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We're officially in the second half of the collegiate wrestling season and have a full schedule of DI duals this week. A total of 45 duals will be contested. Since it can be difficult to figure out where and when to watch all of these events, InterMat has put together a list of all of the live-streamed events occurring this week. Below are the dates/times and how to watch each match (with links). All times listed are Eastern. Friday, January 26: George Mason at Bloomsburg 7:00 PM PSAC Digital Network Ohio at Cleveland State 7:00 PM FloWrestling Virginia at Duke 7:00 PM ACC Network Extra Wisconsin at Michigan State 7:00 PM B1G+ Michigan at Ohio State 7:00 PM Big Ten Network NC State at PIttsburgh 7:00 PM ACC Network Columbia at Princeton 7:00 PM ESPN+ Lock Haven at Rider 7:00 PM ESPN+ North Carolina at Virginia Tech 7:00 PM ESPN+ Missouri at West Virginia 7:00 PM ESPN+ Wyoming at Northern Colorado 8:00 PM FloWrestling Nebraska at Northwestern 8:00 PM B1G+ Iowa State at Oklahoma 8:00 PM ESPN+ Northern Iowa at Oklahoma State 8:00 PM ESPN+ Air Force at South Dakota State 8:00 PM FloWrestling Iowa at Illinois 9:00 PM Big Ten Network Little Rock vs. Oregon State at Hillsboro, OR 9:00 PM Saturday, January 27: Appalachian State at Appalachian Open 9:00 AM Harvard at Cornell 12:00 PM ESPN+ LIU at Hofstra 1:00 PM Hofstra Pride YouTube Minnesota at Rutgers 1:00 PM B1G+ Brown at Cornell 2:00 PM ESPN+ Central Michigan at Northern Illinois 2:00 PM NIU All-Access Harvard at Binghamton 5:30 PM ESPN+ Army West Point at Bucknell 6:00 PM Bucknell Athletics YouTube Purdue at Indiana 7:00 PM B1G+ Iowa State at Oklahoma State 7:00 PM ESPN+ Franklin & Marshall at Sacred Heart 7:00 PM NEC Front Row Brown at Binghamton 7:30 PM ESPN+ Northern Iowa at Oklahoma 8:00 PM ESPN+ Sunday, January 28: Queens at Newberry Open 8:00 AM Lock Haven at Mat Town Open II, hosted by Lock Haven 9:30 AM Penn State at Maryland 12:00 PM Big Ten Network Virginia at American 1:00 PM ESPN+ Gardner-Webb at Bellarmine 1:00 PM ESPN+ Missouri at Cornell 1:00 PM ESPN+ Bucknell at Drexel 1:00 PM FloWrestling Clarion at Edinboro 1:00 PM FloWrestling Columbia at Penn 1:00 PM ESPN+ Air Force at North Dakota State 1:30 PM NDSU All-Access Davidson at Chattanooga 2:00 PM ESPN+ Bloomsburg at Rider 2:00 PM ESPN+ Central Michigan at SIU Edwardsville 2:00 PM ESPN+ VMI at The Citadel 2:00 PM ESPN+ Nebraska at Wisconsin 2:00 PM Big Ten Network West Virginia at Morgan State 3:00 PM Morgan State All-Access Navy at North Carolina 3:00 PM ESPN+ Iowa at Northwestern 3:00 PM B1G+ Little Rock at Stanford 6:00 PM Pac-12 Network

Welcome back, all. Sorry about missing last week but some things came up, so my crawl to 100 mailbags took a little pit stop. Some say I ducked but I assure you I was banged up and Earl needs to rest me for the stretch run. I only have so many words in me and it would be foolhardy to use them in the middle of January. But I managed to scrape some together this week like the grinder that I am and you can read them now. Such a strange thing that we live in a world of text now and nobody seems to actually speak to each other anymore. Yet we listen to podcasts and watch people play video games for some reason. Tell you what, growing up in my day when you had to watch your brother play a video game for however long and patiently wait your turn, you’d take umbrage with that whole industry like I do. But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s do some questions. Going weight by weight and seeing how many wrestlers each conference has in the top 10, how close would you say the B12 and others are to catching the B10? Is the gap closing? Jayson Hildreth Fine, I’ll crunch the numbers. Ok, numbers crunched. And I’m not exactly sure what to make of them. It seems the B12 has a pretty solid stronghold on the upper weights with four guys ranked in the top ten at 165, 184, and 285. Three at 197 and only two at 174 puts 17 out of 50 overall for the guys who wrestle after intermission. So just about one-third. That’s not bad. The lightweights only clock in with two at each weight, except 141, which has four. Since I have no other data to compare to, or don’t feel like searching for, it’s hard to tell if a gap