When I saw Kyle Snyder had posted a long note to twitter with the caption "Thank you", my first thought was that he had retired from wrestling. I wish he'd be around to make DG Kerkvliet into the biggest badass in the world, but I'm just glad he's still representing team USA. I don't care where he trains, as long as he does what he needs to do to win a gold medal. With that being said, it's going to be VERY weird not seeing Tervel in his corner.
I don't think either have a chance at making the Olympic team. Also I'm drinking this free white claw, but I'm almost out
I think NaTo has a chance. We haven't seen him much due to injury, but he's been right there with Gilman and Fix every time he's faced them and lost in the closing seconds. 57kg will have a lot of competition with Fix, Spencer, Suriano, Gilman, NaTo, Nahshon, and maybe Seth Gross if he goes 57 and not 65, which I guess is the new plan. I think those are the true competitors for the spot. Then there's a group of 8-9 guys that could make a run (Arujao, Mueller, Nico, Clark, Cruz, Perelli, and then Colon and Graff if they go 57kg). That's the deepest weight in the nation. 65 is a 3 man weight with 3 guys that can make a run. 74 is a 2 man weight 86 is a 2/3 man weight depending on J'dens decision 97 is a 1/2 man weight depending on J'dens decision 125 is a 2 man weight
Extremely interesting comments from Snyder. Basically he said something along the lines of: "To me, the three best places in the country to train are Ohio RTC, the OTC, but J'den trains there, and NLWC" This gives me a pretty good indication that Kyle and his team are under the impression that J'den is bumping up.
Have you seen the size of J'den recently? I can't fathom how he could cut to 86. The fact that he didn't try to make the drop this year was fairly telling.
I don't think so. Dake didn't drop, we know he's going 74kg. Give yourself another year, win an easy world gold at a non-olympic weight. I thought for sure J'den was going 86. That is what everyone had been saying until worlds.
I don't think the two situations are comparable. J'den is arguably in his best shape ever and Dake was battling injury
Hokies wrestling outside vs Northwestern at the baseball stadium. Pretty dope idea for a venue. Hope it’s not too cold.
Ohio State is announcing wrestle-offs by weight class every half hour. They're only at 149 but there are already a couple big surprises. -Luke Pletcher is wrestling off at 141, which leaves a hole at 133 for true feshman Jordan Decatur. Pletcher hunting for an NCAA title with Yianni D and Eierman taking olympic redshirts? -KeShawn Hayes is not wrestling off, but is wrestling at 149 in the Michigan State Open, which is widely considered to be Sammy Sasso's spot. One will likely move up to 157 and challenge Jaden Mattox or be out of the lineup. I think the biggest thing we're looking for going forward is Rocky Jordan's spot. He was kind of thought of as the odd man out but rumors are that he might be a favorite to win a starting spot.
Another surprise. Ethan Smith drops down to 165, which I think is his ideal weight class. He will wrestle Carson Kharchla for the spot. No sign of Kaleb Romero at 165, he's likely wrestling for the spot at 174 against Rocky.
The last few years they've been airing them on Facebook Live off of a cellphone. Not the best but better than nothing. The finals will be aired next Thursday night, the 24th, and the prelims will be unaired on Tuesday the 22nd. There should be some good matches. We're probably looking at a finals of: 125: Heinselman-Ja Decatur 133: Jo Decatur-Dylan Koontz 141: Pletcher-Kinner/D'Emilio (damnit, the Kinner/D'Emilio match is the one I want to see, but that won't be aired. D'Emilio has to get past JD Stickley to even get to Kinner, I'd want to watch that one too!) 149: This will be a slaughter without KeShawn wrestling 157: Mattox-Cleary 165: Smith-Kharchla 174: Jordan-Romero 184: Hoffman-Steiner. Hoffman struggled some in the offseason. Interested to see how he looks against Steiner. 197: Kollin Moore will steamroll. 285: Kerkvliet-Singletary
tOSU prelim wrestle-offs were today. Most notable results: Jacob Decatur lost to Hunter Lucas in SV Rocky Jordan majored Fritz Schierl 13-0 (ooooo boy, watch out Kaleb Romero--Schierl is pretty good) JD Stickley def Dylan D'Emilio INJ Quinn Kinner MD JD Stickley 10-0 wrestle off finals on Thursday night.
As much as I don't wanna see another Jordan trapped on bottom for whole periods, not sure watching Romero would be any better.
