Anyone follow NCAA wrestling? Curious who people are picking...
I remember when the Iowa and Oklahoma schools dominated. Is that still the case? (When my school dropped wrestling because of Title IX, I gave up following the sport at the collegiate level.)
Love It! But to be honest, I've been out of the loop for a good 6-8 years. I'm gonna look into it. My 4th grade son is taking a wrestling program at the local High School. I'm finally getting back into it!
Watched the semi's last night. I LOVE the split screen! Some GREAT matches!!! Looking forward to watching it thru the weekend. Thank you for the heads up.
Iowa and Ok State still awesome, but Ok State has dropped off. The new wave is coming from the south - NC State and Virginia Tech are getting really strong, and "forgotten" programs like Rutgers, Drexel, and Lock Haven are re-emerging. My school eliminated their program and I was furious. We had a strong team, at least one year with multiple All Americans. My fondest memory was when I was still in school, the coach (I believe the only wrestling coach the school ever had) saw me working out in the gym, and asked me to join the team. I barely wrestled before high school, and wasn't that good. Retrospectively, I'm mad I passed but I'm sure I would have gotten my ass kicked.
I loved the "Murderers Row" of Penn St. 5 weight classes in a row in the Finals. Impressive. I was glued to the TV last night watching the finals.
I know F-Chat isn't the biggest site for wrestling, but the sport has been in decline and in jeopardy for some years. Latest is that Eastern Michigan University - which had an All American wrestler this season - is cancelling their program (along with a few other sports). Really terrible. This from a school that has a $27M budget for football, and they are basically considered a bottom feeder there. Many alumni and critics have suggested that EMU drop D1 football, or at least drop down a level, but they seemingly ignore that and continue to fund a money pit.
The local school here won the Div II National Championship, and when they got back to town after winning, the AD had locked them out of the sports complex. He had dropped wrestling from the school, the team and coaches found out about it when they got home... NO advance warning. Nebraska-Omaha had a long GREAT history of wrestling, now gone. They have chosen to dump their money into ice hockey, even though the wrestling program was totally self-supporting.
Eastern Michigan just did the same thing. They had a kid achieve All American, then bagged the program.
Sorry for the delay. I forgot I posted in this thread. He is wrestling at 174. Here is a link to his wrestling profile. He is a freshman at Iowa State. Unfortunately, he just had ACL surgery this month. http://cyclones.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=9657
That is awesome - some great accomplishments already for him, hoping he bounces back and heals quickly. Dresser is a good coach, program should return to prominence. Best of luck to him!!!
Rich, You watching the Tourney this year? OMG! What a great season. Huge Eierman fan this year. 141 will be a doozy.
I’m a NJ fan, so Rutgers and Rider were my chosen favorites. The kid from Rider (Dellavecchia) had a great run! It was a crazy tournament - a lot of upsets!!
The 2022 NCAA tournament bracket just came out. Not happy with some of Iowa's placements. Alex Marinelli just won the Big10 and is placed 3rd in the NCAA's. Can't wait. This is my version of March Madness.
I enjoy watching it. Actually just watched this classic match a few days ago my usual YouTube rabbit hole. Honestly, I really don't understand the rules or strategies. I grew up around strong wrestling programs in Kansas. It is somewhat big in Texas, but I still feel how huge it is in Oklahoma. Many Facebook friends etc posting updates about their kids etc. Most of the time when they call points I'm not even sure why or why not, from watching I can't even tell why someone should get a point, often to me the losing wrestler looked liked they were better off. All small popularity men's programs are in jeopardy because of Title IX. It will benefit my daughter, as a good High School runner she'll have numerous scholarship opportunities.
I dig DeSanto & Iowa, but Soriano is a beast. Soriano actually is the #1 seed in a lower weight (125) this year. He'll clean house at the tournament.
