InterMat Staff

Legacy Christian Academy

Mead

Paulsboro

Southern Regional

Simley

Daniel Boone

St. Joseph's Regional

Mallard Creek

St. Joseph's Regional

Opening week is in the books and we saw some up-and-down performances across the ACC. Let’s take a look at how it all shook out and what lies ahead this week. Duke: The Blue Devils made a west coast trip to open the season with duals against Rutgers, Cal Poly, and Stanford. They went 0-3 on the weekend, suffering shutout losses to Rutgers and Stanford while picking up two wins against Cal Poly from freshman Aidan Wallace at 165 and sophomore Connor Barket at 285. The Blue Devils are back in action in Morgantown, West Virginia on Sunday with duals against Kent State, Cleveland State, and West Virginia. I’m looking forward to the Kent State and Cleveland State duals. I mentioned in their preview that I think these two duals against similarly ranked and experienced teams will be a good gauge for where they are to open the season and they have another set of duals before conference season against Chattanooga and Gardner-Webb that will help show the progress they have made throughout the season. North Carolina: The Tar Heels opened their season hosting the Carolina Duals, taking wins over Greensboro College and Queens and dropping a back-and-forth dual to Oregon State. They took lopsided wins over Greensboro 48-3 and Queens 41-10, before dropping a close dual to the Beavers 24-13. Spencer Moore picked up a huge upset win over #11 Brandon Kaylor to open the dual, followed by Caden McCrary topping Gabe Wisnehunt (PAC12 Wrestler of the Week) giving him his only loss of the weekend. #3 Lachlan McNeil continued the streak, picking up a dominant major decision over #20 Cleveland Belton. The momentum didn’t continue for the Tar Heels. They dropped the next two matches from Jaydon Scott and Danny Nini on 2-1 sudden victory decisions; they also dropped decisions at 174 (Sabino Portella) by decision and 184 (Chris Salazar) by fall; #6 Gavin Kane did not compete last week. The Heels took another win from #18 Max Shaw at 197 before dropping the final match at 285 from #33 Aydin Guttridge. The dual was closer than the final score---losing back-to-back heartbreakers in sudden victory (one on a penalty point after a called takedown) shifted the momentum for the Beavers and they were not able to recover. They will travel to Pennsylvania for Journeymen Wranglemania this weekend where they will face Buffalo and Arizona State. There will be some high-caliber matchups to watch--especially against the Sun Devils. Ranked Matchups: 125: #32 Spencer Moore v #2 Richie Figueroa 133: #22 Caden McCrary v #15 Julian Chlebove 141: #3 Lachlan McNeil v #18 Jesse Vasquez 197: #18 Max Shaw v #30 Anthony Montalvo North Carolina State: The Wolfpack arguably had the best week out of all the teams in the ACC picking up two dual wins while only dropping one individual bout. They opened at the Battle at Liberty with a dual against Presbyterian at Ft. Liberty and followed that up with a Friday night dual in Boone against Appalachian State. The Wolfpack featured several younger wrestlers against Presbyterian in a lopsided dual 48-0. Dylan Fishback (184) opened his season with a pin as did Chase Horne (285). Jacob Cox (133), Jackson Arrington (149) and AJ Kovacs (165) won by tech fall. Alex Faison (174) and Christian Knop (197) both won by major while Tyler Tracy (141) and Zach Karagias (157) won by decision; Jakob Camacho opened his season with a forfeit win. They traveled