-
Posts
3,988 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
10
Content Type
Forums
Articles
Teams
College Commitments
Rankings
Authors
Jobs
Store
Everything posted by InterMat Staff
-
Two-time Hodge Trophy winner Gable Steveson (Photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) MINNEAPOLIS - For the second time in his illustrious career, Gable Steveson has been selected as the winner of the WIN Magazine/Culture House Dan Hodge Trophy, an award given to the nation's most dominant wrestler each season. Steveson had been selected as a co-winner last season alongside Iowa's Spencer Lee, but this season he stands alone as the best wrestler in collegiate wrestling. The senior heavyweight is coming off the heels of his third-straight undefeated season as he capped it off with a second NCAA title, defeating Arizona State's Cohlton Schultz via 6-2 decision in the heavyweight finals in Detroit. Steveson wrapped his 2021-22 campaign with a 18-0 record, with 15 of those victories coming by way of bonus points. He recorded seven major decisions, six technical falls, and one pin. He also closes out his career on a 52-match win streak, which is the fourth longest streak in program history. With the award win, Steveson becomes just the sixth multiple-time Dan Hodge Trophy winner, joining the likes of Cael Sanderson, Ben Askren, David Taylor, Zain Retherford, and Spencer Lee. He also becomes the only heavyweight to win the award multiple times, surpassing former heavyweights Kerry McCoy, Stephen Neal, and Steve Mocco, who were all single-time winners. The Apple Valley, Minn., native is also the first wrestler in Golden Gopher history to become a two-time Dan Hodge Trophy winner. Jayson Ness remains the only other Gopher to achieve the award, doing so in 2010 when he went a perfect 31-0 en route to 133-pound NCAA title, pinning 19 of his opponents throughout the year. Created by WIN founder Mike Chapman, the award is named after the late Dan Hodge, the legendary wrestler who was a three-time NCAA champion (1955-57) at the University of Oklahoma. Hodge was 46-0 with 36 pins and never allowed a takedown in his college career. Primary criteria for the award are a wrestler's record, number of pins, dominance and quality of competition. Past credentials, sportsmanship/citizenship and heart are used as secondary criteria in years where two finalists' stats are nearly equal. With this being the final accolade to be added to Steveson's resume, he will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest to ever strap up the Maroon & Gold singlet. Steveson finishes his time at Minnesota with the program's best career winning percentage with an 85-2 record (.977), earning two NCAA championships, three Big Ten championships, and now two Dan Hodge trophies.
-
2x NCAA Champion and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson (Photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Gable Steveson recently won his second NCAA title and left his shoes in the center of the mat to signify retirement from competitive wrestling. He is expected to join his brother, Bobby, in the World Wrestling Entertainment before the end of the year. Not only was his final season a success for him, as it ended with a title, it was also one of the most statistically dominant seasons in recent memory. Let's take a look back at the offensive and defensive prowess that Steveson displayed during the 2022 season. Point Differential On his run through the NCAA tournament, Steveson averaged 2.18 points per minute, allowed only 0.85 points per minute and finished with a +1.33 point differential. That differential was the highest in the entire tournament and significantly higher than the next highest wrestler, Aaron Brooks (Penn State) with +1.05. While that number was impressive, the Minnesota wrestler was actually more dominant during the regular season and the Big Ten tournament. Prior to the NCAA tournament, he had a +2.07 differential based on scoring 3.04 points per minute and allowing only 0.93. Steveson's final differential for the entire season was +1.83. In total, he scored 275 match points over the course of the year. As always, he made it a point to jump on his opponents early, as 116 of those points were scored in the first periods of his matches. Takedowns Steveson scored at least two takedowns in every one of his matches on the season. He scored only two takedowns against Luke Luffman (Illinois) back in February, mostly due to the fact that he won by fall less than two minutes into the match. The only other wrestler to give up only two takedowns was Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State). In the finals, Steveson scored a pair of first-period takedowns before holding on for the 6-2 victory. His high for takedowns came in the first round of the NCAA tournament. He scored 12 takedowns against Tyrell Gordon (Northern Iowa) and finished with a 25-10 technical fall in the third period. Gordon scored nothing but escapes in the match, but the combined 35 points made for the highest scoring match of the entire tournament. Steveson somewhat famously gave up a takedown against Lucas Davison (Northwestern) in the quarterfinals of the tournament. It was the only takedown he gave up all season. While Steveson's takedown game was on full display this year, his defense might be more impressive. Not only did he give up only a single takedown this college season, but he also allowed only one at the U.S. Olympic Trials and one in the Olympics. At the Trials, two-time World bronze medalist Nick Gwiazdowski managed only one takedown in the second and final match of the best-of-three final. Steveson then made it to the finals of the Olympic tournament without allowing a takedown. However, in the finals, Geno Petriashvili scored one takedown and notched eight points against Steveson. In the end, Steveson finished his final college season with 113 landed takedowns and allowed only one. Near Fall Points Despite his scoring dominance, Steveson only scored near-fall points in five of his matches on the year. On 12 occasions, he was able to add near-fall points to his point total. Interestingly enough, he only was able to gain the full four count twice. His most near-fall points came against Michael Woulfe (Purdue). In the bout, which was part of the dual between Minnesota and Purdue, he scored 10 points via near fall. Scores Allowed As previously mentioned, Steveson allowed only one takedown during the season. It was also the only two-point score he allowed. Of the 93 points his opponents scored during the year, 90 came via escape. Besides the Davison takedown, the only other non-escape point scored against Steveson was an unnecessary roughness penalty given in his match against Mason Parris (Michigan) back in January. Bonus Rate Steveson appeared to be well on his way toward finishing the season with a 100% bonus rate. Prior to the NCAA tournament, he had won all 12 of his matches with bonus points. However, the record got away from him during the final tournament. Davison, Schultz and Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) all escaped the tournament without allowing Steveson to score bonus points. While the Minnesota wrestler outscored the three opponents by a combined score of 24 to 10, he could not build a large enough margin in any match for bonus. Despite this, Steveson still finished with a 77.78% bonus rate per WrestleStat. This was still one of the highest rates of the year and higher than all his fellow Hodge Trophy finalists. With the Hodge criteria being recently updated, it is virtually a lock that he will win the voting and take home his second-straight Hodge Trophy.
-
2022 Pennsylvania AAA 126 lb state champion Dalton Perry (Photo courtesy of Michael Kresovich; LockHaven.com) Penn State's Class of 2025 recruiting class….yes, the 2025 class, got off to a great start this evening as Dalton Perry (Central Mountain, PA) gave the Nittany Lions a verbal commitment. The commitment was broken by InterMat/MatScouts Willie Saylor, at the wishes of his family. Earlier this month, Perry wrapped up his freshman campaign by winning a Pennsylvania AAA state title at 126 lbs. At the state tournament, Perry traversed the bracket without surrendering a takedown. Perry's exploits have earned a spot at #15 in the national rankings via MatScouts. In the latest Freshman Big Board update, Perry checks in at #9. Before he stepped foot on a high school mat, Perry had already placed at the Cadet World Team Trials, 16U freestyle, and the Super 32. He was fourth at both Cadet's and the Super 32, while taking seventh in Fargo. During the high school regular season Perry went 41-2. His only two losses came at the Powerade where he missed out on placing by going 2-2. He'll start his sophomore season on a 29-match winning streak. Perry captured his state title with a 6-3 win over Hempfield Area's Ethan Lebin. The early commitment may be surprising, but Perry's heading to PSU isn't that big of a shock, considering he trains out of the M2 facility owned and operated by Penn State legend David Taylor.
-
Campbell signee Dom Baker the 170 lb NHSCA Senior National Champion (Photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) This weekend the NHSCA National Championships took place in Virginia Beach. It is a series of tournaments that have evolved over the years, as Senior Nationals was the first event and now there is one for each high school class, along with a middle school and a girls division. Before the explosion of "national" tournaments, NHSCA Senior Nationals was the big postseason event to hit. Almost on par with Fargo in the summer. Now, with more options and high schoolers quickly transitioning into the international styles for a shot at the Cadet and Junior World Team Trials, the event has lost its luster a bit. Even so, there were still plenty of high-quality wrestlers that toed the line and battled through some huge brackets. Below are student-athletes that have committed or signed to wrestle at the collegiate level and broke into the top-eight in Virginia Beach. If there is someone that should be listed that hasn't been mentioned, please submit their name on our commitment form. Appalachian State Drake Acklin (Collinsville, OK) - 160 Senior Seventh Place Levi Andrews (Avery County, NC) - 285 Senior Fifth Place Army West Point Joel Brown (Landon School, MD) - 126 Junior Third Place Cooper Haase (Osceola, FL) - 132 Junior Champion Ben Rogers (Wantagh, NY) - 152 Senior Fifth Place Belmont Abbey David Panone (Lassiter, GA) - 138 Senior Fifth Place Binghamton Will Ebert (Fairfield, CT) - 160 Senior Champion Bucknell Michael Bartusch (Green Farms Academy, CT) - 195 Senior Runner-Up Campbell Dom Baker (New Kent, VA) - 170 Senior Champion Devon Bell (Laney, NC) - 182 Senior Third Place Chattanooga Jeremy Paradice (Colquitt County, GA) - 152 Senior Third Place Columbia Yanni Vines (Thompson, AL) - 120 Senior Champion Kutztown Liam Akers (North Hunterdon, NJ) - 285 Senior Fourth Place Lehigh Remy Brancato (Bergen Catholic, NJ) - 195 Senior Third Place Little Rock Brendon Abdon (Lake Gibson, FL) - 152 Senior Runner-Up Brennan Van Hoecke (Palmetto Ridge, FL) - 138 Senior Champion Mercyhurst Billy Smith (Sandusky Perkins, OH) - 113 Senior Champion Missouri David Cross (Francis Howell Central, MO) - 138 Junior Fifth Place Navy Jonathan Ley (Lake Highland Prep, FL) - 160 Senior Runner-Up NC State Jackson Baglio (Central Cabarrus, NC) - 120 Junior Eighth Place North Carolina Noah Pettigrew (Hahira, GA) - 220 Senior Champion Northern Colorado Remington Peterson (Rye, CO) - 195 Senior Fourth Place Ohio Derek Raike (Point Pleasant, WV) - 152 Senior Champion Penn Jackson Polo (Cold Spring Harbor, NY) - 138 Senior Third Place Princeton Eligh Rivera (Lake Highland Prep, FL) - 138 Junior Runner-Up Roanoke Jack Bobeck (Forest Park, VA) - 170 Senior Third Place SIU Edwardsville Brock Woodcock (St. Clair, MO) - 145 Junior Third Place South Dakota State Luke Rasmussen (Brookings, SD) - 195 Senior Champion Stanford Lain Yapoujian (Byers, CO) - 132 Junior Fourth Place VMI Dyson Dunham (Benedictine, VA) - 132 Senior Third Place Western Wyoming Cody Phelps (Pinedale, WY) - 126 Senior Eighth Place
-
Ohio State signee Jesse Mendez (on top) at the 2022 Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic (Photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) Last night, the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic, otherwise known as the "Rose Bowl of Wrestling" took place at Peters Township High School in Western Pennsylvania. The event has been a staple of the high school wrestling scene and has featured countless collegiate and international stars, as they transition from high school to college wrestling. Two 2022 NCAA Champions (Carter Starocci and Gable Steveson) picked up wins during their senior seasons. This event is unique because it features a team of Pennsylvania All-Stars against a team comprised of top-ranked wrestlers from around the country. Pennsylvania is the only state that could hold this event year-in and year-out and be competitive against such squads. The 2022 version saw Team USA Prevail by a slim, 25-21, margin. With that in mind, we've gone back and looked at the last ten Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic's (aka Dapper Dan), to see who's recruits performed best at the event. But first, the results from the 2022 tournament. 2022 Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic - Main Event Results 144 lbs - Grace Stem (Bald Eagle, PA) dec Isabella Muir (Centennial, NV) 10-6 120 lbs - Mason Leiphart (Dover, PA) dec Joey Cruz (Clovis North, CA) 6-2 126 lbs - Troy Spratley (Collinsville, OK) dec Jacob Van Dee (Cathedral Prep, PA) 7-2 132 lbs - Zeke Seltzer (Cathedral, IN) dec Brandan Chletsos (Notre Dame-Green Pond, PA) 8-3 138 lbs - Jesse Mendez (Crown Point, IN) maj Briar Priest (Hempfield, PA) 21-7 145 lbs - Finn Solomon (Franklin Regional, PA) dec Kaleb Larkin (Valiant Prep, AZ) 7-4 152 lbs - Hunter Garvin (Iowa City West, IA) fall Jackson Arrington (Forest Hills, PA) 4:28 160 lbs - Levi Haines (Biglerville, PA) dec Aiden Riggins (Waverly-Shell Rock, IA) 7-3 170 lbs - Matthew Singleton (Woodward Academy, GA) dec Nolan Lear (Benton, PA) 9-3 182 lbs - Clayton Whiting (Oconto Falls, WI) dec Jack Wehmeyer (Malvern Prep, PA) 5-4 195 lbs - Mac Stout (Mt. Lebanon, PA) dec Rylan Rogers (Coeur d'Alene, ID) 7-5 220 lbs - TJ Stewart (Blair Academy, NJ) dec Dayton Pitzer (Mount Pleasant, PA) 4-3 285 lbs - Nick Feldman (Malvern Prep, PA) fall Harley Andrews (Tuttle, OK) 3:53 Below are schools that signed recruits that have competed at the PWC. Wrestlers are listed with their original college, rather than one they may have transferred to. After each of the wrestlers is their school's combined record at the PWC over the last ten events. American: Gage Curry ('16) 0-1 Arizona State: Lance Benick ('15), Julian Chlebove ('19), Brandon Courtney ('17) Richard Figueroa ('21), Kaleb Larkin ("22), Josh Shields ('15) 2-4 Binghamton: Louie DePrez ('17) 1-0 Brown: AJ Corrado ('21) 0-1 Bucknell: Dylan Chappell ('21), Zach Hartman ('18), Darren Miller ('19) 0-3 Central Michigan: Brent Fleetwood ('14), Matt Stencel ('16) 1-1 Central Oklahoma: Emmanuel Skillings ('21) 0-1 Clarion: Greg Bulsak ('16), Joey Fischer ('21), Gavin Park ('17) 2-1 Columbia: Jack Wehmeyer ('22) 0-1 Cornell: Vito Arujau ('17), Peyton Craft ('21), Brendan Furman ('17), Dalton Macri ('14), Julian Ramirez ('19), Brian Realbuto ('12), Brett Ungar ('21) 6-1 Drexel: Austin DeSanto ('17), Zach Fuentes ('13), Gage Harrah ('12), Stephen Loiseau ('14), Anthony Walters ('18) 3-2 Edinboro: Jacob Hart ('17), Jake Hart ('13), Austin Matthews ('13), Cody Mulligan ('18), Korbin Myers ('15), Jacob Oliver ('17) 3-2 Franklin & Marshall: Mason Leiphart ('22) 1-0 Grand View (Women): Adrienna Turner ('21) 0-1 Harvard: Beau Bayless ('19), Eric Morris ('13) 0-2 Illinois: Brooks Black ('13), Zac Brunson ('12), Mike Carr ('16), Isaiah Martinez ('13), Justin Mejia ('17), Zane Richards ('12) 3-3 Indiana: Luke Baughman ('19), Elijah Oliver ('15) 1-1 Indiana Tech: Jarred Brooks ('12) 1-0 Iowa: Abe Assad ('19), Drake Ayala ('21), Aaron Bradley ('13), Cory Clark ('12), Wyatt Henson ('21), Michael Kemerer ('15), Max Murin ('17), Caleb Rathjen ('21), Aiden Riggins ('22), Jacob Warner ('17) 5-5 Iowa State: Ryan Anderson ('19), Nathan Boston ('14), David Carr ('18), Sam Colbray ('16), John Meeks ('12), Nate Schon ('21), Danny Vega ('16) 5-2 Kent State: McKenzie McGuire ('12), Enrique Munguia ('21) 1-1 King (Women): Montana Delawder ('21) 1-0 Lehigh: Brian Brill ('12), Ian Brown ('14), Darian Cruz ('13), Jake Jakobsen ('16), Luke Karam ('16), Jaret Lane ('18), David Pipa ('15), Elliott Riddick ('12), Edmond Ruth ('19), Doug Vollaro ('12) 4-6 Lock Haven: Caleb Clymer ('18), Cody Copeland ('12), Isaac Reid ('18), Tristan Sponseller ('14), Tyshawn White ('16) 0-5 Lock Haven (Women): Grace Stem ('22) 1-0 Maryland: Ryan Diehl ('13), Billy Rappo ('12), Jaxon Smith ('21) 1-2 Mercyhurst: Jacob Robb ('16), Dillon Walker ('21) 0-2 Michigan: Dom Abounader ('13), Cam Amine ('19), Chance Lamer ('21), Kurt McHenry ('19), Rylan Rogers ('22), Ben Whitford ('13) 5-1 Michigan State: Drew Hughes ('16), Cole Nye ('17) 1-1 Minnesota: Jake Allar ('17), Broc Berge ('13), Ethan Lizak ('14), Hunter Marko ('16), Mitch McKee ('16), Patrick McKee ('18), Jake Short ('13), Troy Spratley ('22), Gable Steveson ('18), Fredy Stroker ('15), Devin Winston ('19) 7-4 Missouri: Zach Elam ('18), Zeke Seltzer ('22), Clayton Whiting ('22) 3-0 Navy: John Birchmeier ('19), Cael Crebs ('21), Quentin Hovis ('17), Jacob Lucas ('21), Jared Prince ('15) 3-2 NC State: Jackson Arrington ('22), Michael Boykin ('14), Hayden Hidlay ('16), Trent Hidlay ('18), Matthew Singleton ('22), Finn Solomon ('22), Owen Trephan ('19) 4-3 Nebraska: Harley Andrews ('22), Tyler Berger ('14), Kevon Davenport ('21), Brock Hardy ('18), Mikey Labriola ('17), Jacob Van Dee ('22) 1-5 North Carolina: AC Headlee ('15), Chip Ness ('14), Austin O'Connor ('17), Brandon Whitman ('18) 2-2 Northern Iowa: Josh Alber ('14), Kyle Biscoglia ('18), Max Thomsen ('15) 1-2 Northwestern: Bryce Brill ('14), Zack Chakonis ('15), Jack Jessen ('18), Stevan Micic ('14), Jason Tsirtsis ('12), Carter Young ('21) 5-1 Notre Dame: Kawaun Deboe ('19) 0-1 Ohio State: Nick Feldman ('22), Thomas Haines ('14), Gavin Hoffman ('18), Quinn Kinner ('18), Myles Martin ('15), Jesse Mendez ('22), Luke Pletcher ('16), Nick Roberts ('12), Kaleb Romero ('17), Sammy Sasso ('18), Chase Singletary ('17), Kyle Snyder ('14), Nate Tomasello ('13) 9-4 Oklahoma: Joey Cruz ('22), Joel Dixon ('14), Alejandro Herrera-Rondon ('21), Davion Jeffries ('15), Tanner Litterell ('17), Jake Woodley ('17) 2-4 Oklahoma State: Ryan Blees ('14), Kyle Crutchmer ('12), Dean Heil ('13), Keegan Moore ('16), Nick Piccininni ('15), Jordan Rogers ('12), Joe Smith ('15), Victor Voinovich ('21), Travis Wittlake ('18) 6-3 Old Dominion: TC Warner ('14) 0-1 Penn: Michael Colaiocco ('19), Frank Mattiace ('13) 1-0 Penn State: Donovan Ball ('19), Zach Beitz ('12), Jack Davis ('18), Jimmy Gulibon ('12), Levi Haines ('22), Mark Hall ('16), Jan Johnson ('15), Vincenzo Joseph ('15), Cody Law ('13), Nick Nevills ('14), Bo Nickal ('14), Jason Nolf ('14), Wes Phipps ('12), Zain Retherford ('13), Carter Starocci ('19), Kellen Stout ('15), Gavin Teasdale ('18), Jarod Verkleeren ('17) 10-8 Pitt-Johnstown: Allan Beattie ('15), Jacob Ealy ('19) 0-2 Pittsburgh: Luca Augustine ('21), Austin Bell ('16), Nino Bonaccorsi ('17), TeShan Campbell ('15), Cole Matthews ('18), Brock McMillen ('21), Dayton Pitzer ('22), Briar Priest ('22), Mikey Racciato ('13), Ryan Solomon ('13), Mac Stout ('22), Jake Wentzel ('16), Cody Wiercioch ('13) 5-8 Princeton: Patrick Glory ('18), Sean Pierson ('19), Travis Stefanik ('17) 0-3 Purdue: Griffin Parriott ('16), Shawn Streck ('16) 1-1 Rutgers: JoJo Aragona ('19), Anthony Ashnault ('13), Brandan Chletsos ('22), Kyonte Hamilton ('21), Ryan Vulakh ('19) 1-3 South Dakota State: Paul Mascarenas ("13) 0-1 Stanford: Hunter Garvin ('22), Shane Griffith ('18), Josh Marchok ('12), Joey McKenna ('14), Connor Schram ('13), Real Woods ('18) 4-2 Virginia: Fox Baldwin ('15), Brian Courtney ('17), Cam Coy ('17), George DiCamillo ('12), Sam Krivus ('15), Jabari Moody ('15), Garrett Peppelman ('14), Micky Phillippi ('16) 4-4 Virginia Tech: Connor Brady ('19), Solomon Chishko ('14), Joey Dance ('13), Andrew Dunn ('15), Dan Mancini ('19), Kyle Norstrem ('16), TJ Stewart ('22), Zack Zavatsky ('14) 5-3 VMI: Justin Hart ('21) 0-1 West Virginia: Devin Brown ('15), Logan Macri ('18), Zeke Moisey ('14), Austin Myers ('15) 1-3 Wheeling: Tyler Warner ('16) 0-1 Wisconsin: Eric Barnett ('19), Trent Hillger ('17) 2-0 Wyoming: Zach Beard ('13) 1-0
-
Photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) USA Wrestling is pleased to announce that Final X Stillwater will be held on Friday, June 3 at Gallagher-Iba Arena on the campus of Oklahoma State. There will be two Final X events this year, with Final X New York (which serves as the Beat the Streets Gala event this year, being held at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Wednesday, June 8. Final X Stillwater will be held alongside the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Honors Weekend, which is happening at the Hall of Fame facility next door, June 3-4. The Final X series will determine the 2022 U.S. Senior World Teams in all three of the Olympic disciplines: men's and women's freestyle and Greco-Roman. There will be 15 weight classes contested in Final X Stillwater, five in men's freestyle, five in women's freestyle and five in Greco-Roman. Those weight classes will be announced at a later date. The top two U.S. athletes in the nation in these weight classes will compete in a best-of-three series to determine who will wrestle at the 2022 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. "We are excited to bring one of wrestling's premier events to one of the most historic venues in wrestling history," said Rich Bender, USA Wrestling Executive Director. "Gallagher-Iba Arena will provide a wonderful backdrop for America's best and brightest wrestlers. We are grateful to stage this event alongside one of wrestling's crown jewel properties, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Honors Weekend. We are hopeful that wrestling fans from around the country will take advantage of the chance to see our sport's current and past stars." "Bringing Final X to Stillwater is a great opportunity to showcase our community and Oklahoma State's tradition," said John Smith, Oklahoma State head wrestling coach and two-time Olympic champion. "Fans can watch the best wrestlers in the United States compete at the highest level right here in our back yard. There's not a better place to host an event like this than Gallagher-Iba Arena and we're excited to pair it with the Hall of Fame's Honors Weekend." "We are excited that Final X could be held in conjunction with our annual Honors Weekend," said Lee Roy Smith, Executive Director, National Wrestling Hall of Fame. "This is a great opportunity for fans to visit the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and experience the history of our great sport while also being able to watch our nation's best wrestlers, and possible future Hall of Famers, compete to represent the United States at this year's World Wrestling Championships." Session times for Final X Stillwater are 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. CT. Information on ticket sales will be provided shortly. FloWrestling will be the presenting sponsor of Final X New York and will serve as its host broadcasting partner. Gallagher-Iba Arena is the home of Oklahoma State wrestling and basketball. This fabled fieldhouse was built in 1938 and underwent a major renovation in 2001. The renovation doubled the size of the facility, now with a 13,611-seat capacity. The arena is named for fabled Oklahoma State wrestling coach Ed Gallagher and basketball coach Henry Iba. It has been the site of many of college wrestling's most historic competitions. Although this is the first time that Gallagher-Iba Arena has hosted Final X, it is not the first time that a U.S. Senior World Team has been determined at this historic location. In 1989, the U.S. Olympic Festival's wrestling competition was held at Gallagher-Iba Arena, which served as the Senior World Team Trials event for that season. In addition, the Senior World Team Trials was held at Gallagher-Iba Arena in 2013. Other major USA Wrestling events previously hosted in Stillwater included the U.S. Freestyle National Championships in 1970, 1971 and 1972 and the 2013 UWW Junior World Team Trials.
