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2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships Thread

Henson, the kid that beat Williams is such a stud - he just beat the #1 seed to make the finals.

made that match look a lot different

dude was a hammer in the williams match but no idea a finalist hammer
 
OSU in 7th...Considering this morning, not entirely mad...Wish Spratley and Williams would've gotten one more dub but we've got 3 guys still alive...

Never know, Outside chance at a top 3 finish, would be wild!
It got better after Spratley lost but Spratley has lots of talent but man he lost a lot of matches that he shouldn't have lost in the last seconds of a match and SDSU beat him twice by killing him from the top position. Olejinik really wrestled tough in these last 2 matches and so at worst he will take 6th. Plott really has wrestled good his last 2 matches dominating 2 tough guys. It is unbelievable how bad Daton has wrestled but he is in the finals and has a chance for a National Title but he will be dominated unless he goes up 2 gears in his wrestling performance. There is a chance we could have 2 National Champs but the odds are bad that will happen.
 
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OSU in 7th...Considering this morning, not entirely mad...Wish Spratley and Williams would've gotten one more dub but we've got 3 guys still alive...

Never know, Outside chance at a top 3 finish, would be wild!
So...the way I see it, the three guys I wish could have gotten one more win are all freshmen (Spratley, Williams, Travis). In the end, they looked like freshmen--athletic, precocious, but ultimately neither as strong nor as wily as the guys they were wrestling. They made some rookie mistakes. Hopefully, they learn from them, spend the summer building some muscle mass, and come back next year with athleticism AND experience and some wiliness of their own.
 
Here’s the problem we have brought in by our standards “elite” talent just most of them have materialized. And maybe our standards need to be a little higher. I don’t know what your definition of elite is but if we aren’t getting at least one top 5 recruit out of each class then we are falling short.
By elite I mean top 10 pound for pound guys. Guys that are competing for U17 or U20 World level medals in High School. If we want to compete for 2nd place we need to get at least one of these guys every year. If want to ever get close to Penn State again, we'd have to get 2 of these guys every year. I haven't liked the way we've recruited or developed wrestlers for about 15 years except for this year. There has been a change. I like this coaching staff now and Smith FINALLY waking up to the modern realities of College wrestling with NIL, the portal and RTC, some training changes etc.. ABOUT FREAKING TIME.
 
Lot of “Ifs” and “Buts”…

All that aside, good evening for the Cowboys.

2 Oklahomans in the Finals.

3 AA’s

On a separate note: Nasir Bailey needs to be a Cowboy 🤠 😬😊
Yes, him and Stephen Little...Proud of Coach Erisman, 5 years into the program, gets his first 2 AAs this year! He'll get plucked soon for a bigger school for sure!
 
By elite I mean top 10 pound for pound guys. Guys that are competing for U17 or U20 World level medals in High School. If we want to compete for 2nd place we need to get at least one of these guys every year. If want to ever get close to Penn State again, we'd have to get 2 of these guys every year. I haven't liked the way we've recruited or developed wrestlers for about 15 years except for this year. There has been a change. I like this coaching staff now and Smith FINALLY waking up to the modern realities of College wrestling with NIL, the portal and RTC, some training changes etc.. ABOUT FREAKING TIME.
Too bad he woke up several years late…Michigan has two transfers and both in the finals. Shane griffin was in the semis. We need to embrace the portal
 
That needs to be the mantra/theme/whatever moving forward: Embrace the Portal.

OSU needs AAs at all 10 weights.

Someone, at some point will unseat PSU. Maybe not in the near future, but someone will at some point. OSU needs to put itself in position.
 
Everyone who is awarding the title to Vito needs to rewatch the last time we had a 133lb wrestler in Kansas City. I remember watching Ryan Lewis bonus everyone including Cliff Moore to the finals and barely break a sweat. On the other side was Johnny Thompson getting boo’d out of the arena for squeaking by Rad Martinez. I was in the stands in 2003 and had to trust my heart and not my eyes. The eye test wins no championships. Johnny Thompson won the wrestling match that night, and Ryan Lewis is probably still cursing JT. But I’m hoping lightning strikes twice for us in this city. Daton can do it.

Ironically, anyone else remember how our 184 pounder fared that same tournament? Didn’t Rosholt lose by major decision in the Big 12 finals, then rematch Barker at NCAA’s?

