FAN OF THE WEEKEND:
Huge shout out to Stu White ‘00 for driving 6 hours to watch our dual at Pitt. We appreciate all of the alumni support at both home and away duals.
PITT & MISSOURI MUSINGS:
The DI dual season is upon us and it is one of the toughest things in all of sport to endure. A weekly arrangement between two teams to essentially have a fight with rules. Once you finish that fight, you make an assessment of the damage, what went right and wrong; and if you lost any fighters along the way (any injuries that force a wrestler out for the next battle). A gruelling process that spans 8 or so weeks.
Paradoxically, the season is also fun as heck. A band of brothers on an adventure, travelling to new lands, fighting for victory both individually and collectively, for their chosen colors. It is a very unique experience. I often tell my guys that this is the last time in life they will get to do something like this and it’s probably why I chose to never leave.
There are “varieties” of fun on these adventures. Pitt and Missouri were fun, both in their own way.
The first and most obvious is the fun of winning, so let’s start there.
Last season around this time (almost to the day) we were 5-1 heading into the Missouri dual and feeling pretty good about our chances. Missouri had other plans. They came to our land and kicked the tar out of us. We lost 39-0. They not only beat us on the scoreboard, they physically BEAT us. I’ll admit there wasn’t much “fun” to be found in that one.
When we added the date to this season it was certainly one that the team had “circled” on the calendar. We were still carrying the embarrassment of the last outing with us, and needed an opportunity to show that the 2024 performance wasn’t reflective of who we are as a team.
The team competed at a high level and got a 27-15 victory. Of course it felt great to win the dual, but this was more about our pride as a team. We wrestled hard and competed with heart.
No one on the team did this better than Pete Ming! Pete was wrestling hard through the first two periods, but found himself down by 6 points in the third period (it should be noted that a 6 point lead in the 3rd period is a nearly insurmountable deficit at this weight in DI wrestling). Through sheer will and determination, Pete kept the pressure on and was able to score three takedowns in the third to pull off the win 11-10. If you get a chance to watch the match it was one the most exciting matches I have been a part of.
Unfortunately, Nick Stemmet continually falls victim to someone else on the team performing a bit better where I don’t mention him as the highlight of the competition. Happened at Cal Poly. Now at Missouri. Going into Nick’s match it was 18-15, so, on paper, there was a chance we could lose the dual. Nick took control of the match against a tough opponent and locked the win for the team with the pin. Nick showed a lot of heart coming off a tough loss at Pitt, wrestling for the team, and controlling the outcome of the dual when he could.
Locking up a win in a dual before it is over is always fun!
Our guts award goes out to freshman EJ Parco, who filled in for Jaden Abas. EJ has a ton of talent, but he has not had the success in competition that he would like. A tough second period ride really put him in position to win this match and the competitor in him came out and found a way to win.
Knox (133) and Norman (174) are really good at scoring a lot of points and did so against MO, scoring huge bonus points in both their matches. Freshman, Grigor Cholakyan (157), had a tough battle and pulled out the victory. Garvin (165) controlled his opponent for 7 minutes and also earned a victory.
The whole team has had this “dark cloud” of the 2024 Missouri shut out hanging over our head from the last year, and it feels good to get out from under it. The winning of the dual certainly helped, but it was more in the way we competed. There was a pride in the program and themselves in this dual that wasn’t apparent in the 2024 shut out.
Prior to heading to Missouri, we wrestled Pitt in our first ever conference match as the newest member of the ACC. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the win, but we came away with some good lessons.
In relation to “varieties” of fun the Pitt match falls into the fun of the process.
Pitt is a top 20 team and fairly solid up and down their lineup and they wrestled a great match against us. It’s frustrating because we have the talent to win nearly all of our matches, but that is really dependent upon all 10 weights consistently performing at a high level. We simply didn’t get that at the dual.
