M Wrestling with 2 semifinalists, 5th overall in NCAAs through Friday morning
Michigan wrestling is in 5th place through the first 3 sessions of the NCAA tournament. They have put 2 wrestlers in tonight's semifinals:
165 #11 Cameron Amine (15-3) v #3 Dean Hamiti (23-4), Wisconsin
285 #1 Mason Parris, (31-0) v #4 Tony Cassioppi (24-3), Iowa
The semifinals will be shown from 8:00 to about 10:00 ET on ESPN, lightest weights first so Amine will wrestle no earlier than 8:50 and Parris will start 9:30 or a little later. (I might be a little optimistic about how quickly these matches will follow each other, they will take pauses for commercial breaks too). Michigan also has 3 wrestlers still alive in the consolation brackets:
149 #22 Chance Lamer (15-8) v #8 Max Murin (21-5), Iowa
157 #9 Will Lewan (23-7) v #20 Cael Swensen (24-9), S Dakota St
184 #8 Matt Finesilver (27-7) v #5 Marcus Coleman (21-4), Iowa St
The top 8 in each weight class are given awards as "All-Americans" and get bonus points for their teams. Amine & Parris have clinched top-8 finishes; the 3 in the consolations need to win their match tonight to get All-American status.
Team Standings:
1. Penn State (78)
2. Iowa (48)
3. Cornell (45.5)
4. Nebraska (44)
5. Michigan (39)
6. Missouri (34)
7. Ohio State (31)
8. NC State (29)
9. Iowa State (28)
10. Arizona State (27)
Not much uncertainty remains about the team championship, but Michigan can finish just about anywhere from 3rd to 8th. Tonight's matches award 7 points minimum to the semifinal winners and 3.5 minimum to the consolation winners.
I think others will have a better perspective on this than I do, but it seems like Michigan wrestlers are over-performing their seeds for the most part. Michigan was ranked outside the top 10 as a team by the end of the season, and it was somewhat disappointing that they couldn't folllow up their surprise Big Ten championship from last season with another impressive year in dual meets or at the conference tournament (they finished 5th). Good to see them doing better in the NCAAs than projected.
Amine beat Hamiti 3-1 in the quarters. Faces #2 O’Toole from Missouri in the semis ;)
Ah, my mistake.
Having to face a guy named Keegan O'Toole on St. Patrick's day...
Haha didn’t put that together. Just wanted to remind everyone of the good match he had earlier, no snark from me lol
I'm always surprised how dominant the national rankings are (team and individual) with Big Ten players. Is wrestling just not a popular sport outside the Midwest? I know there's some areas on the east coast and California that have wrestling talent, but I haven't heard much of other areas.
California only has 4 D-1 wrestling programs (Cal Poly on the Central Coast, CS-Bakersfield in the Central Valley, Stanford in the SFBA and UC-Riverside out in the Inland Empire).
There's a lot of wrestling talent in CA, but it's a limited number of programs that offer the sport, and they all have their challenges (gaining academic entry for Stanford, SLO is a bit isolated as regards Cal Poly, and Riverside and Bakersfield are in less desirable parts of the state).
Fresno State used to offer Wrestling and they competed fairly well. It was a loss for the sport when they dropped the program.
Arizona State, Utah Valley, Oregon State, Northern Colorado, Wyoming and AFA also offer Wrestling out west.
San Luis Obispo might be isolated but is also San Luis Obispo
I'd personally love to live in SLO. The California Central Coast is so beautiful.
Somewhat tangentially, I had a conversation today as to whether Ventura is on the Central Coast. The Ventura-ites (especially those who move there from LA) sure do want to brand themselves that way. I say no, however, they are 100% SoCal. The Central Coast begins at Gaviota.
Yea i def think of Ventura as the gateway to SoCal from the north
There are good wrestling programs out there, but the best usually want to go to the B1G. It used to be all Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, but the Iowa run starting in the 70's and the Penn State run over the past 10 years has really solidified the B1G the conference to be in if you are a top wrestler. At this point, it could be the B1G vs the rest and the B1G would most likely win almost every year.
Michigan's definitely out-wrestled their seeds this tournament.
Would have loved to see guys like (125) Medley or (141) Mattin All-American, but they had good runs and has been really fun to watch them throughout the years. Gritty veterans.
