Starting today.

Thursday Noon ESPNU Thursday 7PM ESPN
Friday 11AM ESPNU Friday 8PM ESPN
Saturday 11AM ESPNU Saturday 8PM ESPN2

MAC has 34 wrestlers in Cleveland for the national tourney -

http://getsomemaction.com/news/2018/3/13...eland.aspx

Going by what's in this article (the link is below), team race is going to be between the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes. FWIW, I went to the NCAA tourney a couple of years ago when it was in Madison Square Garden (Penn State won the title). Thought about going this year but didn't.

Anyway, back to the team race. Ohio State had all 10 wrestlers qualify; Penn State has 9 there.

http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf...n_sto.html

I had it going on 2 TV's - one with the streaming on ESPN3 so I could watch the matches I wanted to see and the other on the U.

OSU had 19 wins in 20 matches yesterday along with a few bonus points. Penn State's first 2 wrestlers got pinned in the first round, then won their next matches in the consolations. The other 7 all won their first and 2nd round matches - although the PSU heavyweight had lost in OT, until his opponent from NCSt. had a massive brain fart and handed the match back to him.

Local wrestlers did not fare too well. Matt Stencel lost his first match he was favored in - and I think had to forfeit out at the end for concussion protocol after he took a knee to the face/forehead. He was able to wrestle in the consolation round and was pinned early in the 2nd period. He did not put up much of a battle after the first round. I think he has bulked up too much too fast. He was at 170 as a freshman in HS, and now is weighing in around 275 or more 5 years later and has only grown about an inch (at most 2 inches) in that time. One of the downfalls of collegiate wrestling is there is no weight class between 197 and 285, so the guys that are more naturally in the 220-230 weight range, tend to try to bulk up to battle the bigger guys. He's only a RS freshman so he should continue to get better and more accustomed to the heavier guys he has to wrestle.

Rocco Caywood of Army lost a close first match, then won in OT for his second match. He moves on to Friday and if he wins 2 more - can make All American status.

as another aside to this OT on wrestling, Toledo finished in 10th place of the NWCA (National Wrestling Coaches Association) tournament down in Texas last week. It is essentially club team wrestling - but also has teams from Penn State, etc. Toledo had a champ at 125 and also a 2nd place finisher. One of their higher seeded guys lost in the quarters, then lost again in the consolation quarters - both by 2 points, and did not place.

(03-15-2018 09:00 AM)cnyrocketfan Wrote:  MAC has 34 wrestlers in Cleveland for the national tourney -

http://getsomemaction.com/news/2018/3/13...eland.aspx

MAC schools had 6 All-Americans (finishing in the top 8 in a weight class) -

http://getsomemaction.com/news/2018/3/17...sults.aspx

Nittany Lions won the team title in a close one against Ohio State -

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story...-bo-nickal

(03-18-2018 07:29 AM)cnyrocketfan Wrote:  

(03-15-2018 09:00 AM)cnyrocketfan Wrote:  MAC has 34 wrestlers in Cleveland for the national tourney -

http://getsomemaction.com/news/2018/3/13...eland.aspx

MAC schools had 6 All-Americans (finishing in the top 8 in a weight class) -

http://getsomemaction.com/news/2018/3/17...sults.aspx

Nittany Lions won the team title in a close one against Ohio State -

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story...-bo-nickal

Difference in the team race was at one critical match at 184 pounds. The PSU guy was nearly pinned and reversed it and pinned the OSU wrestler in the same flow of the move. That put PSU ahead by 12 points and clinched the team title for them. Had Martin of OSU won that match the PSU lead would have been 2. OSU would then have won the title Kyle Snyder captured his 3rd NCAA title (along with a 2nd place as a freshman, a 2016 Olympic gold at 20 years old and 2 world championships - one as a 19 year old).

The Big 10 had 12 out of the 20 finalists and in 4 of the matches it was Big 10 against Big 10. Of those, the Big 10 won 6 championships. 3 were won in weights where no Big 10 guy was in the finals.

Great tourney.

I keep hearing they are making a motion to move wrestling to the spring instead of winter. That would be a smart move. Start it around January 2nd (Now starts around mid-November) with the finals being the end of April. Would capture a lot more in the TV audience. Maybe even do it over two weekends. Right now it is brutal to wrestle as many as 7 matches over 3 days. To win a championship, you wrestle twice on Thursday and Friday, then the championship on Saturday night.