True freshman A.J. Ferrari improved to 7-0 this season after two wins over the weekend (Photo/OSU Athletics)We have progressed through yet another action-packed week of college wrestling. Whether you got your fix for college wrestling by attending a dual in-person, or whether you were streaming multiple matches simultaneously from home (as I did), you likely had a fun weekend.
Here are five things that caught my eye from this past weekend (Jan. 29-31) in college wrestling.
A.J. Ferrari keeps rolling
A biproduct of this wild and wacky COVID-influenced 2021 wrestling season has been fans getting to watch true freshman take to the mat instantly. For some freshman, they have looked as if they needed a redshirt year. Others, like A.J. Ferrari, who was a top high school recruit in the Class of 2020, have been wrestling with poise well beyond their years.
In Ferrari's case, he has a perfect 7-0 record, with five bonus-point victories. He has looked very much in control in every match thus far. It always impresses me to see a young guy (no matter how highly rated of a prep prospect he was) excel at an upper weight. Ferrari has done just that so far in 2021. (The entire Oklahoma State team has for that matter.) However, it should be very exciting to see how he finishes at the Big 12 Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma, March 6-7. The 197-pound weight class is one of the deeper weights in that conference. I'm very excited to see how these Cowboy freshmen handle postseason play in general.
Penn State returned to the mat
Finally, the Nittany Lion grapplers safely returned the mat and competed against someone not also wearing Penn State singlet. Penn State emerged from its tri-meet at Welsh-Ryan Arena, in Evanston, Illinois, with a 24-15 win over Indiana and a 29-13 victory over host Northwestern. While they won both duals, they didn't do so as effortlessly as we are used to. PSU lacked the typical dominance we have grown accustomed to during the Cael Sanderson era. In fact, two ranked PSU grapplers suffered losses in the opening match against Indiana. But it's still a bit too early for a true evaluation, all things considered:
The Blue and White had to forfeit in the 125-pound class as no wrestler on the roster at that weight was "medically cleared." Similarly, some projected upperweight starters (Michael Beard and Greg Kerkvliet) weren't in action; Additionally, there was some rust as is common in early-season bouts. Lastly, PSU has a very inexperienced starting lineup.
While some individual performances may not have gone as expected, it's still very early. Penn State just needs more live reps. But it sure is good to have them back.
Big bounce-back performances for Nino Bonaccorsi and Tony Cassioppi
As I discussed last week, we saw multiple wrestlers ranked in the top five fall victim to an upset. Then-No. 5 Nino Bonaccorsi of Pitt lost handily, 6-1, to then-unranked true freshman Isaac Trumble of NC State, who was making his college dual debut. Similarly, No. 3 Tony Cassioppi was beaten soundly by No. 1 Gable Steveson, in a 14-6 decision. Clearly, Trumble and Stevson are solid wrestlers. I was more so surprised by how lopsided these respective contests were last weekend.
This weekend proved that both Bonaccorsi and Cassioppi had short memories and are not shaken by their recent stumbles. Both the Pitt Panther and the Iowa Hawkeye were able to record marquee individual wins this weekend.
Bonaccorsi took out No. 3 Jay Aiello (Virginia), 7-5. For Aiello, the loss ended a streak of winning 24 straight bouts in dual competition. The Chantilly, Virginia product went 14-0 last season and won seven straight matches to end the 2019 campaign. He has won 18 consecutive matches overall dating back to the finals of the Midlands Championships last season.
Cassioppi got back to his winning ways with a second-period fall over No. 6 Luke Luffman (Illinois), who was 4-0 prior to the loss.
The quartet of Lees within the Big Ten were 7-0 this weekend
For the third straight week, Iowa's Spencer Lee looked unbeatable. He now has three first period falls in as many matches. The latest one was a fall at the 2:27 mark of the match over No. 15 Justin Cardani of Illinois.
Penn State's No. 2 Nick Lee cruised to a 16-1 technical in his season opener against Indiana's Cayden Rooks. He followed that up with a strong 10-6 win over Northwestern's Frankie Tal-Shahar in his final match of the weekend.
Nick Lee's brother, redshirt freshman, No. 6 Joe Lee, who made his varsity debut this weekend for those same Nittany Lions, went 2-0, with a pair of wins by decision, at 165 pounds, in his first weekend as college starter.
Minnesota's No. 6 Brayton Lee added two wins by decision to his resume this weekend. First, he defeated Purdue's No. 7 Kendall Coleman via a close 3-2 decision. Then, he followed that up with a 10-7 win over Robert Kanniard of Rutgers. Brayton improves to 5-1 on the year.
Brody Teske is settling in nicely at Northern Iowa
It seems as though transferring has become commonplace in college athletics. Wrestling is no exception. Brady Teske was one of many elite high school prospects to hit the transfer portal in recent years. Teske, a former Penn State lightweight, brought four Iowa state titles and a more than 170 career wins with him to Happy Valley in 2018. However, Teske quickly realized Pennsylvania wasn't the place for him. He went back home to Iowa and enrolled in UNI.
In this, his redshirt sophomore season, his first full season as a starter, he is off to a fast 6-0 record, earning him national recognition by every major ranking outlet. Sunday, Teske got the biggest win of his UNI career: a 6-0 shutout of No. 13 Trevor Mastrogiovanni.
Teske controlled the entire match and refused to let Mastrogiovanni score. In the second period, Mastrogiovanni picked the bottom position and Teske rode out the entire period and earned a four-point near fall to take a 4-0 lead after two. He earned an escape and ride time to earn the 6-0 win. Teske remains undefeated on the season with a 6-0 record and a 5-0 mark in duals.
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