NCAAs - your personal highlights

[Chickenman Testa]

For me:

1. 2nd RD - Nolf/Van Brill. That was peak Nolf. This year’s version of the obliteration of Micah Jordan last year.

2. RBY RD of 12 v Philippi to become an AA. Always cool to see a kid AA for the first time. Philippi is tough but RBY wrestled great to handle him

3. Noodle Arms pinning another beast in Brucki.

 

[El-Jefe]

Jason emasculating Berger with that 3rd period ride.

Cassar overcoming multiple lunger bricks in the semis, them out bulking Bulk Job.

RBY's sheer joy in reaching AA status.

Cenzo's pancake to inside trip on White.

Non-PSU category: Preisch finally making the podium in his last chance. Marsteller winning his last college match.

 

[crockster]

1.Cassar beating Stevenson again in the semi finals and dominating White in the Finals. Most people wouldn't have called that. What a year for Cassar.

2.Seeing Nolf and Bo finish their unbelievable careers asn3 time Champions.

3. Nick Lee with 3 pins, especially the last one for 5th. Great and deserving finish for Nick. (Next year he wins it)

4. RBY beating Philippi to AA in arguably one of the toughest weight classes.

5. Watching the NCAA in person this year, especially the bloodhounds and semis on Day 2 , you gain a greater appreciation how difficult it is to AA or get to be in an NCAA final competing against so many great wrestlers around the country. Such a challenging tournament! Our boys are incredible and talented athletes to even compete and be so successful in this tournament. PS wrestling fans should never take it for granted. It was a treat to watch.

 

[NittPicker]

Cael Sanderson waving the challenge brick then gingerly laying it on the side of the mat. That made me laugh.

 

[apoharrow]

Nolf's interview defending Burger what a classy kid.

 

[PSUbluTX]

On the mat: Cassar! Seeing him wrestle with supreme confidence and owning the championship like the NCAA had already engraved the trophy for him months ago. (I'm selfishly hoping he comes back next year but won't be surprised if he doesn't now.)

Off the mat: Nolf's post-match interview after winning the finals. His comments about Berger were the epitome of class and a great lesson for fans of wrestling (or any sport) to not lose perspective on what matters most -- being a truly decent human being regardless of fandom affiliation.

 

[McScoreley]

For me, it's easily Cassar. Not just the win but everything he went through to achieve what he just did on Saturday. We have our champions who were very heralded recruits like Zain, DT, Bo, Ruth, Nolf, etc. then we have Anthony Cassar. His story serves as inspiration not just to wrestlers but to anyone with goals in life.

Not recognized early? (An unheralded recruit) That's fine, everyone's journey goes at different paces.The important thing is to never lose focus of your goal and believe in yourself before the whole world knows.

Minor or major setbacks? (His Injuries) Let them be teaching points, motivate you and put your head down and push through.

Things not going your way? (Losing the 197 spot last year) Work that much harder to earn it rather than trying to find a path of less resistance.

Achieve your goals? (He's a champ) Stay humble and remember your roots. I know people want to point to his celebrations and demeanor as saying he is not humble but anyone who watches his interviews, how he interacts with fans, how he always gives the glory to God and his coaches, teammates can tell just how good of a kid Anthony is. And honestly, after all he's gone through to get here? Let him live a little.

 

[Jkos11]

The greatest part of the finals and semis for me was watching in the Flo tweets and Facebook posts the first guy to congratulate Anthony was always Sugar, ALWAYS ...

 

[pointingdogsrule]

When the the crowd went absolutely wild when Joseph put White on his back and then seconds later Lewis beat the Bull. (NOTE: the VA Tech crowd was right in front of me). That was the loudest I heard the place.

 

[aalion]

Agree on the reaction and timing of Vincenzo winning and then Bull getting upset. And the already mentioned Cassar matches.

