Coaches' Rankings need to go + IowaOK State recap + Lee vs Ono card - IWP 2-26-25 - The InterMatWrestle Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, people, welcome back to the Internet Wrestling Podcast,
and we are the four Horsemen, as I've said a
number of times, and we're here to talk some wrestling today.
We're going to get into coaches rankings, probably not the
actual rankings, but the concept of them. Obviously, get into Iowa,
Oklahoma State, and then we will talk about the All

(00:22):
Star match that is going down tonight, the Flow Wrestling
All Star card that they have.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
We'll dig into that.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
We'll make a couple of picks and discuss how well
these cards have been going and how these leagues have
been kind of sustaining. And I know Kyle Snyder put
out a tweet yesterday talking about how good the PW
well was and you know he went to and oh
and everything else. So we'll dig into that as well

(00:49):
as these kind of all star leagues and these ways
for our wrestlers to actually have sustainable lives and making
money and wrestling. But as I said, first things first,
let's dig into coaches rankings, and obviously we've had what
two or three iterations of them so far this season.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
The third one will be coming out when we get
allocations uh in the coming days. But I think the
consensus of coaches rankings is that they are horrible. Coaches
have way better things to do, and let's let's be

(01:27):
honest here, like they're there. I think it might have
been Schwab that put out a tweet and congrats to
schwab swab family for bringing home to state titles this year,
both his sons winning. But I think it was Swab
that put out something about like, you know, his email
is now flooded from other coaches about these coaches rankings.
I mean, all they're doing is looking at Internet rankings,
looking at flow rankings, basically looking at wrestle stat and

(01:50):
comparing all and contrasting and then you know, kind of
making deals. If you put my guy here, my guy
goes you know, and your guy goes here. Like it's
it's it's ridiculous. It's the dumbest thing that we truly have.
And I know they have it in other sports too,
but like it's honestly really stupid and we don't need it.
These coaches don't know anything about doing rankings, nor do

(02:11):
they care. So what are your guys thoughts on coaches rankings?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Kevin?

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I think you probably have a bit to say about it.
So I'll let you kind of have the first shot.
What are your thoughts on coaches rankings? Should they stay,
should they go? What do you think of the concept?

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Well, the only thing I wrote down on my notepad
so far is that the Schwab family is undefeated recently.
I feel like they're just absolutely killing it in every aspect.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
Whatever's walking.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah, whatever their thing that they're doing is, they're they're
crushing it, man. But no, I mean, like the coach rankings,
there's so many problems. Have you guys ever talked to
a single coach that's like, Yeah, I take it super
seriously and I really try to do my best because
that's the only way to maintain the integrity of this
system that we have in place. Not one of them
has ever said that they don't want to do it.

(02:57):
Like literally, it's a system that doesn't work without everybody
actually trying to do it well. And as soon as
a couple people just start screwing around with it, trying
to do these backdoor deals or whatever kind of like
issue it is that you know, whether it's just you know,
shenanigans or flat out ignorance and not caring about it.

(03:18):
Either of those two things in this you know, as
ingredients into this product that it's supposed to be messed up.
And there is far more coaches that either don't want
to do it, don't care about it, or trying to
manipulate the system than the ones that actually care about it,
and as a result, it's a bad product.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
So I mean, you definitely have coaches who take it
more seriously and dig into the research and try to
do the best with it they can, but the system's broken.
So I mean, it doesn't matter if we have a
third of the coaches doing the right thing, it doesn't
balance out the other two thirds who don't give a
shit and just copy down what they see online like
it's it just doesn't work.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
It's not it's not valuable.

Speaker 6 (03:58):
Yeah, no, we've talked about it all time offline, you
know about just the pall ticking that goes on, kind
of piggybacking off your points. It's hey, i'll make a
deal here, I'll rank your guy here if you rank
my guy here.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
This guy could use some help. And sometimes you.

Speaker 6 (04:11):
Look at these rankings you're like, you know, where where
did this come from? You know, this guy is at
thirtieth on intermatter flow and he's in the top twenty
and the coaches ranking's like, how does that? How does
that work out?

Speaker 7 (04:21):
You know?

Speaker 5 (04:22):
What is what is flow?

Speaker 6 (04:23):
And intermat missing that this guy's ranked so high, you know,
and and vice versa. You know, you want to take
a guy down at a school or coach you don't
like he's twentieth or twenty first in the rankings and
he's not in the coaches rankings.

Speaker 5 (04:35):
It's like, what's going on here?

Speaker 7 (04:37):
You know?

Speaker 6 (04:37):
It's like you said, the system's broken, something needs changed.
I'm not sure what that answer is, but like to
you guys point, none of these coaches really like it.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
You know, A few of them.

Speaker 6 (04:47):
Put in the time, and I think I think there's
a better way to do it.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, it's a it's it's a waste of time. First
of all for them to have to worry about doing
rankings at all. The thing that they should be probably
focused on more than anything is their rules proposals. As
I saw Colott put put some rules and stuff and
put a nice thread out. So if you have anyone
you know watching or listening to this hasn't seen that,

(05:13):
go check that out on Twitter. But the coach's rankings,
as you've said, like it does go both ways, where
it's you know, put my guy here, I'll put your
guy here. Or you do have coaches that aren't ranking
guys at all right to give their own guy a
leg up. And it's just like this, this part of
it shouldn't hold as.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Much weight as as others.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
So I don't know, I think something in within that
definitely has to give. Like I don't think we need
to have a coach's ranking at all because it just
it slows the process down, right, And if you do
want to have some sort of other metric, allow the

(05:57):
rankers to truly do it. And obviously, you know, in
an flow or they're already putting their rankings out there,
but like if you bring in some of you know,
the other rankers that aren't doing rankings periodically or weekly
or whatever else, like you know, it's it's Kozak for
for Flow, and it's Earle for us. Bring in you know, Willie,
bring in you know, Win magazine, bring in some of

(06:19):
these other guys that are paying attention to the sport
to at least give some other semblance that you're doing
the work instead of the coaches. Because even though the
coaches have a ringside seat to the action, they do
not care or do they really put in a lot
of thought of where guys should be ranked, unless there

(06:39):
is some sort of email being sent or politicking that
is going on, or they're trying to get a leg
up for their own guy.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
It just doesn't It shouldn't hold as much weight as
it does.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
Well, let me let me ask this too, because I
this is admittedly my own ignorance here right, Like, I've
never really paid attention to this whole thing because it's
always I'm literally heard anybody say that this is a
system that works. So I'm surprised that it's still here
and we still have to have this conversation. But the
whole idea is that the coaches rank these people and

(07:10):
that that's supposed to affect the allocations somehow or what
is the what is the desired outcome of this happening?

Speaker 3 (07:16):
To begin with, the coach's rankings have a weight on
the allocations. So if they're in the coach's rankings, they
meet the RPI standards and the win percentage standards that
it gets an allocation for the conference.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
Okay, so why are we having people whose livelihoods depends
on this doing this, you know what I mean, it's
their job. Their job is to make their guys look
better so that they can hopefully have more qualifiers so
that they can help their guys obviously like reach their goals.
Obviously that's kind of what you're doing. But you're also

(07:49):
trying to get paid and keep doing this job, right
like it is, it's not they're not mutually exclusive, right Like,
it's the same thing. It's just how you bottle it up.
It's conflictive interest as well. So there's there's another point
as to why it shouldn't exist.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
It's kind of like a teacher allowing a kid to
create his own test.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
I fully support that because it's less work for me.
But that means that, like even within the media, like
I'm not going to pretend that I watch every single
duel and know everything about wrestlers across the country. I
pay attention to my conference almost exclusively. Clearly, I watch
other duels, and I watch other teams, and I watch
other conferences, but I'm not putting the same amount of

(08:31):
focus on them as I am on the ACC teams.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
And that's easy. If you've got three champions it's pretty
cool you only had one.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
We'll talk about that in a minute.

Speaker 5 (08:39):
We'll get to that.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
But like realistic, the Earl does a great job with it.
Kozak does a great job with it. It takes it's
a shitload of work to do rankings like to put
the time in to actually research this and dedicate the
time to doing it well. Takes a lot of time,
takes a lot of effort, and takes somebody who's really
focusing pretty much solely on that to do it as
well as you can. And we have people in our

(09:03):
sport who do that. We have people who do it
in different ways. You look at you know, brit does
it with mathematical formulas and stuff. So you know why
we can weigh that too, Like, there's people who have
the outlook on this sport that we can utilize to
make this the best product possible.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
Why aren't we doing that?

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Why are we putting it in the hands of people
who pay even less attention to other other conferences, other
teams because it doesn't affect them, And like Kevin said,
it's the onus is on them to be successful and
to get as many of their guys through as they can.
So they're going to rank them higher. They're going to
rank their conference guys higher because it's going to help
the conference and earn an allocation. Like it's it benefits them,

(09:44):
So why wouldn't you do it? Like, even if you're
trying to do it as well as you can, I'm
still going to give preference to my conference so I
can get another allocation here and there if possible.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
These are the most maniacally competitive dudes you'll be able
to find.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Right, Schwab and Brands were racewalking at the Iowa State
Tournament because that's how competitive they are. Like, that's the
kind of people we're talking about.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
All right, guys, be unbiased in your rankings, really, you know,
shut everything out.

Speaker 6 (10:20):
I say, we talked last time a little bit about
it too, Like why is the coach's rankings the only
ranking that the NA uses for allocations? You know, make
that another ranking on top of Internet, on top of flow.
Average them in there and I throw wrestle stat that
uses a lot of the algorithms and mathematical points, and
then you throw out the highest or the lowest or
whatever you find an average in the boom. That's your rankings.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
You know, it's you borrow Malinsky's advocates to put them
all together.

