2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
First round started an hour ago. Here is the broadcast schedule, all times Eastern.
  • 3/16 Pigtails and First Round, 12 p.m. on ESPNU.
  • 3/16 Second Round, 7 p.m. on ESPN.
  • 3/17 Quarterfinals, 12 p.m. on ESPNU.
  • 3/17 Semifinals, 8 p.m. on ESPN.
  • 3/18 Medal Round, 11 a.m. on ESPNU.
  • 3/18 Championship, 7 p.m. on ESPN.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,430
First round started an hour ago. Here is the broadcast schedule, all times Eastern.
  • 3/16 Pigtails and First Round, 12 p.m. on ESPNU.
  • 3/16 Second Round, 7 p.m. on ESPN.
  • 3/17 Quarterfinals, 12 p.m. on ESPNU.
  • 3/17 Semifinals, 8 p.m. on ESPN.
  • 3/18 Medal Round, 11 a.m. on ESPNU.
  • 3/18 Championship, 7 p.m. on ESPN.
What is pigtails?
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
Also, single elimination. It's entrance to the tournament. You lose your pigtail, you're out.
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,618
The level these guys are at is incredible. A lot of HS state champions end up at D3 schools so to be elite at D1 is really something.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
The level these guys are at is incredible. A lot of HS state champions end up at D3 schools so to be elite at D1 is really something.
If I'm reading this correctly, Tucker Owens was a runner up at states in high school at OK two years ago. He's a red-shirted freshman. He wins his pigtail to face Spencer Lee, and gets pinned in 38 seconds in his first match of the tournament.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
Biggest upset I have seen so far. 165-lber Caleb Fish (29 seed from MSU) knocks off 4-seeded Ramirez from Cornell in an 8-4 match.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
The level these guys are at is incredible. A lot of HS state champions end up at D3 schools so to be elite at D1 is really something.
Another good one I just watched - jackson arrington. 3 time state champ from Pennsylvania that went 148-8 in his high school career. He's a true freshman up against yianni, a returning 3 time ncaa champ and pan am champ. Yianni tooled on him, getting the pin with 50 seconds left in the first.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
Biggest upset I have seen so far. 165-lber Caleb Fish (29 seed from MSU) knocks off 4-seeded Ramirez from Cornell in an 8-4 match.
Fish is stout as hell and can scramble. He's onto the quarters.
 

BigJimEd

Member
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Jan 4, 2002
4,432
A few big upsets yesterday

Virginia Tech’s 27th-seeded freshman Eddie Ventresca and West Virginia’s #28th-seeded Killian Cardinale advanced to the quarterfinals in a tattered 125-pound bracket and Michigan State #29 seed Caleb Fish navigated through the star-studded 165-pound class.

Ventresca scored a takedown with 49 seconds remaining and rode Minnesota’s #11 seed Patrick McKee the rest of the way to win a 3-2 decision. For Ventresca, the victory came on the heels of his opening-round overtime upset of reigning Big 12 champion Stevo Poulin, the #6 seed from Northern Colorado.

Cardinale followed up an opening-round 3-2 win against #5 seed Caleb Smith of Appalachian State, continuing his championship-side run through the bracket with an 8-3 win against Wyoming freshman Jore Volk. Cardinale registered takedowns in each period against the U20 World champion.

Cardinale will get Purdue’s fourth-seeded Matt Ramos in the quarters. Ramos dodged a second-round upset by scoring a takedown in the closing seconds to beat North Carolina State’s Jarrett Trombley 6-5 in a tiebreaker.

Fish pulled off the day’s biggest upset when he toppled Cornell’s #4 seed Julian Ramirez 8-4 in the opening round. He backed that up by downing Pittsburgh’s Holden Heller 7-2 Thursday night.
 

SoxJox

Member
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Dec 22, 2003
7,082
Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
And for anyone not quite familiar with scoring in wrestling, there are 2 different sets of rules: 1 for dual meets, and one for tournaments.