Non PSU wrestling I loved watching the Northern Iowa coaches during the finals. They made Tom Brands look passive by comparison. And the post match interview (paraphrasing) "we own the state of Iowa. we are doing it with Iowa kids....". Etc.

Off the mat, was Mark Hall's talk at the post finals social. He is a bit down the list as far as my favorite PSU wrestler, but he is at or near the top as a kid to like.

Not sure if I should have been surprised at how "invasive" the wrestling fans were to downtown Pittsburgh. I assumed 20K would be absorbed a little more but I was running into them at bars and restaurants a mile or two away from the arena. Was fun to see the enthusiasm. Did not see of hear a single "incident" or any angry words among fans or any other nonsense.

Two other random thoughts. The national anthems were awesome for the last 3 or 4 sessions (I missed Thursday). And there did seem to be a spirit of patriotism among the crowd - very into the anthems, loved the Va Tech singlets, loved them recognizing active/retired military, etc. I might be over analyzing but if felt good to me.

 

[aalion]

Two other things that amused me...

1) Jason squirming as he was introduced at the post finals social as the crowd gave him a standing ovation that lasted a long time. A very long time. Bo was up next and got a similar one, but it was more expected given the reaction to Nolf's. And Bo is more of a showman clown anyway so he milked it some. But Jason didn't know what to do.

2) Cael closed out the post match social with a short speech. Among other things he mentioned the support that they have gotten, but still need, to keep the NLWC strong so that wrestlers like Bo and Jason with post-PSU aspirations have an ongoing place to train. But he was totally uncomfortable with the subject - I know he hates the 'fundraising' aspect of the job. He could have said "so get out your wallets and checkbooks" and with the mood in the room could have collected $50k in about 15 minutes. But he never actually mentioned money or donations or funding or any word that sounded financial.

 

[amattaro]

Ref #16 as the high scorer in the Paris-Stoll match.

 

[JohnnyHandsome]

I was impressed with Nolf's post match interview. He could have really stuck it in Bergers face after dominating him

Instead, his letting Berger off the hook was 1st class stuff.

 

[RoarLions1]

What everyone said above!!

I'll add two thoughts, big picture...
(1) Tightening up the Control of Mat Area violations. Better, but still room to improve.
(2) The sportsmanship -- I see more respect between wrestlers at the NCAA tournament than during the dual season. Not all, mind you, but enough that it's easily noticeable.

 

[STAND with PRIDE]

For me, it's easily Cassar. Not just the win but everything he went through to achieve what he just did on Saturday. We have our champions who were very heralded recruits like Zain, DT, Bo, Ruth, Nolf, etc. then we have Anthony Cassar. His story serves as inspiration not just to wrestlers but to anyone with goals in life.

Not recognized early? (An unheralded recruit) That's fine, everyone's journey goes at different paces.The important thing is to never lose focus of your goal and believe in yourself before the whole world knows.

Minor or major setbacks? (His Injuries) Let them be teaching points, motivate you and put your head down and push through.

Things not going your way? (Losing the 197 spot last year) Work that much harder to earn it rather than trying to find a path of less resistance.

Achieve your goals? (He's a champ) Stay humble and remember your roots. I know people want to point to his celebrations and demeanor as saying he is not humble but anyone who watches his interviews, how he interacts with fans, how he always gives the glory to God and his coaches, teammates can tell just how good of a kid Anthony is. And honestly, after all he's gone through to get here? Let him live a little.

Easily for me too, I knew he could and would win it all when after he took out Ali Shuffle at Bigs.

Embarrassingly enough, for whatever reason, I always thought finals started at 8, so planned on getting in arena at 7... So wife and I get there at 6:55, and realize we are late. Wouldnt have been quite as bad, but after getting back home Sunday and realized we got caught by cameras “sneaking” into our floor seats 1:00 into Antknee’s match.

 

[Conewago]

Well, aside from the PSU win, Kyle Shoop giving the business to multiple wrestlers brought me joy.

