OSU/BIG 10
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Pile Driver
Well-known member
6
Mendez and Feldman going for titles and 4 still hoping for 3rd
Mendez and Feldman going for titles and 4 still hoping for 3rd
Overall, this year for the Buckeye's is pretty much as expected considering the injuries and freshmen heavy lineup. Bouzakis is the only one that I'm a bit perplexed by. At times he shows flashes of being a problem even as a redshirt freshman, but days like yesterday...well, let's just hope it's a bump in the road.
Bouzakis and Hephner both disappointing
What a great freakin' match!!!!
OaSgUr2013
Member
How many buckeyes are moving on?
First, I can’t believe Kerkvliet has another year of eligibility. As I watched Feldman have absolutely 0 chance of getting out from bottom I was thinking well at least this frickin guy is a senior and Feldman won’t have to deal with him next year.
Then the announcer mentions he’s got another year of eligibility…wtf.
Second, what do you tell Feldman he needs to do this offseason to have a chance to beat Kerkvliet next season??
Then the announcer mentions he’s got another year of eligibility…wtf.
Second, what do you tell Feldman he needs to do this offseason to have a chance to beat Kerkvliet next season??
Yankeefan33
Well-known member
Grow three inches
Mr.wrsln2
Well-known member
Get on the deadlifts....hard!!!
In his post match interview he didn’t sound like a guy coming back and almost sounded like wrestling isn’t that important. Which I know is crazy because he so damn good
TopBottomNeutralDefer
Active member
Brooks said that. Brooks isnt worried about the NCAA he has Olympic aspirations therefore gave a nonchalant, humble answer. When asked about his 4th big10 title, he responded with something like " man comes and goes and God is forever.." to paraphrase, nothing strange about that.
so did Kerkvliet. He said "this doesn't matter" twice and talked about finding his faith, etc.
Not sure I understand how he has another year either. He graduated HS in 2019. The issues is in the first 2 years and how they were handled.
He redshirted 2019/2020. This season was allowed to be a "free redshirt year" because of Covid. So because he decided to RS ahead of the season, he gets to use another year as a Redshirt? That makes no sense.
He then wrestled the next year 20/21 and wrestled his first match on 2/22 after coming off an injury. It was the last dual match of the regular season. He followed that up by wrestling in the Big Ten championship and went 4-2 to take 4th. Qualified for and wrestled in the national championship and finished 7th. How do you let someone wrestle in the nationals when it is then taken as a RS year?
21/22 Wrestled the full year and finished 4th at nationals
22/23 Wrestled the full year and finished 2nd at nationals
23/24 Wrestled this season and won national championship
There is no way anyone should be allowed a shot at 5 national championships. Conference titles could by as many as 5 - but only because the conference championships happened before the lock-downs started in 2020 and the national tournament was cancelled. Kerkvliet had already elected to take that year as a RS. Then wrestled at the end of the year in the Big Ten and Nationals. So that season didn't count against his eligibility. Seems like it should have been - you can take an injury RS for the season, but you don't get to wrestle in the end of season tourneys. If you do, you burn that medical RS claim.
Thoughts?
TopBottomNeutralDefer
Active member
I did miss this interview by Kerkvliet
20/21 was determined to be a free covid year for all wrestlers (maybe all sports?). So he took a RS in 19/20, took 7th in 20/21, 4th in 21/22, 2nd in 22/23 and will likely win this year. While he won't be a 5X champ, Starocci could be. He's going for his 4th this year and can come back for #5 next year. Thankfully, next year (I think) will be the last year for all the covid extra year wrestlers.
MPhillips
Well-known member
CStar, Brooks, O'Toole would like a word...
I'm not saying there aren't others, but I don't see how it makes any sense. 2020 was the free covid year, so if you wrestled that year and didn't get a chance to go to the national championship - you then get relief to have an extra year of eligibility to pursue it. If you have another redshirt year - you should not get that year to go for a national championship -without forgoing that redshirt year and having it count against your eligibility. I don't know how that wouldn't make the most sense. When has anyone been able to compete in the national championship when using it as a RS season? It doesn't make sense. If you take a RS year other than the Covid year - why would anyone be allowed to compete in the national championship? Why not do that in all future seasons?
