ADVERTISEMENT

Big Ten Wrestling Wrap Up

RU Husky

All Conference
Sep 26, 2011
4,889
2,137
113
The final team scores were:

1. Iowa 120 (tie)
1. Ohio State 120 (tie)
3. Minnesota 108
4. Michigan 102.5
5. Penn State 96.5
6. Illinois 96
7. Nebraska 85.5
8. Wisconsin 73
9. Northwestern 72
10. Purdue 37.5
11. Rutgers 20.5
12. Indiana 16
13. Michigan State 12.5
14. Maryland 10.5

Of the individual winners the top seeds prevailed: Five #1 seeds won, three #2 seeds won and two #3 seeds won.

I'll leave it to the more knowledgeable wrestling posters to assess RU's performance in the tournament, but here's my take. For RU, I thought the team score disappointed. RU finished much closer to last than they did to the middle of the pack, which speaks to just how tough this conference is. Pudue, the next best finisher to us, finished with almost twice as many points. Tough to put a positive spin on that. Whether we finished 10th or 11th really isn't that impt ( no one expected anything higher than that), but obviously we need some more talent top to bottom. We did lose a lot of close matches and that skewed the outcome.

It was good to see that many RU wrestlers stayed focused and won their last match, even if it meant they finished 11th instead of 12 or 9th instead of 10th. The best news , of course, was that, except for Theobold (our highest seeded wrestler at #4), the guys expected to be AQ made it.

The seeding committee did an outstanding job seeding the RU wrestlers. They all finished just about where they were seeded. FWIW, if anything, of the qualifiers Delvecchio and Perrotti finished higher than their seeds , but just by 1 place, and Smith finished lower (9th) than his seed (8th). Theobold's injury in his opening match basically disqualified him from any chance at AQ. Ashnault finished exactly where seeded.

I would have hoped that more guys could have outperformed the modest expectations set for them (in terms of seedings) , or one guy stepped up with a break out performance, but ,given the level of competition, perhaps that was too much to ask.
 
everyone wrestled more or less to seed except for Theo who got injured. Disappointing for anyone with high hopes but not to realistic expectations.

Hrymack and Pafumi were very close to pulling out an AQ. a year of packing on size and strength and Hrymack is going to be very dangerous. McCabe continues to wrestle tough, he is just a step behind. Delvecchio and Smith are in crazy loaded weight classes. They'll have a hard time finding the podium in St Louis but a trip to the NCAAs is not a bad finish for their seasons. Ash and Perrotti have the best chances of medaling. Perrotti needs to catch fire again and avoid mistakes. He can do it but he won't be a favorite. Ash has the talent and mindset. he will probably be seeded 9th or 10th and have a dog fight in the R12. should be exciting. Bakuckas is a year away. had to have one of the toughest slates in Rutgers history but he was be ready next year and i think he snags an at large bid this year. I hope Theobold can as well. He earned it. really hope his injury isn't too bad. i missed the match where it happened.
 
My few thoughts for what they are worth.

I continue to be impressed by McCabe, for a kid many had low expectations for he wrestles damn tough, and is very good on top, even against much better wrestlers. I'm really rooting for him to take the next step and exceed his expectations at Rutgers.

Perrotti is frustratingly inconsistent. I thought from the beginning of this year that the general expectation that he would AA again this year was misplaced. He went on a tear last year, and really had no business making the podium. Its been forever since an RU wrestler outperformed in a tournament like that. Although he had a rough start to the Big Ten tournament, he finished very strong, and seems to be coming on at the right time. I think his chances at a repeat AA will depend heavily on his tournament seeding. If he gets the right matchups, he will be a major threat, if not we could all be in for a let down.

Ash - love seeing him wrestle Stieber even better this time, with a 5-1 loss. That is an achievement in itself. Stieber is from another planet. While Dziewa probably got lucky to make the final, its still insane to think Stieber teched the Big Ten championship in the first 10 seconds of the 2nd period. I believe Stieber only had like 4 non bonus point wins this year, 2 of which were against Ash.

Backuckas - Was so damn close to upsetting Brunson and getting an AQ (would've put him in the top 8). I've been waiting all year for him to pull a big upset... looks like I may have to wait until next year. If Backuckas had pulled that off, I think everyone would feel a heck of a lot better about the tournament as a whole. I don't think people's expectations for this tournament were unrealistic, I think they just wanted to see one pleasant surprise. I know I did.

Theo - contrary to years past when guys didn't show up at tournament time, everyone performed in line with expectations. The only real disappointment on paper was Theo, who tweaked his ankle badly in the first match. I wouldn't count this as a disappointment. Sports are what they are, and injuries get in the way. I expect he will get an at-large based on what happened, and we will see if he can pull of any upsets in the NCAAs.
 
