Interviewed_at_Weehawken

Is @AOCStallsLikeAMug aware of this?

Spencer had well-documented injuries, starting in high school , but none that kept him out of the national tournament or that kept him from placing. My point was that it is tough to find this type of guy... might be why PSU has struggled with it. Seems a better answer than "Cael can't coach 125s"

That McD is sure one pin feller!

Because Cael is such a nice ethical guy? He wouldn't ever use negative recruiting if he thought it was needed, and definitely wouldn't ever think about pushing his mentor out at Iowa State!

He was the #3 because he lost to Marcus Coleman. Hidlay and Keckheisen did not have similar losses. For some reason, people forget this. Last years results are taken to account, just not officially. The coaches ranking takes last years results into account, for instance. That's why Ramos was #1.

I might consider reading this in it's entirety if you used some modicum of English writing conventions.

It is a qualifier. They are trying to get two guys. These two guys usually don't wrestle the final anyway. They just want to go to the Olympics. Very unlikely to alter seeds much, as these wrestlers were DNP or low placers at Worlds and continental qualifiers!

Some wildcards too? (or maybe if a guy had been grandfathered in and placed lower than top 2, he would be eligible?)

DNP, 2, (133), 1 (shortened season) Gus, I like you. You are continuing to lose track of the argument. I think Suriano is a great one. Very odd duck, but great. 1. Spencer went to Iowa, partially because he considered it a better training situation for him as a 125 2. A claim was made that PSU didn't recruit Spencer bc they had Suriano 3. This claim was disproven 4. I stated that part of the PSU 125 problem was that it is hard to recruit four year 125s, who can keep the weight, stay healthy be effective etc. 5. Another poster claimed that they had that guy in Suriano. 6. I disagreed by saying that Suriano couldn't stay healthy at 125, then went up to 133, then went back to 125 because he could wrestled a shortened season without Spencer. Never said he wasn't a stud. 7. I think that you and I mostly agree. I mean the stats prove that he was unable to stay at 125 and wrestle full seasons healthily for 4 years!

Richards must've had a lot of gameplans!

Bro! The point was that he had trouble staying healthy and at 125 for 5 years. Significant illness and injury kept him out of one tournament and almost another. He then went 133 where he won, wrestled a full season etc. I never said he wasn't great. 125 for 4-5 years at PSU wasn't going to happen... and didn't. The whole post was about recruiting 125s who can stay at 125 and be effective theuir entire career. Poster said "Suriano was that guy" Except he wasn't! literally had significant health problems at 125 and had his best season at 133. He was able to wrestle an abbreviated season at 125 and win again. Despite being "the best threat to take out Gilman" has never made WTT finals. Sick, and then upset by Richards.

The infection and the ankle injury were two different situations. So that is two cases of not staying healthy, thanks for reminding me. 125 looks like it was even a worse idea. He comes back for his last year, when it is clear that Spencer is not a factor, and decides that he is a 125 again while wrestling an extremely abbreviated season. Also has had trouble staying healthy/optimally effective at 57 kg scratch for more than a ranking tourney here or there.

Suriano did NOT fit that description. He couldn't effectively stay healthy enough to start and be an All-American at 125 for all 4(5) years, and was also more than willing to move up to 133 due to the presence of Spencer Lee.

Do people somehow think that wrestling at heavyweight looks like a 125 match? I think that mostly it comes down to recruiting and this would also include recruiting people who are going to stay out of trouble and be able to maintain 125 lbs while wrestling effectively for a good portion of their career. They haven't had this type of guy on their team since Megaludis.

BTW RBY looking pretty lean lately in his 57 kg prep. Almost similar to TJ Dillahaw for his Cejudo fight...

GROWN indeed. And how would 2023 WTT Gilman have done against HWC World silver Gilman?

What is Vito's weight going to look like in March? (The same could be said of Fix.) Look at the NCAA schedule next to the USA Wrestling schedule.

