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I’m baffled Nolf let this get down to a last second chance for Hidlay. Bo moves up a little in the Hodge vote with that one.

This is especially effective when trying to decide if, say, it comes down to if your 113 lber or 182 lber is the best on the team; odds are the wrestleoff should clear up who is actually better.

I'm here on and off for you, bro! You're doing great....keep up the good work.

To add to SWINfan's preview of local guys' paths: @125 Hildebrandt: Drew starts with 19-seed, unranked Alex Mackall of Iowa St., whom he has never wrestled. Should he win, he would have 12-seed McGee of ODU or 22-seed Verner of Wyoming. McGee is ranked just ahead of Drew and is 4-0 in their head-to-heads the last two seasons, including 5-2 at the MAC. If he won those two matches, Hildebrandt would have the loser of the ultra-tough Glory or Piccinini. Tough road, it seems, but Drew has looked better and better the past couple months and had a legit shot to win that match against Bresser yesterday. @165 McCormick: Cael first has #26 Gunther of Illinois followed by either 16-seed, #17 Bullard of NC State or 18-seed Wolf of Lehigh. Cael is 2-1 in three crazy matches against Wolf the last two years, where the average score was 10-9, so fasten your seatbelt if we're lucky enough for that one to happen. He hasn't faced Gunther or Bullard. If he wins 2, the blood round would most likely be against 11th-seeded, #10 Steiert of UNI, who upset Logan Massa last night and could crack the door open for an interesting day for McCormick. @285 Aven: Honestly, Jacob's playing with house money this whole weekend and any more victories he adds are icing on the cake. Interestingly, he does own a tiebreaker win this season over his first opponent, 20-seed Elam of Missouri. If he can beat him again, he'd have 27-seed Miller of App State or, more likely, 12-seed Jennings of Northwestern. Jennings pinned him this year and beat him once 3 years ago as well. If he would pick up both of those upsets, he'd see the loser of the Hillger/Cassar quarterfinal in the blood round. Cassar majored Aven twice this year, but he somehow never faced Wisconsin's Hillger.

Reflecting again on Parris's loss: man, it sure would be nice if they could fix seeding in situations of switching weight classes or injury-shortened seasons. It seems all you'd have to do is build in 10% for "previous season NCAA placement" that counts in those head-to-head seeding matchups they do. If both wrestlers were at NCAAs or in their conference tournament the year before, that criteria comes into play and whoever advanced furthest or placed highest at NCAAs gets that 10% like all the other categories. Stoll would have gotten that 10% against many people in his weight and been seeded more appropriately. In the case of Smith at 165...I mean, why do you have to have a certain number of matches if you're down a weight? Up a weight I get. But if you're down a weight, you should just have your win%, quality victories, etc., stack right up against everyone else. You're at a disadvantage, so just count those in the seeding matchups instead of giving 0 credit and putting Smith vs. Marinelli in the round of 32. Really silly stuff.