Speaker 6 (10:47):
Just think there should be more rankings that you know,
coaches rankings, isn't the sole ranking to be used.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Let the nerds do that, like the rankings nerd do
the ranking nerd things, and keep keep the coaches out
of it, right, Like, it's it's insane to me that
this is still a thing, right, Like it shouldn't. It
shouldn't be a thing, but it is. And like you're

(11:13):
trying to tell me that, as you guys have said,
these are very competitive men, grown as competitive men that
don't even want to give you their injury status on
a guy, even though we'll probably find out that a
guy has a weakness. Right Like I I was like, oh, ja,

(11:35):
Cory Teamer is wearing a brace on his shoulder. Cool,
like everywhere everything right, everything, everything was taped up. And
it's like, you know, if there was some sort of injury,
like we would have known all of these things whatever else.
But like if you you know, and I said, a
lot of these things are happening in secret. When we

(11:56):
find out a guy is banged up, it's the same
thing that's happening with the coach's rankings. So it's just,
you know, there's not a lot of transparency when it
comes to anything that goes on because these guys are
as competitive as they are, and the same is going
to go on when it comes to these coaches rankings.
It's pretty wild to think that, you know, in the

(12:18):
year twenty twenty five, we're still relying on this sort
of metric, like, let the rankings nerds do the rankings
nerds things. It's the reason why Willie does seating for
the number of tournaments that he does seating for from
eight year olds to eighteen year olds. You know, there's
a reason why he does that. You know, there are

(12:40):
people that are digging into this every single second of
every single day. Like as soon as we get to
a threshold where RPI becomes a thing, it is talked
about every day within wrestling Twitter, So like, allow those
people to get into a room and figure out what
these things should like.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
There's a reason.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Why it used to be ranking what top twenty I
think is where it used to stop. And now they're like, well,
why don't we just go all the way to thirty three?
Since that's what we that's where we're gonna have the
NCAA tournament, so that it at least and honestly, that
was being done so for the coaches as much as
it was like, hey, here's the thirty three guys that

(13:21):
can potentially be in the bracket. That was also done
for the coaches because the coaches every single year were like, okay, hey,
we have your top twenty. And I know this for
a fact. Coach would be like, we have your top twenty.
Who's your twenty one through thirty three? Now it's like
we can look at the rankings and we can see it,
you know, and if they need notes, they can ask
you know, Kozak or Earl or Piles or whoever for notes.

(13:43):
So coaches ranking it should not hold as much weight
as it should. And the guy, I don't even think
these guys even like doing them.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
It's too bad Frettwall doesn't do ranking. Can we have
then we could have clip notes?

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Trust me, if there's no way you would want Frettwell
doing rankings.

Speaker 5 (14:01):
That would be hilarious. It would be hilarious.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, there there are some there are some hilarious things
said during during duels in our in our text thread
that it would be pretty awesome to to do, uh,
to have him doing some sort of rankings. I try
to get him to do more content, but he's he's uh,
he's he's being super creative right now. So I think
once the once that his creative notions are kind of

(14:25):
off the ground, he'll he'll maybe come back and do
a little bit more content with me. But for right now,
we're we're gonna I'll settle for getting nice hoodies and
stuff like this and and crew necks like this.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
He has my address, should remind him of that.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Hey, I I'm I'm still waiting on the the newest
wrestling department stuff to come out. I'm I'm a little jealous.
There's a lot. I mean, obviously the wrestler should get
at first, but I need to be on that list
of things. There's a lot of cool stuff coming out
from from Compound. Obviously, I'm a big Compound guy. I
love that guy's like a brother to me. So you know,
I'll always plug everything that that that my friend is doing.

(15:04):
But let's jump off of a terrible conversation of coaches
ranking and jump to Iowa versus Oklahoma State. This was fireworks,
And I don't just mean that the Pirate that they
had going on in the gym. This was fireworks from
start to finish. Some of our picks really did hit.
I was particularly happy that Cooper de Jean was in

(15:25):
the in the building, as I said, that was solid call,
So I was pretty happy about that. But when it
came to the wrestling there there was no disappointment whatsoever.
And I mean, let's start with eighty four. We had mentioned,
you know, we started with eighty four, and in our
preview discussions we're gonna start with it again. You know,

(15:46):
we had said that there was a good chance that
we were going to see Angelo and that you you
don't look at the the probables and have any sort
of inkling of of whatever it is uh is going
to happen in eighty four. What did you guys make of,
you know, it coming out, you know, prior to the
duel that Angela was gonna go, and then what did

(16:07):
you make of his performance up against Dustin Plott.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
I'm glad they didn't try to like pull it off
like it was some big secret. I think that would
have been more annoying if like, oh they both wait
in and then oh, here, we're just gonna send him
out and I don't know. He wrestled well, he was
a more offensive and and finished the only takedown, the
big position to be put in, and he did what
he had to do. So there's not a lot you

(16:33):
can take away from that. Like he did, he did
his job.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Yeah, I was talking with Austin yesterday. He was on
the Blood Round podcast. Shout out. Check that out if
you haven't already.

Speaker 5 (16:45):
Yeah, they talked mad shit about me.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
It's not okay, Oh yes, because we knew gonna Yeah,
I'm on next week so we'll see. That's right, that's right.
But yeah, so we talked about it, and I think the
main thing it really stood out to me is, you know,
despite the the like physical talents that the Ferraris and

(17:08):
I'll say both of them have, you know, like they
are very patient with when they use it, right, it wasn't.
He wasn't just going out there firing off crazy shots.
He does get down to the knee a little bit
more than I'd like, but he's still hand fighting, still
engaging and everything. And he got to those legs three
or four times in that match, like he I don't
recall if plot was ever on his legs if so,

(17:30):
it was once, but it was it was him being
the more aggressive wrestler making things happen. You know, he
was finishing. He finished that first takedown just so cleanly,
and then the second one he had to be very
very persistent and just keep fighting for it and keep
fighting for it. And it was just impressive. Man, it
was impressive.

Speaker 7 (17:52):
I I I don't know what you were doing if
you were Plot, I mean walking into a shot every tent. Yeah,
like padding, I will, I will that, well, you know,
use that pun But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
I think if you wrestle that match again, it's it's
coached up differently and you're you're trying to do some
different things to crawl up an arm two on one
something to make it a little bit harder for him
to just you know, sweep in on your leg. But
I mean it was just it was patient, It was
well planned out, It was executed really really really well. Yeah.

(18:30):
And and well, this is the other thing I said
to Austin yesterday too, is now do you actually start
thinking about what you do for NCAAs and big tens.
That's a big win.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
No, Yeah, I don't. I don't think Plot gets enough
credit for that third period ride out too. You know
that was that was impressive Or's win. But you know,
Plot had some big balls there to ride him out
and that final scramble rule and yeah that scramble is awesome.

Speaker 6 (18:55):
Yeah, it was a great way to end that match.
You know, really needed to ride out and he did.
Uh but yeah, the piggyback off conscious point. You know,
two or three weeks ago, Brand said Arnold was the
guy at eighty four, He's our guy. Ferrari has five matches,
He's not going to wrestle cupcakes. And then fast forward
to this weekend. You know, Brands, he was like, it's

(19:15):
still up in the air of who's going to go
at big tens. You know, so that's probably a separate discussion.
You know, but if you're Gabe Arnold, you know, what
are you thinking? You know, it's like, hey, I was
told this is my spot. Maybe I'm not performing as
well as Ferrari. You know, he says we're brothers. You know,
he had that instag that Twitter or Instagram post I saw,
which is great, you know, but deep down you got

(19:36):
to be maybe dotting yourself a little bit. You know,
Am I the guy? Am I at the right weight class.
You know what's what's going on here. So yeah, I
mean great way to end overall, great weight end the
duel for dual meat season. You know, I think it
was not not many better matches that you know, could
have ended the dual meet you know, regular season like that.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah, this weekend had some some great duel finishes to
end it off.

Speaker 5 (19:56):
It was a good weekend end it all.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
I think when it came to eighty four, and I'm
gonna touch on a point that a lot of people
were talking about, was Ferrari stalling.

Speaker 5 (20:09):
Drives crazy and.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
You can I don't think that it is one or
the other, right, because Jagory Teamer fired off shots and
he got hit with stalling, right Like I think that
Parco should have been hit with stalling on top because
he was riding the hips and he only had he
had a two on one and just was riding on top.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
But didn't work that way, right.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
I didn't think Jagory Teamer should have been hit with
stalling because Jaggory Teamer was firing off literally the only attacks.
But he's his attacking style is to kind of retreat
a little bit and lure you in Ferrari's is is
similar in retreating, but it is it is a very
closed off style of wrestling of dropping to a knee.

(20:56):
I'm hesitant to say he was stalling, but it wasn't
like it was. I will say that against Starachi it
was stalling. He was trying to slow Sarachi down because
Starachi is a is a more dynamic score than Dustin Plot.
Against Dustin Plot, it's a It's a tactic that worked perfectly,

(21:19):
and the only thing that it looked like Plot was
ready for in that instance was essentially covering his eyes
so that he couldn't really get to his legs. But
that didn't really work considering he's shooting low anyway and
you're walking literally right into his legs.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
So like.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
He wrestled a very smart, aggress and aggressive tactical match.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
He looked like the.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Better guy outside of the very tough rideout from Plot,
or looked like the better guy. He was on his legs,
he was more aggressive with his shots. Do I like
that he dropped down to a knee?

Speaker 2 (21:59):
No?

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Does it? Is it considered negative wrestling? Yeah, because in
freestyle they stand you up. You're not allowed to do that.
But it's a completely different style which we saw at
thirty three was a very big part as well, is
that styles make fights.

Speaker 7 (22:15):
But like.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Ferrari was just better in that match. He was more
equipped for that match.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
And if they would have put Gay Arnold out there,
I do not think that the match then comes down
to heavyweight, and it is and it goes in Oklahoma State's.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Favor that won the match.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Now I see a lot of people saying, he, you know,
a legend was born, A legend was born when it
comes to that rivalry in that night, Yeah, legendary, But like,
don't allow a moment to build, you know, a statue already, right,
Like he's still a freshman. He's had a very big moment,

(23:00):
and I'm not taking anything away from that, but I'm saying,
allow his full career to pan out before you call
the kid a legend. But he wrestled phenomenally, and he
wrestled exactly the way that I would need it him to,
minus being ridden out in that entire second period that,
as Austin said, was big balls by Dustin Plott. So
hats off to Ferrari. I think they made the right decision,

(23:22):
and it probably does I don't think it. That's the
thing is I didn't think that it was going to
change their mind of who goes. But with what Brand
said after the match, it does add a question mark
back in there now, right, So let's throw this out there.

(23:43):
What do you guys think happens at eighty four in
the postseason now that you saw how Ferrari has performed.
Do you think that maybe they have a wrestle off.
Do you think that they change their minds in any
way or do you think that they stick with Arnold?
Is they stick with the other one? Bless you, Austin?

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Do they think that they stick with the other statement
of Arnold is the guy?

