No One Talks About the Pinfelled
Sure David Taylor had 11 pinfalls in his illustrious NCAA tournament career. Everyone knows that.
And a few of you probably even know that Sylvester Terkay, Mark Perry, and Corey Olsen each had 8 pinfalls in their time at NCAAs.
But how come no one is talking about Zack Giesen's 8 NCAA tournament pinfalls? Oh yeah, right. It is probably because he was on the wrong end of 7 of those.
But don't get me wrong. He may be my new favorite wrestler.
Zach Giesen wrestled for Stanford from 2008 - 2011 and won 110 matches, ending his career 4th on Stanford's all-time list. He was an All-American in 2011 finishing in sixth place. In high school he was a four timer while also earning three letters in football along with an all-state honor. In short, the dude was a stud. And somehow he still found himself staring at the lights an amazing 7 times.
Let's be clear about one thing. Zach Giesen was a better wrestler than just about everyone on these forums. But there is more. He is also smarter than all of us. There are a lot of brains to go with that brawn. That is Dr. Giesen, to you. He is now a Dr. of Osteopathic Medicine specializing in invasive cardiology. Holy crap.
Pinfalls - The Dark Side Honorable Mention.
You can only get pinfelled a maximum of three times in any one NCAA tournament. No fun, I know. Of course that also means you are an All-American. So there is that. Between 1988 and 2021 there were two wrestlers to earn All-American the hard way.
In 2017 Zac Brunson finished sixth while getting pinned three times. He was notable for getting pinned twice by the same wrestler, Brain Realbuto, in the quarters and in the fifth place match. But don't say he didn't learn anything. After getting pinfelled in 1:12 in the quarters he took what he learned there to make it to the 1:15 mark in the fifth place match.
In 2016 Alec Pantaleo also finished sixth while getting pinfelled three times. I imagine that tournament left a bad taste in his mouth as his three pinfalls were in a row. After making it to the semis he went pinfall, pinfall, pinfall. Ouch, ouch, ouch. The good news for Pantaleo is he was never pinned again on his way to subsequent fifth and third place finishes.