On Friday night, the top-two wrestling teams in the nation squared off and it was top-ranked Penn State that prevailed over second-ranked Iowa in a resounding 30-8 victory. The Nittany Lions took eight of ten matches from their Hawkeye rivals. Penn State won all six matches in which they had the higher ranked wrestler and managed to pull off a pair of upsets at 149 and 157 lbs.
Now that we’ve had some time to decompress and react to the action on the mat. Here’s the fallout from the most anticipated dual of the season.
There still is no clarity on Iowa’s 141 lb situation. Cullan Schriever got the start and did well enough against an unbeaten Beau Bartlett, losing 7-3. Is it enough to say that he should be the starter going forward over Ryder Block? He also got the start against Maryland on Sunday and pulled out a one-point win over Dario Lemus. That’s a positive sign in Schriever’s direction. Before it was Schriever’s turn, Ryder Block went 0-2 in B1G duals and Jace Rhodes was 1-0.
Let’s look at potential B1G seeding at 149 lbs! In the upper tier of contenders, Ridge Lovett majored Shayne Van Ness. On Friday night, Van Ness did the same to Kyle Parco. This coming Friday Parco and Lovett will meet. Parco was 2-0 against Lovett in 2023-24 accounting for two of his five losses on the year. Should that trend continue, it will throw a wrench into Big Ten seeding, with the top three wrestlers all beating each other. Now, if Lovett wins, he’s unbeaten in the conference and the clear-cut #1 seed. That would put Van Ness as the second seed and Parco the number three. Van Ness also has matches upcoming with #9 Dylan D’Emilio and #13 Kannon Webster, so there is potential for him to take another loss along the way.
Who is the new #1 at 157 lbs? Jacori Teemer was beaten by Tyler Kasak, 5-2. Teemer came into the match ranked number one in the country, but did have a loss via injury default. A second is enough to knock him off of his perch. The contenders for the #1 spot are Kasak and #2 Meyer Shapiro. Shapiro also had a weird, injury-default loss early in the season and missed some time. He’s returned and been utterly dominant, but only has one win over a top-15 opponent. My inclination at this point is to go with Kasak. His resume isn’t much different than Shapiro's, but he has wins over Teemer and #4 Antrell Taylor.
All things equal - should Mitchell Mesenbrink win the Hodge Trophy? We still have a month to go and plenty can happen between now and mid-March. I would actually go out on a limb and say that Mitchell Mesenbrink probably won’t win the Hodge under any circumstances. That doesn’t mean that he’s not deserving of it. The award typically goes to seniors or wrestlers who are making some sort of history. That immediately makes you think of Carter Starocci or Gable Steveson. Starocci is going for title number five in a weight class that includes a wrestler who was an undefeated champion in 2024. Steveson is the Olympic gold medal winner who already has two Hodge Trophies and should have a winning streak approaching 70 matches at NCAA time. It would shock me if someone who isn’t Starocci or Steveson wins the award. The wrestler who could threaten that notion is Mesenbrink. Through 14 matches this season, Mesenbrink has 12 tech falls! That’s an absurd number! Looking deeper, the only two non-techs were forfeits! His most recent came on Friday night against the second-ranked wrestler in the country - a two-time All-American. Coming into the match, I was wondering if Michael Caliendo closed the gap, because he’s been excellent himself.
We’ll talk about Iowa’s 184 lb situation in two separate parts, starting with Gabe Arnold. Since Arnold was a high school senior he and Penn State’s Carter Starocci have been trading barbs with each other, hyping up a potential match. One did not occur last year as Arnold was redshirting. Based on his eligibility dates at last year’s dual, he was able to compete and maintain a redshirt; however, he was nursing an injury. Before Friday’s dual, the talk grew on both sides as a long-awaited matchup seemed to be on the horizon. Arnold did not weigh in and wasn’t able to be inserted in the lineup at all. Does this have any long-lasting effects? Since Arnold didn’t weigh in and there was plenty of chatter in the final days leading up to the event that Angelo Ferrari was going to get the call, there had to have been some sort of discussion between Arnold and the Iowa staff about this decision. Even so, it kind of makes Arnold look silly after the war of words between him and Starocci. Does that have any lingering impact on Arnold going forward? Generally, the underdog in a situation like this does better the more times they get to meet the favored wrestler. I would have liked to see Arnold get a feel for Starocci before the postseason if I were an Iowa supporter.
Ferrari is going to be (already is) really good! That’s not much of a hot take. With an offseason under his belt and the three seniors currently atop the 184 lb weight class gone, Angelo Ferrari will be on the short list of preseason NCAA title contenders at 184 lbs. You’ll have veterans like Bennett Berge and Silas Allred, but also young faces like Ferrari, Zack Ryder, Aeoden Sinclair, and Max McEnelly in the title hunt.