Speaker 3 (24:09):
I think if they want gave Arnold to be there
next year, he goes in the postseason. I think if
they backtrack off of that and they put Ferrari and
he goes in the transport portal or transport portal, he's
transport porting in the transfer portal immediately because they're not
holding their word, you know, they're saying that it's his spot,
He's going to be the guy to go in the postseason,

(24:29):
and then all of a sudden, because Ferrari has a
good win or change in our mind, I wouldn't want
to stick around, and maybe maybe he feels differently, but
that that would be a pretty big slap in the
face to me.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
It's tough because it's wrestling, and if you win the
challenge match, you should have the spot. Assuming that's the plan, right,
I think ultimately, regardless of what you're told at the
end of the day, I mean, we're there's again incentives
for winning national championships. Right. In the perfect world for IOWA,
they could have five finalists, right, you get one thirty three,

(25:04):
one forty nine, one fifty seven, uh, one ninety seven.
I feel like there was another one in there somewhere
sixty five, you know, like that's if everything goes great
in March, five finalists, right, And so now all of
a sudden, you're talking about maybe getting a guy who
can place top three, top four, versus another guy who's

(25:28):
you know, I think Gave Arnold can be an All
American and then if he has a great tournament, could
place top five, top six. But he's been struggling lately,
so you know, I think it's it probably starts with
a coaches meeting. You talk this out, you figure out
if this is even liable or makes sense or what
what the decision is, because ultimately you don't want to

(25:49):
put that in the kid's hands and you know, toy
with their emotions too much. At this point in the season,
this is kind of pivotal part. So it starts there.

Speaker 6 (25:59):
Yeah, I think it depends on, you know, what Iowa
wants out of Angelo Ferrari. You know, if they want
him to help compete for a second place trophy and
maybe distance himself from Oklahoma State this.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
Year, then yeah, he's the guy.

Speaker 6 (26:13):
But if you want that guy to be a four
time NCAA champ, you know, you keep his red shirt
on this year and let Carter graduate, you let Parker graduate,
and you let Plot graduate. That weight class clears out
a lot next year, you know. So, like I said,
if you want Ferrari to be the man coming back
next year number one or number two that weight class,

(26:35):
you know, I think he keep his red shirt. But
like Claunch said, gay Wonnald isn't a slouch. She's probably
going be an American.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
You know.

Speaker 6 (26:42):
It's just whatever they do isn't going to bring them
over Penn State, you know, so I think they had
to keep that in mind as well as a team
I don't.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
See their ceilings being much different. Like, I don't think
there's a potential that either of them could be in
the finals. I wouldn't put that down on paper. That's
not what my assumption would be. I would say, you know,
we're we're looking at their fourth place as a ceiling
for either of them, And is it worth burning that
full year, especially with the recruiting classes that you just landed.

Speaker 5 (27:13):
Is it worth burning that year.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
And not having it down the line, like not having
him as a starter in four years when Bassett's there, Like,
let's let's be you know, you got to think long term,
especially if you're you're really working towards take knocking Penn
State off.

Speaker 5 (27:27):
It's not happening this year.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Unless they completely shit the bed, that's not happening.

Speaker 5 (27:33):
So you can't bank on that.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
We've seen that that Penn State is successful in the postseason,
they're very likely not getting knocked off this year. I
think it makes a lot more sense to plan for
the future, make a long term investment and in which
is seemed like what the plan was initially.

Speaker 5 (27:47):
So that's that was my thinking on it.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, I think they're sick to the plan. I want
to point go ahead.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
Just the one other point I want to make to
just about the getting down on a knee piece, Like
I don't necessarily like it as much either, but it
is incumbent on the ref to dictate the pace of
the match. It's not's fault. He's not gonna stop doing
it unless somebody with a level of authority on the
mat tells him to stop doing it, you know. So

(28:14):
that was it.

Speaker 6 (28:15):
Yeah, and you can tell that. You could tell Plot
was kind of out of sorts with that because you.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
Know, and he's expecting it to bet. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (28:23):
I've dealt with that guys in my career too. You know,
guys in the knee it kind of limits my offense.
Maybe I like to wrestle from space a little bit,
you know, I hit your fakes and you know, whatever
you want to do to get to your offense, and
you can't do that when the guy's on the knee, right,
so you have to change how you wrestle. It really
limits the offensive guy which you're down on the knee,
and especially if you're backing up a little bit, boom

(28:44):
you fire off a shot. Okay, I avoided stalling, but
you know, what would you do before that you're kind
of back in the edge, a little bit back in
the edge. And then you know, I go back and
forth on it, but I'm always one that says, if
you're on a knee, you got to come back, make
an effort to come back up, or you know, ref
needs to get involved a little bit there.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
My thinking is like two things can be true. Like
you said, Holmes, he could be the more offensive wrestler,
which he was, but he can also be stalling every
time he drops to a need because it's not just
dropping to a knee to set up a shot. Every
time he drops, he's sliding back three or four steps
and going to the boundary. He's creating space for himself
that way, he's creating safety for himself by going to
the boundary. I mean by definition, those those are stalling tactics.

(29:27):
It doesn't matter that he's firing out more shots, he's
still stalling prior to that. And like you said, Kevin,
it's on the ref to do it. And we've seen
time and time again that that call is not going
to get made in Carver and we know that. So
it's hard, as you know, I'm going to come off
like an Iowa hater again because apparently that's my newche stick.

(29:49):
It's hard to see refs get influenced by the crowd
like they do, or they seem to at Carver, he
don't see that. Other places, they definitely have the atmosphere
they have there is is difficult to wrestle in, and
I assume difficult to officiate it, and they seem to
be swayed by the crowd more so than they are

(30:11):
in other places.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah, when when Ferrari wrestled Starachi, he dropped to a knee,
but obviously the way that Starachi wrestles, he's not walking
into a low level shot the same way that plot did, Right,
It's not it's not the same stance, it's not the

(30:33):
same pressure. And Sarachi was able to get a star
warning on Ferrari because he just kind of backed him
straight off the mat, kept his hands in front of him,
kept his hands low. You can't shoot through that, like,
you're not gonna shoot through underhooks. You're you know, you're
not gonna get to my legs. And I mean for nothing,
Sarachi is the best defensive wrestler, best wrestler in the

(30:56):
country defensive offensive. No One scores takedowns on Carter Serachi.
He literally had to have one leg last year in
order for anybody to do it. So like just very
very different. But I do think that in this match
he was able to be that Ferrari was able to
be aggressive from a knee.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
But we've seen it go both ways. We've seen how
he wrestles Sarachi.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
I think it goes a very different way if he
wrestles Parker ket guys, and honestly, because Parker has a
very different style, and not for nothing, even though Sarachi
is as good as he is, I don't think anybody
makes adjustments like Parker KEK guys in match. And I
say that mostly because you'd never really have to see

(31:41):
Carter Serachi make adjustments, right, like maybe the first thing
doesn't work, that he knows the second thing will. Whereas
we've seen Carters or we've seen ket guys in wrestle
guys and it's like, damn, this isn't work and this
isn't working, Like I have to transition, I have to
make some changes, I have to figure something out, and
he does it within his style.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
So that's why I.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Think that that match with kekuis and wouldn't go the
same way that it just did with Plot. But you know,
I feel like Plot got a little overwhelmed. I feel
like he was. He was prepared to wrestle Angelo Ferrari,
though I don't think that they prepared just like Sarachi,
I don't think they they prepared for Gay Barnold because

(32:20):
they probably didn't really feel like they had to. He'd
already wrestled Gay Arnold. He knows what that feel is.
He knows how to get to his stuff. He beat him,
what five to one last year, So wasn't that big
of a deal for him, Not saying Gay Arnold's not
that big of a deal, But I think preparing for
the unknown of what Angelo was going to bring is
probably what he prepared for more because you saw him putting,
putting his hand in his face and just trying to

(32:41):
shield his eyes and stuff like that. But that that's
only going to go. You know, that actually hinders your
offense more than it hinders his, because he's used to
wrestling on her knee. You're not used to wrestling with
your hand in front of a guy's face like that.
So I thought, you know, Ferrari wrestled a great match
and obviously came down to it. They needed that one
in order to you know, in order to seal it

(33:03):
because you knew that, you knew Buchanan was going to,
you know, go out and do what he's done the
entire year. And Ferrari's win, and I want to get
to the rest of the matches now, Ferrari's win is
what rendered any other bonus points that Oklahoma State got
or didn't get completely useless, Like you know, I went

(33:24):
back and I looked at it, and I honestly, I
do think that Spratley did have the tech. To be
completely honest, the referee said that he didn't have enough separation,
so they didn't give him that final takedown, which I
think was wrong. But when you look at that, that's
one point. When you look at what was it sixty
or seventy four? I think it was seventy four, right, Yeah,

(33:50):
from the takedown Hammity one point away, like that wouldn't
have really made that big of a difference either, because
that's one more point as well, and not too so,
like you know, they lost by five, so wouldn't have
really made up for those points. They needed that match
from from Ferrari or giving up less bonus points where

(34:10):
they did, you know, with you know, giving up, you know,
losing to Ayala, losing you know, kelli Endo getting the
major sixty five. That's what made it, made it a
bigger difference than anything is what they really truly needed.
So well, let's let's jump to down to thirty three.
What did you make of throwing out Sakamoto at thirty

(34:31):
three and was it a good thing or a bad thing.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
That they did this.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
I don't think it had any impact on the team
score either way, because I think Witcraft would have been
a similar situation.

Speaker 5 (34:45):
Maybe you wouldn't have got majored, but probably would have.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
The way I Al has been wrestling, it made more
sense when you get the explanation that it would impact
his RPI and would lose an allocation. That makes sense
because they're protecting his allocation for.

Speaker 5 (35:03):
Next week, okay and the conference.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
Yeah, I'm okay with that, Like that's not optimal, but
it was a cool experience to see somebody from a
different style. I mean, I can't imagine having my debut
match in folks, that would be at Carver Hawk Guy
in front of fifteen thousand people, in a number two
versus number three duel. But you know, well it was

(35:28):
fun to watch, like about the guy, but.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
He went after it. He was just like yo yo
and just went went. I had to go do something.
He did that cartwheel out of a wizard. He was
just flying all over the place. Man. I was like,
I don't know who this dude is, but I like
him be really good. Yeah he's gonna be He wasn't
even that bad either.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
He's already good obviously, he's a you know, he's won
world medals, world champion, but like folk style, I think
he's going to be good.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
That's what I mean.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yeah he did.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
He didn't have the the the issues on the mat
that I would expect from a non folk style wrestler. Like,
he wasn't great, but he was able to build up
and able to get escapes, which it was hard.

Speaker 5 (36:10):
It's a hard thing to do if you've never done.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
Yeah, No, he was. He was awesome. I had no
idea what was coming out. I was just like all right,
and I was like, well, who else who's he replacing
with Reese Whitcraft? And you know, no knock on Reese.
But it's like he's probably not gonna beat Drake Aau
like you said, Robbie. So it was sweet. I loved it.
It was fun to watch the dude. I can't wait

(36:33):
to watch him again next time. And I just thought too,
going back to Gay Arnold real quick, how funny is
it that similarly, they don't beat Iowa State the year
before unless Gay Arnold uses one of his you know
matches to come in there and beat feld Camp. So
now both those guys have that opportunity. How cool is
that they are brothers in every tail?

