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This afternoon the largest remaining domino in the Class of 2024 recruiting game fell as #2 overall Cody Merrill (Gilroy, CA) announced his collegiate intentions. Merrill has given a verbal to Oklahoma State University where he projects to wrestle at either 197 or 285 lbs. As a sophomore, Merrill won a 2022 California state champion at 195 lbs. He did not wrestle in the 2023 tournament due to injuries. On the national scene, Merrill has won Junior National freestyle titles in Fargo in each of the last two summers. Back in 2021, Merrill captured a stop sign in the 16U Greco-Roman division and was a runner-up in freestyle. Earlier that year, he placed top-four in both styles at the U17 World Team Trials. Those placements set the stage for Merrill to make the 2022 U17 World Team in Greco. In his first taste of international competition, Merrill went to Rome and came away with a bronze medal at 92 kg. Merrill was last seen at FloWrestling’s Who’s #1 where he put up a 14-3 major decision over Iowa State recruit Sawyer Bartelt to solidify his top billing. He’s currently ranked number one in the country at 220 lb by MatScouts. The Oklahoma State choice shouldn’t come as a surprise since Merrill’s high school coach is former Cowboy star Daniel Cormier, also of Olympic and UFC fame. We’ll have to see how the Oklahoma State lineup shakes out going forward. The Cowboys signed one of the top recruits in the Class of 2023, Christian Carroll, and he appears to be their heavyweight of the foreseeable future. Oklahoma State doesn’t have a set-in-stone plan at 197 lbs; however, they do have plenty of options at 174 and 184 that could grow into the weight. If Merrill maintains 197, then OSU would have an excellent one-two punch at the back of their lineup. Merrill joins #40 JJ McComas (Stillwater, OK) and Kolter Burton (American Falls, ID) in Oklahoma State’s Class of 2024. The Cowboys Class of 2023 was ranked #1 in the nation by InterMat. For Merrill’s commitment profile and all of our recruiting information check out InterMat’s commitment page.

We rolled out the mats and it was all about that action again…finally. The 2023-24 season kicked off and we already had the biggest upset of the year. We also saw an incredible comeback story come full circle, the new scoring in full effect, Iowa’s brand new (possibly temporary) new look and so much more. So let’s get to the five (well, six) things from week 1 that had our attention. Peyton Robb back on the mat (I’m not crying, you’re crying) As we all know, Peyton Robb had a hell of an off-season where he had to fight off his toughest opponent since that breathless battle with Jacori Teemer in the consolation semifinals of the 2022 NCAA Championships. Robb was hospitalized after the NCAA tournament in Tulsa, OK last year with a life-threatening infection in his leg. But he’s recovered and is back to action, playing the role of the tail end of an incredible duo with top-ranked Ridge Lovett back in the lineup this year. Once Brock Hardy joins the lineup it’ll be a 3-headed monster at 141-149-157. But Robb was fantastic in his season debut with an 18-3 tech over North Dakota State’s Landon Johnson. Illinois comes up short against Navy Coach Poeta’s crew came out on the losing end against Navy last weekend. The Fighting Illini had some bright spots with true freshman Kannon Webster made a huge debut with a 20-5 tech over James Latona. They also got wins from Justin Cardani at 125, Joe Roberts at 157, Edmond Ruth at 174, and Luke Luffman at heavyweight, who had the team’s only bonus point win. Both Cardani and Ruth needed overtime. Missing from the lineup was two-time All-American Lucas Byrd at 133. Byrd has yet to make his season debut and it’s clear that they definitely miss him already this year. Buckeyes looked great at Clarion I should provide a little bit more context. I consider 7 finalists to be good. Technically, they only had 4 champs in Dylan D’Emilio (149), Paddy Gallagher (157), Rocco Welsh (174), and Nick Feldman (HWT), but they’d have another if teammates Jesse Mendez and Brandon Cannon hadn’t agreed to a no contest in the finals at 141. Where things get a bit weird is at 174 where Welsh was the champion with Kharchla taking 4th. Carson had injury defaulted out after the quarterfinals, so we hope he can recover quickly, but the Buckeyes have a solid option in Welsh if they have a “break glass in case of emergency” moment. I’m giving my B1Ggest Win award to Paddy Gallagher this week. He dominated his way through the Clarion Open by way of major decision, major decision, tech fall, tech fall, and capped it off with another major decision in the