-
The Wyoming Seminary girls team at the 2021 Ultimate Club Duals (photo/USA wrestling) Tomorrow, the Tallinn Open, which is the largest wrestling tournament in Europe, will begin. Held every year in Estonia, over 2,000 wrestlers from 24 different countries attend and compete at various levels and age groups. Due to Covid, this illustrious tournament was canceled the past two years, but for the first time since 2019, the Tallinn Open is making its return! Despite a major war taking place just a 20 hours drive south of the renowned tournament, wrestlers are gearing up to fearlessly compete; including a team from the US, led by Erin Vandiver (Tomeo), a former 2x Senior world team member, 2x Cadet world bronze medalist, 2x Olympic Team Coach (London and Rio), and a US National Team coach for 8 years, along with her husband, Chad Vandiver, a former Greco-Roman wrestler who was a US Senior Open finalist and 2x Olympic team trials qualifier and the head coach at Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, PA - I know, their resumes are truly remarkable! The girls team at Wyoming Seminary is the National Development Program, which includes talented athletes from all over the country training and competing in freestyle. The program is in its fifth year and has traveled to a half dozen countries to compete, and hosted multiple international events on their campus. Despite the long trip across the ocean, our team doesn't seem to be the one with the furthest road to travel. There are approximately 30 Ukrainian wrestlers that are making their way to the Tallinn Open despite their country being in the midst of war. The Ukrainian athletes escaped Ukraine as Russia invaded and were dispersed throughout Europe. The tournament is providing free accommodations, entry, and meals for the Ukrainian wrestlers during the tournament and the four-day training camp. A majority of these wrestlers will leave the tournament and go wherever they can throughout Europe, to escape the war. It is very unlikely any will travel back to Ukraine as their homes, communities and families have already been drastically affected by this war. The Wyoming Seminary team and coaching staff want to help provide these wrestlers with the means to purchase what they need, and also provide supplies these young wrestlers can physically carry with them in their bags. “Our plan is to physically provide cash and essential items such as food, clothing, and supplies directly to the Ukrainian athletes. We are not giving money to any governmental entity,†Chad Vandiver shared, “I plan to provide at least $100 cash and supplies to the wrestlers regardless of how much we raise.†Chad stated these efforts are being led by a team comprised of himself, his wife, the assistant coach, and the wrestlers at Wyoming Seminary, who plan to physically present these gifts directly into the hands of the Ukrainian wrestlers. The team left from Newark on Thursday and planned to wrestle Team Europe in a 12-match friendly women's dual meet, while the women's tournament takes place on Sunday. This announcement came somewhat last minute, as the tournament publicly announced just a few days ago that they would provide rooms, entry, and meals for any displaced Ukrainian wrestlers. The Wyoming Seminary staff wasted no time in creating a campaign to aid the efforts. This is what makes the wrestling community incredible, what sets it apart from other sports. Although competing against one another on the mat, these athletes come together to help their fellow competitors in their time of need. It is said without any argument, these Ukrainian wrestlers are in need of our help. Most of which escaped with only the clothes on their backs, leaving behind their homes, their belongings, and even their family members to escape a war they had zero control over. This is our opportunity as a community to not only show our support for our team, as we support their efforts, but also to support wrestling as a whole, to show the world how strong our community is despite the cultural differences or demands, despite the communication barriers or political parties. We have an opportunity to pour into these athletes who literally have nothing left but their love for the sport and desire to live freely. If you are able to give, please follow this link
-
A Look at the Recruiting Rankings for 2022's DI All-Americans
InterMat Staff posted an article in College
The top wrestler in the Class of 2018, Gable Steveson (top) against #2 from 2019, Cohlton Schultz (photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) With 80 newly-minted All-Americans less than a week removed from their date with destiny on the NCAA podium Saturday night, it seemed like an appropriate time to see how far they've come since high school. More technology and exposure have led to more information for those that do high school rankings, like InterMat's own Willie Saylor. More footage, coupled with more national-level tournaments, has led to more data points for rankings, specifically recruiting rankings. Fewer wrestlers tend to slip “under-the-radar.†With that in mind, we're looking at the 2022 All-Americans to see where they fell on Willie's Big Board during their respective senior season. As you can see below, a lot of the high All-Americans were very highly regarded coming out of high school, while there was still a handful that emerged as their collegiate careers progressed. 125 lbs champion: Nick Suriano (Michigan): #2 in Class of 2016 runner-up: Patrick Glory (Princeton): #17 in Class of 2018 third place: Vito Arujau (Cornell): #4 in Class of 2017 fourth place: Michael DeAugustino (Northwestern): Not ranked (Class of 2018) fifth place: Patrick McKee (Minnesota): #38 in Class of 2018 sixth place: Brandon Courtney (Arizona State): #76 in Class of 2017 seventh place: Eric Barnett (Wisconsin): #36 in Class of 2019 eighth place: Brandon Kaylor (Oregon State); Not ranked (Class of 2018) 133 lbs champion: Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State): #12 in Class of 2018 runner-up: Daton Fix (Oklahoma State): #1 in Class of 2017 third place: Austin DeSanto (Iowa): #17 in Class of 2017 fourth place: Michael McGee (Arizona State): #99 in Class of 2017 fifth place: Lucas Byrd (Illinois): #18 in Class of 2019 sixth place: Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech): #39 in Class of 2015 seventh place: Chris Cannon (Northwestern): #91 in Class of 2019 eighth place: Devan Turner (Oregon State): Not ranked (Class of 2016) 141 lbs champion: Nick Lee (Penn State): #9 in Class of 2017 runner-up: Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina): Not ranked (Class of 2016) third place: Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers): #78 in Class of 2016 fourth place: Grant Willits (Oregon State): #16 in Class of 2017 fifth place: Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh): #79 in Class of 2018 sixth place: Real Woods (Stanford): #21 in Class of 2018 seventh place: Jake Bergeland (Minnesota): Not ranked (Class of 2017) eighth place: CJ Composto (Penn) Not ranked (Class of 2020) 149 lbs champion: Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell): #3 in Class of 2017 runner-up: Ridge Lovett (Nebraska): #16 in Class of 2019 third place: Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech): #28 in Class of 2019 fourth place: Austin Gomez (Wisconsin): #11 in Class of 2017 fifth place: Sammy Sasso (Ohio State): #4 in Class of 2018 sixth place: Jonathan Millner (Appalachian State): Not ranked (Class of 2017) seventh place: Tariq Wilson (NC State): #66 in Class of 2016 eighth place: Kyle Parco (Arizona State): #71 in Class of 2019 157 lbs champion: Ryan Deakin (Northwestern): #97 in Class of 2016 runner-up: Quincy Monday (Princeton): #40 in Class of 2018 third place: David Carr (Iowa State): #5 in Class of 2018 fourth place: Peyton Robb (Nebraska): #31 in Class of 2018 fifth place: Will Lewan (Michigan): #28 in Class of 2018 sixth place: Jacori Teemer (Arizona State): #8 in Class of 2018 seventh place: Hunter Willits (Oregon State): #29 in Class of 2017 eighth place: Austin O'Connor (North Carolina): #12 in Class of 2017 165 lbs champion: Keegan O'Toole (Missouri): #5 in Class of 2020 runner-up: Shane Griffith (Stanford): #19 in Class of 2018 third place: Evan Wick (Cal Poly): #25 in Class of 2016 fourth place: Cameron Amine (Michigan): #17 in Class of 2019 fifth place: Alex Marinelli (Iowa): #3 in Class of 2016 sixth place: Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin): #6 in Class of 2021 seventh place: Carson Kharchla (Ohio State): #4 in Class of 2019 eighth place: Peyton Hall (West Virginia): #45 in Class of 2020 174 lbs champion: Carter Starocci (Penn State): #9 in Class of 2019 runner-up: Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech): #19 in Class of 2017 third place: Hayden Hidlay (NC State): #6 in Class of 2016 fourth place: Michael Kemerer (Iowa): #9 in Class of 2015 fifth place: Logan Massa (Michigan): #4 in Class of 2015 sixth place: Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State): #2 in Class of 2020 seventh place: Mikey Labriola (Nebraska): #5 in Class of 2017 eighth place: Clay Lautt (North Carolina): Not ranked (Class of 2017) 184 lbs champion: Aaron Brooks (Penn State): #2 in Class of 2018 runner-up: Myles Amine (Michigan): #46 in Class of 2015 third place: Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa): #14 in Class of 2019 fourth place: Bernie Truax (Cal Poly): Not ranked (Class of 2018) fifth place: Trent Hidlay (NC State): #18 in Class of 2018 sixth place: Kaleb Romero (Ohio State): #16 in Class of 2017 seventh place: Marcus Coleman (Iowa State): #78 in Class of 2017 eighth place: Jonathan Loew (Cornell): Not ranked (Class of 2018) 197 lbs champion: Max Dean (Penn State): #74 in Class of 2016 runner-up: Jacob Warner (Iowa): #7 in Class of 2017 third place: Stephen Buchanan (Wyoming): Not ranked (Class of 2019) fourth place: Rocky Elam (Missouri): #9 in Class of 2020 fifth place: Yonger Bastida (Iowa State): Not ranked (international) sixth place: Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State): #10 in Class of 2018 seventh place: Eric Schultz (Nebraska): #35 in Class of 2016 eighth place: Greg Buslak (Rutgers): #89 in Class of 2016 285 lbs champion: Gable Steveson (Minnesota): #1 in Class of 2018 runner-up: Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State): #2 in Class of 2019 third place: Jordan Wood (Lehigh): #20 in Class of 2016 fourth place: Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State): #1 in Class of 2019 fifth place: Mason Parris (Michigan): #3 in Class of 2018 sixth place: Lucas Davison (Northwestern): #49 in Class of 2018 seventh place: Tony Cassioppi (Iowa): #14 in Class of 2018 eighth place: Christian Lance (Nebraska): Not ranked (Class of 2015) -
NCAA fifth-place finisher at 125 lbs Patrick McKee (photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) How good is the Big Ten? When the 2022 NCAA Championships came to a close last Saturday night, 39 of the 80 total All-Americans came from the Big Ten Conference - including 8 of the 10 champs and 11 of the 20 finalists. The last time a single conference was responsible for that many individual champions was 1986, when the Big Ten also crowned 8 champs. How good is the Big Ten? When Penn State mathematically clinched the team title on Saturday afternoon, it marked the 15th consecutive national tournament won by a Big Ten team, the longest championship streak by a single conference since the tournament started in 1928. How good is the Big Ten? When the team race was finalized on Saturday night, the league finished with each of the top 3 teams - Penn State, Michigan, Iowa - as well as 4 of the top-5, 5 of the top-10, 9 of the top-20 and 10 of the top-25. All 14 teams scored at least one point. How good is the Big Ten? Four of the 10 third-place finishers lost to a Big Ten wrestler on the front side of their respective brackets. There were also 19 Big Ten wrestlers eliminated by another Big Ten wrestler, including 3 in the bloodround: Lucas Byrd over Dylan Ragusin at 133, Kaleb Romero over Max Lyon at 184, and Mason Parris over Tate Orndorff at 285. How good is the Big Ten? At least three Big Ten wrestlers earned All-American honors at all 10 weights. There were six Big Ten wrestlers that earned All-American honors at heavyweight and five that earned the distinction at 197. You get the idea by now. Here's a quick glance at more fun facts, interesting figures and other information from all 14 Big Ten teams from the 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Illinois Lucas Byrd was Illinois' only All-American. After a first-round loss, he won five straight wrestleback matches and finished fifth at 133 pounds. He is the 40th multiple-time All-American in Illinois history. Zac Braunagel lost in the bloodround at 184. Prior to that, he won 7 straight matches between the Big Ten and NCAA Championships - 5 in a row to take third at the conference tournament, then his first 2 at the national tournament to reach the quarterfinals. He finished the year 17-9, and went 7-3 in the postseason. Indiana The Hoosiers had a rough go of it, with both qualifiers getting bounced from the tournament on the first day - DJ Washington went 0-2 at 184 while 133-pounder Brock Hudkins had to withdraw after his first-round win due to an injury. In doing so, Indiana wrestlers are now a combined 9-24 at the last four national tournaments (2022, 2021, 2019, 2018), a rough follow-up since Nate Jackson became a two-time All-American in 2017. Iowa The Hawkeyes took third, their 13th team trophy under head coach Tom Brands in the last 15 national tournaments. That's the fifth most all-time for any single head coach, trailing Harold Nichols (27), Dan Gable (20), John Smith (17) and Dave McCuskey (14). Iowa has had at least one All-American for 50 consecutive national tournaments, and at least one NCAA finalist every year since 1990. This year, 5 Hawkeye wrestlers earned All-American honors and Jacob Warner made the finals at 197. Iowa has had at least five All-Americans at every national tournament since 2014. Warner was the first NCAA finalist for Iowa at 197 pounds since Ryan Fulsaas in 2004. Iowa has not had an NCAA champion at 165 pounds or above since Jay Borschel won at 174 in 2010. This was the first year Iowa did not have an All-American at 125 pounds since 2013. Tony Cassioppi is Iowa's first multi-time All-American at heavyweight since Bobby Telford (three-time, 2012, 2014-15). Michael Kemerer capped his Iowa wrestling career with a 100-12 career record, and 11 of his 12 losses came to guys who previously reached the NCAA finals. Alex Marinelli capped his Iowa wrestling career as one of 17 four-time Big Ten champs, but one of just two four-time Big Ten champs to not win an NCAA title (the other: Mike DeAnna). Maryland The Terps didn't have a single NCAA qualifier in 2021. This year, they had 3 - and they went a combined 2-6. Michigan Team 100 scored 95 points, the most ever by a Michigan team at the NCAA Championships, to finish second for the fourth time in program history, the fourth-most all-time. Nick Suriano, maybe the best free-agent signing in NCAA wrestling history, became Michigan's first champ at college wrestling's lightest weight, and the first Wolverine wrestler to win a title since Kellen Russell won two in 2011-12. He's also the first wrestler to win twice for two different schools since Steve Mocco won for Iowa in 2003 and Oklahoma State in 2005. Myles Amine set the all-time record for 24 career wins at the NCAA Championships, and is also the first five-time place-winner in tournament history. Each of Michigan's 6 All-Americans finished fifth or better. Michigan State RayVon Foley and Cam Caffey accounted for all 4 points for the Spartans in Detroit. The other three Michigan State qualifiers combined to go 0-6. Minnesota Minnesota finished with three All-Americans, extending a streak of 36 consecutive national tournaments with an All-American, the second-longest active All-American streak. Gable Steveson's second consecutive NCAA title at heavyweight gave Minnesota a second consecutive year with a national champion. Only 2 schools have an active streak of consecutive years with a national champ: Penn State (11) and Minnesota (2). Patrick McKee, a two-time All-American, won 5 straight wrestleback matches to take fifth at 125. That came after he won 4 consecutive wrestleback matches for third at the Big Ten Championships, which came after he won 6 consecutive wrestleback matches for third at the 2021 national tournament. That's 16 straight wrestleback wins in a row. Jakob Bergeland went 5-5 as a redshirt freshman during the 2018-19 season. This year: 23-9 and an All-American at 141. He was the only first-time senior qualifier to earn All-American honors. Nebraska Nebraska finished with five All-Americans for the first time since 2008, extending a streak of 33 consecutive national tournaments with an All-American, the third-longest active All-American streak. The Huskers' fifth-place team finish was their highest since taking fourth in 2009. Mikey Labriola became a 3-time All-American. Christian Lance, who started his career at Division II Fort Hays State, is Nebraska's first All-American at heavyweight since Tolly Thompson in 1997. Northwestern Northwestern's sixth-place finish was anchored by four All-Americans, the most by the school since 2007. The Wildcats were also the only team in the top-six who did not have a wrestler who transferred in score points. Ryan Deakin became Northwestern's first NCAA champion since 2014, when Jason Tsirtsis won. Deakin is also the first NCAA champ under Northwestern coach Matt Storniolo. Ohio State This was the first year since 2011 that Ohio State did not have an NCAA finalist. Gavin Hoffman went from the 21-seed to sixth-place at 197 pounds, the largest seed-place differential (15) in the tournament. Penn State Penn State has now won 10 NCAA team titles all-time, becoming just the third school to reach double digits, joining Oklahoma State (34) and Iowa (24). Nine have come in the last 11 years under head coach Cael Sanderson, giving him third place for the most ever by a single coach behind Dan Gable (15) and Ed Gallagher (11). In 12 NCAA tournaments, Sanderson's Penn State teams have won nine team titles and took second once. He's coached 70 All-Americans and 32 national champs. In 12 NCAA tournaments, Gable's Hawkeye teams won nine team titles, took second twice and third once, and he coached 86 All-American and 25 national champs in that span. Penn State's 32 NCAA title winners since 2010 are far and away the most by any program. Cornell is currently second … with 12. Over the last 12 NCAA Championships, Penn State wrestlers are 46-6 in the semifinals - 30-2 since the 2015 tournament - and 32-14 in the finals. Since 2017, Penn State wrestlers are 21-3 overall in the NCAA finals and have won 11 in a row. The Nittany Lions have had a national champ each of the last 11 national tournaments. Max Dean joined older brother Gabe as an NCAA champion, making them the third brother duo to both win NCAA titles over the last two decades. The others: Ben and Max Askren, both for Missouri, and Mark and Chris Perry - Mark for Iowa, Chris to Oklahoma State. Purdue Max Lyon went 4-2 at 184 pounds but did not place at the NCAA Championships, winning in the wrestleback pigtail match and then falling in the bloodround. He was the only wrestler in the tournament to win four matches and not finish on the podium. There were 9 All-Americans who only won three matches at the NCAA Championships. Rutgers Sebastian Rivera became just the second third-place finisher at the NCAA Championships in Rutgers history. He also finished the season with a 30-1 overall record, one of just two wrestlers to hit 30 wins this season (the other: Northern Iowa's Parker Keckeisen). Rivera also led the nation with 14 technical falls. Greg Bulsak was a four-time NCAA qualifier for Clarion, but finished eighth at 197 pounds to become an All-American for the first time. Rutgers has produced two or more All-Americans in each of the past seven seasons. Wisconsin Three Badger wrestlers earned All-American honors, the most since 2015, when they also had three All-Americans.