And he did it the true Pennsylvanian way. Is there a better Pennsylvania way to win a match than to come from behind, and do it via riding? That just screams "PA wrestling"

Shoop is from Boiling Springs High School here in God's country - south-central Pennsylvania. I have fond memories of a 8 year old me chasing the ducks at the lake there in Boiling Springs. I also remember nearly getting hypothermia at a late season football game at the high school. Good times.

First match: 13 seed Shoop was down something like 7-3 to Findlay from Utah Valley, but dominated the 3rd with a hard ride and won 8-7. Get used to this, it's a theme
Second match: I missed this one, but Shoop owned Josh Alber, the 4 seed from Northern Iowa, to the tune of 19-10!
Third match: Shoop's weakness right now is in neutral, and he lost 8-3 in the quarters to Eierman
Fourth match, now in the consies: Once again down early, Shoop got the ride going and punished Kaid Brock, winning 14-10
Fifth match: Shoop lost to Dom Demas 10-4. Clearly no shame there, since Demas unfortunately beat our own man
Sixth match: Shoop just totally hammered Chad Red from top, getting near fall, and forcing Red into giving two stall points in the 3rd. With this, he won by major decision 11-3 and earned a 7th place finish

He finished an All-American with a tourney record of 4-2, and several of his wins came over some former All-Americans or otherwise well-regarded wrestlers.

I'm happy to say that while I had a lot of misses in my brackets that I filled out, Shoop not only met my expectations, but exceeded them; I picked him to finish 8th.

SHOOP! SHOOP! SHOOP!

 

[raslen007]

I was waiting on a message from Berger about his last match with Nolf and his reaction to Nolf's post match interview. I am sure something will be coming soon.

 

[McScoreley]

I was waiting on a message from Berger about his last match with Nolf and his reaction to Nolf's post match interview. I am sure something will be coming soon.

This ... he owes a hat tip to Nolf for that. If he says nothing about Nolf's defense of him, then it says something about him. He chirps about Nolf, gets his ass handed to him twice since that message and Nolf is the first person to stick up for him on National TV afterwards (unsolicited I might add, Quint asked Nolf nothing about the tweet). If he has nothing to say about that then he's just a sore loser who talks a big game in my opinion.

 

[tikk10]

Shooting the tournament is the coolest thing I get to do each year and I realize how privileged I am when I peek over at some of the other photographers watching NCAA basketball on their phones while the semis are going on twenty feet from us. I'd say half the photographers really know what's going and half are just on assignment--guys names to check off that they've gotten a suitable shot of. I want to bear witness to amazing wrestling and get the best photos I can at the same time. Not just document, but interpret. So just seeing these matches through a camera lens--matches that these kids have laser-focused themselves on for months, years even--is always a highlight.

Hearing pockets of the crowd react is also a highlight. So much of this sport is built on expectations, but while many outcomes are easy to predict, you know when upsets happen. The atmosphere is unlike any other in sports, the crowd is always locked into the action and you can get a great sense of what's going on from the sounds.

Seeing friends from here and BSD is always a highlight too. The alumni event at Buford's was pretty cool. I met DT, who minutes later broke the news that the BJC will host the 2020 Olympic trials. I showed Taylor a photo I took at Beat the Streets in 2015, which was the second to last time he wrestled 74kg. He smiled at how far away that seems. He also explained the upcoming Beat the Streets format (world team vs NCAA champs). He's a nice guy and well-settled into being David Taylor, World Champ.

Seeing Columbia's Dan Reed (the reason for my credentials) win a match was a highlight too. He was a senior and had a sub-.500 career until this year when he really opened up and went for it. He came real close to winning his second consi match too--came back from 5-1 to tie but needed to ride for 30 seconds and just couldn't do it. But I was happy he won a match b/c he'll always have that, and the memory of how he fought.

Seeing a former finalist like Zeke Moisey go up fast in the first around only to have time and a bad shoulder catch up with him was a great reminder how fleeting success can be in D1 wrestling; it's not enough to be talented, you have to work your ass off while somehow navigating injuries.

Pittsburgh itself was a highlight. Charming city with character with an unfortunately massive parking problem. I might ditch NYC if Pittsburgh had a reliable mass transit option. But food options were plentiful and interesting and the neighborhoods I passed through genuine and diverse. I hope to get back some day.

 

[TangSoo]

All the match highlights have been mentioned. My biggest fist pump of the weekend came when Cassar beat Steveson. I lucked into some lower level tickets Friday morning near "center ice" and had a close-up view of the expected Nolf - Van Brill brutality. Based on his post Berger interview, I don't think Jason is one bit vindictive, but I'm certain he remembers Van Brill and took measures to prevent a repeat of their previous match.
Other highlights included getting over to the Fanfest for the Haselrig book signing and watching the world team practice.
I also took a trip over to my old neighborhood on the North Side for a Peppi's steak sandwich, which included someone stealing my Uber ride and my leaving the driver a voice message which surely would have gotten a team point deduction. I ended up walking in the 40 MPH winds, which wasn't so bad.

 

[y2jriden]

This ... he owes a hat tip to Nolf for that. If he says nothing about Nolf's defense of him, then it says something about him. He chirps about Nolf, gets his ass handed to him twice since that message and Nolf is the first person to stick up for him on National TV afterwards (unsolicited I might add, Quint asked Nolf nothing about the tweet). If he has nothing to say about that then he's just a sore loser who talks a big game in my opinion.

Didn't Nolf tell us to let it go?

 

[seamus98]

With Cleveland being my first attended Finals I couldn’t have been more pleased to have this year’s Finals in my hometown for the past 20 years. The pockets of school related fans are always a joy to watch and seeing the in-state school’s pockets outnumber bigger programs was definitely a source of pride.
A big takeaway was that Penn State fans appreciate good wrestling regardless of school affiliation. I stood and cheered for Myles Martin, Chance Marstetler, Spencer Lee, The Fresno State 2-sport kid and many more even though they weren’t Penn State kids. As did a lot of Penn State fans. You didn’t see that with the other major programs unless it was a kid who beat Penn State.
Turning into a kid again when seeing Bruce Baumgartner, Wade Schalles even Isiah Martinez wandering the streets in front of the arena.
Being in an arena with 16,000 fans of wrestling from all over the country is something special in itself. At any time I could start a conversation with anyone and we’d talk forever. An amazing respite from the typical Steeler talk here in the Burgh. It felt like home.
I may have even found a level of respect for the New Jersey fans. They were loud and appreciative of all their Jersey kids regardless of the name on the singlet.
I felt fortunate to have grown up in Central PA and participated in this great sport for a short time. And I’m appreciative of what Cael has done to arouse our great fans back to the forefront of the sport. It has definitely encouraged me to give back to the sport in any way I can.

 

[PSUeng]

At the end of one of the rounds (can not remember) two heavy weights went into the third over time. As the crowd of a 100 or so watched and cheered, after one HW road out his opponent he chose neutral assuring himself riding time. The move look brilliant, until 10 secs when he was taken down. To me that match showed the true fun and spirit of wrestling

 

[Grass]

For me non-PSU related thoughts.

* Glad to see Marsteller finish on a high note and take 3rd.
* Happy to see Foster win that 184 match for the title.
* Can't say enough how much I like watching Glory and Arajua wrestle for being Freshman. Hopefully Vito stays at 125 (from the comments Koll made that might happen).
* Demas is fun to watch with his upper body moves. Was worried about Nick's match up with him and my worries came true.

 

[Pinfan]

My thoughts on just a few winners and losers. Of course Penn State the biggest winner as national champions. I thought Rutgers a huge winner with 2 national champs and some recruiting shouts, especially in Jersey. Although finishing second in team scoring, it had to be a major disappointment for Ohio State with 0 national champs and MM losing in semis. Princeton showed up with 3 AA’s outpacing the likes of NC State, Iowa State, Northwestern, Wisconsin and a few other usual power suspects in the team scoring.

 

[Cali_Nittany]

Fun fact - only two final matchups ended in bonus. Would anyone have guessed Heavyweight being one of those beforehand?

 

[KBay]

Seeing Martin go down the drain in the semi-finals was No. 1. Seeing Chance complete the first successful gender-change operation on a wrestling mat in history on Friday night was No. 2, as The Bull was converted into The Heifer.
All the fans from all the schools were absolutely great to get along with--with a single exception, viz., the fans from Iowa State, who were unbelievably rude in Section 203.

 

[Bob_Anderson]

Did not see of hear a single "incident" or any angry words among fans or any other nonsense.

I only saw one incident, and it was rather unfortunate. Before the semis, I stopped in the restroom and saw an ~80 year old PSU fan, who was using the urinal, say something he thought would be funny (couldn't tell exactly what he said). He got some chuckles, except for a ~45 year old Iowa fan who gave him a "shut up because Sandusky". Apparently, the PSU guy wasn't allowed any bathroom humor because of his school affiliation. The PSU guy was kinda confused and said something I couldn't hear. The Iowa guy responded with "You must also think wrestling started 9 years ago". The PSU guy then said something like "no, it started in the mid seventies", as they walked out. The entire exhchange seemed like something you would get on a message board acted out in real life.

 

[tylersmyth]

Seeing Martin go down the drain in the semi-finals was No. 1. Seeing Chance complete the first successful gender-change operation on a wrestling mat in history on Friday night was No. 2, as The Bull was converted into The Heifer.
All the fans from all the schools were absolutely great to get along with--with a single exception, viz., the fans from Iowa State, who were unbelievably rude in Section 203.

Watching a classy kid like mymar lose being the highlight of someone’s tournament is so weird to me. I’m just not wired that way, I feel for all kids who lose that put their lives into a sport.

 

[tylersmyth]

For me the highlight was walking from the Saturday morning session to the event my fiancée had put together for the unc wrestling team. I saw a kid about 10 yards ahead of me walking with his head down with a Pitt backpack on. I realized it was Mickey Phillippi. I put a little giddy up in my step and got beside him. As we walked I told him although I know the weekends result wasn’t what he wanted, that he was an absolute joy to watch this season. That he should be proud of the way he performed and wrestled and that I would be rooting for him to AA next year and that he had 3 more seasons to reach his goals. He said I want to be a national champ not just an AA. I said that was great and that he should work towards that everyday. Losing to a kid in the quarters you beat earlier in the year to potentially face a kid in the semis in fix you also beat couldn’t be easy. But he was a joy to talk to and by the end of the conversation he was smiling. It just goes to show how hard these kids work and how razor thin the difference between making your dreams come true or not is in this sport. Made my weekend to talk to him and let him him know people know how good he is even if he didn’t aa.

 

[ClarkstonMark]

At the end of one of the rounds (can not remember) two heavy weights went into the third over time. As the crowd of a 100 or so watched and cheered, after one HW road out his opponent he chose neutral assuring himself riding time. The move look brilliant, until 10 secs when he was taken down. To me that match showed the true fun and spirit of wrestling

as written that doesn't make sense, as riding time is not a factor (as far as I thought); the guy who rode out his opponent needed an escape or a TD to win

 

[RoarLions1]

For me the highlight was walking from the Saturday morning session to the event my fiancée had put together for the unc wrestling team. I saw a kid about 10 yards ahead of me walking with his head down with a Pitt backpack on. I realized it was Mickey Phillippi. I put a little giddy up in my step and got beside him. As we walked I told him although I know the weekends result wasn’t what he wanted, that he was an absolute joy to watch this season. That he should be proud of the way he performed and wrestled and that I would be rooting for him to AA next year and that he had 3 more seasons to reach his goals. He said I want to be a national champ not just an AA. I said that was great and that he should work towards that everyday. Losing to a kid in the quarters you beat earlier in the year to potentially face a kid in the semis in fix you also beat couldn’t be easy. But he was a joy to talk to and by the end of the conversation he was smiling. It just goes to show how hard these kids work and how razor thin the difference between making your dreams come true or not is in this sport. Made my weekend to talk to him and let him him know people know how good he is even if he didn’t aa.

