Cael Sanderson to Compete at This Weekend's World Team Trials
by jtothep on Jun 7, 2011 2:16 PM EDT
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When Penn State Head Wrestling Coach Cael Sanderson competed at the Northeast Regional shortly after leading the Nittany Lions to the National Championship this Spring, it was assumed to be a one-time thing--a payoff of a friendly bet with his team. At the time, he said it was 'just for fun.' Yesterday Intermat confirmed what Flowrestling reported on Sunday (h/t to OlderBudweiser in the fanshots): that Sanderson will be competing again, this time in the World Team Trials in Oklahoma City this weekend. The World Team Trials is an awesome collection of national champions, Olympians and World medalists competing for the right to represent the United States at the 2011 World Championships in Istanbul this September.
The WTT is set up as a small challenge tournament on Saturday morning, with the winner advancing to face the champion of the U.S. Open in a best-of-three finals on Saturday night. Sanderson is competing in a loaded 84kg (185.5lb) weight class that includes the top 6 finishers from April's U.S. Open in Cleveland (runner-up and 2008 Pitt national champion Keith Gavin, 4th place finisher and 2010 Missouri national champion Max Askren, to name a few) and 2011 174-pound Iowa State national champion Jon Reader. Oh, it also includes Penn State's 2011 184-pound champion, Quentin Wright.
This will be only the second time Sanderson, now 31, has competed since he retired after winning Gold in Athens in 2004, but whispers out of Penn State's Lorenzo Wrestling Room have indicated he's stayed in tip-top shape the entire time. He hasn't commented publicly yet on why he's deemed this an appropriate time for a come-back, so we'll go ahead and speculate. Maybe he's competing to keep Quentin from qualifying for an Olympic Redshirt, thereby assuring he'll be on the mats for Penn State this upcoming season. Not that the other competition at this weight class isn't capable; it should be very interesting to see how Quentin fares against this field this weekend. More likely--and more common to a wrestler's mentality--is he thinks he's still the baddest mofo around and wants to test it to see if that's still true.
As long as we're talking comeback stories and old guys testing themselves against the best, there's another weight class worth paying special attention to this weekend: 66kg / 145.5. Nittany Lion Wrestling Club wrestler, Teyon Ware (2003 & 2005 national champ at Oklahoma) defeated all comers at the U.S. Open, despite being seeded eighth. Among those he defeated en route to the championship were Iowa stud Brent Metcalf in the semis and 38-year-old Pennsylvania legend Cary Kolat in the finals, both in the mix this weekend. Also set to compete in this class on Saturday are current Nittany Lions Andrew Long and Andrew Alton. Should be very interesting.
Sad tears go out to BSD Mike, who's in Oklahoma City at present, but is scheduled to leave tomorrow, just before all the good action heats up. Intermat informs that takedownradio.com will be broadcasting the audio of the event. Check in there for updates.
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Assuming I forget about this by the time the weekend rolls around
Can you provide a summary of how the PSU guys fared? Also, I assume this isnt on TV (or on a justin.tv feed)?
Yeah, we'll see
All I saw so far was the audio. I’m around this weekend, so should be able to keep BSD updated.
jtothetweet
'If a bank president lies to the FDIC, would you put money in his bank because he walks in a breast cancer parade?,' by bellanca just narrowly edged out 'Jim Tressel cheated out of fairness,' by sma, two of bhgp's finest
I think there were some dead people beside it
jtothetweet
"You know why I carry this baseball bat around? So when I poop a wildcat I can hit him over the head." - Dan Gable
my sentiments exactly
A coach that might compete against his own student? In a legit tourney? Awesome.
You want to read about a badass?
Seriously, read some of the articles Ross links to in the story. It’s pretty crazy how amazingly awesome/insane he was.
"I shoot, I score. He shoots, I score." - Dan Gable
by ClaybornSmash on Jun 7, 2011 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions
hmmm, good idea for a post....
jtothetweet
"You know why I carry this baseball bat around? So when I poop a wildcat I can hit him over the head." - Dan Gable
I'll take the job.
"Colonel, I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field."
by ReadingRambler on Jun 7, 2011 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions
I demand an exclusive interview if that happens.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
Same place?
Sanderson sought out Penn State for more than just the chance to build national champions and bring home national championships: he also wanted to build an Olympic Training Center, and kinda has. Aspiring Olympians have come to central PA to train year-round, and it sounds like he already does that himself.
