 2nd, losing in 3OTs at 99 in Division 1.

Thanks for all of this. Any chance you know what is going on with Nick?

[ithacat]

Nick Arujau's brother, Vito (8th grade) placed 2nd, losing in 3OTs at 99 in Division 1.

Thanks for all of this. Any chance you know what is going on with Nick?

No. Hopefully he's back next season.

[RichH]

A local public radio show in Hartford had both Kyle Dake and Coach Koll on as guests today to weigh in (harrrr) on the recent IOC decision to drop Olympic Wrestling. Kyle's bit starts somewhere in the 8:00 range.

http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/node/24437

[gjk22]

I was also impressed by the performance against Iowa. Iowa was ranked #2 and always has a stable of studs on hand. I was impressed with Garrett giving McDonough a run, and Bennett and Nevinger both beating higher seeded wrestlers. This bodes well.

Potential All-Americans: Garrett (125), Nevinger (141), Dake (165) and Bozak (184)
Win some matches at NCAAs: Villalonga (149)
Make NCAAs(?): Bennett (197)
Not looking great: 133,157,174,HWT

[mountainred]

Even the "not looking great" guys have a shot:

Stryker Lane, if healthy, should make the NCAA.  He's one of the top four in the EIWA at Hvy and the top four go.

Shanaman has a shot at 157, where the top 5 go and he's ranked #6.  

Dixon has to make the finals at 133, but he's beaten the #2 guy in the league.

I have no clue what may happen at 174.

[gjk22]

Cornell is well on its way to another EIWA title. As for NCAAs, here is the breakdown.

Qualified for NCAAs: Garrett (125), Nevinger (141), Dake (165) and Bozak (184)
Failed to qualify for NCAAs: Dixon (133) and Peppelman (174)
Need to win next match to earn top 4 and qualify: Villalonga (149) and Lane (HWT)
Need to win one of the next two matches to earn top 5 and qualify: Bennett (197) and Shanaman (157)

I'm not sure how the at-large spots work, but I'm hoping that between those and some good wrestling this morning, Cornell can get 7 or 8 to the big tournament.

[ugarte]

Dixon wins 4-2 to take 7th.

Nevinger wins 5-3 in SV, will wrestle Keith (Harvard) for 3d. (What is up with Nevinger? Not having a good tournament.)

Villalonga wins 7-1, will wrestle Borja (Navy) for 3d.

Shanaman loses 8-2, will wrestle Winston (Rutgers) for 5th and a spot in the tournament. (I don't see him getting a WC but it is possible, I guess.)

Peppleman wins 4-2 to take 7th.

Bennett wins 10-2, will wrestle Barnes (Army) for 3d.

Lane wins 8-7 in OT, will wrestle the winner of Graziano (Penn) v. Stolfi (Bucknell) for 3d.

7 qualified, Shanaman still has a shot.

[ugarte]

125: Nahshon Garrett wins EIWA as a freshman. Will go to the NCAAs and have a pretty solid seed there. He was #5 going into EIWAs and has not lost to a wrestler outside of the current top 3 this season. Great year for him so far.

133: Bricker Dixon finishes in 7th place. His season is over. He was the 3d seed, so this was a disappointing finish, but only the top two seeds from this weight were going to the NCAAs anyway. Probably won't see a lot of action next year as two-time All-American Mike Grey's younger brother Mark is almost certainly going to step into this spot next year. Still, not bad for a guy who wasn't supposed to see much time this year behind Nick Arujau (who was benched under still-somewhat-mysterious circumstances).

141: Mike Nevinger wins his last match and finishes in 3d. This is disappointing, as he was the top seed, but he will still go to the NCAAs. This performance may have cost him a seed, however, and he could end up with a very bad first round draw. Nevinger was an All-American last year and I'd love to see that again.

149: Chris Villalonga finishes 4th with a medical forfeit. He matched his seed and will go to the NCAA tournament for the second time. I haven't read anything about the injury so I suspect it wasn't serious. He wasn't expected to get seeded at NCAAs so I figure any small tweak would be enough to forfeit this essentially meaningless match.
 
157: Jesse Shanaman loses his final match to finish 6th. This SV loss probably cost him a spot in the NCAA tournament. It is plausible that he gets a WC - he was the 6th seed and the top 5 seeds all qualified - but he has a losing record for the year so I'd be surprised. Disappointing career so far given his HS pedigree.

165: Kyle Dake blows through the field and wins his third EIWA title. He had two first period pins, a major decision (>7 points) and a technical fall (15 point mercy rule). Named outstanding wrestler of the tournament. He will be going to the NCAAs and trying for his 4th NCAA title, all at different weights and (IIRC) would be the first to do so. He is already the first person to take 3 titles in 3 years without a redshirt. He hasn't lost a match since the finals of the EIWA tournament his sophomore year. IIRC, he hasn't even given up an offensive point since that match. Anyway, he's pretty good.

174: Marshall Peppleman takes 7th place. Man. He was supposed to be a stud coming out of high school. Disappointing tournament, disappointing season. It seems mean to say that about a kid but it's true. I read that his brother didn't break through until his junior year, so fingers crossed for this guy.

184: Steve Bosak wins his first EIWA title, and will go to the NCAAs to defend his national title, likely as the 4 seed. Missed a lot of the season due to injury but came back solid if not spectacular early. He only lost to the #1 and #3 wrestlers and came on strong at the end of the year.

197: Jace Bennett takes 3d and will go to his first NCAA tournament as a Junior. Solid season for Bennett.

285: Stryker Lane loses by MD and finishes 4th but will go to his first NCAA tournament in his senior season.

Cornell won the team title going away.

7 wrestlers will represent the Red at NCAAs.

[dag14]

Villalonga was injured during the match but it wasn't clear to me what the problem was.  Since he advanced to NCAA regardless of outcome and since the team trophy was not in danger, I am guessing he forfeited to avoid a more serious injury.

Stryker Lane was also injured during his last match and it looked like it involved his already-injured knee.  To his credit, he did not forfeit; he continued the match, giving up the major decision.  If you will recall, Lane was injured during a key match [the duals?] where the outcome of his match made the difference in the meet and he kept wrestling even though he could barely bend his leg.  He may not have stood at the top of the podium this afternoon, but Stryker Lane earned the right to advance.

[ithacat]

174: Marshall Peppleman takes 7th place. Man. He was supposed to be a stud coming out of high school. Disappointing tournament, disappointing season. It seems mean to say that about a kid but it's true. I read that his brother didn't break through until his junior year, so fingers crossed for this guys.

I think his brother was an AA as a sophomore. Hopefully he breaks out next year.