2026 NCAA Championship Session VI Thread

Tom McAndrew

BWI Staff
Staff member
Oct 27, 2021
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Please use the thread for all pre-session, in-session, and post-session discussion for the Session VI of the 2026 NCAA Championships.

When:
March 21, 6:30 pm EDT

Where:
Rocket Arena, Cleveland, OH

TV:
ESPN

Video Streaming:
ESPN+. Please note that in past years, the Trophy Presentation at the end of Session VI will be on ESPN+, and not ESPN. You can subscribe to ESPN+ for $12.99 a month, and cancel your subscription in a week, and only pay for 1 month. To do so, go to:

https://support.espn.com/hc/en-us/articles/40375475974036-ESPN-Select-or-Unlimited-Plans-and-Prices

Audio Streaming:
The radio PBP, with Jeff Byers at the mic, will be streamed for free. The pre-session aspect will start at 6:10 pm EDT, with the actual wrestling at 6:30 pm EDT. You can access the audio stream at:

gopsusports.com

Lion Vision


gopsusports.com
gopsusports.com

Once there, click on the arrow inside the button, to the left of "Wrestling: NCAA Championships - Session 6"

Team Scores:

The best place to track the team scoring is the Penn State Wrestling Club web site. It appears that they have reverted back to prior practice, and are making the team race info available to all during the NCAAs. You can find their site at:


PBP:
@SlipperyPete will be available for PBP. I'll be available to assist. @GregPickel will be in the Rocket Arena, and providing his thoughts, observations, information, interviews, etc. from there. We always encourage others to provide their insight, analysis, reactions, and PBP if they so desire. As always, I remind you to please include the score for the match, or provide some context (wrestler, school, and weight class) beyond just "that's not a takedown."

PSU has six wrestlers in the finals. That in itself is worthy of celebrating. Here's hoping we have a lot of additional things to be celebrating during Session VI.
 

Tom McAndrew

BWI Staff
Staff member
Oct 27, 2021
77,340
63,900
113
PSU Matches in Session VI

125 Final: #1 seed Luke Lilledahl vs. #10 seed Marc-Anthony McGowan (Princeton)

149 Final: #1 seed Shayne Van Ness vs. #10 seed Aden Valencia (Stanford)

165 Final: #1 seed Mitchell Mesenbrink vs. #3 seed Mikey Caliendo (Iowa)

174 Final: #1 seed Levi Haines vs. #3 seed Christopher Minto (Nebraska)

184 Final: #1 seed Rocco Welsh vs. #3 seed Max McEnelly (Minnesota)

197 Final: #1 seed Josh Barr vs. #7 seed Cody Merrill (Oklahoma St.)
 

gimb14

All-American
May 3, 2022
3,980
7,218
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Penn State164
Oklahoma State119
Nebraska101.5
Iowa92.5
Ohio State84.5
Michigan66
Stanford63.5
Iowa State52
Minnesota44.5
Virginia Tech41.5
 
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The Pitchfork Rebel

All-Conference
Dec 31, 2021
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It's gonna really suck when Mendez wins the Hodge over more deserving Mitch and Barr
As an aside: Basch and Willie absolutely eviscerated the refs for robbing Duke for a full blown 30 minute rant on Basch this morning.

Mendez might have another close match. I'm so conflicted. Part of me wants to see him lose so Mitch or Barr gets it, but ...

If they didn't, I'd have no respect for them. I even bought a couple orange Under Armour T-shirts from Ollies last summer (I'm so tight, I squeak) for the gym that are safety orange and I'm thinking about donating them to a charity, because I'm beginning to agree with this:


 
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mcpat

All-American
Mar 12, 2021
1,764
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They should start at 197 because then 184 will finish with whether PSU gets most champs ever. But Okie State is the shiny new toy to display, unfortunately
 

Psalm 1 guy

All-Conference
Nov 3, 2019
1,142
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People watch on something other than matcast? Cute.
Maybe I'm an outlier, but I have not watched one match this tournament with audio. I prefer to not be distracted by the commentators. And speaking of that, from the comments I have seen, Burroughs has kept up his habit of commenting on anything but the action on the mat. That drives me absolutely crazy. Add to that his habit of talking about himself and I'm not a fan of his commenting.

Regarding Matcast, I have used it exclusively so far. I love being able to toggle between the mats as I get the mat assignments from Flo on my phone. It also has the advantage of not inadvertently seeing the score of a match you plan on watching after its completion. We wrestling fans are blessed to have the ability to watch every match of the entire tournament. Remember back in the day when we were only able to watch the Finals on TV on tape delay? Add to that the fact that not all of the matches were shown in their entirety and us current fans are definitely spoiled with the access nowadays.
 

Cali_Nittany1

All-Conference
Dec 11, 2019
667
2,850
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Mendez might have another close match. I'm so conflicted. Part of me wants to see him lose so Mitch or Barr gets it, but ...

If they didn't, I'd have no respect for them. I even bought a couple orange Under Armour T-shirts from Ollies last summer (I'm so tight, I squeak) for the gym that are safety orange and I'm thinking about donating them to a charity, because I'm beginning to agree with this:




If Mendez loses, Jax will win the Hodge because "he should be in high school right now".