WVU Injuries at the Southeast Open

[Bearhugger]

WVU led the field with injuries at the Southeast Open.

An injury is defined as a default or a M Forfeit. The information was collected from the brackets provided on Flo Wrestling.

The following schools participated and their corresponding injuries are provided:

WVU: 5
UNC: 4
Columbia: 2
Tiffen: 1
UVA: 1
GWU: 1
Va Tech: 1
Newberry: 0
App State: 0
Davidson: 0
Franklin & Marshall: 0
Liberty Christian: 0
Roanoke College: 0
SE RTC: 0
Citadel: 0
Unaffiliated – Unattached: 0
VMI: 0

What are your thoughts?

[armyscot0873]

Medical forfeits are common in college. They don't count against your record so it seems a lot of times that wrestlers will take a medical forfiet when they feel they have wrestled enough. Go back and look at the medical forfeits from the Big 10 tournament the last few years and then those wrestlers wrestle 2 weeks later in the NCAAs. Teams use it to cut down on wear and tear where the risk out weights reward. The only way to stop the "non-medical" med forfeits is for the NCAA to count it as a loss. We won't know what the real injuries are until we hear from WVU.

[Jon Perkins]

My guess is that the biggest reason for the forfeits is illness. Colton Drousias was in the bracket and didn't wrestle a match. He obviously weighed in or else he would have been scratched from the bracket, so I would say that he was sick. I watched Peyton Hall wrestle his only match and even though he didn't look bad, he didn't look sharp either. I do know that Jordan Titus did in fact hurt himself and forfeited out because of injury. Again, I am just guessing but I would say that illness had a part to play in it and maybe they are banged up a little bit and forfeiting was just a preventive measure to keep from really getting injured.

[Letsgooo]

Hope nothing serious

[KDunbar]

Did not look at the brackets and don't intend to, but did WVU have significantly more wrestlers than a lot of the other schools? I did notice from the WVU results listed on another post that there were only between 9 to 16 guys in each weight class and a couple weights with only 5 to 8 wrestlers. With 15 other schools listed, and I don't know how many unattached wrestlers, obviously many of the schools had apparently only a handful of wrestlers. I do realize there were 2 "categories" for each of the 10 weight classes. Combine this with WVU having 2 wrestlers in 3 weight classes, 3 wrestlers in 2 weight classes, and 4 wrestlers in 1 weight class (those 4 wrestlers made up at least one forth of that weight class). In addition, Drousias would have given WVU actually 27 participants instead of 26, and he is counted as one of the 5 medical forfeits, but didn't actually wrestle, so really only 4, not 5. His situation would certainly point towards the possibility of a "flu bug" of some sort affecting some of the team instead of "injuries". Just a thought.

[Jon Perkins]

I don't think WVU had any more wrestlers at the Southeast Open than any other team. In the 149-pound weight class, Open Division, UNC had 8 guys in that bracket. Each weight class in the Open Division and in the Fresh/Soph division all had 16-man brackets and many weight classes had to use a 32-man bracket. Most of the Open Tournaments do not have a lot of teams signed up, but this allows each team to bring multiple guys in each weight class and each wrestler can get 4 or 5 matches in a day, most of the time.

[Bearhugger]

Did not look at the brackets and don't intend to, but did WVU have significantly more wrestlers than a lot of the other schools? I did notice from the WVU results listed on another post that there were only between 9 to 16 guys in each weight class and a couple weights with only 5 to 8 wrestlers. With 15 other schools listed, and I don't know how many unattached wrestlers, obviously many of the schools had apparently only a handful of wrestlers. I do realize there were 2 "categories" for each of the 10 weight classes. Combine this with WVU having 2 wrestlers in 3 weight classes, 3 wrestlers in 2 weight classes, and 4 wrestlers in 1 weight class (those 4 wrestlers made up at least one forth of that weight class). In addition, Drousias would have given WVU actually 27 participants instead of 26, and he is counted as one of the 5 medical forfeits, but didn't actually wrestle, so really only 4, not 5. His situation would certainly point towards the possibility of a "flu bug" of some sort affecting some of the team instead of "injuries". Just a thought.

We can slice and dice everything however we want to. All schools have to deal with the flu bug, Covid 19, Covid 26 and the clap. Injuries are part of all sports and all programs.

WVU had at least 4 starters not finish the opening competition of the season. 10 weight classes minus 4 (or five) starters injured or on "precautionary" status = 6 or operating at 60%. HopefullY ALL are ok.

We have been slicing and dicing in WVU's favor for five years now. This season SHOULD surpass the previous two season's performance. If it doesn't, when will it happen??

