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Our correspondent crew, Ryan Holmes and Kevin Claunch (Big Ten) combine with Robbie Wendell (ACC) to talk about Pitt's win over Ohio State, the upcoming Virginia Tech/Stanford dual, the potential of a Spencer Lee vs Nick Suriano match at the US Open and Holmes has a few wishes for what he'd like to see happen this season. For the full video: Click Here

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.

by Morgan Kopitsky; Erin Hikiji photo courtesy of University of Providence athletics 1. Ranked Missouri Matchup #18 Central Methodist University made the quick trip across the state to compete in the #17 Missouri Baptist Duals featuring the two aforementioned teams along with Trinidad State and Westminster. While the two Missouri teams fared well against their other opponents, fans were eager to see the two closely ranked teams face off. After a forfeit at 101 lbs, the two teams exchanged pins with #17 Alyssa King for Missouri Baptist getting one at 109 lbs and Karlee Lachance returning the favor for CMU at 116 lbs. At 123 lbs, #7 Juliana Diaz got a ranked tech fall over #14 Allison Hynes to extend Missouri Baptist’s lead. #16 Nonnie Justice bounced back for CMU getting a third-period pin at 130 lbs. #15 Lilly Gough kept things rolling for the Eagles with a tech fall at 136 lbs. However, after a pin at 143 lbs from Tiyahna Askew, the dual was all Missouri Baptist. They followed Askew’s lead earning two more pins at 155 lbs with #14 Josette Partney over Annsleigh Alexander and at 170 lbs with Anastasia Hardin over Tambria Wilson. MoBap earned 5 more team points from a forfeit at 191 lbs to close out the night making the final team score 34-14. While the final score was a bit lopsided, each team showed dominance at particular weights even against some ranked opponents. While I do not know how much this could affect team rankings given how close these two teams are, I think either has the potential to show out against an even higher-ranked team to really shake things up. 2. Cardinals and Tigers and Argos, Oh my! The North Central Invite featured wrestlers from 25 different NAIA and NCAA-sanctioned programs as well as several talented unattached competitors as well. The North Central Cardinals took home first place with 177 team points and three champs. #1 Amani Jones defended her top seed with three pins and two techs to claim the title. Among her wins, Jones took out two tough unranked Iowa wrestlers. Freshman Alondra Morales also claimed a title spot over an Iowa wrestler after a dominant 8-0 decision in the finals against Anayka Besco at 136 lbs. The final champ for the Tigers came at 191 lbs where #1 Brittyn Corbishly whose biggest win came against 2x national runner-up Jaycee Foeller from Iowa who was wrestling unattached. In second place was the University of Providence Argos, led by their lone champ on the day #1 Erin Hikiji. Hikiji had a tournament full of ranked opponents from NAIA and NCAA schools. Early in the day, she faced #10 Riley Banyas of Campbellsville, followed by #6 Esther Walker of Midland. In one of the most exciting finals matches of the day, she took on #4 Maddie Avila of North Central in the championship. The two went back-and-forth exchanging takedowns and 4-point moves. After review, a second 4-point move call for Avila was revised to a regular takedown. From there, Hikiji skillfully worked the edge of the match for a push-out and another takedown, eventually winning 13-8 over the former NCAA national champ. Campbellsville did not have any champs, but two third-place finishers put up some serious team points to help the Tigers claim the 3rd place team spot as well. At 116 lbs, #4 Icart Galumette had a pin and tech to start her day, followed by a decision over Arianna Hernandez of North Central. Her only loss on the day was in the next round to North Central's Jenessa George. In consolations, Galumette got another pin and tech to finish 3rd. Teammate #2 Emma Walker at 143 lbs had a similar day, pinning her first two opponents before losing in the quarterfinals. However, Walker wrestled back with three straight techs on the back side to finish in third as well. 3. Upset win for OCU #12 Oklahoma City University picked up the upset win in their dual against #7 Texas Wesleyan winning 26-20. Each time won 5 matches, but the key for OCU was earning pivotal points for scoring in matches they lost by tech fall. As a reminder, if the losing opponent scores any points in a match they lose via tech, they earn 1 team point while their opponent earns 4. After a forfeit at 101 lbs, #8 Eliana Martinez got the 10-0 tech over Texas Wesleyan's #14 at 101 lbs Arianna Rodriguez. In a rematch from last season, #2 Avery Ashley went 2-0 with another 10-0 tech over #1 Camille Fournier at 116 lbs. #3 Sophia Smith for OCU had a string of big moves to beat her opponent #16 Carolina Rios 16-0 at 123 lbs. Then the Rams started to score some points of their own with #5 Elizabeth Duvall, #5 Mattison Parker, and #4 Mea Mohler earning techs at 130 lbs, 136 lbs, and 143 lbs respectively. #8 Taydem Khamjoi scored a 16-6 tech over #9 Presley Givens in one of the closest-ranked matches of the night. At 170 lbs, Aalyah Villarreal scored a tech as well to almost even out the team score 21-20 going into the final match of the night. However, the Rams forfeited at 191 lbs as well giving the edge to OCU. Results this week in major NCAA, NCWA, and NAIA competitions #3 Grand View over #19 Baker (32-8) #12 Oklahoma City over #7 Texas Wesleyan (26-20) #8 Missouri Baptist over #16 Central Methodist (34-14) North Central Women’s College Open: VIEW BRACKETS Upcoming Events: December 15th-17th: Senior Nationals - SCHEDULE December 15th: Eagle Duals (Avila University) December 15th: Women’s West Coast Tournament of Champions (Duals) December 16th: Women’s West Coast Tournament of Champions (Open) December 17th: Desert Duals (Wartburg College)