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The hidden battle before the match: Inside the weight cut with RU wrestling

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GoRutgersGo

Sophomore
Jan 14, 2015
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Needing to shave roughly one or two pounds from their already taut, sculpted bodies to make weight in two hours, the 10 Rutgers starters begin filing into the wrestling room beneath the College Avenue gym just after 11 a.m. The team's most prominent grappler -- 141-pounder Anthony Ashnault -- has two-and-a-half pounds to lose, and 174-pounder Phil Bakuckas needs to drop a pound-and-a-half, so each shows up wearing sweatpants and long sleeves.

Inside the weight cut with RU wrestling
 
thanks for the link. I have a feeling that Ashnault and few others will go up a weight next season, with the lineup looking like this:
125: Sean McCabe/Ottaviano
133: Scott DelVecchio/Anthony Giraldo
141: Dippery/Delvecchio149: Anthony Ashnault
157: Ken Theobold/Van Brill (if Ken redshirts)
165: Anthony Perrotti
174: Nick Gravina
184: Phil Bakuckas
197: Hayden Hrymack
285: Billy Smith

Any insider comment would be appreciative.
 
Any chance someone like Lipari could win out at 125? It's a crowded weight, but it's always back and forth between those two and Patrick. Nobody's really truly distanced themselves.
 
Wrestling seems like such a grind. I am awe of those guys. I don't see how or why they do it.
 
Originally posted by PhilaPhans:
Any chance someone like Lipari could win out at 125? It's a crowded weight, but it's always back and forth between those two and Patrick. Nobody's really truly distanced themselves.
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I don't think Ottaviano is a 125 pounder any longer. Wrestled 133 and 141 in the open tournaments. Also if Billy Ward can make 125 I wouldn't count him out as the starter next year.
 
Originally posted by PhilaPhans:
Any chance someone like Lipari could win out at 125? It's a crowded weight, but it's always back and forth between those two and Patrick. Nobody's really truly distanced themselves.
Click to expand...
There's always a chance, but first I'd like to see how well Lipari does at states this year before we talk about him starting over McCabe.
 
obrats: billy ward is coming to rutgers? where is he wrestling now? is he better than mccabe?

didn't know ottaviano is already wrestling above 125lbs.

i'm in the opinion that the wrestlers need to wrestler at their nature weight. if they are good in their current weight class, with nature growth and muscles, they'll be equally good at their next weight.
 
Originally posted by RU93:
obrats: billy ward is coming to rutgers? where is he wrestling now? is he better than mccabe?

didn't know ottaviano is already wrestling above 125lbs.

i'm in the opinion that the wrestlers need to wrestler at their nature weight. if they are good in their current weight class, with nature growth and muscles, they'll be equally good at their next weight.
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Billy is enrolled and currently taking classes at Rutgers and I believe working out either with the team or with SKWC (Nor sure if he can legally work with team). He went to Cumberland University out of high school but left after the first semester. So this is technically his red shirt year and he should be able to wrestle January of 2016 (open tournaments before then) and have 3 years of eligibility. At Cumberland which is NAIA school he wrestled 133 and beat a ranked D1 kid in his short time at Cumberland. The rumor is that he is planning to go 125 at Rutgers which I think he will certainly battle for the starting job. At the very least he adds good depth to the team.
 
So then what you're telling me is that we'll have four or five guys vying for 125 (unless one moves up to 133) AND we'd still love to get a guy like Suriano?

That just doesn't seem like sane roster management.
 
tough to have too many 125 pounders. plenty of weights higher up to grow into or bump up to. plus there is the natural attrition rate that every wrestling room faces.

university imposed roster limits changes the equation a bit, though.
 
Originally posted by PhilaPhans:
So then what you're telling me is that we'll have four or five guys vying for 125 (unless one moves up to 133) AND we'd still love to get a guy like Suriano?

That just doesn't seem like sane roster management.
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PhilaPhans-how much scholarship money are those 4 or 5 guys getting? 1 is probably getting very little, the others none.
 
Think some of those 125 will move up. Interested to see where Giraldo ends up. Don't think he can make 133. Dippery wrestled at 149 Last open. I'm sure the staff has a pulse on what the line up will look like next year.
 
lips I believe most everyone wrestled up a weight in the last open so they weren't cutting...
 
The Ledger has been giving steady coverage to the wrestling program. To the women's bb program as well. Don't remember it being this extensive for either in the recent past.
This post was edited on 2/19 2:16 PM by rudad02
 
That's the thing about wrestling -- it's tough to every find out what piece of the pie each of these guys is getting as an average fan. Of course, I'm sure a lot of you guys aren't the average fan and know a TON more than I do about the scholarships.

I guess technically we have like 5 heavyweights right now too, so I don't really why I wrote that last comment.
 
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