to Boone for another dual Friday night, picking up the second win of the season 40-3. The dual started at 149 with a major decision from #7 Jackson Arrington over #25 Cody Bond, followed by a decision win from #5 Ed Scott over #20 Tommy Askey. #33 AJ Kovacs and #22 Alex Faison picked up decision wins before #29 Dylan Fishback got his second pin in as many matches at 184. #5 Trent Hidlay made his 197 debut and looked phenomenal in a 19-4 tech fall; he looked strong and fast at 197 and was still able to utilize his underhook to initiate offense. Hoagie Boy at 197 is going to be fun. #8 Owen Trephan earned a fall at 285 and #12 Jakob Camacho put together a 19-3 major decision in his first match of the season. The lone loss was at 133 where Jarrett Trombley took the mat, not #4 Kai Orine. Trombley wrestled a solid match but dropped a 4-2 decision. NC State will be heading north to compete in their first Journeymen event of the season at Wranglemania. They will face Bloomsburg and Purdue. There will be some solid matchups against Purdue--with the marquee match being at 125 with Jakob Camacho and NCAA runner-up Matt Ramos. I love this matchup for Camacho and I think he can dictate the match and pick up the win. Ranked Matchups 125: #11 Jakob Camacho v #3 Matt Ramos 133: #4 Kai Orine v #29 Dustin Norris 184: #28 Dylan Fishback v #33 James Rowley 285: #8 Owen Trephan v #26 Hayden Copass Pittsburgh: The Panthers sent a partial lineup to the Clarion Open on Sunday. They ended the day with titles from #16 Mac Stout at 197 and #14 Reece Heller at 184 both bringing home the gladiator helmet. Heller went 5-0, picking up bonus points in every match (2 pins, 2 tech falls, 1 forfeit) to win his first Clarion Open title. Stout earned his second straight title at Clarion, this time without surrendering an offensive point. Redshirt Freshman #32 Vinny Santaniello also made the finals and dropped a tight match to high school phenom Bo Bassett. Stantaniello picked up a huge win in the semifinals over #8 Nic Bouzakis. Transfer Finn Solomon made an immediate impact for the Panthers making the finals by beating #26 Dylan Chappell before dropping to #5 Dylan D’Emilio to get a silver in his first outing for the Panthers. Also placing for the Panthers were Briar Priest: 3rd place at 141, Anthony Santaniello: 4th at 141, Jack Pletcher: 6th at 149, and #30 Jared Keslar: 4th at 157. The Panthers will travel south to Annapolis for the Navy Duals on Sunday where they will face Navy, Morgan State, and VMI. The dual against Navy could be sneaky good. The Midshipmen knocked off #23 Illinois last weekend and are coming home ready for another upset. There will be several ranked vs ranked matchups to keep your eye on. Ranked Matchups: 133: #10 Vinnie Santaniello v #17 Brendan Ferretti 141: #7 Cole Matthews v #23 Josh Koderhandt 165: #11 Holden Heller v #23 Andrew Cerniglia 174: #22 Luca Augustine v #30 Danny Wask 184: #13 Reece Heller v #18 David Key 285: #9 Dayton Pitzer v #13 Grady Griess Virginia: The Hoos sent a small group to Roanoke for the Southeast Open on Saturday coming home with eight placers. Coach Garland was very upfront that he thought the team underperformed last week and he has higher expectations for this crew than what they saw on Saturday. There were bright spots for the Cavs and he highlighted those as well; there were some great wins and finishes in both the freshman/sophomore and open divisions. In the freshman/sophomore division, they were led by Stephen Burrell, at 197, who won four straight by