finals. Results are great, but he looked more like the Gallagher that we expected to see last season. He was decisive with his attacks, punishing with his defense, and tough on top. He looked every bit like the guy advertised before the season started, and who Buckeye fans hoped to see last season. He’ll be tested right away as the Buckeyes travel to Blacksburg to take on #4 Virginia Tech this Friday. Gallagher vs Bryce Andonian (both St. Ed’s grads) should be a great match to watch for any and all. Boilermakers looked good at Clarion Good is not great, but it’s still good. Expectations are important here. Based on preseason rankings, Ohio State was expected to look great, compared to Purdue’s good, and that was how it looked in PA. The upside, seven placewinners is good for a young team. Stoney Buell took third at 165, along with teammate Cooper Noehre at the same weight placing fifth. Redshirt freshman transfer James Rowley took fourth at 184, along with freshman Brody Baumann placing fifth at 174. Baumann’s only real loss was to the eventual champion, the aforementioned Rocco Welsh of Ohio State. Another upside is true freshman Joey Blaze placing 5th at 157. He looked great in his first college tournament with his only loss coming against Pitt’s Jared Keslar, currently ranked 30th at 157. Downside, Matt Ramos dropped a match to Marcus Blaze a high school junior. Now that’s not exactly fair to leave it at that. Marcus is a super accomplished prospect, and just won a World Championship this summer at the U17 age group, so the dude has talent. This isn’t really how this is supposed to work, but it’s tough to not reward Blaze with the B1Ggest Upset of the Week award for that. Don’t think any other number-one-ranked wrestlers lost, so this is the one. That’s not ideal to have your top-ranked wrestler go down that quickly, but another positive note is that it might not matter because he still might be the best wrestler in college at that weight. Time will tell. Next up the Boilermakers wrestle this Saturday and Sunday at WrangleMania against Army and NC State. Hawkeyes show Terry that he in fact knew what he thought he knew Like many others, we expected to watch Iowa beat Cal Baptist and that’s no shade against CBU, because it’s always great to get early season tests and to get some excitement going for a program. You probably look at that as a loss on the schedule before the matches are wrestled. What we weren’t sure of was what some of the “fill-in” Hawkeyes were going to look like. We expected wins from 125 through 165, and that’s what we got. Of note, Michael Calliendo looked awesome. Relentless attacks, physical, tactical, mobile, hostile, and agile. He is going to be an interesting addition to the B1G at 165. Caliendo also takes the B1Ggest Move award with some action from the second period of this dual. He gets hit for stalling while up 10-3 and on top, so they restart. De La Pena gets out and with just under a minute takes a nice shot and gets in deep on a high crotch. Caliendo cuts the corner perfectly and switches from a crotch lock to isolating De La Pena’s left leg, elevating it, and making it his own leg attack. That quickly turns into him sitting his opponent on his butt and collecting the double leg for 3. Just such a smooth way to make sure he could keep attacking from a defensive position. I shoot, I score, you shoot, I score. Before we move on, I want to share a Terry Brands quote from after the dual for context as to why this section has that title: “I learned that we have a room full of competitors. I learned that what I thought I knew, I knew.” I love it when anyone, including myself (especially myself) proves themselves right. The real questions were at 174 and heavyweight for me, and both Aiden Riggins (174) and Bradley Hill (HWT) answered those questions to the tune of major decisions. You expect there to be talented and adequate depth coming out of the Hawkeye crew, but this confirmed that assumption. In the end, the toughest part of this trip might have been the travel. However, Iowa will have a better test coming up next as they take on the Beavers of Oregon State on Sunday 11/19. Bonus Point: TWOOOO Becomes Threeee Snap, fake, shot [insert wrestler name] FOR THREEEEE! The new rules and scoring were in full effect for the first time and coaches, wrestlers and fans everywhere had to fight the urge to call with the traditional calls of twoooo with a pair of fingers raised to the sky or just transition to using a new hand symbol and call after going with the original one. Obviously, there’s nowhere near enough of a sample size to assess the new changes, but so far it looks like a move in the right direction.

