Team points 2017 190.5 and 7 champs
2018 192 and 8 champs
2018 192 and 8 champs
Keystone Classic Tournament Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Got almost nothing done today. Missed first hour but caught as much as possible with all the stoppages. A very well wasted day
I didn’t realize Cassar was only a one time state champion in high school. I was told Cael would never even think about recruiting a kid like that. Any idea what kinda dirt Raptor has on Cael to get himself into the room?
Through these first couple weekends these boys have been dominant.
RBY looks like a seasoned vet out there. Top 4
Cassar..what can you say other than the kid figured it out and looks top 2 to me
Cenzo seems like he’s a more dominant wrestler this year. That kid he crushed in the finals just beat Isaiah White last week I believe
Nolf and Bo—just appreciating this last year with them
Nick Lee—Workman like as always but will need to clean up some things if he wants to crack the top 3
Berge impressed me but a little nervous about his injury proneness.
Verk impresses me as well but he didn’t bring it on the backside (I’m sure the loss stung). Going to be interesting how this weight plays out.
Shak an absolute beast. Finalist mark it down
Hall—he was the only one today that didn’t bring it. Never got to his neutral offense in last 2 matches and let lesser wrestlers hang around. Not real concerned about Hall, but calling it like it is
Nick Nevills—a trouper. 2xAA won a lot of big matches for us over the years and appreciate everything he’s given to the program. That being said, anyone that’s being real can see the difference between Cassar and Nick. Unless an injury happens, can’t see him winning the spot.
We have a couple 125 pounders ready to step in and bring it. Can’t wait
Going to be a FUN season!
#WEARE
RBY looks like a seasoned vet out there. Top 4
Cassar..what can you say other than the kid figured it out and looks top 2 to me
Cenzo seems like he’s a more dominant wrestler this year. That kid he crushed in the finals just beat Isaiah White last week I believe
Nolf and Bo—just appreciating this last year with them
Nick Lee—Workman like as always but will need to clean up some things if he wants to crack the top 3
Berge impressed me but a little nervous about his injury proneness.
Verk impresses me as well but he didn’t bring it on the backside (I’m sure the loss stung). Going to be interesting how this weight plays out.
Shak an absolute beast. Finalist mark it down
Hall—he was the only one today that didn’t bring it. Never got to his neutral offense in last 2 matches and let lesser wrestlers hang around. Not real concerned about Hall, but calling it like it is
Nick Nevills—a trouper. 2xAA won a lot of big matches for us over the years and appreciate everything he’s given to the program. That being said, anyone that’s being real can see the difference between Cassar and Nick. Unless an injury happens, can’t see him winning the spot.
We have a couple 125 pounders ready to step in and bring it. Can’t wait
Going to be a FUN season!
#WEARE
Great point, Marcus Junius Brutus. RBY as well indeed.
Some would remember that ordeal as their personal Viet Nam!
(I personally respect vets too much to do that.)
had fun watching this tourney today... few thoughts of mine...
- 125 can't get anyone on the podium... App State had 2! Schnupp looks better than last year but let's guys get to his legs too easy post 1 st period...
- RBY - stud. Will be interesting when the talent gets better. Hope Fix is at the scuffle
- Lee - nothing to add. Just the observation and comment about TDs =2 and escape = 1... you dominate a guy for 3 TDs, slip and it's 6-5. Lee looking solid.
- Verk - looked like he was getting tired at the end of the day. Wanted him to take 3rd. Needs more motion to find his shots. Berge looks good and confident.
- Nolf. n/a
- Cenzo - n/a
- Hall - looks like he always does. Can get some big moves on some guys and others he can't. I don't think he necessarily is always looking for O on his feet. Didn't Nolf headlock and pin this Finesilver at the scuffle last year...
- Shak - belongs on this team and looks great
- Bo - n/a
- Cessar - wow... thought the heavies would be much bigger... Will be interesting how the season progresses. He will have to take the great shots and not put those shoulders underneath too much...
Anyone notice how the whole team looks like they are looking for Zain type turns?