has been closed. But it does seem like it. Missouri is as good as anybody in the non-PSU division, Iowa State has reemerged as a powerhouse, Oklahoma State is Oklahoma State, and UNI and South Dakota State are no one to be trifled with. It certainly feels like a more well-rounded conference right now than the Big Ten. I’ll admit that much. I also admit that a few Big Ten teams seem a bit down this year on account of injuries and transfers. Should be fun to see how things shake out in about two months. Who does wrestling Twitter hate the most: AJ Ferrari, Jimmy Cinnabon, or all the ducks? I'll hang up and quack now. Thicccholas Depends on the week. I actually don’t see much chatter on the X about Cinnabon, nor do I know if he’s out there somewhere. Jimmy certainly gets them riled up on the forum, though. If you know, you know. If you don’t, go check out the forum just a click away at the top of the page. But finish reading this first. I’m not doing Ferrari today. There’s just nothing more to discuss right now. We will go through the motions again next year. It’s definitely the ducking situation for lack of a better term. I try to give the benefit of the doubt when it happens but it seems to be getting tougher to justify. The good news is that the lack of marquee matchups during the regular season makes March just that much more exciting. Jags, my brilliant friend, it's been over 46 years since the last @RUWrestling vs Florida dual. When are those golf cart jockeys going to give us a chance to settle the score? Salty Walkon They’d have to get a team first. So…never? Shocking that I wasn’t alive when that happened since I’ve been alive for almost everything. But seriously, there’s no reason why the entire state of Florida can’t have a good three D1 teams at least. I bet they wouldn’t even have to travel. Every team would just want to go there instead. What is the significance of 712 to you? Are you actually representing western Iowa area code, 712? Best unorthodox bracket format for 125 this year? Best of 3 finals, round robin. Do we include feats of strength, Dance offs, or slam poetry readings to crown 125? Burger King of Kings No significance at all. But I dig that it’s an area code in Iowa. Many moons ago in the early days of the internet, I needed an email so I chose Jagger711. Jagger because I’d occasionally crush some Coors Lights and start doing Mick Jagger impressions. 711 was for our family’s race car number. Then for some reason, I needed another email and just went one number up. As the 21st century went on and we needed usernames for everything from online poker to Xbox, it just became my de facto name. That’s it. That’s the story. Truly exhilarating stuff. As far as 125 is concerned, there’s only one answer. Royal Rumble. 33 enter, one leaves with the belt. Speaking of which… How is anyone going to get Omos over the top rope?????? Rhino It’s Rumble weekend! Look, I know there's still some beef from the real wrestling crowd to the scripted stuff, but the Rumble is fun. It’s the only WWE event I even watch anymore. And we have a pool going! I dropped 30 Willie bucks for three lousy numbers where one will certainly be Omos. Then the announcers will act like he can win because he’s seven feet tall and I’ll get all excited before he inevitably gets eliminated by Rey Mysterio or a nostalgia entrant like The Sandman or something. I’ll still pop for it. 30 pops, baby! Go nuts for every guy no matter what! Don't want to talk about "hot seats", Some coaches are reaching retirement age. Gable retired at 50, Nichols at 68. Does John Smith (58), Brands (55), Manning (65?), Koll (58?), Dresser (61), Zeke (57), retire first? Burger King of Questions You would think Manning strictly by age but who knows. I just feel like it’s a new generation and these guys don’t feel as old as their age would indicate. I don’t feel as old as my age indicates. It’s just the times we live in. And do they want to retire anytime soon? Each one of them has put in a lifetime of work to get to where they are. It’s what they do. It’s how they’re programmed. Other than maybe John Smith, I can see all these guys doing it until they’re 70 and riding off into the sunset. Which is exactly what I’m going to do right now. Have a great weekend!