Thought (133) Ragusin got hosed in his match vs. Mendez. Bummed he didn't get back on the podium, though that weight class is stacked this year.
Biggest surprise is (149) Lamer by far. Talented freshman, didn't expect him to go better than 1-2 or so. Excited to see if he can keep it going.
(165) Amine looks exceptional and healthy, which is phenomenal to see. He's a tough out against anybody when healthy and my favorite guy to watch outside of Ragusin & Parris.
Ragusin at 133# finished below his seed just slightly, Medley at 125# finished at seed and Mattin overperformed, and that's the 3 who were just eliminated. After his first round loss, Mattin won 2 straight by fall! So definitely a special weekend for him.
The 3 in the blood rounds, Lamer is overperforming, Lewan and Finesliver are where they should be. Lamer and Mattin were both seed 23.
Cam Amine is having a weekend! Seeded 11th and will finish at least 6th, I believe. And Parris has yet to lose this season. Beat a gopher in the first round, wasn't steveson obviously but I'm sure it felt good for him.
I'll be watching with a bunch of wrestling coaches tonight. I'm not a coach, I started competing in MMA and never got into coaching. Now that I'm done fighting, I've spent a lot more time following wrestling. One of my best friends was on an NAIA national championship team with several guys I wrestled with in 2 different states and he coaches now, so I watch with him and the other coaches.
Tomorrow night, I will watch with them and have the hockey game on my phone.
Who were the top wrestlers in U of M history? Will Parris be up there?
The top wrestler in Michigan history was undoubtedly Mark Churella (150-167 pounds). He finished 3rd in the NCAA as a Freshman in 1976 and then won national championships in 1977, 1978 and 1979. He was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler in 1978, the only Michigan wrestler ever to get that award.
Probably the second best was Jarrett Hubbard (150 pounds), who finished in the top 4 in 1971-72-73-74, with championships in 73 and 74.
This Century's best is probably Kellen Russell, with back-to-back championships in 2011-12. You could add others like Adam Coon (Hwt, 2015-18), Myles Amine (174 pounds, 2018-22) and Mason Parris (Hwt, 2019-23)...but the thing about those 3 is that none of them have a national championship, and I'm reluctant to give them an "all time great" accolade without at least one national championship. A championship this season for Parris will certainly put him in the discussion with Russell for the Century's best Michigan wrestler so far.
Michigan has had 2 Olympic medalists - including last year's NCAA runner up, Myles Amine (whos brother is a semifinalist this year). Steve Fraser won a gold in greco-roman wrestling in the 1980s (this is from me wikipedia'ing, i'm not that old haha).
We've had 16 guys win nattys, most recently Nick Suriano last year. Parris is having an amazing year, to cap off a great career. It's sort of unfortunate that he overlapped so much with Gable Steveson. That guy may legit be one of the best ever. Personally he'd have to win the natty to be in the conversation, and then I think one of the guys who won multiple natties, or the gold medalist, probably comes out on top. But let's get their first because I'd love to have that conversation.
Good reply, referencing Olympic medals too. I would add that Mark Churella missed his prime chance at an Olympic medal--he made the USA Olympic team in 1980 but we all know how that turned out.
Just fyi, Cam is not Myles’ brother. They are cousins
Amine is outperforming his seed but seeding him #11 was a crime to begin with. He had wins against guys seeded higher than him. It seems like the seeding committee held his default in the 3rd place match against him when seeding. I'm sure the NCAA thought they were "teaching him a lesson" but now he is bracket busting and showing them why that isn't a good idea.
Spencer Lee goes down... Holy shit!
And by a pin no less
March 17th, 2023 at 10:41 PM ^
And also to a Purdue wrestler --- Purdue was on both sides of incredible upsets on the same night.
I watched the match because of this comment. Like out of a movie. Time expiring, pin for the win. WOW
Pin was nice but Match was his either way with back points.
Feels like he’s a 30th year senior
I think it’s crazy to have someone who’s 24.5 years old competing in college athletics. Especially in a sport where strength, physical development, and experience are all so critical.
March 18th, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^
I agree and there are several examples in the college wrestling world recently due to the COVID year and some of the top guys taking Olympic redshirts. Add in a regular redshirt and you get some of these guys in their mid 20s competing against 19 and 20 year olds. Michigan had a few of these guys last year in Amine, Micic and Massa.
His mother's reaction!