InterMat Staff

2021 NCAA All-American Stephen Buchanan (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Wyoming Cowboys “This is one of the best returning teams we've ever had here, one with lots of experience on the national level. We pushed our training schedule and competition schedule back three weeks to shorten our season and keep our guys physically and mentally healthy. We learned a lot from COVID last year and I think our training plan will help us out in March” - Head Coach Mark Branch. TOP RETURNERS The back half of Wyoming's lineup proved to be a strength as all five starters from 157 lbs up qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2021. They were particularly strong at the last two weights with Stephen Buchanan and Brian Andrews. Buchanan really broke out in the 2021 season. He needed an at-large berth to qualify for nationals in 2020 after going 1-4 at the Big 12 Championships. Last year, Buchanan made Big 12 finals and ended up eight at Nationals. Two of his signature wins at the conference and national tournament were at the expense of Noah Adams (West Virginia), the undefeated, second seed at the 2020 NCAA Tournament. Andrews is a two-time Big 12 finalist and a one-time champion in 2020. In each of the last two years, Andrews was given the #13 seed at nationals. Once again, he'll be in the mix for a Big 12 crown and among those finals contenders battling for a spot on the NCAA podium. KEY DEPARTURES The Cowboys have everyone coming back! They will be a very experienced squad, with seven of their ten potential starters being seniors. NEWCOMERS Wyoming returns eight NCAA qualifiers and all ten starters, so there isn't much room for any newcomers to breakthrough. That being said, the Cowboys have been on an uptick on the recruiting trail. Aidan Noonan and Bryce Dauphin are two true freshmen that have impressed during the early going in Laramie. If called into duty, these two are quite capable. WRESTLER TO WATCH Jake Svihel spent the 2021 season competing at 133 lbs and went 4-4 competing in extra matches. He intends on getting back down to 125, the weight where he wrestled as a true freshman in 2019-20. Svihel posted a winning record that year, but started to tail off as the year progressed. He'll compete with Brendon Garcia for the starting role at 125. The Cowboys return national qualifier Chase Zollman at 141 lbs, but he's expected to field a challenge from Darren Green, who has impressed in the preseason. Green was 7-6 in 2021 as a true freshman. He was sent out twice in dual meet competition and put up a strong fight against good competition. You probably already know Jacob Wright's name as the 157 lber went 18-6 and finished in the NCAA Round of 12 last year. Unbeknown to most, Wright was competing with a severe injury that has since been fixed. Now healthy, Wright should really be a force, which is scary for the rest of the 157 lb division. POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: Jake Svihel (Jr)/Brendon Garcia (Jr) 133: Job Greenwood (Jr) 141: Chase Zollman (Sr) 149: Jaron Jensen (Sr) 157: Jacob Wright (Sr) 165: Cole Moody (Sr) 174: Hayden Hastings (Sr) 184: Tate Samuelson (Sr) 197: Stephen Buchanan (Jr) 285: Brian Andrews (Sr)

2021 EIWA champion PJ Ogunsanya (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) Army West Point Black Knights "We have as much experience on this team as we've had in our program in a long time. We are going to need it this year, because this is probably the deepest and toughest NCAA wrestling has ever been. With all of the super seniors coming back, and the depth of the weight classes in our conference, we are going to have to be our absolute best, if we want to have a good season. I really like this group and I trust that they can get the job done. I'm also so excited to see them get back to a full season of college wrestling." - Army West Point head coach Kevin Ward. TOP RETURNERS The middle of the Army lineup is where you'll find two of their top grapplers. PJ Ogunsanya captured an EIWA title at 149 lbs last season and snapped a long drought for Army. Previously their last conference champion was Matt Kyler in 2010. Ogunsanya carried a perfect record into the 2021 NCAA Championships and was awarded the 16th seed. He responded by winning a pair of matches, with both of his losses coming to eventual All-Americans. In the opening round, Ogunsanya fell to the eventual sixth-place finisher (Kyle Parco - Fresno State) in sudden victory. Up a weight, at 157 lbs, is Markus Hartman, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year in 2021. Hartman finished the year banged up, as he defaulted out of the conference tournament, due to injury. Even so, Hartman picked up a pair of wins in St. Louis. In 2019-20, Hartman became the school's first Midlands finalist. After taking third at the 2020 EIWA Championships, Hartman was the 12th seed at the NCAA Tournament. Once it was canceled, he was named a second-team All-American by the NWCA. Overall, Army West Point can field a lineup with past national qualifiers (Corey Shie, Ogunsanya, Hartman, Ben Pasiuk, JT Brown, Ben Sullivan) and will be a formidable foe in the EIWA. KEY DEPARTURES While most schools in the country can take advantage of an extra year of eligibility, Army West Point cannot let their wrestlers overstay their graduation date. That means the Black Knights have lost Lane Peters and Bobby Heald. Both saw significant time in the Army lineup during their time in West Point and each qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2021. Both were EIWA finalists last season, Peters at 141 and Heald at 285 lbs. NEWCOMERS Dalton Harkins has the potential to make an impact for Army West Point in year one. A 2020 high school graduate, Harkins comes to West Point after spending a year at Army's Prep School. Harkins flew up the high school rankings his senior year after a surprising Walsh Ironman title, followed by a championship at the Beast of the East, then a National Prep Championship. WRESTLER TO WATCH Just a few matches after Ogunsanya won the first EIWA title since 2010, Ben Pasiuk duplicated the feat at 174 lbs. Pasiuk seemed to come out of nowhere to win the conference, as he was a freshman with only two dual meets under his belt, heading into the postseason. At the NCAA Championships, Pasiuk grabbed a pair of wins over Jake Logan (Lehigh) and 2020 ACC champion Clay Lautt (North Carolina). With a full offseason's worth of training and a full year to shine, Pasiuk will certainly be a wrestler to keep an eye on in 2021-22. POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: Ryan Chauvin (Jr) 133: Mark Montgomery (So) 141: Corey Shie (Sr) 149: PJ Ogunsanya (Sr) 157: Markus Hartman (Sr) 165: Dalton Harkins (Fr) 174: Ben Pasiuk (So) 184: Brad Laughlin (Sr) 197: JT Brown (Sr) 285: Ben Sullivan (Sr)

3x NCAA All-American Stevan Micic (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com; Graphic/Anna-Lee Marie) Welcome to a new recurring feature from InterMat as we lead into the 2021-22 collegiate season. We are about 50 days away from the start of the new season, so what better way to ring in the new year than to use that time to count down the top-50 current collegiate wrestlers. Each day a new wrestler will be released. These rankings have been compiled by members of the InterMat staff and used a combination of collegiate achievements, with 2021 accomplishments carrying more weight than past years, along with win-loss records and notable wins. While we are counting down the top-50 wrestlers based primarily on collegiate accomplishments, it is impossible to totally ignore achievements in the international settings, so they did factor in slightly, too. Before getting to the next wrestler on the list, look at the wrestlers previously profiled: #50 - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) #49 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) #48 - Dakota Geer (Oklahoma State) #47 - Kaleb Young (Iowa) #46 - Rocky Elam (Missouri) #45 - Chad Red Jr. (Nebraska) #44 - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) #43 - Brock Mauller (Missouri) #42 - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) #41 - John Poznanski (Rutgers) #40 - Brayton Lee (Minnesota) #39 - Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma State) #38 - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) #37 - Tariq Wilson (NC State) #36 - Jacob Warner (Iowa) #35 - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) #34 - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) #33 - Vito Arujau (Cornell) #32 - Patrick Glory (Princeton) #31 - Max Dean (Penn State) #30 - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) #29 - Mike Labriola (Nebraska) #28 - Nino Bonaccorsi (Pittsburgh) #27 - Austin DeSanto (Iowa) #26 - Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh) #25 - Evan Wick (Cal Poly) #24 - Alex Marinelli (Iowa) #23 - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) #22 - Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers) #21 - Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) #20 - Trent Hidlay (NC State) Next up is… #19 Stevan Micic (Michigan) Weight: 133 lbs Year: Senior Career Record: 74-11 Hometown: Cedar Lake, Indiana College Accomplishments: 2019 NCAA 3rd, 2018 NCAA 2nd, 2017 NCAA 4th, 2018 Big Ten Champion 2021-22 Preseason Ranking: Not Ranked (Announced return after preseason rankings were posted) The extra year of eligibility across the board for NCAA athletes has made sixth-year seniors relatively commonplace in 2021-22. But, Stevan Micic is still in a category of his own. Micic is a 2014 high school graduate that has been able to use a regular redshirt, along with TWO Olympic redshirts, during his collegiate career. That journey started in Evanston, Illinois, as Micic initially went to school at Northwestern. At Northwestern, Micic took a redshirt and competed unattached. Though he wasn't in the Wildcat lineup, Micic managed to face some of the top competitors in the country. Two of his three losses on the year were to wrestlers that went on to finish in the top-four in the nation (Nathan Tomasello - Ohio State and Thomas Gilman - Iowa). Conversely, Micic picked up a win over eventual All-American (and future teammate) Conor Youtsey (Michigan) in his first event of the year. Micic's best performance of the redshirt year came at the Midlands, where he finished in third place. There he logged two wins over Kory Mines (Edinboro), who was the 12th seed at the NCAA Championships and finished a match shy of All-American status. Following the collegiate season, Micic won a bronze medal in the 55 kg weight class at the 2015 Junior World Championships. Micic did not compete during the 2015-16 collegiate season because he was eligible to use an Olympic redshirt. After the 2015 Junior World Championships, Micic announced his intentions to transfer to Michigan. The 2016-17 season saw Micic suit up for the first time collegiately for the Wolverines and he had a bit of a rough start. In the season-opening Michigan State Open, Micic suffered a loss via fall to Ohio State's Brendan Fitzgerald. From that point, Micic was very consistent. He made the 133 lb finals at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational less than a month later. To make the championship bout, Micic scored wins over Mitch McKee (Minnesota) and Korbin Myers (Edinboro). The Wolverine freshman fell in the finals to NCAA champion, Tomasello, though the margin of victory was only 3-2. In his next two duals, Micic was victorious by fall over McKee, then lost a 2-0 decision to Iowa's returning NCAA runner-up, Cory Clark (Iowa). A few weeks later, Micic had another pair of imposing duals back-to-back. He grabbed a win over returning All-American Eric Montoya (Nebraska), but fell to another in Zane Richards (Illinois). At his first Big Ten Championship event, Micic was edged against by a single point when he faced Tomasello, 6-5. Overall the tournament had to be considered a positive, as Micic finished in third place. He picked up two wins over Richards (one by fall) and another over Montoya. That third-place showing helped Micic earn the fifth seed at the 2017 NCAA Championships. He got his tournament started with a pair of wins over Chris DiBien (Chattanooga) and Josh Alber (Northern Iowa), to gain a place in the quarterfinals. There he would face Clark, who was on an incredible run that saw him close his collegiate career with a national title. The Hawkeye pulled out a 6-4 win over Micic. The loss to Clark sent Micic to the bloodround, where he needed another win to confirm All-American status. The Wolverine left nothing to chance and majored Joey Palmer (Oregon State) 16-4. Next up was Richards, who Micic continued to stay hot against with a 6-5 win. A 10-4 win over Kaid Brock (Oklahoma State) put Micic in the third-place bout opposite Tomasello. The Buckeye remained a thorn in Micic's side and he lost by a 5-2 score. Of his seven losses in the 2016-17 season, four came against Tomasello. Micic's second year in a Wolverine singlet started with him as the second-highest returner at the 133 lb weight class. His second event of the year was the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, where he was the top seed. In the semifinals, he was knocked off by Ohio State's Luke Pletcher (Ohio State) 7-5. In one of the more surprising results of the tournament, Micic suffered a second loss in his following bout, when he was majored by Austin DeSanto (Drexel), 22-10. That loss proved to be an outlier, as Micic would not lose again until the NCAA Tournament. The dual season that followed the CKLV Invitational saw Micic hit his stride and he didn't have a match closer than seven points. The seven-point decision in there came when he defeated Pletcher, 11-4. That span saw Micic amass three tech falls and two pins. Competition at the Big Ten Championships proved to be in name only. Micic made the finals after two techs and a major decision, setting the stage for another bout against Pletcher. While the Buckeye closed the gap, a bit, it was Micic who prevailed with a 7-4 win. The Big Ten title and a 22-2 record netted Micic the second seed at the 2018 NCAA Championships. In Cleveland, Micic turned in a pair of wins by major decision in the first two rounds to lock up a rematch with DeSanto in the quarterfinals. Like their first meeting, this was a one-sided affair, but this time in favor of the Wolverine. Micic cruised to a 13-1 major decision. The only potential problem in the bout, came late in the third period as DeSanto locked up a kimura on Micic. With a berth in the NCAA finals hanging in the balance, Micic had to contend with his Big Ten rival, Luke Pletcher. Micic proved to be too much on his feet for Pletcher and was victorious again, this time to the tune of 8-4. Standing between Micic and an NCAA title was the top-seed Seth Gross (South Dakota State). Micic and Gross engaged in one of the most exciting bouts of the championship round, but ultimately it was Gross who came out on top in a 13-8 thriller. The 2018-19 season saw Gross injured in his opening match and would not compete for the remainder of the year. That left Micic ranked number one and a favorite in a 133 lb weight class that most labeled the toughest of any bracket in the last decade. For more than half of the year, Micic missed out on competing against any of the top contenders at the weight. That came to a head in late-January as Stevan and Pletcher renewed acquaintances. Looking as good as ever, Micic majored the Buckeye 14-1. Two weeks later, one of the top 125's in the country, Sebastian Rivera (Northwestern), bumped up to test himself against Micic. The Wolverine had little trouble with Rivera in a 10-4 win. Micic closed the regular season with perhaps his best win over the year as he edged 2018 NCAA runner-up (at 125 lbs) Nick Suriano (Rutgers), 3-2. The win locked up the top-seed for Micic at the Big Ten Championships. Unfortunately, an injured Micic only competed in one bout before medically forfeiting out of the tournament and sliding to sixth place. That didn't prove to be very costly, as Micic was given the second seed at nationals in Pittsburgh. Just like 2018, Micic had a pair of major decisions before running into DeSanto in the quarterfinals. This time DeSanto was wrestling for Iowa and was a more consistent contender. DeSanto proved to be more of a problem for Micic, though he got by with a 3-2 win. In the semifinals, it was a revenge match as Suriano turned the tables on Micic and earned a place in the NCAA finals with a 4-1 win. Fresh off suffering his only loss of the 2018-19 campaign, Micic bounced back in a big way in the consolations. He took third after majoring John Erneste (Missouri) and continuing to confound Pletcher, 6-1. A few months after the 2019 NCAA Championships, Micic finished fifth at the World Championships, while representing Serbia. That placement clinched a berth for Serbia, and therefore, Micic at the 2020 Olympic Games. With his spot in the Olympics locked up, Micic took an Olympic redshirt in the 2019-20 season. A couple weeks before the Covid pandemic hit, Micic earned a bronze medal at the European Championships. Micic did not compete in the shortened 2021 season due to injury. At the delayed version of the 2020 Olympics (in August 2021), Micic was defeated in his only bout of the tournament and did not medal. In late September, Micic announced he would return to Michigan for a final season on the mat. Through three years of collegiate competition, Micic has placed in the top four each year and has captured a Big Ten title. He has never been seeded lower than fifth at the NCAA Tournament. There's definitely a case to be made that Micic could be higher, but we haven't seen him on the college mats in a few years. Strengths: Even though Micic competes at 57 kg internationally, he has good length and size for the 133 lb weight class. Micic has excellent movement and level changes. His speed is also difficult to match. Offensively, Micic has a variety of leg attacks he uses. Each are difficult to stop in their own right. He generally finishes quickly and is on the lookout for turks to add on to a takedown. On the mat, Micic can pad his lead with his tilt series. 2021-22 Outlook: Though not included in the preseason rankings due to his uncertain status, at the time, make no mistake; Micic is one of the NCAA title favorites. He has been dominant over even some of the top contenders of a few loaded weights when healthy. This year's 133 lb weight class is indeed loaded! 3x NCAA All-American Stevan Micic (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)

2021 national qualifier RJ Mosley (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs "It's Time to Do What We've Planned" "We're excited for how far we've come, and to see where we were last year compared to where we are now." - Gardner-Webb head coach Daniel Elliott TOP RETURNERS The entire roster has returned, and the starting lineup won't change much this season. While last season the starting lineup changed frequently. The Runnin' Bulldogs will have five fifth-year seniors starting, and they're expecting a strong season. KEY DEPARTURES There were no departures from Gardner Webb's lineup. NEWCOMERS The incoming freshmen were recruited virtually, which left the coaching staff to take a leap of faith with their recruiting process this season. Two standouts include Grundy High School's Peyton McComas (VA) and Abraham Preston of Wetumpka High School (AL). McComas was a three-time Virginia state champion, while Preston was an Alabama state runner-up last year. WRESTLER TO WATCH Returning NCAA qualifiers RJ Mosley (165, RJr) and Jha'Quan Anderson (184, RSo) are contenders to win the conference at their respective weights. Both qualified for nationals in 2021. Notable weight classes to watch for next season include: 125: Aedyn Conception (So) 133: Todd Carter (So) 141: Trevon Majette (RSr) POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: Aedyn Concepcion (So) Anchorage, AK 133: Todd Carter (So) Blackshear, GA 141: Trevon Majette (RSr) Chesapeake, VA 149: Brandon Bright (RSr) Edmond, OK 157: Taylor Parks (RSr) Arlington, TX 165: RJ Mosely (RJr) Oklahoma City, OK 174: Evan Schenk (RSr) Painesville, OH 184: Jha'Quan Anderson (RSo) Conyers, GA 197: Anthony Perrine (Super Sr) Sagamore Hills, OH 285: Peyton McComas (Fr) Grundy, VA or Abraham Preston (Fr) Wetumpka, AL EVENTS TO WATCH/ATTEND Nov. 4: vs. Belmont Abbey Nov. 14: Mountaineer Invitational @ Boone, NC Dec. 11: vs. Michigan State Dec. 19: vs. Campbell/George Mason/Ohio University Jan. 28: vs. UT Chattanooga Feb 9: vs. Duke Feb 18: vs. Presbyterian