- 125 can't get anyone on the podium... App State had 2! Schnupp looks better than last year but let's guys get to his legs too easy post 1 st period...
- RBY - stud. Will be interesting when the talent gets better. Hope Fix is at the scuffle
- Lee - nothing to add. Just the observation and comment about TDs =2 and escape = 1... you dominate a guy for 3 TDs, slip and it's 6-5. Lee looking solid.
- Verk - looked like he was getting tired at the end of the day. Wanted him to take 3rd. Needs more motion to find his shots. Berge looks good and confident.
- Nolf. n/a
- Cenzo - n/a
- Hall - looks like he always does. Can get some big moves on some guys and others he can't. I don't think he necessarily is always looking for O on his feet. Didn't Nolf headlock and pin this Finesilver at the scuffle last year...
- Shak - belongs on this team and looks great
- Bo - n/a
- Cessar - wow... thought the heavies would be much bigger... Will be interesting how the season progresses. He will have to take the great shots and not put those shoulders underneath too much...
Anyone notice how the whole team looks like they are looking for Zain type turns?
Was there an OW? It’d have to be Sugar, I suppose, though Cenzo is a candidate.
Also, more aboard the Raptor bus
Also, more aboard the Raptor bus
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I'd think Cassar. There weren't a lot of ranked wrestlers, and he beat 2 of them convincingly.
125 - Schnupp/Lopez - Both won two matches but DNP. No surprises.
133 - RBY/Stossel - RBY - Champ - looks great; ready to go with the big boys. Stossel won two matches but DNP.
141 - Lee - Champ - looked very good. Giannangeli won two matches but DNP.
149 - Seems like every year there is a weight class which looks to remain undecided until late in the season and this looks like the class. Berge vs Verkleeren was close with Berge edging Verkleeren. Berge medically forfeits out of the finals and Verkleeren loses in the consys finals. Berge - 2nd, Verkleeren - 4th, Gardiner - 5th. Hope both Berge and Verkleeren wrestle at the Scuffle.
157 - Nolf - Champ - Nolf was Nolf, enough said. Pipher - 6th.
165 - Joseph - Champ - solid tournament - 4 falls, 1 TF. Joseph wants in on the bonus point competition.
174 - Hall - Champ - started with two falls followed by two decisions.
184 - Rasheed - Champ - impressive; definitely a title contender in March. Watching Sugar was sweet. Bisono - 6th.
197 - Nickal - Champ - Nickal was Nickal, enough said.
285 - Cassar - Champ - solid decision over Nevills; another title contender in March. Nevills - 3rd; always liked Nick and hope he gets another shot at the Scuffle.
All in all, this is a great team with great bonus point potential. I was most impressed with RBY, Rasheed and Cassar. By January 3rd we will have had duals with Lehigh and Arizona State and participated in the Southern Scuffle tournament; we'll have a very good idea how good/great this team is at that time. Hoping the Cowboys send the A Team to the Scuffle.
133 - RBY/Stossel - RBY - Champ - looks great; ready to go with the big boys. Stossel won two matches but DNP.
141 - Lee - Champ - looked very good. Giannangeli won two matches but DNP.
149 - Seems like every year there is a weight class which looks to remain undecided until late in the season and this looks like the class. Berge vs Verkleeren was close with Berge edging Verkleeren. Berge medically forfeits out of the finals and Verkleeren loses in the consys finals. Berge - 2nd, Verkleeren - 4th, Gardiner - 5th. Hope both Berge and Verkleeren wrestle at the Scuffle.
157 - Nolf - Champ - Nolf was Nolf, enough said. Pipher - 6th.
165 - Joseph - Champ - solid tournament - 4 falls, 1 TF. Joseph wants in on the bonus point competition.
174 - Hall - Champ - started with two falls followed by two decisions.
184 - Rasheed - Champ - impressive; definitely a title contender in March. Watching Sugar was sweet. Bisono - 6th.
197 - Nickal - Champ - Nickal was Nickal, enough said.
285 - Cassar - Champ - solid decision over Nevills; another title contender in March. Nevills - 3rd; always liked Nick and hope he gets another shot at the Scuffle.