-
The official Fan Voting for the 2022 WIN Magazine/Culture House Dan Hodge Trophy has begun. The Fan Vote on WIN Magazine's website for "wrestling's Heisman Trophy" accounts for five first-place ballots towards the winner's overall total for the prestigious award presented annually by ASICS. As many as 140,000 fans have voted for the Hodge in a one-week period following the NCAA Championships. The fan vote ends on 5 p.m. on Friday, March 25. The Hodge Trophy Voting Committee casts the remainder of the official votes. The committee is made up of past winners of the award, media, a retired college coach from each region and a representative of each national wrestling organization. Once again, there is an outstanding field of finalists as eight NCAA champions finished undefeated and dominated opponents on their way to 2022 titles. The finalists are: Michigan's Nick Suriano, 125# Penn State's Roman Bravo-Young, 133# Penn State's Nick Lee, 141# Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis, 149# Northwestern's Ryan Deakin, 157# Missouri's Keegan O'Toole, 165# Penn State's Carter Starocci, 174# Minnesota's Gable Steveson, HWT Named after Oklahoma's legendary three-time NCAA champion who was never taken down in college and pinned 36 of 46 opponents over a three-year span, the award is given annually to the most dominant wrestler in the country. Criteria include: Record Dominance/Bonus-Point Percentage Quality of Competition Sportsmanship To vote for the 2022 Hodge: Hodge Vote WIN's website includes additional information on the Hodge, as well as the release story of each past winner including their stats during the season for the year they won the award. For more information: Hodge Trophy Information
-
2022 NCAA finalist Kizhan Clarke (photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Today, the Tar Heel Wrestling Club announced via social media that 2022 NCAA runner-up Kizhan Clarke will be staying in Chapel Hill to train with the THWC as he pursues an international wrestling career. According to the THWC, Clarke will be competing for Germany as he competes in freestyle. Clarke who started his wrestling career at American University, went to UNC as a graduate transfer to enroll in law school. In 2021-22, Clarke had a sparkling 17-1 record in the regular season but had a rough ACC tournament and went 0-2. That forced him to rely on an at-large berth to Detroit. As the 15th seed, Clarke took out #2 Jaydin Eierman (Iowa), #6 ACC champion Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh), and #10 Jake Bergeland (Minnesota) during his remarkable finals run. Clarke finished the year with a 21-4 record and was 101-37 collegiately. His finals appearance gave the Tar Heels back-to-back seasons with an NCAA finalist for the first time since 1995-96.
-
2022 HS State Tournament Results for Wrestling Recruits (Updated 3/23)
InterMat Staff posted an article in College
Pennsylvania state champion Rocco Welsh (photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) The high school state tournament season has concluded as traditional powers Ohio and Pennsylvania wrapped up action with their historic events. With all of these tournaments in the rearview, it begs the question, "how did my favorite team's recruits fare?" In some smaller states, it's almost a given that your college-bound studs are collecting another state title, while in the power states, with the deepest talent pools, such achievements are not guaranteed. Either way, we've combed through results from all of the state tournaments to find out how everyone's recruits have finished. If you do not see a recruit that should be added, please fill out our commitment form . Air Force Evan Binder (Whitfield) - Missouri Class 3 State Champion (132) Kole Biscoe (Southern Columbia) - Pennsylvania AA State Qualifier (138) Drake Buchanan (Center Grove) - Indiana State Champion (182) Peyton Hahn (Boonville) - Missouri Class 2 State Champion (285) Ryker Johnecheck (Williamston) - Michigan D3 State Champion (140) Nico Tocci (Warwick) - Pennsylvania AAA State eighth-place (113) Appalachian State Hunter Adams (Gainesville) - Georgia 3A State Champion (182) Levi Andrews (Avery County) - North Carolina 1A State Champion (285) Kaden Keiser (Winner Area) - South Dakota Class B State Champion (145) Ethan Shell (Avery County) - North Carolina 1A State Champion (138) Brady Welch (Ashland) - Ohio DII State Runner-Up (175) Arizona State Tyler Antoniak (Millard South) - Nebraska Class A State Champion (152) Corey Camden (College Park) - Texas 6A State Qualifier (138) Diego Chavez (Santa Cruz Valley) - Arizona D4 State Champion (175) Michael Kilic (Woodward Academy) - Georgia 5A State Champion (160) Jacob Meissner (Osseo) - Minnesota AAA State Champion (220) Damion Schunke (Brandon Valley) - South Dakota Class A State Champion (195) Caleb Vanbuskirk (Palm Desert) - California State Qualifier (220) Army West Point Evan Anderson (Western Reserve) - National Prep fourth-place (220) Oscar Aranda (St. John Bosco) - California State third-place (160) Braden Basile (Tampa Jesuit) - Florida 2A State Champion (132) Joel Brown (Landon) - National Prep third-place (132) - Class of 2023 Sam Cartella (Western Reserve) - National Prep Runner-Up (138) - Class of 2023 Conor Collins (Southern Regional) - New Jersey State third Place (120) - Class of 2023 Gage Cook (Granger) - Washington 1B/2B State Champion (285) Nick Corday (Baylor School) - Tennessee DII State Champion (113) Gunner Filipowicz (Woodward Academy) - Georgia 5A State Champion (170) Cooper Haase (Osceola) - Florida 3A State Champion (138) Cole Karpinski (Greenville) - Pennsylvania AA State Runner-Up (189) Tommy Link (Malvern Prep) - National Prep third-place (113) Kent McCombs (Clinton) - Michigan D3 State third-place (160) Dakota Morris (Kingsway) - New Jersey State Runner-Up (157) Jaime Rivera (Sunnyside) - Arizona D1 State Champion (150) Ben Rogers (Wantagh) - New York DI State Runner-Up (152) Augustana Max Ramberg (Baldwin-Woodville) - Wisconsin D2 State Champion (195) Averett Braeden Fluke (Great Bridge) - Virginia 4A State third-place (220) Binghamton Carter Baer (Gouverneur) - New York DII State Champion (160) Will Ebert (Fairfield) - Connecticut Class LL State Champion (170) Fin Nadeau (Flathead) - Montana AA State Champion (145) Charlie Tibbitts (New Hartford/Saquoit Valley) - New York DI State Champion Brown Jared Brunner (Eastern) - New Jersey State Runner-Up (113) Jacob Gonzales (Holly) - Michigan D2 State Champion (160) Nicholas Olivieri (Delbarton) - New Jersey State fourth place (190) Bucknell Braden Bower (Williamsport) - Pennsylvania AAA State Qualifier (132) Riley Bower (Williamsport) - Pennsylvania AAA State seventh-place (145) Michael Duggan (Boiling Springs) - Pennsylvania AA State third-place (152) Hayden Linkerhof (Corry) - Pennsylvania AA State fifth-place (215) Johnny Lopez (Poway) - California State third-place (138) Murphy Menke (Ponderosa) - Colorado 5A State Champion (160) Logan Shephard (Massillon Perry) - Ohio DI State third-place (215) Buffalo Carter Gill (Hickory) - Pennsylvania AA State fourth-place (145) Chase Kranitz (Norwin) - Pennsylvania AAA State Qualifier (160) Cal Baptist MJ Gaitan (Temecula Valley) - California State Champion (160) Kainoa Medina (Vacaville) - California State sixth-place (106) Mitchell Mesenbrink (Arrowhead) - Wisconsin D1 State Champion (152) Cal Poly Ty Chandler (Clovis North) - California State Qualifier (120) Cade Creighton (Palo Alto) - California State fifth-place (182) Koda Holeman (Clovis) - California State fifth-place (113) Dominic Mendez (Righetti) - California State Runner-Up (113) Luke Meyer (Capistrano Valley) - California State Qualifier (285) Zeth Romney (Chaminade) - California State Runner-Up (126) Cash Stewart (Poynette) - Wisconsin D3 State Runner-Up (160) Michael Torres (Oakdale) - California State Qualifier (126) Luke Villaluz (Corona Del Mar) - California State Qualifier (138) Wesley Wilson (Morro Bay) - California State Qualifier (182) Campbell Dom Baker (New Kent) - Virginia 3A State Champion (170) Devon Bell (Laney) - North Carolina 4A State Champion (182) Jack Hawbaker (Great Bridge) - Virginia 4A State Runner-Up (152) Hagen Heistand (Underwood) - Iowa 1A State Champion (145) Camron Lacure (Legacy Christian Academy) - Ohio DIII State Champion (138) Zander Phatorus (Waynesburg) - Pennsylvania AAA State sixth-place (126) Central Michigan Logan Badge (Clinton) - Michigan D3 State Runner-Up (189) Grayson Sonntag (Tonganoxie) - Kansas 4A State Runner-Up (138) Central Oklahoma Jaxon Randall (Edmond North) - Oklahoma 6A State Champion (170) Chadron State Jackson Tonkovich (Batavia) - Illinois 3A State Qualifier (182) Chattanooga Cole Cochran (Woodland Cartersville) - Georgia 5A State Champion (160) Jeremy Paradice (Colquitt County) - Georgia 7A State Champion (160) Cole Thomas (Ryle) - Kentucky State Champion (132) Clarion Nate Burnett (Elyria) - Ohio DI State third-place (138) Chase Cordia (Osage) - Missouri Class 2 State Champion (182) Patrick Cutchember (Quaker Valley) - Pennsylvania AA State fourth-place (189) Noah Tustin (Waynesburg) - Pennsylvania AAA State seventh-place (285) Cleveland State Dylan Layton (Indian Land) - South Carolina 4A State Champion (145) Michael Markulin (South Range) - Ohio DIII State Qualifier (138) Keith Ransom (Mexico) - Missouri Class 2 State Runner-Up (145) Columbia Richard Fedalen (McDonogh) - National Prep Runner-Up (152) Evan Frost (Dowling Catholic) - Iowa 3A State Champion (132) Jacob Frost (Dowling Catholic) - Iowa 3A State Runner-Up (138) William McChesney (Greensburg Salem) - Pennsylvania AAA State sixth-place (285) Nolan Neves (Graham) - Ohio DII State Champion (285) Kai Owen (Wyoming Seminary) - National Prep third-place (138) Jack Wehmeyer (Malvern Prep) - National Prep Runner-Up (182) Yianni Vines (Thompson) - Alabama 7A State Champion (126) Cornell Foster Cardinale (Liberty) - Virginia 4A State Runner-Up (126) Ashton Davis (Cleveland) - Tennessee AA State Champion (285) Aiden Hanning (Northfield Mt. Hermon) - National Prep Champion (195) Simon Ruiz (Delbarton) - New Jersey State Champion (157) - Class of 2023 CSU Bakersfield Paul Sharp (Clovis North) - California State Champion (220) Davidson Devin Diaco (Trinity-Pawling) - National Prep Qualifier (126) Jarek Stewart-Karolweics (Brevard) - North Carolina 2A State Runner-Up (285) Davis & Elkins Nick Cottone (Shawnee) - New Jersey State Qualifier (126) Brenden Hansen (Hightstown) - New Jersey State eighth-place (285) Tanner Peake (Hunterdon Central) - New Jersey State fourth-place (157) Drexel Domenic D'Agostino (Interboro) - Pennsylvania AAA State Runner-Up (172) Dominic Findora (Downingtown West) - Pennsylvania AAA State fourth-place (138) Gabe Giampietro (Smyrna) - Delaware State Champion (120) Jordan Soriano (Clarke) - New York DII State Champion (138) Ethan Wilson (Washington Township) - New Jersey State Qualifier (150) Duke Zack Burroughs (Graham) - Ohio DII State sixth-place (175) Franklin & Marshall Josh Hillard (Manheim Township) - Pennsylvania AAA State Qualifier (126) Mason Leiphart (Dover) - Pennsylvania AAA State Runner-Up (120) Gardner-Webb Jeff Jacome (South Plainfield) - New Jersey State Qualifier (113) Tyson Lane (Brandon) - Florida 2A State Champion (120) Josh McCuthen (Valdosta) - Georgia 6A State Champion (195) George Mason Alex Frowert (Atlee) - Virginia 4A State Champion (152) Eric Howe (Lancaster Catholic) - Pennsylvania AA State Qualifier (120) Evan Maag (Notre Dame-Green Pond) - Pennsylvania AA State Qualifier (145) Briar Priest (Hempfield) - Pennsylvania AAA State Runner-Up (138) Donovan Sprouse (Patriot) - Virginia 6A State Runner-Up (220) Colton Stoneking (Waynesburg) - Pennsylvania AAA State fifth-place (138) Harvard Joe Cangro (Bergen Catholic) - New Jersey State Champ (138) Jack Crook (Tampa Jesuit) - Florida 2A State Champion (152) Dante Frinzi (Bethlehem Catholic) - Pennsylvania AAA State Qualifier (126) Hofstra Alex Turley (Webster Groves) - Missouri Class 3 third-place (126) Illinois Brian Beers (Barrington) - Illinois 3A State fifth-place (126) Kole Brower (Moline) - Illinois 3A State Champion (138) Kannon Webster (Washington) - Illinois 2A State Champion (132) Indiana Cole Rhemrev (Stevenson) - Illinois 3A State fifth-place (138) Gabe Sollars (Mater Dei) - Indiana State Champion (195) Indianapolis Mason Cantu (Hart) - Michigan D3 State Runner-Up (145) Nathan Smith (Southport) - Indiana State third-place (106) Iowa Ryder Block (Waverly-Shell Rock) - Iowa 3A State Champion (138) - Class of 2023 Easton Fleshman (West Lyon) - Iowa 2A State Champion (285) Bradley Hill (Bettendorf) - Iowa 3A State Runner-Up (195) Joel Jesuroga (Southeast Polk) - Iowa 3A State sixth-place (145) Nate Jesuroga (Southeast Polk) - Iowa 3A State Champion (126) - Class of 2023 Ben Kueter (City High) - Iowa 3A State Champion (220) - Class of 2023 Carson Martinson (Southeast Polk) - Iowa 3A State Runner-Up (160) Carter Martinson (Southeast Polk) - Iowa 3A State Runner-Up (152) Drake Rhodes (Billings West) - Montana AA State Champion (160) Jace Rhodes (Mason City) - Iowa 3A State Runner-Up (132) Aiden Riggins (Waverly-Shell Rock) - Iowa 3A State Champion (160) Iowa State Connor Euton (Westerville North) - Ohio DI State Champion (157) Carter Fousek (Crestwood) - Iowa 2A State Champion (138) Tate Naaktgeboren (Linn-Mar) - Iowa 3A State Champion (170) - Class of 2023 Manuel Rojas (Detroit Central Catholic) - Michigan D1 State Runner-Up (171) Christian Stanek (Xavier) - Iowa 3A State third-place (160) Casey Swiderski (Dundee) - Michigan D3 State Champion (152) Fernando Villaescusa (Gilbert) - Iowa 2A State Runner-Up (182) Kent State Eli Ashcroft (Kearney) - Missouri Class 3 State Champion (145) Keith Barr (Hickman) - Missouri Class 4 State sixth-place (138) Mitchell Broskie (Dublin Coffman) - Ohio DI State fifth-place (175) Nico Calello (St. Joseph - Metuchen) - New Jersey State sixth-place (120) Matt Ellis (Waynesville) - Ohio DII State Runner-Up (126) Brian Finnerty (Jefferson Hills) - Pennsylvania AAA State Champion (215) Jacob Houpt (Canon-McMillan) - Pennsylvania AAA State sixth-place (120) Billy Meiszner (Providence Catholic) - Illinois 3A State fourth-place (132) Kutztown Christian Doi (Camp Hill) - Pennsylvania AA State Qualifier (132) Lake Erie Sam Partain (Chagrin Falls) - Ohio DII State eighth-place (150) Lander Samuel Gerard (Robinson) - Virginia 6A State Champion (152) Jackson Harms (Hillcrest) - South Carolina 5A State Champion (170) Ashton Hefner (North Oconee) - Georgia 4A State Runner-Up (220) Brayton Killiri (Summerville) - South Carolina 5A State Runner-Up (138) Lehigh Remy Brancato (Bergen Catholic) - New Jersey State seventh-place (190) Ryan Crookham (Notre Dame-Green Pond) - Pennsylvania AA State Champion (138) Kimo Leia (Selma) - California State fourth-place (138) - Class of 2023 Enzo Morlacci (Kiski Area) - Pennsylvania AAA State sixth-place (160) Justin Onello (Bergen Catholic) - New Jersey State seventh-place (175) - Class of 2023 Owen Reinsel (Brookville) - Pennsylvania AA State Runner-Up (132) Caden Rogers (Malvern Prep) - National Prep Runner-Up (220) Lindenwood Aidan Boline (Washburn Rural) - Kansas 6A State Champion (160) Little Rock Brendon Abdon (Lake Gibson) - Florida 2A State Champion (160) Kodiak Cannedy (Greeneville) - Tennessee A State Champion (170) Chance Davis (Perry) - Oklahoma 3A State Champion (160) Kyle Dutton (Liberty) - Missouri Class 4 State Champion (145) Cael Keck (Park Hill) - Missouri Class 4 Runner-Up (132) Stephen Little (Union County) - Kentucky State Champion (190) Keith Miley (Whitfield) - Missouri Class 2 State Champion (285) Brennan Van Hoecke (Palmetto Ridge) - Florida 3A State Champion (145) Lock Haven Eric Alderfer (Faith Christian Academy) - Pennsylvania AA State Runner-Up (145) Kaiden Wagner (Lewisburg) - Pennsylvania AA State third-place (145) Maryland Luke Jacobs (Westfield) - New Jersey State Qualifier (138) Kal Miller (Park Hill) - Missouri Class 4 Runner-Up (145) Mercyhurst Jake Niffenegger (LaSalle) - Ohio DI State Champion (138) Billy Smith (Sandusky Perkins) - Ohio DII State fourth-place (113) McKendree Logan Rathjen (Liberty) - Missouri Class 4 Runner-Up (152) Michigan Cam Catrabone (Williamsville North) - New York DI State sixth-place (145) - Class of 2024 Dylan Gilcher (Detroit Central Catholic) - Michigan D1 State Champion - Class of 2023 Caden Horwath (Davison) - Michigan D1 State Champion (125) - Class of 2023 Ira Jenkins (Whitehall) - Michigan D2 State Champion (285) Nathan Jerore (Woodhaven) - Michigan D1 State Champion (145) Codei Khawaja (Floyd Central) - Indiana State Qualifier (170) Josh Knudten (Libertyville) - Illinois 3A State Champion (182) Beau Mantanona (Palm Desert) - California State Runner-Up (138) Rylan Rogers (Coeur d'Alene) - Idaho 5A State Champion (195) Michigan State Ceasar Garza (Oakdale) - California State Champion (170) Isiah Pasik (New Lothrop) - Michigan D4 State Runner-Up (285) Millersville Lucas Doyle (Council Rock South) - Pennsylvania AAA State Qualifier (215) Minnesota Hunter Lyden (Stillwater) - Minnesota AAA State Champion (170) Max McEnelly (Waconia) - Minnesota AAA State Champion (195) - Class of 2023 Gavin Nelson (Simley) - Minnesota AA State Champion (220) - Class of 2023 Missouri Ryan Boersma (Mt. Carmel) - Illinois 3A State Champion (285) J Conway (Floyd Central) - Indiana State Champion (160) David Cross (Francis Howell Central) - Missouri Class 4 Runner-Up (138) Tommy Hagan (Lafayette) - Missouri Class 4 State Champion (220) Easton Hilton (Liberty) - Missouri Class 4 third-place (138) Carter McCallister (Rock Bridge) - Missouri Class 4 State Champion (138) - Class of 2023 Kaden Moore (Allen) - Texas 6A State Champion (138) Peyton Moore (Nixa) - Missouri Class 4 third-place (126) Zeke Seltzer (Cathedral) - Indiana State Champion (132) Owen Uhls (Fulton) - Missouri Class 2 State Champion (138) Clayton Whiting (Oconto Falls) - Wisconsin D2 State Champion (182) Mount Olive Lucas Cotto (Laney) - North Carolina 4A State Qualifier (113) Navy Matt Colajezzi (Council Rock South) - Pennsylvania AAA State third-place (160) Devon Deem (Montgomery) - Pennsylvania AA State fifth-place (152) Jonathan Ley (Lake Highland Prep) - National Prep Runner-Up (170) Ryder Rogotzke (Stillwater) - Minnesota AAA State Champion (182) - Class of 2023 Evan Tallmadge (Brick Memorial) - New Jersey State Champion (120) Nick Vafiadis (New Kent) - Virginia 3A State Champion (160) Danny Wask (Blair Academy) - National Prep Champion (170) NC State Jackson Arrington (Forest Hills) - Pennsylvania AA State Champ (152) Jackson Baglio (Central Cabarrus) - North Carolina 3A State Champion (120) - Class of 2023 Koy Buesgens (New Prague) - Minnesota AA State Champion (138) - Class of 2023 Danny Curran (Dekalb) - Illinois 3A State fifth-place (132) Tommy Curran (Dekalb) - Illinois 3A State Champion (145) Dylan Fishback (Aurora) - Ohio DII State Champion (190) Troy Hohman (Penn Trafford) - Pennsylvania AAA State seventh-place (120) Chase Horne (West Laurens) - Georgia 4A State Champion (285) Jeremiah Price (Surry Central) - North Carolina 2A State Champion (152) - Class of 2023 Vincent Robinson (Homewood) - Illinois 3A State Runner-Up (126) - Class of 2023 Cheaney Schoeff (Avon) - Indiana State third-place (132) - Class of 2023 Matthew Singleton (Woodward Academy) - Georgia 5A State Champion (182) Finn Solomon (Franklin Regional) - Pennsylvania AAA State Runner-Up (145) Nebraska Harley Andrews (Tuttle) - Oklahoma 4A State Champion (285) Alan Koehler (Prior Lake) - Minnesota AAA State Champion (120) - Class of 2023 Antrell Taylor (Millard South) - Nebraska Class A State Champion (170) Jacob Van Dee (Cathedral Prep) - Pennsylvania AAA State fifth-place (126) Nebraska-Kearney Joey Airola (Boulder) - Colorado 5A State sixth-place (132) Jacob Awiszus (Gering) - Nebraska Class B State Champion (182) Cael Erickson (Cedar Grove-Belgium) - Wisconsin D3 State Runner-Up (145) Newberry Aidan Lambert (Kellam) - Virginia 6A State fifth-place (160) North Carolina Nasir Bailey (Rich Township) - Illinois 3A State Champion (132) Cole Hunt (Cass) - Georgia 5A State Champion (120) Max Martin (Great Bridge) - Virginia 4A State sixth-place (120) Danny Nini (Lake Highland Prep) - National Prep third-place (152) Jayden Scott (Rush-Henrietta) - New York DI State Champion (145) Cade Tenold (Don Bosco) - Iowa 1A State Champion (170) Carson Tenold (Don Bosco) - Iowa 1A State Champion (195) North Dakota State Fernando Barreto (Walnut) - California State Qualifier (132) Walker Bents (Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa) - Minnesota A State Champion (132) Gavin Drexler (Stratford) - Wisconsin D3 State Champion (138) Boeden Greenley (Lisbon) - North Dakota Class B State Champion (160) Brendan Howes (Anoka) - Minnesota AAA State Qualifier (145) Landen Johnson (Owatonna) - Minnesota AAA State Champion (160) Maxwell Petersen (Byron) - Minnesota AA State Champion (145) Zach Silvis (Park) - Minnesota AAA State Runner-Up (120) Northern Colorado Andrew Blackburn-Forst (Lockport) - Illinois 3A State Champion (220) Bryce Garcia (Pueblo County) - Colorado 4A State Champion (170) Brady Hankin (Woodland Park) - Colorado 3A State Runner-Up (138) Kobi Johnson (Loveland) - Colorado 4A State Champion (120) Derek Matthews (Declo) - Idaho 2A State Champion (182) Remington Peterson (Rye) - Colorado 2A State Champion (195) Quentin Saunders (Goddard) - Kansas 5A State Champion (182) Northern Illinois Tom Bennett (Brother Rice) - Illinois 2A State Champion (170) Jacob Brya (St. Johns) - Michigan D2 State Champion (140) Damien Lopez (Dekalb) - Illinois 3A State third-place (152) Eli Rocha (Platte County) - Missouri Class 3 State Champion (138) Northern Iowa Trever Anderson (Ankeny) - Iowa 3A State Runner-Up (120) Chet Buss (North Butler-Clarksville) - Iowa 1A State Champion (285) Garrett Funk (Don Bosco) - Iowa 1A State Runner-Up (132) Cory Land (Moody) - Alabama 5A/6A State Champion (138) Wyatt Voelker (West Delaware) - Iowa 2A State Champion (195) Northern State Carter Ban (Anoka) - Minnesota AAA State fifth-place (138) Max Balow (Lake City) - Minnesota AA State Runner-Up (285) Payton Handevidt (Jackson County Central) - Minnesota A State Champion (160) Northwestern Sammie Hayes (Carl Sandburg) - Illinois 3A State sixth-place (120) Joseph Martin (Buchanan) - California State Champion (182) Kai Neumark (Deerfield) - Illinois 2A State Runner-Up (138) Ohio Mason Brugh (Wadsworth) - Ohio DI State sixth-place (126) Charlie Heydorn (Lake Forest) - Illinois 2A State fourth-place (182) Austin Starr (Indian Creek) - Ohio DII State Runner-Up (190) Ohio State Gavin Brown (Legacy Christian Academy) - Ohio DIII State Champion (150) Nic Bouzakis (Wyoming Seminary) - National Prep Champion (132) Nick Feldman (Malvern Prep) - National Prep Champion (285) Luke Geog (St. Edward) - Ohio DI State Champion (175) Vincent Kilkeary (Greater Latrobe) - Pennsylvania AAA State Champion (120) - Class of 2023 Brendan McCrone (Lake Catholic) - Ohio DII State Champion (120) Jesse Mendez (Crown Point) - Indiana State Champion (138) Seth Shumate (Dublin Coffman) - Ohio DI State Champion (190) Rocco Welsh (Waynesburg) - Pennsylvania State Champion (172) - Class of 2023 Oklahoma Joey Cruz (Clovis North) - California State Champion (113) KJ Evans (Heritage Hall) - Oklahoma 4A State Champion (152) - Class of 2023 Christian Forbes (Broken Arrow) - Oklahoma 6A State Runner-Up (106) Zan Fugitt (Nixa) - Missouri Class 4 State Champion (120) - Class of 2023 AJ Heeg (Edmond Memorial) - Oklahoma 6A State Champion (182) - Class of 2023 Anthony Santaniello (Brick Memorial) - New Jersey State Runner-Up (132) - Class of 2023 Kaden Smith (Bridge Creek) - Oklahoma 4A State third-place (132) John Wiley (Mustang) - Oklahoma 6A State third-place (160) Oklahoma State Zach Blankenship (Bixby) - Oklahoma 6A State Champion (132) Cael Hughes (Stillwater) - Oklahoma 6A State Champion (126) - Class of 2023 Jersey Robb (Bixby) - Oklahoma 6A State Champion (195) - Class of 2023 Cutter Sheets (Stilwell) - Oklahoma 4A State Runner-Up (145) Jordan Williams (Owasso) - Oklahoma 6A State Runner-Up (160) Oregon State Isaiah Anderson (Chiawana) - Washington 4A State Champion (195) Chase DeBlaere (Simley) - Minnesota AA State Runner-Up (132) Damion Elliot (Del Oro) - California State sixth-place (132) CJ Hamblin (Mountain View) - Washington 3A State Champion (170) Austin Scott (Mountain View) - Arizona D2 State Champion (157) Nash Singleton (Roseburg) - Oregon 6A State Champion (132) Noah Tolentino (Poway) - California State third-place (145) Gabe Whisenhunt (Crescent Valley) - Oregon 5A State Champion (126) Cade White (Meridian) - Idaho 5A State Runner-Up (145) Penn Alex Almeyda (St. Joseph's) - New Jersey State third-place (138) Evan Bennett (St. Edward) - Ohio DI State Champion (165) Christian Carroll (New Prairie) - Indiana State Champion (220) - Class of 2023 Andrew Connolly (Malvern Prep) - National Prep third-place (195) Martin Cosgrove (Camden Catholic) - New Jersey State Champion (215) Matthew Cruise (Easton) - Pennsylvania AAA State Runner-Up (285) Reed Fulmer (Wyoming Seminary) - National Prep third-place (145) Evan Mougalian (Kinnelon) - New Jersey State Champion (126) Jackson Polo (Cold Spring Harbor) - New York DII State Champion (145) Brady Pruett (Archbishop Spaulding) - National Prep fifth-place (126) Jude Swisher (Bellefonte) - Pennsylvania AAA State third-place (145) Andrew Troczynski (Delbarton) New Jersey State Champion (150) Cross Wasilewski (Delbarton) - New Jersey State third-place (144) - Class of 2023 Penn State Josh Barr (Davison) - Michigan D1 State Champion (171) - Class of 2023 Braeden Davis (Dundee) - Michigan D3 State Champion (119) - Class of 2023 Cael Nasdeo (Williamsport) - Pennsylvania AAA State sixth-place (113) - Class of 2023 Pittsburgh Codie Cuerbo (Aurora) - Ohio DII State third-place (113) Jared Keslar (Connellsville) - Pennsylvania AAA State Champ (160) Kelin Laffey (Pine Richland) - Pennsylvania AAA State sixth-place (152) Grant MacKay (Laurel) - Pennsylvania AA State Runner-Up (160) - Class of 2023 Dayton Pitzer (Mt. Pleasant) - Pennsylvania AA State Champion (215) Jack Pletcher (Greater Latrobe) - Pennsylvania AAA State third-place (152) Mac Stout (Mt. Lebanon) - Pennsylvania AAA State third-place (189) Presbyterian Ty Chittum (Great Bridge) - Virginia 4A State Champion (160) Ryan Luna (St. Francis) - California State Qualifier (132) Princeton Rocco Camillaci (Hilton) - New York DI State Champion (152) Holden Garcia (Notre Dame-Green Pond) - Pennsylvania AA State Champion (160) - Class of 2023 Drew Lang (West) - Utah 6A State Champion (144) Christopher Martino (Bishop Kelly) - Idaho 4A State Champion (132) Kole Mulhauser (Central Square) - New York DI State Champion (189) Eligh Rivera (Lake Highland Prep) - National Prep Champion (138) - Class of 2023 Ty Whalen (Clearview Regional) - New Jersey State Runner-Up (144) Purdue Brody Baumann (Mater Dei) - Indiana State Champion (170) Joey Blaze (Perrysburg) - Ohio DI State Champion (144) - Class of 2023 Rider D'Amani Almodovar (St. Augustine) - New Jersey State Qualifier (126) Angelo Esposito (Northgate) - California State Qualifier (170) Hogan Horsey (Oakcrest) - New Jersey State Qualifier (126) Hunter Horsey (Oakcrest) - New Jersey State Qualifier (132) Hunter Mays (Howell) - New Jersey State Champion (165) Roanoke Zane Cox (Benedictine) - National Prep fourth-place (160) Rutgers PJ Casale (Delbarton) - New Jersey State Runner-Up (215) Brandan Chletsos (Notre Dame-Green Pond) - Pennsylvania AA State Champ (132) Joe Fongaro (Boonton) - New Jersey State Champion (144) Eric Freeman (Paramus) - New Jersey State third-place (165) Luke Gayer (Calvary Chapel) - California State Runner-Up (160) Brian Soldano (High Point) - New Jersey State Champion (190) Shippensburg Michael Trainor (Octorara) - Pennsylvania AAA State Qualifier (145) SIU Edwardsville Andrew Doehring (Lafayette) - Missouri Class 4 fourth-place (138) Bradley Gillum (Dekalb) - Illinois 3A State Runner-Up (182) Marcel Lopez (New London) - Iowa 1A State Champion (126) Alec Peralta (Temecula Valley) - California State seventh-place (145) Santino Robinson (Mascoutah) - Illinois 2A State Runner-Up (132) - Class of 2023 Brock Woodcock (St. Clair) - Missouri Class 2 State Champion (145) - Class of 2023 South Dakota State Bennett Berge (Kasson-Mantorville) - Minnesota AA State Champion (195) Brock Fettig (Bismarck) - North Dakota Class A State Champion (182) Logan Graf (Rapid City Stevens) - South Dakota Class A State Champion (126) Christian Noble (Big Lake) - Minnesota AA State Champion (126) Luke Rasmussen (Brookings) - South Dakota Class A State Champion (220) Caleb Thoennes (St. Michael-Albertville) - Minnesota AAA State sixth-place (132) Kail Wynia (Kasson-Mantorville) - Minnesota AA State third-place (182) St. Cloud State Ethan Birch (Vacaville) - California State Qualifier (145) Archer Heelan (Kearney) - Nebraska Class A State fifth-place (120) Owen Herbst (Buffalo) - Minnesota AAA State Qualifier (160) Donnie Hidden (Washington) - Illinois 2A State Runner-Up (195) Elijah Novak (Foley) - Minnesota AA State Champion (285) Nick Renteria (IC Catholic) - Illinois 1A State Champion (120) Brandon Ross (Caledonia-Houston) - Minnesota A State sixth-place (126) Logan Vaughan (Kasson-Mantorville) - Minnesota AA State Runner-Up (152) Jaydon Walls (Platte County) - Missouri Class 3 State Champion (195) Stanford Brook Byers (Sprague) - Oregon 6A State Champion (182) Daniel Cardenas (Pomona) - Colorado 5A State Champion (152) Jack Darrah (Wyoming Seminary) - National Prep third-place (220) Hunter Garvin (Iowa City West) - Iowa 3A State Champion (152) Zach Hanson (Lakeville North) - Minnesota AAA State Champion (145) - Class of 2023 Wyatt Richter (St. Edward) - Ohio DI State fifth-place (113) Lain Yapoujian (Byers) - Colorado 2A State Champion (138) - Class of 2023 The Citadel Aiden Curry (Central Academy) - North Carolina 3A State Champion (160) Caelan Riley (Libertyville) - Illinois 3A State third-place (120) Dillon Roman (Monarch) - Colorado 5A State Runner-Up (138) Thomas Snipes (Hillcrest) - South Carolina 5A State Champion (145) Hayden Watson (Center Grove) - Indiana State Champion (145) Virginia Robert Avila Jr. (Iowa City West) - Iowa 3A State Runner-Up (145) Griffin Gammel (Waukee Northwest) - Iowa 3A State Champion (182) Jack Gioffre (Buchanan) - California State Champion (132) Michael Gioffre (Buchanan) - California State Champion (138) Garrett Grice (Bellevue East) - Nebraska Class A State Champion (138) Nick Hamilton (Papillion-La Vista) - Nebraska Class A State Champion (160) RJ May (Maggie Walker) - Virginia 3A State Champion (182) Kyle Montaperto (Central Academy) - North Carolina 3A State Champion (126) Keyveon Roller (Lakeway Christian) - Tennessee DII State Champion (132) Cooper Rudolph (Robinson) - Virginia 6A State Champion (285) Nick Sanko (Pittsford) - New York DI State Runner-Up (160) Virginia Tech Mac Church (Waynesburg) - Pennsylvania AAA State Champion (132) - Class of 2023 Tom Crook (Tampa Jesuit) - Florida 2A State Champion (145) Logan Frazier (Crown Point) - Indiana State Champion (126) - Class of 2023 Caleb Henson (Woodland-Cartersville) - Georgia 5A State Champion (152) Evan Holloway (New Kent) - Virginia 3A State Champion (145) Aiden Lacoma (Christensburg) - Virginia 3A State Champion (285) Hunter Mason (Greeneville) - Tennessee A State Champion (145) - Class of 2023 TJ Stewart (Blair Academy) - National Prep Champion (220) VMI Tony Burke (Council Rock North) - Pennsylvania AAA State fifth-place (113) Raymond Cmil (South Range) - Ohio DIII State Runner-Up (132) Dyson Dunham (Benedictine) - National Prep fifth-place (132) Braxton Lewis (Nansemond River) - Virginia 5A State third-place (160) Hunter Robison (Saegertown) - Pennsylvania AAA State seventh-place (113) Nate Shippey (Interboro) - Pennsylvania AAA State Qualifier (132) West Virginia Ian Bush (Cameron) - West Virginia A-AA State Champion (182) Joseph Chiappazzi (Poquoson) - Virginia 2A State Champion (152) Brody Conley (Tiffin Columbian) - Ohio DII State Champion (175) Ty Watters (North Allegheny) - Pennsylvania AAA State Champion (145) - Class of 2023 Wisconsin Ismael Ayoub (Dublin Coffman) - Ohio DI State fourth-place (138) Brock Bobzien (Poway) - California State third-place (132) Greyson Clark (Kaukauna) - Wisconsin D1 State Champion (138) - Class of 2023 Felix Lettini (St. Peters Prep) - New Jersey State fifth-place (138) Nicolar Rivera (Stoughton) - Wisconsin D1 State Champion (126) James Rowley (Crescent Valley) - Oregon 5A State Champion (182) Mikey Tal-Shahar (American Heritage) - Florida 1A State Champion (195) Wyoming Garrison Dendy (Baylor School) - Tennessee DII State Champion (138) David Harper (Baylor School) - Tennessee DII State Champion (195) Logan Ours (Beaver Local) - Ohio DII State third-place (157) Jore Volk (Lakeville North) - Minnesota AAA State Champion (132) Kevin Zimmer (Carl Sandburg) - Illinois 3A State Runner-Up (285) -
Jaydin Eierman and Stevan Micic in 2022 NCAA Championship consolations (Photos courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) ***This article initially was published in March of 2022*** You watched the tournament. You had multiple TV's and devices set up to watch all eight mats. You filled out brackets, one with lots of upsets; another that was more conservative. You rooted on your favorite team and wrestlers, while cheering against their rivals. You were in a fantasy league, a pick 'em, and had pools with your friends. Face it, you did everything you were supposed to follow the NCAA Championships. Even so, there are plenty of things that go unnoticed at a tournament that spans three days, features eight mats and 330 total participants. Today, we're going beyond the brackets to talk about some of the "other" things that went down at Little Caesars Arena. Not just the wins and losses, the podium finishes and the upsets. This seemed like an important topic because the 2022 tournament was the first that most fans have been to since 2019. There may have been some portions of the entire tournament experience that people have forgotten about. An Unforgiving Nature The tournament starts with 330 wrestlers and, of those 330, only a few are "just happy to be there." Most have the highest of goals in mind and don't care who's standing in their way. That was evident early on day one as 2021 champion Austin O'Connor was pushed into extra time by the SoCon winner Dazjon Casto. The 22nd seeded Casto pulled off the upset, using a gigantic blast double to take O'Connor to the mat for the winning score. Just like that, O'Connor's hopes of a second title were dashed. There were rumors that O'Connor was coming into the tournament with a severe knee injury. A huge knee brace and an overall lack of mobility confirmed that to be the case. But, O'Connor didn't pack it in. He had his sights set on the next best thing. Despite constant winces and a noticeable limp, O'Connor still managed to fight back through the brackets, through opponent-after-opponent that was ready to say they defeated an NCAA champion. In the round of 12, O'Connor somehow pulled off a last-second comeback to stun #7 Josh Humphreys and lock up his third career podium berth. Amazingly enough, O'Connor's first match after clinching All-American status was supposed to be against defending champion David Carr. While O'Connor won the 149 lb crown last year, Carr won the 157 lb title. Both were undefeated during the shortened 2021 campaign. Carr's unbeaten streak came to an end in the Round of 16 as he was edged by Oregon State's Hunter Willits. So, one of the dream matches of the preseason, one between the returning champions, was set to take place in the consolation quarterfinals. That's the NCAA Tournament for you. It never materialized as O'Connor medically forfeited out of the tournament, which was probably a good decision. While O'Connor was able to fight through the pain and grab wins, not everyone was so fortunate. The second-seeded 141 lber Jaydin Eierman was also dealing with a serious knee issue. Eierman didn't wrestle in the Big Ten finals because of it. In his second match, against #15 seeded Kizhan Clarke, Eierman was taken out in sudden victory. After a gritty win over Dylan D'Emilio, Eierman was paired with Stevan Micic. Incredibly, two wrestlers from the Class of 2015 (Micic) and 2016 (Eierman), that had combined to All-American seven times previously, both were NCAA finalists, were set to square off in the consolation Round of 16. Eierman valiantly tried to give it a shot, but had to default out of the match after dealing with Micic's leg attacks. As Eierman defaulted out of the last bout of his NCAA career, he was embraced by Micic. Simultaneously, the crowd rose with an ovation for Eierman. It didn't matter your school affiliation; it hurt to see a wrestler of Eierman's caliber have to call it quits. While we don't know what was said between these two mainstays of college wrestling, you knew that Micic felt for his opponent. At the beginning of the season, both never would have imagined they would meet so early in the consolations. Maybe an NCAA semifinal or final. That's the beauty and the unforgiving nature of the NCAA Tournament. It's not wrestled on anyone else's schedule. If you're not ready or able to win, someone else is. The eight guys on the podium; they're not always the most talented wrestlers in the country. They're the ones that survived. 2022 NCAA eighth-place finisher Austin O'Connor (Photos courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com Wedding and Funerals If you've attended enough big-time wrestling tournaments, you'll realize that emotions are aplenty. There's no such thing as a "perfect" tournament, from a team standpoint. For every Keegan O'Toole, two other teammates felt they could've placed higher. Or six other Missouri teammates that had realistic dreams of getting on the podium. Even with five NCAA champions, do you think Cael Sanderson slept like a baby Saturday night? He most likely was thinking of what could've been done to help the "other guys" to a better finish. What about Nebraska's coaching staff? Friday night, one of the rocks of their program, Chad Red Jr, lost out of nowhere via fall in the bloodround. He was that close to becoming a four-time NCAA All-American (and 5x AA). Right around the same time, Ridge Lovett emerged from a barnburner with Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech) to lock up a berth in the finals as the 10th seed. Heartbreak and jubilation, almost simultaneously. Tears of joy, followed by some of the most gut-wrenching tears possible. Using the Nebraska example, their rollercoaster didn't stop after the Lovett win. Bloodround victories by Peyton Robb and Mikey Labriola were followed by Taylor Venz's loss. The fifth-year senior was an All-American in 2018, but has lost in the bloodround three times since! Right after that, another pair of fifth-year seniors, Eric Schultz and Christian Lance, broke through and earned a spot on the podium for the first time. For the three-time Big Ten runner-up Schultz, it was a long time coming. He was seeded second last season and suffered an upset in the opening round and never recovered. Lance was a transfer from DII Fort Hays State. Most outside the Nebraska wrestling room never would've predicted he'd place at the DI tournament. You have to admire these coaches that can pick up the pieces as their student-athletes, ones they may have known for five years, see their worlds come crashing down behind the curtains in the tunnel; then thirty seconds later, they have to give a few last-second words of encouragement, as another student-athlete is ready to take the mat and fulfill his dreams. Part of me wishes that the general public could see exactly what goes on behind the scenes in the underreaches of the arena, but part of me doesn't. It's not for the faint of heart. Thursday at the tournament, there's a lot of excitement. Fist bumps, small talk, and hugs are aplenty. Everyone is happy to be at the tournament and eager to get underway. Friday, specifically Friday night, is the polar opposite. Thousand-yard stares are commonplace. General pacing and nervous habits take over. Friday night is all business. In a few hours, seeing sweat-drenched wrestlers staining brand-new suits with the biggest hug you've ever seen will be the norm. One of the common expressions you'll hear during these embraces is "we did it." The athlete knows that he