^^ These are the stories that humanize the wrestlers. If I had a pet peeve of fans, it's that some (too many, imo) feel these young men were put on this earth for their personal satisfaction. The idea of a grown man/woman taking potshots, and spewing hate at an 18-23 year old student-athlete floors me.

Thanks tylersmyth...

 

[Ja1339]

I only saw one incident, and it was rather unfortunate. Before the semis, I stopped in the restroom and saw an ~80 year old PSU fan, who was using the urinal, say something he thought would be funny (couldn't tell exactly what he said). He got some chuckles, except for a ~45 year old Iowa fan who gave him a "shut up because Sandusky". Apparently, the PSU guy wasn't allowed any bathroom humor because of his school affiliation. The PSU guy was kinda confused and said something I couldn't hear. The Iowa guy responded with "You must also think wrestling started 9 years ago". The PSU guy then said something like "no, it started in the mid seventies", as they walked out. The entire exhchange seemed like something you would get on a message board acted out in real life.

Sounds like Ironbird from HR was there...

 

[TangSoo]

Watching a classy kid like mymar lose being the highlight of someone’s tournament is so weird to me. I’m just not wired that way, I feel for all kids who lose that put their lives into a sport.

While I certainly wouldn't list it as one of my highlights, and I think MyMar is a really good dude, there were some endearing elements in that match. First of all, it's just human nature to root for the underdog if you don't have a dog in the fight. Secondly, I thought it was really cool that Gabe Dean was way more excited for his little brother than he ever was for his own victories.

 

[tylersmyth]

While I certainly wouldn't list it as one of my highlights, and I think MyMar is a really good dude, there were some endearing elements in that match. First of all, it's just human nature to root for the underdog if you don't have a dog in the fight. Secondly, I thought it was really cool that Gabe Dean was way more excited for his little brother than he ever was for his own victories.

absolutely and that's why the highlight should be the joy of seeing Dean win in front of his big brother, a brother who was a 3x finalist and 2x champ and legend at the school you still attended despite that large shadow. That is a highlight not taking joy in someone's dream ending, those are 2 different things.

 

[matter7172]

Cassar #1. I remember when that class was put together and living in NJ now with a friend in the Montgomery school district, there was something very appealing to Anthony. His HS is not exactly a wrestling powerhouse and that's an understatement. His hs career was very unusual - not qualifying until his senior year and then going undefeated in his senior year in a single-class state.

It seemed his upside was tremendous. Then all the injuries and adversity with his coming out on the other side. I was pretty confident he could win the 285 spot this season but he really exceeded expectations. I hope he sticks with wrestling, because he still has a lot of upside to be explored.

 

[AgSurfer]

Shooting the tournament is the coolest thing I get to do each year and I realize how privileged I am when I peek over at some of the other photographers watching NCAA basketball on their phones while the semis are going on twenty feet from us. I'd say half the photographers really know what's going and half are just on assignment--guys names to check off that they've gotten a suitable shot of. I want to bear witness to amazing wrestling and get the best photos I can at the same time. Not just document, but interpret. So just seeing these matches through a camera lens--matches that these kids have laser-focused themselves on for months, years even--is always a highlight.

Hearing pockets of the crowd react is also a highlight. So much of this sport is built on expectations, but while many outcomes are easy to predict, you know when upsets happen. The atmosphere is unlike any other in sports, the crowd is always locked into the action and you can get a great sense of what's going on from the sounds.