Speaker 6 (36:57):
Yeah, Sokamta, like you said, came out fire in just
a little unorthodox, you know, just felt comfortable on these
weird positions, which I think until Iola got used to it,
got a good feel for it and he started ramping
it up. But you know, Soccer Model almost had that
first takedown I think, and then maybe one later on
where that shuck that throw by that Iola does overtime shrug.

Speaker 5 (37:18):
It's he's so good at it.

Speaker 6 (37:20):
But the way Soccer Modo like sticks his legout, gets
his hips involved it, you know, he almost gave all
some fits there.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
Agreed.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Yeah, I think it was the outside of the RPI
right when you look at styles and you know, I
saw somebody who was like, let's look at the full context.
Like soccer Moto has been in huge matches and he
might be the you know, the senior level rep if
he if he wins this one tournament this year, like
he could be at the World Championships. It's like, yes,
but like this is a completely different style, like folks

(37:54):
style in freestyle, even though there's a lot of similarities
and we see our guys do well, you know, Jordan
Burrow's way better freestyle than he was a folk style. Like,
let's let's kind of dial it back on trying to
say full context of these these things, because he is
not used to being in this sort of environment where

(38:15):
it is three there's three phases of of a of
a free of a folk style wrestling match. He's only
used to top bottom and being on there easy, only
used to partier and being on his feet. That's it, right,
Like that was the only thing that he's used to doing.
Now he's got to be active in the entire match.
And that's why he looked tired, right and and that's

(38:36):
why he was just like, man, like this is weighing
on me incredibly right now. But I do give him
props for going out there and and doing exactly what
I think they expected him to do, which was bring
a different style and a different energy to that match. Ultimately,
it didn't It didn't work out, and I don't think
there's too many people that really expected it to work out.

(38:58):
But everybody was like, Okay, let's see what we got.
And he came out fire and he's doing cart wheels
and ship and everybody's like, oh, okay, what the hell
is this?

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Right?

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Like, it was a little different, but I don't I
don't think that they expected a an upset there. You know,
it's the returning national runner up, right, Like.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
I understand the damage to like for he did.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
He certainly did like and I understand like the context
me saying it's the national runner up doesn't plot national
run up. But Ferrari Russell is the exact same style.
You know what I mean this is there's very different,
very big difference in those two matches. So I think
he did what he was supposed to do too.

Speaker 4 (39:33):
It's with it kind of takes the crowd out of
it for a minute too, because then you know, everybody
in Carver's like, what the hell is this? Ship? Like,
what who is this guy? You know what cards It's
like in The Simpsons, which it was the Japanese Mafia,
and there was the one little dude in the white
suit and Homer's looking at him through the window and
he's like, the little guy hasn't done anything yet. I

(39:54):
want what he's gonna do. And then as soon as
they closed the door and leave, he you know, does
some flip and kills some people.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
It was awesome. It was really cool to see. I
think he's gonna be really good for them at thirty
three in the coming years, you know, when you when
you saw all the different storylines and bits and pieces
coming out, and everybody's like they weighed in Rinsakamono, Like
everyone's like, well, shit, do you think we'll actually see
him wrestle? And then like it was it kind of
was w W. E esque where he came running down

(40:25):
the tunnel and like they had to go get him
and he's running down the tunnel and throwing on his head.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
Here.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
I thought it was great, but he was he was
pretty I mean he is being ridden out by by
Drake Ali, somebody who was very good on top. But
like he did do well, you know on bottom. It
wasn't like when Etcha Mendia made his debut and he
looked completely confused and it had no legs and no

(40:52):
energy whatsoever. So big deal for him to kind of,
you know, make his entrance in in Carver. I don't
think there's any bigger time to really make your entrance.
But yeah, that was that was not Probably it probably
was the It was the best decision for them when
it comes to the entire story. But you know, I

(41:14):
don't think it really made. It wasn't a make or
break of the dual sort of situations. What other matches
I don't want to you know, Bart all the time?
What other matches did you guys watch where you're like,
man like this.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
One was a was a big one.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
I mean obviously all of them, but what you know
kind of stuck out to you guys.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
I got made.

Speaker 6 (41:37):
Go ahead, Austin, you say, seventy four just hammity kind
of struggling first, y'all, first little bit there. I'm not
sure if you had a takedown the first Peter or not,
but he had to kind of switch up what he
was doing to get to Brands's legs and ultimately get
that takedown. But again, even it seemed like that crowd
and maybe wore him out a little bit because there
was about a minute left in the match.

Speaker 5 (41:58):
He needed a takedown, wasn't really trying to get one.

Speaker 6 (42:01):
You know, I'm not sure if that was nerves being tired,
or you know, just couldn't find an answer there. But
you know, if you're Hammy, you got to get that major.
But you know, props to him for kind of making
some adjustments there and going to something different besides.

Speaker 5 (42:14):
An ankle pick to get that takedown. And I think
he had a few more obviously too.

Speaker 6 (42:18):
But yeah, so it was good for Hammany to switch
it up, make adjustments min match and you know, go
get some takedowns there.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
Yeah, I was just gonna say fifty seven was fun
for me. I mean, teamer is awesome. He's got great takedowns.
He's so fun to watch an explosive. I was joking
with Austin like he just was a mummy, just wrapped
up like and you know, obviously like the guy also
made a good point yesterday. He's been competing in college

(42:47):
for so many years. You know, I remember the first
time I remember seeing him competing in college. I think
it was in the semi finals maybe of Midlands in
a red shirt ear against Klodzik from Princeton and it
was like, you know, overtime match and I think Colozac
was ranked like third in the country or something, and
it was like, oh shit, this guy's gonna be good
for a long time. But no, yeah, yeah, and it's

(43:12):
it's fun to watch him compete. And then you know
the clash of styles there too, because Caleb Fish is
just a bruiser. He's just gonna step forward and club
and snap and club and snap and hope to get
to an angle in the leg. So watching those who
go back and forth was super fun. And then obviously
team are getting to win in the end was the
right outcome.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
So yeah, seventy four was the surprising one for me.
I expected more from committee, just kind of from what
we've seen from him all year. But we hit on
it last week was saying, you know, if Brands goes,
he's a lot stingier, so it's going to be harder
to get that bonus point. And it was, and that's
so it shouldn't be too surprised, but it certainly wasn't
the attack right that we've seen from Hamidi all year.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
I agree with that. I mean, you know, I have
fifty seven teamer. He has been around for so long,
and he has he is such a lax style. I'll
always go back to his Who's Number One match where
it's it's funny to think of now, but when he
wrestled Mitch Moore at Who's Number One, and the fact

(44:19):
that those two were the same weight classes is ridiculous.
But he wrestled Mitch Moore at Who's Number One, and
he stood up straight with his legs just completely wide
open the whole match because he knew Mitch Moore wasn't
gonna shoot, and he's like, he just wants to pull
me into a front headlock. He doesn't do anything else,

(44:40):
so I'm just gonna stand up this entire match. And
everybody kept getting mad because he was just baiting him
into a scramble. And when when Mitch did grab his leg,
of course he's at the corner and everything else. He's
that same guy, and you see him now retreating. He's
not like fully down in the stands every time, but
when he does get down into his stands, he you know,
he's blasting through guys like we saw him do to

(45:02):
Fish right away. So like even though he's he's banged up,
he's wrapped up like a mummy, he's still firing and
the quickness is still there. He's probably still quicker injured
than some guys are at one hundred percent. So you
know that was seeing him walk out on the mat

(45:22):
knowing he's just like fighting through injury right is his
thumb is taped up, shoulder shoulder brace, you know, the
the other you know, lower body injury that he had
earlier on in this season where he could barely walk
off the mat like he is battling everything. And to
see him still firing off shots the way that he
did was just like super impressive. But the match for me,

(45:46):
you know, I'm gonna go right in between the two
that you guys already talked about, and that was Caliendo
and Amen. I know, I know a mean got hurt,
got a little banged up, but the last time those
two wrestled, it was a one point match, and Kaliendo
just like blew the doors off this time.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
And that was impressive because, as I said, it.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Was one point before and this time he made sure
that he was going out for bonus points and he
was obviously feeding off the crowd and everything else.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
So that was really impressive.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Because you continue to see at one sixty five more
than anything, you see the tears of wrestlers more than anything.
Messenberg is at the top and he absolutely dismantled Kaliendo.
Kaliendo is two and Amina is six, they're not very
far off from each other, and he majored him right like,

(46:39):
just like the tears in one sixty five is just incredible.
So that was like very eye opening for me because
I was going into it thinking, all right, you know,
kim Amine is in a new regime this year, he's
looking better than he did last year where he was
having a little bit more of a hard time, and no,

(47:00):
it didn't even matter Calliendo has obviously he's gonna jump levels too,
But it was just like he looks he looks great,
right like the guy that wrestled against mess and Brink.
I don't know what whatever you know Messon Brink is doing.
It's it's incredible because Kaliendo just looked amazing against the
me and to get the major. So that was the

(47:20):
one that like really stuck out for me, where I
was like, man like, he's he is really tough to
be so it also makes you have more respect for
what happened against him and Messing Brink when messon Brink
detected him, So that was pretty wild to me.

Speaker 4 (47:36):
Yeah, I think I think we have enough evidence that
calli Endo's in a separate tier or excuse me, Messing Brink. Yes, yes,
so much funny if I didn't screw it up anyway. Yeah,
he's a freak. He's just on otherworldly. I will be
completely fine if he wins the Hodge despite the rest

(47:56):
of the competition. But no, I mean Alliander did an
awesome job. He needed to break that open, and I
think that's one of those things where you know, when
you lose to a guy that badly like mess and Brink,
you're like, that's that's a you know. I almost said
to him, that's kicking the crotch. We'll say, you know,
and it's like, hey, dude, you gotta get like you're

(48:16):
asking here and work harder and like figure it out,
like you still have a long way to go if
this is what you're going to plan on doing this year.
I don't see mess and Brinker Caliendo changing weights anytime soon.
They're probably going to be career one sixty fives. So
if this is the guy you got to get past,
you got to get better, which means you got to
start beating these other guys by more too. So you

(48:39):
know he did that here. That should be a good
confidence booster for him going into uh Conference tournament.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
The only other note that I had was that I
am extremely impressed by Wyatt Hendrickson and more Yeah, uh
AKA officer Farba, And the the more.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
I watch him, the more impressed I am.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
And I'm like, I I honestly think that he gets
the two seed and that we see him in Gable
in the finals, because it's just it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
Man like he is. He is very good. He is
very very good.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
And not only that, but I have to acknowledge how
spoiled we are with the heavyweight class that we are
losing this year.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Like we're good.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
We do, we certainly do, but he is he is
also part of the mix of like how great this
heavyweight class is? Like this this top six, I mean
you you can you can look at even the top seven,
right like Heinzelman at eight is nineteen and two Slabukuski

(49:59):
is seven, but he's fourteen and five. But like Steveson, Kirklee, Hendrickson, Trumbull,
trefiend Schultz, and it's just like the ability that we
have with all these guys in in the top half, right,
the only guy that is coming back, as you said,

(50:21):
is Trumble at four, and then it's it's Trumble and
and Feldman that and and Keeter obviously that we have
that are that are all coming back next year, that
are even in like what this this like top eleven.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
The rest of these guys are all seniors. Like we
are spoiled.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
I think that heavyweight is clearly one of the deepest
weights that we have. And as I was watching Hendrickson,
I was thinking this, like, man, this is a deep weight.
This is a very deep weight, and it's it's going
to be it's gonna be a lot of fun when
once we hit that quarterfinal. I mean not say that
it's never fun, but like, the heavyweight quarterfinal is going

(51:05):
to be great. And if I'm telling you right now,
if you're going to be in Philly for NCAA's and
you leave during the heavyweight matches, you're an idiot, because
they have the potential to be better than the quarterfinals
at like fifty seven or seventy four for that matter.