Every week during the 2023-24 season, the InterMat staff will submit their picks for some of the most high-profile or competitive dual meets. As the season progresses, we'll keep track of records for bragging rights or as ammunition for when we mock each other. No, we'd never do that, it's all in good fun (right?). Records heading into this weekend: 33-13: Nick 32-14: Richard 31-15: Bob D. 30-16: Austin, Willie 29-17: Earl, Morgan, Robbie, Tony 28-18: Dysen, Jagger, Rachel 27-19: James, Kevin, Ryan Below are the picks for week 13:

ACC Week One It’s finally here! ACC Friday Night Duals kick off tonight, with Rock Harrison and Shawn Kenny heading to Pittsburgh to cover #8 NC State take on #22 Pittsburgh on ACC Network. The Hokies host the Tar Heels and the Hoos will travel to Durham to face the Blue Devils. #8 NC State at #22 Pittsburgh The Wolfpack kick off their defense of the ACC crown with a trip to Pittsburgh to face a very talented Panther squad. There are solid matches throughout this dual with several ranked versus ranked bouts. Both teams will be without a ranked starter in the lineup; #22 Jakob Camacho will be heading to the App State Open and #9 Dayton Pitzer will be out with an injury he suffered last week against Oklahoma State--they hope to have him back for the ACC Championships. There are several intriguing matches up and down this lineup tonight. Jarrett Trombley will get the start at 125 and is the reigning ACC Champion, he will face Colton Camacho who has picked up some big wins this season. Kai Orine will face a very scrappy Vinnie Santaniello at 133 followed by a rematch of last year’s ACC title bout with Ryan Jack and Cole Matthews. Jack has looked incredible this year while Matthews has had an up-and-down year; however, Matthews holds a 4-0 advantage over Jack and I expect him to be strapped up and ready to go. Jackson Arrington will face former teammate Finn Solomon at 149 before fellow Pennsylvania native Ed Scott squares off with Jared Keslar at 157. In the back half of the dual, we have an interesting matchup with Derek Fields and Holden Heller; Fields has been consistent this year and Heller, who has had a great year so far, is coming off an uncharacteristic loss. Alex Faison will have his hands full with a dangerous Luca Augustine who is starting to make his rise in the rankings. The next two matches are the marquee matches in the dual in my eyes and both pair talented young wrestlers against accomplished veterans. Dylan Fishback will square off with a gritty Reece Heller at 184, followed by Trent Hidlay facing Mac Stout; both of these have the potential for fireworks as all four of them will let it fly. The dual will finish up with Owen Trephan squaring off with Geoff Magin in his first match of the year filling in for an injured Dayton Pitzer. The Wolfpack are favored on paper but Pitt has shown they can hang with any team in the country and have a win over #7 Ohio State already this season. Should be a fun dual and a great way to kick off Friday Night Duals. 125: Jarrett Trombley vs #31 Colton Camacho 133: #5 Kai Orine v #20 Vinnie Sataniello 141: #4 Ryan Jack v #27 Cole Matthews 149: #3 Jackson Arrington v #29 Finn Solomon 157: #7 Ed Scott v Jared Keslar 165: #16 Derek Fields/AJ Kovacs v #11 Holden Heller 174: #32 Alex Faison v #15 Luca Augustine 184: #6 Dylan Fishback v #12 Reece Heller 197: #4 Trent Hidlay v #13 Mac Stout 285: #15 Owen Trephan v Geoff Magin North Carolina at #12 Virginia Tech The Tar Heels head north to Blacksburg to face the Hokies; while Virginia Tech is the favorite, there will be some fun matchups to keep an eye on. Spencer Moore has put together a great start to his season at 10-2 and will face Cooper Flynn, who is shaping up to be a great story. He is 8-2 since coming out of Olympic Redshirt at semester to take over for injured All-American Eddie Ventresca; Flynn has four ranked wins and two over top-3 opponents. Lachlan McNeil has looked phenomenal all year stacking up a 17-2 record with his only losses to #4 Ryan Jack and #1 Real Woods. He will face Tom Crook who came out of redshirt at semester; he is 13-3 on the year and 7-2 at 141. I’ve been impressed with Max Shaw this year and I’m very interested in the matchup at 197 with Andy Smith--they both have the ability to be dynamic scorers but often rely on their defense, so it will be interesting to watch it play off. 184 will also be a big one with Gavin Kane trying to get back on track after some early-season struggles and TJ Stewart getting the nod for the Hokies. 