Jim L

Until maybe the last 5 or so years, I don't remember WI producing nationally ranked wrestlers that were winning word medals in HS and going to immediate NCAA success. It hurts for fans to see the top ranked wrestler from their state go somewhere else, but if they are a top national recruit and have immediate collegiate success that has to be at another level of frustration.

Mallory (Montclair St) was DIII guy. Peckham was his club coach as he did not have a HS team. Only competed in Mass States once, his senior were he won. He ended up winning four NCAA titles (1 DI and 3 DIII)

Tough top ten, but this must be one the Big10's weakest weight classes with only two top ten wrestlers

Losing the home grown athletes is what is causing discontent. Especially with the state produces so many studs. Final straw for FB and BB coaches at big time programs that are struggling for a few years has been failing to land the big time instate recruit

Stephen Neal has to be on the list of all time double leggers.

I also believe that they each officially only wrestled one year in HS (as seniors) and both won a state title without a team.

Not Joey Davis (as far as I know)

My favorite NCAA trivia question Name two wrestlers with a combined 10 NCAA titles who did not have a HS wrestling team

Getting back points is so hard at the D1 level unless there is a large mismatch in ability. In 90% of the matches there is not going to be a turn from the top. IMO, that is not because the top guy is not trying, he just knows it is not going to happen, so the best strategy is to ride, hope to get a riding time point or at least collect enough riding time so the the opponent does not get that point. and at the same same time so enough effort that you don't get a stall call. In a fairly even match, the bottom wrestler is usually active that top guy spends all his effort just countering his stand ups etc.

This is news to me. When did this rule change?

I moved to the Lehigh Valley after growing and wrestling in Massachusetts and despite all the talent and tradition, wrestling was a still a niche sport there. Public TV showed some Lehigh matches and the PIAAs which was amazing to me. The local paper would cover the HS matches and the PIAAs, but the NCAAs barely got a mention. Sometime they would give a brief box score of the local HS and Lehigh wrestlers did at NCAA, but not much more. I never recall hearing anyone talkng about wrestlers. Occasionally I would meet guys that used to wrestle and talked about their glory days, but no more than in Mass. And none of them were wrestling fans that still followed the sport. 3 Maybe things have changed since the emergence of Penn State, as their alumni were everywhere and unbearable when talking college FB.

Phillipsburg?

National college champ! It seems like he would be a great MMA guy. I know he started and had a few matches but never really made it. Maybe the competition for collegiate boxing is not all that fierce. I doubt too many college even have a boxing club team.

Hodge voters seems to loosely follow the criteria and bend it where it makes sense. To not give it to Gable becasue he was not a pinner would be wrong. He was the best college wrestler and the most dominnat Heavy that I have ever seen. The award is largely known as wrestling's Heisman and that is how the voters seem to treat it. In general, it seems to work

He also shared the award with Cael. Obviously he was a special interest story andthere is only award of national prominence for wrestling, IMO it was a good thing for the sport to give him the award and give wrestling some positive publicity. One of the things almost everyone who loves the sport will say is htat anyone can do the sport and become good with hard work, it doesn't matter what your body type is.

Also surprising that they only have 7.95 times greater conversion rate from resident to division one wrestler than average. There are large states and metro areas that are essentially wrestling deserts when it comes to producing DI wrestlers

Absolutely. There is frequently discussions about what a makes regions so good in a sport. A lot wrestling fans like to talk about how kids from one area are inherently tougher, this is a good narrative but doesn't hold up. The strong ecosystem makes the most sense: tradition, coaching and competition

New Hampshire's best is probably Eric Bradley who won 2X Big Ten title ands was 2X AA (4th and 8th) for Penn State in the 2000s

Massachusetts has Rodney Smith - 2X Olympic Greco team member and Olympic Bronze or Elena Pirozhkova with 4 World Championship medals including one Gold

Since we are talking about the best wrester CO has to be Adeline Gray:

Middle School Best Ever -> Chance

Definitely has the Ivan Drago look

Why do you think there is a cap at Wisconsin? Besides the obvious that there is a cap for every school that is not PSU as long as Cael is there.

Yeah forgot about Suriano. Jenkins gets a little bit of an asterisk because it was Caels first year

Seems reasonable as I doubt outside a few teams paid attendance does not cover travel expense