The Rinse and Repeaters

[Wrestleknownothing]

Everyone knows about the lazy wrestlers who just want to get off the mat and get some rest - The Pin Fellers.

But what about the guys who like to play with their food, get in the extra work, score more points - The Rinse and Repeaters.

There was a time when there was no tech fall. If you wanted to take a guy down, cut him ,and do it all over again (and again and again), you could. It wasn't your job to stop you from running up the score. It was the other guy's job. So it is a pleasant surprise that the top match point scorer of all-time comes from the TF era (1985 - present).

I give you the guys who racked up the most NCAA tournament match points in a single year on the way to victory.



Of course, this isn't all about takedowns. Back points were available. But it is a lot about takedowns.

These totals do not include any points scored on the way to pinfalls, as those are not recorded in the brackets.

Now let's look at just the TF era. For this we will go a bit deeper to include anyone who scored at least 75 match points in a single tournament



You may be wondering how that compares to recent times. Well, wonder no more. The leaders for the 2025 tournament:



Anyone else surprised to see Mesenbrink outscored at his own weight?

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

And how about an All-PSU list (minimum 50):

 

[ambrowns26]

Awesome analysis. However, guys used to get way more matches per year a decade+ ago. I think a data point for average takedowns per match would be a good one. I think our current stars would fare much better with that.

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

Awesome analysis. However, guys used to get way more matches per year a decade+ ago. I think a data point for average takedowns per match would be a good one. I think our current stars would fare much better with that.

This is just NCAA tournament match points. Though, I did not check to see how many of these got extra consolation bracket matches to fatten up the total.

I just edited the original post to clarify that. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[El_Jefe]

Everyone knows about the lazy wrestlers who just want to get off the mat and get some rest - The Pin Fellers.

But what about the guys who like to play with their food, get in the extra work, score more points - The Rinse and Repeaters.

There was a time when there was no tech fall. If you wanted to take a guy down, cut him ,and do it all over again (and again and again), you could. It wasn't your job to stop you from running up the score. It was the other guy's job. So it is a pleasant surprise that the top match point scorer of all-time comes from the TF era (1985 - present).

I give you the guys who racked up the most NCAA tournament match points in a single year on the way to victory.



Of course, this isn't all about takedowns. Back points were available. But it is a lot about takedowns.

These totals do not include any points scored on the way to pinfalls, as those are not recorded in the brackets.

Now let's look at just the TF era. For this we will go a bit deeper to include anyone who scored at least 75 match points in a single tournament



You may be wondering how that compares to recent times. Well, wonder no more. The leaders for the 2025 tournament:



Anyone else surprised to see Mesenbrink outscored at his own weight?

Hall had 1 more match than Mesenbrink at NCAAs since he didn't make the finals.

To me, Buchanan tying Mesenbrink is much more surprising because he wrestled the same # matches but at a higher/slower weight, and had 1 total takedown in his semis + finals combined.

 

[creamery freak]

This is just NCAA tournament match points. Though, I did not check to see how many of these got extra consolation bracket matches to fatten up the total.

I just edited the original post to clarify that. Sorry for the confusion.

With a 3 pt takedown and a 4 pt near fall, today's wrestlers will get to a TF much faster than a wrestler even 10 years ago. It would be interesting to know the opponent's point total then versus say 2025. I'm sure the opponent's scoring was much higher because of the 2 pt takedown, 1 pt release. Great analysis for discussion though, thank you.

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

With a 3 pt takedown and a 4 pt near fall, today's wrestlers will get to a TF much faster than a wrestler even 10 years ago. It would be interesting to know the opponent's point total then versus say 2025. I'm sure the opponent's scoring was much higher because of the 2 pt takedown, 1 pt release. Great analysis for discussion though, thank you.

Great question.

Something happened in 2003. But I can find nothing in the rules to explain it.

• From 1985 to 2002 the average TF losing score was 3.7 and never below 2.6
• Then it fell off a cliff from 2003 to 2010 to an average of 2.0
• Since 2011 the average has recovered a little to 2.7, but never returned to the good old days.