2021 NCAA All-American Greg Kerkvliet (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) If you think back hard enough, you may remember that your timeline was blowing up with random wrestler names and the hashtag #MatScoutsDynasty just over a year ago. That was the inaugural draft of the MatScouts Dynasty Fantasy League. Since then, deals were made, duals were waged, and teams were sent to a grand National Tournament in March vying to be the Top Fantasy Wrestling Team in the Dynasty League. We now enter Season 2 of the #MatScoutsDynasty League, so let's catch you up to where all the teams stand. As a refresher, here is the basic point scoring rules: For wrestlers competing in dual meets, Standard Dual Team Scoring is used (win by Dec +3, loss by Dec -6, etc). Bonus Points are given when your wrestler beats a ranked wrestler OR if your wrestler loses to a ranked wrestler ex: if your wrestler beats Spencer Lee by Dec, your wrestler would get +3 for the Dec and another +6 for beating the #1 ranked wrestler. If your wrestler loses by Dec to Spencer Lee, your wrestler is penalized only for -1 pt. One starter per weight with two Flex classes. Two in-season competitions of Head-to-Head Duals and Cumulative Total Points. Each competition brought with it the prize of earning additional team points for the National Tournament. 1st place = +9 team points for Nationals, 2nd place = +8, etc (if you win 1st in the Duals and Total Points, you earn +18 team points for Nationals, etc) The Incredible Bulks Team Manager: John Foster (@JohnFosterUSA) How It Started: If you got a question about a Big Man on a wrestling roster, John Foster is the guy you need to speak with. John was the #8 pick. For John's full draft recap, see the full draft board HERE Hindsight Draft Review: First Round Pick (#8 Overall): With the 8th overall pick, John went with one of the newer Nittany Lion in 285 Greg Kerkvliet. In 2020, he competed in nine matches as a Redshirt, winning them all, with five via Fall. With the small sample size in 2020 and the offseason Freestyle matches under the NLWC events, Kerk looked to be every bit as advertised, but the question was if he was going to wrestle in 2021 or not. First it was “no”, then he was thought to be injured, then he showed up and pinned two Maryland heavyweights in the last dual of the season. While the Big Ten Tourney didn't go as a lot of fans thought, Kerkvliet still qualified for the NCAA Tournament and was the 9-seed. He was close to ending up on the “Miss For The Season” designation, but instead finished 7th at Nationals. Great Picks: With his last pick, #248 overall out of 250, 165 Jake Wentzel was selected. He was the third 165 lber chosen by The Incredible Bulks and finished the regular season as the #13 Fantasy Wrestler at 165. With a controversial win over reigning 165 champ Mekhi Lewis, Wentzel entered Nationals as the 3-seed and made his way to the Finals. Under The Radar Pick: A blue chip recruit is not often seen as an “under the radar” kind of guy, but there's always a question of True Freshman transitioning into the NCAA grind. 157 Andrew Cerniglia looked to have swayed the doubters. Though the competition was not very high, Cerniglia went 5-0 in the regular season with two Techs and one Major which was good enough to tie for #17 in Fpts at 157. A Miss For This Season: For the 2020 Season, 165 Tanner Cook (SDSU) was electric and had probably the most impressive Fantasy Wrestling start to a season any wrestler could ask for. 11 of his first 15 matches were won by Fall and one by Tech which powered him to being the #6 Fantasy Wrestler at 165 (one point ahead of Alex Marinelli (IOWA)). Unfortunately, Cook did not take the mat in 2021. How The Season Played Out: The Incredible Bulks fell just short of making the podium in both Dual and Total Points Standings. The Season played out like a sine wave with wins and losses, but in the end he was able to secure 4th place in Dual and Total Points, which was good for an additional 12 bonus team points to be added to his final Team Score. See the full Dual and Total Points Standings HERE Foster was active for a few weeks in the Transfer Portal, helping to add some talent and try to keep chase for the top three in the Standings: - Drop 197 Chase Singletary (Ohio State), adds 197 Nick Reenan (NC State) - Drop 149 Dalton Harkins (Army), adds 184 Hunter Cruz (Fresno State) - Drop 174 Grayden Penner (Oklahoma), adds 197 Landon Pelham (Central Michigan) - Drop 285 Wyatt Hendrickson (Air Force), adds 285 Christian Lance (Nebraska) - Drop 184 Hunter Cruz (Fresno State), adds 184 David Key (Navy) - Drop 197 Nick Reenan (NC State), adds 197 Colin McCracken (Kent State) 2021 NCAA Tournament The Incredible Bulks approached the 2021 NCAA Tournament with this End-of-Season Roster: And this is the lineup John entered for Nationals: Just edging out The Murder Hornets by 1 point, The Incredible Bulks took the Silver Medal and finished 2nd in the #MatScoutsDynasty League Standings for the inaugural season. Incredible Bulks Entering the 2022 Season Draft This roster is pretty balanced overall and set up to potentially in 2025 have all but two weight classes covered with his original drafted team. Immediate needs for depth at 141 and potentially 165 if looking down the road a bit. Edmond will likely Redshirt, which leaves a postseason hole to fill. Other than that, this team is ready to pick up where it left off in 2021 The Incredible Bulks has the #9 pick in the draft this season on October 18, 2021. Who should he target? Should he drop anyone before the draft? What weights need depth? Should he look to trade? who? Let us know!

141/149 lber Ian Parker (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Iowa State Cyclones Iowa State returns the Big 12 Wrestler of the Year and a host of NCAA qualifiers that will look to contend with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State for the Big 12 conference crown this season. TOP RETURNERS David Carr. Carr is the returning 157 LB Big 12 champ, NCAA champ, and Big 12 wrestler of the year. His leadership will be key for the Cyclones this year. Kysen Terukina(125), Zach Redding(133), Ian Parker(141), Jarrett Degen(149), Marcus Coleman(184) are all returning NCAA qualifiers that will look to make a jump into All-American status next year. KEY DEPARTURES Big 12 Champion and All-American Gannon Gremmel leaves a literal big hole at heavyweight for the Cyclones. NEWCOMERS NCAA qualifier Sam Schuyler has transferred in from Buffalo and should fill the gap left from Gremmel's departure. A near perfect transfer fill for the HWT spot. Austin Kraisser is another nice transfer pickup at 165. He'll contend with Isaac Judge, Grant Stotts, and Logan Schumacher for the starting spot. WRESTLER TO WATCH David Carr-Usually I would put some "under the radar" type in this slot, but I'll go with the obvious one here. David Carr was one of two NCAA champions from the Big 12 last season and will be the favorite to repeat at 157. Does he run off an undefeated season? Does he repeat? Does he fall back? It's always an interesting storyline to follow how the champ comes back after winning their first title. POTENTIAL LINEUP 125-Kysen Terukina (So) Terukina was an NCAA qualifier last season as a freshman. It will be interesting to see how he develops this year. 133-Zach Redding (So) Redding had a solid third place finish at the Big 12 tournament and like Terukina will look to make the sophomore level jump for 21-22. 141-Ian Parker (Sr)/Jarrett Degen (Sr) Here's where the lineup conversation starts to get interesting for Iowa State. Parker and Degen are two of the top guys in the ISU lineup. Last year Parker was at 141 and Degen at 149. We've been hearing Parker will be moving up and Degen will try to cut to 141. Who knows how that will play? If it will even hold for the season? But it's certain to be one of the most interesting lineup shakeups in the country. 149-Ian Parker (Sr)/Jarrett Degen (Sr) See above 157-David Carr (Jr) NCAA champ looks to defend his crown. Carr is a superstar, but there is some added pressure after the first title. 165-Austin Kraisser (Sr)/Grant Stotts (Jr)/Isaac Judge (Jr)/Logan Schumacher (Jr) Word on the street is Campbell transfer Austin Kraisser is the leader in the clubhouse to win the job here, but Judge started most of last season and is certain to fight to retain the spot as will Stotts and Schumacher. 174-Julien Broderson (So) Broderson was the starter last season and should be again this year. 184-Marcus Coleman (Sr) Coleman continues to qualify for the NCAA tournament every year but will look to make that leap to becoming an All-American next season. Last year he finished out the season starting at 197, but is expected to return to 184 after the graduation of Sammy Colbray. 197-Yonger Bastida (So) Bastida came in new to folkstyle last season and did not finish out the year as the starter at 197 after Marcus Coleman took over the job. He's currently the only 197 on the roster for the Cyclones and with some adjustments could be very good. He gave AJ Ferrari one of his closest matches of the year. 285-Sam Schuyler (Sr) Schuyler was an NCAA qualifier at Buffalo last season and should be a big asset for Iowa State at heavyweight this year.

2021 NCAA qualifier Tim Fitzpatrick (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) American Eagles “The coaching staff and the team are very excited about the process of the journey to the top. Since we missed so much time last year, nobody knows what to expect from us. That has taken some pressure off the team and allowed us to just focus on getting better. We will be a team that needs to be taken very seriously in duals. This team is filled with unproven potential.” - Head Coach Jason Borrelli. TOP RETURNERS American's lone wrestler with NCAA tournament experience is Tim Fitzpatrick. In 2021, Fitzpatrick qualified for nationals at 174 lbs, but he will drop to 165 for the 2021-22 campaign. The coaching staff has high expectations for Fitzpatrick this season; Borrelli describes him as “having a great attitude and being very consistent with his training.” Another veteran presence in the AU lineup will be at 149 lbs with Patrick Ryan. Ryan entered the 2021 EIWA Championships at 141 lbs, but was cutting a significant amount of weight to crack the lineup with Kizhan Clarke at 149. Ryan has never appeared in a dual meet for American but amassed a 33-16 record while hitting open tournaments. Up a weight, the junior is said to be much healthier and in a better place with his training and preparation. KEY DEPARTURES The 2021 season was a tumultuous one for the Eagles. Former head coach Teague Moore departed in late January and the team was led by alum Jason Grimes on an interim basis. Due to Covid, the team did not participate in any dual meets and the EIWA Championships became the team's season debut. About a month after the NCAA Tournament, Borrelli was hired as the team's new head coach. Before Borrelli was hired, the team's top three wrestlers hit the transfer portal. Four-time NCAA qualifier (125) Gage Curry moved on as a graduate transfer in his hometown, when he landed at Pittsburgh. Two-time national qualifier (184) Tanner Harvey also went home to use his final year of eligibility and wrestle for Oregon State. Harvey did not attempt to compete in 2021. Finally, Kizhan Clarke (149), the 15th seed in 2020, will finish as a graduate transfer at North Carolina. NEWCOMERS There are a lot of new faces that could emerge as starters in year one under Borrelli. Perhaps the most talented is Missouri state champion Lucas White. White's competitiveness, along with his toughness, has already endeared him to the AU staff. Fortunately, White is expected to compete at 174 lbs which is a deep weight for the Eagles. American may be able to redshirt White for the 2021-22 season. Expect to see some young faces in at 133 lbs. Exactly who? That remains to be seen. Shamil Kalmatov is a Kyrgyzstan native that could make a name for himself. As one may expect, Kalmatov is still getting acclimated to folkstyle, but should be a force on his feet. Josh Bauman could also be in the mix. The true freshman was a part of a power program in Pennsylvania (Notre Dame-Green Pond) may have snuck under the radar for some folks. There are a few, young 125 lbers that could eventually move up to 133, one of which is two-time New Jersey placer, Jack Maida. Antonio Segura (157) and Carsten Rawls (197) are also a pair of freshmen which good high school credentials that could push their incumbents. WRESTLERS TO WATCH Will Jarrell sticks out as a wrestler that could be due for a breakout season at 197 lbs. In 2019-20, Jarrell was thrown into the mix immediately, as a true freshman, and compiled a 7-24 record. Jarrell did not see the mat in 2021. Borrelli says that Jarrell has, “put in a lot of work to transform his body. He now is lean and rangy.” Down a weight from Jarrell is veteran Connor Bourne. Like Jarrell, Bourne was asked immediately to step in as a true freshman at 184 lbs and took some lumps (4-14). He did not compete either in 2021. Bourne “check all of the boxes” as far as doing all the things Borrelli requires to succeed. His commitment is said to be as strong as anyone on the team. In the past, Bourne has battled injuries, so the AU staff is confident he'll have success, if healthy. POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: Andy Fallon (So) 133: Shamil Kalmatov (Fr)/Josh Bauman (Fr) 141: Ryan Zimmerman (So) 149: Patrick Ryan (Jr) 157: Cole Painter (Jr)/Elijah White (So) 165: Tim Fitzpatrick (Jr) 174: Colin Shannon (Sr)/Ben Root (Jr) 184: Connor Bourne (Jr) 197: Will Jarrell (Jr) 285: Isaac Righter (So)

2021 NCAA All-American Tony Cassioppi (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) If you think back hard enough, you may remember that your timeline was blowing up with random wrestler names and the hashtag #MatScoutsDynasty just over a year ago. That was the inaugural draft of the MatScouts Dynasty Fantasy League. Since then, deals were made, duals were waged, and teams were sent to a grand National Tournament in March vying to be the Top Fantasy Wrestling Team in the Dynasty League. We now enter Season 2 of the #MatScoutsDynasty League, so let's catch you up to where all the teams stand. As a refresher, here is the basic point scoring rules: For wrestlers competing in dual meets, Standard Dual Team Scoring is used (win by Dec +3, loss by Dec -6, etc). Bonus Points are given when your wrestler beats a ranked wrestler OR if your wrestler loses to a ranked wrestler ex: if your wrestler beats Spencer Lee by Dec, your wrestler would get +3 for the Dec and another +6 for beating the #1 ranked wrestler. If your wrestler loses by Dec to Spencer Lee, your wrestler is penalized only for -1 pt. One starter per weight with two Flex classes. Two in-season competitions of Head-to-Head Duals and Cumulative Total Points. Each competition brought with it the prize of earning additional team points for the National Tournament. 1st place = +9 team points for Nationals, 2nd place = +8, etc (if you win 1st in the Duals and Total Points, you earn +18 team points for Nationals, etc) Murder Hornets' Team Manager: Eric Knopsnyder (@knopsknotes) How It Started: We have a lot of PA Power in this Dynasty League, one of those power people is Eric Knopsnyder (and who was one of the first to have an ACTUAL team name). He was the #6 pick in the draft. For Erics full draft recap, see the full draft board HERE Hindsight Draft Review: First Round Pick (#6 Overall): One of the most sought after wrestlers coming back from last year's group of Olympic Redshirts was Myles Amine (MICH). At the time of the draft, there was a lot of uncertainty of if he would be returning this season and if so, what weight. At the time of the draft, he was a three-time All American, who never finished worse than 4th (his Redshirt Freshman season) and even though he was mainly on the bench spot for most of the regular season and only wrestled in the last three duals, he entered the 2021 National Tournament as the #1 seed. Great Picks: For the 2020 National Tournament, 157 Jesse Dellavecchia (RID) was the 4-seed. Not much has changed as this year, for the 2021 National Tournament he is the 4-seed again. Somehow, during the draft, Dellavecchia fell to the Murder Hornets in the 15th round. In his four regular season matches, he went 4-0 with two pins and two techs. Under The Radar Pick: As his last pick in the draft (#256 overall), 157 Justin McCoy (UVA) ended up being the 8th best 157 wrestler in WrestleStat leagues, powered by his bonus wins in his first four matches of the season, and was runner up at the 2021 ACC Championships. A Miss For This Season: Not a lot of issues here in the early rounds for Eric, the only “miss” in the top 10 rounds would probably be 157 Josh Humphreys (LEH) who ended up not being able to take the mat due to an injury. In a late round pick that could have been a steal, 149 Kaden Gfeller (OKST) ended up not being able to find a way into the lineup during the regular season and kind of did hit the lofty expectations when cutting to 141 for the Big XII Championships. Gfeller was selected by the Murder Hornets in the 22nd Round. How The Season Played Out: The regular season started off with a string of dual losses going 1-3 in the first half of the regular season, which would repeat in the second half as well. Coupled with a run of low team point output to end the season landed the Murder Hornets in last place in both Dual and Total Point Standings, and zero bonus team points earned. That stings... (get it?!) See the full Dual and Total Points Standings HERE Not a lot of Transfer Portal action for the Murder Hornets as his team was pretty much postseason ready after draft day : - Drop 133 Austin Gomez (Iowa State), adds 133 Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech) - Drop 285 Issac Righter (American), adds 285 John Borst (Virginia Tech) ​ The Murder Hornets was also involved in a trade during the season: - 3/6/2021: Traded 133 Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech) to Danny B Mobbin for 174 Kaleb Romero (Ohio State) 2021 NCAA Tournament The Murder Hornets approached the 2021 NCAA Tournament with this End-of-Season Roster: And this is the lineup Eric entered for Nationals: With 128 Team Points, Murder Hornets finished one point shy of runner up and took the 3rd place bronze in the #MatScoutsDynasty League Standings for the inaugural season. Murder Hornets Entering the 2022 Season Draft A foundation of current Sophomores in Camacho, Sasso, and Cassioppi leaves the ability to leave those three classes alone and draft where needed. For the immediate future, 165 desperately needs some backup and possibly 133 and 174 needs depth (depending if Romero stays at 174 but all signs point to an 84 move). RBY, Sasso, and Cassioppi will be in the Title hunt for the next few years and maybe the drop down to 157 by Joe Lee creates another weight that can be left alone for sometime, but that is yet to be seen. The Murder Hornets have the #8 pick in the draft this season on October 18, 2021. Who should he target? Should he drop anyone before the draft? What weights need depth? Should he look to trade? who? Let us know!

2021 NCAA runner-up Trent Hidlay (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com; Graphic/Anna-Lee Marie) Welcome to a new recurring feature from InterMat as we lead into the 2021-22 collegiate season. We are about 50 days away from the start of the new season, so what better way to ring in the new year than to use that time to count down the top-50 current collegiate wrestlers. Each day a new wrestler will be released. These rankings have been compiled by members of the InterMat staff and used a combination of collegiate achievements, with 2021 accomplishments carrying more weight than past years, along with win-loss records and notable wins. While we are counting down the top-50 wrestlers based primarily on collegiate accomplishments, it is impossible to totally ignore achievements in the international settings, so they did factor in slightly, too. Before getting to the next wrestler on the list, look at the wrestlers previously profiled: #50 - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) #49 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) #48 - Dakota Geer (Oklahoma State) #47 - Kaleb Young (Iowa) #46 - Rocky Elam (Missouri) #45 - Chad Red Jr. (Nebraska) #44 - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) #43 - Brock Mauller (Missouri) #42 - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) #41 - John Poznanski (Rutgers) #40 - Brayton Lee (Minnesota) #39 - Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma State) #38 - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) #37 - Tariq Wilson (NC State) #36 - Jacob Warner (Iowa) #35 - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) #34 - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) #33 - Vito Arujau (Cornell) #32 - Patrick Glory (Princeton) #31 - Max Dean (Penn State) #30 - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) #29 - Mike Labriola (Nebraska) #28 - Nino Bonaccorsi (Pittsburgh) #27 - Austin DeSanto (Iowa) #26 - Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh) #25 - Evan Wick (Cal Poly) #24 - Alex Marinelli (Iowa) #23 - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) #22 - Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers) #21 - Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) Next up is… #20 Trent Hidlay (NC State) Weight: 184 lbs Year: Junior Career Record: 33-6 Hometown: Lewistown, Pennsylvania College Accomplishments: 2021 NCAA 2nd, 2021 ACC Champion, 2020 NWCA First-Team All-American 2021-22 Preseason Ranking: #3 at 184 lbs The early success at NC State from older brother, Hayden, only raised the bar for Trent Hidlay when he arrived in Raleigh in 2018. Even so, Trent was an impressive recruit in his own right after winning a pair of Pennsylvania state titles and earning a top-20 overall ranking amongst seniors. The younger Hidlay got off to an excellent start as he redshirted the 2018-19 campaign. Trent won the first three tournaments he entered (Hokie Open, Bearcat Open, and the Wolfpack Open). Next up was the Southern Scuffle, which saw Hidlay place fourth amongst a deep field. His only losses at the event came to returning All-Americans Joe Smith (Oklahoma State) and David McFadden (Virginia Tech). At the Scuffle, Hidlay picked up wins over a pair of national qualifiers, Matt Finesilver (Duke) and Spencer Carey (Navy). The first four tournaments Hidlay entered came at 174 lbs. He bumped up to 184 for the final two and made it through without a loss. For the year, Hidlay went 24-2 and claimed bonus points in 48% of his contests. At the conclusion of the collegiate season, Hidlay entered and won UWW Junior National at 86 kgs in freestyle. About a month later, in NC State's Reynolds Coliseum, he secured a berth on the Junior World Team. Hidlay went out to Estonia for Junior World's and returned with a bronze medal. It didn't take long for Hidlay to establish himself as one of the key contenders at 184 lbs during his redshirt freshman season. At the end of November, Hidlay picked up a dual win over returning 197 lb All-American Ben Darmstadt (Cornell), 7-5. That same day, Hidlay also defeated talented freshman Louie DePrez (Binghamton) 2-1 in tiebreakers. Just over a week later, at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, Hidlay beat returning qualifiers Tate Samuelson (Wyoming) and Taylor Lujan (Northern Iowa) to earn a berth in the finals. His good fortune would run out in the championship bout as returning two-time national champion, Zahid Valencia (Arizona State), majored him 12-4. The Wolfpack squad also hit the Southern Scuffle on the first of January and Hidlay made the finals of that tournament, as well. There he found DePrez, who evened the score with a 3-2 victory. For the most part, the second half of NC State's schedule consisted of duals against ACC competition. Hidlay's 184 lb bracket was one of the most top-heavy in the conference. Pittsburgh's Nino Bonaccorsi was a fixture in the top-15, while Hunter Bolen (Virginia Tech) had advanced into the top-five. Hidlay was successful against Bonaccorsi, but fell to Bolen in dual action. Those results would remain the same in the ACC Tournament, as Hidlay met Bonaccorsi in the semis and Bolen in the final. A 23-4 record and runner-up finishes at the ACC Tournament, along with the CKLV Invitational and the Scuffle, helped lead to a fifth seed at the 2020 NCAA Championships. But that ended up being for naught, as the tournament was canceled during the early stages of Covid. Hidlay was set to compete in a 184 lb weight class that included #1 Lujan, #4 DePrez, #8 Andrew Morgan (Campbell) and #9 Anthony Montalvo (Oklahoma State), as top seed on his half of the bracket. That bracketing looked like a golden opportunity for the Wolfpack freshman who owned wins over #1 and #4. The shortened 2021 campaign kicked off with Hidlay getting three conference wins in January. February began with another battle versus Bolen. Like their previous two meetings, the Hokie was the winner, but only via a slim margin (2-1). After only five duals, Hidlay was set for the ACC Championships, hosted by NC State. After a closer-than-expected 5-4 win over Devin Kane, Hidlay was ready for round number four against Bolen, with an ACC title hanging in the balance. Finally, Hidlay reversed his fortune and grabbed a takedown in sudden victory to claim a 3-1 win. The limited home crowd rose to their feet as Hidlay celebrated with an air guitar performance. The win in the ACC finals guaranteed Hidlay the second seed at his first national tournament. Hidlay responded with back-to-back tech falls in each of his first two bouts. The road got much more challenging in the quarters and semis, as Hidlay had to grit out close wins over Brit Wilson (Northern Illinois) and John Poznanski (Rutgers), to earn a place in the finals. Hidlay's NCAA finals opponent was the undefeated number one seed, Aaron Brooks (Penn State). The stout defense from Hidlay was able to limit the normally, high-scoring Brooks, but ultimately, the Nittany Lion sophomore was able to escape with a 3-2 win. Holiday would have to settle for second place. Just over a month ago, Hidlay entered the 2021 World Team Trials in freestyle. After a narrow, 5-4 loss to Olympic Trials finalist Kollin Moore, Hidlay battled back with wins over former national champions Myles Martin and Drew Foster to take third place in the 92 kg bracket. Strengths: The Hidlay brothers are known for their physicality and their underhook series and for a good reason. Trent is able to control the mat and his opponent with the underhooks. He will either throw them by or drop down for a low attack. Hidlay is extremely difficult to score on. Over the course of his career, he's only given up more than three points in a loss, once. On the mat, Hidlay rides with a lot of forward pressure, but will look for tilts if the situation arises. 2021-22 Outlook: 184 lbs will be a deep weight class with many of the key players that Hidlay has clashed with in the recent past, back and better than ever. Also, throw in 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Myles Amine (Michigan). Even with Amine and Brooks, Hidlay has the goods to finish as the national champion, come March. 2021 NCAA runner-up Trent Hidlay (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com)