I don't have time to look into all of the guys tonight, but I thought I would do a quick look at the path to All-American for a couple of guys that have fallen into the consolation bracket. @285 Mason Parris has an interesting road. He is three wins from guaranteeing himself on the podium. All look to be winnable, but the 3rd, should he get there will be tough. - Friday morning he faces Thomas Haines of Lock Haven. Haines was seeded 11th and is currently 24-5. Intermat has him ranked 8th, 3 spots higher than Mason. Haines won his first match, then lost by TF to Amar Dhesi. - If he beats Haines, he'll either face either Matt Voss, of George Mason or Bryan Andrews of Wyoming. Voss was seeded 13th and ranked 12th by Intermat. Voss was upset in the first round and won his first consi match, like Mason. Andrews, seeded 19th and unranked by Intermat won his first match against AJ Nevills and lost 21-8 to Gable Steveson. If he can get past those two matches, he'll hit the Blood Round and face the loser of #1 seed Derek White or Matt Stencel. Parris has not faced White and would be a definite underdog if he faces the OK State Cowboy. Stencel would make things interesting. My first advice is don't be late and don't blink. Parris and Stencel are 1-1 head to head each winning by fall. Both matches combined have lasted a total of :44, with Mason winning in :14 and Stencel taking his time with the fall at :30. - If he can win in the Blood Round, his next match would be against the likes of Youssif Hemida (Mason won 2x), David Jenson of Nebraska (lost by fall at BTT) or 4 seed Jordan Wood of Lehigh. So the path is there to AA status and even possibly getting to the 5th Place match (I didn't dig deeper, but my guess he'd run into problems with one of the semifinal losers). But none of these matches will be gimmes and he could be done Friday morning. @141 Chad Red will likely see some familiar names to get back to AA Status. He's also 3 wins away. The interesting scenario would be if Chad wins two and Nick Lee is upset by Max Murin Friday morning, the two would meet in the Blood Round with the winner standing on the podium and the loser going home. I don't expect Lee to lose to Murin but anything can happen. - Chad starts Friday morning with Grant Willits of Oregon State. Willits is the 32 seed and unranked by Intermat. If Chad is awake and ready he should handle Willits. - His next match would be against either Nicholas Gil of Navy or familiar foe Kanen Storr of Michigan. Gil is seeded 10th, ranked 13th by Intermat and 30-7 overall this year. Gil and Red have not met. Storr, seeded 8th and ranked 6th by Intermat is 27-7 on the season. Storr and Red have split two matches with Storr winning 2-1 in November (Cliff Keen?) and Red winning 4-1 at the BTT. Win this match and he is in the Blood Round again. - The Blood Round would iikely pit him against Murin, though Lee is possible. Murin of Iowa is seeded 22nd and ranked 18th by Intermat. Max and Chad have not met. - Make it past the Blood Round and he is on a roll, but very likely could face Mitch McKee or Josh Alber next. Red is 0-2 against Alber, losing 6-4 in January and 3-2 last season. Chad lost his only match against McKee 9-2 in February. There are too many variables to go beyond that point. The only other potential matchup with Nick Lee (if Lee beats Murin Friday morning) is in the 3rd Place Match.

Cassar proves the firstwin overthe fresh phenom was no fluke

I’m baffled that first period takedown got reversed.

Holy heck I though it was his redshirt senior year. Forgot he got the free transfer. Thanks for the reminder. He likely takes a Olympic year so after tomorrow we likely won’t see him in the Maze and Blue for awhile.

As a diehard Ohio State fan, I really want Joey to win a national championship before he graduated, but also pretty bummed that it(if he even does win) it had to come at the expense of Nick. Wish they could both be national champions. That said, I wouldn’t count on Nick graduating without winning one.

Juxtapose the officiating in Cael's match vs Stoll Parris. These are officials at the same tournament. I know you are supposed to adjust to the way the match is being called, but with that much variable on how stalling is called it can be tough on the athletes. I believe stalling should be called on guys who dont open up on their feet or refuse to make any offensive effort. (Pushing a guy out of bounds after he just turns to face from an escape isn't the precursor to offense its jobbing the rules)

Heading into the Semifinals and Blood Round tonight, here are the matches I am looking forward to seeing tonight. Feel free to add comments or additional matches you want to see (if anyone is actually out there today!).... @125 Spencer Lee vs. Nick Piccinnini - can Lee avenge the pin? @125 Sean Fausz vs. Vitali Arujau @133 Stevan Micic vs. Nick Suriano - Just tough! @133 Roman Bravo-Young vs. Micky Phillippi - 2 talented young guys @133 Austin Gomez vs. Austin Desanto - Gomez won in December. Expect lots of points @141 Nick Lee vs. Joey McKenna - Round four. 1st 3 rounds all 1 pt matches. @141 Yianni Diakomihalis vs. Jaydin Eierman - Two guys I am glad weren't on Nick Lee's side of the bracket @141 Chad Red vs. Max Muriin - Not that interesting to me, but expect Red to win and AA again @149 Not much interests me here despite talent being there @157 Jason Nolf vs. Hayden Hidlay - Rematch of last year's final. And Nolf is Must See TV @165 Logan Massa vs. Alex Marinelli - What a blood round match! Marinelli was supposed to be in the final but took a wrong turn in the Quarterfinal @174 Zahid Valencia vs. Daniel Lewis - ESPN acts as if Zahid is the only wrestler in this weight class other than Mark Hall. Lewis beat Valencia by fall in February. Is Valencia at full strength at the end of Day 2? @174 Dylan Lydy vs. Mikey Labriola - Lydy holds a 2-1 head to head edge, but lost the only match this year @174 Devin Skatzka vs. Ben Harvey - Can we have two or three All-Americans from Indy? @184 Like 149, weight class just doesn't interest me. @197 Bo Nickal vs. Patrick Brucki - see Jason Nolf - Must See TV @197 Preston Weigel vs. Kollin Moore - Can Weigel keep Moore from getting beaten up by Nickal for the 3rd time? @285 Gable Steveson vs. Anthony Cassar - May be the best match of the night. Can Cassar beat the young phenom twice? @285 Mason Parris vs. Matt Stencel - Met twice, :44 total on the mat, 2 falls. Can Mason avoid going upper body and make Stencel work for the win? Was Mason's win by fall early this year a fluke? One note: Eight of the 12 remaining wrestlers at 285 are from the Big Ten.

Numbers is just one aspect of being the team MVP. Who doesn’t miss practice? Who never slacks in practice? Who makes other kids better. Who leads by example in the classroom? Who is the mentally toughest kid? Who is the most valuable WRESTLER? Not who scored the most points. Btw... sometimes it is the kid that wins the most. But..... sometimes it’s not. So... what if a kid wrestles at a school like Plainfield. They may have 2 top 5 state ranked kids in their county and sectional. That kid may take losses to those kids and may not make it out of regionals. Where as another kid may luck out and have no ranked kids in their sectional or county. That kid may make semi state. Clearly one of these kids have an easier route. Does the second kid really deserve team MVP over the first kid?

You have a wrestle off

No, no, no.... you just give it to the best kid. It’s a coaches opinion. Doesn’t have to explain anything or be politically correct. You just pick the best kid on your team and give it to them. If someone thinks they are better they should have proved it. That’s it!

Where is everybody?? Quarterfinals @184 Myles Martin looks to be headed to his 2nd NCAA Title getting a 11-2 major decision over Ryan Preisch of Lehigh. Max Dean of Cornell posts a 6-0 win over Nino Bonaccorsi of Pitt to advance to the semifinal and face Martin. Martin holds a 2-0 head to head edge. #6 seed Drew Foster of UNI upsets 3-seed Zachary Zavatsky of VA Tech 6-2. #15 seed Chip Ness continues winning after his upset of Shakur Rasheed with a 6-4 SV-1 win over Samuel Colbray of Iowa State. - Foster has a 2-0 head to head edge over Ness, with both wins coming in December of 2017. @197 Bo Nickal wins a boring (by his standards) 14-4 major decision over Nathan Traxler of Stanford Patrick Brucki of Princeton holds his seed with a 4-3 decision over Thomas Lane of Cal Poly - Nickal and Brucki will meet in the semifinal tonight Preston Weigel of OK State wins by fall over Christian Brunner of Purdue. Kollin Moore wins a 17-11 slugfest over Tom Sleigh of VA Tech - Weigel and Moore could be an interesting semifinal @285 Derek White took a 3-1 decision over Matt Stencel of Central Michigan Jordan Wood of Lehigh won 2-0 over Sam Stoll of Iowa - Wood and White face off in the semis with White entering with a 2-0 head to head edge, both 3-2 victories Gable Steveson records and 11-1 major decision over Amir Dhesi Anthony Cassar notches a 4-0 win over Trent Hilger of Maryland - A Steveson - Cassar rematch will be one of the most anticipated matches of the Semifinal round tonight!