(51:25):
Like heavyweight is a match, you is, it must see
this year, and I see that every single time because
we know how great Gable is and I'm pretty sure
he's the you know, if he's not the betting favorite,
everybody's putting their money on Gable outside of the coaches
of these respective guys, I get it.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
But like Wyatt hendrickson, very good chance that he is
in the final against Gable come Saturday night, that is,
you know, and I am, you know, thoroughly impressed with
everything he has done this year, being eighteen to zero
and just mowing down the field as he does it.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
Yeah, I mean he gets to win over he being Gable,
gets to win over kirkfly At, you know, at big tens.
He certainly deserves the number two seed at that point. Yeah,
nine of the top twelve senior is going to be gone,
and you know, all more power to guys like Jimmy
Mullen and Ben Keeter for being you know right there
at eleven and thirteen in the rankings. Is as fresh

(52:26):
as bullet.

Speaker 5 (52:28):
Mullen wrestled, really well against trouble this week had too.

Speaker 4 (52:30):
He did, He very much did. So those guys are
going to be the future, along with Nick Feldman and
a couple other guys in here, Pitzer.

Speaker 6 (52:38):
So don't forget Nathan Taylor from his back next year
once Trefon leaves. Speaking of I know you you guys
saw Treffon's takedown on Schultz.

Speaker 5 (52:48):
That was that was beautiful. Lifted a big boy up
and slammon them down pretty hard.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Probably did Jordan would have flashbacks as he watched it.

Speaker 5 (52:56):
I'm sure he did. Yeah, I'm sure he did. That
was there was something special to watch there.

Speaker 4 (53:02):
It was like an earthquake. It was wild.

Speaker 5 (53:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
I mean, hey, if you're if you're gonna grab Colton
Schultz leg and you better you better make sure that
you finish because and and that you're not like wasting
time down on her knee like he wasted zero time.
Like good shot up to his feet, big lift, cut,
double finish like that was that was textbook.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
That was just completely gorgeous takedown. Yeah, I loved it.

Speaker 4 (53:32):
It must have been like ripping an oak tree out
of the ground. Jesus Christ.

Speaker 6 (53:40):
Schiltz is so big and just like you said with Wood,
just the way he can just wrap your body body,
lock your chest, trap you, Like, Schultz is just so
strong there and the way I'm sure Treffin and Wood
and Zach Ray were all working on that kind of takedown,
you know.

Speaker 5 (53:54):
And here's how you finish it.

Speaker 6 (53:55):
When you get in on him, You're not gonna get
many opportunities when you do.

Speaker 5 (53:59):
You ever take anybody down? Or did he win every
match one to zero?

Speaker 4 (54:05):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (54:08):
You know what's funny about Zach Rays. He is like
he is he is a serious athlete. Like people don't
realize that he is. He is like a serious athlete,
Like I can remember when you know he was. He
was in college when I was training to be a fighter,
and he was doing like backflips in the room and
everything else, and like this dude's like a serious athlete.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Like he's like nimble on his feet.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
And then it was just like content to just beat
the hell out of you and not score any points
because he was just that confident because he didn't feel
like he needed to.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
But he is like really good.

Speaker 5 (54:41):
He was.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
An athlete, man, but people just didn't realize it.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Before we jumped to Tonight's matches. As I said, are
there any other match I know? Robbie, you said that
there were some really good things that went down to
the ACC last week. So Flora's yours give us the
lowdown on those ACC duel meets that that finished off
the season. As we now have what was it three champions?

Speaker 3 (55:09):
Is it career champions?

Speaker 5 (55:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (55:10):
About half the half the conference. So like I said
last week, it's a weird setup. It's all just based
on results on final record in the conference, and they
all ended five and one. UNC beat Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech,
NC State, NC State beat UNC, so there's.

Speaker 5 (55:26):
No way to split it.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
They all have had to head wins over each other,
so it's kind of a weird, weird way anyway, So
with one loss, they all are co champions for the
regular season title. Virginia Tech hosted n C State and
wrestled incredibly, ended up twenty one to ten, which I
don't think anyone would have expected a score that lopsided

(55:49):
in that duel. Virginia Tech won the toss ups and
got a couple up, got at least one upset with
Mac Church beating.

Speaker 5 (56:01):
Derek Fields, and in a very close.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Match it was a really good match, but just the
vibe of that that was so that was yeah on paper,
but like what I hit on earlier is that that
Vince hasn't hit an All American before. Like he's wrestled
some tough competition, and he's wrestled top guys. Spratley is

(56:23):
a big win, but he hasn't wrestled like some seasoned
guys who have been through the grind like Eddie has.
And I think that kind of showed with the way
that match ended and Eddie getting that huge takedown and
Matt returning right out kind of showed that grit and
that that experience edge that he has there. I think

(56:45):
I don't think that match goes the same, uh next
time it's wrestled. I think Vince is probably gonna learn
a lot from that because he's very intelligent as far
as technique and adjustments go. So I'm interested to see
how that plays out. But just kind of up and
down it was.

Speaker 5 (57:02):
It was a great duel.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
Hippolito got a big win over ed Scott in a
match that somehow had a double stall, which never would
have seen in my life, would have thought that would happen,
And no big throws. They were both really defensive and
closed off, but rustled really well. Mac Church got a
big win. Lennox Wolock got absolutely destroyed by Mattie Singleton.

(57:26):
That's the best I've seen Maddie look probably all year,
Definitely the most offensive I've seen him all year, and
just took it to Wolac. So it started on a
big high note for Virginia Tech with upset wins for
Hippolyto and mac Church, and then went the other way
with upset wins from Singleton and fish Back beat t

(57:50):
J Stewart in kind of a weird match, really low scoring,
very defensive, ended on a weird scramble that you know.
TJ initiate with a shot and almost finished, but Fishback
was able to sit through it got him into a
weird position into a danger count that you know, I
was Kevin Lyndis is a fantastic ref and I respect

(58:12):
him a lot. He was very much out of position
in that call, and it could certainly be argued that
TJ was pinned, but he didn't get to the count
on time they reviewed it. Kind of danger got the
takedown call for the upset there. Andy Smith wrestled really well,
Jimmy Mullen wrestled really well against Isaac Trumbull, got a

(58:33):
takedown on him late, but Isaac kind of showed that
grit and got an escape with like four seconds left
to get one of those points back, and that ended
up being pretty big in the match. And then Virginia
Tech ended on two huge notes with that that went
from Ventrusca and then a really gritty win with McGonagall
over Kyle Roney. So it was I mean, it was
a fantastic duel to be at. I'm glad I made

(58:55):
the trip down there. It's always a fun rivalry duel
to watch. The atmosphere was fantastic with that that takedown
from vent Truska. I've never heard it that loud there before,
so it was really cool to see the crowd kind
of get behind that. And then followed up with a
night cap and UNC really put it on Stanford and

(59:15):
had some huge wins. Eathan Oakley knocked out Tyler Knox,
looked really great, and then Josh Ognzanja beat Lorenzo Norman
who was making his return, so he's looked great, and
it's you know, UNC did everything they had to do
this this dual season.

Speaker 5 (59:30):
To get part of that title.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
They had the big upset over over Virginia Tech, and
they they handled their business and every other duel.

Speaker 5 (59:38):
So that's that's how we ended.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
And I think they have a lot of momentum going
in to the postseason, even though they didn't wrestle well
against Oregon State the next night.

Speaker 5 (59:48):
But I don't know.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
The a SEC Tournament's going to be really interesting and
I'm very interested to see how some of these seeds
shake out, especially like one twenty five, because vent Trusca
has a win over Vince Robinson, but Spencer Moore has
a win over Ventruska and a lost to Robin or
No lost Robinson to the very end of the match,

(01:00:11):
So it's gonna be interesting to see how that shakes out.
There's a couple of weights that are like that where
guys have wins over each other, and I'm not sure
I need to look at the criteria again for their
seating to see how that's gonna shake out, but it's
it's gonna be interesting, and I think it's gonna be
a really close UH team scorer at at the tournament
as well. And you have a team like Stanford who

(01:00:31):
has a couple of really big studs who can make
a big run, and that with team scoring for individual
tournaments can make a huge difference. So it's it's gonna
be it's gonna be a fun one to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Acc with a lot of action last week, Austin. Anything
in the Ivy orwa that happened last week, I know
where everybody in the VA is kind of still waiting
to see if crookm makes his return. You were, you
were watching out for a lot of those entries into
the torn Mint last week. Any any news anything that

(01:01:04):
you're hearing with anything happening at Lehigh or any of
the other EWA or Ivy League schools.

