Takedown Report

Cancellation – 3rd Reports

Ohio State wrestlers Kollin Moore, Luke Pletcher moving on to next challenge
They believe with all their hearts that they would be NCAA champions right now, their collegiate wrestling careers capped off with hands raised in glory. Instead, as with so many other athletes in this coronavirus-stricken world, Kollin Moore and Luke Pletcher’s dreams were stopped without the resolution they wanted — or any resolution at all. The Ohio State senior wrestlers were seeded No. 1 in their weight classes for the NCAA championships scheduled for Minneapolis two weeks ago. With a 27-0 record, Moore was a strong favorite in the 191-pound division. “I was wrestling the best I’ve ever been wrestling up to that point,” he said. “I feel like I was the mentally toughest I’ve ever been. I was just really calm and very prepared for nationals. “I’m very confident that me and Pletcher and (third-seeded redshirt freshman Sammy) Sasso would have won. The whole team, I just think we were ready to make a splash at nationals.” At 141 pounds, Pletcher had lost only once, and he avenged that dual-meet loss to Penn State’s Nick Lee by beating him in the Big Ten finals. “Going into the (NCAA) tournament, I was as confident as I could have been,” he said. “There was no doubt in my mind that that Saturday night my hand was going to get raised.” Instead, Moore and Pletcher have to cope with the knowledge that their dreams of a national title are over. The NCAA Division I Council granted spring-sport athletes an extra year of eligibility but did not extend that to winter-sport athletes. The pain of not being able to compete for a national title is particularly acute for Moore and Pletcher because they had come up short in their previous NCAAs. Moore, a native of Burbank, Ohio, was runner-up in 2019 and fourth a year earlier. Pletcher, who’s from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, finished fourth each of the past two years. Ohio State coach Tom Ryan used the word “devastation” to describe his emotions about his seniors being denied their final chance. …. story at https://www.buckeyextra.com/sports/20200403/ohio-state-wrestlers-kollin-moore-luke-pletcher-moving-on-to-next-challenge

Tecumseh graduates Marten, Pelham reflect on qualifying for wrestling nationals
Thursday was supposed to be a dream come true for Tecumseh graduates and current Central Michigan University wrestlers Drew Marten and Landon Pelham. Both had qualified for the NCAA Division I national championships in Minneapolis for the first time, but instead of competing U.S. Bank Stadium, their seasons are over. “It’s a dream to go to nationals,” Pelham said. “I had gone a few teams to watch and I told myself I was done buying a ticket to this thing. It’s like a wasted year.” The Tecumseh graduates and MHSAA state champions punched their tickets to nationals at the Mid-American Conference championships back on March 8. Marten qualified by getting hot late in the season after dropping to the 133 pound weight class after starting at 141. He entered the MAC tournament with a 17-12 record and dropped an 9-3 decision to top-ranked and eventual champion Tim Rooney of Kent State. …. story at https://www.lenconnect.com/sports/20200320/tecumseh-graduates-marten-pelham-reflect-on-qualifying-for-wrestling-nationals?mc_cid=db245e6947&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

