ASIJ traveled to the Navy base at Yokosuka for the 27th annual Beast of the Far East tournament on Saturday. The Mustangs improved on last year's results (5th, 5 placewinners, 33 points) by placing 4th, putting 8 wrestlers on the winners podium, and 45 team points. The highlight of the day was Rin's domination of the 158 pound weight class for a championship. Other teams scored as follows: Kubasaki - 65, St. Mary's - 50, Shonan (local Japanese team) - 46, Kinnick - 40, Yokota - 36, M.C. Perry - 13, Zama - 12, Kadena - 8, CAJ - 7, Edgren - 3, E.J. King - 0. It was nice to see E.J. King back with a team and nice to be within one match of the next two teams, but it was not nice to see Kubasaki above the typical top tier. Living up to his reputation as the best wrestler in the tournament, Rin made his tough opponents look like beginners at 158. His first match against a Kubasaki kid who thought he was the cat's meow ended with Rin on top 10-0 after 1:20 for the tech fall win. He repeated that performance against the best wrestler on the Edgren team (took 10 seconds longer than the first match...) to move to the finals where he saw a St. Mary's foe who had likewise dominated his competition to that point. Not satisfied with a 10-point win, Rin was up 8-0 when he drew out a 4-pt move from his quiver and shot it straight through the heart of his opponent's hope of even getting on the scoreboard, winning 12-0. It's hard to overstate how good he is. The guys he makes look foolish are being recruited to wrestle at college and winning all the time against "regular" kids. Oh, by the way, his winning streak is now up to 34, and he hasn't allowed a point the whole season. There was a girl from Shonan at the Beast last year who bulldozed all the boys in her path to the championship. She was back this year and looked as tough as ever - strong, fast, highly skilled. Bryce beat the Kinnick and Kubasaki kids at 108 via 10-0 tech and pin, respectively, to pit the immovable object against the unstoppable force in the finals. He did take her down and was the only person who went the full six minutes against her but, it was not to be. Bryce took home the silver and all the boys are glad they won't see her again (until next year's Beast...). We got some bad draws in the seedings, and Take was one of them at 129. While he dispatched his first round Edgren foe without argument in a 10-0 tech in under a minute, in the semifinals he went against an absolute beast from Shonan who eats, drinks, and sleeps wrestling year-round. The Shonan wrestler scored more points (deleted comment about Japanese refs and the feeder school for their future olympians) than anyone has ever scored against him, but Take provided a Hollywood finish. He didn't panic and wrestled smart, getting a takedown that he turned into a pin with 30 seconds left, and the literally the entire crowd - all schools' kids, coaches, parents, and fans - went wild! It was like Rocky in the USSR (I'm selling the script, and no Netflix...this is Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures-level stuff). In the finals he saw an old foe from St. Mary's, scored first, wrestled tough for 5:58 and got thrown in the last 2 seconds to place second. Liam was hoping for someone to be up to his level at some point during the season at 180, but this massive tournament proved to be a disappointment as he breezed through his first two opponents from Yokota and Kinnick by a combined 20-0 in a minute's worth of actual wrestling time. The finals, on the other hand, would prove to be a different story. He was facing a wrestler who won a state championship in Florida before moving to Kubasaki to tear apart any helpless victim who stood across the mat from him in Okinawa this season. Liam represented the black and gold well with a valiant effort, even getting a nice shot in before a moment of hesitation was enough for the foe to counter it on the way to a tech fall. Liam's 2nd place finish was, incredibly, the lowest of his campaign this season. At 215 Dani got an unfavorable draw to go against Edgren's 2nd toughest kid in his first match. He showed that he's now in the top tier of the weight class by thoroughly dominating his foe in a 12-2 tech fall victory. Unfortunately, he also had the eventual champ from Yokota in his side of the bracket, and that one did not go as well, ending in a pin and dropping him to the consolation bracket. Down there, Dani gave the boy from Kadena his second loss (pin). In the match for 3rd, he beat the Shonan wrestler in a decision that went down to the wire with the 7-7 tie being decided by criteria (Dani had more "big points" due to his 4-pt takedown). To get to the 3rd place match, you need to lose once before the finals. The earlier you lose, the more opponents you have to go through to get back up to placewinner territory. Kaisei (L-Kubasaki, W-Kinnick, L-St. Mary's), Ira (W-CAJ, W-Kubasaki, L-Shonan [scored most against eventual champ], W-St. Mary's, L-Zama), and Ricky (L-Yokota, W-Edgren, W-Kadena, W-MC Perry, L-Yokota) took 4th, giving ASIJ the most placewinners at the Beast of the East since at least 2007. The rest of the varsity lineup had as good a showing as you can have without making the medals round: Leon (W-Yokota, L-Kubasaki [1st], L-Kadena[4th]), Kai (L-Shonan [1st]), Luke (L-Shonan [3rd], L-Kinnick), Shawn (L-Kubasaki, W-Kadena, W-Zama, L-MC Perry [4th]), Nathanial (L-Kinnick [4th], L-Kubasaki [3rd]). The long day of wrestling provided a great preview of the level of skill, the stamina required (in-match and throughout the day), and the atmosphere that we'll see at Far East. Figuring there are probably at least another one or two good wrestlers from the Korean school in each weight class, each wrestler now knows how they stack up currently and where they need to go in the next three weeks to have their hand raised when it really counts. Up next is a dual meet at Kinnick on Wednesday night. It looks like it will be another close one. They are still very much in the hunt for a regular season conference championship and will give us their best shot. The results will also be the last data point that affect seeings for the conference tournament on Saturday. Let's also remember that a victory against Kinnick keeps our slim chances for a regular season conference championship still alive (a subsequent Kinnick win over St. Mary's on February 5th would produce a 3-way tie at 4-1 for each school).
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ASIJ lit up the Knights of the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) 44-13 in a dual meet Thursday. The victory puts the Mustangs at 3-1 in conference with one dual meet remaining against Kinnick next Wednesday. The coaches split the team in two, a move they had planned for a different situation earlier in the season that never came to pass, bringing a mix of experience and potential to the dual meet. The other half of the team remained at ASIJ to prepare for Saturday's Beast of the East tournament and make up for practices lost due to illness and the school schedule. For the main event, CAJ had several holes in their lineup, so the Mustangs took forfeits (which give the maximum number of team points - 5, the same as a pin) at multiple weights. Kaisei (101), Kayra (108), Michiru (129), Kaz (135), Harald (168), and Dani (215) got their hands raised without breaking a sweat. In competed matches, Leon's fall by tech disallowed the max points to his 115 foe, making a CAJ win in the dual meet mathematically impossible. Aaryan appeared a little tentative in his first conference match, so his 122-pound opponent took the initiative with a 4-point-move-to-pin series of moves. Starting off nicely at 141, Isak got a throw for 4-pts, but he gave up the roll-through and an eventual tech fall. Looking to get the Mustangs back on track, Luke snapped down the Knight at 148, found he had a tight grip, and gut-rolled several times on the way to a 10-0 tech fall win. Shawn built on his brother's win with a takedown-to-West Point pin in 37 seconds at 158. Facing their strongest wrestler at 180, Liam one-upped his kohai-tachi with a pretty-as-you-please double leg-to-pin combo in 35 seconds. (It's not a race, guys...but fast pins are fun.) Graciously accepting a round of exhibition matches, CAJ offered up their varsity lineup to let us get some experience under our belts. Michiru showed patience in looking for the right opening and, when he found it, he made a precision strike that led to an almost immediate pin at 122. Kaz had the right idea but couldn't quite get the execution to follow along as he fell via tech wrestling up a weight at 141. Taking back one he let slip a few minutes earlier, Isak went up to 148 to give a "this is how you do it!" demonstration on the 'gator-roll-to-pin combo. Harald showed off his strength up at 180 by powering into a 4-pt takedown before inexperience allowed his opponent to do the same, along with a pin. Luke avenged his teammates, taking down and West-ing the 141 Knight for a pin in less than a minute. "Giving newer wrestlers some varsity experience will pave the way as they grow in the sport," coach Adam Carlson said of the dual meet before reiterating, "Experience is valuable." There's a short turnaround before the Beast of the East tournament on Saturday. We are slated to see 12 teams, including all six KPASS schools, Edgren, MC Perry, EJ King, Kubasaki, Kadena, and a Japanese teams, Shonan. The ASIJ wrestling team came in 3rd out of 6 teams at the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) tournament on Saturday. The Mustangs crowned 2 individual champions and placed 9 wrestlers on the podium. The other participants were 1st - St. Mary's International School (SMIS), 2nd - Nile C. Kinnick High School (Kinnick), 4th - Zama Middle High School (Zama), 5th - Yokota High School, and 6th - CAJ. As an open tournament, JV wrestlers were allowed to participate. ASIJ had several JV wrestlers attend and, incredibly, 2 placed in the top three of their weight class. CAJ formatted the brackets differently for different weight classes, so some had a standard bracket and some had pool play where the winners of the two pools wrestled for 1st. There was no seeding, and ASIJ wrestlers ended up facing each other at times. Bryce led the charge for the lowers weights, defeating all comers at 108 for his second championship in as many weeks. In a replay of last week's unseeded tournament, he faced the top opponent and reining Far East champ in his first match, squeezing out a close 3-2 win over Kinnick. From there it was smooth sailing with a pin of Yokota in less than a minute in the next round and a 12-2 tech fall victory against another Kinnick in the finals. At 180 Liam is the clear favorite in the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools (KPASS, Kanto) conference. He swept aside his pool opponents with 11-0 and 10-0 wins over CAJ and Kinnick, respectively, and pinned the other pool's top wrestler from SMIS to place 1st. Liam referenced his most anticipated challenge next week when asked about his championship. "I just wrestled hard, and I plan to do the same thing next week against Kubasaki," he said. Other placewinners at the CAJ tournament were: 2nd - Gregor (JV): W-SMIS, W-ASIJ/Kaisei, L-SMIS (first matches of the year) 2nd - Ricky: W-CAJ, W-SMIS, L-SMIS (personal best) 3rd - Kaisei: L-SMIS, L-ASIJ/Gregor, W-SMIS 3rd - Leon: W-Kinnick, L-CAJ, W-injury forfeit 3rd - Isak (JV): W-ASIJ/Emile, W-ASIJ/Joey, L-Kinnick (personal best) 3rd - Shawn: bye, L-SMIS, W-SMIS 3rd - Dani: bye, W-Zama, L-Yokota Regarding the team's showing at CAJ, coach Adam Carlson said, "This tournament gave us a good preview of Kanto Finals. While having wrestlers out with illness can be frustrating, I was glad to see that we could still finish so well despite missing half of our varsity line up. If wrestlers are getting sick, it’s better that it happens now than during Beast or Kanto Finals." Also wrestling were Katsumi (L-CAJ), Michiru (L-Zama, L-Yokota), Rin (W-Yokota), Keibun (W-SMIS, L-SMIS, L-Kinnick), Kayra (L-Yokota, W-Yokota), Aaryan (L-Kinnick, L-Kinnick, L-SMIS--really tough pool), Kazuma (L-SMIS, L-Kinnick), Take K (L-SMIS, L-SMIS), Emile (L-ASIJ/Isak, L-Kinnick, W-ASIJ/Joey), Joey (L-Kinnick, L-ASIJ/Isak, L-ASIJ/Emile), Alex (L-SMIS, L-SMIS), and Connor (L-Zama, L-Kinnick, W-Kinnick). Coach Rei Suzuki summed up the day by saying, "We wrestled well as a team despite missing both captains and a few other wrestlers. The team is steadily improving. We still need to work on a few things, but I feel we are in a good position heading into the tough tournaments (Beast, Kanto Finals) coming up in the next couple of weeks. We just need to stay healthy!" The team will visit CAJ Thursday night. On Saturday, January 25, the Mustangs will travel to Yokosuka for the Beast of the East hosted by Kinnick. The Beast often functions as a seeding mechanism for Far East. While the Kanto area teams see each other frequently, the farther schools (Ernest J. King-Sasebo, Matthew C. Perry-Iwakuni, Robert D. Edgren-Misawa) are slated to be there. The Okinawa teams (Kubasaki, Kadena) mainly wrestle each other, as do the Korea teams (Daegu, Humphreys, Osan, and Seoul Foreign), so it's a good opportunity to go against the unfamiliar foes before Far East. ASIJ hosted a pair of conference teams for dual meets Wednesday night. The Mustangs split the double header, dropping a close one to St. Mary's International School (SMIS) 32-28 and beating Zama Middle High School (ZMHS) 51-10. This puts the team at 2-1 in conference, good for 3rd place behind SMIS (3-0) and Kinnick (1-0). The dual meet versus St. Mary's started with Kaisei doing well against a skillful opponent at 101 until getting caught in a pin move just before the end of the first period. Bryce kept his perfect record intact with a 10-0 technical fall over the returning Far East runner-up at 108. Katsumi took the reins back over at 115 but couldn't rein in his foe and fell to a pin move. Ira showed why he's a team captain with a dominant 11-0 tech fall at 122 to put the score at ASIJ 8, SMIS 10. Taking on the returning Far East champ was Mich at 