[Jon Perkins]

Operating at 60 percent? Who cares about the Southeast Open? All it is, is an opportunity for teams to compete to see where their progression is. There were a lot of starters from the other teams that didn't even wrestle, probably because of minor injuries, illness, or maybe still trying to get their weight down. I guarantee that in March no one will be talking about how many champions one team had at the Southeast Open, the Michigan State Open, the Bearcat Open, or the Mountaineer Open. Would it have been nice to have 5 or 6 guys in the finals and 4 or 5 guys wrestling for 3rd place? Of course, because that shows a much stronger team, operating at close to 100 percent. The reality is that NCAA wrestling is tough, and injuries occur all the time but you have to be smart in dealing with them. Forfeiting out of the Southeast Open is much better than not being able to compete in the Midlands Tournament or even in Big 12 Tournament, all because you wanted to be a dum-dum and try to tough out an injury just to win a 50-cent medal at the Southeast Open. To have a team operating at 100%, 100% of the time is just not reality.

I believe that this team has already surpassed last year's team, they have 5 guys ranked in the top 30 in a few different rankings. WVU hasn't had that many guys ranked that high in the last 10 years. We are only two weeks into a long season, let's just see what happens.

[Bearhugger]

Operating at 60 percent? Who cares about the Southeast Open? All it is, is an opportunity for teams to compete to see where their progression is. There were a lot of starters from the other teams that didn't even wrestle, probably because of minor injuries, illness, or maybe still trying to get their weight down. I guarantee that in March no one will be talking about how many champions one team had at the Southeast Open, the Michigan State Open, the Bearcat Open, or the Mountaineer Open. Would it have been nice to have 5 or 6 guys in the finals and 4 or 5 guys wrestling for 3rd place? Of course, because that shows a much stronger team, operating at close to 100 percent. The reality is that NCAA wrestling is tough, and injuries occur all the time but you have to be smart in dealing with them. Forfeiting out of the Southeast Open is much better than not being able to compete in the Midlands Tournament or even in Big 12 Tournament, all because you wanted to be a dum-dum and try to tough out an injury just to win a 50-cent medal at the Southeast Open. To have a team operating at 100%, 100% of the time is just not reality.

I believe that this team has already surpassed last year's team, they have 5 guys ranked in the top 30 in a few different rankings. WVU hasn't had that many guys ranked that high in the last 10 years. We are only two weeks into a long season, let's just see what happens.

The point is if your team is banged up bad by the first week of competition, the team will be focusing on GETTING healthy rather than staying healthy.

This team has NOT surpassed last season's team. I have heard that "rankings don't matter'.

To surpass last season's team, we need to do the following:

1. Win at least two Big 12 conference duals.

2. Qualify at least 5 wrestlers for the NCAA.

3. Produce at least two NCAA All Americans.

There may more performance indicators but these three must be part of the list.

Its time now to focus on the next competition.

[Bearhugger]

Operating at 60 percent? Who cares about the Southeast Open? All it is, is an opportunity for teams to compete to see where their progression is. There were a lot of starters from the other teams that didn't even wrestle, probably because of minor injuries, illness, or maybe still trying to get their weight down. I guarantee that in March no one will be talking about how many champions one team had at the Southeast Open, the Michigan State Open, the Bearcat Open, or the Mountaineer Open. Would it have been nice to have 5 or 6 guys in the finals and 4 or 5 guys wrestling for 3rd place? Of course, because that shows a much stronger team, operating at close to 100 percent. The reality is that NCAA wrestling is tough, and injuries occur all the time but you have to be smart in dealing with them. Forfeiting out of the Southeast Open is much better than not being able to compete in the Midlands Tournament or even in Big 12 Tournament, all because you wanted to be a dum-dum and try to tough out an injury just to win a 50-cent medal at the Southeast Open. To have a team operating at 100%, 100% of the time is just not reality.

I believe that this team has already surpassed last year's team, they have 5 guys ranked in the top 30 in a few different rankings. WVU hasn't had that many guys ranked that high in the last 10 years. We are only two weeks into a long season, let's just see what happens.

The point is if your team is banged up bad by the first week of competition, the team will be focusing on GETTING healthy rather than staying healthy.

This team has NOT surpassed last season's team. I have heard that "rankings don't matter'.

To surpass last season's team, we need to do the following:

1. Win at least two Big 12 conference duals.

2. Qualify at least 5 wrestlers for the NCAA.

3. Produce at least two NCAA All Americans.

There may more performance indicators but these three must be part of the list.

Its time now to focus on the next competition.

I will also add that the three indicators listed above are very, very achievable this season. It would be a disaster not to meet or surpass these three.

