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If that was a shot to beat VT, it would have gone in. 100%

Didn't Baylor ruin Gonzaga's undefeated year?

I overlooked his weight. Totally correct to see a kid that big in HS.
He's only a 3 star but, they probably see this kid athletic enough to be taught what he needs to get good at.

Eddie V and Sasso really hurt us. They lost us a project 25 team points

I can't say that I'm surprised by a sub top 10 finish

Hokies team ERA is over 8. Worst in the ACC by like 1.5 runs.

Need another low seed to win. Can deal with a low seed NC State being a P4 Cinderella a couple years ago, but 11 seed SEC Texas as " Cinderella " is super depressing.

Final plug, noted that her mushing business is just her, Cody and 2 other people. They have a group coming in on Monday. And if it is -40 or whatever, well, they have the equipment and they will give you the full Alaska experience. I've camped at -20 or -25 (not sure how cold it was, the liquid was congealed in the bottom of the bulb so we could not get a reading) and cross country skied at -30, but not seen -40. If anyone wants a vacation experience that I am sure is a blast ...

Linking to her kennel
https://squidacres.com/

And link to the lodge
https://susitnaadventurelodge.com/

Listened to Paige's post-race interview. It was over 40 minutes, which is really long for her.

In terms of the race:
Said it was a similar team from last year. A few new dogs, but mostly the same. They were dialed in during the race.

Said she lives in a windy place, so the early wind was not really a factor for her, but by the time she got to Finger Lake, it really sucked the way it was blowing. Several other mushers in other interviews noted it was colder and way windier than usual through the first part of the race.

When she pulled through Rohn, she was the first through and the wind had blown drifts over the trail. So you could not see the markings. The only trail visible was the one the snow machines were taking down to the river to get water. The dogs saw that and made that turn. Eventually, they get to open water and seeing no trail markers, she realized what had happened. Had to get the mass of dogs turned around and managed to tear her jacket and pants up in the process. Was soaked at the end of it. That evening, she pulled ~1 mile off the trail to a cabin as she needed to dry out things and did not want to camp on the trail. She could hear Jessie Holmes' team stopping to camp off the side of the Iditarod trail, but not all the way to the cabin.

By Nikolai, noted every muscle was sore. Initial plan, mentioned days ago in an earlier post, was to go on to Cripple and stay there, but the combination of bitter cold (even by Iditarod standards) and rumored deep snow near there made her change plans and do her 24 at Takotna. Reporter commented how if you have not experienced -40, -45. -50 temperatures, it is hard to imagine what it is like camping in them. She noted that mushers have either the fortitude or "the mental stupidity" to do it.

At the 24-hour break, she was hoping that Jessie would push on to Ophir as if they were not close together, there would be more room for chess moves to try and catch up. But he stayed at Takotna too. But even if he had moved on, it is harder to make chess moves now because everyone can track where everyone is now. Earlier the analysts all wished that teams could not do this, but the Iditarod started allowing 2-way communication between mushers and supporters a few years ago as they concluded that it would be all but impossible to police it, so they let everyone do it.

She had done the run from Takotna to Ruby in 3, 50-60 mile runs with 2 very cold camps in there. Her phone died, GPS dies, time piece was not working. Everything seemed to be breaking. Thankfully Ryan Redington came in and gave her a watch. The time was off by an hour as it had not been reset to the new time. She noted that when you are as tired as you get on the trail, trying to do "musher math" is hard and she would sometimes mess up ifit was an hour too fast or an hour too slow. Noted that Jessie was running with shorter rest breaks and, if anything, slightly faster run times, so he opened up the lead a bit.

Once on the Yukon, she said the team had a really good run to Nulato and when she checked the run times and saw that Jessie had done it even faster, it was deflating. That was when she said she knew she had no chance of catching up. You need to stay close enough to have a chance if something happened upfront - reporter notes that in the arctic anything can happen, and she agreed - but said they would just go their own pace now and not worry about Jessie. She had done a 3-hour rest instead of 4 at one point during the day and the dogs did not seem happy about having the shorter rest. She could not outrun him, would not try and cut a rest short again and refused to try and do a 100 mile run that might push the dogs too hard just to try and win a race. Something she has said year-after-year-after year. Did note that the dogs have done 100 miles in training, but was not willing to try it in a race. If they lose confidence in you, they will stop and she does not want her 4-legged best friends to lose trust in her. Has never had it happen to her, but has seen it happen to other teams. You never know when you cross that line until you actually do it, and it is something she has no interest in finding out where it is.

Weird, saw a media session with the Chancellor of North Carolina University System and he said no changes were being considered

March Madness is now more like if Cinderella got left in the basement and her 3 sisters just treated her like shit her entire life for not getting an NIL deal to meet Prince Charming and the fairy god mother is an agent telling players to leave their small schoolBummed about it— Football (@BostonConnr) March 22, 2026

*two step-sisters and evil stepmother (does this qualify as a dad joke?)

The standford 149 wrestler just won a MATCH for the final. That was two grown men wrestling right there.