Head coach Chris Pendleton (left) with Associate Head Coach Nate Engel (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Oregon State Beavers "We are trying to compete against the best in the country, regardless of conference, regardless of geographical location. We're gonna be a little bit of 'road warriors' this year." --Head Coach Chris Pendleton A busy off-season for the Oregon State coaching staff hasn't stopped their wrestlers from making strides leading up to the start of competition just weeks away. "Having [Associate Head Coach] Nate Engel gone with our RTC athletes chasing World and Olympic titles, Isaiah [Martinez] able to focus on his training -- we wouldn't have been able to do this stuff without having buy-in from the athletes," explains Coach Pendleton, noting that he and staff have enjoyed the benefits of a strong upperclassmen corps -- a bit of a coach's dream insofar as team-leaders that can be depended upon to keep the team on-task and to continue developing younger members of the roster despite, say, the absence of a coach in the room. With a blend of seniority coming from proven, program wrestlers as well as well-heralded graduate-transfers, the Beaver program has continued to raise its level on all fronts in the preseason. For Coach Pendleton, the focus and enthusiasm in the wrestling room is palpable. "The buy-in has been unbelievable with our leadership from our upperclassmen. That has actually helped free us up as coaches to be able to go on the road and do the recruiting and fundraising, all the while knowing that the kids are back getting work and progressing the program." "We have Devan Turner and Grant Willits as our returning team captains from last year, but we've also added in guys, like Cory Crooks and Gary Traub, that have seamlessly integrated into the team -- and brought leadership immediately. It's been kind of fun watching that 'meshing' of the new kids and older kids, but it's looking really well. … The younger guys are buying into the older guys." Blessed with the fortune of depth in their roster, the Beaver staff has the opportunity to redshirt many of their younger upstarts while fielding a nationally competitive team from top-to-bottom. While the younger Beavers absorb as much wisdom as they can from their older counterparts, a salty line-up of NCAA qualifiers aim to make an impact on the national scene after a 2021 season marred by quarantines and restricted workouts. For then first-year Head Coach Pendleton, it was an odyssey from the very beginning. "I got hired in April, I didn't meet the team until June/July, we didn't get to have practice until July/August -- and that was outside in little quad-groups where we couldn't [make contact]. It was one of those deals where we felt like we were playing catch-up to everybody all season long. Our team had five, 14-day quarantines. We were quarantined for 14-days until the Thursday or Friday before the Pac-12 tournament, seven out of ten of our starters. So we had a lot of that adversity … Felt like we were constantly picking ourselves up off the ground and dusting ourselves off." On the cusp of a full season ahead, the Beavers are now emboldened by their adversity-filled experience during the 2021 season. With the ability to train consistently at a high level back in their training regimen, the Beavers feel strong about what they can do in the season to come. "It's been one of those 'shots in the arms' -- we're stronger this year because of last year." TOP RETURNERS With all six of their 2021 NCAA qualifiers returning to the mat, there isn't much to miss for the Beavers entering the 2022 season. Among the line-up that now boasts nine previous NCAA qualifiers are 2x Pac-12 Champions and 3x NCAA Qualifiers Devan Turner (133) and Grant Willits (141), the most highly-ranked of eight Beavers and returning team captains. Turner and Willits enter the year ranked #13 and #10 at 133 and 141, respectively, by InterMat. Not to be overlooked is Hunter Willits, himself a 3x NCAA qualifier, ranked #15 at 157lbs. NEWCOMERS Oregon State brought in a slew of transfers in the off-season, including four NCAA qualifiers. Graduate transfers Cory Crooks (Arizona State), Tanner Harvey (American), and Gary Traub (Ohio State) join freshman transfer Trey Munoz (Arizona State) as new, quality faces on the Beavers' squad. Coach Pendleton considers such a migration a sign of the program moving in the right direction. "Having [transfers] come in … shows that they can see, nationally, that we're doing things the right way and they want to be a part of it." WRESTLERS TO WATCH Without exaggeration, fans should be keeping tabs on this entire Beaver squad. Pendleton and staff lead a hungry, #24-ranked dual-team into the season with quality and depth at virtually every weight, in the form of nine NCAA qualifiers. We are all eager to see which Beavers will breakthrough and earn postseason honors at the big dance. POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: #33 Brandon Kaylor (So), NCAA Qualifier (2021) 133: #13 Devan Turner (Sr), Pac-12 Champion (2020, 2021), NCAA Qualifier (2019, 2020, 2021) 141: #10 Grant Willits (Jr), Pac-12 Champion (2019, 2021), NCAA Qualifier (2019, 2020, 2021) 149: #25 Cory Crooks (Grad-Tr), NCAA Qualifier (2021) 157: #15 Hunter Willits (Jr), Pac-12 Runner-up (2018, 2019, 2021), NCAA Qualifier (2018, 2019, 2021) 165: Matthew Olguin (Fr) 174: Trey Munoz (Fr-Tr), Pac-12 Runner-up (2021), NCAA Qualifier (2021) 184: #16 Tanner Harvey (Grad-Tr), NJCAA Champion (2018), NCAA Qualifier (2019, 2020)/ Ryan Reyes (So), Pac-12 Runner-up (2021), NCAA Qualifier (2021) 197: #27 JJ Dixon (So), Pac-12 Runner-up (2021), NCAA Qualifier (2021) 285: #24 "Gas Tank" Gary Traub (Grad-Tr), NCAA Qualifier (2020) The Oregon State bench reacts to a win by Grant Willits at the 2021 Pac-12 Championships (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)

Olympic and NCAA champion Gable Steveson (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) The 2021-22 college wrestling season officially began this week, and already, people are counting down the days until the NCAA Championships at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. For the record, the big dance isn't for another 153 days, and unlike last season, which was marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, we're going to get a full six months of wrestling this winter, starting on the first day of November all the way through March. That's exciting for wrestling fans all over the country -- especially those who follow the Big Ten Conference. As such, we begin our '21-22 season coverage with this: The Big Ten from the Big Ten. We picked the 10 best pound-for-pound wrestlers in the Big Ten. The selections were based on overall wrestling résumés, past accomplishments, and future potential. Not all schools are represented. Some have multiple picks. We listed them alphabetically by last name. All records and stats were pulled from our friends at WrestleStat. Hopefully you recognize all of these names - and if not, you will by March. Myles Amine, Michigan Myles Amine's credentials are among the best in all of college wrestling, and he will lead a Wolverine team that has plenty of firepower this season. He's a four-time All-American - three times at 174, then again at 197 last year - and each time, he's finished in the top-four: 4th in 2017, 3rd in 2018, 3rd in 2019, then 3rd again in 2021. (His five career losses at the NCAA Championships have only come to guys who have won it: Zahid Valencia (three times), Mark Hall, and AJ Ferrari.) Amine is also an Olympic bronze medalist at 86 kilograms, finishing with a 3-1 record in Tokyo last August. His only loss came to David Taylor, the eventual gold-medalist. He represented San Marino at the Olympic Games, and became their first-ever wrestling Olympic medalist. He's also a two-time medalist at the European Championships. Braxton Amos, Wisconsin Yes, we're including a true freshman here, because Braxton Amos is not your normal true freshman. Amos was an Olympic Trials qualifier in both men's freestyle and Greco-Roman last spring. Then he made the Olympic Trials finals in Greco-Roman. Then he made the Junior world team in both styles, and came home with two medals - and men's freestyle world title, and a Greco bronze medal. There are sky-high expectations for his first NCAA season, especially with a Badger program that is very quickly on the upswing. He's going to be a wrestler to watch not just this season, but in the years ahead. Aaron Brooks, Penn State Aaron Brooks is one of the many talented Penn State wrestlers, and when he's fully healthy, he might be the best of them. He is a two-time Big Ten champion and a reigning NCAA champion. He's previously won a Junior world silver medal and a Cadet world title. He's 29-1 in two seasons with the Nittany Lions, with 14 bonus-point wins. Brooks will likely be the favorite to repeat at 184 again this season, but could see Myles Amine as many as three times this season - in the January dual, at the Big Ten Championships, and the NCAA Championships. Those matches will be must-watch. Jaydin Eierman, Iowa Jaydin Eierman is one of the most electric competitors in college wrestling. He is one of many wrestlers taking advantage of the relief year granted by COVID-19. He's already a four-time All-American, taking fifth, fourth and third at 141 pounds with Mizzou, then reaching the NCAA finals last year with the Hawkeyes. He's also a Big Ten champion and, last spring, a U.S. Senior men's freestyle national champion. Eierman boasts a career record of 103-15 with 46 career pins, meaning he records a pin about 45% of the time, which is a staggering rate. He is a dynamic top wrestler who can lock up a cradle from literally anywhere. Nick Lee, Penn State Nick Lee has been as steady and consistent of a wrestler as there's been in college wrestling the last few years. He's now a three-time All-American, and the reigning national champion at 141 pounds. He took third at the U.S. Olympic Trials last spring, where he beat Nahshon Garrett, Zain Retherford and Yianni Diakomihalis all in a row by a combined 38-14. Nick Lee is another star wrestler for the Nittany Lions with a 97-13 career record. Of the 13 career losses, seven have been by two points or fewer, and four have been by a single point. Of his 97 career wins, 74 have come with bonus points, a rate of 76.3%. Spencer Lee, Iowa Spencer Lee has an opportunity to go down as one of the best ever. He is a three-time NCAA champion, the last of which with two torn ACLs, and is a two-time Hodge Trophy winner. He's won 35 matches in a row dating back to 2019, and has outscored his opponents by a combined 430-40 during that span. He is 75-5 overall during his Hawkeye career, with a staggering 64 bonus-point wins, good for 85.3%. Lee also won a U.S. Senior men's freestyle national title in 2019, and is expected to be a major contender for world and Olympic gold medals in the future. He's previously won three age-level world championships, and is largely credited with Iowa's return back to the top of Division I wrestling. If he never wrestled another college match, he'd still be an all-timer. Thankfully for all of us, he's got one more season in Iowa's all-black Nike singlet. Mason Parris, Michigan Mason Parris is another key piece of Michigan's high-powered lineup, and has very quickly grown into one of the best heavyweights on the planet, too. He is a two-time Big Ten finalist, and the reigning NCAA runner-up. He's previously won a Junior world title, finished third at the U.S. Olympic Trials last spring, and, most recently, made the finals of the Senior men's freestyle world team trials. Not bad. Parris is 72-12 in his Michigan career, and three of those losses have come over the last two seasons, all against Minnesota's Gable Steveson (more on him in a second). More impressive, of his 72 wins, 49 have included bonus points, including 30 career pins. Sammy Sasso, Ohio State Sammy Sasso is on pace for an all-time wrestling career for Ohio State. He is a reigning NCAA finalist and returning Big Ten champion. He is 40-4 overall in his career, and his losses have come against Austin O'Connor, Pat Lugo, Brayton Lee, and that wild first-period pin against Brent Moore. He also reached the Big Ten finals in his redshirt freshman year, and also won a UWW Junior men's freestyle national title. Sasso is the face of the Buckeye program right now, and one of the best pound-for-pound wrestlers in the country. He will be the heavy favorite to win 149 pounds in the Big Ten, and will be one of many gunning for Yianni on the national stage come March. Carter Starocci, Penn State Carter Starocci became a redshirt freshman national champ for the Nittany Lions last season and has only gotten better since then. He went 14-2 last season, made the Big Ten finals, then won an NCAA title - and that's after a perfect 19-0 redshirt season wherein he won the Southern Scuffle. In September, he won five-straight matches to finish third at the Senior men's freestyle world team trials, wherein he beat Chance Marsteller, Evan Wick and Jason Nolf. Of his 14 wins last season, Starocci actually went 4-0 in overtime matches, including a 3-1 win over Iowa's Michael Kemerer to win the NCAA title. That's some insane mental fortitude for a guy in his first varsity season. He's going to be a force for years to come. Gable Steveson, Minnesota Did you really think we'd leave out Gable Steveson, the guy that won literally everything last year? In 2021, he won a Big Ten title, an NCAA title, the Hodge Trophy, the Olympic Trials, the Pan-American Championship, and the Olympics, all in the span of eight months. From the start of the 2021 NCAA season through the end of the Tokyo Games, he won 30 consecutive matches by a combined 343-71. Insane. Steveson is 67-2 overall in his three years with the Gophers, and is riding a 34-match winning streak into his senior season. He will soon leave wrestling behind for greater pastures, so enjoy him this year while you still can. The Next 10 Roman Bravo-Young, Penn State: A returning national champion, two-time All-American, Big Ten champion, and generally one of the most exciting wrestlers in college wrestling. Tony Cassioppi, Iowa: The third-best heavyweight in the country, behind Gable and Parris. A returning All-American, a U.S. Senior men's freestyle national finalist, and U23 world team member. Ryan Deakin, Northwestern: A two-time All-American, returning Big Ten champ, past Junior world silver, and recent Senior world team trials finalist. Also probably the biggest 157-pounder on the planet. Austin DeSanto, Iowa: A two-time All-American since transferring to Iowa from Drexel, and wrestles at an insane pace that leads to some insane takedown stats. Michael Kemerer, Iowa: A three-time All-American and returning NCAA finalist and Big Ten champ. A steady, senior leader for the Hawkeyes. Mikey Labriola, Nebraska: A two-time All-American for the Huskers who is maybe under-appreciated because he's only ever reached the national quarterfinals. Stevan Micic, Michigan: Another reason Michigan's lineup is all kinds of intriguing this season. A three-time All-American, past NCAA finalist, Olympic Games participant, and two-time European medalist. John Poznanski, Rutgers: All-American as a true freshman last season, taking fourth at 184 pounds, which is the highest NCAA finish for a true freshman in program history. Chad Red, Nebraska: Another under-appreciated Husker wrestler, a three-time All-American. Only two other wrestlers in program history were four-time NCAA All-Americans: James Green and Brian Snyder. Sebastian Rivera, Rutgers: A three-time All-American at two different weights (125 and 141), a two-time Big Ten champ at two different weights (125 and 133), and recently finished eighth in the world at 65-kg.