Any given day. We have done it at these weights, in this arena, and with similar odds. Let’s go get em Daton & Dustin!
 
Coming into the finals all I was hoping for were for Fix and Plott to make the finals and at least have a shot. There's plenty of things to critique about our postseason performance but of the next 24 hours all I care about is Fix and Plott working some magic tomorrow night and Izzak showing out in the morning.
 
It got better after Spratley lost but Spratley has lots of talent but man he lost a lot of matches that he shouldn't have won in the last seconds of a match and SDSU beat him twice by killing him from the top position. Olejinik really wrestled tough in these last 2 matches and so at worst he will take 6th. Plott really has wrestled good his last 2 matches dominating 2 tough guys. It is unbelievable how bad Daton has wrestled but he is in the finals and has a chance for a National Title but he will be dominated unless he goes up 2 gears in his wrestling performance. There is a chance we could have 2 National Champs but the odds are bad that will happen.
Both pretty good underdogs on paper. Let er rip.
 
That needs to be the mantra/theme/whatever moving forward: Embrace the Portal.

OSU needs AAs at all 10 weights.

Someone, at some point will unseat PSU. Maybe not in the near future, but someone will at some point. OSU needs to put itself in position.
Yup
 
Everyone who is awarding the title to Vito needs to rewatch the last time we had a 133lb wrestler in Kansas City. I remember watching Ryan Lewis bonus everyone including Cliff Moore to the finals and barely break a sweat. On the other side was Johnny Thompson getting boo’d out of the arena for squeaking by Rad Martinez. I was in the stands in 2003 and had to trust my heart and not my eyes. The eye test wins no championships. Johnny Thompson won the wrestling match that night, and Ryan Lewis is probably still cursing JT. But I’m hoping lightning strikes twice for us in this city. Daton can do it.

Ironically, anyone else remember how our 184 pounder fared that same tournament? Didn’t Rosholt lose by major decision in the Big 12 finals, then rematch Barker at NCAA’s?

Any given day. We have done it at these weights, in this arena, and with similar odds. Let’s go get em Daton & Dustin!
I appreciate your positivity but maybe you need to rewatch the fix vs Vito semifinal from last year. Vito is in that form again and fix looks worse. Don’t get me wrong I hope he wins but I’ve had that hope 3 times before so I’d rather be surprised than disappointed.
 
I appreciate your positivity but maybe you need to rewatch the fix vs Vito semifinal from last year. Vito is in that form again and fix looks worse. Don’t get me wrong I hope he wins but I’ve had that hope 3 times before so I’d rather be surprised than disappointed.
No disrespect at all, but I guess we just agree to disagree on what we choose to watch before Daton’s last match. Vito has looked really tough, I agree. But Daton is really tough too. I’ll match his loyalty with my faith in him even if it means risking heartbreak. Be a nice time to see that inside trip out of a scramble or maybe double boots and a full period rideout.
 
Everyone who is awarding the title to Vito needs to rewatch the last time we had a 133lb wrestler in Kansas City. I remember watching Ryan Lewis bonus everyone including Cliff Moore to the finals and barely break a sweat. On the other side was Johnny Thompson getting boo’d out of the arena for squeaking by Rad Martinez. I was in the stands in 2003 and had to trust my heart and not my eyes. The eye test wins no championships. Johnny Thompson won the wrestling match that night, and Ryan Lewis is probably still cursing JT. But I’m hoping lightning strikes twice for us in this city. Daton can do it.

Ironically, anyone else remember how our 184 pounder fared that same tournament? Didn’t Rosholt lose by major decision in the Big 12 finals, then rematch Barker at NCAA’s?

Any given day. We have done it at these weights, in this arena, and with similar odds. Let’s go get em Daton & Dustin!
I think Fix matches up well with Crookham. Fix even matches up well with the Vito we've seen this season up thru conference tourney. However Fix does not match up well with the Vito we've see this year at NCAA. We'd better see a different Fix tomorrow night.
 
Maybe fix wrestling the way he did today bc it is all part of a big master plan to fake out the opponent. Can’t recall him ever looking this bad at nationals before but he’s still winning with zero offense. Just very taken back bc I figured he would be more hungry and display that
 
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