bonus points before falling in the finals to finish in 2nd. Cooper Rudolph went 2-1 to finish in 3rd at 285 and Michael Murphy went 5-1 to finish in 5th at 157. In the Open division, they were led by Kyle Montaperto (125), #21 Jack Gioffre (141), and Dylan Cedeno (157) who all finished in third on the day. Gioffre had a great match against Sammy Hillegas to open the tournament and went 3-1 on the day after falling to #22 Jordan Titus in the semifinals. Cedeno seems much more comfortable at his new weight and went 3-1 with a semifinal loss to #19 Peyton Kellar before winning his final match. Gable Porter and Nick Hamilton both made the 5th/6th match. Gable won to take fifth and Hamilton had met his match limit so he couldn’t wrestle and settled for sixth. I was very impressed with the poise of both who came back from early-round losses and strung together multiple wins--Gable went pin, major, tech, decision and Hamilton went pin, pin, major, major after their losses. The Hoos will be back on the road for the App State Open in Boone this weekend. I’m expecting a more focused and disciplined UVA squad this week. Virginia Tech: The Hokies were also at the Southeast Open; this will forever and always be the Hokie Open to me, but a huge shoutout to Coach Yetzer in Roanoke for taking the reins of this great opening tournament. They sent a younger lineup for the tournament, with only three likely starters wrestling last weekend. #4 Caleb Henson won his third straight Southeast Open title at 149 going 5-0 with all bonus point victories and didn’t surrender any offensive points. Safe to say the All-American is ready to roll again this season. #3 Sam Latona suffered his seemingly annual Southeast Open loss in the semifinals to Gabe Wisenhunt in a very scrappy match. Just like I said both other times, I’m not worried about it and I’m not going to put a lot of stock in that loss. Sam has shown that he can win when it counts the most and will use this as a learning experience for the new scoring system. I love Sam and he knows that; which is why I can say that it amazes me that he has more All-American finishes than Southeast Open titles. The good news is he has an amazing bounce-back opportunity Friday night against Nic Bouzakis. #24 Sam Fisher also made the finals, going 3-0 before falling to #3 Trey Munoz to finish in 2nd. Clayton Ulrey was the last finalist for the Hokies; he went 4-0 before falling to #19 Peyton Kellar in the finals. Also placing in the Open division was Tom Crook, 5th at 149. The Hokies fared very well in the freshman/sophomore division, bringing home four titles. Logan Frazier (133), Hunter Mason (141), Luke Robie (149), Rafael Hipolito (157) all finished on top of the podium for Virginia Tech. The Hokies have a huge match Friday night to open dual competition; they will welcome #7 Ohio State to Cassell Coliseum for a top-10 battle. The last two years have come down to the final match and I expect fireworks again this year. All ten bouts will feature a ranked wrestler with eight ranked-versus-ranked matchups. We will have a full breakdown of the dual later this week and I will be in Blacksburg to provide pre and post-match coverage on Friday. Ranked Matchups 133: #7 Sam Latona v #14 Nic Bouzakis 149: #4 Caleb Henson v #5 Dylan D’Emilio 157: #6 Bryce Andonian v #16 Paddy Gallagher 165: #16 Connor Brady v #18 Bryce Hepner 174: #3 Mekhi Lewis v #7 Carson Kharchla 184: #21 Sam Fisher v #11 Gavin Hoffman 197: #14 Andy Smith v #19 Luke Geog 285: #16 Hunter Catka v #20 Nick Feldman