For dual meets:

  1. PIN FALL – 6 team points – Awarded to the team whose wrestler holds both of the opponent’s scapulas to the mat for two consecutive seconds.
  2. TECHNICAL FALL – 5 team points – Awarded to the team whose wrestler has scored 15 match points more than the opponent. The match is stopped as soon as the 15 point margin is achieved, except in a pinning situation where the referee will allow the offensive wrestler to try to score the fall.
  3. MAJOR DECISION – 4 team points – Awarded to the team whose wrestler wins by a margin of 8-14 match points more than the opponent has scored.
  4. REGULAR DECISION – 3 team points – Awarded to the team whose wrestler wins by a margin of 1-7 match points more than the opponent has scored.
  5. DRAW OR TIE – There are no more ties in wrestling as the match will be decided by sudden victory overtime from the feet and/or by tie breakers from referee’s position.
  6. DISQUALIFICATION – 6 team points – A wrestler wins a match by disqualification when the opponent is disqualified from the match because of too many penalties OR when a wrestler is illegally injured by an opponent’s illegal hold and cannot continue wrestling. If you were injured by an opponent’s illegal hold (not a technical violation like locking hands or grabbing the uniform, unless it was their fourth penalty chart penalty), you will win the match by disqualification. It will not do a wrestler any good to intentionally try to injure an opponent because they will lose.
  7. INJURY DEFAULT – 6 team points – A wrestler wins a match by injury default when the opponent is injured accidentally during the match and cannot continue wrestling.
  8. FORFEIT – 6 team points – A wrestler wins a match by forfeit when the other team does not have a wrestler to compete against them.
For tournaments, such as the NCAA Championships:

There are three ways to score team points: Placement points, advancement points, and bonus points.

1. Placement Points
  • 1st place: 16 points
  • 2nd place: 12 points
  • 3rd place: 10 points
  • 4th place: 9 points
  • 5th place: 7 points
  • 6th place: 6 points
  • 7th place: 4 points
  • 8th place: 3 points
Pretty straightforward. You place first, you get 16 points. You place 9th, you get nothing.

2. Advancement Points
  • Each advancement in championship bracket: 1 point
  • Each advancement in consolation bracket: 0.5 point
This is also pretty straightforward. A wrestler is awarded one point for each match that he wins in the championship bracket, and half a point for wins in the consolation bracket.

For example, Whosuh Gonnabeatme wins three matches in the championship bracket before losing to Ima Cantbebeat in the quarterfinals. Gonnabeatme is then bumped down to the consolation semi-finals where he wins two matches to capture third place. Gonnabeatme would be awarded 4 advancement points (3+0.5+0.5) and 10 placement points for a total of 14 team points.

3. Bonus Points
  • Each fall, forfeit, default, disqualification: 2 points
  • Each tech fall (w/ near fall points): 1.5 points
  • Each tech fall (w/o near fall points): 1 point
  • Each major decision: 1 point
Bonus points are where championships are won. Penn State has won most of their 5 titles in the last 6 years on bonus points. Defeating your opponents handily, especially in the early rounds, is crucial to your team’s success.

To expound on what exactly the different ways to score bonus points are…

Fall: When a wrestler is able to get both of his opponent’s shoulder blades on the mat and hold them there for one second. This immediately ends the match and the winner is declared.

Default/Forfeit/Disqualification: When a match is called for any reason. The opponent is injured and cannot continue, a wrestler missed weigh-in and did not make his weight cut, an illegal or unsportsmanlike penalty is ruled.

Tech Fall: A tech fall occurs when a wrestler defeats his opponent by 15 points or more. Once the 15 point mark is achieved, the match is ended. In tournament scoring, a wrestler receives an additional half point when he is able to secure near fall points on his opponent. Near fall points are when a wrestler is able to get his opponent to his back, but unable to get both shoulder blades to the mat to secure the pin.

Major Decision: Major decisions are when a wrestler defeats his opponent by 8 or more points.

