Wrestling 2019-20

[billhoward]

listening to the Flo Wrestling podcast and it looks like Tucker at 3 based on seeding criteria, which is more mechanical than i realized. i thought it was smoke-filled room.

Times have changed. Now the smoke-filled room smells of weed.

[ugarte]

meanwhile, in freestyle, yianni wrestled relieved the US in Ottawa in the Pan Am Games and...
https://twitter.com/trackwrestling/status/1237134136877481985

[ugarte]

FYI, NCAA brackets come out on Wednesday so we'll see if Loew (i think a good chance) and Womack (I don't think he'll be eligible) get at-large bids.

[klehner]

FYI, NCAA brackets come out on Wednesday so we'll see if Loew (i think a good chance) and Womack (I don't think he'll be eligible) get at-large bids.

Appears that the at-large bids come out on Tuesday at 3pm, and the brackets on Wednesday.  Lots of confusion on that all around.

[ugarte]

FYI, NCAA brackets come out on Wednesday so we'll see if Loew (i think a good chance) and Womack (I don't think he'll be eligible) get at-large bids.

Appears that the at-large bids come out on Tuesday at 3pm, and the brackets on Wednesday.  Lots of confusion on that all around.

yeah - the pre-championship manual says wednesday but the ncaa apparently said the bids are being released today at 3 eastern.

[ugarte]

FYI, NCAA brackets come out on Wednesday so we'll see if Loew (i think a good chance) and Womack (I don't think he'll be eligible) get at-large bids.

Appears that the at-large bids come out on Tuesday at 3pm, and the brackets on Wednesday.  Lots of confusion on that all around.

yeah - the pre-championship manual says wednesday but the ncaa apparently said the bids are being released today at 3 eastern.

Womack and Loew both get bids! Amazing.

[ugarte]

I am floating over the team - in a year with 3 Olympic redshirts, and the year that was supposed to be a holding pattern before the arrival of the next insane freshman class - is sending EIGHT guys to NCAAs. It will still be a struggle for the team to keep the top 12 (2003) much less top 8 (2008) but still, this has been a surprisingly good finish to a weird year. There's a story at every weight.

125: LaJoie (16-20) struggled and finishes the season with a losing record - but when he needed to come through at EIWA, he did and is going to NCAAs.
133: Tucker (31-0) is undefeated!
141: Baughman (26-12) jumped two weight classes from his last time in the starting lineup, won the spot, and kept the decision out of the selection committee's hands.
149: Richard (25-10) locked down the starting spot early and turned it on in the postseason to earn a trip to NCAAs.
157: Santoro (15-18) moved up to 165 then back down to 157 when Yapoujian got hurt. His record belies how many close matches he had. No postseason, but he stepped up and did whatever the team needed.
165: Dawkins (13-10_ earned the starting spot at the beginning of the year but struggled in the middle of the season. His replacements did as well, and when he needed to grab his spot back in March, he did it. Finished well above seed and on the podium at EIWA to boot.
174: Womack (14-7) gets to cap off an interesting career with a 4th trip to NCAAs. An All American at 165 in 2017, he either had to or chose to go to 174 and hasn't quite been the same since but was wrestling his best in a long time when he clearly got hurt mid-match in South Beach. Getting a reprieve from the committee is great news.
184: Loew (26-13) won the starting spot at 197 out of the gate; when Darmstadt needed to go up, he went down for the team. Had a solid EIWA, including a revenge win over Princeton, and got the bid.
197: Darmstadt (28-6) struggled with strength down at 184 but still only lost to the best of the opposition. Back at 197 he was nearly unstoppable but for injury and one bad loss. He destroyed Princeton's Brucki at a time when Brucki was considered the class of the division then blew through EIWAs.
285: Furman(22-12) had a sneaky-good season with a capper in the 3rd place match to earn a spot in the NCAA field.

[ugarte]

*blithely pretending the tournament won't be cancelled*

So, the brackets are out for the NCAA tournament. Let's see how they look for the Big Red.

125: No surprise as Dom LaJoie is the 32 seed in a 33 man field. He won a pair at EIWA to qualify for the tournament but lost his next three to slide to 6th place and has a losing record on the season. His opponent? The 33 seed, Antonio Maninno (Drexel), who LaJoie beat in OT to qualify for the tournament. It is also no surprise that Maninno is LaJoie's opponent in this pigtail match since he ALSO has a losing record on the season. The winner of this match has the privilege of getting absolutely wrecked in the first round by #1 Spencer Lee. If he loses to Maninno, he'll almost certainly face Logan Griffin of Michigan State. He lost to Griffin's backup earlier this season, so that's not great. After that, he'll get pinned or teched by Lee (sorry) and then face the loser of Nick Aguilar (Rutgers), who beat him 10-5 earlier this year and Jacob Schwarm (Northern Iowa) a 3x national qualifier. There are no good paths as the 32 seed.

133: Chas Tucker indeed received the 3 seed and the committee decided to have a little fun. His first round opponent is DJ Fehlman (Lock Haven), who upset Tucker in the first round at last year's tournament. Tucker beat Fehlman this year but he also beat him in the regular season last year. Was it on purpose? Who is to say. If he wins he faces the winner of #14 Ridge Lovett (Wisconsin) and #19 Allan Hart (Missouri). If he loses his opening bout, he faces the loser of that match. He'd be the favorite over either but both are going to be tough matches. The #6 wrestler is Austin DeSanto (Iowa). When DeSanto was a freshman at Drexel he beat Tucker in a dual meet but Tucker got him back in the EIWA semifinals. DeSanto is incredibly talented but a real jerk on the mat. I want to see Tucker beat him. It's going to be a great match.