wasn't alone during those early-morning individual workouts or late-night weight cuts. He had a coach(es) or practice partner that was right beside him, ones he couldn't have done it without. On the other side of the coin, there are some of the worst emotions you can imagine. Uncontrollable crying, punching walls and objects, lots of curse words, or just silence. Bless the coaches, teammates, trainers, managers, that try something, anything to try and make the hurt go away. In reality, there's nothing "right" to say other than to let the athlete know, you care. Fan Interaction We got kind of dark for a bit, talking about the negative emotions associated with the tournament, but how about some more lighthearted content. I, like many others, wish that wrestling was the most popular and most watched sport in the world. But, as the Notorious BIG once said, "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems." With 70,000 fans in a football stadium, there's very little chance for a kid to have a personal moment involving their favorite player. And frankly, some of the football players can get jaded with the amount of attention and adulation they receive. The NCAA Wrestling Tournament is an excellent opportunity for kids to have a moment with their favorite stars. Especially, at the end of the tournament, in the All-American round. I saw countless wrestlers wrap up their seasons or careers, then immediately hit the railing to sign autographs for a few kids. I'm sure there were plenty of others who had a similar experience, but I witnessed Sebastian Rivera walk by and toss his headgear to a group of kids with "Block R's" on their shirts. Another video captured him giving his shoes to a lucky kid. After the heavyweight final, it seemed like some of the ushers may have been lax and there were all kinds of kids getting autographs, selfies, and a quick interaction with newly minted NCAA champions. Who knows what kind of impact a meeting with a favorite wrestler might have on these young kids? Another great part about the NCAA Championships is that you're just as likely to run into a star on the Senior level in the concourse or in your hotel. Olympic hopefuls are still invested in their alma maters or the current RTC they train with. More often than not, despite some disdain for folkstyle, they show up and act like the rest of the 18,000 fans in the arena. Everyone repeats the "grow wrestling" mantra and we all want to see our sport evolve to a more mainstream audience; however, I don't want to see these types of interactions go away or become fewer and far between. David Carr with Aaron Brooks after the 2022 NCAA Finals (Photos courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Camaraderie This is a two-part section, as there is a remarkable amount of camaraderie from the spectators, but also from the wrestlers themselves. Having the opportunity to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, this was one aspect that I slightly overlooked in my excitement for Detroit. It's fun being in an elevator full of wrestling fans and hearing some good-natured trash talk or admiration for each other's wrestlers. Going to restaurants and bars full of people that would rather talk Kizhan Clarke than UNC basketball is refreshing. As I sat on the plane returning from Detroit and the guy across the aisle struck up a conversation with me that started with, "What was the best match you saw all weekend." Of course, the trio of Austin Gomez, Bryce Andonian, and Ridge Lovett were mentioned and we went from there. It took all of two minutes to realize this man and his friend were from the next town over from my hometown. We got into the "do you know" game that I'm sure you've done when meeting a new wrestling fan/friend and after they asked about one particular person, I replied, "Yeah, I was the best man at his wedding." Just like that, we have new friends for life. We bonded over the simple fact that I was wearing a wrestling shirt coming back from the city that hosted the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Tournament is almost like a family reunion for me. On one hand, I get to see some of my best friends. Some of my closest relationships, professionally and personally, have been made with people that traveled to the tournament and do so every year. On the other hand, there are plenty of people that I don't keep in contact with as much as I should, but that doesn't matter for three or four days in Detroit. Now for the wrestlers themselves, this comradery is a beautiful thing. One superstar that stood out to me was David Carr. Bounced from the championship side early, Carr didn't sulk and pout and throw in the towel. He proceeded to grind out a bunch of wins on the backside and was the first guy to congratulate his teammates on big wins. As Yonger Bastida won in the Round of 12, Carr actually came on the corner of the mat to celebrate with him. All I could think of was, "Please don't take a team point from him." Carr's friendship didn't end with his Iowa State teammates; it also extended to Penn State's Aaron Brooks, a close friend, whom he celebrated with matside after his win over Myles Amine in the finals. While wrestling can be such an individual sport, it's cool to see a star like Carr celebrating the accomplishments of his friends/teammates. One of the best interviews of the entire tournament was with Hayden Hidlay after his final collegiate match. He so eloquently talked about his own career, but focused more on supporting his brother, Trent, as he fought for fifth place. It's hard not to tear up as Hayden says he'd, "take 100 losses just to see him win." The night before that interview, I noticed Hayden, moments after his dreams of becoming an NCAA champion were destroyed by Carter Starocci, standing at the entrance to the tunnel. He was still in his singlet like a six-year-old running around your local kid's tournament, yelling instructions to his brother, also in the semifinals, living and dying with every movement, score or near-score. As we discussed earlier, the NCAA Tournament isn't fair. It doesn't care if you're the best brother or best friend in the world. Hayden lost in the NCAA semis and then watched his little brother do the same, just a commercial break later. This is a tournament that saw NCAA champions and a top-seed lose on Thursday. An under-the-radar, graduate transfer and law student from North Carolina made the finals. Hometown favorite Myles Amine, finally broke through the semifinal barrier only to fall to Aaron Brooks. The nation fell in love with the resiliency of Patrick McKee, as he left a trail of talented victims behind him in another furious run through the consolations. We said goodbye to longtime fixtures of the college wrestling circuit. One, Ryan Deakin, went out on his own terms, as he imagined thousands of times before, while others, like Eierman, were not so lucky. Fate unceremoniously brought their collegiate careers to a screeching halt. Depending on what colors you wear, you either celebrated or rolled your eyes at another remarkable performance in the finals for Penn State. Though you don't have any attachment to them, you marveled at the job done by programs like Northwestern and Oregon State. That's why they wrestle the matches and the tournament isn't decided on bracket-release Wednesday. In all of its excitement, technical excellence, the happy tears, the sad tears, the upsets, the star-marking process, it's all the NCAA Tournament. Some of it is beautiful and makes it the greatest sporting event on this planet, while other parts we'd rather live without.
-
Cael Sanderson (enter), Carter Storacci (right) and Casey Cunningham (Photos courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Saturday, Penn State wrapped up their ninth national championship since Cael Sanderson arrived in Happy Valley prior to the 2009-10 season. Here are some more fun facts and stats about the Nittany Lions and the Sanderson dynasty. Of course, many of these facts couldn't be possible without Jason Bryant's 22NCAA Fan Guide. Before Cael's arrival, Penn State had only won one other national title in 1953. Since then, only one other team East of the Mississippi had captured a championship (Michigan State - 1967). The national title puts Sanderson ahead of Oklahoma State's Art Griffith for sole possession of third place on the list of national championships per coach at the DI level (9). Next up for Cael to pass is Edward Gallagher (Oklahoma State) with 11. Dan Gable's 15 also seems like an attainable goal. Penn State now has ten team trophies (top-4) during the Sanderson era. Before Sanderson, the school had 16. It's safe to say that PSU likely would have added another during the 2020 tournament. The Nittany Lions 36.5 point margin of victory over Michigan puts them in a tie for 18th place all-time on that respective list. They are tied with the 2017 Penn State team that routed Ohio State. The team's 40-point win in 2019 is the largest in school history. Penn State's five national champions tie the record number of champions in a single season. That mark has been hit only five times. The Nittany Lions have done it twice under Cael (2017 is the other). Since 2011, Penn State is now 32-14 in the NCAA finals. 17 wrestlers have combined to win 32 titles during the Cael era. In medal-round matches during Sanderson's tenure, Penn State is now 50-19. One of those 19 includes Kerkvliet's fourth-place finish this year. 11 wrestlers have won multiple times under Sanderson. Ed Ruth, Zain Retherford, Bo Nickal, and Jason Nolf with three. David Taylor, Quentin Wright, Vincenzo Joseph, Bravo-Young, Lee, Starocci, and Brooks have two. The 2012 tournament featured a Penn State wrestler with a #1 seed for the first time under Sanderson. Since then, 21 wrestlers have gotten seeded first at nationals. Only three of those wrestlers failed to win a title that same year (you also have Mark Hall, who was seeded first in 2020). Penn State wrestlers have earned All-American honors 75 times since Sanderson got the job. 29 different wrestlers have combined to amass those 75 AA trophies. The 2022 NCAA Championships The Nittany Lions went 29-7 overall at the 2022 NCAA Championships. Of their 29 wins, they earned bonus points in 12 of those wins. 7 majors, 1 tech, 4 falls. Those 12 bonus-point wins brought 39.5 points. For a second consecutive year, Penn State went perfect in the finals. Last season, they were 4-0, while Saturday night, they were 5-0. In head-to-head matches against the other three trophy-winning teams, Penn State went undefeated, at 4-0. The 2021-22 Penn State team now featured four two-time NCAA Champions (Bravo-Young, Lee, Starocci, Brooks). This year, Penn State went 5-1 in the NCAA semifinals. Heading into the tournament, their record in the semis under Sanderson is 41-6. It now sits at a sparkling 46-7 record. Of Penn State's nine qualifiers in 2022. Bravo-Young, Lee, Starocci, and Dean were all seeded #1 and ended up winning their weight class. Brooks wrestled above his seed (#2), winning a title. Greg Kerkvliet (#4) and Brady Berge (#16) equaled their seeds. Only Drew Hildebrandt (#16) and Beau Bartlett (#13) wrestled below their seeds, as both lost in the second consolation round (the round of 24). At the 2022 NCAA Championships, Penn State wrestlers outgained their opponents in takedowns earn versus surrendered, 91-23. After the 2022 NCAA Championships, here is the tally of Penn State national championships per weight class under Sanderson: 125: (1) 133: (2) 141: (2) 149: (4) 157: (3) 165: (4) 174: (5) 184: (7) 197: (3) 285: (1) With Brooks' win in the 2022 finals, it makes three times in two years that Penn State wrestlers have fallen in the Big Ten finals, only to win a rematch in the NCAA finals (Lee/Starocci in 2021). Other Stuff For the "They just get the best recruits" crowd. Here are the recruiting rankings for each of Penn State's qualifiers at the 2022 NCAA Championships, along with some commentary. The takeaway is that Penn State certainly gets top-notch recruits. They also tend to have those wrestlers maximize their potential. There are examples where higher-ranked recruits didn't pan out, while their Penn State counterparts shined. 125 - NR (2016) Drew Hildebrandt: Not among the top-100. Transferred from Central Michigan after taking fourth in 2021 133 - #12 (2018) Roman Bravo-Young: Four of the wrestlers ranked above him did not qualify in 2022. 141 - #9 (2017) Nick Lee: Even though it was a strong class, six of the wrestlers above him have yet to win a title. 149 - #7 (2020) Beau Bartlett: 157 - #6 (2017) Brady Berge: All five above him are multi-time AA's. 174 - #9 (2019) Carter Starocci: Five of the wrestlers ranked above him did not AA in 2022. Three did not qualify for nationals. 184 - #2 (2018) Aaron Brooks: Second overall in an absolutely loaded crop of talent. 197 - #74 (2016) Max Dean: Two-time All-American at Cornell before transferring. 285 - #1 (2019) Greg Kerkvliet: Originally signed with Ohio State. A large part of Penn State's success has been done by successful freshmen. 2022 is the first year since 2015 that the Nittany Lions did not have a freshman earn All-American status. Of course, with Covid eligibility, Starocci, Kerkvliet, and Michael Beard could have three more years of eligibility if they choose to exercise them. Penn State has the longest current streak with at least one national champion. They've done so every year, starting with 2011. That is a healthy lead over anyone else in the nation. Minnesota is the only school that's crowned a champion in both 2021 and 2022. When Sanderson took over, many expected him to "lock down the borders" in Pennsylvania. Realistically, with the amount of in-state talent available, that's not possible. But, Sanderson has gotten studs from Pennsylvania, along with a handful of other states. Even some non-traditional powers. Here's the list of national titles won by home state for Penn State under Cael. PA: (16) Quentin Wright (x2), Ed Ruth (x3), Zain Retherford (x3), Nico Megaludis, Vincenzo Joseph (x2), Jason Nolf (x3), Carter Starocci (x2) TX: (3) Bo Nickal (x3) OH: (2) David Taylor (x2) AZ: (2) Roman Bravo-Young (x2) IN: (2) Nick Lee (x2) MD: (2) Aaron Brooks (x2) NJ: (2) Frank Molinaro, Anthony Cassar MI: (1) Max Dean MN: (1) Mark Hall UT: (1) Matt Brown Before Sanderson's arrival, the program had only produced four, four-time All-Americans. After the 2022 tournament, they have 12. We have counted 2020's NWCA All-American honors, which means Nick Lee is the school's lone five-time All-American.
-
2022 NCAA Champion Keegan O'Toole (bottom) (Photos courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Another NCAA season is in the books. The 2022 NCAA Division I tournament will be referenced for years due to a variety of reasons. In his final season on the collegiate level, Gable Steveson hit some impressive statistical milestones, but he was not the only standout performer. The following looks at some of those top performances and some statistical trends that could influence the sport going forward. Point Differential As expected, Gable Steveson (Minnesota) finished his collegiate wrestling career in style. He won his second heavyweight NCAA title and completed his third undefeated season. On his run to the third title, Steveson averaged 2.18 points per minute, while allowing only 0.85 points per minute. His +1.33 point differential was the highest for any competitor in the tournament. Fellow champion Aaron Brooks (Penn State) had the second highest point differential. He built a +1.05 differential on his path to the title at 184 pounds. Top Five Point Differential Performances Gable Steveson +1.33 Aaron Brooks +1.05 Nick Lee +1.01 Pat Glory +0.91 Austin DeSanto +0.87 Steveson and Brooks were also the most prolific scorers in the tournament. The Minnesota wrestler's 2.18 points per minute was the highest of the tournament, while Brooks finished second with 1.53 points per minute. Slightly behind Brooks was 2021 NCAA champion Shane Griffith (Stanford). He made the 165-pound finals again this year, thanks in large part to his 1.41 points per minute rate, but Griffith ultimately came up just short against Keegan O'Toole (Missouri). Top Five Points per Minute Performances Gable Steveson 2.18 Aaron Brooks 1.53 Shan Griffith 1.41 Pat Glory 1.40 Bryce Andonian 1.40 While Griffith relied on his scoring to make another finals run, O'Toole was a defensive stalwart. He allowed exactly zero match points in his first five four matches of the tournament, and held Griffith to only five in the finals. His ability to ride helped the Missouri wrestler neutralize opponents from the top position and eliminated some clear avenues to score. O'Toole's 0.17 points against per minute rate was the best in the tournament. Iowa's Jacob Warner also mimicked this style and made a somewhat unexpected run to the finals at 197 pounds. He allowed only seven points in his five matches and came up just one point short of champion Max Dean (Penn State) in the finals. Warner allowed only 0.23 points per minute, which was the third best rate of the weekend. Top Five Points Against per Minute Performances Keegan O'Toole 0.17 Patrick McCormick 0.21 Jacob Warner 0.23 Rocky Elam 0.24 Jarrett Jacques 0.27 Total Match Time For champions the NCAA tournament is a five-match trip to a title. However, when a competitor loses in the front side bracket, the tournament can turn into a marathon length mini-season. That was certainly the case for Yonger Bastida (Iowa State), Peyton Robb (Nebraska), Patrick McKee (Minnesota), Lucas Byrd (Illinois), and Jonathan Millner (Appalachian State) who all finished with eight matches in the tournament. Out of all those, Millner was the only one to go the full seven minutes in all eight matches. His 56 minutes of mat time were the most of any competitor in the tournament. Most Match Time (in Minutes) Jonathan Millner 56 Lucas Byrd 52.93 Patrick McKee 52.42 Parker Keckeisen 52 David Carr 52 Overtime Matches This year the NCAA switched up the overtime years. The sudden victory period immediately following the third frame was expanded from one minute to two minutes. The idea behind the rule is that wrestlers should have an extended opportunity to win the bout before heading to tie breakers. At this year's NCAA tournament there were 54 matches that went to overtime. Of those matches, 39 (72%) were decided in the first sudden victory period. At last year's tournament, there were 57 overtime matches and 37 (65%) were decided in the first sudden victory period. Obviously this is a small sample set, but it seems like the impact of the rule change was statistically minimal. Will Lewan (Michigan) had the most overtime matches in the tournament. He went to extra time three times on his way to a fifth-place finish at 157 pound. 16 other wrestlers had two overtime bouts. Takedowns Considering he had the highest scoring rate in the entire tournament, it should come as no surprise that Steveson had the most takedowns among champions from the tournament. He scored 32, which greatly outpaced the other 10 champions. Penn State's Brooks had the second most takedowns among champions with 20. Of course, Steveson somewhat famously gave up his first takedown of the season in the quarterfinals against Lucas Davison (Northwestern). Unlike the heavyweight champion, Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) and Nick Suriano (Michigan) did not allow a single takedown throughout the tournament. One of the biggest complaints about folkstyle is that escapes make it exceedingly difficult to build a lead. For example, a wrestler with two takedowns who allows both corresponding escapes has only a 4-2 lead. On the other hand, in freestyle a wrestler with two takedowns would hold a 4-0 lead. While the preference for either style is mostly a matter of opinion, it does make the ability to prevent escapes by riding or scoring late in periods a clear tactical advantage. While Brooks was able to score 20 takedowns, he only allowed 13 escapes. His difference between takedowns scored and escapes allowed was the largest among champions. Steveson and Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) both allowed six more takedowns than escapes.
