While his season on the mat officially ended this week in Stillwater, the saga of Marstellar's wrestling career will almost certainly extend a few more years.
The rumor mill has already started to spin, with conjecture that Marstellar will either quit wrestling altogether (as he mentioned in a tweet) or join his former youth coach Cary Kolat at Campbell.
So what happened? I don't know that it matters.
When given the body of evidence we have to go on there is little anyone can do but speculate, and really, what good is that when considering the physical and emotional health of a 20-year-old?
For now, it's best to allow him to clear his head and make a decision that most benefits his future. I hope that Coach Smith is part of that discussion, and maybe even Coach Kolat. What Marstellar needs now are calm voices guiding him to his next step, not to listen to the outrageous, cacophonous echo chamber of the wrestling world's message boards and Twitteratti.
To you questions …
Q: I've been watching matches on BTN over the weekend and have an idea to improve scoring in folkstyle and likening more to freestyle without making any major changes. If a wrestler shoots or creates an offensive attack and that initial sequence ends in a stalemate, he or she gets 1 point. This rewards the offensive wrestler and more importantly penalizes the wrestler whose only goal is to create a stalemate. There are so many matches that have countless shots and no scoring because of funk scrambles. Think about the Jesse Delgado-Nahshon Garrett NCAA finals match from a couple years ago. Garrett might have won and at the least would have been much higher scoring. What do you think?
-- Andy S.
Foley: The near-takedown, which bubbled up in the states after some misinterpretation of international rules, was among the most reviled and confusing rules to ever (not) exist. On the surface this reminds me of that rule.
The other rule it reminds me of is the one-point defensive takedown, where any snapdown or sprawl into a takedown off an opponent's shot only earned one point. That ruled caused some really weird things to happen, like desperation "shots" by winning wrestlers who wanted to avoid giving up two points.
I'd have to see the rule in action, but my instincts tell me that there would be a lot of shots where the aggressor would accept the stalemate and maybe even push it along in order to ensure easier points. In my watching this year a high percentage of attacking wrestlers were left to hang on to a leg in order to avoid the counter takedown.
The OB and self-exposure rules would eliminate much of the tomfoolery, but as you alluded to in your question there just isn't an appetite for that type of change.
Q: Penn State dominated at the Scuffle, winning five weight classes. Has this ever happened at the NCAAs? PSU looks like a favorite in three weight classes with the possibility of two more. What are the chances?
-- Mike Z.
Zain Retherford is one of six Penn State wrestlers ranked in the top five (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)The action at NCAAs rarely falls on the side of perfection, and instead trends toward disarray. That disorganization of champions (how often does anyone predict all 10?) does favor a well-coached Penn State squad come time for the team title. However, I think it's a stretch to predict five, four or even three champions. Is each capable? Yes. But like the Powerball, given enough iterations of the tournament winning five titles may happen, but it's a very, very long shot.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Really ... Don't pull hair in jiu-jitsu
These kids just don't play no more !ó¾»
Posted by Mr Jiu-Jitsu on Sunday, January 10, 2016
Helicopter defense, anyone?
Link: Great read on Jesse Thielke
Q: Please comment on the 4-point nearfall hurting NCAA wrestling. A good scramble ending with a takedown and back points puts a wrestler up 6-0. The wrestler then stalls for the rest of the match to win 7-2. Is there a better way for awarding action without throwing the match?
-- Josh L.
Foley: I'm not a fan of adding points just to make the score look more impressive. Takedowns are very hard to get and are worth two points, but when you subtract a standup (which you need in order to score another takedown) that's really reduced to one. Meanwhile an action like tilting can be done on repeat and HOLDING someone in danger for four swipes is worth twice as much as two swipes? The rule seems wildly out of line with what the NCAA would want to promote, which is action on the feet. Why would any casual fan want to watch a match with two guys logrolling each other for massive amounts of points? Hint: They don't.
The NCAA should incentivize wrestling from the neutral position and an increase of new and grand actions. The problem has become one of death by a thousand cuts. In order to solve the dearth of scoring (and interesting scoring) in collegiate wrestling, the NCAA instituted easy ways to add points. That change, added atop a heap of others, has decreased action.
This is most evident in Bo Nickal's loss at Indiana. The action was his and though he lost position he gave up six points. In freestyle he'd have given up four, but the comeback would've been easier because stalling and the pushout would have evened him up in minutes.
I don't see the NCAA making major changes. They are content with minor adjustments no matter what the eventuality on the mat.
Q: About 2016 Takhti Cup: The traditional wrestling style (Pahlavani) competition after the international tournament is an excellent idea. You can see a lot of international freestyle/Greco stars fighting with different rules and uniforms. I believe in this strategy, a strong partnership between Olympic and traditional styles during an international event. Could be interesting see another "mixed" event with kurash or belt wrestling. What do you think?
-- Luca M.
Foley: I love the idea of adding in the local culture of wrestling to an international event.
I've worked from over 30 countries in the last few years and each event opens with a dance number. I'm the first to recognize and appreciate the tie between dance and wrestling, but it always occurred to me that these ceremonies may also play an ode to local wrestling traditions.
Growth of the traditional styles could be coming. In February, I'll be attending an international forum in Istanbul on traditional wrestling. United World Wrestling is pairing up with some sponsors and the Turkish Wrestling Federation to make a more permanent improvement to the traditional offerings.
Time will tell. There is a lot to be done at all levels of the sport and only so much time, money and human resources to split among the interested parties.
Q: What specifically is USA Wrestling doing to help get the sport back at the Division I level to schools who either used to have it or are in popular wrestling areas? Other than talking points, what can they tell you is being done? The second part of that is what is their revenue being spent on? I seriously don't know and my smart guy friends and I can't come up with those answers.
-- Mike S.
Foley: USA Wrestling has very limited dominion over NCAA wrestling so they don't focus too much on giving their resources to the collegiate programs.
I don't have talking points for USA Wrestling, but they are in constant motion. There is no slacking. The first role of the organization is to win Olympic and World medals at the senior, junior and cadet level in women's wrestling, Greco-Roman and freestyle. To accomplish that means funding eight starting wrestlers at each weight class, plus two backups to wrestle around the world for almost a full 12 months.
Travel is an enormous expense, but I know from experience that the coaches, athletes and executives are almost always sitting in coach (save the free upgrade). That isn't always the case with international and national federations.
The staffing levels for three teams is equally burdensome financially, having to pay for a team director, strength coach, nutritionist, developmental coach and a myriad more roles. And that's before you get to the obvious on-the-mat coaches.
USA Wrestling also hosts a bunch of events throughout the calendar year, not the least of which is Fargo. Those events need a very large, very dedicated staff to execute and a smaller year-round staff to envision, manage, and prepare.
Then you have communications staff, support staff and the aforementioned executive staff. All those people have salaries and those numbers are all made public.
In total, they do work their ass off for the betterment of the sport with pretty limited funding. They do a heck of a lot for an organization their size. Could they do more or be more efficient? Of course, we all could, but for now they are well run and meeting their mission to bring home medals.
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