All-time ownage right here. There's just no responding to this. Bo Nickal was going at Flo because they posted his highlights and didn't give him money.
Maybe because Penn State is notorious for providing zero media access to their program or its wrestlers? I don't know why one of them would be surprised that they don't have a sterling silver relationship with the wrestling media upon graduating. I think we'd all love that to change, I want to hear from guys like Nickal, Nolf, Zain, Cenzo, Hall, and especially Cael, but obviously they have a system that seems to work, so why change it?
So that’s one side of it, but that’s also what has taken place while those guys were student athletes. So providing access doesn’t do a ton in that moment to benefit them. Makes sense to me, especially in the “pay the players” era we are in, that media companies like Flo should reach out to these athletes directly. Athletes can get some money and the media gets better content. Those partnerships are what can hold grow a sport.
ESPN hasn’t had much of an issue getting David Taylor for nationals. Not sure how you side with the media company making money on an athlete. Unless you’re upset at his alma mater for some reason.....
I simply liked the post for a 16 year old talking shit to Bo Nickal Is Bo going for 86 or 97? Totally forgot about him being in the mix for 1 of those Olympic spots.
He'll do whatever David Taylor tells him to do because he's DT's little lap dog. He can't beat J'den Cox at 97kg, so maybe he'll be wrestling at 125kg despite weighing 86kg.
My point is that most of the big time programs provide unprecedented access while Penn State provides none whatsoever and actually has a very contentious relationship with the wrestling media. The Flo guys have been to Ohio State, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Cornell, Wisconsin, Arizona State, Nebraska, Lehigh, Missouri, Iowa State, Minnesota, SD State.....you name every other top program in the country and Flo has been provided all-access to practices and interviews with all the coaches and wrestlers. It would make sense that they don't have a relationship with Penn State wrestlers after they graduate because they didn't have one while they wrestled. It's also part of the reason why I want to hear from them so much--it's because we never do, and they're the best wrestlers in the country and the ones we should hear from the most.
He literally weighed in at 87kg in a 92kg match against J'den Cox, one of the best P4P wrestlers in the world, instead of wrestling PD3 at 86kg, because David Taylor and Cael withheld the information that DT had a torn ACL. They basically deprived Bo of a world team spot in 2019 so David Taylor had an ever-so-slightly better chance of making the Olympic team in 2020.
I know this seems crazy to you because Ohio RTC doesn't have an issue with too much talent (probably the opposite these days). Bo didn't go 92 against his wishes. 92 was supposed to be Bo's step to 97 as he put on man strength. Clearly that didn't work. Sounds like Bo will go 86. If he was going to be a career wrestler either David or Bo would likely transfer. I look forward to seeing you cheer for J'den over Nittany Lion Kyle in April because you think he's USA's best chance at 97kg gold. Not because you're mad at NLK. I'm sorry you're upset. Turn that frown upside-down, friend.
Hoffman and Mattox probably learned everything they can from Ryan. Wouldn’t be surprised if either or both move on to get some fresh coaching as others have.
VT wrestle off tonight, gonna go check that out. Capping off the night with a freestyle match Mekhi vs Hunter Bolen.
According to Tom Ryan, Chase Singletary has already been given a waiver that makes him eligible for an Olympic red-shirt. Apparently the authority over the Olympic red-shirt process determined that making the U23 team was enough to qualify. We'll see, not really convinced he'll ever be that good.
It's amazing what happens when guys have an amazing room to train in. The Room (TM). Bo is still hovering around the 86kg mark. Spoiler GGCD
Kerkvliet is probably very happy to have someone good to work out with since he has no one to practice with at OSU. It's a shame Bo will be out of The Room (TM) before Greg transfers in, GGCD
I've only seen highlights as I'm on vacation and don't have access to wi-fi, but Bo Nickal's U23 tournament was nothing short of spectacular. Beating guys like Shahbazi, Zubairov, and Tsakulov as soundly as he did, despite being well under the 92kg limit, is just flat out incredible. These are some of the best guys in the world and he's beating them up. It also demonstrates how completely fucking insane J'den Cox is at wrestling.
This is big for the Olympic outlook of 65kg. I've long thought that Bekbulatov is the best guy in the world, but he hasn't been able to put it all together, whether it's injuries, weightcuts, or inconsistency. He's definitely a gold medal threat for UZB and certainly hurts team USA's chances of bringing home an olympic medal and even qualifying the weightclass.