How Cael Sanderson Won His 2nd NCAA Title | NCAA Finals 2000

Continuing the series of the start of Cael Sanderson’s legacy, we have his second NCAA title, where he wrestled Vertus Jones from Virginia, who was a multiple time NCAA All-American, getting 2nd twice, in this match you can see how Cael really starts to separate himself from the field, putting up a lot of points in the finals of NCAAs.

First takedown comes 15 seconds in, Cael has a righty collar tie, while Virtus has like an over-tie grip on the arm. This grip Virtus has, over top of the elbow here, is most commonly used to do a slide-by, you would circle a little, go hip to hip on the left, look away, and then pull the arm through to get behind your opponent, which can be super effective if you do it in a sneaky way or when your opponent is in process of taking a shot. Virtus starts to step with his left foot across the body as he lets go of the head, as he does that Cael goes for an inside low leg which he has become famous for. This shot is something that could have been taken advantage of with that slide-by, but Virtus didn’t hang onto it long enough for that to be a possibility. It does look like Virtus reaches down for a whizzer, what would be a shin whizzer these days, where you reach behind the shoulder and grab your own shin, go hip to hip, put your inside hip down, rotate your knee out to the side, and try to put as much pressure on the shoulder as you can, which opens up a lot of scrambling. Even if the shin whizzer was a thing, Cael’s shoulder position, his neck being on the leg which puts his shoulder on the other side, makes it very difficult to reach for it. Cael does a great job of staying in contact with his neck as he reaches across the hips to get the far leg. Virtus could grab a normal whizzer and slam Cael’s head down, but again the angle Cael has makes that difficult. So, Cael’s able to get a pretty easy finish here, he stays patient and remains in good position all the way through the takedown, score is 2-0.

Virtus does a good job of getting an escape, though I’m not sure Cael is trying to hard to keep him down. He does a sit out, goes to a tripod, starts to circle away a bit. This either baits someone into a peterson if they follow you closely or you end up getting a peak out if they’re not able to, and the peak out is what he gets. This is a fine way of getting out of bottom, petersons are dangerous in the right hands, 5 points is a lot, you know reversal 2 and 3 backs, so a lot of times wrestlers will just let you get the escape if you’re competent with the motion, grip, and leverage you need to make it successful, 2-1 Cael.

At about a minute, 55, Cael takes a very similar shot. Righty collar tie to that right inside low leg single. This shot is so effective for wrestlers like Cael and David Taylor, it just seems easy for them to poke at, very low risk, huge reward when a get a piece of it, and Cael gets a piece of it once more. This time Cael’s head is forced through legs as Virtus grabs a crotch lock. It doesn’t look like Virtus is comfortable trying too much here, as Cael is able to easily work his way to a turk, pop his head out, which makes Virtus bail and give up another takedown. Usually these days this situation is forced out the back door, the top guy has options like a win-dixie, locking around the body as they come up to trap an arm, or attacking ankles to funk, but Virtus doesn’t really try anything. He also doesn’t do a good job keeping that ankle away from the turk. You see, defensive wrestlers these days know that a turk here makes defending way more difficult, so they’ll keep ankles to their hips, maybe step over their free ankle if it’s a head and arm to keep it away, which forces the offensive guy to take more steps, swim the inside arm between the legs, go to their hips, use both hands at the heel to pull the ankle down to turk, and then you still have to use both hands to push the top leg off which allows you to pop your head out, swim your inside arm out and look for a cross-face. If you mess up any of these steps then the defensive guy can attack an ankle for funk or a leg pass. You just have to take so many steps these days because most good wrestlers in the top 10 know their way around scrambling enough to make this difficult at the very least, but this looked easy. Score is 4-1 Cael.

Virtus gets another escape, the camera doesn’t show it well, but I think Cael was very close to tilting Virtus with a two-on-one tilt, he has the left arm controlled, goes to the left side and starts trying to control the hips with his legs, but just doesn’t get the angle needed. Camera completely misses this part, looks like Cael went for a half nelson from that position and so Virtus rolled off his back to an escape, most likely because Cael just didn’t have enough control over the hips. You would need to have a leg in to get that top half or a good tight waist, going from a two-on-one to a half just doesn’t allow you to make that transition easily, especially if the bottom guy is already on his side. Score is 4-2 Cael.

