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2023 US Open

Olympic Trials. Also beat Zain. Not full matches, but Nick's 4s from that tourney here:

That video was awesome thank you. Nick Lee was a killer. But I think It shows that once you switch from folk to freestyle, you lose a little mat wrestling skills. Nick Lee, although a world class athlete seems like he was better a few years back or maybe its rustiness from limited live competition weekly like when in college. Anyone agree?
 
@BFosr1 posted this over at GIA. Thought it was good info worth sharing over here.

"Vito may be the best 61 kg wrestler in the world right now… he’s literally that good.

Gross, DeSanto, Tomasello, potentially Fix…..and whoever else that finished top 7 at trials and or medaled at Sr Worlds or Jr Worlds (there are specific years and criteria relative) qualify for the WTT challenge coming up here the 3rd week of May in Colorado.

That winner will also just like the Trials these past few days need to wrestle and win just 1 match in the finals to earn the right to face off against Arujao for the 61kg World Team spot in a best of 3.

There are only 3 weights out of the 10 total where someone can still earn a Final X spot at the WTT’s coming up, as the rest all have returning World medalists who have already accepted their invites to Final X at their relative weight divisions. Their opponents are now officially the winners of the World Trials at the same weight divisions.

Those 3 are 61 kg, 92kg, and 125kg.

61kg is really the only weight that is truly wide open from last year’s results, and not worthy of a Final X person already waiting to wrestle. World trials winner Vito A will wrestle the 61kg WTT winner at Final X for the 61kg World Team spot.

92kg is only open because J’Den Cox didn’t accept his invite to Final X at 92 kg, and instead opted to move up to 97 kg where he would have to earn the right to wrestle for its spot by winning either the Trials or WTT… which he obviously just did the Trials today at 97kg.

So although Cox will now wrestle Kyle Snyder at 97kg at Final X, 92kg is now open because of Cox bumping up, and Trials 92kg champ Michael Maccaviaello will have to wait and see who his Final X opponent is, which will end up being decided by whoever wins the WTT later this month.

Kollin Moore lucked out big time with Cox’s moving up by both not having to wrestle him at all at 92kg, and by now especially getting a second crack at Maccaviavello if he can get back on track and win WTT’s. But 92kg did have a Final X returning world medalist worthy, he just didn’t accept the invite.

At 125kg, the only reason Gable Steveson isn’t waiting at Final X for his opponent from the Trials winner today is simply because he took the year off from competition..,,essentially forfeiting his eligibility in doing so. So by winning trials today he solidified his Final X spot, and will await his opponent too by whoever wins 125kg at WTT’s.

Here are the Final X matchups at all the other weights: All will be the best of 3 for a World Team Spot.

57KG: Thomas Gilman vs Zane Richards

61KG: Vito Arujao vs WTT winner

65KG: Yianni Diakomihalis vs Nick Lee

70KG: Zain Retherford vs Tyler Berger

74KG: Kyle Dake vs Jason Nolf

79KG: Jordan Burrows vs Chance Marstellar

86KG: David Taylor vs Aaron Brooks

92KG: Michael Maccaviaello vs WTT winner

97KG: Kyle Snyder vs J’Den Cox

125KG: Gable Steveson vs WTT winner

****Out of the 10 world team weight classes, Penn State will have a wrestler competing at Final X in 6 of the 10 weights, and will be favorites to land a team member in 5 of those 6 weights out of the 10 total. The only weight they will have the underdog in will be 65KG with Yianni favored over Nick Lee for that spot. They will also have a total of 8 wrestlers competing at Final X, with both 74KG (Dake/Nolf) and 86KG (Taylor/Brooks) having teammates squaring off against each other for that particular World Team spot.*****"
 
That video was awesome thank you. Nick Lee was a killer. But I think It shows that once you switch from folk to freestyle, you lose a little mat wrestling skills. Nick Lee, although a world class athlete seems like he was better a few years back or maybe its rustiness from limited live competition weekly like when in college. Anyone agree?
I didn’t think he looked his best but he won the tourney so I was afraid to say it. :)
 
That video was awesome thank you. Nick Lee was a killer. But I think It shows that once you switch from folk to freestyle, you lose a little mat wrestling skills. Nick Lee, although a world class athlete seems like he was better a few years back or maybe its rustiness from limited live competition weekly like when in college. Anyone agree?
No. I think the competition at this level is much tougher,
 
I know many believe that Flo is all about Spencer and all but they did him dirty here. As posted under their account on YouTube:🤣
They did him dirty by broadcasting what they thought was going to be a semi-final match? Looks like Spencer hadn’t told anyone official that he was MFFing. You even hear the arena announcer do a first call for him. Suriano didn’t know about the MFF. The ref didn’t know about the MFF. The arena announcer didn’t know about the MFF. Seems like no one did. And so Flo filmed the mat like they film all the mats.
 
That video was awesome thank you. Nick Lee was a killer. But I think It shows that once you switch from folk to freestyle, you lose a little mat wrestling skills. Nick Lee, although a world class athlete seems like he was better a few years back or maybe its rustiness from limited live competition weekly like when in college. Anyone agree?
Nick agrees with you, even if I don’t. In his interview with flo, he said he wasn’t his best this weekend. To me, he just won the toughest tourney of his life, so I say he looked pretty good.
 