125: #29 Spencer Moore v #8 Cooper Flynn 133: Jace Palmer v #11 Sam Latona 141: #5 Lachlan McNeil v #17 Tom Crook 149: #33 Jayden Scott v #2 Caleb Henson 157: Sonny Santiago v Clayton Ulrey 165: Isaias Estrada v #24 Connor Brady 174: Tyler Eischens v #2 Mekhi Lewis 184: #23 Gavin Kane v TJ Stewart 197: #18 Max Shaw v #26 Andy Smith 285: Cade Lautt v #20 Hunter Catka Virginia at Duke The story of this dual is the return of a large chunk of the UVA lineup from injuries and illness. After talking with Coach Garland, it sounds like several starters will be cleared to go in Durham and will look to get back to form. I’m very interested to see how Marlon Yarbrough and Dylan Cedeno look as they were both wrestling great prior to injuries at Midlands. The match to watch for this dual will be at the top weight with Ryan Catka taking on Connor Barket. Catka has looked solid since taking over after Gabe Christensen went down with a season-ending injury. Barket has been the top wrestler for the Blue Devils with the highlight of his season thus far being an 8th place finish at the Southern Scuffle. 125: Kyle Montaperto v Logan Agin 133: Marlon Yarbrough v Raymond Adams 141: Jack Gioffre v Christian Coleman/Peter Chacon 149: Michael Gioffre/Erik Roggie v Jared Papscy 157: #28 Dylan Cedeno v Logan Ferrero 165: Nick Hamilton v Gaetano Console 174: #12 Justin McCoy v Jack Wimmer 184: Griffin Gammell v Conor Becker 197: Krystian Kinsey v Kwasi Bonsu 285: Ryan Catka v Connor Barket

5. Your Whacky Weekly 125 Watch 125 is so nutty that almost every bout among the top twenty-ish guys has a reverberating effect. A #18 beats a #3? Wouldn’t even be surprising at this point. It’s as if we have one giant tier of 20 capable guys. Here are the best-anticipated matchups at the weight this week. #8-Jore Volk, WYO vs. #17-Stevo Poulin, N. Colorado #14-Michael DeAugustino, MICH vs. #24-Brendan McCrone, tOSU #6-Cooper Flynn, VT vs. #29-Spencer Moore, UNC #13-Brett Ungar, Cornell vs. #21-Diego Sotelo, Harvard #11-Pat McKee, MINN vs. #16-Dean Peterson, RU #7-Noah Surtin, MIZZ vs. #13-Brett Ungar, Cornell #3-Eric Barnett, WISC vs. #12-Caleb Smith, NEB 4. Ohio State Hosts That Team Up North Ohio State is ranked 7th in our Dual Meet Rankings. Michigan is 13th. Both are a little below their preseason expectations. tOSU has been ravaged by injuries to Sammy Sasso, Carson Kharchla, and Gavin Hoffman (that’s three AA’s if you’re counting). Michigan still has the pieces but they haven’t been at full power often. And yet this dual is going to be awesome. For me, the most interesting match is at 174 with Shane Griffith, who was at Stanford, and Rocco Welsh, who was in high school, one year ago at this time. Griffith is a former National Champ and a perennial contender while Welsh was thrust into starting action by the loss of Kharchla. Already ranked #11, Welsh is 12-1 with his only loss coming to #3-Edmond Ruth (2-1). 3. Missouri vs. Cornell There are only two non-conference duals this weekend and this one is a doozy. Missouri has looked great in beating Virginia Tech and nearly blanking ASU. Ranked #3 in our Dual Rankings, they travel to #9-Cornell in what should be a thrilling matchup. Nearly every single bout is ranked-on-ranked. And despite the six-position differential in rankings, Cornell matches up with the Tigers quite nicely. Wrestlestat has it 17-15 for the Big Red. Let’s assume Vito Arajau is in and break it down: 125: #7-Noah Surtin, MIZZ, vs. #13-Brett Ungar, COR 133: #27-Kade Moore, MIZZ vs. #2-Vito Arajau, COR Note: Moore just pinned #11-Sam Latona (Virginia Tech). 