[JohnK73]

Bearhugger, are you even a fan of WVU wrestling, or just a just an internet troll?

[Bearhugger]

Bearhugger, are you even a fan of WVU wrestling, or just a just an internet troll?

Interesting question. Whereas I put in many miles to come and watch WV wrestling at the high school and college level, I think that removes me from being an Internet Troll. However, opinions vary.

Am I a WVU wrestling fan? I would like to be.

[KDunbar]

My only point was that you were trying to make a negative point regarding the WVU program at this eatly stage of the season and you tried to validate that point by comparing the factor you were deciding to focus on by making a comparison to the other programs participating. So I wasn't trying to cut WVU a break, but fair is fair and if other programs only sent 30% of their starters and even had no defaults, WVU was still 100% ahead of those programs just functioning at the 60% level. So using the criteria you were using, that is the only statistical point you could actually make. I might agree with you that all of us WVU fans might have hoped for better results over the past few years, but I think if you reflect on your initial post it rings with a sound of gloom and doom (based on the past) before this college season has really even started as these events are just warmups/tuneups for programs so they don't have to just battle aganst teammates day after day. I believe this aspect of the early college wrestling season is significantly different than the high school season, thus unattached wrestlers, independent wrestlers, freshman/ sophmore divisions, partial teams, unimportance of team finishing position, etc.

[Bearhugger]

My only point was that you were trying to make a negative point regarding the WVU program at this eatly stage of the season and you tried to validate that point by comparing the factor you were deciding to focus on by making a comparison to the other programs participating. So I wasn't trying to cut WVU a break, but fair is fair and if other programs only sent 30% of their starters and even had no defaults, WVU was still 100% ahead of those programs just functioning at the 60% level. So using the criteria you were using, that is the only statistical point you could actually make. I might agree with you that all of us WVU fans might have hoped for better results over the past few years, but I think if you reflect on your initial post it rings with a sound of gloom and doom (based on the past) before this college season has really even started as these events are just warmups/tuneups for programs so they don't have to just battle aganst teammates day after day. I believe this aspect of the early college wrestling season is significantly different than the high school season, thus unattached wrestlers, independent wrestlers, freshman/ sophmore divisions, partial teams, unimportance of team finishing position, etc.

I made an honest, factual observation that was a negative. As a fan, I was following the action. Injuries started happening. More injuries continued.
This is not a good thing for the first competition on the season. I then decided to go through the entire tournament to see what was happening to the other teams. The tallies were what they were.

I have no idea on who the other teams brought and didn't bring. But if we were going to expand into that somehow, Cardinale didn't compete. Word is he is hurt.

My initial post only rang of facts.

Wrestling is wrestling. Injuries are injuries. Based on who was listed for Binghamton, 4 of the 5 were planning on seeing action.

[Bearhugger]

Operating at 60 percent? Who cares about the Southeast Open? All it is, is an opportunity for teams to compete to see where their progression is. There were a lot of starters from the other teams that didn't even wrestle, probably because of minor injuries, illness, or maybe still trying to get their weight down. I guarantee that in March no one will be talking about how many champions one team had at the Southeast Open, the Michigan State Open, the Bearcat Open, or the Mountaineer Open. Would it have been nice to have 5 or 6 guys in the finals and 4 or 5 guys wrestling for 3rd place? Of course, because that shows a much stronger team, operating at close to 100 percent. The reality is that NCAA wrestling is tough, and injuries occur all the time but you have to be smart in dealing with them. Forfeiting out of the Southeast Open is much better than not being able to compete in the Midlands Tournament or even in Big 12 Tournament, all because you wanted to be a dum-dum and try to tough out an injury just to win a 50-cent medal at the Southeast Open. To have a team operating at 100%, 100% of the time is just not reality.

I believe that this team has already surpassed last year's team, they have 5 guys ranked in the top 30 in a few different rankings. WVU hasn't had that many guys ranked that high in the last 10 years. We are only two weeks into a long season, let's just see what happens.

The point is if your team is banged up bad by the first week of competition, the team will be focusing on GETTING healthy rather than staying healthy.

This team has NOT surpassed last season's team. I have heard that "rankings don't matter'.

To surpass last season's team, we need to do the following:

1. Win at least two Big 12 conference duals.

2. Qualify at least 5 wrestlers for the NCAA.

3. Produce at least two NCAA All Americans.

There may more performance indicators but these three must be part of the list.

Its time now to focus on the next competition.

WVU won two Big 12 duals. #1 listed above was met.

Good luck on the hunt for performance indicator #2.

[Bearhugger]

The NCAA rules committee must be reading WVMat.com. A job well done for the upcoming rule change pertaining to medical forfeits.