-
Ryan Deakin of Northwestern (Photos courtesy of Sam JanickiPhoto.com) Champions Nick Suriano becomes the first wrestler to win national titles for multiple schools since Steve Mocco did so for Iowa (2003) and Oklahoma State (2005). Suriano is the first Wolverine to win a title since Kellen Russell won the second of his two titles in 2012. Like Suriano, Russell is from New Jersey, as well. The last New Jersey native to win a title at 125 lbs (Joe Dubuque - Indiana; 2005-06), was in his opponent's corner. Suriano and his opponent Patrick Glory (Princeton) are both from New Jersey. The last time two New Jersey natives met in an NCAA final was in 2003 with Steve Mocco (Iowa) and Kevin Hoy (Air Force). Glory was the first Princeton wrestler to make an NCAA final since Greg Parker did so in 2002. Later, Quincy Monday also earned a spot in the finals. It marked the first time Princeton had two finalists in the same season. Florida native Kizhan Clarke is the first wrestler from the Sunshine State to make the national finals since Brandon Hatchett (Lehigh) in 2012. With Clarke making the finals in 2022 and Austin O'Connor winning the 2021 title, it marked the first time since 1995 and 1996 that North Carolina has had finalists in back-to-back years. (TJ Jaworsky - 1995, Justin Harty - 1996). Yianni Diakomihalis is only the second three-time NCAA Champion in Cornell wrestling history. Kyle Dake (2010-13) is the other. Ridge Lovett is the first Idaho native to make the NCAA finals since Clayton Foster (Oklahoma State) was a national runner-up in 2011. Ryan Deakin is the first Colorado native to win an NCAA title since Ben Cherrington (Boise State) in 2006. He's also the first national champion for Northwestern head coach Matt Storniolo. Missouri's Keegan O'Toole is the Tigers sixth national champion. All six have come under the tutelage of Brian Smith. Three have come from Wisconsin (O'Toole, along with his club coaches Ben and Max Askren). O'Toole is the first Wisconsin native to win a title since Alex Dieringer (Oklahoma State) won three between 2014-16. With O'Toole's victory, it marked the fifth straight tournament where a non-#1 seed has won the 165 lb weight class. That was after seven straight #1's won the previous seven tournaments. Mekhi Lewis is the first Virginia Tech wrestler to make multiple national finals. Lewis is responsible for half of the Hokies four total appearances. Shane Griffith became only the second Stanford wrestler to make multiple NCAA finals appearances. Nick Amuchastegui did so in 2011 and 2012. After going from 1988-2015 without a national champion. Maryland now has a pair of multiple-time champs since 2016; Kyle Snyder (2016-18) and Aaron Brooks (2021-22). Brooks' title at 184 lbs marks the seventh time since 2011 that a Penn State wrestler has won that weight class. Quentin Wright (2011), Ed Ruth (2013-14), Bo Nickal (2017-18), Aaron Brooks (2021-22). The Big Ten was responsible for eight of the ten NCAA champions this year. The last time a single conference had that many was 1986. (Brad Penrith - Iowa, Jim Jordan - Wisconsin, Kevin Dresser - Iowa, Jim Heffernan - Iowa, Jude Skove - Ohio State, Marty Kistler - Iowa, Duane Goldman - Iowa, Kirk Trost - Michigan). This year there were seven wrestlers that left as multi-time national champions (Suriano, RBY, Lee, Yianni, Starocci, Brooks, Steveson). The last time there were seven wrestlers who won for at least their second title was in 2005 (Travis Lee - Cornell, Teyon Ware - Oklahoma, Ryan Bertin - Michigan, Chris Pendleton - Oklahoma State, Greg Jones - West Virginia, Jake Rosholt - Oklahoma State, Steve Mocco - Oklahoma State). Conferences The Pac-12 finished the year with 13 All-Americans which was impressive enough as it was second only to the Big Ten. That means that exactly half of their 26 national qualifiers got on the podium. 13 is a conference record. The last time the league even had double digits was in 2011 with 11. The entire MAC conference came away with zero All-Americans for the first time since 2001. The ACC had three All-Americans at 174 lbs (Mekhi Lewis - 2nd, Hayden Hidlay - 3rd, Clay Lautt - 8th). This appears to be the first time the conference has ever put three wrestlers on the podium, in the same weight class, in the same year, ever. States Colorado's four All-Americans are the state's most since 2011. There were also a pair of NCAA finalists from Colorado (Deakin, Schultz). This feat hasn't been achieved for at least the last 40 years. North Carolina natives got on the podium twice in Detroit (Quincy Monday and Jonathan Millner). The last time multiple wrestlers from NC earned All-American honors was in 2012 with Darrius Little (NC State) and Austin Trotman (Appalachian State). Schools Penn State saw five Nittany Lion wrestlers come away with national titles Saturday night. That is a number only achieved five times ever. The most recent occurrence was by PSU's 2017 squad. Under Cael Sanderson, Penn State is now 32-14 in the NCAA finals. Penn State also extended its streak with at least one NCAA champion. The last year they didn't have one was 2010 (Sanderson's first season). They have had at last two every year since 2016. Michigan's runner-up finish tied for the best placement in school history. The last time the Wolverines finished second was in 2005. Their six All-Americans tied a program-high, set in 1965. Iowa continued their streak with having at least one finalist in every year since 1990. Arizona State finished in fourth for a second consecutive year. The last time the Sun Devils finished in the top ten in successive years was in 94-95 (8th 94; 4th 95). The last time they came away with team trophies in back-to-back years was 89-90 (Both years they were second). Northwestern must love the NCAA Tournament being held in Michigan. The Wildcats put four wrestlers onto the podium this weekend. The last time they hit that mark? 2007, when Auburn Hills, Michigan was the host. Northwestern also has had back-to-back top-ten finishes for the first time since 1989-90. (8th in 1989 and 4th in 1990). Oregon State placed four wrestlers on the podium for the first time since 1995. At that time, Glenn Nieradka, Babak Mohammadi, Chad Renner, and Les Gutches earned All-American honors. North Carolina had three All-Americans, which is the program's highest total since 1995, when TJ Jaworsky, Marc Taylor, Stan Banks, and Justin Harty AA'ed. CJ Composto was Penn's first All-American since Casey Kent in 2016. He's also the first for Roger Reina in his second go 'round as head coach for the Quakers. For the first time since 2011, Ohio State did not have an NCAA finalist. Jonathan Millner's sixth-place finish made him only the second two-time All-American in Appalachian State wrestling history. The only previous one was Mark Fee during the 2002-03 campaigns. Cal Poly had a pair of AA's with Evan Wick and Bernie Truax. The last time the Mustangs put multiple competitors onto the podium was in 2012 with Boris Novachkov (3rd) and Ryan DesRoches (8th). With Peyton Hall's eighth-place showing at 165 lbs, it marked the first time since 2006-07 that West Virginia had AA's in back-to-back seasons. (Brandon Rader was sixth both years). Oklahoma State's two All-Americans is the program's smallest number since 2009, when only Jared Rosholt AA'ed. Nebraska's fifth-place finish is the program's first top-five appearance since 2009. Seeds All of the 2021 NCAA Champions were either #1 or #2 seeds. The last time without a wrestler seeded third or lower, capturing a national title, was in 2013. The lowest-seeded All-American in 2022 was Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State), who was seeded 21st, but ended up making the semi and finishing sixth. This year we saw Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) make the 149 lb finals as the 10th seed, while Kizhan Clarke made it to the championship bout as the 15th seed. 2016 was the last time a pair of double-digit seeds wrestled for a title. Bryce Meredith (Wyoming - 14th) and Myles Martin (Ohio State - 11th) were the last two. Six Bergen Catholic (NJ) wrestlers entered this event and tallied up 45 points. That total would have been good enough for 12th place overall. The school also had two finalists with Nick Suriano and Shane Griffith.
-
Penn State Goes 5-for-5 in Finals to Claim 2022 National Title
InterMat Staff posted an article in College
The 2022 National Champion Penn State Nittany Lions (Photos courtesy of Sam JanickiPhoto.com) Even though the Penn State Nittany Lions had the 2022 NCAA team title locked up before the first whistle blew tonight, there was still plenty of drama and uncertainty surrounding the championship finals. Five PSU wrestlers earned spots in the finals of their respective weights. Fast forward to three hours later and all five Nittany Lion finalists were crowned national champions. 133 lber Roman Bravo-Young started the Penn State onslaught by downing his opponent from the 2021 finals, Daton Fix. RBY was able to withstand some dangerous scoring situations from Fix and converted for himself and prevailed, 3-2. It was a similar situation a weight later as Nick Lee also became a two-time champion at 141 lbs. Lee surrendered an early takedown to #15 seed Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina) and managed to emerge from an amazing flurry without any further damage. From that point on, it was all Lee. He never gave Clarke space to breathe and claimed a 10-3 win. The next run of champions for Penn State came at 174-197. Each of those three consecutive weights was won by a Penn State wrestler. At 174, Carter Starocci outlasted Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) in a battle of past champions. Each garnered a takedown in a bout that ended 4-4 in regulation. After a scoreless sudden victory period, both had a shot in the : 30-second tiebreakers. Starocci ended up with his hand raised after amassing more riding time than Lewis. In the de facto main event of the night, Aaron Brooks reversed his Big Ten finals result by downing top-seeded Myles Amine (Michigan) 5-3. Brooks struck early in the first period with a takedown and started to rack up riding time. His top work throughout the match neutralized the dangerous Amine. Brooks is now a two-time champion, as well. Rounding out the Nittany Lions sweep was Max Dean at 197 lbs. Dean scrapped to a hard-fought 3-2 win over Big Ten rival Jacob Warner (Iowa). Dean is the only first-time champion for Penn State this year. Host Michigan finished as team runner's-up and got the evening started with a title from 125 lber Nick Suriano. Suriano jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and hung on despite a few stalling calls from the bottom position in the third period. Suriano is now a two-time champion and has earned titles at two different schools and weights (Rutgers - 133). Also in the multiple champions club was Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) at 149 lbs. Diakomihalis faced Ridge Lovett (Nebraska), who represented Diakomihalis' stiffest test of the season. He took the Big Red star into sudden victory at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. The final result was never in doubt this time as Yianni dominated on his feet, to the tune of an 11-5 win. He is now a three-time champion and has won 75 straight collegiate matches. The lone senior that ended his career with his first national title was Ryan Deakin (Northwestern). Always a contender, with three Big Ten titles, Deakin finally got over the hump and won the Wildcats first national title since 2014. He faced some resistance from Quincy Monday (Princeton) in the early going, but ended up cruising to a 9-2 win. A 2021 champion that did not repeat was Shane Griffith (Stanford) at 165 lbs. Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) wore down Griffith on the mat and grabbed a 6-5 win in one of the most star-studded weights of the tournament. Finally, we have the last bout of the evening at 285 lbs. Gable Steveson (Minnesota) added his name to the two-time champs club, in a controlled 6-2 victory over Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State). After the bout, Steveson left his shoes on the mat, symbolizing his retirement from the sport. The 2020 Olympic gold medalist already has a NIL deal with the WWE and is expected to pursue that path in the near future. In his post-match presser, Steveson did leave open a possibility of a return. Either way, Steveson should be the odds on favorite to win a second consecutive Hodge Trophy. Championship Finals 125 lbs - Nick Suriano (Michigan) dec Patrick Glory (Princeton) 5-3 133 lbs - Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) dec Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) 3-2 141 lbs - Nick Lee (Penn State) dec Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina) 10-3 149 lbs - Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) dec Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) 11-5 157 lbs - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) dec Quincy Monday (Princeton) 9-2 165 lbs - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) dec Shane Griffith (Stanford) 6-5 174 lbs - Carter Starocci (Penn State) dec Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) 5-5RTTB 184 lbs - Aaron Brooks (Penn State) dec Myles Amine (Michigan) 5-3 197 lbs - Max Dean (Penn State) dec Jacob Warner (Iowa) 3-2 285 lbs - Gable Steveson (Minnesota) dec Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) 6-2 Team Scores 1st) Penn State 131.5 2nd) Michigan 95 3rd) Iowa 74 4th) Arizona State 66.5 5th) Nebraska 59.5 6th) Northwestern 57.5 7th) Cornell 54.5 8th) Virginia Tech 52.5 9th) Missouri 49.5 10th) NC State 48 -
Yianni Diakomihalis (top) and Ridge Lovett at the 2021 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Photos courtesy of Sam JanickiPhoto.com) The NCAA finals are going down in just a few short hours! Finals matchups were set last night and all of our season-long speculation will get settled. Before the action starts, take a look at the competitors that will do battle on the raised stage at Little Caesars Arena. 125 lbs - #1 Nick Suriano (Michigan) vs. #3 Patrick Glory (Princeton) It's an all-Jersey final as both finalists call New Jersey home. Top-seeded Nick Suriano joined the Wolverines in mid-season and gave them an instant title contender. In his two previous trips to the NCAA Championships, Suriano made the finals both times, coming away with a title in 2019 at 133 lbs. This year he is unbeaten with a 15-0 record. Though he's had a few close matches along the way, Suriano hasn't been in danger of losing, at all. Glory was set to be the second seed at the 2020 NCAA Tournament, but didn't have the opportunity to compete. He returned this year and claimed a title at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and did not lose until the EIWA finals. For the conference title, Glory was almost teched by Vito Arujau (Cornell). For a spot in the finals, Glory won the rubber match between the two and became the first Princeton wrestler to make an NCAA final since Greg Parker in 2002. Previous Meeting: None 133 lbs - #1 Roman Bravo-Young (Oklahoma State) vs. Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) The 133 lb final between Roman Bravo-Young and Daton Fix is the only final that is a rematch of last year's championship. Like 2021, both wrestlers come in with perfect records. Generally, these two have been a class by themselves. Bravo-Young was pushed in the semis by Austin DeSanto (Iowa), yet pulled off a late takedown for the win. They met two other times this season and both were won in a similar fashion. Fix also had a close victory over DeSanto during the regular season. To earn a spot in the finals, Fix had little trouble with Michael McGee (Arizona State) and breezed to a 5-1 win. While both finalists here are dynamic offensively, they also can shut down opponents. I'd expect a bout that follows the blueprint of their 2021 final. One that sees both hesitant to overextend themselves unless there is an obvious opening. Previous Meeting: Bravo-Young: 4-2; 2021 NCAA Finals 141 lbs - #1 Nick Lee (Penn State) vs. #15 Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina) We've got the proverbial Cinderella story with 15th seeded Kizhan Clarke meeting the undefeated, returning champion at this weight, with Nick Lee. Clarke did not automatically qualify out of the ACC and was given the 15th seed. Clarke has been winning tight matches all tournament. His four wins have come with a six-point margin. The UNC law student, Clarke, took out the second-seed, Jaydin Eierman (Iowa), in sudden victory and outlasted ACC-foe, Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh), in a bout decided on riding time criteria. Lee is a perfect 21-0 and is on a 26-match winning streak after suffering a loss in the 2021 Big Ten finals. He wasn't able to separate himself from his semifinal opponent, Real Woods (Stanford), but still managed to get by with a 3-2 victory. This should be an interesting contrast of styles as Lee can fire off attacks with the best of them, while Clarke is measured in his offensive approach and stout defensively. Previous Meeting: None 149 lbs - #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) vs. #10 Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) Don't be deceived by the seed differential here. Ridge Lovett is responsible for pushing Yianni Diakomihalis like no other wrestler during the 2021-22 campaign. Diakomihalis needed sudden victory overtime to get by Lovett at the CKLV Invitational. That loss, and two to Austin Gomez (Wisconsin), account for Lovett's three losses on the year. In the semifinals, Lovett and Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech) treated the crowd to one of the best matches of the round. Lovett doesn't mind taking risks and doesn't back down from anyone. Diakomihalis is chasing his third title and riding a 74-match winning streak after downing Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) in the semifinals. Sasso and Yianni also met in the CKLV final, too. Throughout this tournament, Diakomihalis has been in control of his matches, more so than the scoreboard may indicate. He hasn't notched a bonus-point win all tournament, but hasn't been seriously threatened either. His wins in the quarters and semis came by identical 6-3 scores to Murin and Sasso. Previous Meeting: Diakomihalis: 6-4 SV; 2021 CKLV semifinals 157 lbs - #5 Quincy Monday (Princeton) vs. #2 Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) What a remarkable story as Princeton has two finalists as Quincy Monday also joins teammate Pat Glory. This is Monday's first time on the podium though he was named a first-team All-American in 2020. Monday won his first EIWA title this year and parlayed that into the fifth seed. In the quarters, he avenged a regular-season loss to Ed Scott (NC State). A match later, Monday got by the defensively sound Will Lewan (Michigan), to earn his spot in the final. Opposite him will be Ryan Deakin, who finally has the opportunity to wrestle in a national championship bout. Deakin is a three-time Big Ten champion, who was seeded first last year and upset in the semifinals. He has now placed at the national tournament on three occasions and earned All-American honors four times. Previous Meetings: Deakin: 8-3; 2021 CKLV finals Deakin: 5-2; 2018 Midlands Championships 165 lbs - #5 Shane Griffith (Stanford) vs. #2 Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) In each of the past two years, Shane Griffith has lost in the Pac-12 finals. Last year, that didn't matter as he won a national championship out of the eighth position. This time he's back in the finals. Griffith was able to defeat conference rival and top-seeded, Evan Wick (Cal Poly), when it mattered most. The pair wrestled four times this season, with Wick getting his hand raised in the first three. To get the win, Griffith secured the winning takedown with just three seconds remaining in the bout. In order for Griffith to win title number two, he'll need to get by one of the favorites all season, Keegan O'Toole. Last year, as a true freshman, O'Toole only suffered one loss and finished third. Now, O'Toole comes in with a perfect 24-0 record and has racked up bonus points in two-thirds of his appearances. This week, O'Toole has suffocated his opponents and hasn't surrendered a single point in four bouts. Previous Meeting: None 174 lbs - #1 Carter Starocci (Penn State) vs. #2 Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) The only champ versus champ meeting we have in store comes at 174 lbs, where both wrestlers won their titles as redshirt freshmen. Carter Starocci is the returning champion at this weight class and hasn't lost since the 2021 Big Ten finals. A 6-1 win over Mikey Labriola (Nebraska) represents Starocci's closest bout of the tournament. In the semis, he put up ten points on four-time NCAA All-American Hayden Hidlay (NC State). Even with Starocci's recent scoring output, he has been tested in close matches during the Big Ten dual season and the conference final. Also attempting to capture his second NCAA title is Lewis, who won the 165 lb bracket in 2019. Lewis was entangled in a tight bout with 2021 Big Ten runner-up, Logan Massa (Michigan), before catching him out of position and shocking him with a fall, late in the third period. Both of these past national champions are extremely difficult to score on, so I'd expect a low-scoring match with a counterattack being the difference. Previous Meeting: None 184 lbs - #1 Myles Amine (Michigan) vs. #2 Aaron Brooks (Penn State) The finals order has been determined, with 285 lbs wrapping up the competition; however, this could be the de facto main event. This tournament has only had one meeting between the top two teams; this would be the second. Though Penn State already has the team crown locked up, it's still fun. Plus, we have a contest between an Olympic medalist (Amine) and a returning national champion (Brooks). The two have already clashed twice this year, with each grabbing a win. Brooks came out on top in their dual meeting, while Amine returned the favor in the Big Ten finals. This time he should have a heavily partisan crowd on his side. While both wrestlers are amongst the best pound-for-pound in the nation, each had to gut out sudden victory wins just to appear in the finals. Previous Meetings: Brooks: 3-1; 2021-22 Dual Meet Amine: 6-4SV; 2022 Big Ten Finals 197 lbs - #1 Max Dean (Penn State) vs. #6 Jacob Warner (Iowa) It's always good to have an Iowa/Penn State match in the finals, so we get to check off that box too. One of the stories leading into Detroit was the unpredictability of this weight class. To an extent, that was correct. At the same time, the top-seed Max Dean did survive and competing on Saturday night for the second time. In 2019, Dean took out unbeaten #1 Myles Martin (Ohio State) to appear in the 184 lb finals for Cornell. Now at Penn State, Dean has been more consistent; however, he has narrowly averted disaster multiple times this season and even within the past two days. Dean was the beneficiary of “questionable†calls in both his Round of 16 and quarterfinal matches, before a decisive semifinal win over Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State). Jacob Warner has gotten onto the podium on two previous occasions, but each time he's lost before the semi's then battled back. This year, Warner pulled slight upsets over #3 Eric Schultz (Nebraska), then #2 Stephen Buchanan (Wyoming), to secure his spot on the raised mat. Considering both of their histories, with each other, and their styles, I'd anticipate a low-scoring, tight match. Previous Meeting: Dean: 8-3; 2021-22 Dual Meet 285 lbs - #1 Gable Steveson (Minnesota) vs. #2 Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) This will be the final bout of the evening, as it's expected to be the final collegiate appearance by Gable Steveson. The 2020 Olympic gold medalist will seek to add to his collection with a second collegiate title and perhaps his second Hodge Trophy. Standing in the way in an imposing figure in Cohlton Schultz, a Cadet World Champion. Many expected Schultz to fall to one of the Big Ten members in the bottom half of the bracket, but that wasn't the case. He withstood the offensive attacks of 2021 finalist Mason Parris (Michigan) in the quarters, then pulled a rabbit out of his hat in the semi's against Jordan Wood (Lehigh). The Lehigh big man appeared to be on his way to a winning takedown in the final seconds of their second tiebreaker; however, Schultz rolled Wood through and got the winning score of his own. Previous Meeting: None
-
125 lb NCAA semifinal between Patrick Glory (left) and Vito Arujau (Photos courtesy of Sam JanickiPhoto.com) 125 lbs Finalists - #1 Nick Suriano (Michigan) vs. #3 Patrick Glory 3rd - Vito Arujau (Cornell) 4th - Michael DeAugustino (Northwestern) 5th - Patrick McKee (Minnesota) 6th - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) 7th - Eric Barnett (Wisconsin) 8th - Brandon Kaylor (Oregon State) 133 lbs Finalists - #1 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) vs. #2 Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) 3rd - Austin DeSanto (Iowa) 4th - Michael McGee (Arizona State) 5th - Lucas Byrd (Illinois) 6th - Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech) 7th - Chris Cannon (Northwestern) 8th - Devan Turner (Oregon State) 141 lbs Finalists - #1 Nick Lee (Penn State) vs. #15 Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina) 3rd - Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers) 4th - Grant Willits (Oregon State) 5th - Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh) 6th - Real Woods (Stanford) 7th - Jake Bergeland (Minnesota) 8th - CJ Composto (Penn) 149 lbs Finalists - #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) vs. #10 Ridge Lovett (Wisconsin) 3rd - Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech) 4th - Austin Gomez (Wisconsin) 5th - Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) 6th - Jonathan Millner (Appalachian State) 7th - Tariq Wilson (NC State) 8th - Kyle Parco (Arizona State) 157 lbs Finalists - #2 Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) vs. #5 Quincy Monday (Princeton) 3rd - David Carr (Iowa State) 4th - Peyton Robb (Nebraska) 5th - Will Lewan (Michigan) 6th - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) 7th - Hunter Willits (Oregon State) 8th - Austin O'Connor (North Carolina) 165 lbs Finalists - #2 Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) vs. #5 Shane Griffith (Stanford) 3rd - Evan Wick (Cal Poly) 4th - Cam Amine (Michigan) 5th - Alex Marinelli (Iowa) 6th - Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) 7th - Carson Kharchla (Ohio State) 8th - Peyton Hall (West Virginia) 174 lbs Finalists - #1 Carter Starocci (Penn State) vs. #2 Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) 3rd - Hayden Hidlay (NC State) 4th - Michael Kemerer (Iowa) 5th - Logan Massa (Michigan) 6th - Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State) 7th - Mikey Labriola (Nebraska) 8th - Clay Lautt (North Carolina) 184 lbs Finalists - #1 Myles Amine (Michigan) vs. #2 Aaron Brooks (Penn State) 3rd - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) 4th - Bernie Truax (Cal Poly) 5th - Trent Hidlay (NC State) 6th - Kaleb Romero (Ohio State) 7th - Marcus Coleman (Iowa State) 8th - Jonathan Loew (Cornell) 197 lbs Finalists - #1 Max Dean (Penn State) vs. #6 Jacob Warner (Iowa) 3rd - Stephen Buchanan (Wyoming) 4th - Rocky Elam (Missouri) 5th - Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) 6th - Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State) 7th - Eric Schultz (Nebraska) 8th - Greg Bulsak (Rutgers) 285 lbs Finalists - #1 Gable Steveson (Minnesota) vs. #2 Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) 3rd - Jordan Wood (Lehigh) 4th - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) 5th - Mason Parris (Michigan) 6th - Lucas Davison (Northwestern) 7th - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) 8th - Christian Lance (Nebraska)
-
Penn State's Five Finalists Extend Their Lead After Semifinals
InterMat Staff posted an article in College
Aaron Brooks, one of Penn State's five NCAA finalists (Photos courtesy of Sam JanickiPhoto.com) Saturday night at the NCAA Championships is often billed as the “best round of wrestling†all year. It's easy to see why. Six mats are arranged in a “dogbone†formation that features Round of 12 matches on the outside, with the semifinals on the middle two. In both rounds, dreams are either realized or crushed. This year was no different as twenty wrestlers advanced to tomorrow night's championship final and still have hopes of winning a national title. The night started off with a pair of New Jersey natives making the national finals at 125 lbs. Top-seeded Nick Suriano (Michigan) cruised to his third NCAA final. He previously won a title in 2019 at 133 lbs. His opponent, Patrick Glory (Princeton), became the first tiger to make a national final since Greg Parker in 2002. Glory took the rubber match in a series between he and EIWA-rival Vito Arujau (Cornell). Speaking of rivalries, they're gonna run it back at 133 lbs as Roman Bravo Young (Penn State) and Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) are slated to meet in a rematch of their 2021 finale, won by the Nittany Lion. Up at 141 lbs, Nick Lee (Penn State) is also seeking a second title. He'll do so against one of the tournament's biggest underdog's Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina). Clarke needed an at-large berth to compete in Detroit and was seeded 15th. He prevailed over ACC rival Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh) on the riding time tiebreaker. Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis is now 3-for-3 in making NCAA finals. He got by 2021 national runner-up, Sammy Sasso (Ohio State), to extend his winning streak to 73 matches and puts himself in a position to win a third NCAA final. Standing in his way is the opponent responsible for Diakomihalis' closest bout of the year, Ridge Lovett (Nebraska). Lovett survived a back-and-forth affair against the dangerous Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech) to advance. One of the top seniors in the nation, Ryan Deakin (Northwestern), will have the opportunity to compete for a national title for the first time, as he handed Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) his first loss of the year. Teemer notched an early takedown, but it was all Deakin after that. The Wildcat star won with a 10-2 major decision. It took Princeton 20 years to put a wrestler in the national finals; however, it only took them four matches to have a second, in Quincy Monday. Monday held off Will Lewan (Michigan) to take a 3-2 win and lock up his spot in tomorrow's 157 lb final. The fourth time was the charm for Shane Griffith (Stanford) at 165 lbs. That was the number of times he's met top-seeded Evan Wick (Cal Poly), this year and Wick won the previous three bouts. Entangled in a tie match (with Wick holding riding time), Griffith got in on a leg attack with under :10 seconds remaining in the bout, and converted it for a takedown with :03 left. It puts him in a position to grab back-to-back titles at the weight. Griffith will face unbeaten Keegan O'Toole (Missouri), who never seemed to be in danger against Cam Amine (Michigan) and pitched a 4-0 shutout. We've got champ versus champ on the docket at 174 lbs with the top two-seeds advancing, Carter Starocci (Penn State) and Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech). Starocci was a champion at the weight class last year, as a freshman. Lewis was also a freshman national champion, in 2019, at 165 lbs. He was embroiled in a tight match with #3 Logan Massa (Michigan) when he shocked the Wolverine with a third-period fall. At 184 lbs, a Big Ten rematch is on the books with Myles Amine (Michigan) and Aaron Brooks (Penn State). Both prevailed in sudden victory of their respective matches. More intra-Big Ten action is set for 197 lbs with top-seeded Max Dean (Penn State) meeting Jacob Warner (Iowa). Dean had little trouble with #21st seeded Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State) and had a 9-3 victory. Warner made the finals and extended Iowa's streak with at least one NCAA finalist. It dated back to 1990. Minnesota native Gable Steveson (Minnesota) and Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) clashed in a bout that was closer than the score may indicate. Steveson got by with an 8-3 win, but was pushed more than anyone else has. The real fireworks at 285 lbs came in the closing seconds of the other semifinal. Jordan Wood (Lehigh) looked like he locking up a winning takedown against Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) was inevitable. Wood had Schultz up in the air, ready to score, when Schultz rolled through for a score of his own. Penn State went 5-for-6 in the semis and leads second-place Michigan 108 to 84.5 . Michigan has two finalists. Semifinal Results 125 lbs - Nick Suriano (Michigan) dec Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) 4-1 125 lbs - Patrick Glory (Princeton) maj Vito Arujau (Cornell) 13-5 133 lbs - Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) dec Austin DeSanto (Iowa) 3-1 133 lbs - Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) dec Michael McGee (Arizona State) 5-1 141 lbs - Nick Lee (Penn State) dec Real Woods (Stanford) 3-2 141 lbs - Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina) dec Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh) 2-2TB 149 lbs - Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) dec Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) 6-3 149 lbs - Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) dec Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech) 5-4 157 lbs - Quincy Monday (Princeton) dec Will Lewan (Michigan) 3-2 157 lbs - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) maj Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) 10-2 165 lbs - Shane Griffith (Stanford) dec Evan Wick (Cal Poly) 7-6 165 lbs - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) dec Cam Amine (Michigan) 4-0 174 lbs - Carter Starocci (Penn State) dec Hayden Hidlay (NC State) 10-3 174 lbs - Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) fall Logan Massa (Michigan) 6:19 184 lbs - Myles Amine (Michigan) dec Bernie Truax (Cal Poly) 3-1SV 184 lbs - Aaron Brooks (Penn State) dec Trent Hidlay (NC State) 6-4SV 197 lbs - Max Dean (Penn State) dec Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State) 9-3 197 lbs - Jacob Warner (Iowa) dec Stephen Buchanan (Wyoming) 6-4 285 lbs - Gable Steveson (Minnesota) dec Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) 8-3 285 lbs - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) dec Jordan Wood (Lehigh) 5-3TB Bloodround Results 125 lbs - Patrick McKee (Minnesota) fall Killian Cardinale (West Virginia) 3:25 125 lbs - Eric Barnett (Wisconsin) dec Sam Latona (Virginia Tech) 7-3 125 lbs - Michael DeAugustino (Northwestern) dec Joey Prata (Oklahoma) 2-0 125 lbs - Brandon Kaylor (Oregon State) fall Noah Surtin (Missouri) 5:31 133 lbs - Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech) maj Matt Ramos (Purdue) 12-2 133 lbs - Devan Turner (Oregon State) dec Brian Courtney (Virginia) 8-4 133 lbs - Chris Cannon (Northwestern) fall Micky Phillippi (Pittsburgh) 2:21 133 lbs - Lucas Byrd (Illinois) dec Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) 6-5 141 lbs - CJ Composto (Penn) dec Stevan Micic (Michigan) 10-4SV 141 lbs - Grant Willits (Oregon State) fall Chad Red (Nebraska) 3:45 141 lbs - Jake Bergeland (Minnesota) fall Andrew Alirez (Northern Colorado) 2:35 141 lbs - Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers) dec Clay Carlson (South Dakota State) 6-2 149 lbs - Kyle Parco (Arizona State) dec Anthony Artlalona (Penn) 3-2 149 lbs - Jonathan Millner (Appalachian State) dec Max Murin (Iowa) 8-1 149 lbs - Tariq Wilson (NC State) dec Yahya Thomas (Northwestern) 9-5 149 lbs - Austin Gomez (Wisconsin) dec Kaden Gfeller (Oklahoma State) 7-4 157 lbs - Peyton Robb (Nebraska) fall Ed Scott (NC State) 4:36 157 lbs - Hunter Willits (Oregon State) dec Dazjon Casto (The Citadel) 7-6 157 lbs - Austin O'Connor (North Carolina) dec Josh Humphreys (Lehigh) 4-3 157 lbs - David Carr (Iowa State) dec Jared Franek (North Dakota State) 4-3 165 lbs - Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) maj Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh) 8-0 165 lbs - Peyton Hall (West Virginia) maj Justin McCoy (Virginia) 11-3 165 lbs - Carson Kharchla (Ohio State) dec Julian Ramirez (Cornell) 4-3 165 lbs - Alex Marinelli (Iowa) dec Phil Conigliaro (Harvard) 6-2 174 lbs - Michael Kemerer (Iowa) dec Mickey O'Malley (Drexel) 5-2 174 lbs - Mikey Labriola (Nebraska) dec Hayden Hastings (Wyoming) 5-3 174 lbs - Clay Lautt (North Carolina) dec Peyton Mocco (Missouri) 6-3 174 lbs - Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State) dec Ethan Smith (Ohio State) 9-7SV 184 lbs - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) dec Taylor Venz (Nebraska) 7-5 184 lbs - Jonathan Loew (Cornell) dec Zac Braunagel (Illinois) 3-1SV 184 lbs - Kaleb Romero (Ohio State) maj Max Lyon (Purdue) 15-6 184 lbs - Marcus Coleman (Iowa State) Maj Trey Munoz (Oregon State) 13-2 197 lbs - Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) dec Jake Woodley (Oklahoma) 5-4 197 lbs - Greg Bulsak (Rutgers) dec Louie DePrez (Binghamton) 3-2 197 lbs - Rocky Elam (Missouri) dec Nino Bonaccorsi (Pittsburgh) 6-1 197 lbs - Eric Schultz (Nebraska) dec Jay Aiello (Virginia) 4-2 285 lbs - Christian Lance (Nebraska) dec Lewis Fernandes (Cornell) 4-2SV 285 lbs - Lucas Davison (Northwestern) dec Gary Traub (Oregon State) 8-2 285 lbs - Mason Parris (Michigan) maj Tate Orndorff (Ohio State) 12-1 285 lbs - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) dec Zach Elam (Missouri) 4-0 Day Two Team Scores 1) Penn State 108 2) Michigan 84.5 3) Arizona State 63.5 4) Iowa 62 5) Nebraska 54 6) Northwestern 49 7) Virginia Tech 48 8) Cornell 45 9) Missouri 42 10) Ohio State 42 -
Nick Suriano at the 2022 NCAA Championships (Photos courtesy of Sam JanickiPhoto.com) Quarterfinal Results 125 lbs - Nick Suriano (Michigan) fall Sam Latona (Virginia Tech) 2:19 125 lbs - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) dec Killian Cardinale (West Virginia) 3-2 125 lbs - Patrick Glory (Princeton) dec Brandon Kaylor (Oregon State) 7-3 125 lbs - Vito Arujau (Cornell) dec Michael DeAugustino (Northwestern) 6-0 133 lbs - Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) dec Brian Courtney (Virginia) 13-6 133 lbs - Austin DeSanto (Iowa) maj Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech) 9-0 133 lbs - Michael McGee (Arizona State) dec Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) 8-7 133 lbs - Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) fall Chris Cannon (Northwestern) 1:53 141 lbs - Nick Lee (Penn State) fall Grant Willits (Oregon State) 3:45 141 lbs - Real Woods (Stanford) tech CJ Composto (Penn) 16-0 141 lbs - Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh) dec Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers) 7-5 141 lbs - Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina) dec Jake Bergeland (Minnesota) 3-0 149 lbs - Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) dec Max Murin (Iowa) 6-3 149 lbs - Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) dec Kyle Parco (Arizona State) 5-1SV 149 lbs - Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech) fall Austin Gomez (Wisconsin) 6:30 149 lbs - Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) fall Tariq Wilson (NC State) 4:16 157 lbs - Will Lewan (Michigan) dec Hunter Willits (Oregon State) 3-1 157 lbs - Quincy Monday (Princeton) dec Ed Scott (NC State) 5-3 157 lbs - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) dec Jared Franek (North Dakota State) 5-3 157 lbs - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) dec Josh Humphreys (Lehigh) 6-2 165 lbs - Evan Wick (Cal Poly) dec Peyton Hall (West Virginia) 6-2 165 lbs - Shane Griffith (Stanford) dec Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) 10-4 165 lbs - Cam Amine (Michigan) dec Alex Marinelli (Iowa) 3-1SV 165 lbs - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) dec Carson Kharchla (Ohio State) 2-0 174 lbs - Carter Starocci (Penn State) dec Mikey Labriola (Nebraska) 6-1 174 lbs - Hayden Hidlay (NC State) dec Michael Kemerer (Iowa) 5-3 174 lbs - Logan Massa (Michigan) dec Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State) 8-3 174 lbs - Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) dec Clay Lautt (North Carolina) 4-2 184 lbs - Myles Amine (Michigan) dec Zac Braunagel (Illinois) 12-5 184 lbs - Bernie Truax (Cal Poly) dec Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) 6-5 184 lbs - Trent Hidlay (NC State) dec Trey Munoz (Oregon State) 6-2 184 lbs - Aaron Brooks (Penn State) maj Kaleb Romero (Ohio State) 13-2 197 lbs - Max Dean (Penn State) dec Louie DePrez (Binghamton) 4-3 197 lbs - Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State) dec Jake Woodley (Oklahoma) 5-3 197 lbs - Jacob Warner (Iowa) dec Eric Schultz (Nebraska) 2-0 197 lbs - Stephen Buchanan (Wyoming) dec Rocky Elam (Missouri) 4-0 285 lbs - Gable Steveson (Minnesota) dec Lucas Davison (Northwestern) 10-5 285 lbs - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) dec Christian Lance (Nebraska) 7-1 285 lbs - Jordan Wood (Lehigh) dec Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) 3-1SV 285 lbs - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) dec Mason Parris (Michigan) 6-5
