Running Amateur Wrestling Thread

[franticscribe]

Wrestling is not widespread in Texas but I had a girl and a boy win state a couple of weeks ago. Only one school district in my county wrestles out of 14 schools and they've built a program with state gold medal winners the last 4 years in a row.

That's awesome. I keep hearing that wrestling is growing by leaps and bounds in Texas. I know within the wrestling community, there's been a push to get a D1 school in Texas to start a program to help the sport grow there and Tarleton State has started the process.

 

[franticscribe]

Back to the situation in New Jersey:

Kid can keep his spot at Cornell but it also sounds like he might take a "grayshirt" year and not enroll until 2026.

https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports...ation-for-star-wrestler-dqd-from-tourney.html

Also, he has filed for a temporary injuction against the NJSIAA, which is supposed to be heard today.

https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports...-to-court-over-postseason-dq-lawyer-says.html

 

[franticscribe]

Less than an hour before the regional tournament was supposed to start, the court grantd Knox an injunction and he will be able to wrestle:

https://www.app.com/story/sports/hi...thony-knox-suspension-overturned/80717533007/

 

[franticscribe]

Buvaisar Saitiev, a 3x Olympic gold medalist, 6x world champion out if Russia, died of a sudden heart attack at 49. Arguably the greatest freestyle wrestler in international wrestling history as he did that at 74 kg, which is generally seen as the deepest weight clash year-in and year-out.

MSN

 

[franticscribe]

Buvaisar Saitiev, a 3x Olympic gold medalist, 6x world champion out if Russia, died of a sudden heart attack at 49. Arguably the greatest freestyle wrestler in international wrestling history as he did that at 74 kg, which is generally seen as the deepest weight clash year-in and year-out.
MSN

So this Saitiev story is getting weird. Initially it was reported as a heart attack, but then Tash - Russian state media - walked that back. Several news outlets are reporting that he died after a fall, but it's not clear if the fall is what killed him or if it triggered something else. And the height of the fall seems to be in question. Newsweek, which I'm not sure is terribly reliable in its current form, is reporting that he fell from a third floor window - citing several reports on Telegram, including one that relied on his brother for information. The Sun, which also has reliability issues, is citing an interview his wife gave to Moskovskij Komsomolets that he died after a fall, but that he wasn't badly injured in the fall.

After his wrestling career, he had been a member of the Duma aligned with Putin. His being a loyalist is not stopping a burgeoning conspiracy theory that his death was political.

Also worth noting, he was known to have heart issues before this happened, so the heart attack still seems like Occam's razor. But the quotes from his brother and wife about falling sure make it seem a little weird - if the reports are even reliable.

 

[franticscribe]

It's been a big wrestling weekend as the NCAA D1 teams are having conference tournaments and the high school state tournaments wrap up.

The kid in New Jersey did win his fourth title, which is incredibly impressive in a single-clash state. Not sure how I feel about it though since I think the NJSIAA was right to disqualify him and hate that the courts got involved.

https://www.app.com/story/sports/hi...at-nj-state-wrestling-tournament/82053538007/

In Ohio, Marcus Blaze is on the verge of capping the greatest high school career in wrestling history. Kid is wrestling tonight for his fourth straight title, but he's wrestling up two weight clashes in order to help his team's chances of winning the team title. ashuming he does it, that'll be one more incredible stat on his resume that already includes a U17 world championship, taking third at the Olympic trials last year (and beating 2x NCAA runner-up Nico Megaludis along the way), then taking second at the World team trials (beating former NCAA champion Nahshon Garrett and 4x NCAA runner-up Daton Fix).

The Big Ten finals tonight should be incredible as there are a bunch of great pairings in the finals, but I think the one that has the most interest is heavweight where defending NCAA and Big Ten Champion Greg Kerkvliet of PSU is the underdog to Minnesota's Gable Steveson, who is a two-time NCAA Champion and Tokyo Olympics gold medalist. Steveson has wrestled a limited schedule in his comeback, and while still dominant, he doesn't look as good as he did three years ago before taking a break from the sport.

Going to be fascinating watching these two wrestle and it's very likely a preview of the NCAA finals. I still think Steveson wins, but I am hoping to see him get pushed a little. His only two collegiate losses were as a true freshman back in 2019.

I'm also interested in Carter Starocci vs Max McEnelly. Starocci is in the conversation for GOAT but McEnelly is intriguing as an undefeated redshirt freshman and they've never wrestled before.

 

[franticscribe]

Arkansas-Little Rock 174lber Tyler Brennan won his first Pac-12 title on his fifth try this past weekend. It got him an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

It also got him noticed a little more by some of the national media outlets that follow college wrestling and one of them - FloWrestling Radio Live - made an off-hand comment on their podcast wondering how he had a fifth year of eligibility since he took the 2020-21 season off and that's the magic year for which the NCAA handed out extra eligibility. He wresled in the Pac-12 tournament in 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Turns out UALR never submitted a waiver request, and Brennan's just been wrestling all year as a fifth year and nobody noticed until now. They submitted one this week.

On the one hand, what a monumental cluster-fork by UALR's compliance office. On the other hand, how did no one notice until after the conference tournament?

He got seeded 28th out of 33, so it's not likely to have much effect on the NCAA Tournament but if they determine he's ineligible, it'll require re-seeding the bracket and pulling in an alternate.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

So he made it all the way through the season, and now the NCAA could say, "Nah, you're done"?

 

[franticscribe]

So he made it all the way through the season, and now the NCAA could say, "Nah, you're done"?

UALR's head coach put out a statement today that provided more detail than we've seen so far. Apparently at the Pac-12 championships an opposing coach complained. The Pac-12 investigated and at some point in the last 10 days declared him ineligible. He appealed to the NCAA's Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement, which denied his appeal today.

The tournament starts tomorrow.

According to Coach Neil Erisman's statement, he was certified twice during the season and the certifications were ratified by the Pac-12. So basically everyone with oversight - Little Rock's compliance office and the Pac-12's - completely missed it until the season was over. That's pretty forked in my opinion.

He's not really a threat to make the podium. I mean he's seeded 29th out of 33. But it's a bad situation all around. Unless you're Michael Wilson from Rider who was the alternate for that weight clash and now gets to go.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Something doesn't pash the sniff test here.

Shouldn't there be some paper trail, then, that he was certified and it was approved by the Pac-12? And how in the world could they certify him, then declare him ineligible here in the last couple of weeks, and have the NCAA deny the appeal?

Feel for the kid - even if he should have been ineligible, a lot of people failed him at various points along the way - seemingly UALR's compliance office and the Pac-12 at the top of the list.

 

[brn623cl]

Penn State had a Penn State type day 1 in Philly