NCAA Wrestling Championships: A look at what would have happened with no coronavirus
This is the weekend all wrestling fans would have been glued to what was happening at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. However, the NCAA has canceled all its tournaments through the spring because of the coronavirus pandemic. We are left to wonder what might have been when it comes to who would have been crowned a national champion.  Would New Jersey, which had four national champions last year in Rutgers’ Nick Suriano (133 and Bergen Catholic)) and Anthony Ashnault (149 and South Plainfield), Virginia Tech’s Mekhi Lewis (165, Bound Brook) and Penn State’s Anthony Cassar (heavyweight and Montgomery), have had another banner year?
College wrestling:  Canceled NCAA Tournament hits Rutgers coach Scott Goodale hard
New Jersey had three top three seeds in Northwestern’s Sebastian Rivera (No. 1 at 133 and Christian Brothers Academy); Princeton’s Pat Glory (No. 2 at 125 and Delbarton) and Stanford’s Shane Griffith (No. 3 at 165 and Bergen Catholic). There were others among the 33 wrestlers with New Jersey ties who would have had a chance to win either a national championship. The most notable among them was Princeton’s three-time All-American Matthew Kolodzik (No. 6 seed at 149 and Blair Academy). …. story at https://www.app.com/story/sports/college/rutgers/2020/03/20/ncaa-wrestling-championships-look-what-would-have-happened-no-coronavirus/2876703001/?mc_cid=db245e6947&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Instead of wrestling at nationals, former Becahi wrestler Mikey Labriola home and in desperate need of a jump rope
Mikey Labriola was home less than a week, when he pleaded with his mother, Barbara, to buy him a jump rope so he could work out in the garage. Labriola’s mother, a nurse, still leaves their Easton home to go to work while he waits to return to the University of Nebraska wrestling room to learn from the setbacks he endured during his sophomore season. “There are lessons to learn from every loss,” the Bethlehem Catholic graduate said. “I had a decent amount of losses, so I’ve got a lot of lessons to learn.” Labriola, an All-American last season as a redshirt freshman, was 20-10 in 2019-20 and prepared to make amends for the setbacks as the 10th seed at 174 pounds for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. But like every other national qualifier, Labriola never got the chance after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the NCAA event that was set for this weekend in Minneapolis. …. story at https://www.mcall.com/sports/varsity/wrestling/mc-spt-mikey-labriola-nebraska-wrestling-20200320-kzoxqvb5b5bydgrwxvisrm7f6e-story.html?mc_cid=db245e6947&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Havre’s Parker Filius ready to ‘gain some ground’ after canceled trip to NCAA Championships
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue’s Parker Filius, the former Havre High four-time state wrestling champion, was excited for the opportunity to compete in his first NCAA Championships — college wrestling’s biggest stage. But following the cancellation of the tournament, Filius is already at work for next season. The redshirt sophomore saw one of the greatest turnarounds from the year before, flipping a 9-20 campaign as a freshman in 2018-19 to a 19-10 record this winter, qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 141-pound division. Filius was set to compete in the pigtail match — a wrestle-in contest where the winner advances to the first round, while the loser drops to the consolation bracket. …. story at https://www.montanasports.com/college-sports/ncaa/havres-parker-filius-ready-to-gain-some-ground-after-canceled-trip-to-ncaa-championships?mc_cid=64d98db446&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Bad script: Until pandemic hit, Lex grad looked like NCAA champ
MANSFIELD – Someday, if he has a future in the theatrical world of professional wrestling, Drew Kasper will look back on the global health crisis of 2020 as the first time he didn’t have a say on whether he won or lost.  He can blame a lousy script. Kasper, a 2015 Lexington High School grad, was 30-0 and the No. 1 ranked heavyweight in the country for Otterbein University when the NCAA Division III Wrestling Nationals were canceled one day before he was to embark on what likely would have been a historic weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The odds strongly favored Kasper becoming the first national champion in wrestling in school history and the first in any sport at Otterbein since pole vaulter Chris Swanson in 2005. The achievement also would have mirrored the way his high school career ended. “If I could have just wrestled one more week and shown everyone … I could have gone my whole life saying I was an NCAA champ and a state champ,” Kasper said. “It’s just a shame it didn’t end the way we wanted to or go out on our own terms. …. story at https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/sports/2020/03/21/coronavirus-covid-19-sports-ncaa-wrestling-otterbien-drew-kasper/2882399001/?mc_cid=64d98db446&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Missing the NCAAs? Jason Bryant’s preview guide is available as a de facto tourney program and yearbook
For the past six NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, longtime wrestling writer and broadcaster Jason Bryant has produced a digital preview guide for the wrestling fans and media. Despite there the 2020 NCAA Division I Championship being canceled, Bryant continued to produce the 217-page guide, which now serves as a de facto tournament program and yearbook. Included annually are the individual results of all 330 wrestlers, dual meet polls and standings, comparative media rankings and historical breakout stats published only in Bryant’s guide. Mike Couzens, ESPN’s lead broadcaster for the last several Division I Championships, is one of many media members who use the guide for their live coverage and prep work. “Jason’s guide is the most comprehensive source of information I’ve ever used on any sport – period.” Bryant has made his guide available for fans who still crave the history and information about the 330 athletes. Some of the other exclusive content within is a historical capsule on each Division I program, the home state of every Division I All-American dating back to the start of the NCAA wrestling tournament as well as breakouts from the 2020 qualifiers. …. story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2020/March/20/2020-Guide-available-for-home-reading?mc_cid=db245e6947&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

N.J. native was NCAA Wrestling Championship’s Cinderella story who didn’t get a chance to dance
By Bill Evans | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
In some ways, Antonio Mininno was the biggest long shot of the 330 wrestlers to qualify for the 2020 NCAA Wrestling Championships. The Drexel University sophomore took a 14-34 career record – including 6-12 this year – into the EIWA Tournament at Lehigh two weeks ago, where he was the No. 14 seed in a 16-man bracket at 125 pounds. Mininno stunned third-seeded and nationally-ranked Michael Colaiocco of Penn with a pin in the opening round, then after an overtime loss in the quarterfinal that would have punched his ticket to nationals, rallied to win two of his next three matches and clinch the seventh and final automatic qualification spot for this week’s championships in Minneapolis. …. story at https://www.nj.com/sports/2020/03/nj-native-was-ncaa-wrestling-championships-cinderella-story-who-didnt-get-a-chance-to-dance.html?mc_cid=db245e6947&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Popolizio: ‘At Some Point a Life Lesson Will Be Learned’

Fresh off a perfect 15-0 dual meet season and a second straight ACC tournament championship, the NC State wrestling team was poised to bring home even more honors — along with a national title or two — from the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis this weekend. But the Wolfpack never got the chance to put the anticipated exclamation point at the end of its season. Despite having gone unbeaten on the mat, coach Pat Popolizio and his team were left with the ultimate feeling defeat when the national tournament, along with all other NCAA championship events, was canceled because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. “This sport teaches you a lot about life and then when you have to deal with these kind of situations, it’s like taking a really bad loss,” Popolizio said on his #PackMentality — Pop-Ins Podcast on GoPack.com “Your guys compete, you take a loss and it hurts, it burns. Everybody’s been through it at some point in their career and this one’s probably the worst one yet because it was out of your control.” The third-ranked Wolfpack was heading into the national meet on a high after winning the ACC crown , then learning last Wednesday that four of its wrestlers had received top-10 seeds for Minneapolis. …. story at https://www.si.com/college/ncstate/sports/popolizio-addresses-wrestling-cancellation?mc_cid=db245e6947&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

April 7, 2020 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized