InterMat Staff

Women’s wrestling kicked off on Wednesday at the U20 World Championships and the US team started off strong with two women in world finals and another in the hunt for bronze. The two wrestlers that advanced to Thursday’s gold medal matches both happen to be veterans of the U20 world scene. Cristelle Rodriguez and Alexis Janiak were on the 2023 U20 world team and their experience helped propel them to wrestle for world titles tomorrow. Rodriguez was 12th in 2023 and outwrestled that placement already - and then some! The NAIA national champion from Doane actually wasn’t seriously tested during any of her three bouts at 55 kg on Wednesday. Rodriguez needed just over a minute to dispatch Poland’s Amelia Tomala, 11-0. In her second match, Rodriguez came out hot again breezing through Russian, Ekaterina Chikanova with a first takedown in only :38 seconds. Rodriguez continued to pour it on with a 9-0 lead early in the second period. She would put an emphatic stamp on her victory with a big, four-point finish to a leg attack and a 13-0 victory. In the day’s second session, Rodriguez continued to dominate despite surrendering a takedown and her first points of the event to European U20 champion Tuba Demir (Turkiye). Rodriguez got to her offense with a single leg and switched to a double leg with a strong finish for four points and nearly secured a fall after the two hit the mat. Late in the opening period, Rodriguez stopped a Demir shot and threw her an opponent by for a takedown and a 6-2 lead. Early in the second period, Demir attempted a throw, which Rodriguez anticipated, putting Demir to her back. Rodriguez sunk in a deep half and was able to notch the fall. Rodriguez will face Mongolia’s Khaliun Byambasuren in tomorrow’s gold medal match. Byambasuren got to the finals on the strength of a 3-1 semifinal win over Japan’s Karina Honda. The only returning U20 medalist on the women’s team this year is Alexis Janiak - who is now a two-time U20 medalist after her run to the finals on Wednesday. Janiak was a bronze medalist at 59 kg last year. She returned to that same weight class in 2024. Like Rodriguez, Janiak wasn’t overly challenged on Wednesday; however, she did need to wrestle the full six minutes in all three of her matches. Despite the lack of close scores for Janiak, it didn’t mean that she didn’t have to dig deep to earn her wins. In the semifinals against Uladzislava Kudzin (Belarus - AIN), Janiak had to fight back from a 2-0 deficit early in the second period. Janiak scored a takedown off of a low double leg and held both legs for a leg lace. She was able to get four turns to quickly take a 10-2 lead. That is how the bout would end and Janiak earned a spot in tomorrow’s gold medal match. That was almost a carbon copy of Janiak’s quarterfinal win over Viktoria Borsos (Hungary). Borsos led 3-1 with about a minute and a half remaining in the bout, but surrendered a takedown to Janiak who also broke the match open with leg laces. She would win, 11-3. Janiak will take on Japan’s Sakura Onishi for the gold. Onishi advanced to the finals after a pair of 10-0 techs and a fall in the semifinals. The other American woman in the medal hunt is Naomi Simon at 76 kg. Simon nearly was able to pull off a comeback win in the quarterfinals against Ukraine’s Mariia Orlevych, but just fell short at 9-8. Orlevych was able to win her next match, pulling Simon into medal contention. Simon will face Japan’s Chisato Yoshida in a bronze medal match tomorrow. At 50 kg, Anaya Falcon posted a first-round win, but was defeated in her second match and has been eliminated from the medal chase. The remainder of the women’s team will take the mat tomorrow. That group includes two-time U20 team member Reese Larramendy (65 kg) and U17 world bronze medalist Jasmine Robinson (72 kg).

The top prospect in the high school Class of 2026, Bo Bassett, has vowed to keep fans abreast of his recruiting with daily Wednesday updates. Well, today is Wednesday and true to his word, Bassett has posted an updated graphic which has eliminated three more schools from consideration. Earlier this year, Bassett posted a graphic that contained the logos of approximately 80 schools, most of the DI variety, but some DII’s as well, to signify that he’s totally open in the recruiting process. After more than a month of removing schools from the list, he’s down to 20. These three schools were removed from this week's graphic: American, North Carolina, Wisconsin The following schools remain on Bassett’s graphic and therefore in contention for his services: Air Force, Arizona State, Cornell, Iowa, Iowa State, Lehigh, Michigan, Missouri, NC State, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Pitt-Johnstown, Pittsburgh, Princeton, Rutgers, Stanford, Virginia Tech. These three schools were removed from last week's graphic: Clarion, Little Rock, Minnesota The following schools were removed from the 8/21 graphic: Penn, Oklahoma, Oregon State The following schools were removed from the 8/14 graphic: Bucknell, Virginia, Wyoming The following schools were removed from the 8/7 graphic: Brown, Northern Colorado, Purdue The following schools were removed from the 7/31 graphic: California Baptist, Michigan State, Navy The following schools were removed from the 7/24 graphic: Army West Point, Campbell, Edinboro, Harvard, Illinois, North Dakota State, South Dakota State The following schools were removed from the 7/17 graphic: Cal Poly, Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, Millersville, The Citadel, and West Virginia The following schools were removed from the 7/10 graphic: CSU Bakersfield, George Mason, Hofstra, Northwestern, Rider, UW Parkside, West Liberty The following schools were removed from the 7/3 graphic: Appalachian State, Central Michigan, Cleveland State, Drexel, Kent State, Ohio, and St. Cloud State The following schools were removed from the 6/26 graphic: Binghamton, Bloomsburg, Duke, Gardner-Webb, Northern Illinois, Sacred Heart, SIU Edwardsville As you would expect, most traditional DI power programs are still in the hunt for the two-time Super 32 and Ironman champion. Bassett recently competed at the U20 Pan-American Championships and dominated for a gold medal. In three matches, Bassett posted two falls and a tech. Bassett will also be in action this week at the U20 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain. Bassett has already been selected to take part in a Who's #1 rematch with Daniel Zepeda. The event will take place close to home, at Pitt-Johnstown, on September 29th. In 2021, Bassett captured gold medals in both freestyle and Greco-Roman at the U17 Pan-American Championships. That same year, at the U17 World Championships, Bassett claimed a gold medal in freestyle and was 12th in Greco. He’ll compete this year just in freestyle.

Perrysburg

The transfer portal has long since closed so that means that transfer season has been over for months right….right? That is definitely not the case as there has been plenty of movement on the transfer front within the last few weeks. As we have discovered in this transfer portal era, even though there’s a rule in place, there typically seem to be some sort of ways to get around them. Iowa stole the headlines last week as the Hawkeyes added multi-time All-Americans Jacori Teemer and Stephen Buchanan - both of which could open the preseason as the top-ranked wrestlers at their respective weight classes (157 and 197). Adding the pair has led to a handful of wrestlers leaving Iowa City, so in this instance, South Dakota State benefited by adding a Big Ten finalist (Zach Glazier), a national qualifier (Cobe Siebrecht), and a couple other former Hawkeyes (Drake Rhodes and Cade Siebrecht). Additionally, Aiden Riggins left for in-state rival, Iowa State, and Bradley Hill has moved on to Oklahoma. And technically, these wrestlers didn’t enter the portal! We think (and think being the key word) this may be the final transfer portal update before the start of the 2024-25 season; however, plenty can change over the next few weeks. Here’s the updated list of transfers to DI schools: Arizona State: Max Acciardi (197) - California Baptist Arizona State: Aziz Fayzullaev (184) - Northwest College Bellarmine: Nathan Higley (141/149) - George Mason Brown: Jacob Joyce (125) - Stanford California Baptist: Tristan Kemp (285) - West Virginia California Baptist: Carter Schmidt (174) - Iowa State Cal Poly: Joel Jesuroga (149) - Iowa Cal Poly: Korbin Shepherd (133/141) - Missouri Chattanooga: Bretli Reyna (149) - Iowa Chattanooga: Connor Strong (184) - Penn CSU Bakersfield: Gerrit Nijenhuis (174) - Oklahoma Drexel: Malachi Bordovsky (141) - Iowa Western Drexel: Giuseppe Hoose (184) - Oklahoma Edinboro: Colton Camacho (125/133) - Pittsburgh Edinboro: Ryan Michaels (149) - Pittsburgh Edinboro: Cheaney Schoeff (133) - Indiana Franklin & Marshall: Michael Duggan (157) - Bloomsburg Hofstra: Kyle Mosher (174) - Columbia Illinois: Ramazan Attasauov (125/133) - Iowa State Illinois: Jason Kraisser (157) - Iowa State Illinois: Danny Nini (157) - North Carolina Indiana: Logan Frazier (133) - Virginia Tech Indiana: Angelo Rini (133) - Columbia Iowa: Stephen Buchanan (197) - Oklahoma Iowa: Kyle Parco (149) - Arizona State Iowa: Jacori Teemer (157) - Arizona State Iowa State: Evan Bockman (184) - Utah Valley Iowa State: Christian Carroll (197) - Oklahoma State Iowa State: Aiden Riggins (174) - Iowa Lehigh: Rylan Rogers (174/184) - Michigan Little Rock: Branson Britten (184) - Northern Colorado Little Rock: Brock DelSignore (184) - NC State Little Rock: Jaivon Jones (149) - Northern Illinois Little Rock: Jordan Williams (149) - Oklahoma State Lock Haven: Caden Dobbins (165) - Bloomsburg Lock Haven: James Lledo (184) - Pittsburgh Lock Haven: Nick Stampoulos (157) - Buffalo Michigan: Jacob Cardenas (197) - Cornell Michigan: Chase Saldate (157) - Michigan State Michigan State: Jay Nivison (174) - Buffalo Michigan State: Kyle Rowan (141) - Stanford Michigan State: Cody Phelps (133) - Western Wyoming Minnesota: Tommy Askey (157) - Appalachian State Minnesota: Cooper Flynn (125) - Virginia Tech Minnesota: Clayton Whiting (174/184) - Missouri Morgan State: Xavier Doolin (285) - Northern Colorado Morgan State: Darrien Roberts (184) - Oklahoma North Carolina: Nolan Neves (285) - Columbia North Carolina: Ethan Oakley (133) - Appalachian State North Carolina: Josh Ogunsanya (174) - North Carolina North Dakota State: Michael Baker (197) - Columbia North Dakota State: Andrew Blackburn-Forst (285) - Northern Colorado North Dakota State: Kyle Burwick (133) - Nebraska North Dakota State: Tristan Daugherty (125) - Buffalo North Dakota State: Peyton Moore (133) - Missouri North Dakota State: Devin Wasley (184) - Minnesota North Dakota State: Bradley Whitright (197) - North Idaho Northern Colorado: AJ Heeg (174/184) - Oklahoma State Northern Colorado: Clayton Ulrey (157/165) - Virginia Tech Northern Illinois: Markel Baker (133) - George Mason Northern Illinois: Devon Dawson (285) - North Dakota State) Northern Illinois: Spencer Mooberry (197) - North Dakota State Ohio: TJ England (133) - Clarion Oklahoma: Fernando Barreto (133) - North Dakota State Oklahoma: Cleveland Belton (133) - Oregon State Oklahoma: Gaven Sax (174) - North Dakota State Oklahoma: Carter Schubert (165) - California Baptist Oklahoma State: Cam Amine (165) - Michigan Oklahoma State: Caleb Fish (165) - Michigan State Oklahoma State: Dean Hamiti (165/174) - Wisconsin Oklahoma State: Wyatt Hendrickson (285) - Air Force Oregon State: Sean Harman (174) - Missouri Oregon State: Ethan Stiles (157) - Nebraska Pittsburgh: Nick Babin (125) - Columbia Pittsburgh: Mateo de la Pena (165) - California Baptist Pittsburgh: Chase Kranitz (184) - Buffalo Pittsburgh: Evan Tallmadge (125) - Navy Rider: Sammy Alvarez (149) - Oklahoma State Rutgers: Dagen Condomitti (157) - Oregon State Sacred Heart: Braxton Appello (125) - Ohio State Sacred Heart: Felix Lettini (157) - Wisconsin SIU Edwardsville: Ben Lunn (141) - Minnesota SIU Edwardsville: Luke Odom (157) - Illinois SIU Edwardsville: Griffin Ray (165) - Nebraska South Dakota State: Zach Glazier (197) - Iowa South Dakota State: Drake Rhodes (165) - Iowa South Dakota State: Cade Siebrecht (149) - Iowa South Dakota State: Cobe Siebrecht (157) - Iowa The Citadel: Tyler Badgett (157) - Pittsburgh The Citadel: Billy Janzer (184) - Rutgers Utah Valley: Terrell Barraclough (165) - Penn State Utah Valley: Tanner Frothinger (141) - Nebraska Utah Valley: Bridger Ricks (125) - Western Wyoming Virginia: Charlie Darracott (165) - Stanford Virginia: Justin Phillips (174) - California Baptist Virginia Tech: Connor McGonagle (133) - Lehigh Virginia Tech: Tyler Stewart (285) - Morgan State Virginia Tech: Lennox Wolak (174) - Columbia West Virginia: Tommy Maddox (133) - Buffalo Wisconsin: Massoma Endene (197) - Wartburg Wisconsin: Wyatt Skebba (125) - Central Michigan Wyoming: Jared Hill (157) - Oklahoma Wyoming: Sam Mitchell (285) - Buffalo Wyoming: Brant Whitaker (165) - Missouri

The first day of competition from the U20 World Championships saw the US Greco team put a pair of wrestlers into the world finals, for the first time in seven years, and two others with medal hopes still alive in repechage. Things took a turn on Tuesday as the two finalists both fell in their respective gold medal matches and the final five Greco wrestlers took the mat and were eliminated from medal contention. The best development for the American Greco contingent came at heavyweight as Aden Attao won three matches to claim a bronze medal at 130 kg. Attao joins fellow big man Cohlton Schultz as the most recent American to win multiple world medals in Greco-Roman at the U20 age group. Attao started his run through repechage with an 8-0 victory over Puerto Rico’s Ethan Vergara. In his second bout, Attao faced a much stiffer challenge in Turkiye’s Cemal Bakir - a European U20 silver medalist earlier this year. Attao got on the board first as Bakir was hit was passivity and the American gained the opportunity to work from par terre. Eschewing a typical gut wrench, Attao sunk in a reverse lock around the front of Bakir, but managed to take him across his back for a set of exposure points and a 3-0 lead. Still in the opening period, Bakir used a throw-by to secure a takedown then locked up a gut wrench and turned Attao for a second set of points. He would lead by a 4-3 margin heading into the second period. In the final stanza, Attao was deemed passive and Bakir was given the point and the favorable position in par terre. That didn’t result in any additional points and the pair stood up, with Bakir leading 5-3. Attao pressed the action for the remainder of regulation, but was unable to score. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Bakir headbutted Attao. The judge called for a caution and two; however, it was not awarded. The American corner challenged the ruling which was overturned and two points were awarded to Attao. Criteria made him the winner at 5-5. For the bronze medal, Attao faced Russian Aleksandr Melekhov who was wrestling under the Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) distinction. Trailing 3-0 in the first period, after two step-out points and a passivity call, Attao pummeled and fought for positioning and each had an over/under tie. It was Attao who was able to win the position and tossed Melekhov for four points, but more importantly, was able to gain a fall. That ensured Attao would win a second world medal in three years. Unfortunately, both of the wrestlers who qualified for Tuesday’s gold medal matches, Isaiah Cortez (55 kg) and Otto Black (63 kg), fell via tech in their finals. Both will come away with silver medals. The pair, combined with Attao, gives the Americans three medals in Greco-Roman, a number they also achieved in 2019. Wednesday marks the first day of competition in women’s freestyle. The 50, 55, 59, 68, and 76 kg weight classes will begin action.

The ankle bands have been removed and gently placed in the center of the wrestling mat for the last time. Last week, Jason Nolf made a bit of a surprising announcement when he declared that he was retiring from the sport of wrestling. Nolf has a much-deserved reputation as one of the most entertaining and outstanding collegiate wrestlers of his generation. During his career at Penn State, Nolf was an integral part of four national title-winning teams and garnered three individual championships himself, amongst four NCAA finals appearances. Despite a lofty recruiting ranking (fourth in the Class of 2014), a very strong redshirt campaign, and an excellent start to his career, Nolf really introduced himself to the collegiate wrestling community with a shocking pin of Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) in their 2015-16 dual. Martinez was a returning national champion at the weight and was unbeaten in his career, up to that point. For the bulk of Nolf’s career, he was the second part of a back-to-back, 1-2 punch, with Zain Retherford, in the middle of Penn State’s lineup that was as good as any we’ve ever seen. Nolf also came in during the same recruiting class as Bo Nickal and the pair both finished with tons of bonus points and three national titles a piece. The final tally on Nolf’s impressive collegiate career includes a sparkling 117-3 career record with bonus points in nearly 86% of his matches. Despite the recent run of legendary wrestlers through State College, Nolf finished his Penn State career as the all-time leader in pins with 60 - just one ahead of Nickal. His winning percentage (.975) is the fifth highest in school history though one of his losses came via injury default. While we didn’t realize it at the time, Nolf’s competitive career came to an end at Penn State’s Bryce-Jordan Arena at the 2024 Olympic Team Trials. Nolf made the finals after beating the legendary Jordan Burroughs; however, he was beaten in the best-of-three finals by fellow Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate Kyle Dake. Since the Trials, Nolf has participated in grappling events and plans to continue down that road, while also getting into coaching. Nolf’s retirement reminded me that he’s one of the best wrestlers of the last 25 years to not own a Hodge Trophy. In fact, Nolf has put up two of the best seasons of the last decade for wrestlers who did not win the Hodge. Unfortunately, being on the same team and in the same era as wrestlers like Retherford and Nickal blocked Nolf from taking home college wrestling’s most coveted trophy. So, taking it a step further, who are others who put up incredible single-season numbers, yet did not win the Hodge Trophy in that particular season? An exercise like this is always made easier by our friends at WrestleStat. Unfortunately, as you go further back, there are less reliable stats, which means we have less information on the older wrestlers on this list. Below are some of those unfortunate wrestlers who had excellent years, but were overshadowed by other greats. They are listed with some of the key numbers signifying their dominance and some sort of a fun fact related to their season in question, plus the Hodge winner from that year. Remember, we’re only listing wrestlers who excelled in the categories valued in Hodge criteria. Kyle Snyder never won because he generally wrestled a limited schedule. Yianni Diakomihalis and J’den Cox had incredible careers but didn’t always compare to the Hodge winners when it came to bonus points and falls. Others may have taken a loss or two before the NCAA Tournament. Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa - 2024) Stats: 31-0; National champion at 184 lbs. 90% bonus point rate (28 bonus-point wins), 2 falls, 12 techs, 14 major decisions. Miscellaneous: Scored bonus points in all five of his NCAA wins. Hodge Winner: Aaron Brooks (Penn State) Carter Starocci (Penn State - 2023) Stats: 24-0; National champion at 174 lbs (third title). 67% bonus point rate (16 bonus-point wins), 4 falls, 3 techs, 9 major decisions. Miscellaneous: Had a fall over Mikey Labriola in the NCAA finals. Hodge Winner: Mason Parris (Michigan) Jason Nolf (Penn State - 2019) Stats: 31-0; National champion at 157 lbs (third title). 87% bonus point rate (27 bonus-point wins), 15 falls, 5 techs, 6 major decisions, 1 injury default. Miscellaneous: Pinned nine of his first 11 opponents Hodge Winner: Bo Nickal Bo Nickal (Penn State - 2018) Stats: 31-0; National champion at 184 lbs (second title). 74% bonus point rate (23 bonus-point wins), 16 falls, 1 tech, 6 major decisions. Miscellaneous: Pinned NCAA champion Myles Martin in the national finals to secure team title for Penn State. Hodge Winner: Zain Retherford (Penn State) Jason Nolf (Penn State - 2017) Stats: 27-0; National champion at 157 lbs. 93% bonus point rate (25 bonus-point wins), 14 falls, 8 techs, 3 major decisions. Miscellaneous: Michael Kemerer was the only wrestler that Nolf did not hang bonus points on. He defeated Kemerer by five and six points in their two meetings. Hodge Winner: Zain Retherford (Penn State) Zain Retherford (Penn State - 2016) Stats: 35-0; National champion at 149 lbs. 89% bonus point rate (31 bonus-point wins), 16 falls, 8 techs, 7 major decisions. Miscellaneous: Closest NCAA match was a 10-1 major decision over Brandon Sorensen in the finals. Hodge Winner: Alex Dieringer (Oklahoma State) Alex Dieringer (Oklahoma State - 2015) Stats: 32-0; National champion at 165 lbs (second title). 84% bonus point rate (27 bonus-point wins), 11 falls, 4 techs, 12 major decisions Miscellaneous: Ended the year on a 48-match winning streak and put together his first undefeated season Hodge Winner: Logan Stieber (Ohio State) Ed Ruth (Penn State - 2013) Stats: 33-0; National champion at 184 lbs (second title). 79% bonus point rate (26 bonus-point wins), 12 falls, 4 techs, 10 major decisions Miscellaneous: Finished the year on a 68-match winning streak Hodge Winner: Kyle Dake (Cornell) Ed Ruth (Penn State - 2012) Stats: 31-0; National champion at 174 lbs. 84% bonus point rate (26 bonus-point wins), 10 falls, 7 techs, 9 major decisions Miscellaneous: Majored Nick Amuchastegui in the NCAA finals. Amuchastegui’s win via injury default in 2011 was Ruth’s only career loss at the NCAA Tournament. Hodge Winner: David Taylor (Penn State) Jordan Oliver (Oklahoma State - 2011) Stats: 29-0; National champion at 133 lbs. 83% bonus point rate (24 bonus-point wins), 11 falls, 6 techs, 7 major decisions Miscellaneous: Prevailed in an excellent weight class that featured 11 current/future All-Americans and five current/future national finalists. Hodge Winner: Jordan Burroughs (Nebraska) Keith Gavin (Pittsburgh - 2008) Stats: 33-0; National champion at 174 lbs; 45% bonus point rate (15 bonus-point wins), 6 falls, 2 techs, 7 major decisions Miscellaneous: Gavin was the only undefeated national champion in 2008; however, he did not win the Hodge. One-loss Brent Metcalf was awarded the Hodge. Hodge Winner: Brent Metcalf (Iowa) Cole Konrad (Minnesota - 2007) Stats: 35-0; National champion at 285 lbs (second title), 13 falls Miscellaneous: Finished his career on a 76-match winning streak with a fall in the NCAA finals. Hodge Winner: Ben Askren (Missouri) Greg Jones (West Virginia - 2005) Stats: 26-0; National champion at 184 lbs (third title) Miscellaneous: Gave up 10 career takedowns in 130 matches Hodge Winner: Steve Mocco (Oklahoma State) Stephen Abas (Fresno State - 2002) Stats: 35-0; National champion at 125 lbs (third title), 12 falls Miscellaneous: Finished career on a 95-match winning streak Hodge Winner: Cael Sanderson (Iowa State)

St. Peter's Prep

Southeast Polk

The Binghamton Bearcats have had Kyle Borshoff as head coach for seven years. Entering his eighth season at the helm, the program has improved in many aspects. The overall GPA has been on the rise. The performance on the mat has been on a steady incline. He’s been a busy man building the program’s brand into what it is today thanks to his cerebral approach to wrestling and other wrestling-adjacent hobbies. Before he was involved with the Binghamton program. He was a successful athlete at American University in Washington DC. Borshoff earned All-American honors in 2009 and 2010 while qualifying for NCAA’s three times in total. The upstate New York native’s father is also a Binghamton Athletic Hall of Fame member. It’s the perfect place for Kyle to thrive, almost as if it was destined. Kyle’s father, Tim Borshoff, was an NCAA finalist in 1975. He was Binghamton’s first to achieve this feat, helping the team finish in fifth place. It also earned him the Athlete of the Year award. Kyle’s father still attends every match. “Watching wrestling is his hobby. Others play golf – not my dad.” Kyle explained. He continued, “I am always meeting people who knew my dad. His coach started the wrestling program at the university. I guess there’s some pressure on me!” Kyle said in a half-serious, half-joking manner. Coach Borshoff saw his father get inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001. He still remembers his speech to this day. Hall of Fame inductions must run in the family. Due to his success on the mat, Kyle was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame at his alma mater. Kyle’s father was present at his induction. It’s not every day that a father and son are able to see one another get inducted into the Hall of Fame – especially at two great institutions. Coincidentally, both schools are in the EIWA conference. Kyle Borshoff is not only an excellent wrestler, coach, father, and mentor. To add to the list, he’s recently been promoted to a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). Jiu-jitsu is a hobby he’s recently got back into within the last two years. The first time he ever “rolled” was when he was an assistant at American right after college with an athlete he coached named David Terao. It was a hobby Terao enjoyed and also excelled at. Terao was (and still is) a very high-level judo athlete. If you do not remember Terao, be sure to watch his matches from NCAA’s in 2016 when he claimed fourth place. He was one of the most exciting wrestlers to watch! The entire arena was “ooh-ing and aah-ing” at every wild sequence during his matches. Terao, a Hawaii native, is still training to compete at the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles. Borshoff really took a liking to jiu-jitsu because it’s similar to wrestling in many aspects, but also different. Once he was named the head coach at Binghamton, he was less involved in it. He had more responsibilities as a head coach and family man. His curiosity grew more thanks to a particular wrestler on his team named, Dimitri Gamkrelidze. Dimitri only wrestled his senior year in high school – but he excelled at Judo and Sambo while dabbling in jiu-jitsu. His work ethic and skill set helped him improve every year as he ended his career with an eighth-place finish at EIWA’s. Regarding Terao and Gamkrelidze, Borshoff stated “It made me think differently about wrestling. How can this guy (Gamkrelidze) be competitive in D1 wrestling with only one year of wrestling experience?” Coach started doing BJJ (rolling) three to four weeks at Broome County Martial Arts, which is owned and operated by Tamden “The Barn Cat” McCrory. McCrory had a very respectable MMA career – fighting in both the UFC and Bellator. Borshoff has found that BJJ athletes really benefit from working with him because he gives a different feel compared to typical jiu-jitsu grapplers. The inverse assumption can be made as well. BJJ athletes who can wrestle, benefit wrestlers. Borshoff’s preference is Gi BJJ. For those unfamiliar, there is Gi BJJ and No Gi BJJ. The Gi is the (in layman’s terms) fancy robe they wear as they compete. The Gi can be used to help take opponents any position needed to get a submission. So, how do these correlate? Think about the main position in BJJ. Most athletes prefer to be on their back – which is the exact opposite of wrestling. If you get into certain positions enough times, you can figure out how to maneuver your opponent in a certain way you may not have felt before. For instance, when you feel an athlete try to pull you onto them in BJJ, something can click in your “wrestling mind” on how to utilize that action, or reaction, in wrestling to force your opponent onto their back. The difference in rules, such as leg locks, submissions, and choke outs, make you aware of positions you may not worry about in wrestling. This particularly comes in handy during a play-wrestle session when both wrestlers are feeling unorthodox positions and working to get comfortable in uncomfortable situations. “The biggest crossover between the two is takedown defense. You see foot sweeps too. Things like hip position and grip too are familiar to most wrestlers.” Borshoff explained positions that overlap the two disciplines. He continued, “Taking guard (in BJJ) is similar to a leg pass (in wrestling) where you can end up in a double boots position.” At the risk of pissing off jiu-jitsu diehards, he stated that a high-level wrestler who walks into a BJJ practice can hold their own most of the time and pick it up very quickly. In his experience, these high-level wrestlers seem to learn quicker than average due to body awareness and the positions discussed. We discussed wrestlers like Jason Nolf's success in various forms of grappling and numerous UFC champions who have wrestling backgrounds. You can bet that some of Borshoff’s techniques he teaches to his wrestlers incorporate BJJ. Occasionally, to switch things up, they’ll do a jiu-jitsu workout while wearing a gi. He hopes to expand this discipline to his team to the point where they really think about wrestling from a different angle. With the increasing popularity of BJJ, more wrestlers are finding themselves doing it as a hobby. Borshoff is at the forefront of integrating these sets of skills into wrestling as a way to not only cross-train, but to improve wrestling skills as well. There was one point Coach Borshoff made that stuck with me. How can wrestling learn from BJJ? “Literally anyone can walk into a gym and learn BJJ. We can teach it to a 90-year-old woman. Wrestling does not have that capability. There is nowhere for adults to go and physically learn wrestling.” It’s my opinion that this is a niche that needs to be filled if wrestling wants to gain popularity amongst the general population. Why are there so few clubs, gyms, etc. that teach wrestling? It’s proven to be the best baseline for MMA. Maybe that’s a topic for another day. Until then, keep an eye out for the Bearcats of Binghamton. The success on and off the mat is noticeable. Head Coach, Kyle Borshoff, has played a huge part in that with his willingness to think outside the box and approach the sport in a unique fashion. photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com

Northfield Mt. Herman

Great Bridge

Labor Day was not a day of rest for some of the best young wrestlers in the world as Monday marked the first day of competition at the U20 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain. The focus, on the first day of action from Spain, was on Greco-Roman - as five of the ten Greco weights were conducted all the way to the finals. Day one was excellent from an American perspective, as a pair of US wrestlers advanced to Tuesday’s gold medal matches - Isaiah Cortez (55 kg) and Otto Black (63 kg). Cortez had to grind his way through his first three matches with close wins in each contest. After a one-point victory in the qualification round, Cortez posted three-point wins in the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals. His quarterfinal opponent, Maxim Sarmanov (Moldova) was a European U20 silver medalist earlier this year. In the semifinals, Cortez took care of business quickly and didn’t need to win any nailbiters. Facing Kazakhstan’s Aibek Aitbekov, Cortez got on the board early with a passivity point on his opponent. From the par terre position, Cortez took advantage and never looked back. He locked up a trapped-arm gut wrench and proceeded to take Aitbekov to expose his back and then the opposite direction, time and time again, until he ended the match with a 9-0 tech. Cortez will advance to tomorrow’s gold medal match and take on Iran’s Ali Ahmadi Vafa. Last year, Ahmadi Vafa fell in the bronze medal match in the U20 World Championships at this weight class. On his way to the semifinals, Ahmadi Vafa picked up a win over the American entry, Zach Silvis. Earlier this year, Ahmadi Vafa was a gold medalist at the Asian U20 Championships. Black needed a strong second-period rally in the quarterfinals, against Turkiye’s Enes Ulku, just to advance to the semi’s. Trailing 5-0, Ulku was called for passivity and Black was allowed to work from par terre. Black locked up a gut wrench and brought Ulku to his feet and tossed him for four points. A caution on Ulku gave the American an additional two points, a 7-5 lead, and another par terre restart. Quickly, Ulku reversed the position for a point and then brought Black to his feet for a throw attempt. Though Black landed on top of Ulku, the Turkish wrestler was given two points. Black’s corner challenged the ruling which ended up being overturned. The pair would resume action with :06 remaining in the match and Black was able to hold on for a 7-6 victory. In the semifinals, Black was paired with Armenia’s Yurik Hoveyan. Once again, Black would have to battle back from an early deficit as Hoveyan got a quick first-period takedown. After the takedown, Hoveyan was working for a gut wrench; however, Black stuffed the attempt and hopped over for a reversal. The American then locked up a gut of his own for a two-point exposure and a 3-2 lead. That’s how the score would look heading into the waning seconds of the bout. A desperate Hoveyan tried a half-hearted flying squirrel attempt and Black caught him and tossed him to the mat for four points and an exclamation point on a 7-2 victory. Black has locked up a medal and will wrestle for gold tomorrow against Erzu Zakriev who is a Russian but is competing under the AIN (Individual Neutral Athlete) designation. Zakriev was a gold medalist at the European U20 Championships this year and did not surrender a point during his title run. In that tournament, Zakriev earned wins over Hoveyan (7-0) and Ulku (9-0). Black is a Class of 2024 graduate who has signed with the University of Iowa. Cortez is a high school senior who has committed to Cornell’s gigantic Class of 2025. This will be the first world medals of any sort for both wrestlers. Black did advance to the bronze medal match at the U17 level in 2021 but suffered a loss. Cortez and Black aren’t the only Americans wrestling for medals tomorrow, Aydin Rix McElhinney (77 kg) and Aden Attao (130 kg), both have been pulled back into tomorrow’s repechage. Attao was a U20 world bronze medalist in 2022 and was seventh in 2023. Both will need to win a pair of repechage matches just to advance to the bronze medal match. Ryder Rogotzke was the other American in action at 87 kg. Rogotzke was beaten in his first bout by Romania’s Patrik Gordan; however, Gordon was defeated in the semifinals - which crushed any repechage hopes for Rogotzke. With five more Greco-Roman weights starting on Tuesday, this tournament already has to be considered a success from an American standpoint. This will only be the second time that the United States has had multiple finalists in Junior/U20 Greco-Roman. The last time this occurred was in 2017 when Cevion Severado (50 kg) and Kamal Bey (74 kg) both wrestled for gold.

Oklahoma head coach Roger Kish sits down with James Hackney to discuss his first year in Norman, a talented recruiting class, the upcoming season, a renewed rivalry with Oklahoma State and more. The Sooners could unveil a 2024-25 lineup that includes seven past national qualifiers and gets a boost from a recruiting class that was ranked third in the nation by InterMat. For the full interview:

SLAM Academy

August 30 United Fight League 5 (YouTube) Hunter Azure (Montana State Northern) vs. Vince Morales August 31 Delta Fighting Championship 8 (TrillerTV) Boris Novachkov (Cal Poly) vs. Loren Thibodeaux September 7 UFC Fight Night (ESPN+) Andre Petroski (UNC/Bloomsburg/Kutztown) vs. Dylan Budka September 7 Bellator Champions Series 4 (MAX) Raufeon Stots (Nebraska Kearney) vs. Marcos Breno Jordan Newman (Wisconsin-Whitewater) vs. Imamshafi Aliev Bryce Meredith (Wyoming) vs. John MaCalolooy Josh Hokit (Fresno State) vs. Sean Rose September 14 UFC 306 (ESPN PPV) Ode Osbourne (Carroll) vs. Ronaldo Rodriguez September 14 Bellator Champions Series 5 (MAX) Johnny Eblen (Missouri) vs. Fabian Edwards Archie Colgan (Wyoming) vs. Manoel Sousa September 28 PFL Europe 3 (DAZN) Roger Huerta (Augsburg) vs. Rob Whiteford October 5 UFC 307 (ESPN PPV) Aljamain Sterling (Cortland) vs. Movsar Evloev (brother of Olympic champ Musa Evloev) Carla Esparza (Menlo) vs. Tecia Pennington October 12 UFC Fight Night (ESPN+) Pat Sabatini (Rider) vs. Jonathan Pearce October 19 PFL Super Fights (ESPN PPV) AJ McKee (Cerritos) vs. Paul Hughes

Welcome back boys and girls to what is essentially the last Summer mailbag before we roll into pumpkin spice mailbags, spooky mailbags, gobbler bags, and all the rest. As we enter the final holiday weekend of the Summer trilogy, we inch closer to preseason wrestling with All-Star events, some World Championships still to go, and of course, the college season which rules all. So have that final barbecue before you break out the sweatshirts and flannels, and enjoy a little mailbag before your favorite football team disappoints you. What are your thoughts on New Jersey’s Chad Walsh settling down in Philly with the Drexel Dragons? Kevin McGuigan Just another in a long line of Jersey guys getting poached by Philadelphia to save wrestling. Valenti and the entire RTC at Penn, Jamison at Ursinus. Correnti is already at Drexel along with player-coach Mickey O’Malley. Luckily, we have plenty of talent to go around. Just pay me back by taking a couple of games from Atlanta this weekend. Do you think recruits begin to look at places like Iowa and Michigan differently now that NIL rentals appear to be larger components of their year-to-year lineups? Rhino I imagine it plays a role in the future and likely already has. Whether you’re a star recruit or a walk-on, the idea is that you’re supposed to get a fair shot at competing for a spot in the lineup. But can that really be true if your team is bringing in guys on five-figure or maybe even six-figure deals? Do wealthy boosters now control the teams? A school Like Iowa has always had a reputation where kids wanted to wrestle for them so badly, that they would rather sit for three years and start one, than start for multiple years somewhere else because it’s Iowa. I’m not sure that exists anymore. But also, I’ve never walked the streets of Iowa City, so I really don’t know what goes on over there. And I get that the point is to win and these teams are doing everything they can to topple the beast that is Penn State (who also brought in multiple stars in recent years) and aren’t doing anything illegal since there are no rules anymore, but you have to feel for the guys getting pushed out. The good news is that the guys get to leave without consequence and do get to find a spot where they can attempt to fulfill their goals and maybe bring a little parity and balance to the sport. I’m not sure anyone really knows what the future holds in this pay-for-play landscape of college sports, but it has been exacerbated by the extended eligibility of the athletes as most are grad transfers, who are cashing in the last few years of eligibility. I just don’t want to see kids at lower-level schools find success early then jump to free agency and join one of the blue blood's year-after-year. It simply isn’t good for the sport. Do you think that Crazy Joey Votto will be inducted into the Hall of Fame? Eric “Gagne” Asselin I just don’t know. It seems like he spent more time taking on his own teammates in the mafia than just trying to be a good earner. Oh, you said Votto I thought you said Crazy Joe Gallo. Yeah, I think he gets in. Baseball Reference has him as a borderline guy, but I don’t see any voters holding a grudge and keeping him out. Any truth to the rumors that @nottomnotterry is being offered a stack of money to do the Friday mailbag blog? Any truth that Jagger has now applied to WIN Magazine because he's getting recruited over? Inquiring minds want to know. Burger King of Kings Son, when the day comes that I’m not writing this mailbag, it probably means my days of covering the sport in a journalistic fashion are over. I’ll make sophomoric jokes on the Twitter/X for as long as I can. But I’m not that hot of a commodity I can assure you of that. And it’s not a blog, as I’m not a 25-year-old hipster and this isn’t 2007. But it would be a lot cooler if it was.

Muncy

We’re now looking at a team that will be squarely in the NCAA team trophy hunt in Ohio State. Buckeye head coach, Tom Ryan, is entering his 19th year at the helm for Ohio State. During that time, he has led the Buckeyes to eight NCAA team trophies, including a national championship in 2015. Since 2021, Ohio State has only had one top-four finish, after placing in the top three every year between 2015-19. With a young, but talented and experienced nucleus, this could be the year Ohio State jumps back into that national title discussion for the foreseeable future. Ryan could unveil a lineup that features six past All-Americans during the 2024-25 campaign. One of them is Jesse Mendez who broke a mini-drought in 2024 with the Buckeyes first individual title since 2018. During Ryan’s tenure, Ohio State has established itself as one of the best recruiting teams in the nation. That continued in 2024 as Ohio State inked the #5 overall recruiting class. With so many returning stars, it’s unlikely that they’ll be needed in 2024-25, but it’s a great option to have. Option is the keyword for Ohio State in the upcoming season. The Buckeye coaching staff has plenty of options up and down the lineup. There are only maybe three weights that appear to feature unchallenged starters. With Ohio State’s propensity to wrestle true freshmen, combined with their rash of injuries in 2023-24, there are plenty of potential starters that have redshirt years available. With so many options available, it’s difficult to pin down an actual Ohio State lineup in late August. But…that won’t stop us from trying! 125: Brendan McCrone/Vinny Kilkeary At this time last year, many outside Ohio were unfamiliar with redshirt freshman Brendan McCrone and may have assumed that Vinny Kilkeary would get the nod for the Buckeyes in his first year in Columbus. There’s good reason to believe that, considering Kilkeary was the #33 overall recruit in the Class of 2023, a three-time Pennsylvania AAA state champion, and Coach Ryan’s willingness to trust true freshmen. McCrone ended up getting the first shot at securing a starting role and never relinquished the position. In his 2023-24 dual debut, McCrone posted a major decision over a returning All-American in Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech). Though he missed out on the podium at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, McCrone picked up three wins (two over returning qualifiers) in a very strong weight class. At the Collegiate Duals, McCrone continued to make his case with a : 37-second fall over then-number-one ranked Jakob Camacho (NC State). It proved to be a critical win for the Buckeyes 21-20 win over the undefeated Wolfpack. As you may expect, things got more difficult in the Big Ten dual season; however, McCrone buckled down and posted a winning record in B1G duals. He would then miss out on NCAA qualification at the Big Ten tournament, but his regular season was strong enough to warrant an at-large berth. In his first national tournament, McCrone went 1-2 with a major decision victory over #13 Noah Surtin, a veteran from Missouri. Kilkeary only saw action in two dual meets but was very busy in open tournaments. All in all, Kilkeary posted a 20-8 record with a pair of wins over eventual national qualifiers. One of those came at the expense of Michigan State’s Tristan Lujan in the seventh-place bout at the Midlands. His lone tournament title came three weeks earlier when he won the Cleveland State Open. The word around Columbus is that these two couldn’t be much closer in the room. I’d imagine both see action in duals and in early-season open tournaments. Results against outside competition may dictate who gets the nod here. Pay attention to who the Buckeye staff enters in Vegas, they likely have a leg up. 133: Nic Bouzakis The Buckeyes have returning starters Nic Bouzakis who is back after a typical freshman year. Or maybe it was actually pretty typical for most freshmen, though, with Bouzakis’ pre-collegiate hype and accomplishments, it might have felt different. One of the key members of Ohio State’s top-ranked recruiting Class of 2022, Bouzakis was the #5 overall recruit and was able to sit out and redshirt during his first year with the program. In 2023-24, Bouzakis was shocked with a pair of losses at the season-opening Clarion Open, before losing the dual opener to Virginia Tech All-American Sam Latona. In Vegas, he was beaten in the first round by true freshman Tyler Knox (Stanford). As we’d learn throughout the season, once you have counted out Bouzakis is the time where he responds best. After the Knox loss, Bouzakis reeled off seven straight wins, six via tech fall, to take third place. At the Collegiate Duals, Bouzakis was beaten by Northern Iowa’s Julian Farber, but bounced back to pin NC State All-American, Kai Orine, in under a minute. In the Big Ten dual season, Bouzakis was majored by Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) but downed returning All-American Aaron Nagao (Penn State) in his next match. Bouzakis’ first Big Ten Championship saw him go 1-2 and miss out on automatic qualification. He would receive an at-large berth a few days later. In Kansas City, at the NCAA Tournament, Bouzakis also went 1-2. After nearly upsetting top-ranked Daton Fix (Oklahoma State), Nagao knocked him out of the tournament with a 3-0 shutout. Bouzakis clearly has the talent to win and win often at the highest levels of DI competition. What he’ll have to do is find a way to become more consistent. Ohio State will also have the services of true freshman Ben Davino. Davino was the #4 overall recruit in the Class of 2024 and comes in with a boatload of impressive accolades. Ideally, Bouzakis finds that consistency, and Davino is able to redshirt. However, if that doesn’t happen or Bouzakis would need to move up to 141, Davino is an excellent option to have. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com 141: Jesse Mendez We’ve already talked about options a lot with the first two weights. There is only one option at 141 lbs and it’s a really good one to have. Actually, after March 2024 it was the best option. 2024 NCAA champion Jesse Mendez returns to look for a second national title. Mendez went 29-2 for the Buckeyes last year with losses to Cole Matthews (Pittsburgh) and Beau Bartlett (Penn State) accounting for the only blemishes on his record. Mendez would later avenge that loss to Barlett in the Big Ten and NCAA finals. After two years in the Buckeye lineup, Mendez has amassed a 48-11 record with a pair of All-American finishes and has yet to redshirt. As a true freshman, Mendez had to grind out many close wins. Last year, he really opened up his offense and almost doubled his bonus point rate - going from 35% to 68%. This development came to light at the CKLV where he captured the title in a loaded weight class and tallied bonus points in four of five bouts. This all occurred as Mendez moved up from 133 to 141 lbs. Mendez’s second national title run will be even more difficult with the presence of undefeated 2023 national champion Andrew Alirez of Northern Colorado. Alirez took off the 2023-24 season using an Olympic redshirt. The two squared off this spring in a freestyle bout at Beat the Streets. Mendez won though it was in a bout with very little action or offense. We saw the growth in Mendez between years one and two in the Buckeye program, it’ll be interesting to see if he can continue that improvement into year three. 149: Dylan D’Emilio One of the few old guys on this young Buckeye squad is 2023 All-American Dylan D’Emilio. When Mendez moved up for the 2023-24 season, D’Emilio did the same, going from 141 to 149 lbs. The move yielded similar results throughout the year; however, D’Emilio came up just shy of the NCAA podium in 2024. D’Emilio was beaten in the bloodround by Iowa State’s Casey Swiderski in a 2-1 bout that was decided on tiebreakers. Earlier in the season, D’Emilio won a 13-10 shootout against Swiderski at CKLV. At that event, he ended up fourth and Swiderski was fifth. D’Emilio was sixth in the Big Ten in 2024, but did reverse a result from that tournament in the consolations at NCAA’s when he downed Iowa’s Caleb Rathjen. In previous seasons, D’Emilio was fourth and fifth at the conference tournament. As you might expect, this weight class in the Big Ten will be brutal in 2024-25, perhaps even tougher than last year. That means just about every matchup for D’Emilio should be a fight. D’Emilio is certainly capable of improving upon his sixth-place Big Ten finish and he’ll certainly be battle-tested for another NCAA run. Ohio State should be squarely in the NCAA team trophy hunt, so getting D’Emilio on the podium would do wonders for their team race prospects. 157: Paddy Gallagher After a solid, but unspectacular redshirt freshman year, Paddy Gallagher came back in 2023-24 and showed the form that made him the #1 overall recruit in the high school Class of 2021. Over the first month-plus of the season, Gallagher won the Clarion Open and then finished seventh at the CKLV in a weight class that was easily the deepest of any in the tournament. His biggest win in Vegas was of the 6-5 variety over the eventual NCAA fifth-place finisher Peyten Kellar of Ohio. Unfortunately, Gallagher’s promising season was cut short via a season-ending injury in early January. In the Collegiate Duals that occurred a few weeks before his injury, Gallagher defeated the eventual Big 12 champion, Ryder Downey (Northern Iowa), an opponent who defeated him in Vegas. If Gallagher is in good health and improves upon his 2023-24 form, he’ll push for a spot on the NCAA podium, himself. In his only NCAA appearance (2023), Gallagher needed to rely on an at-large berth. That shouldn’t be the case in 2024-25. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com 165: Sammy Sasso/Bryce Hepner/Carson Kharchla Yes, that’s right! Sammy Sasso is in the mix for the starting role at 165 lbs. Just over a year ago, Sasso was shot during a carjacking attempt and missed the entire 2023-24 season. We’re not sure of what to expect from Sasso in his return to the mat, but just getting back to competition after his entire ordeal is a massive victory. When we last saw Sasso on a college mat he appeared in the NCAA finals opposite Yianni Diakomihalis. While 165 lbs looks like a big jump for Sasso, remember, he was slated to wrestle at 157 lbs last year. The other two options at this weight are Bryce Hepner and 2022 All-American Carson Kharchla. Hepner saw some action early in the 2023-24 season, but really took over during the conference dual season. While Hepner produced a 5-2 dual record inside the Big Ten, only one of his wins came against an eventual national qualifier. At the Big Ten Championships, Hepner went 0-2 and then lost both of his matches in the true-ninth place mini-tournament. That finish led to him missing out on NCAA qualification. Veteran Carson Kharchla is another prominent Buckeye who missed the end of the 2023-24 campaign due to an injury. Kharchla was injured at the Collegiate Duals in December and was unable to compete for the remainder of the year. Up till that point, Kharchla had put together a 12-3 record that featured a third-place finish at the CKLV Invitational. Back in 2022, Kharchla was fourth in the Big Ten and seventh in the country at 165 lbs. A year later, he was third in the conference and fell in the NCAA bloodround. At this time, it’s uncertain whether Kharchla will try and cut down to 165 or stay at 174. For a wrestler who has missed significant time due to injuries, it may be wise to stay at 174; however, Ohio State’s best lineup could include him at 165. 174: Rocco Welsh/Kharchla Kharchla’s injury opened the door for true freshman Rocco Welsh to come in and assume the starting role at 174 lbs as a true freshman. To say that Welsh kicked in the door and seized the opportunity is an understatement. Welsh ended up winning his first three duals and ended the regular season with a 17-3 record, with all three losses coming to elite conference opponents. Welsh’s first collegiate loss was a nail-biter to Illinois’ Edmond Ruth, the same opponent who downed him Big Ten semifinals - this time sudden victory. The third time proved to be the charm in the NCAA quarterfinals as Welsh turned the tables on Ruth in a 4-1 win in overtime. It was more of the same in the semifinals as Welsh downed EIWA champion Lennox Wolak (Columbia) for a third consecutive sudden victory win and a berth in the NCAA finals. We’ll see if Welsh can make a leap like Mendez did in between his first and second years with the program - although Welsh did make the NCAA finals as a true freshman, so he already should be considered a title contender. Since Welsh competed last year as a true freshman, he does have a redshirt available. If the Ohio State staff chooses to use that redshirt, they can turn to Kharchla which is a great option to have. 184: Ryder Rogotzke Like Welsh, Rogotzke was a true freshman who was thrust into the starting role in 2023-24. As there are some moving parts with the Buckeye lineup, there’s a chance that Rogotzke either redshirts or moves up to 197 lbs. In that case, Welsh could move up to 184 lbs. Rogotzke proved to be one of the more entertaining wrestlers in the nation to watch. In open competition, Rogotzke started his collegiate career with wins in eight of his first nine matches and all eight came via fall. All-in-all, Rogotzke had 16 falls during his freshman year. Two of those falls came during his run to fifth place at the Big Ten Championships. At NCAA's, Rogotzke added another pin in the opening round before almost upsetting the #2 seed and Big Ten champion, Isaiah Salazar (Minnesota), in the Round of 16. He’d end up losing to Salazar in sudden victory and was eliminated in the round that followed. Going forward, Rogotzke will try to walk that thin line of tightening his game up a bit, while also wrestling a style that makes him dangerous and capable of ending the match in an instant. 197: Luke Geog/Seth Shumate Once again, the answer at 197 lb isn’t quite clear-cut. There’s the possibility that Rogotzke could move up and join the fray that includes returning starter Luke Geog and Seth Shumate. Geog made the national tournament as a redshirt freshman in 2024 after taking sixth in the Big Ten. He started the year with a win over a returning national qualifier and three additional wins with bonus points, but then went 1-2 in Vegas. After Vegas, Geog generally beat the wrestlers you’d expect him to defeat and lost to the top contenders at this weight. His most notable regular season win came over 2021 All-American John Poznanski (Rutgers). At Big Ten’s Geog earned a second win over Poznanski. At his first NCAA Tournament, Geog went 0-2; however, not all 0-2’s are created equally. An update that didn’t involve Geog led to him wrestling the seven and ten seeds during his two matches. Shumate saw significant time in the Buckeye lineup as a redshirt freshman and went 9-3 last year at 184 lbs. Shumate went 3-1 in Big Ten duals with bonus points in two of those contests. Early in the season, he met Rogotzke and fell via fall. Without factoring Rogotzke as a possibility in this equation, both Geog and Shumate are redshirt sophomores so there’s no sitting out for either. In this instance, I’d imagine the pair both get a chance to make their case for the starting role. Barring injury or anything unforeseen, whoever gets the nod in Vegas is probably the early frontrunner. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com 285: Nick Feldman The centerpiece of Ohio State’s top-ranked Class of 2022 was Nick Feldman, the number one overall recruit in the class. After being sidelined for his initial year in Columbus, expectations seemed to be lower than you’d expect for Feldman in 2023-24. Feldman’s first true tests came in Vegas as he came into the tournament 9-0, but was majored by Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) and injury defaulted out of a consolation match. The most significant moment of the regular season for Feldman came in the home dual against heated rival Michigan. Feldman used a late takedown to knock off returning multi-time All-American Lucas Davison and put the finishing touches on a stunning win for the Buckeyes. Feldman showed his growth at the Big Ten tournament when he was able to get multiple takedowns on Davison in an 8-6 semifinal win. NCAA seeding put Feldman in as the ninth seed which led to a quarterfinal matchup with undefeated, top-seeded Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State). Feldman put up a valiant fight but ended up losing 1-0 (while Davison made the finals on the other half). Feldman would end his freshman campaign in fifth place. From here on out, you have to consider Feldman on the short list of NCAA title contenders. He’s proven that with multiple matches he can close gaps (or widen them in wins). With another year of preparation can he shock the wrestlers who beat him head-to-head and placed higher at NCAA’s (Kerkvliet and Wyatt Hendrickson)? Previous “Never Too Early Lineup Looks:” Air Force Army West Point Campbell Indiana Iowa State Lock Haven North Carolina Northern Iowa Oregon State West Virginia

The data has been processed, the charts have been reviewed, and the evaluations are complete. The 2024 breakdown of the Top Fantasy Wrestlers of the 2024 season is here to help you start your 2025 season research. Just like in the past few years, some names are going to be expected, while a lot more may not be. That's the beauty of Fantasy Wrestling, where any wrestler can be the star of the weekend and win the dual for you. To compile these lists, we used standard WrestleStat Fantasy College Wrestling Data & Scoring. Just a reminder of how points were tallied in WrestleStat leagues: 1) The scoring used was standard team scoring across all competitions (+3 for a win by decision, -4 for a loss by major, etc) 2) Scoring only counted against D1 competition 3) Wins via forfeits (FFT) would count as +6 towards a wrestler's point total 4) Wins or losses by medical forfeit (MFF) did not count as + or - towards a wrestler's point total 5) Points were only accumulated during the regular season 165 Top-20 Notes: This is the second time that Dean Hamiti has been the #1 Fantasy Wrestler at 165. His first stint was in 2022 where he scored 93 Fpts in 21 matches and a PPM of 4.4. He was able to best that in 2024 by scoring 115 Fpts in 25 matches and a PPM of 4.6. He was one of five wrestlers to pass the 100-point mark in 2024. Meanwhile, Mitchell Mesenbrink came in 2nd with 88 Fpts, outlasting eventual NCAA champ (who beat Mesenbrink) David Carr by two Fpts. Mesenbrink only wrestled 19 matches compared to Hamiti’s 25, but had the same PPM. If Mesenbrink had wrestled 25 matches, using the same PPM, he would have tied Hamiti with 115 Fpts. A few D2 matches and an unforeseen loss by pin lands Peyton Hall at the number 4 spot. Had he won that match against WrestleStat ranked #150 Gaetano Console (DUKE) instead of getting pinned, he would have been #2 in the Top-20. Keegan O’Toole had the highest PPM of any wrestler in the 165 Top-20 at 4.8, but only wrestled 16 matches. That tied for the lowest in the Top-20 with Bryce Hepner. The Mizzou Tiger just barely beat out the Ohio Bobcat Garrett Thompson who wrestled almost double the matches as O’Toole and finished one point behind. In his last season with Northern Illinois (2023), Izzak Olejnik finished as the #2 Fantasy Wrestler at 165. In 2024 as an Oklahoma State Cowboy, he still made the Top-20, but ten spots lower. Partly because of fewer matches than in 2023, but the quality of competition was raised, which led to slightly fewer bonus wins. The difference between 12th place and 9th… three Fpts. To 8th place, eight Fpts. Razor-thin margins for error. Only two true freshmen make the list, with Noah Mulvaney finishing at #8 and Gunner Filipowicz six spots lower. Both wrestled 29 matches, and despite Mulvaney having three of his four losses on the season by bonus, it was Flipowicz’s seven losses that added up to be too much to overcome. The Little Rock team as a whole made headlines in 2024, and one of the original band members made a big jump personally and reached his first Top-20 ranking. Joseph Bianchi finished with 49 Fpts and a 1.8 PPM by winning 24 D1 matches, whereas in his past four seasons, he amassed 27 D1 wins total. For the second year in a row, Cody Walsh locks up the #20 spot. To compare, his 2023 stat line was 51 Pts, in 32 matches, with a 1.7 PPM. Pretty consistent. Who Missed The Cut: Two All-Americans missed the top 20 in Antrell Taylor (NEB) and Hunter Garvin (STAN). Antrell Taylor (NEB) was three Fpts behind Cody Walsh with five losses. Three are understandable, against Michael Caliendo, Dean Hamiti, and Mitch Mesenbrink, but two losses to unranked competitors at CKLV ended up being the fault. One win, or flip a loss, and he’s in the Top-20. Hunter Garvin ended the 2024 season with 31 Fpts. Garvin wrestled his first matches of the season at CKLV, going 5-3, but of those three losses, two were by tech and one by pin (which accounted for -16 Fpts). He would go on to lose five more times, with one loss by pin, one by tech, and one by major. As of January 10th, Garvin was sitting at only three (yes… THREE) Fpts with seven matches left in the regular season. It’s amazing he even reached the 30s. Terrell Barraclough (PSU) who this coming season will take his talents to Utah Valley, was two points behind Antrell Taylor with only 14 matches wrestled. He started three duals and competed in three tournaments, with two losses coming from Shane Griffith (MICH, at 174) and teammate Mitch Mesenbrink, both by decision. The highest performing redshirt was Rider’s Liam Scrivanich with 41 Fpts.

Austin Sommer talks to his old college coach, Matt Azevedo, about the recent hiring of a pair of new assistant coaches - Jimmy Overhiser and Chad Walsh. Coach Azevedo discusses what Overhiser and Walsh bring to the program. He also goes through a Drexel lineup for 2024-25, one that should look much different from last year's squad after a handful of potential point-scorers are coming off redshirt. They also talk about the upcoming schedule, the NCAA Tournament in Philly and much more:

Our very own Ryan Holmes caught up with the coaches Jon Laudenslager and Pankil Chander at his alma mater Wilkes University to discuss the new coaching changes and the addition of women's wrestling.

This afternoon, Drexel head coach Matt Azevedo announced a pair of additions to his coaching staff as the Dragons have hired Chad Walsh and Jimmy Overhiser as assistant coaches. Walsh comes to the staff after spending the last two seasons on the Columbia staff. In 2023-24, the Lions produced their first All-American in over a decade when Lennox Wolak finished sixth at the 174 lb weight class. Additionally, they also had a pair of EIWA champions in Wolak and 184 lber Aaron Ayzerov. Columbia tied for fourth place in the EIWA in each of the two seasons where Walsh was on staff. Before his stint at Columbia, Walsh spent five years on the Davidson coaching staff. As a competitor, Walsh wrestled at Rider and earned NCAA All-American honors on two occasions. He was seventh in 2017 and fifth in 2016. In each of his four years, Walsh made the EWL finals - winning three times. Overhiser recently assisted with the first-year Tarleton State program; however, he spent the second half of the 2023-24 season on staff at Army West Point. Like Walsh at Columbia, Overhiser was part of a staff that broke a long All-American drought as Ben Pasiuk got on the podium for the Black Knights - also at 174 lbs. Army finished directly above Columbia at the 2024 EIWA Championships, in third place. Overhiser has also assisted at Wisconsin-Whitewater and Reinhardt. Additionally, he spent the 2021-22 season as the Director of Operations at Stanford’s California RTC. The job at the California RTC reunited Overhiser with his collegiate coach, Rob Koll, who coached him at Cornell. Though the Dragons did not have a national qualifier in 2024, they are bringing some talented wrestlers off redshirt and could be a very solid team in the new-look EIWA conference. 2022 NCAA qualifier Mickey O’Malley redshirted in 2023-24 and is expected up to 197 for the Dragons, while 2021 qualifier Luke Nichter is back at 157. Last season, Cody Walsh had a very solid year at 165, winning 25 bouts; however, he missed out on NCAA qualification. Walsh is the younger brother of new assistant coach, Chad.

Once again, Iowa is stealing the headlines - as they always tend to do. Within the last week, a pair of transfers have been confirmed as headed to the University of Iowa. They aren’t run-of-the-mill transfers either, they are multiple-time All-Americans, Jacori Teemer and Stephen Buchanan. Teemer was an NCAA finalist last year at 157 lbs and Buchanan finished third for the second time at 197 lbs. Rumors of NIL deals nearing the mid-six figures were reportedly used to help entice the move. With Teemer and Buchanan in the fold, Iowa has received three high-profile transfers this offseason. Teemer’s Arizona State teammate, Kyle Parco, made his decision earlier in the summer. Parco has already made the NCAA podium four times at 149 lbs. As you plug these three stars into the Iowa lineup, there have to be three wrestlers who are pushed out of a potential starting role. Those names appear to be Caleb Rathjen (149), Cobe Siebrecht (157), and Zach Glazier (197). Within the last two days, Siebrecht and Glazier announced that they would transfer to wrestle at South Dakota State. These moves have stirred up plenty of conversation online and on social media. I had a friend ask me for my thoughts on the situation and it’s really difficult to take one side or another - if you’re an objective third-party. So, I figured, let’s hash it out on paper! With that being said, I’ll outline why this makes sense from an Iowa/Tom Brands position and why people may have an issue with the moves. Before getting started, I don’t see anyone necessarily blaming the athletes. The dollar figures being thrown around are very difficult to turn down, especially in a sport like wrestling where there aren’t multi-million dollar contracts waiting next year in the professional ranks. We’ll start off by looking at the angle through the lens of someone who is in favor of the moves. Team Points and Winning First and foremost, Brands is employed by the University of Iowa. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last 50 years, Iowa is a school that places a gigantic emphasis on wrestling success and generally lives by the Ricky Bobby rule “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” There are no parties and celebrations for getting an NCAA team trophy. It’s win or bust. And the Hawkeyes have won 24 team titles since 1975. Brands is paid to put his team in the best position to win every year. With that being said, the Hawkeyes have landed three multi-time All-Americans in the offseason in an effort to bolster a lineup that finished fifth in the nation in 2024. Those additions have put Iowa in a position to potentially be considered an early frontrunner for a number two ranking behind Penn State. Speaking of Penn State, many Iowa detractors will hear this news and laugh saying something like, “All this money to finish second to Penn State.” Athletes and coaches at the highest level of their respective fields aren’t built like you and I. Geeks like myself can proclaim in the fall that Penn State will win the national title without a clear second-place team (like I did in 2023 - for the first time ever). But Brands doesn’t think like that. Coaches and athletes like Brands will never count themselves out. With a summer filled with helping Spencer Lee train for the Olympics, Brands probably expects Drake Ayala to be the frontrunner for a national title - even up at 133 lbs. Maybe the Iowa staff feels like they can make an adjustment or two that will propel Mikey Caliendo past Mitchell Mesenbrink. They’re probably chomping at the bit to unleash redshirt freshmen Gabe Arnold and Ben Kueter on the rest of the country. I’m sure Brands respects Penn State’s accomplishments and their athletes and the potential they have for the 2024-25 season. But he also believes that the starting ten he’ll unveil could beat Penn State’s ten, on their best day. You and I may not agree, but that’s why they wrestle the matches and that’s what we love about sports. They are unscripted and an improbable result could happen, no matter how much it may fly in the face of numerical evidence. Frankly, Brands and Iowa can’t just punt a year of competitiveness and hope next year is “the year” when Penn State is vulnerable. He has to put his team in the best position to win and let the cards fall as they may. For fans of pro sports teams that always think their team should “tank” and amass draft picks for the future, because they don’t have the pieces to win today - that doesn’t work in college sports. Do top recruits want to sign with a program that appears to be trending down? There may be some ruffled feathers with this approach (and we’ll get to that later), but you can’t say that Brands isn’t doing the best for his team to be highly competitive in 2024-25. You may disagree with the team-building approach, again we’ll address that later, but for what he was working with in March of 2024 - when the offseason began, Iowa is in a much better position to contend as we’re discussing this today. With the three wrestlers Iowa has added compared to the wrestlers they are replacing, Iowa picked up 39.5 team points. Buchanan and Teemer both scored 17 last year, while Parco added 11. Rathjen had 2.5 and Glazier 1.5. In 2023, when Siebrecht qualified, he scored 1.5. And, let’s flip it around. Tom Brands has used the “I like my guys” quote before. Were he to bring in the same recruits as they signed in the Class of 2024 and brought the same cast back that ended the 2023-24 season, what would the reaction be if that same group turned in another fifth-place finish or perhaps lower, what would Brands’ naysayers think? “He missed out on a trophy in 2024 and ran it back with the same guys.” Stephen Buchanan photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com Dog-eat-dog world NCAA athletics have evolved immensely over the past three years and will probably continue to do so in the foreseeable future. With the advent of the transfer portal, the frequency of transfers, and the implementation of NIL, it’s sort of covered up for the fact that big-time college sports have been a “dog-eat-dog” world for a long time. Big-time, national-title-contending college sports aren’t for the faint of heart. Football, volleyball, wrestling, baseball, it doesn’t matter. You’re expected to perform to a certain standard and if you don’t, you might meet your potential replacement soon. Especially with the use of NIL, will we see an SEC title-contending team go into a football season with a junior quarterback who has started for a year or two with only marginal results? Maybe you can name one or two, but those are becoming fewer and farther between. If you wrestle for Penn State, Iowa, or Oklahoma State - one of the elite wrestling programs, would you feel comfortable about your spot at the table after making it to the NCAA tournament once or twice and not placing? It doesn’t happen very often. Penn State famously had a multi-time All-American (Nick Nevills) lose his spot to Anthony Cassar in 2019. Blue-chip recruit Alex Facundo had a solid enough season for Penn State in 2022-23 and redshirted last year. It might be difficult for him to find his way back into the lineup, especially this upcoming season. The Nittany Lions brought in Max Dean in 2021-22 after freshman Michael Beard made the NCAA podium as a freshman. If I’ve learned anything from college athletics over the past few years is that you can’t sit back and hope everything works out for you. You have to be proactive. Failure to do this has resulted in entire conferences collapsing, while some of their schools are set up to flourish immensely financially. With that in mind, we’ve seen a renewed sense of excitement surrounding the Oklahoma State program after David Taylor’s hiring. Three multi-time All-Americans also joined the Cowboys in the offseason. If Brands is content to stick with his guys, do Parco, Teemer, and Buchanan go to one of his rivals? Maybe Buchanan joins Parco and Teemer at Arizona State and they are in the mix for that second spot at NCAA’s. Maybe one goes to Stillwater and Oklahoma State passes Iowa in year one of the Taylor regime. I get it. There’s an icky feeling associated with the free agency-type era we’re living in with regard to collegiate wrestling (and other sports). I don’t love it. Or really even like it. But, let’s not forget that these wrestling rooms have always been extremely competitive and excellent wrestlers have gotten squeezed out of the lineup for someone better isn’t just some new phenomenon. Coaches have “recruited over” guys for years. How did we get here? So, if you’re not a fan of these moves (and even if you are) a fair question to ask is, “How did we get here?” Why does Iowa need to add three multi-time All-Americans, all one-year rentals, just to put themselves in a solid position for an NCAA trophy? It’s a fair question. Monday, Willie Saylor posted an extensive article on the last decade of recruiting rankings. In that article, Iowa generally came up favorable in most recruiting-related metrics. In some cases, they may have been ahead of Penn State. One that sticks out is the # of top-ten-ranked recruits signed since 2014. More often than not, your collegiate superstars come from this group. As you may expect, Penn State led the way with 18. Iowa came in fourth with eight. Schools above them included Oklahoma State (11) and Ohio State (14). All-in-all, they’ve had a decent number of top recruits over the last decade, but not quite enough. Or they didn’t pan out as expected. Looking ahead to 2025, Iowa has a commitment from #7 overall Leo DeLuca (Blair Academy, NJ) and two other top-100 prospects (The Miller twins from St. Ed’s, Ohio). Unfortunately, most of the top prospects in the Class of 2025 are already spoken for. Only two top-50 prospects remain uncommitted. So, the Hawkeyes will get some help from next year’s recruiting class, but not a huge haul. If the “one-year rentals” were just a temporary fix with a huge recruiting class coming in, it wouldn’t be terrible; however, without a huge influx of talent, Iowa may have to come back to this approach of high-dollar, short-term fixes, again and again, for at least the next couple of years. If you’d like for Iowa to make some tweaks to the recruiting process so they’re not forced to rely on a significant portion of their potential NCAA points coming from transfers - I don’t think you’re wrong. Zach Glazier photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com The Team Chemistry So, perhaps the biggest negative is also something that’s difficult for outside eyes to judge or quantify. The team chemistry. How does bringing in three wrestlers with one year of eligibility remaining, ones who will most likely push existing starters to the bench sit with their teammates. How do potential recruits feel about this? We sort of have an answer already as Glazier and Siebrecht have announced a transfer to South Dakota State. Aiden Riggins is expected to join the Iowa State program and 2024 national qualifier at heavyweight, Bradley Hill, is expected to turn up at Oklahoma. Your staunchest Iowa supporter may roll his or her eyes at this move as none appeared to be starters in 2024-25, but it certainly could be a sign of negativity within the ranks. I’m sure that just because more wrestlers haven’t transferred, it doesn’t mean they’re happy about the situation. This is on the heels of the 2023-24 season when AJ Ferrari was rumored to be coming to Iowa City to start at 197 lbs for the Hawkeyes - the same weight occupied by Zach Glazier. Glazier, by all accounts, was a respected member of the team who bided his time and filled in as needed when four-time NCAA All-American Jacob Warner was at the same weight. We all remember the Ferrari/Glazier match turned out at the Soldier Salute and the post-match antics from Ferrari. They likely prevented the polarizing 2021 national champion from gaining admission to Iowa and Glazier remained Iowa’s starter for the rest of the 2023-24 campaign. From there he continued to roll and made the 2024 Big Ten finals, the only Iowa wrestler to do so. Glazier came into the 2024 national tournament with a sparkling 23-2 record, with only two losses to Aaron Brooks (Penn State), but he ended up with a subpar performance and was eliminated after going 1-2. So for two years in a row now, Iowa has sought to upgrade from Glazier. Last year it didn’t work out, but this year it did. Now we know some Iowa teammates were turned off by this, judging by their sudden transfers as the new school year was about to begin, but how are recruits and their families viewing the situation? I don’t know if we’ll get a straight answer on the subject, but we’ll have to monitor future commitments. The Class of 2026 is loaded with top-end talent, the type that could change the trajectory of a program. Some of which, Iowa is actively recruiting. In the past, Tom Brands has not been shy about his displeasure with “negative recruiting” from his rivals. I’m sure it’s a pet peeve of many coaches. But in this instance, there’s even more ammo from other coaching staffs that may want to knock Iowa during the recruiting process (even if they would have accepted three All-American transfers within the last year). We all know the wrestling community is a small place. The wrestler you may have disrespected or the recruit you may have scared away has teammates, club coaches, siblings, and parents that may be involved in recruiting in the future. All of those people have heard their negative stories - and probably the worst version of the story. Whether you think Brands was justified or not in his actions, he and his staff will have to be ready to rationalize this to the families of potential recruits. Everybody’s Doing It Aw yes, the old excuse we used when we wanted to stay out past curfew and anything else during debates with our parents during our teenage years. Jokes aside, that’s what our friends in Iowa are saying when they see a large chunk of the wrestling community up-in-arms about the Hawkeyes transfers. We’ve mentioned some of Penn State’s transfers above. They’ve certainly received their share over the past few years. Michigan has benefited, to the tune of two team trophies, from “one-year rentals.” And the rival Cowboys from Oklahoma State. They brought in three graduate transfers this spring. From what I’ve been able to gather, it seems like the difference in many fans' minds between those situations and this one is the timing. Right as classes were slated to start. As most people interpreted the rules, this appeared to prevent the existing team members from joining the transfer portal and transferring. Obviously, there are loopholes, which have allowed Glazier, Siebrecht, Riggins, and Hill to land at solid programs. In a perfect world, they probably would have liked to know in April, to take multiple recruiting trips, but again, it seems like they’ve landed in good spots. Also from a timing perspective, we don’t know how this situation was relayed to Siebrecht and Glazier (those most impacted by the late transfers). These didn’t happen overnight. They were rumored for a good portion of the summer. Were those two told “Don’t believe the rumors, you’re our guys,” or “We might be looking at possible transfers,” or something to that extent - or something in the middle. At this point, we don’t have an answer, but the optics obviously don’t look great. A lot of this is me making the argument for both sides - as there are legitimate points and reasoning behind both. A personal opinion is please don’t go “old man yelling at clouds” on Siebrecht/Glazier and talk about a soft society and kids running from challenges. Both young men have spent five-plus years in the Iowa wrestling room. Neither has been a day-one starter, so they’ve had plenty of opportunities to leave the program - I don’t think their toughness or character should be challenged. This isn’t the best example of “kids these days.” Summary Is it worth a team trophy (or an even better team trophy) for a 2025 NCAA finish at the expense of the future? Whether or not Tom Brands used that particular phrasing, is the question that he and his staff had to answer before and during their pursuit of these new transfers. Maybe this is a whole media creation and Brands and company have the right answers to smooth over the situation with the current team members and a good answer for curious parents of potential recruits. Much ado about nothing. However you feel about this issue, you can’t deny the fact that Iowa gets the people talking and has made this upcoming collegiate season even more intriguing than we initially thought.

The Maryland athletic department held its annual Media Day on Tuesday and invited members of the media to hear from head coach Alex Clemsen - along with national qualifiers Ethen Miller and Jaxon Smith. Both Miller and Smith are heading into their redshirt junior seasons with the Terps and were key components of a recruiting Class of 2021 that was ranked #8 in the nation by InterMat. Both have now grown into leaders of the Maryland program. The three talk about their team heading into the 2024-25 campaign.