They did him dirty by broadcasting what they thought was going to be a semi-final match? Looks like Spencer hadn’t told anyone official that he was MFFing. You even hear the arena announcer do a first call for him. Suriano didn’t know about the MFF. The ref didn’t know about the MFF. The arena announcer didn’t know about the MFF. Seems like no one did. And so Flo filmed the mat like they film all the mats.
They did him dirty by posting it to their YouTube page AFTER he already forfeited out. This is not from the live broadcast and it is not a feed of one mat for the duration of the session. They posted the specific "match".
 
They did him dirty by posting it to their YouTube page AFTER he already forfeited out. This is not from the live broadcast and it is not a feed of one mat for the duration of the session. They posted the specific "match".
I’ll just disagree. There was no Flo announcer words. There was no Spencer Lee. They filmed what they thought was going to be a match and Suriano getting his hand raised. I don’t see how they did anything that wronged Spencer.
 
I’ll just disagree. There was no Flo announcer words. There was no Spencer Lee. They filmed what they thought was going to be a match and Suriano getting his hand raised. I don’t see how they did anything that wronged Spencer.
They did not need to post the specific match on youtube when they already knew it didn't occur.
 
For me, it’s helpful to see those non-matches sometimes when reviewing brackets of tourneys that I missed live. You can click on the bout in arena and watch what happened.
 
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They did not need to post the specific match on youtube when they already knew it didn't occur.
I can’t figure out how to post it here but Assad’s MFF over Glory in the consis is posted on Flo. I’m sure all MFFs will be eventually. It has nothing to do with Spencer.
 
We’re doomed! Why would anyone look to transfer to that room?

The only reason I can think of is all of the assbeatings you will receive, followed by requisite public shamings emanating from this board. But it will make you better (e.g., Nico).
 
I do wonder how this makes Mark feel, but JB has good taste!

I imagine JB might see a bit of himself in Brooks' pace. Brooks looks the same midway through the second as he does to start the match with the level changes, forward pressure, reaction time. He just never stops wrestling and those same traits have served JB well in second period short time. When Brooks gave up the TD that made it 6-0 a lot of wrestlers would've walked back to center dejected but Brooks looked confident, perhaps because he knew by then that Zahid was starting to gas. Certainly he knew it after how quickly Zahid caved on Brooks' first TD. Match was over right there even though Brooks had to go out and get at least four more points.
 
Forgive me as some of this is already covered. But I’m trying to figure out the totality of what the senior FS open qualified folks for.

- At all weights, the winner qualified for Final X and one of the three national team slots.

- At all weights except 61, 92 and 125, true second qualified for the national team. True second is already decided at 97. True second will be decided at Final X for 57, 65, 70, 74, 79 and 86.

- 2-7 qualified for the WTT Challenge Tournament at 61, 92 and 125. 1st and 2nd there will take the other two slots on the national team. 1st there will wrestle in Final X.

Is the above all correct?

Anything else? Did the 2023 U.S. Sr FS Open also qualify (top 5 maybe?) for next year’s Olympic Trials?
 
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Forgive me as some of this is already covered. But I’m trying to figure out the totality of what the senior FS open qualified folks for.

- At all weights, the winner qualified for Final X and one of the three national team slots.

- At all weights except 61, 92 and 125, true second qualified for the national team. True second is already decided at 97. True second will be decided at Final X for 57, 65, 70, 74, 79 and 86.

- 2-7 qualified for the WTT Challenge Tournament at 61, 92 and 125. 1st and 2nd there will take the other two slots on the national team. 1st there will wrestle in Final X.

Is the above all correct?

Anything else? Did the 2023 U.S. Sr FS Open also qualify (top 5 maybe?) for next year’s Olympic Trials?
I think you have the gist of it--I'm not as certain about OLY trials qualifications, but that's the shape of it.

And @RandyL - Making the world team the year before the olympics is highly desirable, since most USA team members these days are medaling at worlds. If you win a medal at an Olympic weight the year before, you get to sit in the Olympic Team Trials best-of-3 series finals without having to compete anywhere else.
 
Forgive me as some of this is already covered. But I’m trying to figure out the totality of what the senior FS open qualified folks for.

- At all weights, the winner qualified for Final X and one of the three national team slots.
☝️Correct☝️

- At all weights except 61, 92 and 125, true second qualified for the national team. True second is already decided at 97. True second will be decided at Final X for 57, 65, 70, 74, 79 and 86.
☝️Correct☝️

- 2-7 qualified for the WTT Challenge Tournament at 61, 92 and 125. 1st and 2nd there will take the other two slots on the national team. 1st there will wrestle in Final X.
☝️Close. ☝️
Correct that 2-7 qualified for Challenge. The same rules apply for true 2nd at the Challenge tourny as it did at the Open. If challenge tourny 2nd and 3rd did not wrestle, they will face off at Final X for the last spot on the National team.

Anything else? Did the 2023 U.S. Sr FS Open also qualify (top 5 maybe?) for next year’s Olympic Trials?
☝️
I don't think that the criteria for OTT has officially released yet.
 
Wait. Where are the HWC and S(carlet)K(nights)WC?
time house GIF
 
At what point does schadenfreude turn to just plain pity? For me, I feel I'm pretty much there w/ all things Hawkeye. It's not really fun to have a "rival" with so many systemic issues, and they're a proud program that perhaps deserves at least a little better than what they've got in recent years.

Iran, and maybe some day soon Russia is our rival.
 
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