InterMat Staff

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.

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 23. These three schools were removed from this week's graphic: Clarion, Little Rock, Minnesota The following schools remain on Bassett’s graphic and therefore in contention for his services: Air Force, American, Arizona State, Cornell, Iowa, Iowa State, Lehigh, Michigan, Missouri, NC State, Nebraska, North Carolina, Northern Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Pitt-Johnstown, Pittsburgh, Princeton, Rutgers, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin. These three schools were removed from last week's 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 next week at the U20 World Championships - September 2nd-8th 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.

A few DI schedules have already been released for the 2024-25 season. As more get released we will continue to add them here, so bookmark this page and check back often. Schedules added thus far include: Air Force, American, Appalachian State, Arizona State, Army West Point, Binghamton, Bloomsburg, Brown, Bucknell, Buffalo, Cal Poly, California Baptist, Campbell, Chattanooga, Clarion, Cleveland State, Columbia, Cornell, CSU Bakersfield, Davidson, Drexel, Duke, Edinboro, Franklin & Marshall, Gardner-Webb, George Mason, Hofstra, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Lehigh, Little Rock, Lock Haven, Long Island, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Morgan State, Navy, NC State, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, Northern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Penn, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Princeton, Purdue, Rider, Rutgers, SIU Edwardsville, South Dakota State, Stanford, The Citadel, Utah Valley, Virginia, Virginia Tech, VMI, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming October 31st (Thursday) Campbell vs. Wyoming @ Cheyenne, Wyoming November 1st (Friday) Allen, Montreat @ The Citadel Chattanooga vs Virginia Tech @ Salem, Virginia CSU Bakersfield, Utah Valley at Stanford Indiana at California Baptist North Dakota State at Virginia Pitt-Bradford, Seton Hill at Edinboro Purdue at Gardner-Webb Wisconsin at Ohio November 2nd (Saturday) Menlo Open (Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Utah Valley) @ Menlo, California Southeast Open (Campbell, Chattanooga, Davidson, F&M, Gardner-Webb, Morgan State, North Carolina, North Dakota State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, VMI, West Virginia) @ Salem, Virginia Illinois at SIU Edwardsville Iowa at Oregon State Michigan State at American Missouri at Northern Colorado Ohio at Wisconsin Navy at Pittsburgh November 3rd (Sunday) Battle at The Citadel (Air Force, Appalachian State, Duke, George Mason, NC State, The Citadel) @ Charleston, South Carolina Clarion Open (Bloomsburg, Buffalo, Clarion, Edinboro, Michigan, Pittsburgh) @ Clarion, Pennsylvania East Stroudsburg Open (Long Island) @ East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Princeton Open (Army West Point, Columbia, Drexel, Hofstra, Lehigh, Lock Haven, Princeton, Rider) @ Princeton, New Jersey Bucknell, Kent State at Maryland Central Missouri, Nebraska-Kearney at Little Rock Indiana at Cal Poly November 6th (Wednesday) Glenville State at West Virginia November 8th (Friday) Throwdown on the Yorktown (Army West Point, Gardner-Webb, The Citadel, Virginia) @ Charleston, South Carolina Gannon at Kent State Oklahoma at Air Force Oregon State at North Dakota State Stanford at Iowa State Utah Valley at Nebraska November 9th (Saturday) Bison Open (Minnesota, North Dakota State, South Dakota State) @ Fargo, North Dakota George Mason Duals (Bloomsburg, George Mason) @ Fairfax, Virginia Michigan State Open (Indiana, Kent State, Michigan, Michigan State, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio, Wisconsin) @ East Lansing, Ohio Mountaineer Invitational (Appalachian State, Davidson, Minnesota, Virginia Tech) @ Boone, North Carolina TigerStyle Invite (Cal Poly, Little Rock, Maryland, Missouri, Purdue) @ Kansas City, Missouri Drexel, North Carolina at Navy Stanford at Iowa Western Wyoming at Wyoming WrangleMania @ Bethlehem Pennsylvania Buffalo vs Sacred Heart, F&M vs VMI, Long Island vs Duke Buffalo vs California Baptist, VMI vs Sacred Heart, Illinois vs Binghamton Campbell vs California Baptist, Rutgers vs Duke, Long Island vs Arizona State Campbell vs NC State, Rutgers vs F&M, Illinois vs. Arizona State November 10th (Sunday) Bob Del Rosa Open (Cleveland State) @ Cleveland, Ohio Journeymen Collegiate Classic (Arizona State, Army West