Hats off to Coach Brands and the Hawkeye grapplers

Penn State won the championship, we didn’t lose it. It’s almost impossible to beat a team that crowns 5 champs, and we just couldn’t overcome that.

Hat’s off to Rasing too. He greatly exceeded our expectations.

Considering there were (at least) 2 Big Ten teams ranked above us to start the season, returning only 2 starters from last year and falling one point shy of tying a team that had 5 individual champions, I consider our effort to be great. While it sucks that we couldn’t make it 4 in a row, we looked very good and will graduate only 2 wrestlers.

As much as PSU wants to talk about their future being bright, Iowa’s isn’t looking too dim either.

1. Heavyweight at the top is too even. Rasing could win, Wade could win, anyone could win. Momentum is going to be huge for the NCAAs and thats why i think Rasing may just win the whole damn thing.

2. DSJ will beat Taylor, maybe next year. Taylor is coasting on his skills from what i saw and not really getting better, which is fine when your really good but DSJ is improving every time i see him, if it keeps up DSJ will be the best in the BIG.

had to be Marion. I really believed that he should have finished slightly higher. But there is still rust and I hope he turns it on in time for nationals.

if we kept Uncle Luke, next year would be beastly. 149 will have solid wrestlers, 165 will have solid wrestlers, and 197 will have a pretty good transfer.

next year will rock

I doubt he knew that Wade got bonus points – maybe they realized during the injury timeout but I would think Iowa’s coaches were more concerned with him winning his match. He probably thought he just earned you guys a share of the title.

I think it would be interesting. Guys like Nelson and… the kid from Michigan, they can cut weight down to 230-235, and then we could have some real behemoth matches at HWT. Granted, most guys who can be athletic at 300 and are wrestlers are probably football players, too, but still. I will admit that it’s interesting watching 240-250 lb guys with an active style wrestling the full-boned, less active guys.

I just think the nearly 90 lb difference in classes is too much. But whatever.

With some of the reading I’ve done tonight on Jim Tressel’s continued decline into the filthiest gutter of Rockbottomville, I want to say that as much as I dislike Iowa wrestling, I can’t tell you how much it means to have a new rival that doesn’t cheat, but got where it is today by hard work and a constant determination to be great by legitimate means.

Penn State wrestled about as well as they could and (in my opinion) got a few breaks from the officials. Iowa left some points out on the mat and didn’t get any favors from the officials (e.g., Marion was never taken down by Thorn at the end of regulation, terrible call) and it was still a one point tournament. Bad tourney team my ass.

You can’t send wrestlers out on the mat thinking that they have to win a team title. If you push guys to get bonus, you end up getting them beat. That said, Blake darn near had him on his back at one point.

St. John wrestled very well and is right there with Taylor. I’m not happy about watching a guy never once make a move to improve in the down position, back off the mat in the third, and false start three times without getting a caution. What do I know, he is the “phenom”. Also, the Big Ten Network sucks. They played those awful interviews over the loudspeakers before each finals match. It sucked.

Jansson gave Howe all he could handle. That was a close match and had Howe running off the mat at the end.

Both Lofthouses wrestled tough. Ethan really had Ruth in his match. Not that impressed with Ruth, he coasts the second half of matches (as do most of the Penn State guys).

Every head to head match up with PSU, Iowa guys improved over their previous matches.

Iowa continues to improve and I am looking forward to Philly. I don’t see PSU getting more than 7 to nationals. I don’t think Pataky would get an at large selection (he only beat two unseeded guys at the Big Tens and hasn’t wrestled much this year).

I’m not a wrestling aficionado at ALL, but it seemed like the duals this season on average produced way less injury timeouts than the B1G tourney finals did. Highlighted by the ’"’"injury timeout’""’ in that heavyweight takedown on B1G network.

that they allow wrestlers to put themselves into potentially dangerous positions rather than be turned or tilted. If you know that the official will stop the action before any serious ingury occurs then there is no incentive for doing this. It is pretty obvious to most involved when this occurs. If the refs let some kid who puts himself in danger rather than be turned get his shoulder dislocated and ending his season, coaches would stop teaching this practice. But it will never happen.