Speaker 6 (01:01:11):
Yeah, So Maddy Lopes from Lehigh wrestled at the George
Mason Patriot Open unattached, so still has his red shirt.
Wrestled his three matches to get to eight matches on
the year at one thirty three, so he is eligible
to ranked in the coaches rankings. It'll be interesting to
see who Lehigh puts in there to designate as a

(01:01:33):
starter for coaches to rank. I'm not sure if that's
gonna be Ham or Crookham. Either way, it doesn't matter,
that doesn't matter. Because they're gonna they can still put
someone else in for ewa's and those those have to
be in early next week here, So only a few
more days of this not knowing. I'm hoping we find
out soon. It's kind of stressing me out, but you know,

(01:01:57):
I think we'll find out eventually. Cornell had a big
senior Day, you know, guys like Jolin Ramirez, Chris Foka,
you know that they celebrate their senior day, went out
with a bang a win over. But now, man, that
was pretty much it E w A and Ivy's not
a whole lot going on this weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Yeah, I'm I'm hopeful that CROOKM does come back right,
like he's been out for quite a while. And you know,
you you make sure that Lopes one has his red shirt,
but two has his RPI. That's you know, it feels
very safety net ish, h Like there's going to be
a wrestling match in the room behind closed doors to

(01:02:41):
test things out to see if CROOKM can go. And
if he can, then we see a media WA's or
we don't see media ways. We just see him entered
and he gets in at large, which I'm sure he
would get right. So like We've seen things like that
before as well, right, We've we saw Carter do last year.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
We've seen you know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Nof do it, and I mean when we had uh
the him and camera where the double sixth place at
Big ten. So we've seen a number of guys that
have forfeit out and gotten the at large and so
maybe that happens with crook Maybe it doesn't.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Enough to qualify though, because it if he's yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:23):
He's only five, Yeah, so he would have to have
at least three to be the three coaches ranking eligible, right,
if that even matters, win percentage would be there. So yeah,
if Crookhm does go, the i w A only gets
two spots most likely at that weight class. If Lopes goes,
they'll get three, So Crookham's gonna have to steal one
and make the finals there, which if he's healthy, shouldn't

(01:03:46):
be an issue. But you know, where's he going to
be seated? Is he going to be the top seed?
You'd better wrestled this year. So it'll be really interesting
to see how things unfold.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Here as it's Yeah, it's funny, like as good as
this has been with a ton of parody, and you know,
Big duels and awesome finishes. I mean that the dual
meat season coming to a close last weekend was great,
but it has been an injury plague season up and down,
right like, there are so many injuries that have happened

(01:04:16):
in every single weight class and guys that are hoping
for a medical or you.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
Know, hoping the table hold them together through the.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Right like it is great like it is. It is
rough for guys this year. So I'm hoping for a
great finish to the season. And obviously all guys are
banged up, but it's it's going to be a photo
finish if if guys can drag their leg across the
finish line or drag their shoulders across the finish line
to make sure that they finish. With that said, let's

(01:04:48):
let's jump to some All Star wrestling going down tonight.
Is the Flow Wrestling All Star What is it? Flow
Wrestling Night in America? Lee versus Oh No is the
is the the headliner. I'm gonna talk about the last
three matches in here. There's a very long list of wrestling,
but for the sake of time, we'll talk about these
these three big matches and then you know, we'll each

(01:05:08):
kind of pick one outside of these these top three
that were really interested in. First one is a heat
versus Trent Hidley. Obviously Hidley wasn't the original guy wasps
to being there. Brooks was supposed to be. Aaron Brooks
was supposed to be wrestling in there, you know, a
rematch of the singlet pool that we saw at the

(01:05:29):
Olympic Trials. But Brooks is out, Trent Hidley is in,
and this could make for you know, we've seen these
guys wrestle before, you know, not the first time, but
this is a little bit different now, certainly a little
bit different when these guys are hitting the mats as
we've seen how well they've been competing as of late.

(01:05:50):
What are your guys thoughts on Valencia versus Hydeley and
who do you think wins this match? Robbie Els are with.

Speaker 3 (01:05:58):
You, you know, I'm always gonna roll with Hadley. Yeah,
very very different styles, and that's going to be really
kind of what dictates this match. If Trent's able to
you know, get to his underhooks and use that to
create some offense or to control the mat, I think
that slows down Valencia enough to stop his offense. And

(01:06:21):
I think that gives Trent the edge. But if Valenci
is able to get around that, then I think he's
more dynamic offensively than Trent is. So I think that's
that's really going to be what dictates the match.

Speaker 5 (01:06:33):
But I mean, I'm gonna roll with HOGI.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Austin.

Speaker 5 (01:06:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:06:41):
I think I like Zeheid. This is probably a silly question,
but he's with Cowboy ARTC now.

Speaker 5 (01:06:49):
Correct, he is.

Speaker 6 (01:06:50):
He's been training with David Taylor and those guys, and yeah,
you just got to think some of that is gonna
change his style a little bit, tweak some things that
maybe he was missing, you know, adding to his repertoire. Yeah,
I think I like Zahat, but like Highley's just so
freaking good with those underhooks. Push out points are gonna

(01:07:10):
probably be plan a full for him. But I like
the heat just to get a few more takedowns probably.

Speaker 4 (01:07:17):
Yeah, I like the heat too. The Cowboy piece was
certainly something I was going to bring up wrestling with
David Taylor every day and and adding some stuff to
his game plan and Gary Traub, Yeah right, And but
like that's the other thing. It's like, it's not like
the heat hasn't been wrestling internationally a ton right, Like
he beat up Marstellar. I think in in the finals

(01:07:41):
of the most recent tournament they went to like it
was like ten to nothing. You know. It's not like
he's a you know, easy guy to score on, which.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
That matchup just it just looks funny.

Speaker 4 (01:07:51):
That's the y just the completely different body types in
every way. I just think he's gonna get it done.
He's seen you know, Iranian under hooks, right like, Trent's
got great under hooks, I know, but he's it's not
like this is something what is this? I've got an overhook,
but I don't like it here, right, Like he's gonna

(01:08:12):
know what to do. He's gonna clear it, he's going
to go from there, or he's just not going to
get in it, you know. But I think he's gonna
get it done. And he's team Adidas three Stripe Lives.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with Valencia here too.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
I feel like his length gives Trent a little bit
of trouble. And you know, as we said, you know,
Trent wants to be in that underhook position, even more
so in freestyle than he ever did in folk style,
like we've seen him really utilize it in folk style,
but freestyle.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
It's it's a game changer in freestyle form.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
So but I think that Zahed wrestling from space a
little bit, as he's you know, prone to do, is
what really opens things up. And it's gonna it's gonna
force Hyghly to get a little bit more tactical with
his with his attacks and things like that too.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
So I'm going to heat.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
The next one is is Takatani versus David Carr.

Speaker 3 (01:09:12):
And.

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
I'm really interested in this one because I want to
see is is Car the next guy at seventy four
for us? Obviously there's gonna be a number of guys
that we have at seventy four or seventy four is
literally our strongest weight class. I think that, you know,
over these last couple of years, we could have had
a host of guys winning titles at seventy four.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
It didn't just.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Need to be Dake and Burrows. We could have had
a number of guys at seventy four. It could have
done well. But the you know, Dake and Burrows. Burrows
hasn't really effectively put any sort of announcement out that
I've seen to say that he's done, but you know,
I don't think he's coming back at seventy nine next
this year. But it's going to be interesting to see

(01:10:01):
who steps into these weight classes and is David Carr
that next guy. Obviously, Takatani had, you know, that blowout
win over Dake, beating him twenty to twelve at the
Olympics and just kind of living on Dike's ankles. So
it's going to be interesting to see how Carr handles
this match and what he's learned. You know, we've seen

(01:10:22):
him wrestling with Burrows, and he's been at Penn and
he's he's obviously at Iowa State as well, and he's
been kind of all over and making sure that he's
getting his training in. So we'll see what he brings
to the table. But it's tough, right, I have to
go with Takatani. I hate to pick against David Carr,
and I will happily eat Crow if I am wrong

(01:10:44):
on this one.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
But when you see how dynamic.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
Takatani is and his attacks, it's tough to bet against that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
Austin, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 6 (01:10:56):
Yeah, I agree with you. I hate to sound anti
American pick against Carr. Takatani worlds our Olympic silver medalist
kind of took it to Dake, who Dak has been
our best guy there for a few years now, and
but I would love to see Carr, you know, at
least keep it close, you know, proved, prove that he
could be the next guy, like you said, and keep

(01:11:17):
it tight with these guys. Takatani is legit. Excited to
see him wrestle though. Watching these Japanese guys wrestler is
really entertaining.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Robbie.

Speaker 3 (01:11:29):
Maybe that the match at Oklhoma State was just to
warm up to get us ready to see the top
Japanese wrestlers, and that's really what the.

Speaker 5 (01:11:37):
Plan was all along. I think same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
I mean, Takatani is is proven. He's he's shown how
good he is. We know what we're getting there, and
we haven't seen David as much on the on the
world scene yet, so we don't know where he's at.
This is would be a great measuring tape to see
where where he stacks up with one of the best
in the world. But I think it's it's hard to
pick against Takatani here with with what we've seen from

(01:12:02):
him and what we know he's proven to be. Carr
has a lot of potential, and we know that we've seen,
we've seen him in folkstyle what he's capable of. But
until he shows some of those things on an international scene,
I think you can't. You can't pick him against a
guy like Takatani.

Speaker 4 (01:12:20):
Oh but you can, well will you? Uh So, first
of all, Dake versus Takatani, I'm I'm I'm gonna look
back on it, and I'm gonna think that was more
a game plan. I'm gonna, you know, attack this, and
once it started to work and Dake wasn't able to
use that that head pinch that he's just gotten so

(01:12:41):
accustomed to using against everybody, then Takatani smelled blood and
just kept getting after him. You know. So, I think,
you know, if you wrestle that match again and your
you're Kyle Dake and you kind of know that outcome,
that's a completely different He wrestles that match very differently
the next time, right, So I don't babble him though. Yeah, yeah,
I don't think it was indicative though, of how good

(01:13:02):
Takatani is and equally how bad Dake is you know
what I mean, Like it was just a bad day
to have a bad match. Also, if you remember, Takatani
celebrated taking second place, and at the time, I thought
that was really cool, But now I think it's a
loser move. And I think Takatani is a loser, and

(01:13:25):
I think he's gonna lose to David Carr and uh
and then he's gonna celebrate because he loves losing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
I'm waiting for American flag backdrop to just like lower
behind Kevin.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Was just start just dropped down behind.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
Him, not exactly the American flag, but it'll work, it'll.

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
Work, it'll work. It's there.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
Yeah, I mean, I would love to see David Carr win.
He's he's one of my favorites. You know, it's our
Our are very tight as well. My mom sat next
to his mom and who's number one his senior year,
and they just became super close.

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
So my mom.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Hopefully my mom doesn't watch the show, thank God, or
else she would be very upset that I picked against
David Carr or any or anyone or anyone in the
car family. Now, the main event, Spencer Lee versus Ona,
who are we taking in this one. Obviously, you know, oh,
no Is is bigger, but there, I mean, it's not

(01:14:33):
that far off in weight, you know. I think Spencer
Spencer could certainly wrestle sixty one. He just chooses to
be at fifty seven. That's Spencer's weight, That's just what
it is. But man, I I'm picking Spencer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
I am.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
I think Spencer gets on top and I don't think
it's gut wrench. I think it's leg lace. I think
he goes back to an old faithful that he won
a junior world title with in was at twenty seventeen.
So I'm picking Spencer, but I think it's going.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
To be a great match.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
And I think that we see a different level of
Spencer after losing at the Olympics. We see some different
tactics with some different attacks, but ultimately, you know Sam Spencer,
but you know, a little bit a little bit new bag.
So what are you guys thinking, Kevin, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 4 (01:15:25):
Yeah, I think Spencer Lee wins. He's been so good.
I mean, once again, I always try to do this
when I want to create a narrative for somebody that
I like when they lose. Except for Takatani. But you know,
Lee lost in the Olympic finals and he wait, he

(01:15:46):
didn't want to bring the metal back. He was pissed.
He wasn't celebrating. So I think he's back there grinding
away and working and he's he's gonna go show everybody
what he's been working on in this event.