I haven’t read anything from him directly on all this, so speculation is wildly rampant here, but why wouldn’t he stay right there and keep doing his thing? Dude seems to have a nice grasp of the Calendar and how to train to reach peak performances for different important events. Couldn’t London 2012 be reached in June without any significant interruptions to continued National Championship plans?
If he’s still good enough to qualify, that is.
jtothetweet
'If a bank president lies to the FDIC, would you put money in his bank because he walks in a breast cancer parade?,' by bellanca just narrowly edged out 'Jim Tressel cheated out of fairness,' by sma, two of bhgp's finest
Yeah, I don't really see why this would change anything.
Even if he decided to continue wrestling past this weekend or even past the World Championships this September, he wouldn’t exactly be skipping out on meets or tournaments for this endeavor. As I recall there aren’t too many (any?) big international events during the November-March window that the college season takes place in. They’re primarily in late spring, the summer, and early fall.
I know in the past Iowa has had assistant coaches that continued to wrestle competitively while they were coaches. I can’t say I’ve heard of many head coaches doing it, but then again not many head coaches are in the shape that Cael is in, either. Or as good he is/was, frankly.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
Also, just for clarity
He would have to qualify at the Olympic Team Trials next year, if he were even interested, which we don’t know.
These are not those. These are the trials for the World Championships this Sept.
jtothetweet
'If a bank president lies to the FDIC, would you put money in his bank because he walks in a breast cancer parade?,' by bellanca just narrowly edged out 'Jim Tressel cheated out of fairness,' by sma, two of bhgp's finest
Thanks for clarifying
The comment about keeping Q from the Olympic redshirt through me. Though I would expect Cael to have other motivations than screwing with Q.
I'm your late night evening prostitute
by Frank O'Brien on Jun 7, 2011 3:56 PM EDT up reply actions
Me too; that was probably an irresponsible joke
jtothetweet
"You know why I carry this baseball bat around? So when I poop a wildcat I can hit him over the head." - Dan Gable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PtvLTZS4Ik
"Colonel, I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field."
Hmm.
Maybe he’s competing to keep Quentin from qualifying for an Olympic Redshirt, thereby assuring he’ll be on the mats for Penn State this upcoming season.
Man, that would be a pretty dick move.
I think it’s far more likely that he just got the itch again and wanted to give it a spin. As jtothep noted, he’s not even the oldest guy in the field when you’ve got 38-year old Kolat in there and there are some other guys that have been away from college and regular grind for quite a while.
Best of luck to him, though.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
tee hee hee
Maybe even a dick move for me to jestily speculate like that….especially after Q did all that work to get his head screwed back on straight wrt the coaching he was receiving.
I gotta admit, the offseason’s gone a little different than I expected. Bubba appears to have done more than blemish Taylor’s record—he’s gone completely dark. I haven’t heard a peep from him since the initial post-mortem interviews.
The boards seem to think DSJ is moving up to 65; do you? He’s a tall cat, too, but that would put somebody (DSJ/Lofthouse/Evans) on the bench between 65 & 74 wouldn’t it? We’ll probably have some similar crowding when Taylor moves to 65 (his ole man is really tall, but again: haven’t heard a peep), but with the backup/RS lads instead at 157 (Vollrath, Alton, English)
Some crazy big names to follow this weekend, tho. I’m psyched!
jtothetweet
'If a bank president lies to the FDIC, would you put money in his bank because he walks in a breast cancer parade?,' by bellanca just narrowly edged out 'Jim Tressel cheated out of fairness,' by sma, two of bhgp's finest
I thought the scuttlebutt at the end of the season was that Taylor was for sure moving up to 165.
Has that changed? 165 will be interesting next year with Burroughs gone (that dude was nigh-unstoppable and had some of the best double-leg takedowns I’ve ever seen) and Howe (very very) likely sitting out for an Olympic redshirt.
As for DSJ, it’s hard to say. There’s been some heavy chatter of him moving up to 165, but that was also pretty much the case a year ago. There’s also been chatter that he’s staying put. So I dunno — it’s a long, long way ‘til November, after all. But no matter how you slice it at 157/165/174, some very talented guys are likely going to be sitting on the bench for Iowa. That’s only three spots and you have guys like Mike Kelly (157/165), Nick Moore (157/165), DSJ (157/165), Ethen Lofthouse (165/174), and Mike Evans (165?/174) all fighting for those spots. Someone’s getting left out there. PSU will have the same problem at some weights, too. It’s an awful nice “problem” to have, though — high-quality depth is ALWAYS a good thing, since at the very least it enables your starters to practice against high-level competition, helping them get even better.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
Yeah, that's what I had read too-- that Taylor's very likely to move to 165
I just haven’t read it recently, like I have for DSJ doing the same. I also was surprised that Taylor didn’t show up at University Nationals and that, thus far, he’s been quiet on the freestyle circuit.
In any event, that move bumps other would-be starters to other weights or to backup spots: Dylan Alton, James Vollrath, Dirk Cowburn & James English would then be fighting for 157 or backing up Taylor at 165. Unless 174 gets vacated as we try to address our hole at 197, which we haven’t done yet as conclusively as you have. Agreed, long way til November; just thought I’d take the oppty and jump onto some rasslin chatter.
jtothetweet
"You know why I carry this baseball bat around? So when I poop a wildcat I can hit him over the head." - Dan Gable
Hey, no worries.
It’s fun to chit-chat, even when we don’t know much.
The next few months are a painfully dead time for college sports, so we gotta find chatter where we can find it.
What’s Alton’s ideal weight? Does he replace Frank the Tank at 149 after next year? Will the other Alton slide back into the lineup at 141 then or will he be fighting for a spot at 149 and 157?
On the strength of his name alone, I’m rooting for DIRK COWBURN to make your team. It’s just too fantastic.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
Yeah, the Alton's are gonna be interesting
I’ve read they want to graduate together and assume that means they’re also interested in fulfilling their 5year career together, and I assume Sanderson has no problem accommodating that, given his proclivity for use of the Redshirt. But Dylan wrestled 152 in HS, had Tank & Taylor in front of him this year and had no spot, so took the RS. Tank has one more year in 2012, so if Taylor vacates to 165 and he can beat out English/Vollrath (not sure if Cowburn’s in the mix as low as 157 or not), then 157 should be his.
Also read that Andrew had to work pretty hard cutting this whole year at 141, so, with Tank vacating 149 in 2013, maybe 2012 is the best time for Andrew to RS, get equal with his bro eligibility-wise and come back into 149 the year after. Not to mention 141 remains loaded this year even with Kennedy graduating. But as to ‘ideal weight,’ I’d think 141 is gone for the lighter one and 149 might be too small for the heavier one in 2013. Yes, that’s TWO Novembers away!
Dirk Cowburn from Coudersport had a good tourney at Uni Nat’ls, I think. And whispers from the room were he was the dominant 165 pounder this past year, but Vollrath made enough noise contributing (including the critical contribution for the B1G c-ship) that they never burned Cowburn’s RS. So, yeah, we’re all rooting for him too. I just wanna see him wrestle, which we won’t if the coaches don’t cover the 197 hole with a multiple weight bump-up, as he’ll have no shot of cracking the Taylor/Ruth/Q lineup. My guess is this is what it’ll be and we won’t see Dirk unless he can cut to 157 AND beat out Alton (neither of which is preposterous, but what the hell do I know?)
Lastly, I know McIntosh has said he wants to RS and Sanderson is almost certainly going to do that this year and go ahead and compete with some sort of plug-in at 197, but there’s certainly a case to be made to save it for the following year and trot him out there this year.
(chitty chitty chat chat)
jtothetweet
"You know why I carry this baseball bat around? So when I poop a wildcat I can hit him over the head." - Dan Gable
197
Another year of Ruggear and Ortega rotating there will make me a sad panda. I really hope McIntosh won’t redshirt
The problem with Ruggear is that he wrestles like a turtle. Granted, if I tried to wrestle in the Big Ten I would wrestle like a turtle too, but still.
"Colonel, I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field."
by ReadingRambler on Jun 7, 2011 9:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, a lot of guys to squeeze into one lineup there.
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
Re: McIntosh… it’s tough for true freshmen to be really good at the college level. It happens, but they’re definitely the exceptions and not the rule. It seems even rarer at the higher weights like 197.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
Note:
It should be spelled out as DIRK COWBURN FROM COUDERSPORT. Always and forever.
"Colonel, I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field."
by ReadingRambler on Jun 7, 2011 5:16 PM EDT up reply actions
Jenkins
Bubba is following Phil Davis’ career path and is going pro
http://mmaweekly.com/2011-ncaa-champion-wrestler-bubba-jenkins-moving-to-mma-signs-with-american-top-team
They don't pump gas, they pump their fists!
by OlderBudweiser on Jun 7, 2011 7:11 PM EDT up reply actions
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