Yankeefan33
Well-known member
2021 was the free Covid year- wrestlers who competed in the 2020 season did NOT get another year back. It makes sense from an admin/scholarship prospective (giving coaches/admin zero time to organize this would have been an absolute nightmare), although it sucked for the athletes competing. Because you can't give the 19-20 season back, giving the 20-21 season back was the next best thing I guess.
Like bdhof mentioned, it's a one time thing that will be done impacting 99% of athletes after the 25 season. And there will be some 5x All-Americans- Myles Amine was already the first, and there are about 10 guys who will probably do so in total. All with the understood asterisk of the Covid pandemic and the repeated 21 season.
MPhillips
Well-known member
Unless you were a senior...
There were 5 at-large bids that he missed out on. He was seeded 8 in the B10s and finished 14th out of 14. B10 had 10 automatic Qs at 165 and 1 at-large. New updated Intermat rankings have Hepner falling from 15th to 29th. The guys picked ahead of him on Intermat are ranked 14, 18, 26 & 27. There are 33 picked at each weight.
So why doesn't a guy ranked 29 get a spot in the top 33? Each conference gets at least 1 Q. So there could be a guy ranked lower than Hepner that goy a spot as an auto Q. For ex, Moore, ILL placed 6th in B10s and got an auto Q. He's currently ranked 30, one spot behind Hepner. Fish, MSU was the only at-large bid at 165 for B10s. He snagged 13th at B10s w/ a pin over Hepner in the 13/14 match. 11 & 12 did not get picked.
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Yeah, he can't complain much because any single victory most likely puts him in, but it seems like both InterMat and the selection committee weighed those 4 matches vs. 4 national qualifiers very harshly in the context of his whole body of work. You can see from other decisions too that they weigh the conference matches much more than mid-season matches.
He also lost to Lilliard, IND 2Xs at B10s who finished 11th and didn't get picked. I agree that 1 win at B10s would have gotten him in. He was 0-4.
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Hepner wasn't 14th as someone said (and Lillard wasn't 11th). Hepner was 12th.
Lillard took 9th place. He's in. All 4 of Hepner's losses were to national qualifiers. He lost to the 10-seed (finished 8th), the 9-seed twice (finished 9th), and the 4-seed (finished 11th and got an at-large).
NCAA also just released their final rankings. Not sure why Hepner's not an alternate. Both alternates at 165 are unranked and Hepner is #24. Mulvaney, the final at-large, is ranked #23.
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DoubleBoots
Well-known member
I suppose that is one way to look at it. But I took a quick look at his season on WrestleStat. The way I see it he had only ONE WIN against a top 33 guy (Mantanona) and only 1 more win against a guy in the top 99 (Moore). Both true freshman by the way. All the rest of his wins came against guys 100 or much worse. For the life of me I can’t figure how he ever got ranked that high to begin with. When I look at the body of work—the quality wins just aren’t there. Just my view.Hepner wasn't 14th as someone said (and Lillard wasn't 11th). Hepner was 12th.
Lillard took 9th place. He's in. All 4 of Hepner's losses were to national qualifiers. He lost to the 10-seed (finished 8th), the 9-seed twice (finished 9th), and the 4-seed (finished 11th and got an at-large).
NCAA also just released their final rankings. Not sure why Hepner's not an alternate. Both alternates at 165 are unranked and Hepner is #24. Mulvaney, the final at-large, is ranked #23.
Uh Lillard finished 9th and got in. He actually went 4-2.
You're not wrong. But performance quality in matches is usually just as predictive as simple wins and losses. He had the win over the highly-regarded Mantanona, his losses were only against top 10 guys (and 2 of those very tight), and all of his other matches were blowout wins. You could very reasonably expect that he was the quality-level that his high ranking reflected because the history of wrestlers with similar results has borne it out. But he didn't get it done, so it seems he may just have an above-average ability to bury guys that are a notch or two below his level. Sollars of Indiana was another guy like that. Top 5 in the country in falls, but he wrestled a schedule that exposed his true quality a little more clearly.