Chad Red takes care of business as expected with a 12-4 win. He'll face Kanen Storr next, still needing 2 more wins to become an All-American for the 2nd time. Quarterfinals @149 Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers wins 10-3 over Jarrett Dergen of Iowa State Matthew Kolodzik of Princeton gets a 5-3 decision over Brock Mauller of Missouri - - Ashnault vs. Kolodzik in a rematch in the semifinals. Ashnault holds a 3-2 head to head advantage over Kolodzik 6-seed Austin O'Connor of North Carolina takes out 3-seed Mitch Finesilver of Duke 3-1 SV-1 Micah Jordan handled Pat Lugo of Iowa 10-3. @157 Jason Nolf gets the TF 23-6 over Christian Pagdilao of Arizona State. Nolf up 20-6 locked up a cradle and went for the pin but ran out of time and settles for the TF. Nolf marches on. Will ANYONE come close? Hayden Hidlay of NC State beat Michigan's Alex Pantaleo 5-3 SV-1. - Nolf vs. Hidlay in the semifinal, a replay of last year's National Final Iowa's Kaleb Young gets an upset over Ryan Deakin of NW 7-5 SV-1. Nebraska's Tyler Berger wins 7-2 over Old Dominion's Larry Early - Young and Berger meet in the semifinal. Berger won their only match 3-1 SV-1 in February

Posted a few videos on the Day 1 thread, including Bo Nickal's pin (just for you mattyb!). One last note from yesterday... While it was never really in doubt and Yianni was in control, you have to give Chad Red for wrestling him about as tight as anyone. Hope Chad can get on a roll today. On to this morning.... 4 mats of consolation matches and Mats 3-6 are the Quarterfinals. The consolations start off with a IU - Purdue match up at 125 in Oliver vs. Schroder (Mat 1).

Thank you! I was starting to fade last night and didn't intend to go into as much detail on the 2nd group above. But once I started, I had to do it right. Started a boston butt last night on the grill before I went to bed and was getting that up and running as well. Hopefully, will have some good eatin' by late this afternoon!

A couple of quick notes on the prospects of a few other Hoosiers... @133 Stevan Micic is still the favorite in my mind, but it is unsure how his knee will hold up through the whole weekend. He has a tough road in what is likely the deepest and toughest weight class (think what it would be like if Seth Gross was in the mix as well). He faces Iowa's Austin Desanto Friday morning (kick his ass Stevan!) and likely Nick Suriano in the semifinals if he wins. Should he falter to Desanto, Austin Gomez of Iowa State is likely the only potential roadblock to AA Status. @141 Nick Lee has a fairly simple path. He has a rematch with Iowa's Max Murin Friday morning. Lee beat Murin 8-3 at the BTT in a match he mostly controlled. Win against Murin and he gets his 3rd match up with Ohio State's Joey McKenna for a spot in the Final against Yianni Diakomihalis. Lose to Murin and he could see Chad Red in the Blood Round. Lose to McKenna and he can do no worse than 6th. @174 Ben Harvey faces the tough task of taking on Zahid Valencia Friday morning. He'll likely lose and fall to the Blood Round where he'll face one of: Daniel Bullard of NC State (23-seed, 19th Intermat), Devin Skatzka of Minnesota (9-seed, 9th Intermat), Brandon Womack of Cornell (16-seed, 14th Intermat) or Andrew Morgan of Campbell (18-seed, unranked). @174 Dylan Lydy needs to win 3 to AA. He starts with Matt Finesilver, one of the 4 Finesilver twins (2 sets of twins) of Duke. Matt is the 12-seed and ranked #17 by Intermat. Dylan won their only head to head last year in the NCAA Tournament. Win that match and he could see another match with OSU's Ethan Smith (19-seed, 13th Intermat). Lydy is 3-0 head to head with Smith. - If he can win those two, he'll face either Mikey Labriola of Nebraska (10-seed, 10th Intermat) or Daniel Lewis of Missouri in the Blood Round. Lewis is the 2-seed and ranked 2nd by Intermat. Lydy has not faced Lewis and is 2-1 against Labriola. The 2 wins came last season and the loss to Mikey was 2 weeks ago at the BTT. - If the stars align, and Lydy and Harvey both win in the Blood Round, they'll face off again to see who battles for 5th and who battles for 7th.

Mason wastes no time showing he's not done yet. Quick 1st Period Fall!

Congratulations to Camden Spears from Plainfield for signing with Ohio Northern. He is projected to wrestle 125. View full signing