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65kg - POLL

65kg - Who do you like to represent the USA? Poll allows 10 options respond for Tank/McKee/O'Connor

  • Zain Retherford

    Votes: 141 76.2%
  • Yianni Diakomihalis

    Votes: 34 18.4%
  • Jordan Oliver

    Votes: 7 3.8%
  • Joey McKenna

    Votes: 1 0.5%
  • James Green

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Nick Lee

    Votes: 2 1.1%
  • Anthony Ashnault

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Nashon Garrett

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Logan Steiber

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Evan Henderson

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    185
Zain is not a good free styler. Im sorry.

Hogwash. Zain has beaten Yianni twice and in 2020 had wins over Evan Henderson (6-2), world #1 Bajrang Punia (6-0), Reece Humphrey (10-0), and Alec Pantaleo (3-2)

You are free to believe that Yianni is the United States' best hope at a medal at 65 kg, but to suggest Zain is 'not a good freestyler' is disingenuous and ludicrous.
 
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Hogwash. Zain has beaten Yianni twice and in 2020 had wins over Evan Henderson (6-2), world #1 Bajrang Punia (6-0), Reece Humphrey (10-0), and Alec Pantaleo (3-2)

You are free to believe that Yianni is the United States' best hope at a medal at 65 kg, but to suggest Zain is 'not a good freestyler' is disingenuous and ludicrous.

And stupid
 
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Is there a non-FLO-paywalled link to a list of everyone qualified for this weekend's OTT?
 
Zain kinda crapped the bed a bit qualifying the weight. And he has had some head scratchers in freestyle just like Metcalf used to. That weight class is traditionally P4P one of the toughest yearly to win on the world stage. Brutal brackets at worlds!

I'd like to see what Yianni can do now although I would be ok if Zain makes it aswell. Both are very talented, I just feel Yianni has a higher ceiling in Free.
 
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It's very odd how Iowa's hate is so extreme that they root for Cornell, Oklahoma State, etc...
 
You are free to believe that Yianni is the United States' best hope at a medal at 65 kg, but to suggest Zain is 'not a good freestyler' is disingenuous and ludicrous.

I think that Yianni has competed in six international competitions in his life...and won them all. None of them were the Olympics, and the only World championships were at the Cadet level, but I think it says something about how Yianni competes on the international level.
 
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Where’s Eierman and the other hammers from “light weight U”? Asking on behalf of the Inner Circle.
With spencer out, I think slamm'n sammy brooks is the only hwc guy going.

When the D1 is good, hwc isnt. When HWC was cranking the D1 maybe wasnt so much.

#walkandchewgum
 
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I find it funny people hate Zain because he BLOCKED Yianni. Like they're so sure Yianni would get a world medal if it wasn't for evil Zain gameplanning to beat him. News flash, if Zain is the subpar freestyler like they say he is and Yianni can't beat him here then he probably isn't ready to medal at worlds either.

This is nothing against Yianni (I am a huge fan) but against the backwards logic of his fanboys or Zain haters.
 
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I find it funny people hate Zain because he BLOCKED Yianni. Like they're so sure Yianni would get a world medal if it wasn't for evil Zain gameplanning to beat him. News flash, if Zain is the subpar freestyler like they say he is and Yianni can't beat him here then he probably isn't ready to medal at worlds either.

This is nothing against Yianni (I am a huge fan) but against the backwards logic of his fanboys or Zain haters.
Nobody hates Zain because he prevented Yianni from moving on. That's just making up s***.

Let's say you are Cael Sanderson planning your season. At 141, you have two guys, A and B. For some reason, A always has B's number in the room. B just can't beat him. However, in every tournament they've both been at, B always wins the tournament, while A never does. In addition, B has a better dual meet record than does A.

Who do you send to NCAAs?
 
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Nobody hates Zain because he prevented Yianni from moving on. That's just making up s***.

Let's say you are Cael Sanderson planning your season. At 141, you have two guys, A and B. For some reason, A always has B's number in the room. B just can't beat him. However, in every tournament they've both been at, B always wins the tournament, while A never does. In addition, B has a better dual meet record than does A.

Who do you send to NCAAs?
Yeah, but we don't pick our team that way. The winner earns it on the mat.
 
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Nobody hates Zain because he prevented Yianni from moving on. That's just making up s***.

Let's say you are Cael Sanderson planning your season. At 141, you have two guys, A and B. For some reason, A always has B's number in the room. B just can't beat him. However, in every tournament they've both been at, B always wins the tournament, while A never does. In addition, B has a better dual meet record than does A.

Who do you send to NCAAs?

Beg to differ on the first point but that's alright. I might have bucketed all Cornell fans there so my bad but I've seen quite a bit of classless things said about his freestyle abilities and many who openly supported booing him after Final X. Many who even said they don't even plan to root for him after he beat Yianni fair and square at Wilkes.

Your analogy with Cael is good actually. That being said, that's not how USA Wrestling works so it's a pointless discussion.
 
So the brackets/seeds are out. I dont understand why some are waiting in the finals for the best of 3 and some ae not?
I thought all world team members sat in the finals waiting for the challenge??
 