Seeing friends from here and BSD is always a highlight too. The alumni event at Buford's was pretty cool. I met DT, who minutes later broke the news that the BJC will host the 2020 Olympic trials. I showed Taylor a photo I took at Beat the Streets in 2015, which was the second to last time he wrestled 74kg. He smiled at how far away that seems. He also explained the upcoming Beat the Streets format (world team vs NCAA champs). He's a nice guy and well-settled into being David Taylor, World Champ.

Seeing Columbia's Dan Reed (the reason for my credentials) win a match was a highlight too. He was a senior and had a sub-.500 career until this year when he really opened up and went for it. He came real close to winning his second consi match too--came back from 5-1 to tie but needed to ride for 30 seconds and just couldn't do it. But I was happy he won a match b/c he'll always have that, and the memory of how he fought.

Seeing a former finalist like Zeke Moisey go up fast in the first around only to have time and a bad shoulder catch up with him was a great reminder how fleeting success can be in D1 wrestling; it's not enough to be talented, you have to work your ass off while somehow navigating injuries.

Pittsburgh itself was a highlight. Charming city with character with an unfortunately massive parking problem. I might ditch NYC if Pittsburgh had a reliable mass transit option. But food options were plentiful and interesting and the neighborhoods I passed through genuine and diverse. I hope to get back some day.

Your comments about the photography bring back a n interesting memory. Almost 50 years ago, a bunch of us piled into a car and drove all the way from Harrisburg to Northwestern to see the 1970 NCAA tournament. That's where Larry Owings beat Dan Gable in the finals. One of the guys who was with us was a good photographer and he brought an expensive camera and got some really good shots of the Owings vs Gable match. What's really a little creepy to me is that there are some frames in the YouTube video showing that match where I can see my friend taking the photos. It's almost like looking back in time through a wormhole!

 

[tikk10]

Your comments about the photography bring back a n interesting memory. Almost 50 years ago, a bunch of us piled into a car and drove all the way from Harrisburg to Northwestern to see the 1970 NCAA tournament. That's where Larry Owings beat Dan Gable in the finals. One of the guys who was with us was a good photographer and he brought an expensive camera and got some really good shots of the Owings vs Gable match. What's really a little creepy to me is that there are some frames in the YouTube video showing that match where I can see my friend taking the photos. It's almost like looking back in time through a wormhole!

Great story, thanks. I often see myself in the Columbia videos on the opposite side of the mat, which I suppose is exactly the same thing, give or take an Owings and a Gable.

 

[Fink]

Tikk

Any chance you’ll post any of your photos? I remember you doing so in the past.

 

[1AA]

For me the highlight was walking from the Saturday morning session to the event my fiancée had put together for the unc wrestling team. I saw a kid about 10 yards ahead of me walking with his head down with a Pitt backpack on. I realized it was Mickey Phillippi. I put a little giddy up in my step and got beside him. As we walked I told him although I know the weekends result wasn’t what he wanted, that he was an absolute joy to watch this season. That he should be proud of the way he performed and wrestled and that I would be rooting for him to AA next year and that he had 3 more seasons to reach his goals. He said I want to be a national champ not just an AA. I said that was great and that he should work towards that everyday. Losing to a kid in the quarters you beat earlier in the year to potentially face a kid in the semis in fix you also beat couldn’t be easy. But he was a joy to talk to and by the end of the conversation he was smiling. It just goes to show how hard these kids work and how razor thin the difference between making your dreams come true or not is in this sport. Made my weekend to talk to him and let him him know people know how good he is even if he didn’t aa.

Great story. I feel as bad for the losers sometimes as joy for the winners. They work so hard you can just feel the anguish.

Took an elevator up to a third story bar and as I walked in I realized I had wrong shade of blue. I zipped up coat and tried to go in and was stopped and told of the private UNC event. Went back up at 5pm and got in. Pretty cool place with the glass roof.