"at this point."

Except for the part about this statement being 100% false, you are absolutely correct. Larry Lee on Spencer's recruiting: You have a son that is one of the top high school recruits in the country– walk us through the END of the decision-making process–It gets narrowed down to a couple of different schools — what happens from there? What role did you and your wife play in the decision–or did you leave it entirely to him? It was important to us that Spencer made his own decision. I’m a spreadsheet type of person, so I helped him do research on each school. I answered questions for him. We looked at academics, majors, graduation rates, rankings, etc. I put every factor he considered into a spreadsheet to refer to after each visit. When he would come home, he would talk, and I would type up notes so that he wouldn’t forget. He quickly narrowed his choices to Penn State and Iowa. I used to go for walks with Spencer, and we would talk about where he was at in the process. Again, to be candid, he waffled more than a few times. Toward the end, he would ask me, “what do you think, where do you think I should go, do you have a favorite?” I would tell him that it’s not my choice; it’s yours. He would often say, “Why won’t you tell me what you think.” I told him that I couldn’t because it has to be his decision. I do want to say that he was under so much pressure to pick Penn State. He heard it from his teachers, classmates, neighbors, etc. Coach Sanderson was relentless as well. Because Penn State was so close, Spencer visited the campus six times during the process. He visited Iowa three times. The Penn State staff often found their way to his school or Young Gun workouts to observe or to be a presence. Once, when Spencer visited Penn State, he walked into the practice room and found every athlete on the team, including the coaches, wearing pajama pants in recognition of his visit. As you know, in high school, Spencer always wore pajama pants to warm-up. It was a great move and spoke to how hard Penn State worked to recruit him. Because the rules aren’t what they are now, we paid for each visit to the schools. We wanted Spencer to have full access, so our role was to provide that access and support him as he went through his decision-making process. So obviously we know how the story ended up– and Hawkeye fans are thrilled to say the least- how did it play out– did Spencer come home from practice one day and say– Dad– I’m choosing the Hawkeyes? No one knows this, but he did go back and forth. Every time he would lean one way or the other, I told him to sleep on it and give a little time. He would often come back and say, “I don’t know.” He truly struggled. One day he told me he had made his decision. He said something that I will never forget. I asked, “Which one?” He told me, “Choosing Penn State was the easy decision, but Iowa was the right decision.” I asked him what he meant, and he said, “Going to Penn State would make everyone happy. I love wrestling for the state of PA and I’ve always been a PA boy. I’ve wrestled for the state at every level, Schoolboy, Cadet, Junior, PIAA’s. Penn State has a great team and will be the favorites to win team titles. I know everyone on the Penn State team. I’ve been teammates with a bunch of those guys through Young Guns. I get along with all of them. I’d be closer to home and you guys. It would be so much easier for you to attend my matches. I was a roommate on my first world team with Bo Nickal, on another world team with both Mark Hall and Anthony Cassar. But for me to achieve my long-term goals, I know that Iowa is the right choice even if it’s not as comfortable. Terry and Tom coach each person to their talents and skills. When I visited and watched practices, it was apparent that they are the right coaches for me. I know that for me to have a chance at 4 NCAA titles, and World and Olympic Teams. The easy choice isn’t the right choice. Dad, I’m going to become a Hawkeye.” https://hawkeyewrestlingclub.com/larry-lee/

I know that this used to be the case, but I also know that the IOC has been cutting back on host country allocations. So who knows?

But they didn't, and the reason they didn't was that Spencer felt that Iowa had shown better success amongst lightweights than anywhere else. (Also, Iowa didn't use negative recruiting...)

Yep. Monday, Schultz, etc. weren't exactly pushovers.

BerginC is a person? I thought it was the High School that Suriano and Howard attended?

After taking the job? Sounds like the right thing to say! When I coached against him in HS, he was on Team PA.

Oklahoma is closer to PA than NC?