-
NC State's 174 lber Hayden Hidlay (Photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) It was a successful Thursday for the ACC in the opening day of competition at the NCAA tournament. After two rounds, NC State sits in third in the team race with 21.5 team points, six points behind leader Penn State; Virginia Tech sits in seventh with 14.5. 31 ACC wrestlers continue on to day two; 12 of these wrestlers are in the quarterfinals. Duke Both Finesilver brothers are alive in the consolation bracket after going 1-1 on Thursday. Josh will wrestle Colin Realbuto and Matt will face Chris Foca in the next round. Both will have tough tests, but are in a good spot to keep moving on. Pittsburgh Cole Matthews is the lone Panther in the quarterfinals. He was put to the test on Thursday winning both by decision, the later match in sudden victory. He will face a very dangerous Sebastian Rivera in the morning round. Here are the consolation matchups for Pitt in the first round Friday. Micky Phillippi: Oliveri-Rutgers Elijah Cleary: Keating-UVA Jake Wentzel: Cassella-Binghamton Nino Bonaccorsi: Pentz-NDSU North Carolina The Tar Heels had both heartbreak and celebration on day one. Returning National Champion Austin O'Connor continues to wrestle through a knee injury that is clearly impacting his matches and dropped his opening round bout to Dazjon Casto of The Citadel. He came back in the evening session and won so will move on to day two. Clay Lautt handled his business winning by a 7-point decision and a major decision to move to the quarters. He will face ACC foe Mekhi Lewis in the quarterfinals; Lautt is 0-2 against Lewis this season. Kizhan Clarke pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament on Thursday, dropping 2 seed Jaydin Eierman with a beautiful takedown in sudden victory. He handled himself incredibly well during the 5 minute song and dance of Iowa challenging the call. Clarke has an awesome draw in the quarterfinals, as the 7-seed was knocked off in the first round. He will face 10-seed Jakob Bergeland of Minnesota. Joe Heilmann: Koderhandt-Navy Zach Sherman: Artalona-Penn Austin O'Connor: Wright-Wyoming North Carolina State The Wolfpack had a fantastic day on Thursday and are in a podium position moving into day two. They brought 10 and all 10 are still alive for the podium on day two. The Wolfpack will have four in the quarterfinals and six fighting on the backside. Tariq Wilson handled his matches, but wasn't as dynamic as we had seen him at the ACC tournament. I expect him to be more offensive today. He will face big-move Ridge Lovett of Nebraska. I don't think Lovett is as dangerous with big moves as is Bryce Andonian, and Wilson handled that chaos twice this year. Ed Scott looked fantastic all day on Friday. He won his opening match by pin and beat a dangerous Justin Thomas by a 9-6 decision. He will face Quincy Monday of Princeton in the quarterfinals. Scott beat Monday in the dual in January in an incredibly well-wrestled 6-4 decision. It will be a tough task to beat Monday again, but I like Ed's odds. Hayden Hidlay was on a mission on Thursday. He picked up a first period pin and a major decision to move to the quarterfinals. He will face a very tough-but dinged up-Michael Kemerer in the quarterfinals. I love the way Hayden matches up here and expect to see him in the semifinals. Trent Hidlay did his job and picked up two wins on Thursday, but like Wilson, didn't look as dynamic as usual. I expect him to pick up the pace on Friday. He will face Trey Munoz of Oregon State in the quarterfinals. Jakob Camacho: Ayala-Iowa Kai Orine: Drury-Utah Valley Ryan Jack: Kinner-Rider Thomas Bullard: Olejnik-NIU Isaac Trumble: Aiello-UVA Tyrie Houghton: Traub-Oregon State Virginia The Hoos had a wild swing of emotions in round two going from the high of Brian Courtney pulling off a big upset to the very low of Jay Aiello "losing" to Max Dean in what seems to be the yearly officiating abomination at the NCAA tournament. I've had the privilege of seeing Jay throughout his time in Charlottesville; he is one of the most genuine, hard-working, caring young men that you'll come across. I'm absolutely gutted for him. But knowing him, he's probably handling this setback better than most of the people in the UVA/ACC/NCAA wrestling orbit. My hope is that he'll be able to bounce back and end up on the podium where he belongs. Brian Courtney has been one of the stories of the tournament so far. He knocked off the 8-seed Rayvon Foley when he finished on top of a wild scramble at the end of the third to take the win. In his second round match, he was down 5-1 to Michael Colaiocco when he hit a wild takedown to the back to get a 6 point swing. He held onto the lead and pulled off his second upset of the tournament to move into the quarterfinals. He will have a tall order to move into the semifinals--he will face returning National Champion Roman Bravo-Young of Penn State to open the morning. Jake Keating: Cleary-Pitt Justin McCoy: Formato-App State Jay Aiello: Trumble-NC State Virginia Tech The Hokies had a great day on Thursday and are positioned well for a podium run. They brought 8 to Detroit; 4 are in the quarterfinals and 7 are still alive on day two. Sam Latona and Bryce Andonian have both pulled off "upsets" along the way to get to the quarterfinals, while Mekhi Lewis and Korbin Myers wrestled to seed. Sam Latona has looked phenomenal. He had two controlling victories to start the day and based on seeds, upset Devin Schroder to start the tournament. He will have to pull off a major upset of the 1-seed Nick Suriano to move to the semis, but it's definitely possible. Korbin Myers just continues to quietly do whatever he needs to do to win matches and advance. He picked up a 12-0 major in the first round and was up 8-4 over Hudkins before he was injured and defaulted. Myers will have a big match to start the day against 5-seed Austin Desanto. Safe to say that anyone not wearing black and gold will be pulling for the Hokie here. Bryce Andonian is just so fun to watch and has been putting on a show in Detroit. BA has put up 25 points in his first two matches, both of which never seemed to be in question. This quarterfinal matchup may have 25 points scored by each wrestler. He faces another wide-open wrestler in Austin Gomez of Wisconsin this morning. I had this match circled when I filled out my brackets and can't wait to see the show that is put on. Mekhi Lewis has also quietly done his job in the first two matches; he had a 15-7 major and an 8-5 decision to move to the quarterfinals. He will face a familiar opponent Friday morning in Clay Lautt from North Carolina. Lewis is 2-0 against Lautt this season, beating him in the dual and in the ACC finals. Connor Brady: Casto-The Citadel Hunter Bolen: Kent-Mizzou Nathan Traxler: Reid-Lock Haven
-
125 lb #4 seed Brandon Courtney of Arizona State (Photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) 125 lbs - Nick Suriano (Michigan) dec Anthony Noto (Lock Haven) 8-3 125 lbs - Sam Latona (Virginia Tech) dec Caleb Smith (Appalachian State) 6-2 125 lbs - Killian Cardinale (West Virginia) dec Taylor LaMont (Utah Valley) 10-8SV 125 lbs - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) maj Fabian Gutierrez (Chattanooga) 12-3 125 lbs - Patrick Glory (Princeton) maj Jakob Camacho (NC State) 10-2 125 lbs - Brandon Kaylor (Oregon State) dec Eric Barnett (Wisconsin) 9-3 125 lbs - Michael DeAugustino (Northwestern) dec Trevor Mastrogiovanni (Oklahoma State) 3-2 125 lbs - Vito Arujau (Cornell) dec Brody Teske (Northern Iowa) 9-3 133 lbs - Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) fall Josh Koderhandt (Navy) 4:46 133 lbs - Brian Courtney (Virginia) dec Michael Colaiocco (Penn) 8-7 133 lbs - Austin DeSanto (Iowa) dec Micky Phillippi (Pittsburgh) 5-2 133 lbs - Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech) injdef Brock Hudkins (Indiana) 133 lbs - Michael McGee (Arizona State) dec Kyle Biscoglia (Northern Iowa) 10-4 133 lbs - Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) dec Devan Turner (Oregon State) 4-2 133 lbs - Chris Cannon (Northwestern) dec Matt Ramos (Purdue) 1-0 133 lbs - Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) dec Kai Orine (NC State) 7-4 141 lbs - Nick Lee (Penn State) dec Quinn Kinner (Rider) 9-2 141 lbs - Grant Willits (Oregon State) dec Allan Hart (Missouri) 3-1TB 141 lbs - CJ Composto (Penn) dec Andrew Alirez (Northern Colorado) 5-4TB 141 lbs - Real Woods (Stanford) maj Parker Filius (Purdue) 8-0 141 lbs - Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers) dec Chad Red (Nebraska) 7-6SV 141 lbs - Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh) dec Matt Kazimir (Columbia) 3-2TB 141 lbs - Jake Bergeland (Minnesota) dec Frankie Tal Shahar (Northwestern) 5-3 141 lbs - Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina) dec Jaydin Eierman (Iowa) 4-2SV 149 lbs - Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) dec Willie McDougald (Oklahoma) 11-5 149 lbs - Max Murin (Iowa) dec Kaden Gfeller (Oklahoma State) 8-4 149 lbs - Kyle Parco (Arizona State) dec Marcus Robinson (Cleveland State) 6-2 149 lbs - Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) dec Beau Bartlett (Penn State) 6-4 149 lbs - Austin Gomez (Wisconsin) maj Josh Finesilver (Duke) 19-7 149 lbs - Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech) dec Jonathan Millner (Appalachian State) 16-11 149 lbs - Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) dec Josh Heil (Campbell) 8-1 149 lbs - Tariq Wilson (NC State) dec Anthony Artalona (Penn) 4-3 157 lbs - Hunter Willits (Oregon State) dec David Carr (Iowa State) 2-1TB 157 lbs - Will Lewan (Michigan) dec Kaleb Young (Iowa) 3-1SV 157 lbs - Quincy Monday (Princeton) dec Jacob Wright (Wyoming) 3-2 157 lbs - Ed Scott (NC State) dec Justin Thomas (Oklahoma) 9-6 157 lbs - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) fall Jake Keating (Virginia) 2:43 157 lbs - Jared Franek (North Dakota State) dec Dazjon Casto (The Citadel) 3-2 157 lbs - Josh Humphreys (Lehigh) dec Peyton Robb (Lehigh) 8-5 157 lbs - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) fall Johnny Lovett (Central Michigan) 4:36 165 lbs - Evan Wick (Cal Poly) dec Luke Weber (North Dakota State) 10-5 165 lbs - Peyton Hall (West Virginia) dec Phil Conigliaro (Harvard) 7-3 165 lbs - Shane Griffith (Stanford) dec Zach Hartman (Bucknell) 7-3 165 lbs - Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) dec Julian Ramirez (Cornell) 15-11 165 lbs - Alex Marinelli (Iowa) dec Justin McCoy (Virginia) 8-2 165 lbs - Cam Amine (Michigan) dec Izzak Olejnik (Northern Illinois) 4-2 165 lbs - Carson Kharchla (Ohio State) dec Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh) 7-1 165 lbs - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) dec Anthony Valencia (Arizona State) 7-0 174 lbs - Carter Starocci (Penn State) dec Adam Kemp (Cal Poly) 10-4 174 lbs - Mike Labriola (Nebraska) dec Gerrit Nijenhuis (Purdue) 3-2 174 lbs - Michael Kemerer (Iowa) dec Cade DeVos (South Dakota State) 9-4 174 lbs - Hayden Hidlay (NC State) maj Matt Finesilver (Duke) 13-5 174 lbs - Logan Massa (Michigan) maj Thomas Flitz (Appalachian State) 15-5 174 lbs - Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State) dec Mason Kauffman (Northern Illinois) 8-2 174 lbs - Clay Lautt (North Carolina) maj Tyler Eischens (Stanford) 13-4 174 lbs - Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) dec Lance Runyon (Northern Iowa) 8-5 184 lbs - Myles Amine (Michigan) dec Dakota Geer (Oklahoma State) 5-1 184 lbs - Zac Braunagel (Illinois) fall Marcus Coleman (Iowa State) 6:47 184 lbs - Bernie Truax (Cal Poly) dec Tate Samuelson (Wyoming) 6-2 184 lbs - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) dec Kyle Cochran (Maryland) 9-3 184 lbs - Trent Hidlay (NC State) dec Isaiah Salazar (Minnesota) 5-3 184 lbs - Trent Munoz (Oregon State) maj Jonathan Loew (Cornell) 12-2 184 lbs - Kaleb Romero (Ohio State) dec Taylor Venz (Nebraska) 5-2 184 lbs - Aaron Brooks (Penn State) maj Hunter Bolen (Virginia Tech) 9-1 197 lbs - Max Dean (Penn State) dec Jay Aiello (Virginia) 4-2 197 lbs - Louie DePrez (Binghamton) dec Cam Caffey (Michigan State) 5-4 197 lbs - Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State) dec Nino Bonaccorsi (Pittsburgh) 6-4SV 197 lbs - Jake Woodley (Oklahoma) dec Patrick Brucki (Michigan) 6-3 197 lbs - Eric Schultz (Nebraska) dec Greg Bulsak (Rutgers) 4-3 197 lbs - Jacob Warner (Iowa) dec Thomas Penola (Purdue) 3-1 197 lbs - Rocky Elam (Missouri) dec Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) 1-0 197 lbs - Stephen Buchanan (Wyoming) dec Luke Stout (Princeton) 6-3 285 lbs - Gable Steveson (Minnesota) tech Zach Elam (Missouri) 23-8 285 lbs - Lucas Davison (Northwestern) dec Matt Stencel (Central Michigan) 9-2 285 lbs - Christian Lance (Nebraska) dec Wyatt Hendrickson (Air Force) 5-4 285 lbs - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) maj Tate Orndorff (Ohio State) 10-1 285 lbs - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) maj Luke Luffman (Illinois) 12-3 285 lbs - Jordan Wood (Lehigh) dec Gary Traub (Oregon State) 6-0 285 lbs - Mason Parris (Michigan) dec Nathan Traxler (Virginia Tech) 7-3 285 lbs - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) fall Lewis Fernandes (Cornell) :52
-
Sean Bormet and Josh Churella at the 2022 NCAA Championships (Photos courtesy of Sam JanickiPhoto.com) Top 10 Team Matrix 1-5 On Deck: Penn State: 125 C: Drew Hildebrandt vs. Logan Ashton, Stanford 133: Roman Bravo-Young vs. Josh Koderhandt, Navy 141: Nick Lee vs. Quinn Kinner, Rider 149: Beau Bartlett vs. Sammy Sasso, Ohio St. 157 C: Brady Berge vs. Derek Holschlag, N. Iowa 174: Carter Starocci vs. Adam Kemp, Cal Poly 184: Aaron Brooks vs. Hunter Bolen, Virginia Tech 197: Max Dean vs. Jay Aiello, Virginia 285: Greg Kerkvliet vs. Tate Orndorff, Ohio State Iowa: 125 C: Drake Ayala vs. Joe Manchio, Columbia 133: Austin DeSanto vs. Mickey Phillippi, Pitt 141: Jaydin Eierman vs Kizhan Clarke, N. Carolina 149: Max Murin vs. Kaden Gfeller, OK State 157: Kaleb Young vs. Will Lewam, Michigan 165: Alex Marinelli vs. Justin McCoy, Virginia 174: Michael Kemerer vs. Cade Devos, SD State 184 C: Abe Assad vs. AJ Burkhart, Lehigh 197: Jacob Warner vs. Tommy Penola, Purdue 285: Tony Cassioppi vs. Luke Luffman, Illinois Michigan: 125: Nick Suriano vs. Anthony Noto, Lock Haven 133: Dylan Ragusin vs. Devan Turner, Oregon St. 141 C: Stevan Micic vs. Carter Young, Oklahoma St. 157: Will Lewan vs. Kaleb Young, Iowa 165: Cam Amine vs. Izaak Olejnik, N. Illinois 174: Logan Massa vs. Thomas Flitz, APP State 184: Myles Amine vs. Dakota Geer, OK State 197: Patrick Brucki vs. Jake Woodley, Oklahoma 285: Mason Parris vs. Nathan Traxler, Virginia Tech Arizona St.: 125: Brandon Courtney vs. Fabian Gutierrez, Chattanooga 133: Michael McGee vs. Kyle Biscoglia, N. Iowa 149: Kyle Parco vs. Marcus Robinson, Cleveland St. 157: Jacori Teemer vs. Jake Keating, Virginia 165: Anthony Valencia vs. Keegan O'Toole, Missouri 197 C: Kordell Norfleet vs. Will Feldkamp, Clarion 285: Cohlton Schultz vs. Ethan Fernandes, Cornell NC State: 125: Jakob Camacho vs. Pat Glory, Princeton 133: Kai Orine vs. Daton Fix, Oklahoma St. 141 C: Ryan Jack vs. Wil Gil, F&M 149: Tariq Wilson vs Anthony Artalona, Penn 157: Ed Scott vs. Justin Thomas, Oklahoma 165 C: Thomas Bullard vs. Cael Carlson, Minnesota 174: Hayden Hidlay vs. Matt Finesilver, Duke 184: Trent Hidlay vs. Isaiah Salazar, Minnesota 197 C: Isaac Trumble vs. JT Brown, Army WP 285 C: Tyrie Houghton vs. Michael McAleavy, Citadel 6-10 On Deck: N. Iowa: 125: Brody Teske vs. Vito Arujau, Cornell 133: Kyle Biscoglia vs. Michael McGee, Arizona State 149 C: Colin Realbuto vs. John Arceri, Buffalo 157 C: Derek Holschlag vs. Brady Berge, Penn State 165 C: Austin Yant vs. Caleb Fish, Michigan St. 174: Lance Runyon vs. Mekhi Lewis, Virginia Tech 184: Parker Keckeisen vs. Kyle Cochran, Maryland 285 C: Tyrell Gordon vs. Trent Hillger, Wiscsonsin Nebraska: 141: Chad Red vs. Sebastian Rivera, Rutgers 149: Ridge Lovett vs. Josh Heil, Campbell 157: Peyton Robb vs. Josh Humphreys, Lehigh 165 C: Bubba Wilson vs. Roderick Mosely, Gardner-Webb 174: Mikey Labriola vs. Gerrit Nijenhuis, Purdue 184: Taylor Venz vs. Kaleb Romero, Ohio State 197: Eric Schultz vs. Greg Bulsak, Rutgers 285: Christian Lance vs. Wyatt Hendrickson, Air Force Oregon St.: 125: Brandon Kaylor vs. Eric Barnett, Wisconsin 133: Devan Turner vs. Dylan Ragusin, Michigan 141: Grant Willits vs. Alan Hart, Missouri 149 C: Cory Crooks vs. Max Brignola, Lehigh 157: Grant Willits vs. David Carr, Iowa State 165 C: Matt Olguin vs. Brian Meyer, Lehigh 184: Trent Munoz vs. Jon Loew, Cornell 285: Gary Traub vs. Jordan Wood, Lehigh Virginia Tech: 125: Sam Latona vs. Caleb Smith, APP State 133: Korbin Myers vs. Brock Hudkins, Indiana 141 C: Collin Gerardi vs. Dylan Droegemueller, ND State 149: Bryce Andonian vs. John Millner, APP State 157 C: Connor Brady vs. Chase Saldate, Michigan St. 174: Mekhi Lewis vs. Lance Runyon, N. Iowa 184: Hunter Bolen vs. Aaron Brooks, Penn State 285: Nathan Traxler vs. Mason Parris, Michigan Oklahoma State: 125: Trevor Mastrogiovanni vs. Michael DeAugustino, Northwestern 133: Daton Fix vs. Kai Orine, NC State 141 C: Carter Young vs. Stevan Micic, Michigan 149: Kaden Gfeller vs. Max Murin, Iowa 157 C: Wyatt Sheets vs. Andrew Cerniglia, Navy 174: Dustin Plott vs. Mason Kauffman, N. Illinois 184: Dakota Geer vs. Myles Amine, Michigan 285 C: Luke Surber vs. TBD
-
Every First Round Upset from the 2022 NCAA DI National Championships
InterMat Staff posted an article in College
#22 seeded Dazjon Casto defeating 2021 NCAA champion Austin O'Connor (Photos courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) Based on seeds, these are all of the upsets that occurred in the opening round of the 2022 NCAA Championships. 125 lbs #17 Anthony Noto (Lock Haven) dec #16 Drew Hildebrandt (Penn State) 4-2SV #24 Sam Latona (Virginia Tech) dec #9 Devin Schroder (Purdue) 4-1 #25 Caleb Smith (Appalachian State) dec #8 Patrick McKee (Minnesota) 8-5 #21 Taylor LaMont (Utah Valley) dec #12 Malik Heinselman (Ohio State) 7-2 133 lbs #25 Brian Courtney (Virginia) dec #8 Rayvon Foley (Michigan State) 4-2 #26 Matt Ramos (Purdue) fall #7 Lucas Byrd (Illinois) 2:27 141 lbs #20 Parker Filius (Purdue) maj #13 Ian Parker (Iowa State) 13-5 #19 Chad Red Jr. (Nebraska) dec #14 Dresden Simon (Central Michigan) 6-5 #26 Frankie Tal-Shahar (Northwestern) dec #7 Clay Carlson (South Dakota State) 4-3 149 lbs #21 Marcus Robinson (Cleveland State) over #12 Mike Van Brill (Rutgers) 7-5 #18 Anthony Artalona (Penn) dec #15 Legend Lamer (Cal Poly) 3-2 157 lbs #17 Hunter Willits (Oregon State) dec #16 Brady Berge (Penn State) 2-1 #22 Dazjon Casto (The Citadel) dec #11 Austin O'Connor (North Carolina) 8-2SV 165 lbs #19 Justin McCoy (Virginia) dec #14 Josh Ogunsanya (Columbia) 6-1 #18 Anthony Valencia (Arizona State) dec #15 Austin Yant (Northern Iowa) 6-3 174 lbs #25 Gerrit Nijenhuis (Purdue) dec #8 Mickey O'Malley (Drexel) 6-4SV #19 Thomas Flitz (Appalachian State) dec #14 Chris Foca (Cornell) 9-6 #22 Mason Kauffman (Northern Illinois) dec #11 Peyton Mocco (Missouri) 3-1 #25 Tyler Eischens (Stanford) dec #7 Ethan Smith (Ohio State) 13-12 #18 Lance Runyon (Northern Iowa) fall #15 Anthony Mantanona (Oklahoma) 4:14 184 lbs #21 Tate Samuelson (Wyoming) dec #12 Brit Wilson (Northern Illinois) 5-3SV #19 Isaiah Salazar (Minnesota) dec #14 Gavin Kane (North Carolina) 7-2 197 lbs #17 Jay Aiello (Virginia) dec #16 Kordell Norfleet (Arizona State) 5-3SV #21 Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State) dec #12 Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State) 6-4SV #18 Luke Stout (Princeton) dec #15 Isaac Trumble (NC State) 6-4SV 285 lbs #18 Lewis Fernandes (Cornell) dec #15 Taye Ghadiali (Campbell) 4-0