Takedown Report

Amateur Wrestling Reports

Fausz’s unorthodox season winding down end to his long career

Sean Fausz’s final collegiate season has been unlike any before it and it still hasn’t sunk in for the fifth-year North Carolina State senior that this final postseason push will be his last. Give it a few more weeks. “It definitely won’t hit me until the very end probably,” Fausz told Trackwrestling.com.

 The Wolfpack 125-pounder hopes that includes his first trip to the podium, especially considering there was a point when Fausz wasn’t sure if he’d be able to have the type of senior season he wanted. After suffering an ankle injury in last season’s NCAA Championships, Fausz was still feeling the effects when he took the mat for the U23 World Team Trials in early June.
 “I was going to injury default out of that tournament but was convinced to keep going,” Fausz said. “It worked out for the best. But after that tournament, I knew something was wrong and I had to get it checked out.” Rest of the story at https://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1551539770121&twSessionId=urxzeoorsp&postId=1365272132&mc_cid=c2abb90d5e&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

March 3, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

NCAA Division I wrestling qualifier allocations for 2019 championships, coaches’ panel rankings and RPI announced

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has announced the qualifier allocations for the 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships as listed in the chart below.
Each qualifying tournament was awarded automatic bids per weight class based on current year data.  Each wrestler was measured on the following: Division I winning percentage at the weight class; ratings percentage index (RPI); and coaches’ ranking. 
POWER RANKINGS: Penn State still dominates, OSU’s Nick Piccininni moves up
For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class.  Each conference was awarded a minimum of one automatic bid per weight class, which will go to the tournament champion, even if they did not have any wrestlers reach at least two of the three thresholds.  NCAA tournament spots for each qualifying event will be awarded at the tournament based solely on place-finish. After all of the conference tournaments have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 44 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 12, while brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 6 p.m. on March 13.  All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers.  The at-large selections will be made based on the following criteria: head-to-head competition; quality wins; coaches’ ranking; results against common opponents; RPI; qualifying event placement; and winning percentage. Rest of the story at https://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling/2019-03-01/ncaa-division-i-wrestling-qualifier-allocations-2019-championships?mc_cid=a0421ecea9&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b


March 3, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

NCAA wrestling qualifiers, brackets announced for 2019 DII championship

The NCAA has announced the Division II wrestling qualifiers list for the 2019 championship.
Bracket can also be found here, though they won’t be considered final until the replacement/entry deadline of Tuesday, March 5 at 12 p.m. ET.
The full lists of qualifiers are below: List and story at https://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling/2019-02-25/ncaa-wrestling-qualifiers-brackets-announced-2019-dii-championship?mc_cid=a0421ecea9&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

March 3, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The 13 college wrestling head coaches who had the best NCAA wrestling careers

We previously identified the best active college football head coaches based on their FBS playing careers and the best active college basketball coaches based on their playing careers, and now we’re doing the same for college wrestling coaches. Here is how we did it. Each of the 75 active college wrestling coaches were ranked by their collegiate, folkstyle wrestling accomplishments. NCAA Championship were weighted heaviest, with All-American honors serving as the next criteria of success. The 13 top active coaches with the most successful collegiate careers earned either two or more individual NCAA titles or at least one title and four All-American honors during their time as college athletes. 

1. Cael Sanderson 

Current school: Penn State
Alma mater: Iowa State
Years: 1998-2002
Record: 159-0
Honors: In college, Cael Sanderson never lost. Never. Rest of the story and list at the following https://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling/2019-03-01/13-college-wrestling-head-coaches-who-had-best-ncaa-wrestling-careers?mc_cid=a0421ecea9&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b


March 3, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Black History Month: How great black wrestlers impacted Jordan Burroughs’ life

By Jordan Burroughs | Feb. 20, 2019,

When I began wrestling as a kid, I knew very little about the sport, or its heroes. Growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood, very few of my buddies were wrestlers. As I peeked around the wrestling landscape as a young man, I noticed there weren’t many black kids from other neighborhoods wrestling either. I remember traveling to team tournaments years ago only to come to the sad realization that very few individuals looked like me. It was uncomfortable, and for a period of time I was convinced that this wasn’t the sport for me. This was before social media and widespread internet access.  Unless you subscribed to a major wrestling publication, you were out of touch when it came to the best wrestlers in the world. In short, I had no idea who the heroes in the sport were, and I was definitely unaware of any of them who looked like me.

There was a time when I tried to quit the wrestling team so that I could play basketball instead. I’d had enough of “being different.” But instead of quitting, I finally did my research, and dived into the history of this sport. I found out who the greatest wrestlers were and was surprised to see that many of them were brown like me. This discovery changed my life forever. At the time, there were two legends named Kenny Monday and Kevin Jackson — the only two black men to ever win a Olympic Gold medals in wrestling. Kenny earned one in 1988, and Kevin in 1992. These men paved the way for me to be great. I believed that if they could do it, I could do it because they had done it first. In 2012, I joined the greats. I became only the third African American to be crowned an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling. It was an iconic moment for me, particularly because I got to join two of my heroes. Rest of the story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/February/20/Black-History-Month-Burroughs-Column?mc_cid=0574fb79af&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

March 3, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment