Originally Posted by JensenS

I'd love for you to document when this has happened in the past, which years has Cornell "fallen apart" come tourney time?

Yes, please do. Consider the following. Cornell has finished at NCAAs above their final season ranking in 4 of the last 5 years, usually by several spots. The only exception was in 2009 when they were ranked #2 at season's end and finished 5th. If you want to call that "falling apart", ok, but the reality is that only one wrestler on the team fell short of their NCAA seed in 2009:

Nickerson -- seeded 2nd, placed 1st
Grey -- seeded 11th, R12
Meagher -- unseeded, DNP
Leen --- seeded 3rd, placed 3rd
Lewnes --- seeded 1st, DNP
Anceravage --- seeded 6th, placed 5th
Kerber --- unseeded, DNP
Simaz --- unseeded, placed 8th
Hammond --- unseeded, DNP

Cornell has had 4 All-Americans per year for each of the last 6 years. Those 24 AAs are more than any team over that span other than Iowa and I think one other team but I can't remember which one. Feel free to call that falling apart if you want. Personally, I don't think it fits.

Good summary. I stand corrected. Guess I was thinking about Lewnes.

I don't think you can generalize for the whole team if a tough schedule near the end helps or hurts.
Some wrestlers seemd to break down going through a brutul schedule, while others get stronger. I personally think most DI wrestlers have too many matches in a season.

I remember Indiana always seemed to hold back Joe Dubuque and "baby" him for most of the season and this worked great for him. Cornell's schedule had the tougher meets early on and then give them a little time to recover before EIWA which is a tough conference although no where close to the Big Ten.

[QUOTE=kr1963;390498]Hey OF & GBR I am surprised you guys missed this /QUOTE]

Nice article Kr. I did indeed miss it. Helps de-mystify some of Cornell's recruiting procedures as well. Poor kids with good grades...I can think of no other kind of wrestler I would want on my teams.

How can I generalize: (Appox) Oklahoma St. 28 NCAA Championships, Iowa 23 NCAA National Championships, Minnesota 3, etc. Excellent programs wrestle excellent teams.

Originally Posted by oldfart

Nice article Kr. I did indeed miss it. Helps de-mystify some of Cornell's recruiting procedures as well. Poor kids with good grades...I can think of no other kind of wrestler I would want on my teams.

Gracias olde pharte...funny how he says that the things that were the reasons why they couldn't compete are now the reasons they have an advantage.

Cornell wrestled a hell of a schedule this year. I really think it depends on the individual. Meaning I think some guys need that build up from beginning to end where they wrestle tougher competition at the end, and then I think others need that break before the NCAA's to concentrate on technique, lungs, get healthy and get rested mentally for the grind of NCAA's. But if you're in the Big Ten you don't really get the opportunity for much of a break at the end so their style is to build it up tougher as they go and head into NCAA's off of tough competition simply because that's the only option...