Point, Binghamton, Clarion, Cornell, Duke, F&M, Harvard, Hofstra, Illinois, Lehigh, Lock Haven, NC State, Penn, Pittsburgh, VMI) @ Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Michigan State Open (Edinboro, Michigan State) @ East Lansing, Michigan Clarion at American Drexel, North Carolina at Navy Glenville State at Morgan State November 14th (Thursday) Belmont-Abbey, St. Andrews at Davidson Bloomsburg at Lock Haven Chattanooga at Ohio State West Virginia at Rider November 15th (Friday) Appalachian State at NC State Augustana at South Dakota State Bucknell at Minnesota Columbia at Cleveland State George Mason at Edinboro Indiana at Central Michigan Iowa at Bellarmine Missouri at Virginia Tech Morgan State at Lehigh Navy at Iowa State Nebraska at Campbell Nebraska at North Carolina Northern Colorado at Drexel Oklahoma State at Utah Valley November 16th (Saturday) Grand View Open (Northern Iowa) @ Grimes, Iowa Shorty Hitchcock Memorial (F&M) @ Millersville, Pennsylvania American vs. Maryland @ Potomac, Maryland Blackburn, Eureka at SIU Edwardsville Hofstra Quad (Duke, Sacred Heart, The Citadel) at Hofstra Kent State at Bellarmine Northern Colorado at Penn Northern Illinois at Northwestern Stanford at Cal Poly November 17th (Sunday) Jersey Jostle (Long Island, NC State, Princeton Rutgers) @ Toms River, New Jersey Marymount Duals (Morgan State, VMI) at Arlington, Virginia SIRTC Open (SIU Edwardsville) at Edwardsville, Illinois Warren Williamson Daktronics Open (Arizona State, Minnesota, North Dakota State, South Dakota State) @ Brookings, South Dakota Army West Point, Purdue at Buffalo Columbia at Michigan Davidson at Presbyterian Drexel at Penn State George Mason at Clarion Lehigh at Pittsburgh Michigan State at Ohio Ohio State at Edinboro Oklahoma State at Oregon State November 21st (Thursday) Indiana at Columbia Missouri at Illinois November 22nd (Friday) Air Force at California Baptist Arizona Christian, Embry-Riddle at Arizona State Michigan at Duke Minnesota at North Dakota State Morgan State at Maryland Rider at Northern Illinois Rutgers at Virginia Tech Seton Hill at VMI West Virginia at Appalachian State Wyoming at Oklahoma State November 23rd (Saturday) Navy Classic (Bucknell, Cleveland State, Indiana, Kent State, Navy, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon State, The Citadel) @ Annapolis, Maryland Air Force at Vanguard American, Presbyterian, Utah Valley, at Duke Buffalo at Cornell Iowa State at Iowa Princeton, Purdue at Chattanooga Utah Valley at NC State Wyoming at Oklahoma November 24th (Sunday) Black Knight Invite (Army West Point, Binghamton, Bloomsburg, Columbia, Gardner-Webb, Long Island, Michigan State, Penn State) @ West Point, New York Big Red Invitational (Brown, Buffalo, Clarion, Cornell) @ Ithaca, New York Keystone Classic (Drexel, Edinboro, F&M, Harvard, Lock Haven, Penn, Virginia Tech) @ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Roadrunner Open (Cal Poly, California Baptist, CSU Bakersfield) @ Bakersfield, California Arizona State at Oklahoma State Campbell at Minnesota George Mason at SIU Edwardsville Hofstra at Ohio State Lehigh at Pittsburgh Little Rock at Northwestern Michigan at Virginia Rider at Wisconsin South Dakota State at Northern Iowa November 25th (Monday) Illinois, Greensboro at North Carolina November 26th (Tuesday) Missouri vs Northern Iowa @ Hartland, Wisconsin December 1st (Sunday) Mat-Town Open (Bloomsburg, Cornell, Lock Haven) @ Lock Haven, Pennsylvania Minnesota at South Dakota State December 4th (Wednesday) Drexel at Clarion December 5th (Thursday) Lake Erie at Kent State December 6th (Friday) Buffalo at American Buffalo, Long Island at George Mason Davidson at Duke Illinois at Indiana Lock Haven at Rutgers Penn at Virginia Army West Point, Princeton vs Iowa @ St. Charles, Missouri December 6/7th (Friday/Saturday) Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Appalachian State, Arizona State, Binghamton, Cal Poly, California Baptist, Columbia, CSU Bakersfield, Harvard, Hofstra, Iowa State, Michigan, Navy, NC State, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Purdue, Rider, South Dakota State, Stanford, Utah Valley, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wyoming) @ Las Vegas, Nevada December 7th (Saturday) Cougar Clash (Illinois, Little Rock, Minnesota, Missouri, Northern Colorado, Northern Illinois, SIU Edwardsville) @ Edwardsville, Illinois CSU Open (Air Force, Cleveland State, Indiana, Kent State) @ Cleveland, Ohio Edinboro, King, Virginia at VMI Wisconsin at Bucknell December 8th (Sunday) Patriot Open (Gardner-Webb, George Mason, Long Island, Maryland, Rider) @ Fairfax, Virginia Central