2 seconds later, Cael takes the same shot yet again, this time Virtus doesn’t try to defend, he turns away as if to kick free, but Cael wraps up both ankles super easy for the takedown. This is a good lesson, try not to kick away and run when someone gets an ankle, instead turn and fight, scramble, and look for your own takedown. Kicking away from an ankle is best done when you’re on bottom as the risk is very low, as long as you stay in bounds, circle towards the foot they have, you’ll keep your ankles away and not get called for fleeing the mat or stalling or anything silly like that. Then if your opponent tries to jump up to being back on top you can stand up because of that separation that gets created. So, on bottom, you’re free to kick away like this, in neutral however, I wouldn’t recommend it. Score is 6-2 Cael.

Virtus takes bottom in the second, gets out around minute 35 with the same idea, grabs wrist, circles away, Cael not trying to ride him out, at least for these few seconds.

Cael does a similar shot again, this time after 2 different low leg shot attempts. This again reminds me of David Taylor, righty collar tie to inside ankle on the right, Virtus steps out of it this time, but the fact that Cael still has a solid tie up means he’s able to come back out of it and attempt another pick when the foot comes close again, Virtus avoids it one more time, and then Cael goes for a third low leg on the left, this one looking much more like an ankle pick we’re used to seeing. Virtus really needed to clear the tie-up, go to a russian, pass-by, slide-by, anything to get Cael off of his head and then feed it into a shot attempt of his own, because Cael is able to shoot 3 times in a row without any risk, which is crazy in the NCAA finals.

Virtus kicks over the head, but Cael is able to keep control of the foot. Notice he has both sides of the foot controlled, which is why he still has a piece of it. If he only had it wrapped with an arm it wouldn’t have been nearly as easy. Virtus then goes to a crack down of sorts, but he doesn’t have a crotch lock, he has a body lock, which keeps him out in front more. Also, Cael does a good job again of staying patient, maintaining a little distance, as he reaches for the double to secure the takedown. Score is 8-3.

Virtus gets free with 46 seconds left in the second, score is 8-4 Cael.

Cael goes back to the collar, swipes at another ankle, Virtus dodges, swipes at it again, then gets his 3rd low leg attempt to an easy takedown, with Virtus barely trying anything at this point to defend the shot. Score is 10-4. This is an absolute clinic on how to go from a collar tie to an ankle pick then low leg single, one ankle, then the other, then the other. The ability he has to attack the ankle on either side from a collar tie, and do it repeatedly without incurring any risk, is just unheard of.

Cael goes for a cross-face cradle, but isn’t able to secure it as Virtus kicks out, getting another escape, score is 10-5 Cael.

3rd period, Cael chooses bottom, Virtus lets him go right away, 11-5 Cael.

Minute 25 left, Virtus goes to a single off of a pass-by that didn’t get passed. He gets to the leg, but Cael is quick to sprawl and so Virtus gets stuffed in this stuck under position. Cael works his way to a crotch lock, puts pressure over to that far side, and is able to kick his leg free. You can actually get a half arm half leg cradle in this position if you reach under the body and grab your ankle, but getting the leg free is cool here too. Cael goes to lock the leg as Virtus comes up to his feet, Cael attempts a near side cradle but loses it, which is common in this position. If you jump to a cradle like this against a quality opponent it usually causes you to lose everything, Cael doesn’t try too hard to keep it though, settles for a low leg, puts his head in the knee to prevent Virtus from circling too far, wraps the inside of the far leg, comes up, locks the leg up for the takedown. Again just pure patience, staying in good positions, and finding his way to takedown. 13-5 Cael.

Cael lets him up, goes for one more ankle pick, lifts the ankle up to his hip as he reaches for the double, 15-6, and is able to get 3 backs for his efforts. The score ends up 19-6 with riding time. Cael fires off so many shots, is patient in every situation, doesn’t do any more than he has to, it just looks effortless.