SIU Edwardsville's three-time national qualifier Justin Ruffin (Photo/SIUE Sports Info) SIU Edwardsville Cougars “We are looking at our best team in the Division 1 era. We believe we can compete with all the teams in the conference. We have a couple of tough duals early with Indiana/Bellarmine and Northwestern that will show us where we are at. - Head Coach Jeremy Spates TOP RETURNERS The Cougars are returning six MAC placewinners, led by the following wrestlers: Aaron Schulist - MAC placer Saul Ervin - NCAA Qualifier Cardy Wilson - MAC placer Justin Ruffin - 3x NCAA Qualifier Ryan Yarnell - MAC placer Colton McKiernan - NCAA Qualifier KEY DEPARTURES Coach Spates stated, “We return all starters from the MAC tournament. We graduated Tommy Helton at HWT but we are excited to have the rest of the team back.” NEWCOMERS “We had a smaller recruiting class this year, but we are excited about the guys we have coming in. All three were state finalists. Unfortunately, due to injury Caine Tyus had to forfeit in the state finals. Both Caleb Tyus and Dan McKiernan were state champions. Many people will notice those last names, as Caine and Caleb's dad Sean is an alumni who wrestled for the Cougars in the 90's. Dan McKiernan is the 3rd brother to come to SIUE following Jake and Colton” said Coach Spates. WRESTLER TO WATCH The Cougars have one wrestler in particular who is looking to make an impact in the MAC conference this upcoming wrestling season. Coach Spates stated, “Saul Ervin took a big jump last year. He went from a 10-18 record as a freshman to being an NCAA qualifier last year. He had another great off season of work and we are excited to see him continue in his goal to be an All-American.” POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: Austin Macias (Sr) 133: Aaron Schulist (Jr) 141: Saul Ervin (Jr) 149: Max Kristoff (Jr) 157: Justin Ruffin (Sr) 165: Chase Diehl (Jr)/Cardy Wilson (Sr) 174: Kevin Gschwendtner (Sr) 184: Sergio Villalobos (Sr) 197: Ryan Yarnell (Sr)/Austin Andres (Jr) 285: Colton McKiernan (Sr)

2x NCAA All-American Jacob Warner (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) If you think back hard enough, you may remember that your timeline was blowing up with random wrestler names and the hashtag #MatScoutsDynasty just over a year ago. That was the inaugural draft of the MatScouts Dynasty Fantasy League. Since then, deals were made, duals were waged, and teams were sent to a grand National Tournament in March vying to be the Top Fantasy Wrestling Team in the Dynasty League. We now enter Season 2 of the #MatScoutsDynasty League, so let's catch you up to where all the teams stand. As a refresher, here is the basic point scoring rules: For wrestlers competing in dual meets, Standard Dual Team Scoring is used (win by Dec +3, loss by Dec -6, etc). Bonus Points are given when your wrestler beats a ranked wrestler OR if your wrestler loses to a ranked wrestler ex: if your wrestler beats Spencer Lee by Dec, your wrestler would get +3 for the Dec and another +6 for beating the #1 ranked wrestler. If your wrestler loses by Dec to Spencer Lee, your wrestler is penalized only for -1 pt. One starter per weight with two Flex classes. Two in-season competitions of Head-to-Head Duals and Cumulative Total Points. Each competition brought with it the prize of earning additional team points for the National Tournament. 1st place = +9 team points for Nationals, 2nd place = +8, etc (if you win 1st in the Duals and Total Points, you earn +18 team points for Nationals, etc) Team Upson' Team Manager: Jeff Upson (@PApowerwrestle) How It Started: When he's not cleaning up the streets of Pittsburgh, he's researching and writing about Wrestling. Jeff Upson, CEO and Founder of PA Power Wrestling, was the #7 Pick in the draft. For Jeff's full draft recap, see the full draft board HERE Hindsight Draft Review: First Round Pick (#7 Overall): Rumor out of Happy Valley heading into the 2021 season was that 141 Nick Lee (PSU) and Team Upson's #7 pick overall, would be Redshirting the 2021 season. That proved to not be the case and Team Upson had himself a Champion in 2021. Even though he only had six matches during the regular season, Lee finished as the #12 Fantasy Wrestler with 83% bonus rate (five of six wins by bonus). Great Picks: 125 Brandon Courtney (ASU) finished the 2020 season as the #15 fantasy wrestler at 125 and #135 wrestler overall in WrestleStat leagues. Given the depth of the lightest weight class prior to season cancellations and pushbacks, Courney kind of got lost in the shuffle. Last season, he finished as the #3 wrestler in Fpts at 125 and the #30 Fantasy wrestler and made his way to the National Finals where he held Spencer Lee to “only” a decision. Under The Radar Pick: It's hard to call a known AA contender an “under the radar pick”, but coming into this season 285 Jordan Wood (LEH) was taking the year off. He ended up working his way back onto the Lehigh roster coming back towards the end of the season. And while he was still knocking off the rust, he was a upgrade this season for the other drafted 285 Tate Orndorff who seemed to struggle with the Big Ten schedule at his new school. A Miss For This Season: Originally drafted for 184, Nino Bonaccorsi (PITT) was drafted in the 6th round. After the draft however, news broke that Nino would be moving up to 197. That left the heir of 184 on Team Upson to be Rocky Jordan (OHST). Rocky seemed to take a step back from his Freshman season where he was 16th in Fantasy Points at 184. In 2021, he went 4-5 during the regular season with only one bonus win. How The Season Played Out: Team Upson went on a five dual losing streak before getting two duals in the win column. He ended the dual season with a 2-6 record and took 8th in the Dual Standings. Likewise, he finished in 8th place for Total points as well. With those finished, Team Upson earned 4 additional team points. See the full Dual and Total Points Standings HERE With his confidence in the draft, very little activity occurred during the regular season to change the Team Upson Roster. He was involved in two trades at the deadline: - 3/8/2021: Traded 133 Austin DeSanto (Iowa) to Cael Chips 133 Michael McGee (Arizona State), 184 Chris Weiler (Wisconsin) and 2022 3rd Rd Pick (& Team Upson to drop a wrestler TBD) 3/15/2021: The Ninnie's Propaganda trades a 2022 3rd Round Pick to Team Upson for 125 Trevor Mastrogiovanni (OKST) 2021 NCAA Tournament Team Upson approached the 2021 NCAA Tournament with this End-of-Season Roster: And this is the lineup Team Upson entered for Nationals: The 121.5 points totaled for Team Upson was good for 4th place in the #MatScoutsDynasty League Standings for the inaugural season. Team Upson Entering the 2022 Season Draft The upper weights are a bit on the older side, but should be good for another year or two, which will help in restocking the lower weights with depth between 133 and 149. Especially 149 as Degen has had an injury history which would leave the roster without a functioning wrestler at the weight, should something happen this season. 157 and 165 are pretty much set for the foreseeable future, but after next season in losing Nick Lee, Hayden Hidlay, and Jarrett Degen (which could account for 40+ Team points), there will need to be some “backups” stepping up to bridge that gap… or some good drafting. Team Upson has the #7 pick in the draft this season on October 18, 2021. Who should he target? Should he drop anyone before the draft? What weights need depth? Should he look to trade? who? Let us know!

2021 NCAA runner-up Sammy Sasso (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com; Graphic/Anna-Lee Marie) Welcome to a new recurring feature from InterMat as we lead into the 2021-22 collegiate season. We are about 50 days away from the start of the new season, so what better way to ring in the new year than to use that time to count down the top-50 current collegiate wrestlers. Each day a new wrestler will be released. These rankings have been compiled by members of the InterMat staff and used a combination of collegiate achievements, with 2021 accomplishments carrying more weight than past years, along with win-loss records and notable wins. While we are counting down the top-50 wrestlers based primarily on collegiate accomplishments, it is impossible to totally ignore achievements in the international settings, so they did factor in slightly, too. Before getting to the next wrestler on the list, look at the wrestlers previously profiled: #50 - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) #49 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) #48 - Dakota Geer (Oklahoma State) #47 - Kaleb Young (Iowa) #46 - Rocky Elam (Missouri) #45 - Chad Red Jr. (Nebraska) #44 - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) #43 - Brock Mauller (Missouri) #42 - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) #41 - John Poznanski (Rutgers) #40 - Brayton Lee (Minnesota) #39 - Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma State) #38 - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) #37 - Tariq Wilson (NC State) #36 - Jacob Warner (Iowa) #35 - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) #34 - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) #33 - Vito Arujau (Cornell) #32 - Patrick Glory (Princeton) #31 - Max Dean (Penn State) #30 - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) #29 - Mike Labriola (Nebraska) #28 - Nino Bonaccorsi (Pittsburgh) #27 - Austin DeSanto (Iowa) #26 - Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh) #25 - Evan Wick (Cal Poly) #24 - Alex Marinelli (Iowa) #23 - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) #22 - Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers) Next up is... #21 Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) Weight: 149 lbs Year: Sophomore Career Record: 40-4 Hometown: Nazareth, Pennsylvania College Accomplishments: 2021 NCAA 2nd, 2021 Big Ten Champion, 2020 NWCA First-Team All-American 2021-22 Preseason Ranking: #2 at 149 lbs Ohio State got a coup when they were able to pull Sammy Sasso across the Pennsylvania state border. Sasso was named the #4 overall recruit in the Class of 2018 after winning a pair of state titles. With Micah Jordan finishing up at 149 lbs, the Buckeye staff had the luxury of redshirting Sasso in 2018-19. Sasso's first competition was the Freshman/Sophomore division at the Michigan State Open. He earned bonus points in three of the four contests. A week later, at the Ohio Intercollegiate Open, Sasso squared off with Jordan and pushed the veteran to the brink before falling, 9-7. Sasso really shined at the Midlands, where he dropped a first-round bout to fellow redshirting freshman Jacori Teemer (Arizona State), but then won seven straight bouts to claim third. That span included wins over Alec Pantaleo (Michigan), Pat Lugo (Iowa), and Henry Pohlmeyer (South Dakota State). The young Buckeye star finished the year with a title at the Edinboro Open, where he picked up a win over another stud freshman, Brayton Lee (Minnesota). Lee and Sasso would renew acquaintances in the offseason as the two made the best-of-three finals at the Junior World Team Trials. Sasso jumped out to an early lead in match one, but was run down by Lee, who eventually won the spot. Sasso's first official matches in a Scarlet and Gray singlet took place at the Michigan State Open, where he racked up bonus points in all five matches, even against proven competition like Kanen Storr (Michigan) and Nate Limmex (Purdue). The first loss of Sasso's career took place in Ohio State's dual meet with Virginia Tech. Sasso was caught and pinned by the Hokies Brent Moore. As luck would have it, Sasso met Moore again in his next outing at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. In Vegas, Sasso was victorious 7-1 and pinned Purdue's Griffin Parriott on his way to the finals. For the title, Sammy was shut down by Lee, 6-4. Over a month later, Sasso had a Friday night showdown with the top-ranked 149 lber in the nation, Lugo. The freshman won a 2-1 defensive struggle over the Iowa All-American in a hostile Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Just two days later, Sasso got revenge on Lee with a 4-2 win. In the span of two days, Sasso had taken out two of the top contenders at his weight class and ascended to the number one ranking nationally. The loss in Vegas to Lee proved to be Sasso's final loss of the regular season. He would cruise into the Big Ten Championships on a 10-match winning streak. At Rutgers, the scene of the B1G Tournament, Sasso won low-scoring affairs against Yahya Thomas (Northwestern) and Storr to make the finals. In the championship bout, Lugo got a measure of revenge with a 2-1 win. A second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships netted Sasso the third seed at the 2020 national tournament. As we all know, the tournament was not conducted due to the spread of Covid. Sasso would have had to contend with #2 Austin O'Connor (North Carolina), #6 Matt Kolodzik (Princeton), #7 Lee, #10 Storr, and #11 Brock Zacherl (Clarion) on his half of the bracket. Because of his seed, Sasso was named an NWCA first-team All-American. Sasso's sophomore year featured a perfect dual slate. The Buckeye went 9-0, with four of those wins coming over 2020 national qualifiers. Three wins came via fall. The unblemished conference record led to the top seed at the Big Ten Championships, in his home state. Sasso used a workmanlike effort to hold off a hot Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) to capture his first conference crown in a 5-2 win. A Big Ten title led to the number one seed at the 2021 NCAA Championships in St. Louis. Sasso survived scares in the Round of 16 (Kyle Parco - Fresno State) and the quarterfinals (Thomas), before meeting returning All-American Boo Lewallen (Oklahoma State) in the semis. This time, Sasso was able to open it up and pinned the Cowboy to claim his place in the national finals. In the NCAA finals, Sasso had to contend with the second seed, O'Connor. The Tar Heel got a takedown in the third period to go up by a point. Sasso didn't give up and attacked until the final buzzer, nearly reeling in a takedown at the edge. Ultimately, he'd fall short by a point, 3-2. Strengths: Fans tend to associate Sasso with his scrambling and cradle, which are indeed "a thing," but he's developed into much more than that. While Sasso is capable of putting up points in bunches and getting falls, he can also grit his way through ugly, defensive matches. Sasso has become very difficult to score on with his scrambling, rubber knee, and short counter offense. 2021-22 Outlook: Being a 2021 finalist, Sasso certainly has the ability to come home from Detroit with a national title. With O'Connor moving up to 157 lbs, he's the highest placing returner at the weight. Now, he'll have to deal with two-time national champion and world team member Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell), who should bump up from 141. A match between these two could prove to be one of the most anticipated bouts of the year. 2021 NCAA runner-up Sammy Sasso (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com)

F&M 141 lber Wil Gil (Photo/F&M Sports Info) Franklin & Marshall Diplomats “We are a young team looking for consistency week after week. Due to lack of experience in our lineup, we will be at a bunch of open tournaments in the first semester to help the team get matches in. Ultimately, our goal is to qualify three wrestlers to the NCAA tournament” - Coach Mike Rogers TOP RETURNERS The Diplomats were forced to sit out last season, due to the COVID pandemic. There are three top returners who will anchor their line-up. Wil Gil (2x EIWA Placer, NCAA Tournament Alternate Wrestler 2018) Jose Diaz (returning starter at 125lb) Cenzo Pelusi (returning starter at 285lb) KEY DEPARTURES Franklin & Marshall lost two key cornerstones in their lineup over the past few seasons, both of whom were captains. Emmet LiCastri was a four-year starter at 157lb and 165lb with wins at the EIWA Conference Tournament. Secondly, one of F&M's best wrestlers over the past half-decade was lost due to graduation in 2019. Antonio Pelusi was an NCAA Qualifier three times as a Diplomat, winning a couple matches while wrestling heavyweight. His younger brother, Cenzo is one of the top returners listed above. NEWCOMERS Bailey and Dalton Gimbor are two newcomers to be on the lookout for. After placing fourth and second at Pennsylvania AA states last year, respectively, they plan on potentially redshirting this year while competing at 149lb and 157lb. The twins have both been to the PIAA tournament on more than one occasion. Pat Phillips will be looking to fight for a starting spot at 133lb. He was fifth in the state of New Jersey last year as a senior. He was also a multiple-time qualifier for the state tournament. Gio Diaz is the younger (but larger) brother of Jose Diaz. Gio was a third-place finisher in Illinois his senior season of high school, while being a qualifier the year prior. He will be the third wrestler in the mix to be the guy at the 133lb weight class. James Conway comes into college as a High School National Prep All-American. The Maryland native was a three-time state place winner. He will be in the mix to try and claim the starting spot at 184lb. WRESTLERS TO WATCH The Diplomats' 141lb starter, Wil Gil, is the anchor of the line-up. He brings the most experience, and most extensive resume to the team. Being an NCAA Tournament alternate a few years ago, he is poised to make the most of his final season. His fun-to-watch, wild style has proven he can compete with almost anyone in the country. Coach Tyson “Slip” Dippery has been steadily helping Gil improve in all positions. Expect to see him on the podium at the EIWA Conference Tournament in March. Christiaan Dailey is the potential starter at the 149lb class for the Dips. Coach Rogers is expecting a breakout year from him this season, based on what he's seen in the room the past year. With workout partners in Gil and Coach Dippery, it is no surprise to acknowledge his improvement, paralleled with high expectations. Franklin & Marshall could have a nice little one-two punch at 141 and 149 if Dailey's potential comes to fruition. POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: Jose Diaz 133: Nick Tewell / Gio Diaz / Pat Phillips 141: Wil Gil 149: Christiaan Dailey 157: Chase McCollum / Noah Chan 165: Crew Fullerton / Chris Bolletino 174: John Crawford 184: James Conway / Harrison Shapiro 197: Mike Waszen 285: Cenzo Pelusi

2021 NCAA All-American Clay Carlson (Photo/SDSU athletics) South Dakota State Jackrabbits #GETJACKED SDSU returns a wealth of experience and is looking forward to reaching new heights in the 2021-22 season. SDSU has an extremely tough schedule and will be battle tested as they prepare for Detroit, MI. “This team continues to get better every day. We have more depth than we've ever had before making our room even more competitive. We're excited for the upcoming season and the opportunities ahead.” – Clay Carlson 141lb All-American TOP RETURNERS SDSU returns six national qualifiers, one of which is an All-American. Zach Price (Round of 12), Clay Carlson (8th place), Cade DeVos, Tanner Cook (2020), Tanner Sloan (Round of 12), AJ Nevills (2019, 2020). All six start the year ranked in the top-21 at their respective weights. KEY DEPARTURES 125 lb national qualifier Danny Vega graduated and did not return for a sixth-year. Vega was fourth at the 2021 Big 12 Championships and the #22 seed at nationals. He went 1-2 in St. Louis. NEWCOMERS SDSU brought in a large recruiting class in 2021. InterMat ranked the group 12th in the nation, as it featured four top-100 recruits and six in the top-300. The four top-100 recruits include Derrick Cardinal (Forest Lake, MN-133), Alek Martin (St. Paris, OH-149), Cael Swensen (Wayzata, MN-157), and Roman Rogotzke (Stillwater, MN-197). At this time, the Jackrabbit staff plans on redshirting all of these individuals. Two transfers are on the roster and include Tate Battani (Iowa State -184) and AJ Nevills (Fresno State-HWT). During his last year of competition, Nevills earned wins over both of the conference finalists from 2021 (Gannon Gremmel - Iowa State and Brian Andrews - Wyoming). Battani went 5-3 in dual action last season and will push for the starting role at 184 lbs. WRESTLERS TO WATCH Tanner Cook will be back in the lineup this season after not competing during the 2020-2021 season. Cook is a crowd favorite who is not afraid to throw the kitchen sink at opponents. In 2019-20, Cook earned falls in 14 of his 21 wins, a mark that led the Jackrabbits. AJ Nevills is a transfer from Fresno State will be competing in the blue this year. Nevills was a Big 12 finalist in 2020 and has already been to the National Tournament twice. He will be looking to breakthrough and get on the podium this upcoming season. Nevills starts the year ranked #19 in the nation which is a bit conservative based on his potential. This will be a new look lineup for Coach Hahn's team in 2021-22. Although there are many familiar faces, SDSU has multiple individuals changing weight classes. POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: Tanner Jordan (RS Fr) 133: Hunter Marko (Sr)/Trayton Anderson (So)/Caleb Gross (So) 141: #11 Clay Carlson (Jr) 149: #21 Zach Price (Jr)/Daniel Kimball (So) 157: Jack Thomsen (RS Fr)/Kenny O'Neil (Sr) 165: #13 Tanner Cook (Jr) 174: #21 Cade DeVos (So) 184: Cade King (Jr)/Tate Battani (Jr)/Jacob Schoon (So) 197: #9 Tanner Sloan (Jr)/Nick Casperson (Jr) 285: #19 AJ Nevills (Sr)/Bowen McConville (Jr)