Speaker 5 (01:15:57):
Is he down the room right now working out?

Speaker 4 (01:15:59):
He is.

Speaker 1 (01:16:00):
He is down in the room right now working out. Robbie,
what are your thoughts here? Who's your pick?

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
So it's a catchweight, which I mean, like you said,
it's not a huge difference. Even at they're separate weight classes.
It's four kilos, it's not huge huge difference here, So
I mean, I don't think that's going to be an issue.

Speaker 5 (01:16:22):
I think what.

Speaker 3 (01:16:24):
Spencer's going to have to negate is the speed of
Ona because he is just it's stupidly fast, and and
that was on full display at the Olympics. So I
think he's going to have to rely on on his counteroffense,
and I think that that's not a bad thing for
him to.

Speaker 5 (01:16:40):
Have to rely on.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
And like you said, if he gets on top, I
think it that's his spot. So if he can get
to you know if he can, if he can work
off with some of Ono's shots and get his counteroffense,
I think I'll be fine. I think he gets you know,
home ad advantage there having it in Iowa, I think
this is going to be a big difference for him
and the crowd behind him, so I'll mean I'll take

(01:17:03):
lead there. I think it's going to be a fun
match though.

Speaker 6 (01:17:08):
Austin, Yeah, it was kind of looking back at Ono's
floaded a nice behind the numbers for the for the
matchups here, and they gave all the list of wins
for Ono, and he won twenty twenty four Worlds at
sixty one, and he pretty much tacked everyone going through it,
including Veto, which is impressive. But then you think, oh,

(01:17:30):
it's a twenty twenty four all the Olympians weren't there,
So a bit of a water downfield, right if you may. So,
now that come to that conclusion, I'm talking to myself here,
I feel like claunch, But yeah, I think the guy
just being at Carver hawk Gy and.

Speaker 5 (01:17:46):
Yeah, a little bit of a chip on a lost
to a Japanese guy in the finals there.

Speaker 6 (01:17:52):
I think he probably wants to avenge that loss, you know,
and you know, do it for America.

Speaker 4 (01:17:57):
And the Beatles.

Speaker 5 (01:17:58):
There we go, who.

Speaker 4 (01:18:03):
Yoko man.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
Yeah, I that was it, really was it really truly was.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
I think this card is gonna be great.

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
Though There's there's a number of matches I think it
was it like twelve twelve or so matches that are
going down uh tonight, which are gonna be a ton
of fun. Outside of the three that we just talked about,
the one that that I'm excited to see at least
looking forward to seeing is Nate Jackson and Kennedy Monday.

(01:18:40):
Kennedy Monday, since returning back to the mat has looked
very good. And yeah, and and and he's been putting
in the work. I will say that, you know, not
saying that he didn't when he was at U n C.
Obviously he was putting the work. But this is a
little bit different, right, He's trained with his dad and
and it's just it's just a different level of focus

(01:19:04):
for him. And he's looked really, really good. So I'm
I'm looking forward to seeing him against Nate Jackson. I
think he just beat Nate Jackson overseas as well. I
think you know, they they go all the way over there,
and then end up just wrestling Americans a lot of
the time. But I want to see how how how
Kennedy matches up. I want to see how you know

(01:19:24):
where he's at in in the field.

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:26):
So that's the one that I have circled. What other
ones did you guys have circled? When when you looked
at this, Robbie, what was yours?

Speaker 5 (01:19:36):
I got two.

Speaker 3 (01:19:37):
I think it's pretty pretty easy to know which two
I'm going with. Uh My guy j I l O
and Marcus Coleman is going to be one of the
opening matches. Jay's done great since he's got on the
freestyle scene. Training up there in Philly has been really
good for him. And I mean he's he's been taking
a lot of international trips, been competing a lot, and
he's he's looked solid. I haven't seen as much competition

(01:20:00):
out of out of Coleman, so I think I always
got the edge there. Just always look forward to watching
j Russell. He's a he's a great guy, and I
think he does everything the right way and he's he's
fun to watch. And then and Donian and Austin Gomez.
I saw Price this weekend when I was down to Blacksburg.
He looks great, looks healthy. He actually is finally healthy

(01:20:20):
for the first time in a very long time. So
having him at at at full strength is is always
always fun to watch. And I think he's a matchup
nightmare for Gomez and very very different styles, but I like,
I like to see it and Donian there two Hokies

(01:20:41):
in a row to beat Gomez.

Speaker 5 (01:20:42):
That'll be fun.

Speaker 4 (01:20:43):
Mm hmm, Kevin, I mean that's the match, Gomez and Andonian.
I I don't even need the first ones we picked.
I'll just watch that one. That's fine, I'll turn it off.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
I'll watch anything that Bryson Donian does on Wrestling matt
because it's normally a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (01:21:02):
Yeah. And and Gomez has looked good and his his
competitions that he's been in. Again, I watched the metal
matches of the tournament. I can't think of the name
of it, but you know, he placed at whatever that
tournament was. There, you go, yeah, yep, And it looked
good doing it, looked big, looked real big he did so. Yeah,

(01:21:22):
So I'm excited to see what what a bigger, stronger
Austin Gomez is able to do. Maybe he'll be able
to throw people further.

Speaker 2 (01:21:31):
Scared money, don't make money?

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
That's right, Austin, what's the what other match are you
looking at?

Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:21:37):
And donate and Gomez gets my boat. Someone's gonna go flying,
Someone's going to be exposing backs multiple times.

Speaker 5 (01:21:45):
Just expose the other guys back.

Speaker 6 (01:21:46):
You know, it's going to be a lot of flip
flop and spaghetti wrest of whatever you want to call it.
Do you want to see DiSanto though I haven't really
seen him compete in a while, personally him vers Seth
Gros just different style matchups.

Speaker 5 (01:21:58):
Could you know? It could be fun just to see
those guys go at.

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
It little du.

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
Yeah, a lot of unorthodox. I think there's gonna be
a lot of two on one from Seth Gross and
a lot of a lot of elbow c grip going
on from Austin de Santo. So it's gonna be a
it's gonna be a fight for for for ties for
sure in this one. And neither these ties do not match.

Speaker 5 (01:22:25):
You should have an elbow control clock.

Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
It is, Yeah, it is an elbow control type of match.
I love this card, though, I think you know, I
will give Flow some props of putting this together and
really that Like, I love how now we have a
lot more in wrestling to have these guys have sustainable lives.

(01:22:48):
You know, Kyle Snyder put out a tweet, you know,
he went to and O PW well and said it
was like such a professionally run event and they you know,
they do.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
The best with it and everything else.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
I wish that we were able to have some sort
of sustainable league here in the States. Maybe this is
the closest that we're gonna get to doing something like this.
I can remember when COVID was going on, and you know,
we're looking at who are we going to get on
this card because you know, the guys want to compete,
and we got to be able to do it in

(01:23:21):
a safe manner and this and that and whatever else.
And this is where those those new cards kind of
came to play in wrestling. And obviously we've seen them before,
but like it was really necessary during COVID and it's
one of those things where I'm glad it hasn't gone away, right,
So happily that that we'll have some some freestyle wrestling

(01:23:41):
going on on a on a week where we're in
between folk style tournaments at least dual meets ended last weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
Conferences aren't until next weekend. Perfect time.

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
It is fantastic, So we'll give we'll give props to
to to the guys at Flow Wrestling for putting this on.
What do you guys think of how wrestling has become
more sustainable.

Speaker 2 (01:24:05):
And how you know it is.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
Truly a profession now where it's not just all right,
I'm done wrestling and I'm going now I'm going to coach,
right like uh or I'll wrestle for a little bit,
try and win some world medals, but I also have
to have a part time job on the side or
a full time job on the side. What are your
guys thoughts on how wrestling has made this transition into
kind of full on leagues like we have now.

Speaker 5 (01:24:31):
I mean, yeah, it's awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
I mean I think it started with with like the
Living the Dream Fund was a huge step in the
right direction to you know, getting guys money for their performance,
and that changed.

Speaker 5 (01:24:44):
A lot of lives and opened a lot of doors.

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
But now we have it's sustainable enough that that we
have backers that are financing entire RTC clubs, We have
people traveling all the time, going to the multiple international
tournaments and having success there to the point that we have,
you know, significantly more depth than we've ever had up
and down the lineup in all three styles. So it's

(01:25:08):
it's hard to be an American wrestling fan and be
you know, have bad outlook on how things are right now.
It's it's been awesome to see.

Speaker 5 (01:25:16):
The growth of it, and.

Speaker 3 (01:25:18):
Like speaking personally, like seeing Jay go from being a
you know, pretty low recruit at UVA to having some
success there and just continue to get better and better,
and now he's successful on the international scene, Like that
wouldn't have been an option ten years ago. He would
have been done and you would have been coaching high
school somewhere. And that's you know, nothing wrong with that,

(01:25:40):
but that's that was the reality. And you know, a
guy like him having an opportunity to continue wrestling and
be successful and be fully supported that way, it's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:25:54):
It's it's just a testament to the people who invest
in it. You know, I think it's been many, many,
many years that people have really wished, the athletes have
wished that this was an option, and at the end
of the day, people just needed to start investing and
making it happen and then the results. You know, it

(01:26:14):
doesn't happen overnight. It takes a long time of this
long term investment to start seeing the results and the
build up of it all. It's been said before, but
certainly the success that Jordan Burrows had over the years
and everything certainly helps as well because you start to see, like, hey,
if we keep investing in this guy, what about these guys.
These guys are doing well too. Hey, David Taylor, if

(01:26:36):
he bumps up to eighty six, what happens then? Right, Like, so,
it took a long time for us to get here,
but man, we're we're seeing it and it's it's just
been such a cool thing to start kind of trying
to predicts who are these next guys going to be?
Who are these college guys that are going to turn
into something? You know, is Kayleb Penson going to be
good at freestyle? Who knows? I guess we'll hopefully get

(01:26:58):
to see one day, right say off, he might, who knows?
Do you know?