141: #23-Josh Edmond, MIZZ vs. #13-Vince Cornella, COR 149: #25-Logan Gioffre, MIZZ vs. #28-Ethan Fernandez, COR 157: #5-Brock Mauller, MIZZ vs. #12-Meyer Shapiro, COR 165: #1-Keegan O’Toole, MIZZ vs. #2-Julian Ramirez, COR 174: #6-Peyton Mocco, MIZZ vs. Benny Baker, COR 184: #11-Clayton Whiting, MIZZ vs. #9-Chris Foca, COR 197: #3-Rocky Elam, MIZZ vs. #8-Jacob Cardenas, COR 285: #6-Zach Elam, MIZZ vs. #18-Lewis Fernandes, COR My Pick: 17-16 Tigers 2. Can Keckeisen Hold Serve? When it was revealed that both Aaron Brooks and Trent Hidlay were moving up, I thought, ‘Keckeisen at 84. Next topic. That feeling was only strengthened when Keckeisen beat Bernie Traux at the All-Star Classic and won CKLV with multiple Top 10 foes. But there’s a big difference between my pick in August or November and getting the job done. This weekend offers Keckeisen the latest test in his preeminence as he’s set to face #2-Dustin Plott. There are four other 184’s ranked in the Top 11 that all reside in the Big 12. So Parker’s work is cut out for him. But this individual bout is the biggest of the weekend and will go far in how the weight is perceived going into conference weekend. Speaking of Northern Iowa, my #1 storyline of the weekend is… 1. Big 12 Bonanza Most weekends during dual season, the Big Ten steals the headlines. And while there will be plenty of great action there, I think the most interesting group of the week is what is essentially a round-robin of duals with #4-OK State, #5-Iowa State, #18-Oklahoma, and #20-Northern Iowa. UNI wrestles OK State on Friday while Iowa State is at OU. 24 hours later, UNI goes to Norman and ISU skips on over to Stillwater. Here are some of the best individual bouts from those four duals: #6-Cael Happel, UNI vs. #9-Tagen Jamison, OKST #14-Ryder Downey, UNI vs. #18-Teague Travis, OKST Note: Downey recently beat #9-Peyton Robb; Travis knocked off #7-Ed Scott. #15-Tyrell Gordon, UNI vs. #9-Konnor Doucet, OKST #8-Anthony Echemendia, ISU vs. #22-Mosha Schwartz, OU #3-Yonger Bastida, ISU vs. #11-Josh Heindselman, OU #20-Troy Spratley, OKST vs. #25-Kysen Terukina, ISU #3-Daton Fix, OKST vs. #7-Evan Frost, ISU #9-Tagen Jamison, OKST vs. #8-Anthony Echemendia, ISU #17-Sammy Alvarez, OKST vs. #10-Casey Swiderski, ISU #18-Teague Travis, OKST vs. #13-Cody Chittum, ISU #4-Izaak Olejnik, OKST vs. #3-David Carr, ISU #2-Dustin Plott, OKST vs. #10-Will Feldkamp, ISU #9-Konnor Doucet, OKST vs. #3-Yonger Bastida, ISU #6-Cael Happel, UNI vs. #22-Mosha Schwartz, OU #23-Wyatt Voelker, UNI vs. #2-Stephen Buchanan, OU #15-Tyrell Gordon, UNI vs. #11-Josh Heindselman, OU

Dual meets, dual meets and more dual meets. As we go into another weekend of B1G Ten dual meets, we look back at last week’s matchups. We had some duals that lived up to some of our expectations, a few guys whose stock is going up and another that’s going down and Claunch delves into his experience on the call for Michigan’s dual last week. Stock up: Michael Blockhus; Stock down: Peyton Robb There might not be anyone having a better start of the new year than Michael Blockhus. He returned with one goal in mind and so far it looks like he’s on the right track. Last week he took out Jared Franek with a last minute takedown then followed it up with a dominating win over Peyton Robb four days later. Now he’s jumped to No. 6 in the rankings. Earlier this week, I got to catch up with Blockhus to talk about his big wins, returning to the Gophers’ lineup for his final year, and his fighting future. On the opposite side is Robb who didn’t just take a loss to Blockhus last week, but was pinned by Joey Blaze of Purdue. That notched Robb’s fourth straight loss. This weekend the Huskers head to Evanston, IL to face Northwestern where Robb will look to get back to his winning ways. A Curse at 125 Ends … We all know what kind of powerhouse Penn State has been for the last million years, but a spot in Coach Cael Sanderson’s lineup that hasn’t been at the championship level is at 125-pounds. As mentioned in the season preview, Nico Megaludis was the last guy in this weight class to sport a Nittany Lion singlet and make the podium. All of that could be over as freshman Braeden Davis has been a very bright, and so far undefeated, presence in their line up. It took