Gopher Wrestling 2022-23

A couple highlights this season include beating #5 Oklahoma State Cowboys in their house and the announced recruiting class.

Personally, I also enjoyed the hard-battled trouncing of #22 Indiana match last night.
 



Better tighten up that seat belt because it's gonna be a bumpy ride next few weeks. Illinois has always given us trouble in the past and after that it's just #2 Iowa. Wisconsin might be ranked behind us but they just took Iowa right down to the wire so that is gonna be an electric border battle.
 



Official NCAA Rankings -- January 23, 2023 Update -- NWCA Coaches Poll

Minnesota Gophers at #12 in the nation. That's up 1 spot from last week. Moving up!


Nice Big Ten wins last week against Indiana and Purdue.

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Minnesota has an exceptional recruiting class coming in next season too! Moving up and up!
 

sadly Bfan, to get points in the NCAA tourney you need AAs. there are 80 AAs, top 8 finishes in the tourney earning placement points for their teams

based on current weight class rankings, only McKee looks to make AA. Looks like the gophers will score somewhere around 25 points, placing the team 20 or lower. Gophers would need a few wrestlers to way over perform to make a top 15 team score.

looks like even Roger Kish's NDSU will beat out the gophers in the tourney. time to consider bringing either Kish or Hahn home
 

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sadly Bfan, to get points in the NCAA tourney you need AAs. there are 80 AAs, top 8 finishes in the tourney earning placement points for their teams

based on current weight class rankings, only McKee looks to make AA. Looks like the gophers will score somewhere around 25 points, placing the team 20 or lower. Gophers would need a few wrestlers to way over perform to make a top 15 team score.

looks like even Roger Kish's NDSU will beat out the gophers in the tourney. time to consider bringing either Kish or Hahn home

I'm not connected to the wrestling community, so I don't know if you are a fringe opinion or if you are speaking for a broader audience. GopherHole can be one source of sentiment from people who know more than average.

Patrick McKee
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I think there are a few ways to measure this.

Michael Blockhus

One is the quality of recruiting at a program that historically has produced many great teams. That ebbs and flows over time for any school. I did post the recruits coming in, including bronze medalist Max McEnelly who I believe is the top ranked 195 in America.

Last year Gable Steveson of Minnesota Gophers was the greatest wrestler in the world, literally, winning the NCAA tournament wrestling for Minnesota and winning the Gold Medal before that. In fact, he probably makes the list of the more famous wrestlers in history -- several which came from Minnesota like Brock Lesnar and Verne Gagne.

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The team finished 11th at the NCAA Tournament, missing 10th by .5 points.

Jake Bergeland

Top teams in any sport, such as Duke in basketball, will vary year to year in how good they are. That's all I have to say about having a good perspective. Others would know.

I'm enjoying this season and will be going to the match against #17 Illinois today. I have no complaints. I'm just a spectator.

Aaron Nagao
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That was a terrific match! Gophers pulled off several upsets.

Illinois was favored in 60% of the matches, based on just wrestler ranking.



The wrestler that impressed me the most was #15 Jake Bergeland wrestling to his All-American form in upsetting #9 Danny Pucino.



Another match that stood out: #28 Michial Foy also nearly beat #10 Zac Braunagel, winning into the 3rd and then losing in multiple OTs.

I won't mention all the highlights. Obviously the top Gopher wrestlers all came through.


 

Select Matches: Illinois at Minnesota | Big Ten Wrestling | Jan. 28, 2023​




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Gophers continue to hold the #12 rankings, a top spot. This coaches poll comes from the NCAA website.

That Nebraska loss earlier this season stings -- and at the same time #12 is respectable.

Last weekend's Gopher action against Illinois was terrific.


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18-0 Iowa, going exactly the way we expect it would. Might break the shutout with O'Reilly leading.
 

18-0 Iowa, going exactly the way we expect it would. Might break the shutout with O'Reilly leading.

I really wanted to go to this big match. But looking at the matchups I could see it was a landslide and wouldn't want to see that.
 

Four straight wins in the second half for Gophers.

18-13. That's not bad. Better than I thought.


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The match started strong for the Gophers with two opening victories.

This is Michael Blockhus:
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Now Bailee O'Reilly just won!





Gophers doing well!
 
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Critical match! Minnesota Aaron Nagao vs. Wisconsin Taylor LaMont.

Wisconsin leads by 2 points entering this match.

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NAGAO WINS 5-1 !!!!


And now to the end:

 

Minnesota Jake Bergeland vs. Wisconsin Joseph Zargo in the finale. This decides which team wins:

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Update - Tied:


Update - Still tied:


FINAL - Bergeland wins!
 



The Badgers are not #2, NWCA has MInnesota at 12 and Wisc at 18

LOL. Sorry about that. Err... Um.... #2 among the two. LOL

I had looked at the matchups and thought the alignments looked tough for the Gophers. Great job!

Gophers win!

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Well that's not so good. By the way, does anybody know where the "Border Battle" stands right now?
Men's hockey took one of two games, women's hockey basically got swept and women's basketball lost a very winnable game.
 




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