Akari Fujinami (left) and Irina Ringaci (Photo/UWW) Remina Yoshimoto (JPN, 50 kg Champion) - Coming into the World Championships, Remina Yoshimoto was a bit of an unknown. She had the credentials typical of her other Japanese teammates- a Cadet World title and a pair of age-level Asian golds- but the 21-year old had yet to build much of a Senior-level resume. However, in Oslo, she absolutely stunned her opponents, notching three techfalls and a pin before upsetting returning Olympic bronze medalist Sarah Hildebrandt in the finals. Defeating Hildebrandt came as a surprise; the American had been on fire since moving down to 50 kilos, notching wins over many of the best women at the weight and looking poised as she teched her way to the finals. The title seemed like hers to win, but Yoshimoto proved the dominance of Japanese lightweight women with a strong finals outing. Impressively, Yoshimoto is probably #3 on the domestic ladder in Japan, stuck behind Olympic Champion (and one of the best pound-for-pound wrestlers in the world), Yui Susaki, and 2019 World Team member Yuki Irie. Though she has had close matches with Susaki, Japan's crazy depth on the lower half of the weight classes means that it'll be difficult for Yoshimoto to even crack the Japanese World Team again. Despite this, her performance in Oslo was incredibly impressive and an excellent debut on the major international stage. Otgonjargal Dolgarjav (MGL, 50 kg Bronze Medalist) - Otgonjargal Dolgarjav was not regarded as Mongolia's top 50-kilo athlete prior to the World Championships. The teenager was young, relatively inexperienced and remained home from Tokyo in favor of Namuuntsetseg Tsogt Ochir, who went winless at the Games (but still ended up placing 5th). However, the 2018 Cadet World Silver medalist made a huge, unexpected jump to senior level success by taking the bronze medal in Oslo over several formidable opponents. Such a performance was entirely unexpected- at her first Senior-level tournament earlier this year, she went 1-2 at the Yariguin. In Oslo, however, she absolutely blew away all expectations by defeating two Olympians and World medalists on the way to notching her spot on the podium. Dolgarjav beat Evin Demirhan of Turkey in a decisive 11-2 bout before later earning a tech fall over two-time World finalist Emilia Vuc of Romania. Such strong results over well-established athletes was a pleasant surprise for the country of Mongolia, which had an impressive third-place team showing. Dolgarjav's future performances against some of the other women in the top tier at 50 kg should be paid close attention to. Akari Fujinami (JPN, 53 kg Champion) - Prior to the start of the Senior World Championships, much of the women's wrestling buzz centered on one woman: a 17-year-old named Akari Fujinami. The hype arose after a string of outstanding domestic successes by the newly eligible senior in one of Japan's deepest domestic weight classes. In Japan's two national events leading to the selection of the World Team, Fujinami had to defeat two of the best women in the world: 2019 World Finalist Nanami Irie and two-time World Champion Haruna Okuno. She beat both opponents multiple times and with absolute dominance. As a result, standards were high when Fujinami debuted in Oslo, but she rose to the occasion: facing 4 opponents, Fujinami notched tech falls over each and every one of them without giving up a point. The high schooler controlled grown women, never failing to get to her slick attacks, en route to winning her first Senior world title. The real question now is what Fujinami can do next: Japan's domestic depth is such that reigning Olympic Champion Mayu Mukaida looms ahead of her before she can even consider returning to the world stage at the 53 kilos. Rumour has it that Akari can already compete with her in the practice room. Japan's domestic championships will be especially interesting as the inevitable matchup between the well-proven Mukaida and the incredible youngster looms in coming years. Tsugumi Sakurai (JPN, 55 kg Champion) - Tsugumi Sakurai was the first woman crowned the title of World Champion in Oslo, and became the first of four of her countrymen to do so. The 20-year-old- still Junior eligible!- defeated two returning Olympians and experienced veteran Nina Hemmer en route to her first Senior World title. Her victory was a pleasant statement as to her senior-level talents and a nice addition to her slim international resume, which features only a 2016 Cadet World title and a 2019 Junior Asian Bronze medal. However, Sakurai will be part of an interesting domestic dilemma as the Japanese look to fit their best talents onto their international lineups. Between the weights of 53 and 55 kilos, Japan has four women who have won world titles over the past quad: Olympic Champ Mukaida, two-time World Champ Okuno, and Oslo winners Fujinami and Sakurai. This list doesn't even include World Silver Medallist Nanami Irie or any of the age-level up-and-comers missed at this year's international events due to COVID. Where and how Sakurai fits in Japan's lineup remains to be seen, but she certainly has cemented herself as one of the best women on the planet regardless. Oleksandra Khomenets (UKR, 55 kg Bronze Medalist) - Oleksandra Khomenets and the rest of her superpower Ukrainian Junior team experienced great disappointment in August: visa issues regarding travel to Russia for the Junior World Championships meant that the entire team wouldn't be able to attend. After a performance that saw the nation win seven Junior Euro WW titles- highlighted by Khomenets, whose three falls lead to her being voted as Outstanding WW of the tournament- the inability to prove themselves on the biggest stage was heartbreaking. Khomenets was luckily afforded another shot to prove her skills: this time in Oslo, Norway, and she made the most of it. After a tough first match against soon-to-be World Champion Tsugumi Sakurai, the Ukrainian entered a highly challenging repechage bracket, where she wrestled two barn-burners against a pair of world medalists and returning Tokyo 2020 Olympians. Khomenets defeated 2017 World Bronze medalist Roksana Zasina of Poland before cruising to a similar victory over very talented Russian Olga Khoroshavtseva. Khomenets' exciting victories and ability to win matches over proven women with strong Senior-level resumes bodes well for her future on the international scene. Expect to see her settle into the non-Olympic 55 kg spot and immediately begin to contend amongst the top senior-level tier. Anshu (IND, 57 kg Silver Medalist) - Women's wrestling in India has demonstrated significant growth in recent years. Strong age-level performances have already translated into Senior-level successes, and Anshu has been a textbook demonstration of this trend. The 20-year old had a fantastic Cadet career, highlighted by a 2017 World title along with bronze medals in the adjacent years. Her Senior-level debut, however, was what alerted wrestling fans to her potential: at the 2020 Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series, Anshu found her way to the finals in a loaded bracket. She had to go through 2019 World Champion Linda Morais, U23 World Champion Grace Bullen and Jenna Burkert in order to do so. This fantastic performance preceded Anshu's qualification to the Olympic Games via the Asian OGQ, where she teched her way to an Olympic license. However, a challenging draw at the Games- facing Olympic silver medalists in both the first round and the repechage- left her winless. In Oslo, despite having recently suffered from an elbow injury, her talents really shone through and she gained her first world medal on the senior level. Dominant defeats of Junior-level stars Raimova of Kazakhstan and Vynnyk of Ukraine, along with a 5-1 win over Mongolian veteran Erkhembayar, lead Anshu to the gold medal match. She wrestled a tactically sound first period against Helen, keeping the score close and largely controlling the pace of the match. Though she was no match for the American superstar's ferocious armbar, Anshu proved that she has the skills and tactics to compete and win on the highest levels of the sport. Anshu has many years of wrestling and athletic success left in her and this should be only the beginning of an illustrious career. Nonoka Ozaki (JPN, 62 kg Bronze Medalist) - Nonoka Ozaki's international debut came about at the 2018 Cadet World Championships, where she defeated her four opponents to win a Cadet World title in a combined two minutes. She repeated her dominant performance at the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina before winning her second Cadet World title in 2019, this time in three minutes. It was immediately clear that she was levels ahead of the other competitors her age and thus, her transition to the senior level was highly anticipated. And she didn't disappoint: in her domestic debut, she outplaced two other age-level world champions and World Silver Medallist Rin Miyaji just to make the Japanese team. In Oslo, Ozaki proved that her domestic success was no fluke. Right out the gate, she drew defending World Champion Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan. The young star racked up two quick takedowns to put the experienced veteran down 4-0 early. However, Tynybekova's wily nature and persistence kept her in the match as she turned it up in the second period to defeat Ozaki 6-4. Despite this defeat, Ozaki's performance was more than impressive; she battled her way back to a bronze medal with wins over Veranika Ivanova of Belarus and Ilona Prokopevniuk of Ukraine. Though she managed to come away from her first Senior World Championships with hardware, Ozaki looked far from pleased on the podium. Her social media posts reflected her apparent disappointment with her bronze-medal finish in Oslo. This will inevitably light a fire in the young Japanese competitor as she faces her next uphill battle: making the Japanese world team over Olympic Champion Yukako Kawai. Irina Ringaci (MDA, 65 kg Champion) - To those watching Ringaci as she advanced through the age-level ranks, this performance was no surprise. In fact, it was only a matter of time. The Moldovan had been achieving formidable results in a variety of competitions; a growing collection of World and European medals on the age-level scene quickly turned into tangible Senior-level results, including a World Cup silver medal and a European title. The 20-year old started to dominate much of her competition at 65 kilos, avenging past losses and assuming a position on the top tier at the non-Olympic weight. In Oslo, she earned her second world title of 2021 after also taking top honors from Junior Worlds in August. Ringaci's victory at the World Championships marked the first senior world title for a Moldovan woman, a monumental success for the poor country. Limited resources are available to the athletes of this former Soviet nation; Ringaci trains in a small, beat-up room, barely the size of one wrestling mat, with next to no supplementary training equipment. Fifteen women crowd in this room, lacking proper sanitation and safety equipment, though they are sometimes given access to a national training facility prior to major events. Ringaci's next challenge will be qualifying for the Olympic Games in 2024; she has struggled to fit into either 62 or 68 kilos, but will look to attend her first Olympics in Paris next quad. Rin Miyaji (JPN, 68 kg Silver Medalist) - Japan's women's wrestlers, as demonstrated by the heavily credentialed young team in Oslo, have traditionally been able to accumulate ample age-level success. On a team where 9 of the 10 women had already earned world titles, international unknown Miyaji stuck out. She owned only a 2017 Cadet Asian title and a 2019 Junior Asian silver medal (where she lost to eventual 2021 World Champ Zhumanazarova) and had no major international wins. After not accomplishing her goals down at 62 kilos at the first domestic Japanese event, she made the decision to move up two weight classes to 68 kilos to try to make the world team. There, she overcame the adversity to defeat age-level World Champ Naruha Matsuyuki twice in order to make the Japanese world team and represent her country in Oslo. In an interview following her win at the Japanese World Team Trials- known as the Meiji Cup- Miyaji spoke about how she changed her focus to improving her defense and getting stronger. With the help of four-time Olympic Champion Kaori Icho, Miyaji sharpened her style and came into the World Championships more than prepared. Her hard work was evidenced by the biggest upset of the tournament: a cradle and fall over defending Olympic Champion Tamyra Mensah-Stock. Though Miyaji fell in the finals to Zhumanazarova, her win over Mensah-Stock and all-around solid showing proved that the biggest question mark on Japan's lineup was as much of the real deal as any of their other very talented women. Miyaji now has a huge result to add to her growing international resume and it will be interesting to see how she fares against Rio Olympic Champ Sara Dosho as the future of Japan at this weight class looks to be resolved. Khanum Velieva (RWF, 68 kg Bronze Medalist) - The Russian women's wrestling program has long been one of the most successful in the world. However, a recent down performance at the 2020 Olympics that saw them bring home no medals meant that the Russian women needed a redeeming performance in Oslo. The young team brought home two bronze medals, led by the highly-touted Khanum Velieva. Velieva was recognized early on as a prime prospect after winning three age-level world titles, and immediately began to succeed upon her transition to the senior level. She qualified Russia to the Olympics at the European OGQ and also picked up a European title, a World Cup bronze and a Euro silver. Velieva's performance in Oslo proved that she had reached a level where she could compete on the top tier of 68 kg women. She took out returning Tokyo silver medallist Blessing Oborududu in a wild 8-7 match before meeting Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the semifinals. The match ended 3-3 on criteria; an error by the referee initially displayed Velieva's lead on the score clock, but that was corrected to reflect a win for Zhumanazarova after the match. The Russian redeemed herself after the heartbreaking, unjust semifinal loss with a close victory over solid Canadian Olivia Di Bacco, bringing home her first Senior World medal. The Krasnoyarsk native is of Azerbaijani heritage and discovered wrestling after attending the Ivan Yariguin with her uncle when she was young. Velieva will look to lead a new generation of Russian women's wrestlers to international success as many of their recent Senior level stars enter the twilights of their careers.