a bit for him to stand above PSU’s other options here, but now he’s manning the spot in the line up and in the No. 4 spot in the rankings. He’s also the only guy in the weight class who hasn’t taken a loss yet this season. … And Another Curse at 125 Continues It seems like ages ago when we would occasionally get a No. 1 versus No. 2 battle in the regular season. It doesn’t always happen, but it certainly feels like it used to happen more often than it has of late. Last Friday night, we were lucky enough to see it with Purdue’s Matt Ramos, then ranked second in the country at 125, facing off against Iowa’s No. 1 ranked Drake Ayala in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Purdue, as a team, wasn’t expected to win the dual meet as a whole, but in what was clearly the biggest match of the night, the Boilermaker got a solid win and once again beat a top ranked Hawkeye in a big moment. Was it purposeful that they wore the silver and gold singlets that were worn on that fateful night last March? Probably right? Either way Iowa ran away with the majority of the other matches as expected. Shoutout to Joey Blaze wrestling tough against Jared Franek, and James Rowley getting the win at 184, but Iowa as a unit is still proving to be one of the toughest teams in the country. Iowa will be traveling to Illinois this weekend as they take on the Fighting Illini this Friday, and Northwestern this Sunday. Purdue, as referenced above, will be taking on the Hoosiers in Bloomington Saturday night. Terrapins v Hoosiers did not disappoint Two weeks ago we released our top B1G duals list for the season, and I’m sure some of you scoffed at my assertion that this dual was worthy of your time and energy. Well, those of you who trust my judgment were rewarded, and those who don’t still have time to watch what was a back and forth exciting affair from start to finish. Maryland won three of the first four matches, with their predictable and consistent studs from 133 through 149 providing a lot of that firepower. Brayton Lee jumped in for Indiana at 157, and looked like the Brayton Lee of old, racking up a ton of points on his way to a 15-4 major decision. Indiana took the lead with four straight wins headed into 197, where Jaxon Smith was able to get the overtime win to bring it to the last match. The Hoosiers at home stepped up and didn’t allow this dual to go to criteria for the second straight year. Nick Willham at Heavyweight got a gritty win with a late takedown to get away with a 4-2 victory and seal it for the Hoosiers. Next up Indiana will host Purdue this Saturday to see which team owns the state of Indiana, while Maryland hosts Penn State this Sunday. Calling a dual is super fun I figured it would be, but I greatly underestimated how much fun I was going to have calling the Michigan vs Rutgers dual last Sunday. Shoutout to Malik Amine for being the calming and veteran presence on the mic with me, and his professionalism as he prepared his notes ahead of time and walked me through what we were going to do to get going. The dual itself really made it easy though. From beginning to end, there were some close and exciting matches and ranked wrestlers up and down the lineup. Michigan got the better end of the lower weights, with wins at 125 through 141 to start the dual, in a series of ranked matches. The most exciting being the true freshman in Sergio Lemley, who needed three different match winning takedowns to get the win over the veteran Mitch Moore. The gritty Scarlet Knights got on the board with a win at 149, and eventually again at 197 as Poznanski took out redshirt freshman Rylan Rogers. Lucas Davison finished things off with a solid win over the transfer from Harvard, Yaraslau Slavikouski, in a top 10 matchup. Michigan wrestles Ohio State this Friday, as Rutgers hosts Minnesota this Saturday afternoon. Bonus Points Check out this week’s Conference Crossover Conversation as Holmes, Claunch, Wendell and Sommer discuss all of the latest happenings in the collegiate wrestling world. The foursome also hit on Minnesota/Nebraska, Penn State/Michigan, coaches rankings and much more.