Wrestling 2024-25

[ugarte]

Fernandez and Ramirez started at around the same time.

Ramirez got a slick takedown by going behind. NF4, adjusts, BAM. Ramirez WBF 1:53 and heads to the blood round.

Fernandez and Wasilewski scoreless in the first. Fernandez on bottom for the second and out in ~:30. Wasilewski in and converts with :11. Mat return. NF? None given. 3-1 Wasiilewski after 2. Wasilewski on bottom... and out. 1:04 left, Fernandez pushing... Wasilewski keeping semi-engaged and backing away until the clock runs out. Fernandez L 3-1.

Only Ramirez moves on. 4 Cornell wrestlers left heading into tonight.

[ugarte]

OK, evening session is set. All that's left are the four guys at heart of the order.

Semifinal is #2 Shapiro v #3 Taylor (Nebraska) Taylor is very, very good but I don't think he's on Shapiro's level. Then again, I don't really think anyone's on Shapiro's level. The opposite half is #8 Blaze (Purdue) v 157: #20 Chumbley (Northwestern). I'm stunned Chumbley has come this far. I'm stunned Blaze had the kind of season that gets an 8-seed; I expected better, but getting to the semis is more like it. Huge upset to get there.

Blood round matches:

165: #5 Ramirez v #7 Garvin (Stanford) Garvin has wrestled well; lost to the 2 seed, Hall, by a point. Hall dominated Ramirez at the tournament last year to eliminate him IIRC.

174: #5 Ruiz v #8 Pinto (Nebraska) After some mediocre matches, Pinto's been great his last two.
 
184: #6 Foca v #23 Brenot (NDSU) This is as good a draw as a high seed can expect in this round. Brenot did not look great in his SV win to get here.

After the afternoon session, Cornell sits in 9th place.

Code Select Expand


1 Penn State 90.5
2 Nebraska 65.5
3 Oklahoma State 63.0
4 Iowa 42.0
5 Northern Iowa 37.5
6 Ohio State 37.0
7 Minnesota 35.5
8 Illinois 33.5
9 Cornell 29.5
10 Michigan 27.5
11 Lehigh 26.0
11 Virginia Tech 26.0

[ugarte]

Ramirez v Garvin - Garvin with the first two takedowns and late in the second was up 7-2 when Ramirez got a body lock and took Garvin straight to his back for TD3+NF4 and rode out the period for a 9-7 lead. Damn near had the fall. Garvin conceded the escape, took Ramirez down, let him up, took him down again, Ramirez escaped. 13-12 with 30 seconds left, Ramirez desperate, shoots and Garvin goes behind again. For the 4th year in a row, Ramirez loses in the blood round. Ramirez L 16-12.

Ruiz v Pinto - didn't notice this started but no score two minutes in. Stalling on Pinto. No score end R1. Pinto starts down. Ruiz gets him flat, riding hard. Tight waist. Pinto tries to roll out, Ruiz almost gets backs but flattens him again. Restart with :23 seconds left. No idea why. Not improving? idk. Pinto tries to roll again, Ruiz stops it again. Rides the whole period. Ruiz chooses down. No score, but Ruiz has 2:00 RT. Pinto concedes the escape. 1-0 Ruiz. Pinto gets an ankle but Ruiz stuffs the head. Pinto comes up... the roll out of bounds no TD. TR locked. Pinto pressing down... restart with :17 stall called ... but with RT, Ruiz W 2-1! Ruiz is an All-American.

Shapiro - Taylor semi. No score in the first. Each nearly had a TD but wriggled out. Shapiro starts R2 on bottom. E quickly. Shapiro  in deep gets a leg in the air but Taylor does a split and pulls the leg out. Shapiro 1-0 after R2. Taylor starts on bottom. Big mat returns. Shapiro wanted the RT point but doesn't get it. 1-1 1:15 to go. Shapiro goes for a move and Taylor slides behind for a takedown. Restart with :43. Shapiro out. Shapiro again tries for a big move and Taylor stuffs him. Shapiro L 7-2. BRUTAL.

Foca - Brenot - No scoring in the first. Nothing really close. Foca starts down. Rolls out in ~:20. Brenot in deep but Foca stuffs it. 1-0 after R2. Brenot takes down. Foca riding hard... over a minute of RT... nearly gives up teh reversal but as they roll around, Foca holds on. You can hear his family SCREAMING. Foca W 2-0. Foca is an All-American again.

[Cornell95]

watch the Shapiro match. got the ankle pick/single leg so many times and couldnt generate points from it
not sure if Shapiro thought he could surprise him by going for an upper body throw or that was just the opening he had
whatever the strategy, Taylor was too strong/defensive to go down and then countered for points (twice)

[ugarte]

watch the Shapiro match. got the ankle pick/single leg so many times and couldnt generate points from it
not sure if Shapiro thought he could surprise him by going for an upper body throw or that was just the opening he had
whatever the strategy, Taylor was too strong/defensive to go down and then countered for points (twice)

Shapiro just usually hits that move no matter what people are ready for. The second time was more desperate but still an incredible counter by Taylor.

[ugarte]

Ruiz and Foca each have another match later tonight to see if they will be wrestling for 7th or advancing to the consolation semifinals in tomorrow's 11am session.

Ruiz gets a rubber match with [14] Singleton (NC State); Foca v [22] Washington (Indiana).

Shapiro goes straight to the consolation semi. He probably faces [1] Kasak (Penn St.) but maybe [12] Fish (Ok. State).

[ugarte]

Ruiz and Foca both crushed it.

Ruiz advances to the consolation semifinal with a 10-0 win. Up next is [2] Levi Haines (Penn State).

