Five B1G Takeaways from Week Six (12/13/2023)

Another week of wrestling in the books with more great battles in the books. Let’s get to the top takeaways from another great week of battling.

Wisconsin Score Undefeated Weekend on the East Coast

While taking on Rider and Drexel, two-time returning All-American Dean Hamiti continued his stint at 174, where he claimed a pair of bonus point wins. Not to be outdone, the lightweight tag team of Eric Barnett and Nicolar Rivera got the Badgers off to identical 8-0 starts in both duals as they both claimed major decision wins in both duals. The biggest bout of the weekend came at 149 during their dual against Rider, where Joey Zargo took out Quinn Kinner. Zargo now got a bump in his ranking to move from 17 to taking Kinner’s spot at 12, which bumped Kinner to 13 now. Up next for Bono, Reader, and the crew - Midlands. 

Rutgers Puts Up Successful Defense of Jersey Mike’s Arena

In what they deemed as the Taylor Ham vs Pork Roll battle, the Scarlet Knights defeated their fellow New Jersey foe Princeton. Despite team Taylor Ham taking the dual, it’s still called pork roll by the way. But anyway, in the premier bout at 197, John Poznanski defeated Luke Stout 8-4. Poz followed up with an 18-4 major decision over Sam Mitchell two days later when he and the Knights shut out Buffalo, 40-0. Rutgers is now off until after the new year when they face Penn on January 6.

A New Battle Comes to the DMV

Maryland traveled to nearby Baltimore to take on Morgan State and won eight of the ten matches in the dual. Coming off of CKLV, which had some ups and downs, it was a good showing for a team that expected to win like this. Dario Lemus got the start at 141 for the Terps, where he was able to show exactly why he was a big recruit. The true freshman came away with an 18-2 tech fall. No disrespect towards Morgan State, but if you’re Maryland, you expect to collect a dominant W. And if you’re Morgan State, you’re likely using this as a way to see where you are in the first season of competition back. For coach Clemsen and company, you’re likely excited to have looked so dominant. Maryland claimed the dual win with one win by fall, four tech falls, one major decision, and two decisions. Maryland has a solid break before competing on January 5th at the Franklin & Marshall Lehman Open before starting their B1G schedule by hosting Michigan on January 12th.

Ohio State Drops Dual Against ACC Competition 

Sunday, the Buckeyes hosted Keith Gavin, former Ohio State Buckeye Luke Pletcher, and the Pittsburgh Panthers, and what generous hosts they were. Jokes aside, the team that had wrestled so well at the CKLV, did not appear to be the same team that wrestled this past weekend. You have to give credit to Pitt, who won where they were supposed to win, as well as in a couple matches where they weren’t projected to. Even the matches that were expected to go in favor of the Ohio State University proved to be closer than expected. As the year goes on you’d like to think that Gavin Hoffman will settle in at 184-pounds a little better than he has so far, and that Luke Geog will wrestle with more consistency and look like the guy they expected at the weight. With the exception of the first-round CKLV loss, Nic Bouzakis has looked solid, as has the rest of the Buckeye lineup. They have a couple things to iron out, but the Collegiate Duals next week will give them plenty of chances to do that. 

Indiana Remains Undefeated With Win Over CMU

The Hoosiers hosted the Chippewas of Central Michigan on Saturday afternoon and came away with a solid win. CMU started off strong with a solid win at 125, and a comeback win at 133 from Vince Perez, but then Indiana rattled off wins in six of the next seven weights. Dan Fongaro was in a close match at 141 until he ended it late in the third with a pin. As CMU tried to grab the momentum back at 149, Graham Rooks closed the door on that when he got a reversal and rideout to beat a tough Corbyn Munson. CMU’s Johnny Lovett got their last win of the dual (they received a forfeit at HWY), but Indiana wrestled very well in a series of close matches to collect the win at home. Derek Gilcher got a late takedown to get the win over fellow Michigander Tyler Swiderski. In what was the marquee matchup of the dual, DJ Washington proved to be too much for Alex Cramer in a 15-4 major decision win. Washington remains undefeated on the year, and will have a couple more chances with the Sheridan Invitational and Southern Scuffle to build on this early season success.

Bonus Points

In the weekly conference crossover conversation, Holmes, Claunch, and Wendell dig into last week’s action and what’s to come this week. Check out the full conversation here.