We made it through the offseason and got to experience the first week of the 2023-24 collegiate wrestling season. As always some topics set social media and the message boards ablaze (like Marcus Blaze) over the weekend. In this weekly, recurring feature, we’ll identify some of those topics and discuss them at length. These will be big-picture stories moreso than rehashing results and tournament placings. High Schooler’s in Open Tournaments Before about 6:30pm (EST), high school wrestlers at the collegiate level during the first week of the season were just a nice story. There were some good performances, which has become normal considering the talent level at the high school continues to rise. Right around 6:30pm, that topic pushed everything else to the side. In the Clarion Open quarterfinals at 125 lbs, high school sensations Marcus Blaze and Jax Forrest clashed. Blaze is one of the top wrestlers in the Class of 2025, while Forrest is considered the same in the Class of 2026. Blaze prevailed 9-4 and fans tended to enjoy it. Why not, two elite high schoolers competing after tallying multiple wins over collegiate opponents. With NCAA runner-up and #1 ranked Matt Ramos (Purdue) looming, the feel-good story of Blaze butting head with collegiate opponents would come to an end, right? If you’re reading this you’re probably aware that Blaze shocked the top-ranked Ramos with a takedown in sudden victory after engaging in one of the best scrambles you’ll see all year. Just like that, Blaze catapulted himself into another stratosphere of fame in the wrestling world. Suddenly, Blaze’s name was mentioned amongst some of the greatest high school wrestlers ever during Twitter (or X) debates. Only a select few like Cary Kolat, Jimmy Carr, Logan Stieber, and Henry Cejudo have been able to defeat elite collegiate wrestlers at such a young age. As these things tend to do, it wasn’t a storybook ending on Blaze's side either. In a striking similarity to Ramos after pulling off his 2023 NCAA semifinal stunner against Spencer Lee (Iowa), Blaze was defeated in the finals by Chattanooga’s Brayden Palmer. Palmer has qualified for each of the last two NCAA Tournaments at 133 lbs and was testing the waters at 125, before deciding whether or not to redshirt. Before getting back on the topic of high schooler's, Palmer has to be singled out for majoring his way to the finals and majoring #22 Nick Babin (Columbia) in the process. In the same event, there was a high schooler that actually captured a title. Forrest’s high school teammate, Bo Bassett, reigned supreme at 133 lbs. Bassett defeated 2023 EIWA third-place finisher Angelo Rini (Columbia) in the semifinals to get a shot at Vince Santaniello (Pittsburgh) in the championship bout. Santaniello’s spot in the finals was earned by downing Ohio State super-freshman #8 Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State). Bassett did what we’ve been accustomed to seeing from him and pushed the pace in the final stanza earning two takedowns in a 13-10 win. Bassett, Blaze, and Forrest weren’t the only high school wrestlers competing in collegiate opens over the weekend; however, they were the most notable and successful. Plenty of others did so, with varying levels of success. As the elite high schooler’s are able to consistently compete with and defeat high-caliber collegiate wrestlers, it makes you wonder if wrestling will follow the lead of other sports. In basketball, baseball, and football, athletes are more willing to finish high school early and get closer to a big professional payday. Without the lure of a big payday in wrestling, student-athletes are more likely to be held back to develop physically (or academically/socially). Could this shift? With the availability of NIL money for collegiate athletes, does this make it more of a lure for high schooler’s to chase the money earlier? The above paragraph only is applicable to a very small, select group of student-athletes. I don’t see that becoming a widespread trend were it to happen. Even so, it’s something to think about going forward. Three-Point Takedowns With the start of the collegiate season, we saw the highly-anticipated debut of “three-point takedowns.” There were plenty of opinions on the change. Personally, I like more of a reward for a takedown. A takedown/escape sequence now nets a two-point advantage, rather than one in the past ruleset. As wrestlers are more advanced in college and takedowns are harder to come by, that seems like a better trade-off. As we grew closer to the start of the season, I was wondering how this change would impact the actual matches themselves. Does the potential for a higher reward allow for more offensive attempts? Or does the potential punishment for a bad shot lead to fewer attempts? Will the defensively stout wrestler who gets an early takedown be even more apt to shut down his offense and stall for six-plus minutes? With only five days of action, I think it’s too early to make any sweeping generalizations either way. I’m sure we can find examples of each question I proposed in the last paragraph. With more matches, trends will develop. You can be sure if there’s a loophole to exploit or an advantageous strategy to employ, college coaches will figure it out. If you missed it, one of our Big Ten correspondents, Ryan Holmes, spoke with a handful of B1G coaches about rule changes during the preseason and put their answers together on one singular video. Before the first whistle blew, I was very cautious about whether the changes would just lead to artificial scoring inflation. What used to be a 6-3 win (two takedowns, an escape, and riding time; against a takedown and escape) is now an 8-4 victory. Just looking at the results on paper, it may look like there was more action when there wasn’t any. Making a scoring maneuver more valuable doesn’t mean it's more aesthetically pleasing to fans, particularly the ever-elusive “casual sports fans” that wrestling is seemingly always chasing. Watching various events over the last five days, you can tell that fans are still adjusting to the change, as the traditional chorus of “TWOOOOO” when a wrestler is close to a takedown, was still noticeable. “THREEE” certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue or sound as natural as the two did. The one judgment that I think it’s safe to say, at this point, is that it’s easier to rack up tech falls when there’s a talent disparity between the competitors. I suppose that’s fine when you’re running a large open tournament or a two-day invitational and there are hundreds of bouts to conduct. It may be a bad trend as you’re looking to promote dual meets or NCAA finals. I can’t imagine fans wanting to see less of their favorite wrestlers, like in freestyle, where a takedown and then four leg laces can end the bout in an instance. We’ll probably come back to this at some point during the season. UFC FightPass Coverage Expands Last season, UFC FightPass dipped its toes into the waters of collegiate wrestling when it streamed two duals that saw Campbell take on Michigan and North Carolina. This year, UFC FightPass has increased its schedule. On the opening day of the collegiate season, FightPass streamed a doubleheader from Fort Liberty as Campbell wrestled Army West Point, then NC State and Presbyterian squared off inside a hangar on base. Sunday, it streamed David Carr’s Homecoming, as the Iowa State national champion and his teammates took on Cleveland State in Carr’s high school (Massillon Perry, OH). Some of the notable upcoming events on FightPass include a dual between #4 Missouri and #24 Illinois. #10 Iowa State and #26 Wisconsin. The FightPass presentation for these duals has been very professional. Shane Sparks and Olympic Gold Medalist David Taylor have teamed up to provide commentary. Sparks always brings energy to any of his broadcast duties, while Taylor continues to emerge behind the mic. A plus with FightPass has been the amount of detail and attention they’re able to provide in their promotion of duals. Since they don’t really cover the sport much outside of their “MatchDay Duals,” they just hone in on the teams participating in their broadcasts and give plenty of attention to the entire roster. Fans will likely be split on the idea of having another viewing option. Some don’t mind having an option aside from FloWrestling handling the streaming. Others will lament yet another subscription; however, that’s the current landscape as a sports fan (not just wrestling). As mentioned in the three-point takedowns, we as a wrestling community, continue to chase casual wrestling fans or general “sports fans.” We’ll have to monitor whether exposing the sport to an audience that is, first and foremost, mixed martial arts fans is able to grow the wrestling fanbase. Dual of the Week (You may have missed) Even though this weekend didn’t have a full slate of teams in action, a lot was going on. Some fans are like our mailbag extraordinaire, Jagger, and have a setup with multiple TV’s and devices so they can monitor four or five duals or tournaments at a time. Others may just focus on their favorite team or the marquee events. Basically, it can be easy to miss a good dual. This will be a running feature to highlight a good dual that may have slipped through the cracks for you. In week one we’re talking about Navy pulling a slight upset and knocking off #24 Illinois in the Illini’s home gym. This match occurred at 2pm (EST) on Saturday afternoon, so maybe some of you were still in college football mode. It’s excusable (I guess). The dual had a little bit of everything. Navy won on the strength of two falls. One came in a battle between two ranked wrestlers (184 lbs) when #19 David Key was a step ahead of #22 Dylan Connell in a scramble and caught him on his back. The other took place at 133 lbs, as #19 Brendan Ferretti prevailed. There was also the emergence of two stud freshmen. Kannon Webster got the call for Illinois at 149 lbs and responded with a dominating 20-5 tech fall over James Latona. At this time, Webster still could redshirt; however, he looked extremely impressive. Navy also has a good freshman at 174 lbs. Danny Wask was good enough during his year at the Naval Academy Prep School to garner a preseason ranking (#32). Wask was able to get a takedown and pushed #5 Edmond Ruth (Illinois) into sudden victory before falling to the veteran. 197 lbs was just absurd in the best way possible. Navy’s Cael Crebs got out to an early lead based on a throw from a body lock. Illinois’ Isaiah Pettigrew never threw in the towel and got better as the match progressed. Three-point takedowns helped him get back in the match and he pushed Crebs to the brink before falling, 14-13. The dual was on BTN+ and is still available so check it out before next week rolls around.

by Morgan Kopitsky; Alyvia White photo courtesy of HawkeyeSports.com/Jerod Ringwald Week 1- Oct. 30-Nov. 5 Top 4 Takeaways 1. Iowa shows up big on their opening weekend The Iowa Women’s Wrestling team competed in their first dual as a team on Saturday against #7 East Stroudsburg. The Warriors have proven to be a tough team, finishing eighth at NCWWC’s last year and returning three All-Americans. However, the team was no match for the quick and dynamic offense of the entire Hawkeyes lineup. Iowa won all 10 matches by tech fall or pin, capping it off with a 17 second pin from freshman Alivia White. Across the board, the Hawkeyes looked dominant as they secured the 43-1 win. The following day, the Hawkeyes sent 17 wrestlers to the Princeton Open and finished with 10 wrestlers in the top-three. Of that 10, they sent eight into the finals and walked away with six champs. Keep in mind that at 101 lbs both finalists were Iowa wrestlers, with Emilie Gonzalez beating teammate Sterling Dias 7-0. Most of the wrestlers in the lineup against ESU were the same wrestlers who placed in the top 3, so we may be able to piece together with more certainty the probable starting lineup for Iowa in a dual setting. However, it is clear that they have a significant amount of depth as well. I would not be surprised to see an early shift in team ranking for the Hawkeyes as they continue to face conference competition. 2. Sacred Heart makes their mark at ESU Open Of the 21 teams competing at the 4th annual East Stroudsburg open this weekend, Sacred Heart walked away “victorious” with 17 top-6 finishers. The Pioneers had two champs in #5 Madison Sandquist at 155 and Love Daley at 170 lbs in her college debut. Sacred Heart who was ranked #5 in the NWCA preseason coaches poll beat #2 King University, #6 Gannon and #7 East Stroudsburg in total number of top finishers. While this tournament was missing some of the NCAA’s top ranked teams like #1 North Central, #3 McKendree and #4 Colorado Mesa, the strong showing against the tough competition that was present is a positive indicator for what Sacred Heart may be capable of later on this season. 3. Menlo Open showing some interesting results amongst 3 top-ranked teams At the Menlo Open on Sunday, #1 ranked Menlo held on to the highest total team score, but #2 Life and #6 Southern Oregon certainly made things interesting. Menlo capped off the day with two 1st place finishers, freshman Kalila Shrive at 170 lbs and #1 ranked Tavia Heidelberg-Tillotson at 191 lbs. In her first collegiate tournament, Shrive took on a few unranked wrestlers before meeting up with #4 Lily El-Masri in the finals. A last-second 4-point takedown secured the upset win for the freshman. She will be one to keep an eye on this season. Heidelberg-Tillotson pinned the #8 and #3 wrestlers in a pretty stacked weight at this tournament. It is certainly possible she could see these wrestlers again in March, so it is reassuring to get such dominant early season wins. While Southern Oregon finished more than 20 team points behind Menlo, they did send an impressive six wrestlers to the finals with three walking away with championship finishes. #3 Caitlyn Davis, in her debut for SOU, faced #1 ranked Latifah McBryde from Life in the finals and won in a 3-1 decision for the upset. Davis previously wrestled for Central Methodist, and represents some of the impressive transfers SOU was able to bring in to build out some of their roster. The win over 5x All American McBryde is an impressive showing and will certainly have her on the radar of other wrestlers at 155 lbs. Another interesting championship result came from one of SOU’s most dominant wrestlers, Carolina Moreno. Moreno is a two-time defending NAIA champion at 123 lbs, however at this tournament she wrestled up at 130 lbs. She defeated the #5 and #10 ranked wrestlers at the weight. She is still listed on the roster at 123 lbs, so I don’t necessarily see this as a permanent weight class change for her this season, but it is something to keep in mind. Finally, #5 Emma Baertlin at 109 lbs faced some tough ranked