All in all, this is a great team with great bonus point potential. I was most impressed with RBY, Rasheed and Cassar. By January 3rd we will have had duals with Lehigh and Arizona State and participated in the Southern Scuffle tournament; we'll have a very good idea how good/great this team is at that time. Hoping the Cowboys send the A Team to the Scuffle.
I would go with Cassar.
He had the biggest win of the day when he upset the #2 ranked wrestler.
Is this the tournament that was once called the Penn State/ Nittany Lion Open? Great performance from the Lions and the Finesilvers. Did the University lose money when they hosted their Open? Just curious as to why PSU prefers to attend rather than host.
Great performance from the Lions and the Finesilvers. Did the University lose money when they hosted their Open? Just curious as to why PSU prefers to attend rather than host.
Good summary.
I definitely think this will go down as our best team ever, barring injury. I know I am a homer, and it is still rediculously early, but we could see 6-7 maybe 8 finish top 4. Insane.
For the second event of the year I have to give the whole team top to bottom an A+.
A big shout out to our backups all 14 wrestlers had at least 2 wins, it was awesome. Sure we haven't faced elite competition but all did well.
I sure wish we could have seen a little more RBY. What we did see was.... RBY like. Is he fast or what?
Nick - he lives on the edge. Awesome to watch and he'll dominate most of the time but he may never tighten up his style the way Zain did. I always come away impressed but he also looks sloppy giving away easy points, slightly out of control. He can beat Mackenna but only if he wrestles clean.
Gardner - super impressive, are we actually competitive 3 deep at 149? He made me think so. Wow!!!
VJ - I love the new point machine look. He is scoring like a 2x champ. Someone must have told him how good he is. Its hard to believe (and stomach) that Iowa out-bonused us last year at Nationals. With what we are seeing develop before or eyes, that ain't happening again.
Nolf-Nickal - words don't do justice.
Agree with the Hall assessment the dual and early Matches had me thinking he is going to open it up this year. He has more raw talent than anyone bar maybe one out there but if you keep your gun holstered during a fight might just shoot yourself in the foot...? I hope he throws caution to the wind the next time he faces Zahid at let the chips fall where they may. That said you don't want to keep #10 type guys close to you. Anything can happen in wrestling. Marky can and should dominate 90% of the time.
I didn't like the way Verk finished his last two. Then again, it's hard to be at your best when you have had your heart ripped out. Its hard to blame him. I still don't think we'll see Cael decide before the scuffle.
Shack - he is at the perfect weight and is going to leave a trail of destruction behind him all year. I will be shocked if he doesn't give MyMar a run for his money, and that is saying a lot.
Cassar - wow. Fastest big man in the nation. I'm filling out the paper work for his 6th year later tonight. Did you hear Byers - he said he might be able to qualify for a 7th year??
Nevill's - we still love ya big man. No matter how it plays out we are blessed to have you as a starter or the best backup ever!
I love all the movie homages in Shaun of the Dead. Ed does a Dazed and Confused homage when they leave Liz’s apartment in the Jag - “watch the leather”
The best performance today was from... Cassar... and Cenzo, and Bo... but also RBY, Shak, Lee, and Nolf. That’s it... 7 tie for top performance.
RBY looks good early, but let's tap the brakes a bit. His competition has not been great so far, and 133 is loaded at the top and very deep (Gross, Micic, Jersey Kid, Fix, Pletcher, Parker, Desanto, Lizak, Erneste, etc). An AA finish won't be easy, and Top 4 a very tall order.
Top 4 would be a tall order no doubt but I’ll take RBY right now over the rest of the guys you have listed in a heartbeat
The Classic only gave out two individual trophies that were not related to placement at a weight class. Cenzo won Most Pins in Least Time, and also won Outstanding Wrestler.
Interestingly, when the aforementioned awards were announced, Cenzo was nowhere to be seen. His mom, who was in the vicinity of the awards area, picked them up for him. Eventually, Cenzo showed up, and somebody took a picture of him with the awards (or was it Cenzo and him mom with the awards; I can't remember). Then he gave them to his mom, as he told her the bus was leaving pretty soon for PSU, and he had to go take a shower.