So in relation to the process, after the loss, we had to quickly pick up the pieces, and figure out how to get a better performance in Missouri. Throughout a season, the athletes and coaches are constantly tinkering and tweaking, making adjustments after each competition, figuring out how to become the best they can be, and that is a lot of fun…challenging…but fun.
A huge highlight of the dual was Jason Miranda’s win in overtime. Jason has been working very hard to figure out how to win the close matches and this was a big win for him. Interestingly, I would say Jason wasn’t wrestling a great match, but figured out a way to win. He got behind early in the match, but had a solid 3rd period (something we have been working on as a team) and was able to force overtime. He stayed cool and composed and got the takedown to seal the victory.
Even though it wasn’t a win over a ranked opponent, Jason found a way to win “ugly”, which is a necessity if he wants to achieve his goal of being an All-American this year.
Hunter Garvin (165), also wrestled well and secured much needed bonus points in his match. Hunter is adding a very good top game to his arsenal which will pay dividends down the road, but in the short term he is spending a lot of time in the top position, where he could be scoring more takedowns, leading to lower scoring matches. It’s been good to see him work on this area in practice and then try to implement it in competition.
Tyler Knox did more Knox things and secured a tech fall while Lorenzo controlled a very stingy opponent and got another decision.
While losing the dual was not fun, how the team reacted to the adversity of the loss was. They were positive and resilient, taking constructive criticism in the best possible way, which set us up to have a much better overall performance at Missouri.
Let’s keep it rolling into Arizona State!
Sunday, January 19th
1:30pm Extreme Balance book signing on the patio outside of Maples Pavilion.
2pm Chalk Talk w/ Coach Ayres @Kissick Auditorium (across from Maples Pavilion)
3pm Stanford Home Dual vs. Arizona State at Maples Pavilion – Free Admission
No. 18 Pittsburgh 24, No. 15 Stanford 15
125: #17 Nick Babin (PITT) won by forfeit
133: #10 Tyler Knox (STAN) tech. fall Matt Marlow (PITT), 17-1 (4:23)
141: Jason Miranda (STAN) dec. Briar Priest (PITT), 11-8 (SV)
149: #26 Finn Solomon (PITT) tech. fall EJ Parco (STAN), 15-0 (4:03)
157: #22 Dylan Evans (PITT) dec. #28 Grigor Cholakyan (STAN), 4-1 (SV)
165: #14 Hunter Garvin (STAN) maj. dec. Jared Keslar (PITT), 15-6
174: #4 Lorenzo Norman (STAN) dec. #18 Luca Augustine (PITT), 8-6
184: #18 Reece Heller (PITT) dec. Abraham Wojcikiewicz (STAN), 8-4
197: #12 Mac Stout (PITT) maj. dec. #24 Nick Stemmet (STAN), 10-1
285: #14 Dayton Pitzer (PITT) dec. Peter Ming (STAN), 13-6
No. 15 Stanford 27, No. 21 Missouri 15
125: #31 Gage Walker (MIZZ) won by forfeit
133: #10 Tyler Knox (STAN) maj. dec. Kade Moore (MIZZ), 12-2
141: #17 Josh Edmond (MIZZ) dec. Jason Miranda (STAN), 9-4
149: EJ Parco (STAN) dec. Zeke Seltzer (MIZZ), 5-1
157: #28 Grigor Cholakyan (STAN) dec. James Conway (MIZZ), 8-6
165: #14 Hunter Garvin (STAN) dec. Joel Mylin (MIZZ), 8-3
174: #4 Lorenzo Norman (STAN) tech. fall Jake Stoffel (MIZZ), 22-5 (5:00)
184: #9 Colton Hawks (MIZZ) fall Abraham Wojcikiewicz (STAN), F6:49
197: #24 Nick Stemmet (STAN) fall Jesse Cassatt (MIZZ), F3:45
285: Peter Ming (STAN) dec. Jarrett Stoner (MIZZ), 11-10
