Big Ten Weekly Recap (1/23/2025)

The Big Ten is coming off a pretty good week. In football, they claimed their second straight national championship, and, on the mat, we saw some of the best finally face off in very anticipated matches. Here are the dual meets that gave us some of the best highlights.

Penn State passes their toughest test thus far with ease

A highly anticipated dual with even more highly anticipated matches. Penn State is the reigning champs, and they have been flexing on their competition even more this year. And last week their trip to Nebraska was their toughest of the season and they won 8 of the 10 matches. At 149, Ridge Lovett claimed a major decision over Shayne Van Ness in a wild match that ended in a major decision win for the Husker. On the PSU side, true freshman Luke Lilledahl had the biggest match of his young career and looked poised against returning All-American Caleb Smith to get the win. Overall, the dual didn’t disappoint but showcased just how tough PSU is this year as they now have all 10 wrestlers ranked in the top 7.

Illinois drops one on the road in Iowa City

The Hawkeyes continued their strong season with a win at home over Illinois on the strength of eight of ten match wins. This included a bout at 133 between Lucas Byrd and Drake Ayala, which despite the low score, was very entertaining. This is certainly a match that I’m looking forward to seeing again in March. Including that win, the Hawkeyes won six of the eight ranked matches in the dual as well (133, 149, 165, 174, 184, 197), which included a stingy 1-0 win for Kyle Parco over Kannon Webster, along with a 20-4 tech fall for Michael Caliendo over Braeden Scoles. Illinois got some solid wins for Danny Pucino at 141, paired with an impressive victory for Luke Luffman at heavyweight over Ben Kueter. Overall, this was a solid win at home over a strong Fighting Illini team. The Hawkeyes host Ohio State this weekend, while Illinois will travel to the East Coast to compete against Maryland and Rutgers.

Boilermakers drop two duals, but notch some nice wins

Purdue hosted in-state rival Indiana in front of 3,504 fans at Mackey Arena. They lost the dual 25-11 to the Hoosiers but had some solid wins with a major decision from Matt Ramos at 125 over 22nd ranked Jacob Moran. Purdue also had a win from Isaac Ruble at 149 and Joey Blaze at 157. The Hoosiers took the rest of the bouts in this one with Tyler Lillard winning at 165 and Dylan Gilcher jumping into the lineup at 174 to get a solid win over Brody Baumann. The Hoosiers have wrestled well this season and continue their streak over Purdue. 

Up next for Purdue was a trip to Columbus Ohio against the Buckeyes. In a dual that had some lopsided matchups, Purdue competed well. Ramos continued his win streak at 125 and notched his 20th win on the season against Brendan McCrone. In the other closely ranked matchup of the dual, Purdue got a win at 157 with Joey Blaze taking a 5-1 decision over Sammy Sasso, who has recently made the descent to 157. Both Ramos and Blaze went undefeated on the weekend. Ohio State travels to Iowa City to compete against the Hawkeyes this weekend.

Wolverines battle on the road

A busy weekend for Michigan as they notched a win against Northwestern 26-10 with a highlight coming at 141 with former teammates Sergio Lemley getting the win against Chris Cannon. Hearing Lemley speak about it after the fact was refreshing as he shared that he remains friends with Cannon and that it was good competition out there on the mat. 

On the heels of that win, Dylan Gilcher notched a solid win over Sam Cartella in overtime. Beau Mantanona also got a nice victory at 165 over Max Mayfield. For the Wildcats, Trevor Chumbley took a 5-0 victory over Chase Saldate, paired with wins at 125 and 133 for Dedrcik Navarro and Massey Odiotti, respectively. 

Michigan continued their road trip against a loaded Golden Gophers squad with guys ranked at each weight. Minnesota wrestled very well and ultimately took the 25-10 dual win, with a strong win for returning All-American Vance Vombaur at 141 over Lemley, along with a sudden victory win for Max McEnelly over Jaden Bullock at 184. Michigan got some upset wins at 149 with Dylan Gilcher continuing his strong weekend upsetting Drew Roberts at 149 using a turn with short time in the second to extend his lead. Mantanona earned his second-ranked win of the weekend, this time with a 7-4 win over ninth-ranked Andrew Sparks. This dual ended with some highly-ranked guys in Jacob Cardenas getting a gritty win at 197, followed by the fireworks that Gable Steveson always provides. Michigan hosts Nebraska this Friday, followed by Indiana this Sunday. Minnesota travels to Wisconsin and Northwestern this weekend, which is also Northwestern's only competition of the weekend.