NCAA championships

[Hansel]

Fogarty got Tech'd

[Big Bird]

What a complete disaster this tournament turned into. Rodriguez gets worked by Kraisser and doesn't make r12.


Something went very wrong these past two months

[Big Bird]

NDSU finished 4-10 at NCAAs...

[Christopher Moen]

I'll be honest, even after chewing on it for a bit, today was terrible for NDSU.
125- Josh isn't the same guy he was early in the year. Like Christopher mentioned, the team, and especially Josh IMO, have been in a funk since the calendar turned to February. He wasn't close with Pich today and that is frustrating. With all of that said, he has as easy of a path to AA status as you can ask for. He'll have unseeded Pitrowski (who has been wrestling really well of late), then either unseeded Townsell or 16th seeded Kraisser, before likely squaring off with 14th seeded Alfredo Rodriguez, who Josh hammered earlier this year. That has to be AA status...it just has to happen.
133- Cam actually did well. He had a really nice win over 16 seeded Devoy, before running into NaTO. His wrestleback path is very manageable to AA status. I'm not saying he will AA, but he too has a very reasonable path. He'll have 15th seeded Morris, before likely squaring off with 9th seeded Scotty Parker (I can't see Grey knocking Parker off). That will be the big one for Cam, because after that, he would likely have 11th seeded Lantry. I think Cam knocks off Morris, then loses to Parker. If he gets through parker, I think he beats Lantry.
157- Clay just flat out didn't look good today. His reactions were slow and Fox was well prepared for Clay's defense (his head positioning when finishing his shots was perfect). It was hugely disappointing for me as a fan to see Clay go out like this, so I can't imagine what it was like for him or Gladiator Dad. Couple things to remember about Clay's season though. He had to steal an AQ spot last year to get to the NCAA tournament. This year, he wrestled well all year, knocked off a bunch of high quality opponents, and earned the #6 seed in the NCAA tourney while being the B12 runner up. That is a MASSIVE improvement in one year. Next year, he'll likely start in the top 10 in all polls and he'll have a great shot to AA.
165- Great job by Fogarty to battle back and improbably steal that wrestleback match. He has Campbell next, who has looked really solid, so I don't see his run continuing, but I still think his year was a success. rFr qualifies for NCAA tourney and even won a match in the tourney.
HWT- What a disappointment. Not necessarily the losses, but moreso his actions. He handled himself exceptionally poorly and it reflected extremely poorly on himself and the university. On a wrestling level, he was poor today. Hemida is a guy Ben can, and should (and has), beat. Hemida took it to Ben and crushed him. Ben had a great chance to rattle off 2 wins in the wrestlebacks and finish his career on a run, but didn't show up. With all of those negatives said, I will miss his production. He was entertaining and more than serviceable. I was worried we would have a black hole at HWT after Evan left, and boy I'm glad Ben came here.
Coaches- No problems with the in match strategy just 2 general comments. I hope this tournament causes an open, honest assessment of how things went both right and wrong this year. Regardless of how the next two days unfold, the team hit a really rough patch the past two months and that is precisely when they need to peak. Josh doesn't look the same, guys were far too regularly out-conditioned late in the season too. The schedule was very soft too, and I really think guys need to be exposed to high level competition frequently if you want them to be successful in a tournament like this. Also, Big Ben was frequently a poor sport throughout the season and I hope the coaches take a harder stance on it next year. He routinely shoved after the whistle, got in guys faces, and showboated after wins. Today it manifested on the biggest stage and was a terrible optic. I get that his career just ended, but this was an ongoing trend that was only getting worse. Kudos to Hemida for not retaliating and making it worse and to Kish for going out to make sure Ben didn't make it worse (which it's ridiculous that he even had to do that). Those are the negatives IMO. The positives: much better dual record, 5 guys to NCAAs, and hopefully 2 AAs still.

There could be a lot of reasons for the team's let-down performances the past few years. Without having inside information, my suggestion would be to make major adjustments to their periodization training chart. Team is peaking way too soon and the Seniors have looked out of it the past few seasons.

College wrestling is grind and very detrimental to those with Olympic aspirations. A Russian coach once told me that we're crazy for how many times we allow/force our athletes to peak, especially within a year. If you pay attention to Russia's top athletes, their #1s only peak twice a year - Russia Nationals and Worlds/Olympics. They send their #2, 3 and 4s get sent the other major events (Europeans, World Cup, etc.)

Right now, I'm hoping Kyle Snyder's rib injury isn't too serious. The U.S. Open and World Team Trials are a short turn-around after the NCAAs. The amount of high-level competition he wrestles simultaneously with collegiate wrestling is kind of crazy. Hopefully, the injury isn't a sign that his body is starting to break down from the competition.

[RadioBison]

There could be a lot of reasons for the team's let-down performances the past few years. Without having inside information, my suggestion would be to make major adjustments to their periodization training chart. Team is peaking way too soon and the Seniors have looked out of it the past few seasons.

Does the "funk" for the last couple of months have anything to do with losing our strength and conditioning coach?

[RadioBison]

Cam wrestled really well the last two periods. I wish he would've picked top in the 3rd (pretty sure kish was telling him to pick up too). He very nearly got that late tilt and Morris wasn't doing much on bottom.

His future is really bright. I want to see him work on diversifying his leg attacks and adding strength, but I think he'll AA some day

I was only following on Track, and I was shocked when he didn't pick up.

[RadioBison]

Clay will most definitely be back next year

I'm glad to hear it. He's due for four wins next time.

[Christopher Moen]

Does the "funk" for the last couple of months have anything to do with losing our strength and conditioning coach?

It could be, but this is the second year in a row that NDSU has not had an All-American. This year's NCAA Championships performance was worse than last year's, despite having a better team and season. As I stated before, the team needs to regroup and refocus in the offseason.

[scottietohottie]

Holy Penn State.

[Christopher Moen]

Holy Penn State.

Those boys were loose as a goose and mean as a moose tonight. Luckily for everyone else in the country, their 125 LBS wasn't able to compete.


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