Speaker 3 (01:27:03):
I remember in two Yeah, he's gonna be good. In
twenty eleven, I remember sending a check to Jordan Burrows
in Lincoln to buy and all I see is or
the got double shirt. Yeah, and that was that's where
we've come, right. That was used to be the primary
backing was money from fundraisers, money from doing clinics, money

(01:27:26):
from doing camps, money from selling shirts, and that was
how they supported themselves to screep by enough to train
and continue their dream. And now we've gotten to the
point where you know, Jordan is an outlier clearly, but
I mean he's got fucking Ralph Lauren deal. Like that's
it's crazy. It's crazy to see how far we've.

Speaker 5 (01:27:46):
Come in this sport. Yeah, it just goes to show,
you know, and correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 6 (01:27:54):
I just feel like the US has just been more
competitive since this kind of RTC and invest into the sport.
You know, we got multiple guys wrestling at world levels,
and you know, you have multiple guys that could be
top in the world. They just can't beat some of
these Americans. And you know, I feel like we've really
caught up to the Russians, you know, since before this,
and just it's I think home set it it's prolonging

(01:28:16):
these guys' careers.

Speaker 5 (01:28:17):
These guys are.

Speaker 6 (01:28:18):
Wrestling until they're thirty thirty five and not just twenty six,
twenty seven going into coaching.

Speaker 5 (01:28:23):
So yeah, it just goes, it goes so much further.

Speaker 6 (01:28:27):
Than it used to, and it gives these guys, you know,
more opportunities and more chances to show showcase themselves and
you know, become the best.

Speaker 4 (01:28:37):
You can look back at the cycles and we usually
have one or two guys, you know what I mean,
and maybe up until twenty twelve, and then we started
to have like a lot of dudes who stick around,
go to a couple of cycles, or maybe they get
beat by somebody else who's stuck around and just waiting
for their at their time. You know. So it's been great.

Speaker 1 (01:28:56):
You know, we're we're now to a point where we're spoiled, right,
Like think about out think about the Olympics. Last year
we had zero gold on the men's side, and everybody
was like this was a horrible year, Like everyone was
so upset. And it's like, guys, we brought home a
lot of medals, Like there are a lot of medals
that that you know, we're brought back in wrestling and we're.

Speaker 5 (01:29:17):
Not wearing I got the Olympic gold.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
Is hard to do too, it right, like it it
really is and not for nothing. We also saw on
the women's side how great we are on that side,
Like that is an explosive growth that is happening on
the women's side and wrestling, and you know the fact
that we have so many great girls that are I

(01:29:41):
mean right now primarily wrestling at Iowa because they have
such a sustainable program and and you know the infrastructure
around it. But we're seeing more and more and more
of these different programs that are having a lot more infrastructure,
right and they're a lot more sustainable.

Speaker 2 (01:29:59):
But like the.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
Fact that these things are now like it's now able
to happen, right Like I can remember, was it Flip's headphones?
Right like when that was a big deal? Right, Like,
think about like the things that that we have had
in in wrestling, right Flips headphones. You're talking about sending
a check to Jordan Burrows for for you know, one

(01:30:22):
of his T shirts. I remember, you know when when
before JB and I were even you know, remotely friends,
he came and did a clinic in Easton and I
interviewed him for the first time, and you know, I
took home an autograph poster that I gave to my
nephew of Jordan Burrows, right, like, it was just like

(01:30:42):
things like that that you know, we obviously have more
camps and clinics and stuff like that, but like the
fact that these guys have their own shoe now they're
they have you know, they're making more more deals with contracts,
and you know, the women are doing the same thing,
and you know, it's just it's a amazing that we
have the infrastructure that we have and it is a

(01:31:05):
sustainable thing for these men and women to do.

Speaker 2 (01:31:08):
And I hope that it continues. I hope it gets
even bigger.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
I think, you know, with ni L you're able to
build these things in even more because they're attaching them
to the RTC for some schools.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
Not every school is doing it, but.

Speaker 3 (01:31:22):
A lot of.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
I mean, yeah, I mean, we'll put put it this way.

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
And and I'm in my mind, I'm thinking of Oklahoma
State and how Joey McKenna is now going to Oklahoma
State to train with CAP huge move, which is a
huge move, right And we're and we're seeing how much
David Taylor has talked about we're going to invest in
the RTC, and it's it's you know, this past week
was Joey McKenna, but before that it was he Valentia

(01:31:49):
and Rby right like that that made these moves. So
you know, he is truly doing the things he said
he was going to do. But like the the money
is now there for these guys to have sustainable futures
where they can compete until they're like, all right, I'm
done competing and it's time for me to get into coaching.
And it's an easier transition for them into the real

(01:32:12):
world and into not being a competitor where they can
continue to still be in the wrestling world and contribute
if that's what they want to do, right, So, like
you know, and then not for nothing. I mean, you've
got guys like Chance Marcella who has his own club
as well, right, so who's able to give back to.

Speaker 2 (01:32:28):
A sport that's given him so much.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
So, like it is amazing and it's great for these
guys that they can do the things that they want
guys and men and women, I should say, they can
do the things that they want to do in the
sport of wrestling and they're not pushed out as soon
as you know, as soon as they graduate.

Speaker 2 (01:32:48):
Any final side.

Speaker 3 (01:32:49):
Notes from that side note from that shout out to
Sarah Hillebrant hanging up the shoes and taking a coaching
job with USA Wrestling. I think that's a huge move.
She's she's a brilliant mind in the sport and she's
going to be, you know, a huge part of the
continued success of our women's program, and that's I think
that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
Agreed. Any other shout outs you guys want to give.

Speaker 4 (01:33:15):
I want to shout out real quick, uh Anna Pioneer
High School. I grabbed this from my mom's house this
weekend when I was back in ann Arbor. Doug Bernard
and Bill and Craig Pataski and.

Speaker 2 (01:33:25):
And it still fits too, like it still fits ye.

Speaker 3 (01:33:30):
Shout out for you you being in AA in high school.

Speaker 4 (01:33:36):
He he yeah, I love it. John Fisher and then
Rayvon Foley Pioneer's greatest.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
Mm hmm, Austin. Any shout outs, uh.

Speaker 5 (01:33:52):
No, I guess Nott Kevin's coat.

Speaker 4 (01:33:58):
Yeah, and Jalen Hurts.

Speaker 5 (01:34:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:34:02):
Shout to Claunch. You had me on the podcast last night.
We had some fun on Blood Around and it was
good time, good time chatting. Talking to him twice in
a row this week. I might need a break, but.

Speaker 5 (01:34:14):
There we got right.

Speaker 4 (01:34:17):
Good times.

Speaker 2 (01:34:18):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:34:19):
I'm I'm gonna give a shout out to the one
and only Sammy Sasso. I know, you know, we've talked
about this offline, but it looks like his college season
is done.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
From from what Earl.

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
I believe told us it's gonna be Canon going forward.
And Canon is in the rankings at number eleven for
Ohio State now, So it looks like Sasso, you know,
you know, it sucks to see something so tragic happened
to like such a good kid, and and you know
he wanted to come back and win win an NCAA title,

(01:34:57):
and you know, everybody back home and they have I
loves him, and you know everybody was behind him and
wanted him to come back and be that same fierce,
you know, cradle and kid that he used to be.
But it's turns out it's tough to come back from
a gunshot wound, you know what I mean. So, but
no shout out to Sasso. He's the kid is you know,
ultimate awesome kid, and and I think that he's gonna

(01:35:22):
do some great things in wrestling, and you know, whether
it's on the mat or in the coaching chair, which
he already does a lot of coaching with. I believe
Dark Knight back home and stuff like that, So that
is that is my shout out to him. And then
hopefully I didn't I didn't talk too much this show,
and if I did, I really don't give a damn.

Speaker 5 (01:35:43):
At least you're not wearing a Nike shirt.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
I'm not wearing a Nike shirt.

Speaker 1 (01:35:48):
And and it's funny because I realized that our names
are like nowhere to be found unless you're looking at
this on the Intermatt website.

Speaker 2 (01:36:00):
But we've all been around way too long to be
labeled by the shit that we're wearing.

Speaker 4 (01:36:07):
I agree with you, Ryan Holmes, So yeah, right.

Speaker 1 (01:36:10):
Like like it's it's it's just but yeah, the the
me talking too much thing, Uh, it's it's kind of
funny and I'm I'm I'm I laugh at it every
time I see it. And the only reason that I
even said anything about it was because somebody said that
I was talking too much.

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
It's just like hosting a show.

Speaker 1 (01:36:32):
I'm I'm going to talk more than the rest of
you guys, because I have to ask the questions. And
this isn't first take where Molly just kind of sits
there and lets the rest of the panel talk about
all these things. I actually know what I'm talking about,
and I actually cover wrestling for a living, so I'm
not just going to offer up a question and not

(01:36:53):
put my own two cents into it as well. So
but no, so you can keep the I talk too
much comments coming, but that just means that you're watching
the show, so I appreciate it. But you can also
comment on the things that we say. I'd much rather
be called out for being wrong than for talking too much,
because I'm gonna do that. It's literally a talk show.

(01:37:14):
And if you're not tired of me, tired of listening
to me, you can listen to me on Blood Round
because I'm gonna be on with with Kevin coming up
probably what next week, I believe, So we're gonna keep talking.
It's just what's gonna happen. But as always, you are
because you are the host of that damn show. So
that's kind of how it works here, people, is you

(01:37:36):
are the host of the show. But gentlemen, has always
love chatting with you, and and I do love the comments,
especially from Slap the Mat. That guy is awesome. I
hope he had a safe road trip. It looked like
he was driving from was it New York?

Speaker 7 (01:37:52):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
Yeah, from Rochester, New York to the to the duel
to Iowa versus Okloma State. So hopefully he had a
safe truth. So shout out to him. But yeah, people
keep you know, liking, subscribing, commenting all of it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:08):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:38:09):
Next week, we'll be back with our picks for our
different conferences. Uh, you know A C, C, E, I
W A IVY, Big ten, and we will also look at,
you know, some of the others. Well, we'll talk Big twelve.
We'll see who picks Ferrari and who picks Little. We'll
we'll we'll talk a.

Speaker 2 (01:38:28):
Little bit little Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:38:30):
Well we'll talk a little bit of of these these
other these other conferences as well. I know that's PAC
twelve two, but PAC twelve and Big twelve, we'll talk
about them, even though there is not twelve teams in them.

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
We'll discuss those as well.

Speaker 1 (01:38:44):
But as I said, gentlemen, it's always fun to chop
it up with you and talk some wrestling, and we'll
see you again next time.

All Episodes

Coaches' Rankings need to go + IowaOK State recap + Lee vs Ono card - IWP 2-26-25

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Dateline NBC

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Coaches' Rankings need to go + IowaOK State recap + Lee vs Ono card - IWP 2-26-25