opponents in #7 and #11, but the Raider came out on top to claim the team’s 3rd title of the day. Rounding out the top 3 teams from the tournament is Life, finishing just a half point behind Southern Oregon. In her college debut, Ariana Martinez won the top spot at 116 lbs. While Martinez did not face any ranked wrestlers on her path to the finals, she showed dominance over her competition with three pins and a tech for the day. As the season continues, I would not be surprised to see the freshman enter the rankings with her pinning ability, especially with just four of last year’s AAs returning to the weight this season. Two other Life Wrestlers made the finals but came up short of the first place finish. Also, at 143 lbs, Jamilah McBryde who wrestles for Life but is currently wrestling unattached for a portion of the season, walked away with the 1st place prize over returning All American Bella Amaro of Southern Oregon, who wrestled last season at 136 lbs. Because McBryde was unattached, Life did not receive any team points for her run in the tournament. There is a lot more discussion that could take place about the results of this tournament, interesting weight class changes for some wrestlers, and some interesting face offs we got to see as a result. Here is a link to the brackets if anyone would like to take a deeper dive into the results. 4. Welcome to new women’s wrestling fans Circling back to Iowa’s dominant opening weekend, the Hawkeyes are certainly shining a spotlight on the existing impressive athletes and competitions of women’s collegiate wrestling for a new audience. That may have a few fans caught up on some of the differences between collegiate men’s and women’s wrestling which has been apparent online. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you continue to follow women’s wrestling throughout the season. Women’s collegiate wrestling is freestyle instead of folkstyle, which has a myriad of different rules, as many fans know from watching collegiate and former collegiate wrestlers compete internationally. If you need a quick explainer on some of the rules and technique, why not watch this quick 3-minute video from none other than 2x Olympic medalist Helen Maroulis. Many people were curious why in the Iowa vs East Stroudsburg dual the final score was 43-1 even though Iowa won every match. This is because of classification points. If the losing opponent scores any points in a match they lose by decision or technical fall, the losing team receives a point for their team score. This was also seen in Colorado Mesa’s win over Snow College this weekend 43-2. For more clarification on this, please check out this great breakdown written by former wrestler/coach Gabrielle Lord-Klein. Results this week in major NCAA, NCWA, and NAIA competitions ESU Open - VIEW BRACKETS Princeton Open - VIEW BRACKETS Menlo Open - VIEW BRACKETS Falcon Invite Maverick Open - VIEW BRACKETS Tiffin University Open - VIEW BRACKETS Luther Hill Open - VIEW BRACKETS Women’s Trojan Open - VIEW BRACKETS Jim Fox - VIEW BRACKETS Mountaineer Open - VIEW BRACKETS Big Cat Classic #8 Iowa 43 #7 East Stroudsburg University 1 #4 Colorado Mesa 41 Chardron 3 #4 Colorado Mesa 42 Snow 2 Chadron 28 Snow 21 #24 Emory & Henry 25 Liberty University 19 Alvernia 28 Cedar Crest 21 #24 Emory & Henry 33 Liberty University 19 Texas Wesleyan 28 Schreiner University 19 #7 East Stroudsburg 35 Elmira College 12 Lourdes 31 John Carroll 13 Schreiner University 33 University of the Ozarks 14 Texas Wesleyan 35 University of the Ozarks 9 #19 Eastern Oregon 26 Evergreen State 12 #3 Grand View 44 Waldorf University 5 #10 Missouri Baptist 42 William Woods 6 Upcoming events for next week Please note that this is not a comprehensive list of all collegiate women’s competitions. Wednesday, Nov. 8: #9 Texas Wesleyan vs Wayland Baptist Thursday, Nov. 9: NAIA #10 Missouri Baptist vs NCAA #3 McKendree Friday, Nov. 10: Life Duals Saturday, Nov. 11: Eagle Madness, Waldorf Open, CU (Campbellsville) Open, Adrian College Duals Sunday, Nov. 12: Trailblazer Duals, Mike Clock Open, Adrian College Invitational