Josh Barr suffered his first collegiate loss at the hands of the top-ranked 197 lber in the land Stephen Buchanan. Buchanan has been as good as advertised for the Hawkeyes and is well deserving of a top-billing in a weight class that includes two other unbeaten stars. For Barr, it doesn’t get any easier as he’ll have another undefeated opponent in #2 Jacob Cardenas of Michigan on Friday. Regardless of how Barr/Cardenas plays out, I’m wondering if Barr will be the next wrestler to get a dose of the “Cael Magic” in the postseason? Can he become the latest Penn State freshman to avenge a regular season (or Big Ten) loss at the NCAA Championships? It seems like he could be.
I’m sure you’ve heard by now, that the top prospect in the Class of 2026 Bo Bassett, will announce his collegiate choice tomorrow. He’s narrowed his list down to four schools including both Penn State and Iowa - along with Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech. Did the result from this dual impact Bassett’s decision? And not in the way you’re thinking. Because Iowa lost such a lopsided match to the Nittany Lions, did they quickly increase their NIL offer to Bassett in hopes of closing the deal now and leaving nothing to chance? There are plenty of rumors surrounding the dollar figures involved and, suffice it to say, they are mind-boggling for a college wrestler (and unsubstantiated at this time). Iowa has been spending a lot of money on the transfer portal, so they appear well-equipped to do the same for a top prospect like Bassett.
Penn State now has a 66-match winning streak and is a step closer to their fourth straight undefeated season. Standing in the way of a 71-0 streak are dates with #4 Ohio State, #13 Illinois, #19 Michigan, #29 Maryland and unranked American.
With their win on Friday night, Penn State became the first side in this rivalry to amass 30 points in a single dual since Cael Sanderson took over in 2009-10. The previous high was 29 which Iowa hit in 2010 and Penn State matched in 2024.
Boonsboro
Centennial
Williamsport
Lake Charles
Artesia
Comanche
Indian Valley
North Royalton
Initially, let’s focus on the team rankings for a second. Penn State’s dominant win over Iowa has Shayne Van Ness and Tyler Kasak moving up in their respective weight classes. That increases Penn State’s team tournament total to their highest point of the season (144.5). Iowa comes back to Oklahoma State a bit - now 14 points ahead of the Cowboys. In team dual rankings, Oklahoma State jumped over Iowa for the second place slot. The most individual notable changes of the week occurred at 157 lbs. We have Tyler Kasak as the new number one at the weight. Kasak has a head-to-head win over the previous #1 Jacori Teemer and a 9-3 win over #5 Antrell Taylor. He also has four other wins over wrestlers currently in the top-33. Teemer slides behind Meyer Shapiro. The two have relatively similar resumes for the season. Shapiro’s best win comes over #13 Ed Scott, while Teemer’s comes over #16 Sammy Sasso. Before the Kasak loss, both wrestlers had an injury default on their record. Shapiro has been able to avenge that with a tech fall victory. Also at 157 lbs, you might notice that 2024 All-American Peyten Kellar has been removed. He hasn’t competed since December 17th. We have reason to believe that he might be out for the remainder of the season; however, as of post-time we haven’t been able to confirm this. The inactivity is enough to take him out for now. For the full rankings: Click Here
It was a quieter week for the Big 12 with some teams taking the week off. Wyoming and Utah Valley both split on a trip to the Dakota’s, beating NDSU before losing to SDSU. Utah Valley took a good SDSU team to the brink, with an opening overtime rideout match being the difference. Oklahoma beat Missouri for the first “SEC Championship”. Oklahoma State then had their fifth-largest attendance ever to beat their average attendance record in David Taylor’s first season. Notable Results: Friday (1/24): Full Results Wyoming over North Dakota State (27-12) SIUE over California Baptist (25-14) South Dakota State over Utah Valley (21-16) 125: #14 Tanner Jordan Dec. Bridger Ricks (TB 4-3) Utah Valley again shows that they are a program getting tougher quickly with HC Adam Hall. Bridger Ricks has wrestled a number of ranked wrestlers tough and took returning All-American Jordan to the brink in what ended up being enough to win the dual. Saturday (1/18): Full Results Utah Valley over North Dakota State (24-19) Northern Iowa over West Virginia (29-1) 133: #30 Brody Conley Dec. #16 Jared Simma (8-5) Conley has taken some losses this season but scored a solid win over Jared Simma here. If he can stay healthy then he could be one to watch, as he also beat MJ Gaitan by major earlier this year. Oklahoma over Missouri (23-13) 141: #18 Mosha Schwartz Dec. #14 Josh Edmond (6-4) 149: #16 Willie McDougald Dec. Logan Gioffre (SV-1 5-2) In the first unofficial official “SEC Championship” the Sooners took home the win. They swept the first four tossup weights, including Mosha Schwartz getting a buzzer beater takedown to beat Edmond. Schwartz has now put together back-to-back top 15 wins. South Dakota State over Wyoming (31-3) 157: #27 Cobe Siebrecht Dec. #21 Jared Hill (5-3) Siebrecht was having an up-and-down year before an injury default at CKLV in early December. He made his return in mid January and has now put together four consecutive wins, including a solid upset over Hill and looks to be back on track. Sunday (1/19): Full Results Northern Colorado over Arizona State (21-17) 125: Richie Figueroa - Forfeit There weren’t any huge results out of this one, but Stevo Poulin was noticeably missing in a big conference matchup. Oklahoma State over Missouri (36-3) 165: #6 Cam Amine Dec. #15 Cam Steed (5-1) 184: #3 Dustin Plott Maj. Aeoden Sinclair (18-7) Missouri struggled on the road this weekend, going 0-2 in the Sooner State. In front of their fifth-largest crowd ever, the Cowboys broke their average attendance record in a dominant performance. Cam Steed took Amine to the brink, with a stall call being the difference and Steed being unable to score late. Blue chip freshman Sinclair used his final date at a weight class lighter than he’d been this season. Plott was dominant as usual, but Sinclair had some funky scrambles and used it to score a takedown late to avoid the tech. Upcoming Competitions: Air Force: AT Utah Valley (Feb. 7); AT CSUB (Feb. 9) Arizona State: AT Iowa State (Feb. 7) California Baptist: North Dakota State (Feb. 15) Iowa State: Arizona State (Feb. 7); Pitt (Feb. 9) Missouri: Iowa State (Feb. 22) Northern Colorado: AT South Dakota State (Feb. 7) North Dakota State: Northern Iowa (Feb. 8th) Northern Iowa: AT North Dakota State (Feb. 8th) Oklahoma: AT Arizona State (Feb. 16) Oklahoma State: AT Little Rock (Feb. 8th) South Dakota State: Northern Colorado (Feb. 7) Utah Valley: West Virginia (Feb. 6); Air Force (Feb. 7) West Virgina: AT Utah Valley (Feb. 6); AT Wyoming (Feb. 8th) Wyoming: West Virginia (Feb. 8th)
Brookville
Cypress
Resurrection Christian School
Parkersburg South
Lakeshore
University
Germantown
Elyria
Spring Grove
Guilderland
On Friday night, the top-two wrestling teams in the nation squared off and it was top-ranked Penn State that prevailed over second-ranked Iowa in a resounding 30-8 victory. The Nittany Lions took eight of ten matches from their Hawkeye rivals. Penn State won all six matches in which they had the higher ranked wrestler and managed to pull off a pair of upsets at 149 and 157 lbs. Now that we’ve had some time to decompress and react to the action on the mat. Here’s the fallout from the most anticipated dual of the season. There still is no clarity on Iowa’s 141 lb situation. Cullan Schriever got the start and did well enough against an unbeaten Beau Bartlett, losing 7-3. Is it enough to say that he should be the starter going forward over Ryder Block? He also got the start against Maryland on Sunday and pulled out a one-point win over Dario Lemus. That’s a positive sign in Schriever’s direction. Before it was Schriever’s turn, Ryder Block went 0-2 in B1G duals and Jace Rhodes was 1-0. Let’s look at potential B1G seeding at 149 lbs! In the upper tier of contenders, Ridge Lovett majored Shayne Van Ness. On Friday night, Van Ness did the same to Kyle Parco. This coming Friday Parco and Lovett will meet. Parco was 2-0 against Lovett in 2023-24 accounting for two of his five losses on the year. Should that trend continue, it will throw a wrench into Big Ten seeding, with the top three wrestlers all beating each other. Now, if Lovett wins, he’s unbeaten in the conference and the clear-cut #1 seed. That would put Van Ness as the second seed and Parco the number three. Van Ness also has matches upcoming with #9 Dylan D’Emilio and #13 Kannon Webster, so there is potential for him to take another loss along the way. Who is the new #1 at 157 lbs? Jacori Teemer was beaten by Tyler Kasak, 5-2. Teemer came into the match ranked number one in the country, but did have a loss via injury default. A second is enough to knock him off of his perch. The contenders for the #1 spot are Kasak and #2 Meyer Shapiro. Shapiro also had a weird, injury-default loss early in the season and missed some time. He’s returned and been utterly dominant, but only has one win over a top-15 opponent. My inclination at this point is to go with Kasak. His resume isn’t much different than Shapiro's, but he has wins over Teemer and #4 Antrell Taylor. All things equal - should Mitchell Mesenbrink win the Hodge Trophy? We still have a month to go and plenty can happen between now and mid-March. I would actually go out on a limb and say that Mitchell Mesenbrink probably won’t win the Hodge under any circumstances. That doesn’t mean that he’s not deserving of it. The award typically goes to seniors or wrestlers who are making some sort of history. That immediately makes you think of Carter Starocci or Gable Steveson. Starocci is going for title number five in a weight class that includes a wrestler who was an undefeated champion in 2024. Steveson is the Olympic gold medal winner who already has two Hodge Trophies and should have a winning streak approaching 70 matches at NCAA time. It would shock me if someone who isn’t Starocci or Steveson wins the award. The wrestler who could threaten that notion is Mesenbrink. Through 14 matches this season, Mesenbrink has 12 tech falls! That’s an absurd number! Looking deeper, the only two non-techs were forfeits! His most recent came on Friday night against the second-ranked wrestler in the country - a two-time All-American. Coming into the match, I was wondering if Michael Caliendo closed the gap, because he’s been excellent himself. We’ll talk about Iowa’s 184 lb situation in two separate parts, starting with Gabe Arnold. Since Arnold was a high school senior he and Penn State’s Carter Starocci have been trading barbs with each other, hyping up a potential match. One did not occur last year as Arnold was redshirting. Based on his eligibility dates at last year’s dual, he was able to compete and maintain a redshirt; however, he was nursing an injury. Before Friday’s dual, the talk grew on both sides as a long-awaited matchup seemed to be on the horizon. Arnold did not weigh in and wasn’t able to be inserted in the lineup at all. Does this have any long-lasting effects? Since Arnold didn’t weigh in and there was plenty of chatter in the final days leading up to the event that Angelo Ferrari was going to get the call, there had to have been some sort of discussion between Arnold and the Iowa staff about this decision. Even so, it kind of makes Arnold look silly after the war of words between him and Starocci. Does that have any lingering impact on Arnold going forward? Generally, the underdog in a situation like this does better the more times they get to meet the favored wrestler. I would have liked to see Arnold get a feel for Starocci before the postseason if I were an Iowa supporter. Ferrari is going to be (already is) really good! That’s not much of a hot take. With an offseason under his belt and the three seniors currently atop the 184 lb weight class gone, Angelo Ferrari will be on the short list of preseason NCAA title contenders at 184 lbs. You’ll have veterans like Bennett Berge and Silas Allred, but also young faces like Ferrari, Zack Ryder, Aeoden Sinclair, and Max McEnelly in the title hunt. Josh Barr suffered his first collegiate loss at the hands of the top-ranked 197 lber in the land Stephen Buchanan. Buchanan has been as good as advertised for the Hawkeyes and is well deserving of a top-billing in a weight class that includes two other unbeaten stars. For Barr, it doesn’t get any easier as he’ll have another undefeated opponent in #2 Jacob Cardenas of Michigan on Friday. Regardless of how Barr/Cardenas plays out, I’m wondering if Barr will be the next wrestler to get a dose of the “Cael Magic” in the postseason? Can he become the latest Penn State freshman to avenge a regular season (or Big Ten) loss at the NCAA Championships? It seems like he could be. I’m sure you’ve heard by now, that the top prospect in the Class of 2026 Bo Bassett, will announce his collegiate choice tomorrow. He’s narrowed his list down to four schools including both Penn State and Iowa - along with Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech. Did the result from this dual impact Bassett’s decision? And not in the way you’re thinking. Because Iowa lost such a lopsided match to the Nittany Lions, did they quickly increase their NIL offer to Bassett in hopes of closing the deal now and leaving nothing to chance? There are plenty of rumors surrounding the dollar figures involved and, suffice it to say, they are mind-boggling for a college wrestler (and unsubstantiated at this time). Iowa has been spending a lot of money on the transfer portal, so they appear well-equipped to do the same for a top prospect like Bassett. Penn State now has a 66-match winning streak and is a step closer to their fourth straight undefeated season. Standing in the way of a 71-0 streak are dates with #4 Ohio State, #13 Illinois, #19 Michigan, #29 Maryland and unranked American. With their win on Friday night, Penn State became the first side in this rivalry to amass 30 points in a single dual since Cael Sanderson took over in 2009-10. The previous high was 29 which Iowa hit in 2010 and Penn State matched in 2024.
Northfield Mt. Herman
Edmond North
Birmingham
Newton/Kittatinny