Five B1G Takeaways from the Final Week of the Dual Season (2/28/2024)

We’ve reached the end of the regular season and the final week of duals did not disappoint. B1G Ten teams took the chance to go head-to-head with teams from other conferences to cap things off. 

Big Ten Goes 7-1 in Cross-Conference Competition

To finish off the regular season, Big Ten teams competed against out-of-conference competition and went 7-1. Wisconsin was the lone team that came out on the losing end of their dual meet against UNI. Of note, Iowa took out Oklahoma State in Stillwater, OK for the first time since 2015, Penn State pitched a shutout at home against Edinboro, and Nebraska took care of things in Tempe. 

Lovett Takes First Loss

Nebraska may have taken care of business against Arizona State, but the headliner was Kyle Parco handing top-ranked Ridge Lovett his first loss of the year. Parco scored the only takedown of the bout and added a stall point to get the 4-3 win. Lovett remains No. 1 despite the loss and should be the top-seed at the Big Ten tournament, but he won’t be going in with an unblemished record. 

Hawkeyes Get it Done on the Road

Not to be too redundant with my points of emphasis on this win for Iowa, but damn that was impressive. Oklahoma State hosted Iowa in what was a sold-out crowd in Gallagher-Iba Arena, and a Nationally televised matchup, against their biggest rival. Only one of those teams showed up ready to battle though, and it wasn’t the home team. Iowa seemed to pull the trigger on their attacks much more fearlessly, and with much more consistency, and as the dual kept going it looked worse for the Cowboys. If you’re an Iowa fan, this was a much-needed return to normalcy for them after a couple of tough weeks. They looked great as the season began, and they looked far and away like the second-best team in the country, until all of a sudden they didn’t. After the Michigan dual, I remember hearing a lot of talk about their offense, questions about their approach, and questions about their future, but this seemed like a strong way to answer those questions and to be prepared entering the B1G Tournament. The Hawkeyes still have some questions at 133 and 149 as far as who we will see out there competing at B1Gs, but for them, this seems like more of a luxury than a concern. Ladies and gentlemen, let the conference tournaments begin!!!

Matt Ramos Finishes Strong

We’ve made jokes most of the year about the curse of being ranked number 1 at 125. Yet here we are at the end of the regular season, at the same place we began, with Matt Ramos of Purdue ranked number 1 at 125 pounds. Despite early season losses to Jakob Camacho of NC State, and two losses at CKLV to Nico Provo of Stanford and Caleb Smith of Nebraska, Ramos has been quietly undefeated since. That stretch includes ranked wins over Anthony Molton of Campbell, Dean Peterson of Rutgers, Drake Ayala of Iowa, Eric Barnett of Wisconsin, and Patrick McKee of Minnesota. Despite the loss to Caleb Smith at the end of 2023, I would think that Ramos would be able to slide into B1Gs with the number one seed and a chance to finish strong headed into NCAAs. Is Matt Ramos both the streak and the curse breaker? We’ll see as the year unfolds.

The hierarchy of Michigan Wrestling is set for the year

In what is always a big weekend for me, Central Michigan traveled to East Lansing to take on the Spartans Friday night, followed by hosting the Wolverines Sunday afternoon. In years past these have been close and exciting duals. This year, not as close and far from as exciting. Friday night in East Lansing was solid though. It started with wins for the Chippewas at 125 and 133 before Jordan Hamden got things going for MSU on his Senior Night. Corbyn Munson kept it rolling for CMU with a win at 149 before the premier match of the night at 157 between Johnny Lovett and Chase Saldate. Lovett got a reversal in the second, which included back points to go up 6-0 on Saldate. This is a lead that Lovett rarely gives up, and likely felt comfortable for him. Not today though, as Chase (pun heavily intended here) chased down Lovett for several takedowns en route to a 9-7 win. This was a nice victory for Saldate who proved that when he needed to get takedowns against one of the stingier defenders at the weight, can get it done. The Spartans rattled off several more wins in a row heading into Heavyweight, where Bryan Caves got the win for the Chippewas, but it was too little too late as MSU won the dual 18-13.

Sunday afternoon in Mount Pleasant was a master class in offense for the Wolverines. Full transparency, CMU didn’t have their full lineup out to compete as they are preparing for conferences, but in that same spirit, neither did Michigan. Despite the roster adjustments, Michigan appeared to be the team more ready to attack and finish takedowns as they got tech falls in their first four matches headed back to 157. These next two matches for CMU were the closest they came to getting wins, but both ended up being OT wins for Will Lewan and Cam Amine. Both All Americans needed to dig deep, but ultimately they both succeeded in getting the points when they needed them most. Michigan finished off the dual with more decisive wins from 174 through Heavyweight, finishing off the shutout of the Chippewas. This is solid momentum though for Michigan heading into conferences, and both Michigan and Michigan State proved this season to be the two dominant teams from the great State of Michigan.