Consolation Brackets

When a wrestler loses in the championship round, they get an opportunity to rally and wrestle for third-seventh place in the consolations.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
I'm almost an hour behind, but Spencer Lee finally went the distance. He got thrown to his back on a sweet tilt from standing from Noto to give up four back points. Still won 11-4

And if you haven't watched the end of Ramos/Cardinale, go watch that now.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
Bartlett (6) upsets Matthews (3) at 141 to become an AA for his first time. It was 1-1 heading into sudden victory, and the period went with neither securing a takedown. Matthews held Bartlett down in the first portion of the second OT. Matthews chose neutral - he had avoided the takedown in the previous 9 minutes of the match, and all he needed was to not get taken down for 30 seconds for the riding time win. Bartlett finishes a drop down single for the win as time expires. Great match.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
Yianni was up 1 point on bottom, and Murin damn near threw him to his back with 30 seconds left in the match. Yianni fought him off to win by 1.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
165 is such a tough bracket. Carr fends off a takedown with a few seconds left to move on over former champ Griffith. He'll face Q Monday in the semis after Monday beat Fish. Cameron Amine, cousin of 5 time AA and bronze medalist in 2020 Myles Amine, beats Hamiti. He'll advance against O'Toole, the returning 165 lb champ.
 

SoxJox

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2003
7,082
Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
I was wondering where the hell you were...
Yeah, I've been pre-occupied with other stuff. I haven't seen any live action until now. Have relied on second showings. Just watched the Lee-Noto and Ramos-Cardinale matches. Great stuff. Lee is just so disciplined and technically sound. Works the arm bar about as good as anyone.
 
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kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
I have been able to find and follow the brackets, but is there a site that shows updated team standings? I would have to think Penn State is pretty far ahead.
I think Penn State had pretty much clinched the championship before the tournament started. Everybody was fighting for second.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/college/iowa/wrestling/2023/03/17/ncaa-wrestling-championships-live-results-scores-2023-friday-iowa-state-uni-tulsa-bok-center/70014272007/
  1. Penn State, 78 (7 wrestlers in the semifinals, 1 wrestling back)
  2. Iowa, 48 (3, 3)
  3. Cornell, 45.5 (3, 3)
  4. Nebraska, 44 (4, 1)
  5. Michigan, 39 (2, 3)
  6. Missouri, 34 (2, 4)
  7. Ohio State, 31 (1, 6)
  8. NC State, 29 (1, 3)
  9. Iowa State, 28 (1, 4)
  10. Arizona State, 27 (2, 2)
  11. Lehigh, 22.5 (1, 2)
  12. Northern Iowa, 22 (1, 2)
  13. Princeton, 22 (2, 0)
  14. Virginia Tech, 21 (1, 5)
  15. Air Force, 20 (1, 0)
  16. South Dakota State, 20 (1, 3)
AA's in 70% of the weight classes clinched already.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
The Beau Bartlett SV overtime win, with TD with 1 sec remaining...just wow wrestling.
No takedowns the entire match, and then that happens. Check out the last 30 seconds of Yianni's QF match. Big holy shit moment.
 

Green (Tongued) Monster

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Jun 2, 2016
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Hanover, PA

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
Deepest division is probably 165, and we have the top two seeds battling it out in the finals tomorrow.
 

SoxJox

Member
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Dec 22, 2003
7,082
Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
And there you have it. Beau Bartlett puts them over the top for their 10th championship in 12 years. And, for the 2nd year in a row, they locked it up before the championship round even started.
 

SoxJox

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2003
7,082
Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
Penn State now working on breaking their own total points record. With 5 grapplers in the championship round, they stand a good chance.

Oh, and with youngsters like freshmen Bartlett, Van Ness, and Haines, and the #1 recruiting classes the last 2 years, the train should keep rolling. Their weakest link is 125, where they've not fielded a competitive wrestler since Soriano left for Rutgers after his freshman year (reportedly over disagreements he had w/ the Penn State medical staff over an injury.)
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
Alirez gets the win for UNCO! Hits a double overhook toss for 6 points.
 

SoxJox

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2003
7,082
Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
I didn't get to watch live last night. I was recording while catching Penn State play Texas in the roundball tourney. 2-3 in the finals. Not exactly what I was expecting. Only real "surprise" was RBY going down. The other 2 losses were to higher-seeded opponents.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637