The Best Weekend in Sports

I agree with you college wrestlers are the toughest athletes.The NCAA tour is magical one slip and your whole season can dissaper.I think Jordan Leen deserves the best wrestler award.He beat Mike poeta and did it without any doubt.Mike Pucillio is a stud to he beat a good wrestler in Jake Varner.Bret Metcaff now is the king trhe only way he will ever lose he will beat himself.

Too Funny!! Hey I guess I did miss read that part of it. At least you know its getting read..right? I'm no english major so next time make it easy for us dumb wrestlers and word it like "A week ago, at the Big Ten tournament, he was 10 seconds from beating Metcalf." Me will know what you are talking about then. lol Great site.

To "The Best in the West"
Thanks for the compliment. I suppose it is up to people like us to make sure that wrestlers and their fans stop perpetuating the stereotype that we in the wrestling community are a bunch of uneducated dimwits (too bad Metcalf and Brands are such robots).

I like that last comment by "Mike Beros Can't Read." Classic. Great job.

The article reads:
"A week ago he was 10 seconds from beating Metcalf."
For those who can not comprehend what someone is expressing through the meduim of the written word, I will break it down "Barney" style for you.
A week ago means, last week at the Big Ten Wrestling Tournament Finals! Not during the NCAA tournament which only lasted 3 days.

When was Dustin Schlatter 10 seconds away from beating Metcalf at NCAA's? If I remember correct they never met at the NCAA's, he was beaten by Caldwell 4-1. Then he lost to O'Connor 3-2.

Good writing Ben, nice to read your stuff again.

troy nickerson, if he is at 125 will be a dominant force, as for that cornell big red will be a dominant force, freshmen of the tourney goes to mack lewnes, gutsy kid. great things to come

You are correct, Metcalf is brainwashed, may be good for the Iowa fans, but.....

Kudos with the article. The overall tourney was tremendous. As always, the quarters and semis were the best rounds. The finals are almost an after thought. I wish the finalists had a more "Randy Lewis" attitude about the finals. Instead, it is a "who can make the fewest mistakes" slugfest that turns boring the larger the weight class. Varner is hella-boring, it would have been a travesty if he had won it. Fox shouldn't have won, he did NOTHING offensive the entire match. Gavin will be missed. Lang needs to beef up to 149. Nickerson turns 125 upside down. Watch out for an exciting 174lber coming next year as a red-shirt freshman from Mizzou....DORIAN HENDERSON...exciting, exciting, exciting.

good points, ekkeman. i came down a bit too hard on my osu guys. and you're right, varner is more conservative than pucillo, and good to know jaggers is ok. still, i guess overall didn't find the finals all that this year, even though it was a fab showing for ryan and his squad. interestingly enough, another buckeye -- palmer -- might have provided one of the most exciting matches in the tourney when he almost upset metcalf late in the quarters.

anyway, the drama of the '07 finals might've spoiled us a bit.

Well I am a Florida Gator so let me be the first to say that even though Pucillo's finals match wasn't the most exciting thing, that can be laid on Varner's lap as much as anything. Look at the quarters and semis. Pucillo is fairly wide open, while the globular monster named varner was squeaking by people.

And I really though Mendez broke Jaggers ankle. I am glad he was ok.

So OSU gets a pass in my opinion. Go Gators

I tend to agree with Peanut gallery. i'm sure the early rounds were exciting, but the finals were a dog. certainly nothing close to '07. as a buckeyes alumn, i'll probably P.O. my fellow ohio fans, but i found our three guys finals matches less than compelling theater. all hail the job cohc ryan's doing, but only bergman (ironically enough) was the true aggressor. the pucillo and jaggers matches were a bit of a snooze. the type of defensive, low-risk stuff that drives casual fans to the exits. in fact, i'd argue mendes would've beaten jaggers if he didn't feel the need to force action in the third and dive for a desperate single.

anyway, most impressive thing, beyond escopedo and scott, was perry's ability to ride tannebaum. truly the top-tier match of the finals. a couple of multiple AA's going at it. biggest surprise was poeta going down. but give keen credit. he only got truly defensive in the last minute. MOW i'd go with either perry, escobedo or metcalf. probably the latter because 149 seemed toughest in the country.

Celebrations are so fun to photograph! I wish they wouldn't move around so much though. Heh. I was bummed we were on the "wrong" side of Coleman, the best shots would have come from the OK section.

Have to add Morgan to the list of guys I'd like to have seen at least get a shot at the finals. Tough kid.

Nice article Ian.

Tony Rotundo
tech-fall.com

sick article i definatly agree

peanut gallery you got to be crazy! I find the matches awesome.

I share your enthusiasm for the sport and the tournament. I've traveled from Boston six years in a row with my sons to be in attendance and I wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything. I disagree with your perspective on Fox however. Bergman initiated 100% of the offense and Fox won. Same with Jaggers, same with many of the matches. People were shouting "boring" in the stands. My whole section was talking about the general lack of action (excluding 124, 133, 149). Friends at home who tuned in to find out what wrestling was all about universally turned if off because they found it slow and very unexciting. While all these guys are GREAT wrestlers and I'd stall also if it would win me a championship, it hurts our sport that stalling is not enforced. I'd love to see some commentary regarding this obvious problem.

He showed some guts after he acl gave up and his mind wouldn't let the rest of him follow. Yep, a great read, thanks.

Great write up!!!