Michigan at Little Rock Edinboro at Davidson Penn at Morgan State Penn State vs Lehigh at Allentown, Pennsylvania Rutgers at Princeton Wisconsin at Bloomsburg Wisconsin at Lock Haven December 12th (Thursday) Appalachian State at VMI December 13th (Friday) Army West Point at Morgan State Ohio State at Pittsburgh Oklahoma State at Oklahoma Rutgers at Clarion December 14th (Saturday) Buffalo, Gardner-Webb, Rutgers at Kent State California Baptist at Clarion Nebraska-Kearney at Northern Iowa December 15th (Sunday) American at Davidson Binghamton at Long Island California Baptist vs West Virginia @ New Cumberland, West Virginia Michigan State at CSU Bakersfield North Dakota State vs Iowa State @ Humboldt, Iowa Wyoming at Penn State December 16th (Monday) Chattanooga at Little Rock December 17th (Tuesday) CSU Pueblo at Air Force Ohio at Drexel December 18th (Wednesday) Ohio at Bloomsburg Purdue at Cleveland State December 19th (Thursday) California Baptist, Northwestern at Cal Poly Clarion at Bloomsburg Gardner-Webb at George Mason Northern Illinois at Kent State Northwestern at Cal Poly Limestone at The Citadel Virginia Tech at Oklahoma State December 20th (Friday) Kent State Open (Kent State, Northern Illinois) @ Kent, Ohio Sheridan Open (Brown, Drexel, F&M, Indiana, Lehigh, Virginia) @ Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Wilkes Open (Appalachian State) @ Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Air Force, Oregon State at Utah Valley Augustana, Nebraska-Kearney at Nebraska Buffalo at SIU Edwardsville Long Island at Bucknell Oregon State at Utah Valley Rider Quad (Maryland, Pittsburgh, South Dakota State) @ Lawrenceville, New Jersey Sacred Heart at Edinboro December 21st (Saturday) Kent State Open (Clarion, Kent State) @ Kent, Ohio American at Navy Hofstra at Columbia Hofstra, Morgan State at Nassau CC Northern Colorado Quad @ Greeley, Colorado Oklahoma Quad (Buffalo, CSU Bakersfield, Chattanooga, Oklahoma) @ Norman, Oklahoma South Dakota State at Drexel Knockout Christmas Classic (Campbell, North Dakota State, West Virginia, Wisconsin) @ Kissimmee, Florida December 20/21st (Friday/Saturday) Journeymen Collegiate Duals @ Nashville, Tennessee (Iowa State, Lock Haven, North Carolina, Ohio State) and (Binghamton, Little Rock, Missouri, Penn State) December 22nd (Sunday) Reno Tournament of Champions (Cal Poly, Oregon State, Wyoming) @ Reno, Nevada Gardner-Webb at Ohio NC State at Cornell The Citadel at Duke VMI at Duke December 29/30th (Sunday/Monday) Midlands Championships (Bucknell, Cal Poly, California Baptist, Edinboro, F&M, George Mason, Harvard, Indiana, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Penn, Pittsburgh, Princeton, Rider, Rutgers, SIU Edwardsville, Stanford, Wisconsin) @ Evanston, Illinois Soldier Salute (Iowa, Minnesota, Navy, North Carolina, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, Wyoming) @ Coralville, Iowa January 3rd (Friday) Air Force at Oklahoma State Cleveland State at Ohio Cornell at Missouri Pitt-Johnstown at Pittsburgh Purdue at Kent State January 4th (Saturday) Bobby Kauffman Open (Edinboro) at Edinboro, Pennsylvania California Baptist at Utah Valley West Virginia at Princeton January 4/5th (Saturday/Sunday) Southern Scuffle (American, Appalachian State, Army West Point, Bloomsburg, Brown, Campbell, Chattanooga, Clarion, Davidson, Duke, Gardner-Webb, Little Rock, Long Island, Morgan State, North Carolina, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, The Citadel, Virginia, Virginia Tech) @ Chattanooga, Tennessee January 5th (Sunday) Armbar in the Armory (Binghamton, Columbia, Lock Haven, Maryland) @ Albany, New York Nebraska at Northern Iowa Oregon State at Ohio State January 8th (Wednesday) Iowa State at West Virginia January 9th (Thursday) Hofstra at Binghamton January 10th (Friday) F&M Open (Air Force, Army West Point, Buffalo, Campbell, Cleveland State, Columbia, F&M, Harvard, Hofstra, Kent State, Lock Haven, Long Island, Navy, Penn, Princeton, VMI) @ Lancaster, Pennsylvania Arizona State at California Baptist Duke at NC State Maryland at Michigan Michigan State at Penn State Northwestern at Purdue Ohio State at Illinois Princeton at Morgan State Rutgers at Indiana Stanford at Pittsburgh Virginia Tech at North Carolina January 10/11th (Friday/Saturday) Elite Duals (Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Drexel, George Mason, Little Rock, Northern Colorado, Northern Iowa, Ohio, Penn, SIU Edwardsville, South Dakota State, Wyoming) @ Cedar Falls, Iowa Virginia Duals (Bucknell, Iowa State, Rider) @ Hampton, VA January 11th (Saturday) Lehigh at Binghamton Minnesota at Nebraska January 12th (Sunday) