Chicks Heart Fights

Adam Frey, Cornell’s 141, was in a car accident this week. Though his injuries from the accident were minor, a CAT scan showed tumors on his lung, kidney and liver. Today, he will have biopsies and find out more information.

A Web site has been set up for Adam to post entries, and for donations.

http://adamfrey.us/

Let’s show Adam why the wrestling family is so fantastic.

UPDATE: The initial diagnosis is Hodgkin’s disease, the same sort of cancer that Mario Lemieux beat. He is now on his way back home to Pittsburgh to begin six months of chemotherapy.

Obviously, wrestling coaches are not fashion gurus. They are not looking to make the pages of Vogue when choosing singlets. However, there is right, and there is wrong, and I saw a lot of both this weekend. Coaches, when choosing a singlet for your team, remember, less is more. Huzzahs and Harrumphs, complete with photographic evidence, after the jump:

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As usual, results can be found at Intermat. My thoughts on the day…

• It’s weird and wrong to see Iowa, namely Charlie Falck, stalling. 
• Kennedy vs. Grey was one of the best quarterfinals of the day, with lots of scoring. 
• If I was wrong about anything, it was Chad Mendes. He’s wrestling very well.
• The worst singlets award goes to North Carolina and Ohio State. North Carolina’ s have argyle down the side, much like UNC’s hoops team, but argyle has no place in wrestling. tOSU’s have a large ‘O’ on the side, but it makes the wrestlers look like they have womanly hips. Bad all around.
• Unseeded Kyler from Army became an All-American by beating three seeded wrestlers in a row. 
• I couldn’t stop laughing at John Smith whining for stalling during Morgan’s match. The man has made quite a good career on stalling. 
• The Penn guys behind me had this enlightening conversation during the Glenn/Michalak match with 30 seconds to go: “They’re both up, all tied up. What should Glenn do?” “He should really get a takedown.” “Good call.” Seriously? He shouldn’t just lay on his back and hope for the best?
• Hey, Mark Perry, can we talk? Just for a second? It wasn’t a takedown. 
• How about that Jordan Leen? And Mike Poeta? Two of my wrestlers to watch… are facing each other. 

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.

Cornell coach Rob Koll does weekly interviews with the Cornell student newspaper, and they are generally hysterical. He says some random things in these interviews, and the Sun takes a look back at them. Apparently, Tyler Baier and Tommy Speers both get their strength from carrying cows. Who knew?

There will be some fun changes in this season of the Ultimate Fighter, according to MMA Junkie. It seems as if the producers of TUF listened to the complaints about the past season not being enough about the fights, and made changes to make the show better. Good job, Zuffa!

Finally, Tim Sylvia mentioned in an interview that he kept the championship belt on while having some sexy time with a lady. I think that’s FANTASTIC. As I mentioned on the Wrestling Talk, if I’m ever dating a UFC champ, I’d want him to keep the belt on at all times, as well. An Olympic medalist? Same thing. Ladies, am I the only one who thinks this way? Granted, Tim Sylvia is not my cup of tea, but he has earned about 76,621 Shrutebucks from me for this little admission. If you don’t quite understand why I feel this way, I’ll let Joe Cocker explain it to you:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPk72nUYri4&rel=1]

Before the 07-08 wrestling season, instead of rankings, which I am no good at, I picked out a few wrestlers, teams and coaches to watch. As we’ve been through a little bit more than half the season, let’s take a look at how I did, after the jump. (more…)

When coaching at UNC-Greensboro, I’m not sure if Tom Shifflet had a vision of turning the Southern Scuffle into a great tournament that serves as an alternative to Midlands, or if he just didn’t feel like traveling during the holidays. Regardless of his motives, the Southern Scuffle has grown into an event that attracts some of the country’s best teams. In contrast to Midlands, it offers nicer weather and easier travel for East Coast teams, but of course, it’s not in the best city ever.

This year, Shifflet, now coaching at Hofstra, will return with seven seeded wrestlers, including three wrestlers with a #1 seed. (more…)

I just ran across some enjoyable links that I need to share with my four readers:

The Fighting Life has a hysterical rundown of UFCMania’s interview with Nick Diaz. I have to agree - Diaz is a little crazy, and I love that about him. One of the major differences between UFC athletes and other major pro athletes is that fighters aren’t usually surrounded by a cadre of publicists. The big names will have a publicist, but guys like Diaz wouldn’t listen to a PR guy or gal in the first place, so it would be a waste of money for him. As a result, we get interviews where he is calling out everyone except my grandmother.

Dan Henderson thinks that UFC isn’t doing quite as well financially as one would think. One caveat - Henderson is a good pal of Couture’s, and since contempt often spreads quickly, Hendo could be just letting some steam off out of frustration over the Couture situation. Or, he could be right - maybe they did overpay for Pride, especially since they are losing athletes to M-1 left and right.

Flo Wrestling has a tour, guided by Rob Koll, of Cornell’s wrestling complex. Cornell has the only freestanding building devoted completely to wrestling in all college wrestling. It’s a pretty impressive place, and the video is worth watching.

For my wrestling fans who are counting the seconds until season starts - Mizzou kicks off at Rider in less than a month - the Ladies… give us a guide to a bye week. Of course, this was written for football, but I think we all need something to do to keep from going crazy. I’ve already taken the suggestion of starting Christmas shopping. I’m halfway done, thank you very much!

I am very spoiled. Every year, a dear friend treats me to sweet seats at the NCAA championships. Two years ago, a young man and his father sat near us. My friend, a Cornell alum, introduced us (there are three of us gals who make NCAAs our girls’ weekend) to this gentleman, and she said that he was one of Cornell’s top wrestlers who wasn’t wrestling that year, and that he was an animal on the mat. This kid? No way. When Cornell lost, he said “Dadgummit.” When they won-you guessed it, “Go-lleeee!” The next wrestler to watch is the most precious wrestler I have ever seen take the mat:

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