Foca absolutely annihilated Washington. 20-4 tech. Up next, [4] Plott (Ok. State). Foca pinned him in the 2023 QF when they were both wrestling at 174.

As expected, Shapiro v Kasak in the match that was supposed to be the final.

Ruiz over Singleton, dominant. 10-0 and Singleton never had a chance. Haines up next. Opposite side is DeVos and Kennedy.

Foca over Washington, dominant. 20-4 and Washington never had a chance. Plott up next. I wonder if Plott had this circled. Opposite side is McEnelly and Smith, Foca's two losses this year.

Shapiro v Kasak, but not where we wanted it. Opposite side is Zerban and Chumbley.

With the bonus points and wins to get to the consolation semis, Cornell moves up to 6th.

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1 Penn State 135.5
2 Nebraska 101.5
3 Oklahoma State 91.0
4 Iowa 73.5
5 Minnesota 47.0
6 Cornell 46.0
7 Northern Iowa 44.5
8 Ohio State 44.0
9 Illinois 40.5
10 Virginia Tech 40.0

[Cornell95]

I thought PSU was running away with the team title (again)
But they lost a fair number of matches today and Nebraska multiple wrestlers still in the hunt

Can Nebraska close the gap?

[ugarte]

I thought PSU was running away with the team title (again)
But they lost a fair number of matches today and Nebraska multiple wrestlers still in the hunt

Can Nebraska close the gap?

Penn State still has all ten wrestlers going, including two in the final and the rest still alive for third. Nebraska has an impressive three finalists, but only one alive for third and four going for seventh. And Penn State already has a 34 point lead.

If Penn State loses all of it's matches, and Nebraska wins all of theirs, Nebraska would pick up 24 points for placement. They have 10 potential matches left, so a pin in each would be worth 20.

So... probably not? On the other hand, that is 44 potential points...

[underskill]

https://x.com/FloWrestling/status/1903528311986282555

[ugarte]

might say more later but this was a strange session to attend. we had three guys wrestling in the consolation semis. instead of the usual three mats, they had four. instead of having the medal rounds down one weight at a time, they were rolling matches out as mats opened up. All of this was done because Trump is going to the finals tonight and, I assume, they wanted the early session done as quickly as possible so they can clear the arena and do another security sweep. Also, I slept through my alarm and had to drive to a Philly and arrived after the action had not only started but advanced to the point that Shapiro and Ruiz were already on the mat.

Anyway, rough start. Due to #1 Tyler Kasak getting upset in the QF, the match to see who was wrestling for third was between the top two seeds. Shapiro couldn't get his offense going at all and lost his second match in a row, 5-2.

At the same time, Ruiz was wrestling his own Penn State opponent who wasn't supposed to be there, #2 Levi Haines. He went down also, 4-1.

Chris Foca was facing #4 Dustin Plott,a guy who probably really wanted revenge from when Foca pinned him in the 2023 QF at 174. Foca was cruising, riding Plott for almost a minute and a half in the second period. Unfortunately, while trying for a turn, plot not only slipped out, he slid behind for a reversal and a 2-0 lead then held on for the rest of the period, preventing the escape. In the final period, Plott held on for long enough to bring Foca's riding time under a minute. When Foca couldn't score from his feet, he lost 2-1. Cornell was a brutal 0-for-3 in the round. All three would have to wrestle for 5th.

[ugarte]

Hockey game is over, had dinner. Coming down. Can write about the rest of the wrestling.

After the rough consolation semi round, we still had three matches to go, all rematches of an earlier match this season.

At 157, Meyer Shapiro was facing Northern Colorado's Vinny Zerban, who he beat in the QF, 9-4. After two losses, he came out and clearly meant business. He scored a takedown in every period and never let Vinny off the mat, rolling to an 11-0 major decision win. Disappointing for Shapiro but an impressive 5th place finish all the same.

At 174, Simon Ruiz was the one looking for revenge, facing SDSU's Cade DeVos, who beat him in the QF 4-3 after getting an early takedown and running away for the next 5+ minutes. This time, Ruiz didn't allow the takedown and dominated on top, with ~90 seconds of RT, which was the difference after the trade of escape points. DeVos was in deep on a single leg in the closing seconds, but Ruiz was able to lock his hands across DeVos and hold on for the final whistle. Ruiz wrestled exactly to a seed that many (including me!) thought may have been a bit high.

At 184, Foca was wrestling the only person to beat him this year prior to NCAA's, Maryland's Jaxon Smith - a 7-1 loss back in December. Today, it was all Foca. Foca scored the only two takedowns of the match and was never really threatened, winning 7-4. Foca beat his seed, and the ranking the experts gave him all season, finishing in 5th.

Aside from Shapiro falling short and Ramirez barely missing the podium, this was a pretty damn good tournament. We sent ten to Philly. All ten won at least one match, even though more than half the lineup was ranked in the bottom half, contributing to a 7th place finish that we don't get without their contributions.

Can't wait for next year. We lose Saunders, Ramirez and Foca, and it may be a tough transition, but it's going to be a fun year all the same.

[upprdeck]

Steveson getting beat in a great match

PSU only getting 3 into the finals after that start

Shapiro wins the title and we get 5th place

[ugarte]

Steveson getting beat in a great match

PSU only getting 3 into the finals after that start

Shapiro wins the title and we get 5th place

and i think PSU still broke their own record because after getting "only" three into the finals, they got five thirds and a fifth. (And Kerk chose not to wrestle after losing in the semis and fell to 6th..)

[Cornell95]

has/will NIL money move in to wrestling?
if so, is it more likely to allow PSU to continue to dominate the team title, or allow someone like Nebraska to close the gap faster?