Plymouth

Fountain Valley

Oakdale

Milton

Forest Lake

Gilroy

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.

Lindbergh

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.

Green Hill

Scott West

Below is a recap of last week’s EIWA action, with individual news and highlights worth noting. Key Takeaways Jack Maida of American makes his debut at his new weight class with a major over the 15th-ranked opponent and won the Battle of the Citadel two days later Navy upsets #23 on the road thanks to pins by Brendan Ferretti and David Key Lehigh dominates the Princeton Open with 7 champs Noah Mulvaney wins Clarion Open in collegiate debut after knocking off 15th-ranked opponent American The Eagles dropped their season opener against #21 Maryland. They won two bouts between Maida and Bourne. They competed at the Battle at the Citadel. Placewinners in that event include Jack Maida and Max Leete both earning golds. Lucas White was second while William Jarrell and Emmanuel Ulrich each earned fourth. 125 - #30 Jack Maida (AU) major dec. #15 Braxton Brown (UMD), 13-4 (AU 4-0) 133 - King Sandoval (UMD) dec. Maximilian Leete (AU), 5-3 (AU 4-3) 141 - #24 Kai Miller (UMD) tech. fall Ethan Szerencsits (AU), 19-3 (6:18) (UMD 8-4) 149 - #12 Ethen Miller (UMD) major dec. Ryan Zimmerman (AU), 16-3 (UMD 12-4) 157 - #29 Michael North (UMD) dec. Kaden Milheim (AU), 8-1 (UMD 15-4) 165 - John Martin Best (UMD) major dec. Breon Phifer (AU), 12-3 (UMD 19-4) 174 - Dominic Solis (UMD) dec. Lucas White (AU), 10-6 (UMD 22-4) 184 - Connor Bourne (AU) dec. Chase Mielnik (UMD), 8-3 (UMD 22-7) 197 - #8 Jaxon Smith (UMD) tech. fall Liam Volk-Klos (AU), 15-0 (1:45) (UMD 27-7) 285 - #17 Seth Nevills (UMD) dec. Will Jarrell (AU), 6-2 (UMD 30-7) They will be on the road for duals against Clarion, Millersville, and #3 Virginia Tech. Army West Point The Black Knights opened up the season with a dual against #29 Campbell. They secured 3 wins from Berginc, McDaniel, and Harkins - all by decision. They had “an army” of wrestlers competing at the Princeton Open as well, mostly non-starters. Their lone champion was at 174lbs where Gunner Filipowicz had three decisions and one major. They had three runner-ups including Dakota Morris, Danny Lawrence, and Lucas Stoddard. Bronze medals were awarded to Charlie Farmer and Thomas Deck. Fourth-place finishers included Daniel Uhorchuck, Joe Couch, and Kent McCombs. Matt Williams took home fifth place. 125 - #26 Ethan Berginc (Army) def. Zander Phaturos (Campbell), Dec 6-1 133 - #12 Domenic Zaccone (Campbell) def. Braden Basile (Army), Dec 12-10 141 - Chris Rivera (Campbell) def. Zach Keal (Army), Dec 4-1 149 - #30 Trae McDaniel (Army) def. Justin Rivera (Campbell), Dec 7-0 157 - Chris Earnest (Campbell) def. #25 Nate Lukez (Army), Dec 9-6 165 - #31 Dalton Harkins (Army) def. Dom Baker (Campbell), Dec 4-1 174 - #30 Austin Murphy (Campbell) def. Gunner Filipowicz (Army), Dec 4-2 184 - #20 Caleb Hopkins (Campbell) def. #13 Ben Pasiuk (Army), MD 8-0 197 - #27 Levi Hopkins (Campbell) def. Daniel Lawrence (Army), Dec 6-0 HWT - #15 Taye Ghadiali (Campbell) def. Lucas Stoddard (Army), Fall (3:47) Catch them in action next weekend at the Journeymen Wranglemania where they dual Purdue and Lock Haven on Saturday. They will compete in the Journeymen Round Robin format on Sunday. Binghamton The Bearcats did not compete this weekend. They are not competing next weekend either. Brown The Bears were in action at the Clarion Open. The challenging open led to zero placewinners for Brown. They did manage to see two quarterfinalists in Ian Oswalt and Jonathan Conrad. Ethan Mojena had a solid freshman outing, winning three bouts. They will be at home for an off weekend. Bucknell The Bison competed at the Clarion Open. Noah Mulvaney made his collegiate debut, with wins over ranked opponents on his way to capturing the title. Also making his college debut was Cade Wirnsberger, earning third place. Returning starters Dorian Crosby and Dylan Chappell walked away with third and fourth, respectively. Next week, they have duals at #12 Oklahoma State and Oklahoma Wesleyan. Columbia The Lions were at the Clarion Open and finished with a handful of place winners. Leading the way with a third-place finish were Angelo