The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[Richb-3]

Oracle mentioned the Team GPA. I saw it maybe 10 12 days ago. Usually there is a list of about the top tens ports by GPA. Often wrestling is the only Male sport in the top 10.

Anyone see the list for fall 2023.

[jdalu75]

Luke Stanich is a very good wrestler but I think we let rating services impact our expectations. He was ranked either 2,3 or 4 depending on the poll by using addition by subtraction. He has 1 win over a top 10 wrestler, Barnett of Wisconsin and has only wrestled 1 other guy currently ranked in the top 20. Cooper Flynn at #14, per wrestlestat.
His rise occurred primarily due to not wrestling and letting those ahead of him beat each other up.

Don't forget that Flynn isn't currently in the Top 10 in no small part because Stanich beat him. His only other loss this year is to Barnett.

Luke wasn't on the national radar, ranked 46th by WrestleStat, until he won Midlands, beating the Intermat #25, #9, and #10 in succession, and in pretty convincing fashion, until he needed overtime to beat WS's #30 guy. Four consecutive upsets, all over guys in at least their third year in college. Flowrestling was the first to rank him, at 9th, the following week. The following week, after the results of all the holiday tournaments were in, Flo moved him up to 6th.

The next weekend Stanich skipped the Binghamton dual but beat Cornell's Brett Ungar (then ranked 14th by Intermat, had been ranked as high as 5th) 3-0. After that Flo ranked him 2nd, Intermat ranked him 3rd, The Open Mat ranked him 10th. He sat out the next weekend against Penn and Navy. After that the NCAA Coaches' Panel ranked him 3rd, Amateur Wrestling News and Intermat had him 2nd, Flo had him 1st, WrestleStat 4th, TOM 8th. Who did he dodge? Penn's Max Gallagher was ranked 32nd and Navy's Dayton DelViscio was ranked 121st by Intermat. Do you think wrestling them would have helped him?

Those are the current rankings until tomorrow. Lehigh had this past weekend off but Stanich wrestled at the Mat Town 2, dominating the three Div I opponents he faced. Do I think he's the top wrestler at 125? No, I don't. Should he be in the top 5? Why not? That's where five ranking services, operating independently, have him.

I don't like it when I see wrestlers move up without wrestling (as some guys who probably aren't in school in the fall semester do every year), but it's not like Stanich took a month or two off. He missed one weekend of duals. And yes, losing has consequences for the rankings of the guys who do the losing.

[FloridaGuy]

>>>>>>> Nothing wrong with moving up in the rankings when guys ranked higher take losses, and in some cases multiple losses. Stanich is ranked high because his only loss is to a high quality guy. psu’s 125 will take the #1 spot as long as he stays undefeated.

I expect Beard will move up this week as guys ahead of him took losses.

Crookham, Stanich, Beard & Taylor can all stay highly ranked, or in a few cases even move up, simply by holding serve over the remaking four duals while guys with tougher schedules take losses.

[Justafan]

JDA,

I think you missed my point or we are looking at this through different lenses. I never said Luke ducked anyone.
My point was more that Stanich had 2 nice wins at Midlands and came out ranked #9. I along with everyone else felt that was very fair. After that Luke wrestled one match total, against Ungar until this past weekend. During that long span, his ranking went up to 3,2 and 1 as you noted. Suddenly aspirations go sky high. Again, just trying to manage expectations.

Compare that for a moment to Michael Beard, who also won Midlands, annihilating everyone in his path Sasso (VT), MD, Miller (VT) Fall, Stout (Pr) TF before beating DePrez and Cardenas handily and yet his climb seems to be glacially slow. Yes, as noted, he will progress with others ahead of him losing this week but again, they are just rankings. Michael has guys Buchanon, Elam, Hidlay and Brooks to contend with. Nothing comes easy at this level.

The NCAA tournament has the potential of being really exciting for Lehigh fans this year and yet frustrating if expectations get too high.

Go Lehigh.

[Oracle]

I think Justafan nailed it. Stanich earned a higher ranking but not top 3. Absolutely over-ranked. Not overrated.

Cue Fl Guy’s entrance.

You can kinda discount the Sprately loss as it was his 2nd varsity bout. But Sprately is a first year (not a true frosh)
But ranking him as high as 2nd is very aggressive.

IMO

[Eastonpa]

Crookham effect??

Ryan has early big win, gets high ranking, and eventually #1.

Ranksters see Stanich, another LU frosh one class down from Crookham, succeed likewise - winning Midlands and working out in the room with RC.

Hence a slightly inflated ranking???

[FloridaGuy]

>>>>>>> Reply to Oracle:

Maybe Stanich, at 13-1 is over-ranked, but other than psu who is undefeated, which 125 that has multiple losses do you rank higher than Stanich?

If you think he’s over-ranked, you should be prepared to list the guys that, in your opinion, should be ranked higher.

[Oracle]

Right on cue. Well done General!

Body of work is important. You don’t need my list to figure it out.

That said, IMO, our guy should be ranked pretty high, just not top 2. Neither should the PSU guy. Being unbeaten is important but polls in all sports recognize several unbeatens (teams) lower than those with a loss or two.

IMO the lofty ranking may have excited fans but it wasn’t helpful. At least at this point in the season.

[Oracle]

FLO has our guy at #5 and IM at #4. IM elevated Barnett to #2, rightfully so. If our guy could overcome a loss to Sprately (another first year guy), then Barnett should be able to overcome a loss to Stanich since he's placed twice at NCAAs.

125 is an awesome weight this year!!! How boring is it when you have one dominant guy? Whoever peaks 3rd week in March -- could be our guy.

[martinsilvestri]

125 is an awesome weight this year!!! How boring is it when you have one dominant guy? Whoever peaks 3rd week in March -- could be our guy.

125 is there for the taking by whichever high schooler wants it bad enough.

but either way, according to the rankings posted yesterday, we have 3 guys in the top 4, and 4 guys in the top 10. can't ask for much more than that IMO.