Thomas Gilman (left) and Amir Zare (Gilman Photo/Tony Rotundo; Zare Photo/Kadir Caliskan; UWW) The 2021 World Championships saw a number of breakout performances in men's freestyle. From improbable upset runs to long-term contenders breaking through for gold, this article is going to break down the top 10 most impressive breakout performances from the world championships. 1. #3 Amir Zare (IRI) - 125 KG world champion #3 Amir Zare of Iran has been seen as one of heavyweight's premier prospects since his performance at the 2018 Cadet world championships, when he beat out Penn State All-American Greg Kerkvliet (USA) for his first world title. A runner-up finish the following year at Junior worlds to Mason Parris, an NCAA runner-up for Michigan, was the catalyst Zare needed to break through as he concluded 2019 with a win over reigning three-time world champion #2 Geno Petriashvili (GEO) and a U-23 world title over Vitali Goloev (RWF). Zare continued to roll into 2020, where he started off the year with a huge title at the Matteo Pellicone, where he upset three-time world champion Bilyal Makhov (RWF) in the finals. This year began with Zare on the outside looking in, as at the end of 2020, he lost his wrestle-off series to Amin Taheri (IRI) for the Individual World Cup. When Iran only sent #9 (61) Rahman Amouzadkhalili (IRI), the wrestle-off results between Zare and Taheri were extended into 2021 and Taheri's results at the Asian championships would determine if he could get a chance to wrestle in Tokyo. With Zare up 6-0 halfway through the first period of his Asian Championships semifinals match against #14 Aiaal Lazarev (KGZ), he was pinned in a bodylock. Zare's spot for Tokyo was locked up with a gold at the Ziolkowski over #8 Nick Gwiazdowski (USA), his warm-up for the fight for Olympic gold. Fast forward to Tokyo and Zare was dominant through to the semis, outscoring 2019 World bronze medalist Oleksandr Khotsianivski (UKR) and Egzhon Shala (KOS) by a 20-2 margin. Leading three-time world champion #2 Geno Petriashvili (GEO) 3-0 through the first period, Zare would fall by a 6-3 comeback from Petriashvili and rebound with a 5-0 win over 2018 world runner-up #6 Zhiwei Deng (CHN). Wrestling in Oslo, only two months removed from his Olympic bronze medal performance, Zare had yet again gone through another metamorphosis. Zare ran through the best heavyweight had to offer, outclassing #10 Dzianis Khramiankov (BLR), #8 Nick Gwiazdowski (USA) and #1 Taha Akgul (TUR) with fantastic positioning, heavy hand fighting and crisp reattacks to make the finals. With his chance at revenge against the reigning Olympic runner-up #2 Geno Petriashvili (GEO). A 3-2 lead over Petriashvili in the first quickly snowballed into an indomitable 9-2 triumph for world gold. At only 20 years old, Amir Zare had beaten two of the great heavyweights of the modern era in dominant fashion for world gold and set himself up as the king of the weight for the foreseeable future. For that reason, I see Zare's performance as the number one breakthrough in Oslo. 2. #2 Kamran Ghasempour (IRI )- 92 KG world champion A 2013 Cadet world runner-up at 69 KG to #4 Batyrbek Tsakulov (RWF), #2 Kamran Ghasempour (IRI) wouldn't return to international competition again until 2018, wherein February he followed up a Takhti Cup title with a title at the International Ukrainian Tournament in a loaded field with victories over past Russian Nationals champion Shamil Kudiyamagomedov (ITA), European runner-up Alexander Gostiev (AZE) and US standout Richard Perry (USA). Ghasempour wouldn't compete internationally again until November at the U-23 world championships as he'd lost his wrestle-off against four-time World/Olympic champion #2 (86) Hassan Yazdani Charati (IRI). Bulldozing his way through to the finals, Ghasempour controlled European champion, Russian Nationals runner-up #3 (86) Artur Naifonov (RWF) for U-23 world gold. Ghasempour's 2019 would further cement him as one of the best at 86 KG, as he took his second titles at the Takhti Cup and U-23 world championships along with gold at the Tbilisi GP and Asian championships. Even with his four international titles, Ghasempour was yet again left on the outside looking in as he lost another wrestle-off against Hassan Yazdani Charati for the Senior world championship. Having made the move up to 92 KG in 2021, Ghasempour won his second Asian championships title over Tsogtgerel Munkhbaatar (MGL) and made the cut back down to 86 KG for a chance to wrestle in Tokyo. For the third year, Ghasempour was runner-up to Yazdani Charati again and made the move back up to 92 KG. Winning his wrestle-off series against 2020 Asian champion #3 Javad Ebrahimi, Ghasempour walked into Oslo looking to break through for gold after having been in the shadow of Yazdani since 2018. Convincing wins over Andrii Vlasov (UKR) and 2019 World bronze medalist #15 Irakli Mtsituri (GEO) put Ghasempour in the semifinals against reigning world champion #13 J'den Cox of the United States. While Ghasempour was the higher-ranked of the two, Cox had been near untouchable since the end of 2018; beating the likes of 2019 U-23 world champion Bo Nickal (USA), 2x World/Olympic bronze medalist Dato Marsagishvili (GEO) and #13 (97) Alireza Karimimachiani (IRI) on his way to double world gold. In a career-defining performance, Ghasempour took the fight to Cox right away, out-hand fighting the American to set up crisp shots against the nearly impenetrable defense of Cox that he used for a pair of step-outs along with a passivity point to forge a 3-3 criteria win. Awaiting Ghasempour in the finals was top-ranked European champion Magomed Kurbanov of the Russian Wrestling Federation. In one of the most entertaining finals matches of the World Championships, Ghasempour and Kurbanov went to war with Ghasempour carrying a 6-2 lead with 30 seconds on the clock; Kurbanov exploded through a double leg for a takedown and transitioned to a gut wrench to secure the match win. With Ghasempour almost all the way taken through, he pulled off a deft counter and exposed Kurbanov to take an 8-4 lead and stun the Russian from what looked to be a guaranteed win. Ghasempour held off the charging Kurbanov for 92 KG world gold. After having gone unbeaten in international competition since 2018, Ghasempour finally got his chance to shine and win Senior world gold after having spent so long in the shadow of Yazdani. Now at the start of a new quad, Ghasempour looks to have the tools to establish himself as a dominant force at 92 KG and I'm excited to see how Iran uses his talent. 3. #3 Thomas Gilman (USA)- 57 KG world champion In a career that had been defined by always being one step away from gold, Olympic bronze medalist Thomas Gilman of the United States used his incredible momentum from Tokyo to springboard himself to a Senior world title. Opening against #6 Abubakar Mutaliev (RWF), an opponent he lost twice to in 2019, Gilman was on another level right away, pinning the Russian standout in under a minute and a half. In what was supposed to be Gilman's toughest match of the world's, he absolutely dominated an elite talent the like of Mutaliev. Vladimir Egorov of Macedonia was an easy quarterfinal win for Gilman as he rolled to an 11-0 tech fall over the Yakut transfer. 2020 European bronze medalist Horst Lehr of Germany came out on fire against Gilman, but Gilman was there, taking the 5-5 lead 2 minutes into the match after coming back from a Lehr fireman's carry and headlock. Two step-outs for Gilman sealed out the 7-5 lead to end the first period and the second period would be vintage Gilman. A knee pull single to a high gut gave him the 11-5 lead. A go behind made it a 13-5 lead and a knee pull single secured the 15-5 dominant tech fall win for Gilman to make his second career world finals. Against Alireza Sarlak (IRI), Gilman was in top form, using a potent combination of pressure and leg attacks to take a controlled 5-3 win over the Iranian standout for his first world title. After having gone tooth and nail with three-time World/Olympic champion #1 Zavur Uguev (RWF) 4. #3 Zagir Shakhiev (RWF) - 65 KG world champion A cadet world champion in 2016 at 54 KG, Zagir Shakhiev toiled away on the Russian domestic scene for four years until he made his big break at 2020 Russian Nationals. Coming out of nowhere, Shakhiev went on an absolute tear, dominating the likes of 2016 Olympic champion Soslan Ramonov (RWF), Artur Badtiev (RWF) and Kezhik Chimba (RWF) to take bronze with his only loss coming in the semifinals to two time world bronze medalist #8 Akhmed Chakaev (RWF). A year passes by and Shakhiev doesn't just match his performance from 2020, but smashes it. At this year's Russian Nationals championships, Shakhiev dominated past Russian Nationals medalists #3 (70), Kurban Shiraev (RWF), Ibragim Abdurakhmanov (RWF) and Julian Gergenov (RWF) to make the finals against returning world champion #2 Gadzhimurad Rashidov (RWF). Losing by a razor-thin 5-3 margin, Shakhiev had proven himself to be the new generation of 65 KG. Off his spectacular performance at Russian Nationals, the Russian national team appointed Shakhiev as the official representative for Russia at the European championships. Dominant throughout, Shakhiev ran up the scoreboard 31-7 against his competition, beating Poland's Kryzysztian Brzozwski (POL) 13-2 for gold. With Gadzhimurad Rashidov sitting out of the world championships after taking bronze in Tokyo, a wrestle-off was set for 65 KG. Shakhiev, Ali Aliev champion #10 Abdulmazhid Kudiev (RWF) and two-time world bronze medalist #8 Akhmed Chakaev (RWF) were selected to take part. With Chakaev crushing Kudiev 10-0 to get the chance to wrestle Shakhiev, Zagir left no opportunity for Chakaev to make his third world team, dominating the Chechen standout 10-3 to earn his spot in Oslo. Shakhiev's path to world gold would not come with ease as he had to overcome serious adversity in his semifinal bout. Against 2019 U-23 Asian champion Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia, Shakhiev was behind 2-0 going into the final second of the match against the powerful Mongolian. Finally able to clear the powerful right underhook of Tumur Ochir, Shakhiev timed a perfect sweep single to take the 2-2 lead and a leg lace gave him a more comfortable 4-2 lead going into the final moments of the match. What looked to be a guaranteed victory for Shakhiev was put in peril as a hard-charging Tumur Ochir was able to score a go behind in the final five seconds to tie the score 4-4. A spirited protest from the Mongolian corner came in, but Shakhiev would escape with the win by the skin of his teeth off by virtue of having the higher value scores than Tumur Ochir (1 takedown, 1 exposure to Tumur Ochir's 2 passivity points, 1 takedown). Shakhiev's world finals match would be a completely different story than his heart attack of a semifinals bout. In control from the start, Shakhiev used a masterful head outside single followed by four exposures off an elbow roll to race out to a 10-4 lead. Transitioning immediately to a standing leg lace, Shakhiev powered Yazdani Charati through for two more exposures to seal a crushing 14-4 finals victory for world gold. Zagir Shakhiev is a wrestler to keep an eye on, as he is the heir apparent to take the title of Russia's best at 65 KG when Gadzhimurad Rashidov retires and it is to be seen if Shakhiev can even breakthrough in this current quad and take the spot. The chances of getting to see Shakhiev against a full-strength 65 KG field are incredibly exciting and I am very interested to see how he grows. 5. #7 (65) Ernazar Akmataliev (KGZ) - 70 KG world runner-up Ernazar Akmataliev (KGZ) first caught the eyes of American fans at the 2019 U-23 world championships after a 13-13 criteria victory over the 2021 141 LB NCAA runner-up Jaydin Eierman (USA) in his fifth-place finish at the 2019 U-23 world championships. Even with his losses to Turan Bayramov (AZE) and Igor Nikiforuk (UKR), Akhmataliev had still announced himself as a future talent to keep an eye on. It wouldn't be until 2021 that Akhmataliev made his breakthrough into legitimate contender status. Making the finals of the International Ukrainian Tournament in February with victories over U-23 European champions #9 (65) Erik Arushanian (UKR) and Turan Bayramov (AZE), Akmataliev finished runner-up to 2018 U-23 world runner-up Ali Rahimzade (AZE). While his wins over Arushanian and Bayramov would age well with time, Akmataliev would explode into full contender status at the Asian Olympic qualifier. Wrestling 2015 Russian Nationals champion Ilyas Bekbulatov (UZB) in the semifinals with a spot at Tokyo at stake, Akmataliev was down big. An 8-0 deficit against a technician the likes of Bekbulatov looked to spell doom for Akmataliev, but a brilliant chin whip counter for the pin from Akmataliev stopped Bekbulatov's Olympic dreams and gave him his career-defining win. Against world runner-up Amir Mohammad Yazdani Charati (IRI), Akmataliev was again pushed to his limit and had to rely on his fantastic chest wrap for a 15-13 victory. As a dark horse contender in Tokyo, Akmataliev faced returning world bronze medalist #5 (65) Bajrang Punia (IND) in the qualification round. A foot stomp single for Bajrang would be the defining action of the match, as the Indian superstar won 3-3 and eliminated the Kyrgyz standout from his first Olympic Games. Wrestling up at 70 KG, Akamtaliev strolled through a 10-0 tech fall of Anil Gedara of Sri Lanka to make the round of 16 against Individual World Cup bronze medalist Arman Andreasyan (ARM). Andreasyan would be no match for Akmataliev as an 11-2 win came easy for the Kyrgyz. Facing off against Junior world champion #12 Erfan Elahi (IRI), Akmataliev was pushed to his absolute limit and had to use a last-second chest wrap to take an 8-7 victory over Elahi. Top-ranked Evgheni Zherbaev of the Russian Wrestling Federation had been dominant on his way through to the semifinals. A longtime contender who'd beaten the best of Russia but never gotten the chance to prove it at world's, the Buryat standout was one match away from getting wrestle for world gold. Akmataliev took command of the match right away, headlocking Zherbaev forty seconds into the match off a Zherbaev knee pull single. Zherbaev rallied back to take a 5-4 lead after the first period; Akmataliev came back with a step out and a go behind off a Zherbaev go behind to take the 7-5 lead. In the closing seconds of the match, Zherbaev made a final charge with a chest wrap attempt that saw him thrown out of bounds by Akmataliev. A failed challenge from the Russian corner sealed the victory for Akhmataliev and his chance for world gold. The electrifying offense and late match heroics of Akmataliev would be nullified by the smothering style of #6 Magomedmurad Gadzhiev (POL) in a 2-1 loss in the world finals. While Akmataliev had an absolutely impeccable year and only got better from competition to competition, his inability to generate offense against Gadzhiev is worrying as if he can't win matches that aren't high octane shoot outs, then he can't make it against the elite of the weight who can overcome in 2-1, 3-1 matches. 6. #20 Mohammad Nokhodilarimi (IRI) - 79 KG world runner-up Hungry for a Senior world title to match his Junior world gold he earned in August, #20 (79) Mohammad Nokhodilarimi of Iran was hailed as Iran's great middleweight hope after the disappointment of Mostafa Hosseinkhani (IRI), Bahman Teymouri (IRI), Peyman Yarahmadi (IRI) and Ezzatollah Akbari (IRI) failing to get a medal for Iran at 74 and 79 KG through the 2016-2021 quad. Beginning his world championships with victories over Aron Caneva (ITA) and Arman Avagyan (ARM), Nokhodilarimi faced off against the reigning European runner-up Saifedine Alekma (FRA) in the quarterfinals. Against one of his most credentialed senior-level opponents to date, Nokhodilarimi shined, tech falling the Frenchman 11-0 to set up a pivotal semifinal bout against 2018 U-23 world champion #7 Nika Kentchadze (GEO). In one of the most exciting matches of the tournament, Nokhodilarimi overcame the multiple fouls from the talented Georgian and a late comeback effort to pull away for a 6-5 victory and his second world finals appearance. Facing off against the living legend that is five-time World/Olympic champion #1 Jordan Burroughs of the United States, Nokhodilarimi brought a highly physical match to the American standout, with both men bloodied and their heads wrapped to end the first. The first period ended with a 1-0 lead for Burroughs and while Nokhodilarimi was game and traded heavy blows with Burroughs in the hand fight, the trademark double leg of the American champion would win him the day against the Iranian for a 5-1 victory and his 6th World/Olympic title. Even with Nokhodillarimi coming up short in his pursuit of Junior and Senior world gold in the same year, his ability to keep close with Burroughs, along with his clutch victory over an established talent the likes of #7 Nika Kentchadze (GEO), made Nokhodilarimi one of the top breakthroughs from the world championships. 7. Tulga Tumur Ochir (MGL) - 65 KG world bronze medalist A dangerous upper body technician always on the verge of breaking through, Tulga Tumur Ochir (MGL) has made himself known as a dark horse contender for his win at the 2018 world championships over 70 KG world champion #6 (70) Magomedmurad Gadzhiev (POL) and his two razor-thin losses to 3x World/Olympic medalist #5 Bajrang Punia (IND) at the 2018 and 2019 world championships. After having come up short in his three World/Olympic appearances, Tumur Ochir was a different man in Oslo. Beginning his fourth trip to the World/Olympic championships with a win in the round of 16 over 2019 61 KG Junior world champion Kaiki Yamaguchi (JPN), Tumur Ochir faced off against Olympian #6 Vazgen Tevanyan of Armenia. Tevanyan had been one of the breakout contenders of the last year, capping off 2020 with an Individual World Cup title over 2019 world bronze medalist #11 Ismail Musukaev (HUN) and beating Olympic runner-up #4 Haji Aliyev (AZE), 70 KG world champ #6 Magomedmurad Gadzhiev (POL), two time World medalist Vladimir Dubov (BUL), 2020 European runner-up Nyurgun Skryabin (BLR) two time World/Olympic champion Vladimir Khinchegashvili (GEO) at the European Olympic qualifier. Facing the highly lauded Tevanyan, Tumur Ochir completely neutralized the Armenian powerhouse with his powerful righty underhook and over/under bodylock for a 2-1 victory. Facing off against European champion #3 Zagir Shakhiev of the Russian Wrestling Federation, Tumur Ochir took the lead early in the match, stifling the Dagestani 2-0 going into the final minute and a half of the match. Shakhiev, finally freeing himself from the clutches of Tumur Ochir's underhook, shot a clutch sweep single and fought through to finish and transition to a leg lace and take the 4-2 lead with 25 seconds remaining in the match. A charging Tumur Ochir was able to score a clutch go behind with less than 10 seconds remaining in the match to tie the score 4-4, but Shakhiev's higher valued scores (1 takedown and 1 exposure) won him the match over Tumur Ochir's scores (2 passivity points, 1 takedown). The Mongolian coaches were furious and a rightful protest emerged. With cooler heads prevailing, the Mongolian challenge failed and Tumur Ochir was sent to the bronze medal match. Competing against the unheralded Rohit Rohit of India, Tumur Ochir thrived, putting up an early four-point arm spin and counter to a Rohit takedown, Tumur Ochir led 6-0 at the break. A counter takedown from Rohit cut Tumur Ochir's lead to 6-2 and a failed headlock attempt countered by Rohit made it 6-4. With over a minute and a half left in the match, Tumur Ochir faced the hard-charging Rohit and pulled out a beautiful counter to pancake Rohit to his back and secure the pin for bronze. Tulga Tumur Ochir was finally able to put together a complete world championships run in Oslo and capitalize on the talent he's shown in the past. While Tumur Ochir's win over #6 Vazgen Tevanyan (ARM) and 4-4 criteria loss to #3 Zagir Shakhiev (RWF) were promising, it's hard to predict how much better the Mongolian standout does this quad in a full-strength lineup, but I am excited at his chances. 8. Turan Bayramov (AZE )- 70 KG world 5th An age group standout who captured Cadet and U-23 world gold along with a Junior World bronze medal, Turan Bayramov of Azerbaijan has been an elite talent right on the edge of a breakthrough throughout the 2016-2021 quad. Bayramov's 2021 began in January with him testing himself against the best at the Senior level at the 65 KG Henri Deglane Grand Prix with a bronze medal finish after a loss to #8 James Green (USA). The International Ukrainian Tournament in February would be another bronze medal medal for Bayramov with a victory over U-23 European champion #9 (65) Erik Arushanian (UKR). Bayramov's first Senior-level breakout performance would be at the Senior European Championships, beating 2020 Individual World Cup runner-up #7 Heydar Yavuz (TUR) to make the finals against Russian Nationals champion #2 Israil Kasumov (RWF). Finishing silver at the Senior European championships, Bayramov made the move back down to Junior's, where he won European gold over Stanislav Novac (MDA). In the midpoint of the year and having been primarily a 65 and 70 KG wrestler, Bayramov was subbed in as a last-second replacement for Khadzhimurad Gadzhiev in the 74 KG Olympics. Up at his third weight class for the year, Bayramov made the Olympic quarterfinals against two-time world champion #4 Frank Chamizo of Italy. Facing off against the elder Chamizo, Bayramov acquainted himself very well against one of the pound-for-pound best, falling by a narrow 3-1 margin to the 74 KG standout. The second half of Bayramov's year would continue at 74 KG at the Junior world championships. Heavily favored to win gold, Bayramov would fall by stunning upset to #20 Keegan O'Toole (USA) in the quarterfinals. Picking up his second Junior world medal, Bayramov took bronze over Russia's Idar Khatanov (RWF) before making the cut back down to 70 KG for his third World/Olympic championships of the year. A true ironman, Bayramov started his world championships performance with a career-defining 3-2 victory over 2018 world runner-up Adam Batirov of Bahrain. A spot in the quarterfinals for Bayramov meant a chance at revenge against two-time world medalist #8 James Green (USA). Bayramov looked the part throughout the match, consistently countering Green's head inside single shots with a 2-1 and limp leg to a go behind to take a 6-1 lead with 30 seconds remaining in the match. Green, finally getting his read on how to finish against Bayramov, exploded through for a massive claw knee pick in the final 15 seconds to cut the score to 6-5. Bayramov held off the comeback effort of Green in the last ten seconds of the match to capture his second consecutive win over a world runner-up to make the world semis where he'd face 2017 65 KG world runner-up #6 Magomedmurad Gadzhiev (POL). What would unfold in Turan Bayramov's next two matches was some of the egregiously terrible judging since the old days of FILA open bribes and match reversals. Late into his semifinal match against #6 Magomedmurad Gadzhiev (POL), Bayramov gets an inside trip on the edge and is taking Gadzhiev down with 30 seconds left on the clock to take the 3-2 lead. That's what was happening, a clear continuation of action for Bayramov, but that wasn't what was on the agenda as the referee called it out of bounds immediately and only awarded a step out to Bayramov. A defensive and retreating Gadzhiev raced away from Bayramov to hold onto a 4-2 victory after a failed challenge from Bayramov's corner. Falling to the bronze medal match and facing his fourth world finalist of the tournament in 2017 65 KG world champion #15 Zurab Iakobishvili (GEO), Bayramov would end the match with a 3-2 victory off a last-second exposure over Iakobishvili. That was until a Georgian challenge came in. Replaying the action, it was clear Bayramov had exposed Iakobishvili and recovered position after exposing Iakobishvili off his whizzer. Except that wasn't enough, as the judges incorrectly called a takedown for Iakobishvili and stole the win away from Bayramov to the tune of 4-3 for #15 Zurab Iakobishvili (GEO) for world bronze. Turan Bayramov showed he is ready to contend and win world gold at 70 KG. While he was robbed by poor officiating here, expect to see a revitalized Bayramov on top of the podium moving forward. Losses like that where you're not only wrestling the man across the line but the judges behind the table will only be a learning experience for Bayramov. 9. Toshihiro Hasegawa (JPN) - 61 KG world bronze medalist A standout for Japan in the loaded 57 KG weight class, a 57 KG U-23 world title at the end of 2018 was the best achievement of Hasegawa's career, pinning Olympic runner-up #2 Ravi Kumar (IND) in the finals. Hasegawa would be stuck behind the likes of past World/Olympic champions Yuki Takahashi and Rei Higuchi at 57 KG before making the move up to 61 KG this year in May to capture the All-Japan championships. Hasegawa would be put through an absolute meat grinder of a bracket right from the start, opening up against #13 Nico Megerle of Germany, who'd be his first upset victory by way of a 1-1 criteria win. The pressure only continued to rise for Hasegawa as he faced off against Junior world champion #9 Rahman Amouzadkhalili (IRI), who was one of the most dominant light weight age group prospects in this quad and expected by many to run through Hasegawa. Hasegawa kept his composure and stifled the Iranians punishing underhook series with elbow control and used a strong sweep single series to power his way through to a 9-5 upset win. European bronze medalist #7 Eduard Grigorev (POL) would be Hasegawa's final obstacle before the semifinals, and the powerful scrambling of the Japanese standout would earn him a 6-3 win for a semifinals berth against top-ranked Abasgadzhi Magomedov of the Russian Wrestling Federation. Outmatched against the dominant Russian, Hasegawa would fall to the bronze medal match against 2018 world bronze medalist Tuvshintulga Tumenbileg (MGL). Overcoming a slow 2-0 first period, Hasegawa used a head inside single to a running the pipe finish; Hasegawa transitioned to a beautiful, unorthodox leg lace to take an 8-1 lead. A left-side duck set up a misdirection sweep single for Hasegawa made the lead 10-1 for Hasegawa with a match-ending armbar for the 12-1 tech fall victory and world bronze. Hasegawa's match IQ and fantastic transitions from his sweep single into par-terre make the Japanese standout a lightweight talent to keep an eye on for this upcoming quad. 10. Alireza Sarlak (IRI) - 57 KG world runner-up Iran's third-stringer at the end of 2020 behind #4 Reza Atri (IRI) and #9 (61) Rahman Amouzadkhalili (IRI), 2019 U-23 world bronze medalist Alireza Sarlak (IRI) made the most of his first world championships with a runner-up finish at 57 KG. Beating out D3 All-American Gusseppe Rea (ECU) by 11-0 tech in the round of 16, Sarlak faced off against three-time Russian Nationals bronze medalist #15 Aryan Tyutrin (BLR). Tyutrin, coming off a win over two-time world bronze medalist #14 Erdenebat Bekhbayar (MGL), took a huge 4-1 lead over Sarlak off an uchi mata to take the first period. In the final minute of the period, Sarlak trailed Tyutrin 6-3 before countering another Tyutrin uchi mata with a high crotch and a bent leg Turk to win a 7-6 come-from-behind victory. Facing off against 2019 world runner-up #9 Suleyman Atli (TUR), Sarlak fell behind the Turkish front runner 6-3 with only a minute left in the match. Pulling together another miraculous upset, Sarlak, a clutch shuck into a gut wrench to win 7-6 over Atli and make the world finals. Against the surging #3 Thomas Gilman of the United States, Sarlak would be unable to use any of his late match heroics to seal the win against Gilman, but a collar tie duck under would keep Sarlak close with the American in a 5-3 loss. Sarlak's back-to-back last-second upset wins over #15 Aryan Tyutrin (BLR) and #9 Suleyman Atli (TUR) showed that he has the composure and offensive skill set to continue as a world medal contender. The only thing standing in Sarlak's way is being able to make his own team, as #4 Reza Atri (IRI), the 5th place finish at the Tokyo Olympic Games, beat him out for the spot.

2021 NCAA All-American Jonathan Millner (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) InterMat has released its preseason All-SoCon first and second teams, along with preseason conference Wrestler of the Year, preseason Newcomer of the Year, and preseason team favorite. We've used the term "Newcomer" since there is the possibility of wrestlers that competed at the national tournament in 2021, being called "freshmen." 1st Team Preseason All-SoCon 125: Codi Russell (Appalachian State) - 3x National Qualifier; 2x SoCon Champion 133: Sean Carter (Appalachian State) - 2021 SoCon Champion 141: Anthony Brito (Appalachian State) - 2021 SoCon Champion 149: Jonathan Millner (Appalachian State) - 2021 NCAA 8th Place, 2x SoCon Champion, 2x NCAA qualifier 157: Cody Bond (Appalachian State) - 2021 SoCon Champion 165: Drew Nicholson (Chattanooga) - 2021 SoCon Champion 174: Austin Murphy (Campbell) - 2021 SoCon Champion, 2021 NCAA Round of 12 finisher 184: Caleb Hopkins (Campbell) - 2021 SoCon Champion 197: Chris Kober (Campbell) - 2x SoCon Champion 285: Michael McAleavey (The Citadel) - 2021 SoCon Champion 2nd Team Preseason All-SoCon 125: Fabian Gutierrez (Chattanooga) 133: Jake Rotunda (The Citadel) 141: Shannon Hanna (Campbell) 149: Josh Heil (Campbell) 157: Troy Nation (Campbell) 165: Will Formato (Appalachian State) 174: Thomas Flitz (Appalachian State) 184: Matthew Waddell (Chattanooga) 197: Logan Andrew (Chattanooga) 285: Taye Ghadiali (Campbell) Preseason SoCon Wrestler of the Year: Jonathan Millner (Appalachian State) Appalachian State's Jonathan Millner is the lone returning All-American in the Southern Conference. Miller is coming off a season where he amassed a 16-4 overall record and finished eighth at the NCAA Championships while competing at 149 lbs. The All-American honors for Millner marked the first time since 2017 that a wrestler from Appalachian State (Denzel DeJournette) got onto the NCAA podium. Half of Millner's 16 victories came with bonus points and two came via fall. Millner entered the postseason with an 11-1 record and on an eight-match winning streak. At the SoCon Championships, Millner majored past national qualifier Selwyn Porter (The Citadel) to set up the most anticipated bout of the conference finals. He would face three-time SoCon champion Josh Heil (Campbell), amid a very tight team race. Millner prevailed 2-0 to win his second SoCon title, which garnered the seventh seed at his second NCAA Tournament. Millner secured All-American honors in St. Louis with his 10-7 win over Duke's Josh Finesilver. He enters the 2021-22 season with a 68-17 career record for the Mountaineers. InterMat's preseason national rankings have tabbed Millner at #9 at the 149 lb weight class. Preseason SoCon Newcomer of the Year: Brayden Abell (VMI) VMI's recent run of improved recruiting is evident with the Class of 2021, which features three freshmen in the projected lineup for the Keydets. 133 lber Brayden Abell comes to Lexington all the way from Oakdale, California, where he was a two-time state placewinner for Oakdale High School. Abell was fourth and sixth in the state as a sophomore and junior (California did not conduct an official state tournament in 2021). On a national level, Abell was a two-time placewinner at the Reno Tournament of Champions (3rd, 7th) and fifth at the Doc Buchanan. After the 2019 season, Abell was third at NHSCA Sophomore Nationals. Preseason SoCon Team Favorite: Campbell As has been the case recently, the SoCon race will come down to Campbell and Appalachian State. If past conference tournaments are any indicator, every single point and bonus point will matter. The 2021 tournament saw Campbell pull out a win by five points, while ASU crowned conference champs at the first five weights. Campbell returns seven wrestlers with past NCAA experience (though two are projected to compete at 125) and has a very balanced lineup. Years of strong recruiting have allowed coach Scotti Sentes to have great depth at most weights. Last season saw the Camels finish with three conference champions and they've had at least three for each of the previous three years. While Campbell can boast balance and depth, they have their own share of star power. Three-time conference champion Josh Heil has spent most of his collegiate career around the top ten nationally. He has earned top-12 seeds at the NCAA Tournament on two occasions and was #20 at the 2021 tournament. 174 lber Austin Murphy was seeded 11th at his first NCAA Tournament, in March, and finished a match shy of All-American status.