129. He was within 1-0 after the first period but got caught in a pin move in the second. Kai was leading his 135 opponent 4-2 before getting his feet caught in a tangle used to roll him for exposures until a 15-4 tech loss. Ricky wrestled his best match of the year so far against a nonstop Energizer bunny at 141, but giving up a last-second takedown after not getting an exposure call left him on the wrong end of a 7-7 tiebreaker. SMIS had a 22-8 lead at this point. Looking to turn things around in a big way, Rin came out like a lion at 148 against an undefeated (7-0) Titan, pinning him in less than a minute in utterly dominating fashion. Looking to keep things rolling against the meat of the St. Mary's lineup at 148, Keibun stood strong but ultimately fell by pin. Shawn got a Russian two-on-one to start off at 168, but last year's Far East runner up turned it around for the pin and an insurmountable 32-13 lead. Disregarding the mathematical impossibility of a comeback, Liam set up a beautiful double leg takedown that led straight to a pin at 180. Dani was the first Mustang to follow a win with a win as he pinned his opponent at 215 in 30 seconds. Nathanial followed that up by taking a forfeit at heavyweight to string together 15 straight points, which was just short of a comeback as the scoreboard read 32-28 with no more weights left to wrestle. Coach Adam Carlson said, "We lost to St. Mary's. We can either let that drag us down or use this loss as motivation." Zama has more than doubled the size of their team from last season, but it didn't help them much against the Mustangs looking to purge the bitter taste of a close loss from their system. Kaisei and Katsumi took forfeits at 101 and 115, respectively. Between them Bryce continued to impress at 108 with a first period pin. ASIJ led 15-0 after the first three weights. Going against an old foe who has improved dramatically, Ira got slightly sloppy and paid for it by getting pinned at 122. Michiru quickly swung the momentum back at 129 with a 30 second pin. Kai took a forfeit at 135 to get back in the win column the easy way. Ricky went against a first year wrestler with a real knack for the sport and a penchant for picking off experienced wrestlers at 141 - but Ricky didn't let it happen to him, earning a 12-2 tech fall that pushed ASIJ's lead to 29-5. Rin went against the second best Trojan, but it looked like a drill session at practice; it ended in a 10-0 tech fall at 148. Shawn went up 6-0 before pinning his 158-pound foe in less than a minute. Swapping weights with Shawn, Keibun took on the 168 pounder for ZMHS, pinning him out of a 4-pt move in less than a minute and extending ASIJ's lead 43-5 In the upper weights, Liam executed four textbook double leg takedowns for a one-minute, 12-0 tech fall. Not to be outdone, Dani scored 11 straight in 49 seconds to tech his Trojan at 215. In Nathanial's first actual wrestling match of his career, he went against a guy who has only lost to undefeated-in-his-career Marshall China. He found out the hard way that you don't want to get underneath the heavy's as he fell via pin to put the final score at 51-10. During the intermission between the two dual meets, SMIS JV wrestlers ran into an ASIJ buzzsaw. Leon won by pin at 115 and continues to look good. Emile, wrestling in his first match, got the pin in 29 seconds - nice way to start off a wrestling career. Connor pinned his foe at 148 to go 2-0 overall this season against SMIS. Matt mixed things up a little bit by getting his win by tech fall, 10-0. This was a very nice palette cleanser after the SMIS dual meet and gave a glimpse of what's to come. With some sweet and bitter already under their belts, the Mustangs will be set to test their mettle in another open-style (not varsity-only) tournament at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) on Saturday, January 18. Four JV Mustangs went a combined 0-8 against varsity competition at the CAJ tournament last year but, based on what we've seen so far this season, we can expect a lot more wins from a lot more wrestlers this year. The Mustangs came out red hot in the Yokota tournament on Saturday, Jan 10. After a long day of competing, ASIJ finished in 1st place with 79 team points over Kinnick (66), St. Mary's (60), Yokota (42), Edgren (14), and CAJ (7). It was an open-style tournament, so there were no varsity-JV distinctions, allowing all the schools to bring their full teams. ASIJ came away with 5 champions and 15 placewinners. Having two placewinners at three different weight classes (129, 135, 148) showed the depth of the team's strength. Commenting on the team's performance, Coach Adam Carlson said, "I was proud of how hard our guys worked, and it was gratifying to hear the refs praising them." "We're way ahead of where we were last year," added Coach Rei Suzuki, "and we're on course to have a great year!" Revelations: At 108 Bryce announced his arrival to the world by beating the returning Far East champ from Kinnick 6-0 following a first round bye in the seed-less bracket. He pinned his way through the semifinals and finals for a gold medal in his first high school tournament. Last year Kai H got pinned in his lone varsity match and, even after pinning his opening opponent of the season in December, the jury was still out as to how high his ceiling could be. He answered that question loud and clear by scoring 48 points across 4 straight tech-fall victories over Edgren, St. Mary's, Kinnick, and Yokota, bringing another championship to ASIJ at 135. These two secret weapons are now known to our rivals. They'll have targets on their backs from here on out, so every team will be giving them their best shot, and expectations from Mustang Nation will be through the roof. What wonderful revelations these two were! After getting pins in less than a minute in the quarterfinals and semifinals against Edgren and ASIJ (Aaryan), Take faced his toughest competition in the finals at 129. He put the St. Mary's foe to his back to set the tone for the match and wrestled smart the rest of the way to win 9-2 and take the gold. Everyone (OK, maybe not St. Mary's fans) is so glad he's on our team and that he got this win. Taking just over 3 minutes of total wrestling time, Rin quickly dispatched 4 opponents from CAJ, St. Mary's, ASIJ (Connor), and Yokota to win the 148 crown. He allowed zero points, bettering his record of allowing less than 1 point-per-match last season, and extended his winning streak to 32 straight. Watching him wrestle is...it's amazing. Liam came into the season with high expectations, and he hurdled them on the way to a championship at 180. He followed a first round bye with a pin of Edgren and a pin of CAJ in the finals. He was so dominant in both matches that there was no question about the outcome, only the when and how he'd choose to get there. Suffice it to say, he's looking good. Starting with a couple byes at 215, Dani took it to his semifinal opponent from St. Mary's, outscoring him 10-0 for the tech and appearance in the finals. There he saw a long, strong, and somewhat unorthodox Yokota wrestler who he caught in a nice dump move to stake out a 6-0 lead. After giving up a takedown but nothing else, he was the one to get caught in a pin move that he couldn't escape to finish with a silver, matching his personal best finish from last season's conference tournament. Wrestlers who won all their matches to get into the quarterfinals but lost there went against the other quarterfinal loser for 3rd place. On top of the 6 in the finals, ASIJ had an incredible 9 going for 3rd. Winners of that match were Kaisei (101, bye, bye, L-Kinnick, W-St. Mary's), Leon (115, bye, bye, L-St. Mary's, W-Kinnick), Ira (122, bye, W-CAJ, L-Yokota, W-Kinnick), Connor (148, W-St. Mary's, W-ASIJ/Karson, L-ASIJ/Rin, W-Edgren), Shawn (158, W-St. Mary's, W-ASIJ/Keibun, L-St. Mary's, W-Kinnick), and Harald (168, bye, W-Kinnick, L-St. Mary's, W-Yokota). Taking 4th place were Aaryan (129, bye, W-Yokota, L-ASIJ/Take, L-Kinnick), JonJon (135, bye, W-St. Mary's, L-Yokota, L-Kinnick), and Ricky (141, bye, W-St. Mary's, L-Kinnick, L-St. Mary's). The tournament was set up to be single elimination until the semifinals, so there was no opportunity for wrestlers knocked out before then to wrestle back for 5th. The seeds were chosen at random, so sometimes the brackets were very unforgiving for our guys - a first round bye or fellow JV wrestler is a much better draw than last year's Far East champ. Mustangs seeing action at the tournament included Karson (W-Kinnick, L-ASIJ/Connor), Shaun (L-Kinnick), Kaz (L-Yokota), Isak (L-St. Mary's), Joey (L-St. Mary's), Alex (L-CAJ), Luke (L-Yokota), and Keibun (L-ASIJ/Shawn). This Wednesday, ASIJ will host St. Mary's and Zama at the high school gym for our last home action of the season. Zama has some good wrestlers and a much larger team than in recent years. The St. Mary's dual should be a close, hard-fought affair that requires us to be on the top of our game. The winner will be in the driver's seat for the regular season conference championship, which would be the first time ASIJ was back on top of the conference since 2007! Below is a link to a spreadsheet with the results of all the matches published in Stars and Stripes, along with some that are incomplete or can be inferred (highlighted in yellow). Note that there are likely some errors, and there is lots of missing info (e.g. results from Edgren vs Yokota on Dec 14).
Filtering the columns by school or weight class will reduce the size of the list. Sort the filtered list by date or name or any other category. The google spreadsheet that pops up is sorted by school and weight, but it can be adjusted any way the user sees fit. Google Spreadsheet As the second semester begins, so does the meat of the ASIJ wrestling team's dual meet and tournament schedule.
The Mustangs come face-to-face with four foes from the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools (KPASS or Kanto) conference over the next three weeks. That grueling stretch begins this coming week with a double-dual meet when a rising Zama team (1-1 KPASS, 4-5 overall) and undefeated St. Marys (2-0, 2-0) come to ASIJ on Jan 15. This will be the last home contest of the season, and the atmosphere should be electric! Zama was fighting to stay out of last place in the conference last season, but they started off this season with a 3-1 dual meet record. Their lineup features undefeated or one-loss wrestlers at 122, 129, and heavyweight, and they have nearly a full lineup that has amassed a 46-29 record in individual matches so far, which is a significant difference from last year's mini-team. St. Mary's defeated Yokota (0-3, 1-10) and Zama easily in dual meets, and they came in 3rd out of 7 tough teams at the Rumble on the Rock tournament in December. Their lineup looks pretty tough up and down. Though the Titans are missing a heavyweight, have only one undefeated at 141/148, and don't feature an "unbeatable" wrestler at any weight, their 31-12 record in individual matches so far shows a very strong winning percentage. A dual meet at CAJ (0-1, 0-1) on Jan 23 should give the Mustangs a chance to catch their breath between tournaments on the 11th, 18th, and 25th. CAJ does not have a full lineup and, as long as we field someone at every weight, we will win on forfeits alone. They do have undefeated wrestlers (in very limited action) at 115 and 141 as of this writing. The other team with a realistic chance at a regular season championship is Kinnick (1-0, 9-0), who we'll visit on Jan 29. The Red Devils have seen a lot of action against other PAC-East DODEA schools already. They have undefeated wrestlers at 108, 115, 135, 141, 148, and 180, leading the way to a 79-24 combined record in individual matches. That's...very good. At the Yokota tournament on Saturday, ASIJ will test their skills against non-conference, conference, and Far East opponents to come. After only one dual meet, we already have enough stats to start seeing the beginnings of some trends. This post will attempt to elucidate some of those early trends. Some cautions: a team trend does not translate directly into something an individual should work on. Individual matchups are much more important than statistical trends (e.g. going against a former Far East champ vs a fill-in-the-lineup-type brand new wrestler will affect the results much more than any lagging statistical indicator). Two final points: statistics don't win or lose matches, and there is always a counterexample for every rule. irst stat we'll look as is the takedown-to-exposure ratio. This shows how many times a wrestler exposes the back of their opponent for every takedown they score. A typical good example would be a takedown followed by an exposure (that doesn't lead to a pin) followed by another exposure (that end the match in a pin). A typical bad example would be a takedown that leads to no exposures. Using this stat we can determine if we need to work on turns - both scoring more (offense) and preventing better (defense). This is a great improvement over last season; we're scoring 1.7 exposures for every 2-point takedown we scored (vs 0.5 last year), and our opponents needs to take us down 2 times to get an exposure (allowed 0.6 last year). That 1.7 is likely an anomaly that will decrease over the course of the year, but it's good, very good, to have a better ratio of td:e scored than allowed. Now let's take a look at some potential developing weaknesses. 4-pt takedowns include throws and other takedowns that are rewarded for the disadvantageous position they create for the defender. 4-pt tds SCORED: 0, ALLOWED: 2 Last season's leaders in giving up pins were also the leaders in giving up 4-pt takedowns. A throw or dominant takedown is more likely to lead directly to a pin than any other method of scoring, and it isn't close. It can turn a nice lead on the scoreboard into a disappointing loss-by-pin. Let's keep an eye on this area; it may need attention. Asserting your will is a nebulous but often repeated key to success. One stat that support that axiom is takedowns (in matches we score 2 or more tds, we win 80% of the time, but if we allow 3 or more we lose at about the same rate). Another is offensiveness: every single wrestler (good/average/bad) had a higher success rate on offense than defense for the time I kept track of the stat. Another stat that shows dominance of the mat space is push-outs. If you are always in the middle and your opponent is always near the edge, they are splitting their attention between defending against you and defending against the boundary. 1-pt po SCORED: 0, ALLOWED: 1 This is so little data it may just be statistical noise, but it's something to watch for. When wrestlers are otherwise fairly evenly matched, if one is consistently forced to split their attention between their opponent and the boundary, that could mean the difference between a win and a loss. Points per minute: this is a new stat for me, so I'm not sure about a level yet (I'm hoping to be able to say, "If you score x ppm, you are x% likely to win, with a corollary level for defense). My working theory is that faster scoring leads to more wins, but let's wait for a little more data to come in before saying anything further on this point. The stat takes the points scored divided by the time wrestled. Therefore, even if you only score 4 points (td-2, e-2) on your way to a quick pin, you will have a high ppm (e.g. Dani only scored 4, but got the pin in 0:28, so his ppm is 8.6). ppm SCORED: 5.3, ALLOWED: 2.9 Ricky is the current leader at 9.7 points per minute, meaning that if a match could go the full six minutes, he'd be projected to score (9.7 x 6 =) 58 points. Obviously, that is not realistic, but I think this stat may have some value. Six wrestlers maintain a shutout after one match. That's not a status that anyone should expect to maintain over the season - even KPASS and Far East Outstanding Wrestler Rin was scored on last season - but it is fun to maintain while it lasts, and keeping a low ppm allowed is an obvious key to victory (you score a lot, allow only a little). JV Stats: The exhibition matches provided more data than the dual meet matches. Recognizing that there's sometimes a fuzzy line between varsity and JV, I've kept these stats to only the wrestlers who did not appear in a varsity match. Keep in mind that the JV Mustangs have only gone against varsity wrestlers in their exhibition matches. td:e ratio These ratios are very close, so there is not a big advantage or disadvantage to take away from this, other than that you can see how a crushing varsity dual meet victory was backed up by a significant advantage in the td:e ratio. 4-pt tds SCORED: 1, ALLOWED: 4 That puts us at 1:6 across all wrestlers and shows a distinct trend - we get thrown or give up big tds much more than we score them. Varsity went 1-1 (.500), and JV went 0-4 (.000) in matches where we allowed a 4-pt td. In all four of the JV matches, all else staying static, we would have won on points if we had not allowed the big move. 1-pt po SCORED: 5, ALLOWED: 4 Keep in mind that these numbers include ASIJ-ASIJ matches, so numbers from a few matches are double counted. That said, it's easy to see the difference between varsity and JV. The better wrestlers don't let the boundary line become a significant part of the match, whereas JV wrestlers do a lot more pushing (and getting pushed) around. Controlling your body and your position on the mat is a key skill. ppm SCORED: 4.2, ALLOWED: 6.2 Isak is the current JV leader at 4.7 ppm, and there were 2 shutouts scored. This doesn't look as good as the varsity numbers, but considering it was our JV against their varsity, it doesn't look that bad. Only 4 Mustangs are still fighting for their first points of the season (and career) and, based on their work in practice, you can figure that they'll come sooner rather than later. One other JV item of note: first year wrestler Shaun was tech'ed by an experienced varsity opponent in his first action ever in an exhibition match. The outcome is not particularly surprising; in fact, it's pretty much what you might expect. The interesting point, however, is that he didn't get pinned. If he had wrestled in the varsity spot and done the same, he would have saved 1 team point (compared to being pinned or giving up a forfeit at the weight class). Last season, that would have made the difference between ASIJ's actual 9-3 dual meet record and an even more incredible 10-2 record. It's also fun to remain in the never-been-pinned club along with some of the stars of the team. That's it for the very early stats review. While I project Yokota to be fighting for 3rd in the conference and be in the running for a D-II Far East title, they do have several new wrestlers on the beginning of their learning curve and are not expected to compete for the KPASS league title (regular season or tournament) or the overall Far East title (individual or dual meet). That said, it's good to beat the teams you should beat, and the numbers that came out of the night provided some an early glimpse of some trends we might see continue throughout the season. Olympic champions Kaori Icho and Mitsuru Sato were guest coaches at wrestling practice on Monday, December 9 at ASIJ. They provided instruction on some fundamentals, had the wrestlers practice what they learned, and gave individual tips and pointers to implement their instruction correctly. Getting a taste of the world's best was a great experience for the Mustang wrestlers. Ms. Icho is the greatest female individual-event Olympic athlete in the history of the world. She had an unbelievable undefeated streak from 2003-2016, won the Olympic gold medal four times (2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016), and is a ten-time World Champion in freestyle wrestling. Mr. Sato won the gold for Japan at 52 kg at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, is currently an active university wrestling coach, and functions as a senior statesman type figure in the wrestling world in Japan. Wrestling has been contested at the Olympics since the sport was introduced as the 4th event in the 708 BC Olympic Games. In the modern era, the women's competition was introduced in 2004, so 2020 will be the first time in history that the gold medal winner will not be Ms. Icho. Prior to their time in the wrestling room Mr. Sato and Ms. Icho met with ASIJ students in the Olympics club and a Japanese class, where they talked about their careers, overcoming hardship, and the joys of success and the path to attain it. As the wrestlers were warming up, and the coaches were plotting with Mr. Sato on how diabolical of a practice to instill, Ms. Icho, who wears her celebrity lightly, talked with the parents and others who had come to see her, easily agreeing to requests for photos and signatures. Maybe it's the blue-collar nature of the sport, or maybe it's her personality, but she was about as approachable and nice and normal as you could possibly dream. She was especially encouraging to Serena, one of the girls from the middle school program. It really says something about the coaches at ASIJ that they can get this kind of unprecedented talent to come to the school and work with the wrestlers. The time spent with world class coaching and a best-in-history competitor was an incredible experience. Here are some early season thoughts (in no particular order).
- Alumni: Egan, Kieran, and Zenon are 2019 grads who made key contributions to last season's tremendous success. They attended the Yokota dual meet and did a great job of interacting with, taking questions from, and generally passing on their winning tradition to the next wave of Mustangs. One of the items on the now-famous "program goals whiteboard" is to make and keep a connection with alumni. These three new alumni are fulfilling the very goal they helped put in place. - Whiteboard: Another wrestler-generated program goal from the whiteboard is to garner more spectators. If you've ever wrestled against the University of Iowa in the 15,500-person Carver-Hawkeye Arena, you know the power of a horde of rabid fans cheering or booing your every move (in the likely event you haven't, suffice it to say they call it a home court advantage for a reason). In addition to above mentioned alumni, we saw a good number of parents, teachers, classmates and administration - to include Head of School Jim Hardin and High School Principal Dr. Jon Herzenberg - attend the first dual meet of the season held at ASIJ. - Flexibility: The ability to adapt, improvise, and overcome whatever is thrown your way can make the difference between success and failure. The dual meet was in danger of being cancelled at one point and was moved from Yokota to at ASIJ at the last minute. Wrestling has a major mental component, and sudden changes to a plan can throw you off into a line of thinking about why things aren't happening the way you thought they would. Mustang wrestlers didn't let the uncertainty disturb their preparation, keeping focus on their wrestling. - Grit: There was a hole at 122, so Katsumi (115) filled in. His opponent was a former Far East champ who has been a near-automatic win for Yokota the last few years. It would have been easy to evade the tough matchup, but he took it head-on. Similarly, you saw a string of hard fought exhibition matches with Take Z, Michiru, Kaz, Connor, and Luke winning and losing close, back-and-forth matches as underdogs against their foes. It's good to sometimes go against someone worse than you, sometimes your same level is good, and sometimes trying out your stuff out against a tough opponent is good, especially early in the year. You can bet the February version of these wrestlers would easily beat the current version of themselves, partly due to this experience. - Getting behind: Kai H was down 11-4. Karson was losing 6-2. Matthew had just lost his lead to a basic move. Yo was behind 5-2. What did they all have in common? They did not let their deficit ruin their mindset, kept wrestling tough, and pinned their opponent for their first win of the season (and for some, first win as a wrestler at ASIJ). It's not good to fall behind early or to give up a lead, but the ability to keep at it, giving your all until the final second ticks off the clock shows a mental toughness that will prove useful throughout the season and, hopefully, will be a capability that remains with them throughout their lives. |
PhilSend me a note at [email protected] if you have ideas for a story or corrections/additions to these write-ups. Archives
March 2020
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