Rini, Aaron Ayzerov, and Jack Wehmeyer. Three wrestlers earned fourth-place finishes – Josh Ogunsanya, Nick Babin, and Vincent Mueller. Jaden Le and Kai Owen were fifth while Jack McGill and Nolan Neves were sixth to end the day. This week, the Lions are off of competition. Cornell The Big Red were not competing this weekend as a team. Next weekend, they will be in action at the Journeymen Round Robin. Drexel The Dragons were on the road at The Battle at the Citadel. Wrestlers earning gold were Cody Walsh and Jack Janda. Jordan Soriano and Jaxon Maroney each walked away with silver. The Dragons had four fourth-place finishers in Justin Griffith, Ibrahim Ameer, Dom Findora, and Desmond Pleasant. The Dragons will not compete next weekend. Franklin & Marshall The Diplomats were at the Southeast Open to begin the season. Mason Leiphart earned the highest placement with a runner-up finish. John Crawford was the fourth-place finisher at 197 lbs. Both Pat Phillips and James Conway earned a sixth-place finish to round out the weekend. They will look to continue momentum next weekend at the Journeymen Round Robin event. Harvard The Crimson were not competing this weekend. They will be at the Journeymen Round Robin event this coming weekend. Hofstra The Pride competed at the Princeton Open. Although the team did not have any place winners, they won a bunch of matches. Leading the way were Eric Shidel, Danny Church, and Jurius Clark who all recorded two wins each. A handful of projected starters did not compete. Their next action will be at the Journeymen Round Robin event Sunday. Lehigh The Mountain Hawks were competing at the Princeton Open. They left with seven gold medals from Luke Stanich, Ryan Crookham, Malyke Hines, Jake Logan, Michael Beard, and Nathan Taylor. Max Brignola was the final gold medalist - he wrestled unattached. Both Luca Frinzi and Caden Rogers earned third-place finishes. Two wrestlers finished in fourth – JT Davis and Owen Reinsel. They saw fifth-place finishes from Sheldon Seymour, Jack Wilt, and Carter Bailey. Drew Much was the lone sixth-place finisher. Along with many other EIWA teams, they will be at the Journeymen Round Robin event this weekend. Long Island The Sharks were not in competition during this opening weekend. They will open up with duals at the Journeymen WrangleMania against Buffalo and Sacred Heart. The following day, they will compete in the round-robin event, Navy The Midshipmen opened the season with a dual win over #23 Illinois. Two pins from Brendan Ferretti and David Key helped propel them to victory. 125 - No. 31 Justin Cardani dec Evan Tallmadge, 6-3 SV1 // Illinois 3, Navy 0 133 - No. 19 Brendan Ferretti fall Kole Brower, 4:46 // Navy 6, Illinois 3 141 - No. 25 Josh Koderhandt dec No. 32 Danny Pucino, 8-2 // Navy 9, Illinois 3 149 - Kannon Webster tech fall James Latona, 20-5 (5:57) // Navy 9, Illinois 8 157 - Joe Roberts dec No. 33 Jonathan Ley, 4-2 // Illinois 11, Navy 9 165 - No. 26 Andrew Cerniglia tech fall Luke Odom, 20-3 (6:21) // Navy 14, Illinois 11 174 - No. 5 Edmond Ruth dec No. 32 Danny Wask, 8-5 SV1 // Navy 14, Illinois 14 184 - No. 19 David Key fall No. 22 Dylan Connell, 3:27 // Navy 20, Illinois 14 197 - Cael Crebs dec Isiah Pettigrew, 14-13 // Navy 23, Illinois 14 285 - No. 10 Luke Luffman major No. 13 Grady Griess, 11-3 // Navy 23, Illinois 18 Next on Navy’s schedule are Sunday duals against Morgan State, VMI, and #15 Pitt Penn The Quakers held wrestle-offs this weekend. They will officially compete for the first time all season at the Journeymen Round Robin event. Princeton The Tigers hosted an open. They had a ton of competitors and earned quite a few medals. The 184lbs champion was Nathan Dugan. Matthew Cover earned a bronze. Mikey Squires was fifth. Three sixth-place finishers from Princeton were Aidan Conner, Holden Garcia, and Luke Stout. Princeton had two unattached wrestlers receive silver – Kole Mulhauser and Ty Whalen. They will be off this weekend. Sacred Heart The Pioneers were not competing this weekend. They begin the season with duals against LIU and Bloomsburg at the Journeymen WrangleMania duals. The following day, they will compete in the round-robin.

Faith Christian Academy

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.