I disagree strongly with expressions of disappointment. In aggregate their seedings were almost spot on. Pafumi and Hrymack wrestled their best all year. In last session DelVecchio, Bakuckas, Pafumi, Hrymack & Smith each won their 7th and 9-12th place bracket matches to conclude tourney.
125: McCabe - was unranked and went 0-2, but to top 20 ranked guys who took 5th and 6th.
133: Delvecchio (9th) - was ranked 10th. Beat Sabatello to avenge first round loss. Losses were to 7th and 8th placers.
141: Ashnault (5th) - ranked 5th. Losses to Steiber (1st) and Abidin (4th). Stieber other wins were MD & TF.
149: Theobold went 0-2 after injury.losses to 4th place and 7th place finishers. Disappointing, but he was injured.
157: Perrotti (7th) was seeded 8th. Bad loss to Frey (10th), pins Kelly (9th), loses to Demas (4th) & beats Mascola (8th)
165: Visicaro unranked and 0-2 to Hammond (10th) and Alexander (11th).
174: Bakuckas (11th) and seeded 11th. Losses to Martin (5th), Brunson (6th) & JAckson (9th). Beat 12th ranked Snook.
184: Pafumi (11th) and seeded 11th. Losses to Dudley (6th) & Courts (8th) & Kissel (9th) all ranked above him in seeding.
197: Hrymack (11th) was seeded 12th. Beat #5 Studebaker, Lost to Burak (4th) & Koepke (6th), before losing to Studebaker (9th) and getting forfeit from McCall. (Hayden beat him earlier this year in dual.)
285: Smith (9th) was seeded 8th. Losses to 1st seed Medbery (4th) and Myers (7th) who was seeded 7th. I thought he could have won both of those. Beat Tavanello seeded 9th, Goldman seeded 13th, and Jensen seeded 11th. So just no upside surprise.

So where is the major letdown? That they did not outperform seeding? three outperformed seeding and one did not by one slot. Looks like our kids got a little tougher and did not quit to me. For the first time in Big Ten which is a tournament as hard if not harder than Nationals we slightly outperformed expectations walking in. No question there is room for us to improve, but what makes for a top 10 guy is consistency with infrequent letdowns.
Some guys got knocked down early and they battled to the end. 4 automatic qualifiers (as projected in seedings) with 3 bubble (Theo, Bakuckas, Hrymack).

Support the pin pool and watch us improve with added resources. 3 pins this weekend (Delvecchio, Ashnault, Perrotti) raised $2130 for SKWC Foundation!!

See you in St. Louis.
 
special shout out to Visicaro, whose collegiate career comes to an end. 5 years in a D1 wrestling room is an incredible commitment. wishing him nothing but the best!
 
Support the pin pool and watch us improve with added resources. 3 pins this weekend (Delvecchio, Ashnault, Perrotti) raised $2130 for SKWC Foundation!!






Josh: Thanks for indepth recap. Keep with the updates. $$$$

This post was edited on 3/9 8:10 PM by dollarbill
 
Can someone explain why there is such a long layoff for the Championships? Self admittedly I don't know much about wrestling but I am really starting to admire the sport. A ten day layoff seems like a lot.
 
a now funny note:

Our team & staff flew back on the 8pm plane from Columbus to Philly which my dad & I were on. The plane ahead of us was filled with pro wrestlers (male and female) including some huge ones. They were headed to Charlotte. Their plane hit a bird taking off and had to emergency return to the gate. No one hurt, but ever see 300 pounders totally shaken up? Coach
Goodale was not loving this preflight excitement.

I called it Shredded Tweet.

This post was edited on 3/9 3:07 PM by josh1728
 
Sect120: two weeks off between last match and Conference tournament, then 10 days off til National Championships start. The gladiators need rest to heal, rehydrate, take exams, gain weight and get ready to lose weight again. This is the apex of a 10 month season for the best (June to March). Less time than that and injuries plus gamesmanship would happen. No meaningful matches to end year, more tournament defaulting once qualified for nationals, etc.

Wrestling recovery and battle cycles are much different than other sport.
 
Does anyone know the score of Delvec and sabatello 2nd match at the time of the fall?

I am plessed with results for the most part. Sure we want more but. or the first time in the b10 not bad.
i am shocked Alliden has Ashnaults number. One again AA was able to get to his legs often but lost evert scramble.
That one stung the most for me as i would have loved a rematch with Dardanes.
His seed should be in the 7-9 area for NCAA. I think he will win some matches i can only hope he steps it up and finds a way to medal.
He stills needs to work on his top game and be able to secure riding time points. Thats the biggest thing i see watching the finals and other big matches. The great ones always seem to get that extra little breathing room in big matches. I guess what im trying to say is.
Ridding out Laster from Princton for the win is one thing doing it in the qrts at ncaa's or round of 12 is another.
Going to be a great finish to a fun year.
 
Originally posted by Passe24:
Does anyone know the score of Delvec and sabatello 2nd match at the time of the fall?

I am plessed with results for the most part. Sure we want more but. or the first time in the b10 not bad.
i am shocked Alliden has Ashnaults number. One again AA was able to get to his legs often but lost evert scramble.
That one stung the most for me as i would have loved a rematch with Dardanes.
His seed should be in the 7-9 area for NCAA. I think he will win some matches i can only hope he steps it up and finds a way to medal.
He stills needs to work on his top game and be able to secure riding time points. Thats the biggest thing i see watching the finals and other big matches. The great ones always seem to get that extra little breathing room in big matches. I guess what im trying to say is.
Ridding out Laster from Princton for the win is one thing doing it in the qrts at ncaa's or round of 12 is another.
Going to be a great finish to a fun year.
5-3 Delvecchio.
 
Interesting that Perotti met Mascola in the tourney. In high school they were both training at the Edge in Martinsville. My son was on the Seton Hall Prep team and he would go there as well. I spent many evenings in the waiting area listening to Perotti and Mascola's fathers, both good guys and very supportive, talk wrestling and wrestlers. I doubt when they knew one was going to Maryland and the other Rutgers that they would meet in the Big ten tournament.
 
ADVERTISEMENT