IMAR Stuck

[Goat Roper]

On Flo

[Ivan Stankowski]

I watched live on the BTN network yesterday, Wisconsin own Lehrke was the ref and slapped the mat. It was not a fluke pin either, I don't want to use words like dominating but Nolf was having no issues with IMAR before the pin, IMAR was completely gassed before the end of the 1st period, he never even attempted to get out off his back.

I can't even phathom how difficult it must be to wrestle NCAA DI, I mean the undefeated defending champion getting handled by a freshman

[leg turk]

IMar will probably get a couple more shots at him this year, but I agree, that was a dominating performance.

[Ivan Stankowski]

Pretty good summary of the match, borrowed from a poster on themat

Period 1

I Mar's major offensive strategy is his signature double underhooks. He tries to throw Jason at least 5 times with little success. One early throw attempt very mildly gets Jason off balance. The last of the 5 throw attempts would lead to Jason's scrambling takedown of I Mar.

Jason's major offense seems to be the head snap, and trying to defend the double unders. Jason executes 5 really strong head snaps. Very powerful snaps. Reminded me of Aaron Pico.

I Mar's 5th throw attempts leads to him spinning Nolf down to one knee. Pretty sure Gibbons expected an easy TD when he announced "there it is", but he quickly regrouped with "and there is Nolf's high wrestling IQ" as Jason put in an arm whizzer. A scramble would ensue and Jason would come out on top for the TD. Jason rode I Mar for 42 seconds and it took considerable effort from I Mar to get out of Jason's ride.

I mar almost immediately goes to a quick head outside single to Jason's left leg and gets his own TD with something like 30 seconds left in the period. Jason gets to his feet easily and I mar wastes a ton of energy trying to mat return him. Jason immediately gets up without problem. Jason uses a "dead weight" technique to make it harder to be lifted, but I mar tries anyway and the energy he uses is considerable. Jason easily gets back up every time.

They get a reset with 19 seconds left in the period when something pretty interesting happens. It is telling. I mar gets a warning for jumping early. The ref comes in to explain the reset rules to the two wrestlers. Time is going by and at this moment you can pretty easily hear on the BTN broadcast Cael Sanderson shout out at the ref something I have not once seen mentioned anywhere.

Caps Lock to connote Coach Sanderson's volume (he is pretty far away so obviously he has to raise his volume a little)

"YEAH, THEY KNOW THE RULE. LET'S KEEP THIS GOING'.

Pretty strong evidence from the Penn State coaches that they wanted as much pace in this match as possible. If you are Nolf, this probably makes sense to you as it is a big part of your plan. I wonder what I Mar had to be thinking given he believed Nolf could not keep his pace.

Nolf would get the escape in the waning seconds of period 1.

Period 2

The period starts with I mar making one pretty strong mat return, but Jason just shrugs it off and stands up much the same way he does against any wrestler. I Mar ends up just sort of hanging on from behind not doing anything and gets a stall warning before cutting Nolf.

I Mar tries a couple more throw attempts but they are noticeably ineffective. Nolf would employ 5 additional very strong head snaps throughout the first 80 seconds of the period. Within all of this there is some stand up where I Mar walks out of bounds and gets another stall warning and a point goes to Nolf. I Mar wasn't really stalling, but it was a correct call by the rule.

In this sequence I Mar makes a couple of weak shots to Jason's left leg. They go nowhere. Can't get thru Jason's head and hands defense. At this point I Mar attempts a duck under shot towards Jason's left leg. He either wants to duck under to an outside single or get to a slide by and go behind. It is once again to Jason's left. Jason stops it with head and hands and because I mar has his feet too far forward Jason then goes high and runs right thru I Mar who is very lucky to have not surrendered a counter TD right there. They stalemate with 26 seconds remaining in the period and Jason holding a 5-3 lead.

Just after the restart from neutral with 26 seconds left the deciding sequence takes place. I Mar takes his 5th shot attempt in the match to Jason's left. Another attempted duck under. Jason again blocks it, but this time Jason counters low to an ankle pick. I mar drapes over Jason's back. Jason rotates around and uses an arm turk to stop I mar's near side trail leg. Jason rotates once more to spin his free leg on top of I Mar while easily transitioning the arm turk to a Navy ride and then on to an attempted far side cradle.

The cradle does not work, but the Navy ride is in, the pressure from the free leg is pressing I mar's upper body and head into the mat, and he has one arm trapped. It is the second time in two weekends that Jason Nolf used a leg across the opposing wrestlers head or face as part of a turning or pinning combination. The whole sequence is some high level chain wrestling at its best.

The pin came with about 5 seconds left in period 2. By this point in the match the ref was holding 4 points and the score would have been 11-3 had I Mar survived the buzzer to end the period.

The other primary thought I had about this match was that I Mar didn't really have much of a plan other than to do what he always does, which is to say to just out physical his opponent. I don't think he gave it more thought than that. Nolf and the PSU staff, on the other hand, I think they had a plan i.e. defend the under hooks and mat returns, out scramble I mar, elevate pace to highest level possible, and they executed it perfectly.

[vsmf2010]

I thought Martinez looked noticeably bigger than Nolf. I think the pull down to 57 may be an issue for him. I would not be surprised to see him move up next year.

[jaguarwrestler]

not much fight in him once he went on his back. Didn't look like the same guy I have seen in the past, dud has TF 13 guys so far including 7 in a row leading up to this match. Not that Nolf is just some average wrestler but IMAR didn't look himself. I'm sure they will meet again, be interesting to see how it goes.

[Huckfinn]

I thought Martinez looked noticeably bigger than Nolf. I think the pull down to 57 may be an issue for him. I would not be surprised to see him move up next year.

Incredibly, I heard somewhere that IMAR is thinking of cutting down in weight for international competition.

I sure enjoyed seeing him get out wrestled.