I believe that the Classic also gave out awards to the top three teams. The 2nd and the 3rd place teams took big group pics with their entire team and coaches. The 1st place team had a picture taken with Hall, Nickel, and one other PSUer (my brain is kind of fried; can't remember who it was) holding the team trophy. It was kind of amusing how the teams reacted to the awards. (And don't misinterpret this that PSU wrestlers didn't care about their teammates or the team. They were very supportive of each other throughout the day.)
I spoke with some of the wrestlers, but not specifically to Berge, and asked them about the MFF. They indicated that the MFF was just a precautionary thing, based on what happened to Berge's knee in the semifinal match, but that there did not appear to be any injury to the knee.
Also, I specifically watched Berge as he took the big step up to the 2nd-place block on the award stand. He didn't show any type of problem, or favoritism, with the knee.
To the person that asked, no...the Keystone Classic is not the former NLO. This year is the 23rd year. Also, it’s put on by Penn Wrestling, not PSU Wrestling.
An interesting story from the stands of the Classic. I was sitting with @RoarLions1. On the other side of Roar was @pawrestlersintn. Around 5 pm, @pawrestlersintn brings up Flo on his iPad. I call over to @androcles, who was seated a short distance from us, and tell him that we have Fix - Lizak on video stream, so he came over to join us (and honored us by staying through the finals). It doesn't get much better than sitting with those guys, watching PSU wrestlers on the mats, and watching a top match from another arena via video stream.
Great day!! Time with old friends, met some new, and the wrestling was terrific.
Stands full of Penn State fans, outnumbering all other team’s fans, as we travel well to every event where the Blue and White wrestle.
Much in this thread about individuals. I’ll just mention the overall results. The SID stated an overall 60-16 record, for a winning clip approaching 80%. Everyone impressed, too to bottom. Starters and non-starters alike fought for every takedown, and against giving up easy ones. The “fight” in the guys, this early, was better than advertised.
Everything positive said about the guys or the team in this thread, I agree with. Anything negative, I don’t.
Stands full of Penn State fans, outnumbering all other team’s fans, as we travel well to every event where the Blue and White wrestle.
Much in this thread about individuals. I’ll just mention the overall results. The SID stated an overall 60-16 record, for a winning clip approaching 80%. Everyone impressed, too to bottom. Starters and non-starters alike fought for every takedown, and against giving up easy ones. The “fight” in the guys, this early, was better than advertised.
Everything positive said about the guys or the team in this thread, I agree with. Anything negative, I don’t
.Note that the announcer today couldn't decide whether Brady was Berg....or Bergey. Never tried the Berge with the J sound. Not sure why he stopped at 2 pronunciations.
There is optimism and then there is Spyker level throwing all caution to the wind.
RBY's victims so far ... woof. Best is career 63-56 and has never qualified for nationals. The rest are a combined 18-31.
First good test he'll have all year will be 12/2 vs. Lehigh -- if he similarly disposes of Parker, then there's some evidence.
For the record: I think he could be P4P good enough to place top 4 at several weights -- but that may not be good enough to even reach the podium at 133. The weight is just that strong.
Parker could/will be a great test.. only problem will be the ever lasting question if he is/was healthy...
Quick comment about an earlier post about Mark Hall and how he tries big moves against some and not others....etc.
Hall is very calculating on the mat, and likes to counter wrestle when he feels the need, and will wrestle with less risk than others will. It is a very different style than many of our other guys, but clearly works. He's far better than Kellen Russell, of course, but the mat awareness to me....is a parallel. I don't worry much about these 6-4 deals.
Hall is very calculating on the mat, and likes to counter wrestle when he feels the need, and will wrestle with less risk than others will. It is a very different style than many of our other guys, but clearly works. He's far better than Kellen Russell, of course, but the mat awareness to me....is a parallel. I don't worry much about these 6-4 deals.
Officially, credit has to be given to Crockster for the video stream. I had it on mine, but it kept dropping. But, the sentiment is right on. Great group of fans and friends, huddled around an ipad, absorbing max wrestling.
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