2x ACC champion Micky Phillipi (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com) Pittsburgh Panthers Two NCAA Finalists Lead Veteran Panther Squad Coach Keith Gavin enters his fifth season at the helm of his Alma Mater. This team has grown and improved every year under Gavin and they have a strong core of upperclassmen; the lineup will contain six seniors and four juniors, with a couple underclassmen fighting to take a starting spot. The Panthers made the breakthrough to Saturday night last season, putting Jake Wentzel and Nino Bonaccorsi in the finals. "We needed that," said Coach Gavin, "We have been right there and haven't had great performances at Nationals, so it was great to get Jake and Nino into the finals." Pittsburgh will have a very strong dual lineup with five starters in the Intermat Preseason Rankings. "We are in a good spot; we need to build off the momentum from last year and get some other guys over the hump to All-American. We are taking it day-by-day to get better and to get to where we need to be at the end of the year". TOP RETURNERS The Panthers will look to the leadership of Jake Wentzel and Nino Bonaccorsi, who both finished as NCAA Runners-up in 2021. Nino will have a delayed start to the season as he is competing in the U23 World Championships at the beginning of November. Another Pitt veteran, Micky Phillippi, will look to break through to earn All-American status after two Bloodround finishes in three trips to the NCAA Championships. The Panthers could have six NCAA qualifiers in the lineup this season. KEY DEPARTURES Though they had a veteran squad in 2020-2021, Pitt only lost one wrestler, Cole Aaron, to graduation. Mick Burnett, Anthony Collelo and Jared McGill left the program and entered the transfer portal during the preseason. NEWCOMERS Gage Curry joins the Panthers as a transfer from American University. He is a four-time NCAA qualifier at 125 and will add experience at the bottom of the lineup. Elijah Cleary also comes over as a transfer from Ohio State. Cleary has been on the bubble for qualifying for the NCAA tournament and hopes to get over that hurdle this year in Pittsburgh. He will also provide experience and depth at a weight that was inconsistent last season. Both will make a big impact in the practice room by giving a new feel to Micky Phillippi and Jake Wentzel, respectively. True freshmen Luca Augustine and Brock McMillen will be challenging for starting spots and will not have redshirt decisions made until after open tournaments begin. WRESTLERS TO WATCH "We've got some good battles going on in the room right now and we have some young guys trying to get into the lineup," said Coach Gavin. True freshmen Luca Augustine and Brock McMillen are looking to crack the lineup. Augustine, a State Champ from Waynesburg, PA, will be fighting for the 174 spot while Brock McMillen, 4x finalist, 3x State Champ from Glendale, PA, will be challenging for the spot at 149. "I feel good about our lineup. Nino and Jake took a big step last year and we have some others ready to do it this year. Micky has been right there; Cole has made a lot of gains," said Gavin. When asked what he was looking forward to for this season, he said, "we always have great competition in the ACC and we have some big non-conference matches with Arizona State, Ohio State and Lehigh this season. We are looking forward to having fans back at matches and having some normalcy. We'll take it match by match and I think we'll have a good year." POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: #23 Gage Curry (Sr) 4x NCAA Qualifier (American University)/Colton Camacho (So) 133: #7 Micky Phillippi (Sr) 3x NCAA Qualifier 2x ACC Champion 141: #22 Cole Matthews (Jr) NCAA Qualifier, 2021 ACC 3rd 149: Luke Kemerer (Jr)/Dan Mancini (So)/Brock McMillen (Fr) 157: Elijah Cleary (Sr) 2021 B1G 10 9th (Ohio State) 165: #4 Jake Wentzel (Sr) NCAA Runner-Up 2x NCAA Qualifier, 2x ACC Champion 174: Hunter Kernan (Jr)/Luca Augustine (Fr) 184: Gregg Harvey (Sr) NCAA Qualifier, 2021 ACC 3rd 197: #2 Nino Bonaccorsi (Sr) NCAA Runner-Up, 3x NCAA Qualifier, 2021 ACC Champion 285: Jake Slinger (Jr)

2021 NCAA All-American Korbin Myers (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) If you think back hard enough, you may remember that your timeline was blowing up with random wrestler names and the hashtag #MatScoutsDynasty just over a year ago. That was the inaugural draft of the MatScouts Dynasty Fantasy League. Since then, deals were made, duals were waged, and teams were sent to a grand National Tournament in March vying to be the Top Fantasy Wrestling Team in the Dynasty League. We now enter Season 2 of the #MatScoutsDynasty League, so let's catch you up to where all the teams stand. As a refresher, here is the basic point scoring rules: For wrestlers competing in dual meets, Standard Dual Team Scoring is used (win by Dec +3, loss by Dec -6, etc). Bonus Points are given when your wrestler beats a ranked wrestler OR if your wrestler loses to a ranked wrestler ex: if your wrestler beats Spencer Lee by Dec, your wrestler would get +3 for the Dec and another +6 for beating the #1 ranked wrestler. If your wrestler loses by Dec to Spencer Lee, your wrestler is penalized only for -1 pt. One starter per weight with two Flex classes. Two in-season competitions of Head-to-Head Duals and Cumulative Total Points. Each competition brought with it the prize of earning additional team points for the National Tournament. 1st place = +9 team points for Nationals, 2nd place = +8, etc (if you win 1st in the Duals and Total Points, you earn +18 team points for Nationals, etc) Danny B Mobbin' Team Manager: Dan Seifring (@OBRATS) How It Started: Dan Seifring, of WrestleStat fame and who partnered in bringing you the first consumer ready and "real time" Fantasy College Wrestling Program, joins our Dynasty League and was the #2 pick. For Dan's full draft recap, see the full draft board HERE Hindsight Draft Review: First Round Pick (#1 Overall): When you have the chance to draft a two-time, basically undefeated (see Jaydin Eierman), National Champion… you don't think twice. As such, Danny B Mobbin selected Yianni Diakomihalis, but with the pick came some uncertainty. First, what weight? Rumor had been that Yianni would go 141 or 149 and Josh Saunders (COR) would take the other. Second, he took an Olympic Redshirt last season and, per the 2021 Cornell roster, was not listed making one wonder if he was taking yet another Olympic Redshirt given the unusual circumstances about the Summer Games. The concerns became moot though, with the Ivy League cancelling Winter Sports. Looks like the Elf goes back on the shelf as there wasn't going to be a Christmas in Diakomi-Hollis. (Ha, get it?!) Great Picks: Towards the end of the draft, with the #199 overall pick out of 250 (end of 20th Round), 174 Demetrius Romero (Utah Valley) was selected with the thought he would be at 165. He wrestled most of his career at 165, but per the Utah Valley roster it seemed as though Demetrius Romero was slated to be 174 for the season. His 2020 season was cut short with injury, only wrestling 2 matches, but the year prior he made the bloodround after a 28-5 season. From his two years at Boise State (RIP) to 2021, he has been pretty consistent in the bonus department, winning an average of almost 25% of his matches by bonus. Last season in WrestleStat leagues, he finished as the #1 Fantasy Wrestler at 174 and the #5 overall in Fpts with a bonus rate of 75% in the regular season. Under The Radar Pick: To start the season, the only listed 184 on Rutgers roster was the #16 overall recruit by MatScouts, John Poznanski. The New Jersey 2020 Champ (and three-time NJ State placer), won all 43 of his Senior year matches, 30 of them by Fall and five by Tech. Coming into the starting role for the Scarlet Knights, he entered the Big Ten Championships as the #5 seed and ended with avenging his regular season loss to Owen Webster and beating Iowa's Nelson Brands for 3rd Place honors. A Miss For This Season: Not really his fault, but Dan's roster may have been the hardest hit with the the Ivy League cancelling the 2021 season as eight of his wrestlers were suddenly moved to the bench. Three or four were probably slated to be on the NCAA roster for March. Outside of that, Sammy Alvarez (RUT) was unfortunately sidelined from conferences with weight issues How The Season Played Out: Despite the lack of participation from the Ivys, Danny B Mobbin' rattled off seven straight dual wins before falling in the last dual to Cael Chips. He was able to secure the #2 spot in Dual and Total Points standings, which gave him a bonus 16 team points towards his NCAA total. See the full Dual and Total Points Standings HERE Despite weight changes and some season cancellations (and NCAA imposed suspensions), Team JHagger only had to dip into the Transfer Portal a couple of times for some plug-n'-plays in the regular season: Because of the Ivy and PSAC season cancellations, the Transfer Portal was hit often by Danny B Mobbin: - Drop 285 Yaraslau Slavikouski (Harvard), adds 184 David Key (Navy) - Drop 125 Luke Werner (Lock Haven), adds 125 Connor Brown (Missouri) - Drop 285 Boone McDermott (Rutgers), adds 285 Ethan Laird (Rider) ​ - Drop 149 Ryan Vulakh (Rutgers), adds 149 Job Chishko (VMI) ​ - Drop 165 Phillip Conigliaro (Harvard), adds 165 William Formato ​ - Drop 157 Colton Yapoujian (Cornell), adds 174 Thomas Flitz (Appalachian State) - Drop 141 Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh), adds 149 Legend Lamer (Cal Poly) - Drop 165 Ed Ruth (Lehigh), adds 184 Brit Wilson (Northern Illinois) - Drop 184 David Key (Navy), adds 125 Jackson DiSario (Stanford) - Drop 157 Markus Hartman (Army), adds 285 Michael McAleavey (The Citadel) - Drop 149 Job Chishko (VMI), adds 149 Mike Van Brill (Rutgers) - Drop 125 Jackson DiSario (Stanford), adds 285 Boone McDermott (Rutgers) - Drop 149 Mike Van Brill (Rutgers), adds 125 Liam Cronin (Nebraska) - Drop 285 Boone McDermott (Rutgers), adds 149 John Millner (Appalachian State) - Drop 125 Connor Brown (Missouri), adds 125 Noah Surtin (Mizzouri) - Drop 174 Thomas Flitz (Appalachian State), adds 149 Kyle Parco (Fresno State) Danny B'Mobin was also involved in a few trades during the season: - 1/13/2021: Traded 165 Tommy Bullard (NC State) to Team Gould for 174 Chris Foca (Cornell) - 1/13/2021: Traded 157 Kendall Coleman (Purdue) & 149 Brock Hardy (Nebraska) to Brain Power for 165 Shane Griffith (Stanford) & 157 Markus Hartman (Army) ​ - 3/6/2021: Tradeed 174 Kaleb Romero (Ohio State) to Murder Hornets for 133 Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech) 2021 NCAA Tournament Danny B' Mobbin' approached the 2021 NCAA Tournament with this End-of-Season Roster: And this is the lineup Dan entered for Nationals: Finishing with 114 points, Dan hit the middle of the pack with 5th Place in the Final #MatScoutsDynasty League Standings for the inaugural season. Danny B Mobbin' Entering the 2022 Season Draft If you didn't know better, you'd think this was a chart for the local heat index. Danny B Mobbin' falls on the older side of rosters within the league and in the next two years, half the team will have graduated. There are severe depth issues for 133, 157, and 174, while an over abundance of talent at 149, 165, 197, and 285. Dan will have to use the upcoming draft building for the next generation of the Mobbin' Empire, and probably would be good to start where he's at his thinnest. Danny B Mobbin' is the #5 pick in the draft this season on October 18, 2021. Who should he target? Should he drop anyone before the draft? What weights need depth? Should he look to trade? who? Let us know!

3x NCAA All-American Sebastian Rivera (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com; Graphic/Anna-Lee Marie) Welcome to a new recurring feature from InterMat as we lead into the 2021-22 collegiate season. We are about 50 days away from the start of the new season, so what better way to ring in the new year than to use that time to count down the top-50 current collegiate wrestlers. Each day a new wrestler will be released. These rankings have been compiled by members of the InterMat staff and used a combination of collegiate achievements, with 2021 accomplishments carrying more weight than past years, along with win-loss records and notable wins. While we are counting down the top-50 wrestlers based primarily on collegiate accomplishments, it is impossible to totally ignore achievements in the international settings, so they did factor in slightly, too. Before getting to the next wrestler on the list, look at the wrestlers previously profiled: #50 - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) #49 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) #48 - Dakota Geer (Oklahoma State) #47 - Kaleb Young (Iowa) #46 - Rocky Elam (Missouri) #45 - Chad Red Jr. (Nebraska) #44 - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) #43 - Brock Mauller (Missouri) #42 - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) #41 - John Poznanski (Rutgers) #40 - Brayton Lee (Minnesota) #39 - Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma State) #38 - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) #37 - Tariq Wilson (NC State) #36 - Jacob Warner (Iowa) #35 - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) #34 - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) #33 - Vito Arujau (Cornell) #32 - Patrick Glory (Princeton) #31 - Max Dean (Penn State) #30 - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) #29 - Mike Labriola (Nebraska) #28 - Nino Bonaccorsi (Pittsburgh) #27 - Austin DeSanto (Iowa) #26 - Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh) #25 - Evan Wick (Cal Poly) #24 - Alex Marinelli (Iowa) #23 - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) Next is… #22 Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers) Weight: 133/141 lbs Year: Senior Career Record: 86-15 Hometown: Toms River, New Jersey College Accomplishments: 2021 NCAA 4th, 2020 NWCA 1st Team All-American, 2019 NCAA 3rd, 2018 NCAA 6th, 2x Big Ten Champion 2021-22 Preseason Ranking: #3 at 133 lbs What a recruiting class for the Northwestern staff in 2016! The Wildcats signed #23 Ryan Deakin and #22 Sebastian Rivera, both of whom were multiple-time All-Americans for Northwestern. Like Deakin, Rivera took a redshirt during his first year in Evanston. Rivera took three losses during his first two open competitions, two of which came to Central Michigan's Brent Fleetwood, a returning national qualifier. Rivera started to show what he was capable of at the Midlands. He finished fourth at the 125 lb weight class, losing only to Tim Lambert (Nebraska) and forfeiting out of the third-place match. Before that, Rivera logged wins over a trio of NCAA qualifiers (Travis Piotrowski - Illinois, Johnny Jimenez - Wisconsin, Shakur Laney - Ohio). After the Midlands, Rivera captured a title at the Duhawk Open and defeated Jimenez again, along with Missouri's starter, Barlow McGee, a returning Round of 12 finisher. Once officially in the lineup, during the 2017-18 season, Rivera hit the ground running and won his first 14 bouts in a Northwestern singlet. That span included a title at the Keystone Classic and ran all the way until the semifinals of the Midlands. There he was edged by another New Jersey native, Nick Suriano (Rutgers), 7-6. Rivera bounced back with a pair of wins, including a major decision over past NCAA finalist Zeke Moisey (West Virginia), to claim third. During the home stretch of the 2017-18 dual season, Rivera went 6-2, with his only losses coming to the eventual national finalists, Spencer Lee (Iowa) and Suriano. Only one of the wins during that span saw Rivera limited to a regular decision. At his first Big Ten Championship event, Rivera advanced to the semifinals before falling victim to a past national runner-up, Ethan Lizak (Minnesota), 3-2. In the consolation semis, he was majored by Lee, 12-0. Rivera went on to take fifth after Suriano medically forfeited out of the tournament. The fifth-place finish at the Big Ten was good enough to merit the tenth seed at his first NCAA Tournament. Rivera's NCAA tournament debut featured a major decision victory over George Mason's Ibrahim Bunduka in round one. Things got more difficult in the Round of 16 as Rivera was paired with #7 Taylor LaMont (Utah Valley). Relegated to the consolations, Rivera put together an impressive run to lock up a place on the NCAA podium. Rivera earned bonus points in two of his three bouts to clinch a spot in the top-eight. He didn't stop there and majored Ronnie Bresser (Oregon State) to climb into the top-six. A pair of previous national champions, Nate Tomasello (Ohio State) and Darian Cruz (Lehigh), defeated Rivera in his next two bouts, pushing him to sixth place. That finish made him the first Northwestern freshman All-American since 2015. There was no such thing as a sophomore slump for Rivera, who won his first 20 matches during the 2018-19 season. Rivera went to sudden victory to knock off Bresser in the finals of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. The Vegas win was nothing compared to Rivera's showing at the Midlands, less than a month later. Rivera teched four opponents to make the finals opposite 2018 national champion Spencer Lee. Rivera shocked the wrestling world with a 7-3 win over the Hawkeye, which elevated him to the number one ranking. Rivera's only loss of the regular season came when he bumped up to 133 to take on the fellow unbeaten All-American Stevan Micic (Michigan). Though Rivera lost, he cemented his reputation as someone who's willing to compete against anyone, anywhere. At the Big Ten Championships, Rivera proved his win over Lee was no fluke. While the margin of victory was not as great, the Wildcat prevailed in sudden victory to down Lee and win his first Big Ten title. With two wins over Lee, a Big Ten title, and a record that included only one loss (at 133 lbs), Rivera was awarded the top seed at the 2019 NCAA Championships. In Pittsburgh, Rivera advanced to the quarterfinals after a tech fall and a shutout win over Drew Mattin (Michigan) in the Round of 16. The quarters saw Rivera get by a challenge from a tough freshman Vito Arujau (Cornell), 6-2. The win locked up All-American honors for a second straight year and led him to the semis against Jack Mueller (Virginia). Mueller shocked Rivera with an early takedown and added a ton of riding time. Rivera never seemed to recover and was on the wrong side of an 8-2 bout. Though disappointed, Rivera climbed back into third place with a pair of wins Saturday morning over longtime rival Patrick Glory (Princeton) and Arujau. For the 2019-20 season, Rivera would move up to 133 lbs, which was a meatgrinder in the Big Ten. Rivera found that out firsthand at the Midlands, where he fell in an 8-7 shootout to 2018 NCAA champion, Seth Gross (Wisconsin) in the tournament's semis. He would end up third at the Midlands for the second time in his career. After the Midlands, Rivera competed sparingly, only seeing action in two duals. That didn't seem to affect him at the Big Ten Championships as he ran the gamut and took out Piotrowski, Gross, and Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State), to win his second conference crown in front of his hometown crowd. The Big Ten title was enough for the first seed at the 2020 NCAA Championships. Unfortunately, Rivera and the rest of the NCAA field could not compete due to the initial outbreak of Covid. Some of the notables on Rivera's half of the bracket include, #4 Micky Phillipi (Pittsburgh), #5 Bravo-Young, #8 Montorie Bridges (Wyoming), #9 Noah Gonser (Campbell). Based on his seed, Rivera was named an NWCA first-time All-American. The reception Rivera received from the New Jersey crowd at the RAC on the campus of Rutgers University proved to be a sign of things to come. In the 2020 offseason, Rivera transferred back to his home state to wrestle for Scott Goodale's team as a graduate student. All four of Rivera's regular-season contests for Rutgers came against NCAA qualifiers, though none came against elite contenders. He spent the entire year ranked in the top-three along with Jaydin Eierman (Iowa) and Nick Lee (Penn State). Finally, at the 2021 Big Ten Championships, Rivera met up with Lee in the conference semifinals. Lee ended up getting his hand raised after an 8-6 win in sudden victory. To come away with third place, Rivera had to go through Nebraska's multi-time All-American Chad Red. Third place in the Big Ten was good enough for a third seed at nationals for Rivera. He cruised to wins in his first three bouts to set up a rematch with Lee. This time it wasn't quite as competitive and the eventual national champion was victorious, 9-3. In the consolation semifinals, Rivera scored his second win of the tournament over Dylan Duncan (Illinois), before suffering a stunning 15-5 loss to Tariq Wilson (NC State). At this time, it's uncertain exactly where Rivera will compete in 2021-22. He wrestled at the 2021 World Championships at 65 kg for Puerto Rico. The plan is to wrestle in the U23 World Championships, in early November as well. There is the possibility he goes down to 133, but all signs may be pointing towards 141 lbs now. Strengths: Rivera is extremely physical and an active hand fighter. He likes to control the center of the mat with an underhook, but can work from space or off ties. His offensive arsenal is vast and contains a variety of single-leg attacks. If his opponents want to go upperbody off Rivera's underhook, he'll oblige, too. He's capable of picking up a bunch of riding time from the top with his leg riding and is a threat to score using his tilt series. 2021-22 Outlook: Whichever weight Rivera goes, he'll be on the shortlist of title contenders. He has a past win over the 2021 national champion at 133 lbs, Roman Bravo-Young; however, it was almost two years ago now. 3x NCAA All-American Sebastian Rivera (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)