Nobody hates Zain because he prevented Yianni from moving on. That's just making up s***.

Let's say you are Cael Sanderson planning your season. At 141, you have two guys, A and B. For some reason, A always has B's number in the room. B just can't beat him. However, in every tournament they've both been at, B always wins the tournament, while A never does. In addition, B has a better dual meet record than does A.

Who do you send to NCAAs?

I don't think the sample size of Yianni's tournament performance is large enough to override the head-to-head factor.
 
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So the brackets/seeds are out. I dont understand why some are waiting in the finals for the best of 3 and some ae not?
I thought all world team members sat in the finals waiting for the challenge??
Only the medalists from the 2019 Worlds in Olympic weights get to wait, includes Burroughs and Snyder.

Medalists in non-Olympic weights are inserted at the semi-finals of the weight they choose, includes Dake and Cox.
 
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Yeah, but we don't pick our team that way. The winner earns it on the mat.
Nobody said it is picked that way. The argument was being made that since Yianni can't seem to get past Zain, then the idea that Yianni would do better at the WC is wrong. I disagree, and gave an example of why that is the case. I'm not, nor is anyone else, arguing that the selection process should be changed.
 
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Beg to differ on the first point but that's alright. I might have bucketed all Cornell fans there so my bad but I've seen quite a bit of classless things said about his freestyle abilities and many who openly supported booing him after Final X. Many who even said they don't even plan to root for him after he beat Yianni fair and square at Wilkes.

Your analogy with Cael is good actually. That being said, that's not how USA Wrestling works so it's a pointless discussion.
See my response above.
 
People don't like Zain as our 65kg rep because he isn't a good freestyle wrestler. The Russians are vastly superior at picking teams versus our system.

Our system is fair in that it gives everyone who hasn't won a world medal an equal chance to make the team. But Zain isn't winning a medal at 65kg and that's all that matters.

The Russians don't go into Russian Nationals and overall competitive landscape trying to have the most fair process. They go into the Olympic year looking to have the best team with the best chance at winning gold.

If Sadulaev somehow lost in the Russian National finals, he would still be the selection at 97kg. We will be very, very fortunate to win 3 medals at the Olympics. I'm guessing we win two with no medals at 57, 65, 74, 125 just like 2016.

If that happened to Russian everybody on staff would be fired.
 
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People don't like Zain as our 65kg rep because he isn't a good freestyle wrestler. The Russians are vastly superior at picking teams versus our system.

Our system is fair in that it gives everyone who hasn't won a world medal an equal chance to make the team. But Zain isn't winning a medal at 65kg and that's all that matters.

The Russians don't go into Russian Nationals and overall competitive landscape trying to have the most fair process. They go into the Olympic year looking to have the best team with the best chance at winning gold.

If Sadulaev somehow lost in the Russian National finals, he would still be the selection at 97kg. We will be very, very fortunate to win 3 medals at the Olympics. I'm guessing we win two with no medals at 57, 65, 74, 125 just like 2016.

If that happened to Russian everybody on staff would be fired.

You'd think Yianni would have no problems beating a guy who isn't a good freestyle wrestler...
 
People don't like Zain as our 65kg rep because he isn't a good freestyle wrestler. The Russians are vastly superior at picking teams versus our system.

Our system is fair in that it gives everyone who hasn't won a world medal an equal chance to make the team. But Zain isn't winning a medal at 65kg and that's all that matters.

The Russians don't go into Russian Nationals and overall competitive landscape trying to have the most fair process. They go into the Olympic year looking to have the best team with the best chance at winning gold.

If Sadulaev somehow lost in the Russian National finals, he would still be the selection at 97kg. We will be very, very fortunate to win 3 medals at the Olympics. I'm guessing we win two with no medals at 57, 65, 74, 125 just like 2016.

If that happened to Russian everybody on staff would be fired.
So much wrong here. Those of us old enough to remember how US Olympic teams were selected (not just wrestling) understand that taking politics, favoritism, and the like out of the selection had to be done. You do not want to go back. Are there unfortunate cases where the best didn't make the team? Yup. Are there cases were the team members didn't earn their spot via head-to-head competition? Nope. The winners this weekend get to represent.
I'm a big Cornell fan, and I'm grateful at least for the fact that Dake doesn't have to go through a meat grinder tournament just to face a rested Burroughs!
 
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People don't like Zain as our 65kg rep because he isn't a good freestyle wrestler. The Russians are vastly superior at picking teams versus our system.

Our system is fair in that it gives everyone who hasn't won a world medal an equal chance to make the team. But Zain isn't winning a medal at 65kg and that's all that matters.

Please cite your evidence that 'Zain isn't a good freestyle wrestler'. He's beaten Yianni twice and shut out world #1 Punia 6 months ago. Good lord, I wish I sucked at freestyle as much as Zain.
 
Nobody said it is picked that way. The argument was being made that since Yianni can't seem to get past Zain, then the idea that Yianni would do better at the WC is wrong. I disagree, and gave an example of why that is the case. I'm not, nor is anyone else, arguing that the selection process should be changed.
That's not the argument being made at all.

The argument is that one can't dismiss Zain as a bad freestyle wrestler.
 
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