Chicks Heart Fights

As I begin to pack my suitcase for the Olympic Trials in Las Vegas this weekend, my mind wanders to my last trip to the Olympic Trials. I mentioned this over at Fourth Place Medal , but it’s worth bringing up again - go to the trials. During the 2004 Trials, I saw wrestlers who had knee surgery three days before the tournament hobble their way to the mat. I watched guys who had long retired come back out for one more chance. In one of the best ceremonies of all sports, I saw many wrestlers who I have respected for years announce their retirement by leaving their shoes on the mat. Best of all, I saw our Olympic team: eighteen young men and women who grabbed their chance to represent the United States in Athens. In August of 2004, I cried when the US wrestlers won medals, not only because I was proud of them as American wrestlers, but also because I had just watched all of the people who were left home.

This weekend, I can’t wait to see all this drama unfold again in Las Vegas. During this week, Chicks Heart Fights will have a preview of weight classes in each discipline. First up, men’s freestyle.

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Though I was there live, and watched the broadcast with some friends a few nights ago, I am finally sitting down by myself to watch the finals on ESPN. Our announcers are Tim Johnson (yay), Jeff Blatnick (yay) and some dude who clearly knows nothing about wrestling. Quint Kessenich is the matside reporter, and I feel like I’m going to betray the sisterhood here, but why on earth don’t they have a woman doing this job? The guys are just walking away from Kessenich and not listening to a word he says. If they had a relatively attractive woman in this role, the reporter might have a fighting chance. Match by match analysis, after the jump:

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As time allows, I will take a look at a few of the most intriguing weight classes for this coming weekend’s NCAA Championship. First up, 133.

The Fighting Life recently wrote about the Transitive Property Fallacy, an idea taken from the world of mathematics. For those who do not remember arcane things from sophomore year of high school, like me, the idea is:

Simply stated, the Transitive Property Fallacy of MMA is this: if Fighter A beats Fighter B, and Fighter B beats Fighter C, then Fighter A would beat Fighter C.  This works in math, or so people who went to school past the ninth grade tell me (personally, I never had a use that much schoolin’), but it doesn’t work in MMA for several different reasons.

This idea is just as worthless in wrestling, as 133 illustrates for us this year. Continue Reading »

This weekend, Iowa State won the Big 12, Iowa won the Big Ten, and Northern Iowa won the West Regional. Not bad for a state with less than three million people.

Conference tourney highlights:

• The much-anticipated (to put it mildly) match-up between Iowa’s Brent Metcalf and Minny’s Dustin Schlatter finally happened, with Metcalf coming out ahead 5-3. He was awarded Wrestler of the Year and Wrestler of the Tournament, of which he is well-deserving. From what I’ve read, this match was a doozie. I hope that video shows up on Youtube!
• In not so happy Iowa news, Mark Perry lost to Michigan’s Eric Tannenbaum, 3-2.
• Iowa State wrestled the entire tournament on a tear. Only one wrestler took less than third, and he was awarded a wild card.
• One of my Tigers, Tyler McCormick, pulled the upset of the day by beating top seed and #1 ranked Coleman Scott. Scott has been the monkey on Tyler’s back, so it was nice to see him shake it off. McCormick went on to lose to Nick Fanthorpe.
• In other 133 news, Michigan State’s Franklin Gomez beat the precious Jimmy Kennedy, and Cornell’s Mike Grey lost to Joseph Baker of the Naval Academy. So that makes 133 a bit… confusing.
• At 125, the previously perfect Jayson Ness (Minn) lost to Hoosier Angel Escobedo.
• Cornell ended up winning EIWA by a half point over Penn.
• Two Minny seniors, Roger Kish and CP Schlatter, injury defaulted their way to sixth place. Hopefully, they can get back in shape to wrestle in St. Louis.
• Heading into NCAAs, these are the remaining undefeated wrestlers: Chad Mendes, Cal Poly; Keith Gavin, Pitt; Jake Varner, Iowa State; and Josh Glenn, American. I think the most likely wrestler to remain undefeated is Gavin. No one is close to him.

A few wrestling sites have released their rankings, and here is a quick rundown of them all:

- Amateur Wrestling News has released their individual rankings. No team ones as of yet.

- Wrestling Talk has also released their rankings. Wrestling Talk is an online forum of about 150 wrestling fans, and each member has a vote. Votes are weighted by the experience of the poster. Though the rankings are a little Minnesota heavy - Mack Reiter over Coleman Scott and Tyler McCormick, for example - I think that they are overall a pretty good indicator of wrestling’s best. You can have some influence over these rankings if you join the forum. It’s a great forum-a nice alternative to the flame-heavy forums at The Mat.com- and some people who truly know wrestling post on the site. Check it out.

Intermat and W.I.N have yet to release their rankings, and Rev Wrestling says that they will be out October 8.