VMI 197 lber Tyler Mousaw (Photo/VMI Athletics) Virginia Military Institute Keydets "Our team has worked hard the past few years to achieve depth in more of the weights this year. Our returners will be challenged by the younger guys." "This season we're looking to have a winning record and stay healthy." - Head Coach Jim Gibson The 2021 season will be Jim Gibson's fourth season at VMI. While Cormack Hall had limited capacity due to COVID-19 regulations, VMI sold out every home match during the 2021 season! TOP RETURNERS The Keydets will see 9 out of 10 starters return this season, with notable returning cadet-athletes: • 184: Zach Brown (Jr) • 197: Tyler Mousaw (So) - Ranked in Top 33 Coaches Poll 2020-2021 season • 157: Blake Showers (So) - Ranked in the Top 33 Coaches Poll 2020-2021 season KEY DEPARTURES • Only two seniors graduated from the Keydet lineup last season. NEWCOMERS • 125: Michael Tandurella (Don Bosco Prep, NJ) - 2021 sixth place finish in NJ State Tournament • 133: Brayden Abell (Oakdale High School, CA) - Two-time California state placer (6th, 4th) • 184: Justin Hart (Hampton High School, PA) - 2021 PIAA AAA Silver medalist WRESTLERS TO WATCH • 184: Zach Brown (Jr) - Faced some injuries last season, but is looking to be a bigger asset to the program this season. • 197: Tyler Mousaw (So) • 157: Blake Showers (So) Both Mousaw and Showers could be NCAA qualifiers this year with a more extensive schedule. COVID really restricted schedules last season and VMI is looking forward to getting more experience for their Cadet-Athletes. POTENTIAL LINEUP 125: Michael Tandurella (Fr) 133: Brayden Abell (Fr) 141: Freddy Junko (So) 149: Seth Fillers (So) / Noah Roulo (Jr) 157: Blake Showers (So) 165: Job Chishko (Jr) 174: Jon Hoover (Jr) 184: Zach Brown (Jr) 197: Tyler Mousaw (So) 285: Josh Evans (Fr) EVENTS TO WATCH/ATTEND Intrasquad match will be held in a courtyard in the Barracks on October 28, watch for updates on live stream and updates on Twitter @VMI_Wrestling December 12 the Keydets will host West Virginia University. Come support these Cadet-Athletes as they take on a Big 12 school at home!

2021 NCAA All-American Taylor LaMont (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com) If you think back hard enough, you may remember that your timeline was blowing up with random wrestler names and the hashtag #MatScoutsDynasty just over a year ago. That was the inaugural draft of the MatScouts Dynasty Fantasy League. Since then, deals were made, duals were waged, and teams were sent to a grand National Tournament in March vying to be the Top Fantasy Wrestling Team in the Dynasty League. We now enter Season 2 of the #MatScoutsDynasty League, so let's catch you up to where all the teams stand. As a refresher, here is the basic point scoring rules: For wrestlers competing in dual meets, Standard Dual Team Scoring is used (win by Dec +3, loss by Dec -6, etc). Bonus Points are given when your wrestler beats a ranked wrestler OR if your wrestler loses to a ranked wrestler ex: if your wrestler beats Spencer Lee by Dec, your wrestler would get +3 for the Dec and another +6 for beating the #1 ranked wrestler. If your wrestler loses by Dec to Spencer Lee, your wrestler is penalized only for -1 pt. One starter per weight with two Flex classes. Two in-season competitions of Head-to-Head Duals and Cumulative Total Points. Each competition brought with it the prize of earning additional team points for the National Tournament. 1st place = +9 team points for Nationals, 2nd place = +8, etc (if you win 1st in the Duals and Total Points, you earn +18 team points for Nationals, etc) Team JHagger Team Manager: Tony Hager (@hagertony) & Jagger Noir (@Jagger712) How It Started: Tony Hager is the owner/founder of IA wrestle and occasionally he likes to have a beer or three (#SingleSpeedBrewing). Tony was the 5th pick in the inaugural MatScouts Dynasty League draft. Due to some scheduling conflicts after the draft was completed, Tony Hager hired a Day-to-Day Manager, who took the time away from selling a guy a pair of white walls to run the organization. You know him as Jagger712, and thus team JHagger was born. For Tony's full draft recap, see the full draft board HERE Hindsight Draft Review: First Round Pick (#1 Overall): In a dynasty league, getting an “anchor” of a wrestler to hold down starting duties for the foreseeable future is always at a premium. “Falling” to midway of the 1st round, Team JHagger selected 165 Mekhi Lewis (VT) with the 5th overall pick, who was a returning National Champ and had the opportunity to be a 5x National Champion. An injury towards the end of the regular season unfortunately derailed that dream, but with an offseason to heal, Lewis hopefully returns to healthy form (up a weight too). Great Picks: There was never a doubt that 285 Gannon Gremmel (ISU) was going to be the starter, but with how deep 285 is he seemed to get a little lost in the shuffle. Selected #236 overall (mid-24th round), he entered the National Tournament as the #6 seed after going 11-1 in the regular season and winning the Big XII Championships. Unfortunately from a Fantasy standpoint, five of those wins were against non-D1 opponents and thus did not count. Hindsight is always 2020, especially when analyzing something that happened more than a year ago. But on the 7th round, #1 overall recruit AJ Ferrari (OKST) was selected (#65 overall). He fell to being the 10th True Freshman to be selected, but finished as the #2 Fantasy Wrestler at 197 and the 11th Overall Fantasy Wrestler. Under The Radar Pick: No one can predict injuries, but it's always been part of the sport so having a dependable backup is always something to seek. Backing up their #5 overall pick was 165 Tanner Skidgel (NAVY) who was selected with the #185 overall pick. Skidgel finished as the #6 wrestler in Fpts at 165 last season. A Miss For This Season: Before the announcement that the Ivy League was cancelling all Winter Championships, 125 Vito Arujau (COR) was a consensus Top-5 in the weight. As such, he was picked in the 2nd Round, 10th overall. Outside of that, 184 Abe Assad proved last season he was an All American contender and was selected by Team JHagger in the 4th Round. Unfortunately as the wrestling world found out later, Nelson Brands would get the start with Assad not seeing any mat time during the regular season, even in Extra Matches. How The Season Played Out: The regular season was successful in terms of Total Points, finishing in 5th Place , whereas they hit a losing streak of 6 straight duals before finishing the regular season with 2 wins. In all, Team JHagger finished in the Dual Standings at the 7th spot, earning 8 additional bonus team points for his NCAA score. See the full Dual and Total Points Standings HERE Despite weight changes and some season cancellations (and NCAA imposed suspensions), Team JHagger only had to dip into the Transfer Portal a couple of times for some plug-n'-plays in the regular season: - Drop 149 Kizahn Clarke (American), adds 141 Dylan Duncan (Illinois) - Drop 184 Jacob Holschlag (UNI), adds 133 Tony Madrigal (Oklahoma) ​ Team JHagger was also involved in one during the season: - 1/15/2021: Traded 141 Tariq Wilson (NC State) to Cael Chips for 184 Nelson Brands (Iowa) 2021 NCAA Tournament Team JHagger approached the 2021 NCAA Tournament with this End-of-Season Roster: And this is the lineup Ian/Tony entered for Nationals: With 104 team points from the NCAA National Tournament (and the added bonus earned during the regular season), Team JHagger finished in 6th place in the #MatScoutsDynasty League Standings for the inaugural season. Team JHagger Entering the 2022 Season Draft It doesn't take a Rocket Surgeon to figure out that the glaring need for Team JHagger is at 165. Other immediate depth concerns lay with the bookends of 125 and 285 as it is still up in the air if Vito is going 125 or 133 this coming season. 141 could also use a youth injection too. This roster composition is pretty diversified for the coming 2022 regular season, but drafting will be a big part of this team's success in 2022 and on. Team JHagger is the #5 pick in the draft this season on October 18, 2021. Who should he target? Should he drop anyone before the draft? What weights need depth? Should he look to trade? who? Let us know!

2x NCAA All-American Ryan Deakin (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com; Graphic/Anna-Lee Marie) Welcome to a new recurring feature from InterMat as we lead into the 2021-22 collegiate season. We are about 50 days away from the start of the new season, so what better way to ring in the new year than to use that time to count down the top-50 current collegiate wrestlers. Each day a new wrestler will be released. These rankings have been compiled by members of the InterMat staff and used a combination of collegiate achievements, with 2021 accomplishments carrying more weight than past years, along with win-loss records and notable wins. While we are counting down the top-50 wrestlers based primarily on collegiate accomplishments, it is impossible to totally ignore achievements in the international settings, so they did factor in slightly, too. Before getting to the next wrestler on the list, look at the wrestlers previously profiled: #50 - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) #49 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) #48 - Dakota Geer (Oklahoma State) #47 - Kaleb Young (Iowa) #46 - Rocky Elam (Missouri) #45 - Chad Red Jr. (Nebraska) #44 - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) #43 - Brock Mauller (Missouri) #42 - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) #41 - John Poznanski (Rutgers) #40 - Brayton Lee (Minnesota) #39 - Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma State) #38 - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) #37 - Tariq Wilson (NC State) #36 - Jacob Warner (Iowa) #35 - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) #34 - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) #33 - Vito Arujau (Cornell) #32 - Patrick Glory (Princeton) #31 - Max Dean (Penn State) #30 - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) #29 - Mike Labriola (Nebraska) #28 - Nino Bonaccorsi (Pittsburgh) #27 - Austin DeSanto (Iowa) #26 - Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh) #25 - Evan Wick (Cal Poly) #24 - Alex Marinelli (Iowa) Next is… #23 Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) Weight: 157 lbs Year: Senior Career Record: 96-15 Hometown: Broomfield, Colorado College Accomplishments: 2021 NCAA 3rd, 2020 NWCA 1st Team All-American, 2019 NCAA 6th, 2x Big Ten Champion 2021-22 Preseason Ranking: #3 at 157 lbs Coming out of high school, Ryan Deakin was not considered a slam-dunk, sure-thing for the Northwestern staff. Deakin was ranked among the Class of 2016; however, it was barely in the top-100, coming in at #97. It didn't take long to discover that the Wildcats may have had a steal on their hands as Deakin won four bouts at his first open tournament, then finished third at the Michigan State Open, a week later. At the Midlands Championships, Deakin really broke out with a third-place showing at the 149 lb weight class. His only loss came to four-time AA Brandon Sorensen (Iowa). Along the way, he logged wins over FIVE national qualifiers. Deakin wrapped up his redshirt campaign by winning the Duhawk Open and pinning three of his four opponents in the process. After the collegiate season was over, Deakin on a UWW Junior National title, then claimed a spot on the Junior World Team. Deakin earned a silver medal at 65 kg and helped lead the men's freestyle team to their first team title in over 30 years. The Junior World medal made Deakin a household name and raised the expectations heading into his freshman year. He didn't disappoint making the finals of his first official tournament, the Michigan State Open, before falling to returning All-American Justin Oliver (Central Michigan). In his next tournament, Deakin made the Keystone Classic finals before getting majored by Zain Retherford (Penn State). For the second consecutive year, Deakin took third at the Midlands. His only loss came to All-American Matt Kolodzik (Princeton). Once again, he tallied some impressive victories there. Wins over past national champion Jason Tsirtsis (Arizona State) and Pat Lugo (Iowa), were among the best. After the new year, with a dual slate consisting primarily of Big Ten foes, Deakin went eight of nine. His only loss during that span came to Sorensen in extra time. That would be his only dual defeat of the year. At his first Big Ten meet, Deakin again fell to Sorensen, this time by a 7-2 margin in the semifinals. He did not wrestle back and default out to sixth place. His total body of work was good enough for a seventh seed at the 2018 NCAA Championships. In Cleveland, Deakin cruised to an opening-round win over Binghamton's Frank Garcia, 7-0. In the next round, it was the former Wildcat, Tsirtsis, who got a measure of revenge on Deakin with a 4-3 upset. After a tech fall, Deakin found himself against Sorensen, who also was upended in the second round. The Hawkeye continued his dominance of Deakin and was the 4-2 winner. Though he came up shy of the NCAA podium, Deakin posted a 32-7 mark as a freshman and went 14-1 in dual meet competition. All seven of his losses came to prior All-Americans. As a sophomore, Deakin decided to move up to 157 lbs. The jump proved to be a sound decision as Deakin won his first 16 matches at the new weight class. During that time, the Wildcat star claimed titles at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and the Midlands. In Vegas, his closest contest was a six-point decision. For the Midlands title, he took out Iowa's Kaleb Young. Sandwiched between those tournaments were dual meet wins against past All-Americans Larry Early (Old Dominion) and Paul Fox (Stanford). After the Midlands, Deakin ran into the eventual NCAA finalists in his next two bouts. He hung close with Tyler Berger (Nebraska) in a 6-3 loss, but was dismantled by then-two-time champion Jason Nolf (Penn State) 19-7. Those two losses would account for his only two of the regular season. Perhaps Deakin's biggest regular-season win came near the tail end of the conference dual slate, when he won an 11-9 shootout versus Alec Pantaleo (Michigan). Pantaleo would end up evening the score at the Big Ten Championships when he routed Deakin, 10-4, during the consolation semifinals. Deakin would settle for fifth-place. In his final bout, Deakin made up for an earlier loss to Steve Bleise (Minnesota). Even so, Deakin still received the third seed for the 2019 NCAA Championships. At nationals, Deakin got a tougher than expected first-round match with Christian LaBrie (Brown), before majoring Griffin Parriott (Purdue) in the Round of 16. With a berth in the semifinals on the line, Deakin was edged in sudden victory by Young, The loss to Young dropped Deakin into the bloodround, where he was in danger of not placing, though he was a prominent seed, again. No worries, this time. He cruised to a 9-2 win over Lehigh freshman Josh Humphreys. Deakin clinched a spot in the top-six after shutting out Early, 5-0, in his next bout. That's as high as Deakin would go though, as he fell in consecutive bouts to Hayden Hidlay (NC State) and Young and settled for sixth place. The spring of 2019 ended up being monumental for Deakin on the freestyle scene. He entered and won the US Open and shocked world silver medalist James Green in the process. The win clinched a spot in Final X with a world team berth on the line. Green and Deakin would meet again in Final X and the veteran, Green, won both contests decisively, but Deakin established himself as a top contender on the Senior circuit going forward. In the 2019-20 season, Deakin started off on fire and never let up. For the second consecutive year, he captured a title at the CKLV Invitational. Deakin's bracket was one of the most difficult, but it didn't seem to matter as he navigated through with relatively easy wins over Hidlay and freshman sensation David Carr (Iowa State). The post-Vegas duals saw Deakin only held to a regular decision in two of his ten contests. It would be more of the same at the Big Ten Championships. A crop of freshman stars proved to be no match for the Wildcat junior as he downed Will Lewan (Michigan) and Kendall Coleman (Purdue), without much trouble to claim his first conference title. A Big Ten crown and a perfect record overall were good enough to warrant the top seed at the 2020 NCAA Championships. Deakin wouldn't get the opportunity to capitalize on his top billing as the tournament never happened because of the onset of Covid. Some notables on Deakin's half of the bracket included, #4 Jesse Dellavecchia (Rider), #5 Quincy Monday (Princeton), #8 Young, and #9 Jacori Teemer (Arizona State). After the season, Deakin was named a first-team All-American by the NWCA. The shortened 2021 saw Deakin take the mat in only three duals. His final one came against top-contender Brayton Lee (Minnesota) and Deakin looked as good as ever, with a 12-0 major decision. The top-seed at the 2021 Big Ten Championships, Deakin crushed the field. He allowed one single point during his three bouts at the tournament. This time it was Young who Deakin downed in the finals, by the score of 6-0. In back-to-back years, Deakin entered the NCAA Championships as the undefeated top-seed, though in 2021, he was actually able to compete. As a possible precursor of things to come, Deakin had more trouble than you'd expect in his Round of 16 win over Requir van der Merwe (Stanford) and Jared Franek (North Dakota State), in the quarters. That set the stage for a semifinal bout against Dellavecchia, who was also the fourth seed this year. Early on, in the second period, Dellavecchia used a crab ride and half to put Deakin on his back for a fall. The only loss via pin in Deakin's career sent him to the consolation semis on Saturday morning. There would claim third place by majoring Lee and cooling down a hot Teemer, 1-0. Just a month ago, Deakin advanced to the 70 kg finals of the World Team Trials, opposite Green, again. Deakin enters his final season with an incredible resume. Two NCAA All-American finishes and a pair of Big Ten titles. He's twice been named the #1 seed at the NCAA Championships and went undefeated in the regular season on both occasions. Deakin has a pair of CKLV titles, along with one Midlands win. On the international scene, he has a Junior World silver medal and has wrestled off for a spot on the Senior team twice. Strengths: Deakin has a massive frame and is extremely strong for the weight class. Many observers (myself included) expected him to move up this year. His long reach helps keep opponents at bay and most can't get through the head/hands defense. If so, he can sit the corner with the best of them. Offensively, Deakin can beat you many different ways, but his sweep single is perhaps his best weapon. On the mat, he's a smothering rider. Deakin can rack up boatloads of riding time with his heavy pressure from a spiral/half combo. He will look for bars to possibly pin his opponents. 2021-22 Outlook: Deakin enters the year ranked third in the nation, behind a pair of returning national champions. One of which is David Carr, who Deakin handed his only official collegiate loss. When he's at his best, Deakin is capable of defeating anyone at this weight and standing on the top step in Detroit. He'll be in the mix for a national title this season. 2x NCAA All-American Ryan Deakin (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)