Clarion 165 lber Cam Pine after a win against Central Michigan (photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) The first full week of the new year in the college wrestling season did not disappoint as we saw plenty of upsets, individually and team-based, along with standout performances from the sport's best, coupled with some emerging stars.
It also marked the start of the Big Ten dual schedule which always leads to intriguing matchups, again, individually and team-based. In addition, six duals featured top-15 teams squaring off in dual competition.
With so much going on there's any number of different talking points to hit on, but we've narrowed it down to 7 big stories from the week in college wrestling.
#1 Goes Down at 141 lbs
There was some controversy surrounding InterMat's rankings at 141 lbs. Top-ranked Cole Matthews of Pittsburgh was bested in the All-Star Classic exhibition match in late-November. #3 Andrew Alirez (Northern Colorado) was impressive in his victory over Matthews and looked deserving of the top spot. I don't disagree with that notion; however, the entire dual was built around the fact that these are exhibition matches which will not count on a wrestler's record or factor in towards NCAA seeding. I'd have to imagine that some of these matches would have never materialized without that caveat.
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