141: Another match that makes you think the committee is messing around. Baughman gets the 22 seed and will face #11 Zach Sherman, who he beat in SV at the North Carolina dual. Up next would be either 2x All-American #6 Chad Red (Nebraska) or #27 Cole Matthews (Pitt).

149: #25 Hunter Richard has #8 Jarrett Degen (Iowa State) in the first round. Degen beat him last year. The winner faces either #9 Collin Purinton (Nebraska) or #24 Russell Rohlfing (Bakersfield). Richard hasn't faced either.

174: #30 Brandon Womack will face #3 Jordan Kutler (Lehigh). Kutler has won all three of their meetings. Up next would be either #14 Clay Lautt (N. Carolina) or #19 Kimball Bastian (Utah Valley). He's never faced Lautt but Bastian knocked him out of the 2018 NCAA tournament. Would be nice to get revenge but I'm not sure that Womack is fully recovered from his December injury. I definitely didn't expect him to make the tournament. He can pin anyone but he never did quite learn neutral defense.

184: #28 Jonathan Loew takes on #5 Trent Hidlay (NC State). Hidlay majored him last year when both were taking a gap year. Up next would either be #12 Zack Carlson (S. Dakota St.) or #21 Billy Janzer (Rutgers) both of who beat Loew earlier this season. I hope Loew has revenge on his mind.

197: Couldn't really expect a higher seed than #4 for Ben Darmstadt after he lost to an unranked wrestler from North Carolina. Otherwise he's been a buzzsaw at 197. He opens against #29 Hunter Ritter (Minnesota) and then follows with either #13 Thomas Lane (Cal-Poly), - who Ben Honis beat last year in the blood round to get All American - or #20 JT Brown (Army), who was Darmstadt's high school teammate and he's known since they were little kids. Darmstadt won 6-1 in the EIWA semis last week.

285: #28 Brendan Furman has a really tough path, as you'd expect for #28. First, #5 Matt Stencel (C. Michigan.), a returning All American. Up next, either #12 Josh Hokit (Fullerton) - another All American, or #21 David Jensen (Nebraska).

As you can see, aside from Tucker and Darmstadt, the next best seed is #22 Baughman. That explains how shocking and cool it was for Cornell to put 8 guys in the field. We are unlikely to rack up many team points outside of our big two but if last week showed us anything... you never know. Let's Go Red!

Unless the tournament was called off while I was typing.

[Swampy]

*blithely pretending the tournament won't be cancelled*

So, the brackets are out for the NCAA tournament. Let's see how they look for the Big Red.

...

Unless the tournament was called off while I was typing.

Let's see. Young men holding onto each other, straining, and breathing in each other's faces, while there's a global pandemic that's 10x more deadly than the common flu. What could possibly go wrong?

[scoop85]

*blithely pretending the tournament won't be cancelled*

So, the brackets are out for the NCAA tournament. Let's see how they look for the Big Red.

...

Unless the tournament was called off while I was typing.

Let's see. Young men holding onto each other, straining, and breathing in each other's faces, while there's a global pandemic that's 10x more deadly than the common flu. What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, you would think if any sport would be canceled under the current situation it would be wrestling.

[ugarte]

*blithely pretending the tournament won't be cancelled*

So, the brackets are out for the NCAA tournament. Let's see how they look for the Big Red.

...

Unless the tournament was called off while I was typing.

Let's see. Young men holding onto each other, straining, and breathing in each other's faces, while there's a global pandemic that's 10x more deadly than the common flu. What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, you would think if any sport would be canceled under the current situation it would be wrestling.

SIRS! I am blithely pretending otherwise!

[mountainred]

*blithely pretending the tournament won't be cancelled*

So, the brackets are out for the NCAA tournament. Let's see how they look for the Big Red.

...

Unless the tournament was called off while I was typing.

Let's see. Young men holding onto each other, straining, and breathing in each other's faces, while there's a global pandemic that's 10x more deadly than the common flu. What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, you would think if any sport would be canceled under the current situation it would be wrestling.

SIRS! I am blithely pretending otherwise!

You know I follow the wrestling almost as much you do, but c'mon ...........

Still, a very nice write-up.

[ugarte]

*blithely pretending the tournament won't be cancelled*

So, the brackets are out for the NCAA tournament. Let's see how they look for the Big Red.

...

Unless the tournament was called off while I was typing.

Let's see. Young men holding onto each other, straining, and breathing in each other's faces, while there's a global pandemic that's 10x more deadly than the common flu. What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, you would think if any sport would be canceled under the current situation it would be wrestling.

SIRS! I am blithely pretending otherwise!

You know I follow the wrestling almost as much you do, but c'mon ...........

Still, a very nice write-up.

i know what's going to happen i'm just not coping well

[mountainred]

The inevitable was, well, inevitable.  I hate it for all the athletes, except maybe the Nitnies, but really feel for Noah who worked so hard to final make nationals.

Rob Koll's perspective from his email blast:  This is a terrible disappointment, this is not a tragedy because our young men are more than just wrestlers.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Rob Koll's perspective from his email blast:  This is a terrible disappointment, this is not a tragedy because our young men are more than just wrestlers.

I like that thinking.