Let's Talk About That Delgado/Garrett NCAA Title Match, Why Not?

Jesse Delgado's last loss during the 2014 season was in the dual against Penn State's Nico Megaludis, a close 4-5 decision. After that, he strung together 16 straight wins, including victories over Megaludis and Iowa's Cory Clark in the Big Ten Tournament. Following that, the ILLINOIS great secured another win over Cory Clark at the NCAA Tournament, then finally capped it all off with his Fine Art performance in the finals against Nahshon Garrett.

Cornell's Garrett was a four-time AA and a one-time champ, winning it all at 133 in 2016. During the 2014 season, Garrett was ranked number one by wrestlestat.com, and he ended up with a sparkling 37-2 record.

Both of those losses were to Jesse Delgado. 

The first loss to Delgado came during an early season dual. That was a 6-2 result in favor of the ILLINI. Garrett entered the NCAA tournament that year with more wins than Delgado and one less loss. If I remember correctly, a majority of the internet fans picked Garrett to win the championship. That's despite the fact that Delgado beat Garrett 10-5 in the semifinals of the 2013 NCAA tournament. Here's the 2014 version:

:15  Right off the bat, Jesse Delgado is on his back from a Garrett double-leg takedown attempt. This would be scored at least four points in freestyle, but in folkstyle, where you have reaction time, Delgado slips away with his funk. 

Instead of falling backwards, the ILLINI falls to the side and hooks the leg in a Peterson and rolls through to a scramble position. Cornell challenges the "no takedown" call, but their challenge fails. 

Here we see a phenomenon that played out throughout this championship match and throughout Delgado's NCAA career: Reaction time. 

Nobody was better. 

Also, the way that Delgado fell to the side so that he could grab a leg was on purpose. It was part of the Delgado System. I believe that he didn't think that he was defending a takedown as much as he thought that he was beginning the process of securing his own takedown. 

1:30  Jesse Delgado takes a shot. 

1:50  Garrett hits another monster double-leg attempt, but Jesse falls forward and to the side. This is what that looks like:

2:28  The ref calls stalemate on that Garrett takedown attempt.

2:29  [Anthony Robles commentating]: "Delgado's doing a great job scrambling there, but at some point, Garrett's gonna finish one of these takedowns...." Not true. That would never happen. Ever. 

3:39  Still in the first, Delgado shoots again. Another stalemate. 

3:54  A couple of seconds off the restart, Big Red tries a head-inside single. As you can see below, before Garrett can even put Delgado on his butt, the ILLINI's arm is ready to hook a leg. 

3:58  During this same scramble, we reach the point in the image below. Let's watch the ultimate technician do something special:

3:58  In a split second, Delgado changes the position in a way that benefits himself. 

3:59  Only a second has passed, and we get to see what Delgado was up to:

5:13  The wrestlers exchange shots at the end of the first period. 

6:14  Garrett started on top in the second and has ridden Delgado for quite some time. At this point, though, with Nahshon failing to return Jesse to the mat, he calls Big Red for stalling. 

7:24  The ILLINI finally escapes, but although the scoreboard still reads 0-0, Garrett has 1:23 in riding time. 

7:30  IT'S CHAMPIONSHIP TIME. Delgado knows that Garrett basically has a point with the riding time. So, he goes in for a takedown. This barely registers with the announcers. They don't realize that Jesse has worn his opponent down, and now his takedown attempt is much more dangerous. 

7:50  With only :11 left in the second period, the ILLINI scores the takedown! The period expires without an escape from Garrett. 

8:10  Nice shot of Jesse's parents. 

8:20  With the escape and the takedown in the second period, Delgado enters the final frame with a 3-0 lead. But Garrett chooses neutral to start the third, so he puts the riding time point in his pocket. For all intents and purposes, the score is 3-1. 

8:37  The snobby Cornell apéritif crowd is calling for stalling, but Jesse just took a shot there. A few seconds later--eight seconds after Delgado took a good, hard shot--Garrett pushes him out of bounds, and the ref calls the ILLINI for stalling.

9:00  Jesse again takes a shot. 

9:29  Jesse takes another shot. 

9:46  With a minute to go, Garrett finally takes a serious shot. Delgado immediately scrambles him up and gains the advantage. 

9:58  To get out of a difficult situation, Garrett puts blatantly evil torque on Jesse's knee. **** you, Nahshon! When there's obvious, intentional abuse of a knee, I would award a point. 

10:17  Another Delgado shot. 

10:24  Another Delgado shot. 

10:45  The wrestlers trade shots. Only :22 left in the match. Four seconds later, Delgado tries a fireman's carry but Garrett goes out of bounds. [The ILLINI coaches want fleeing the mat, which is what Garrett was obviously doing, but no call.]

11:15  After a restart, a stall call against Jesse, but time runs out. With Garrett's riding time point, Delgado wins 3-2!

THE DANGER RULE:  I laugh when folks claim that Delgado would've been hurt if the Danger Rule was implemented in 2013 and not 2017. I beg to differ. I think that rule would've hurt his opponents. Jesse knew exactly what he was doing and moved off of his back in milliseconds. He was exceedingly smart and knew that a ref would just love to call a neutral/defensive fall against him. His opponents, on the other hand, were much lest adept at these arcane arts. 

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT:  What if Delgado and Garrett played the hand slap game? In it, a person holds his hands out in front of him palms upward. The person across from him places his hands palm down into the other person's hands. Then, the person with his hands on the bottom must quickly hit the other persons hand or hands before the other person moves his hands away. This is the hand slap game:

My theory is that Nahshon Garrett might be one of the best hand slappers to ever slap hands. On the other hand, Jesse Delgado's reaction times are beyond super human, and he would be able to move his hands in time to avoid Garrett's slaps. 

AMAZING FACT: In their career matches, Delgado won the takedown battle with Garrett by the margin of 8-0. 

And so, Jesse Delgado ends his career with a three to zero ledger over Nahshon Garrett. A dual win, an NCAA semifinal win, and a win for the ages in the finals.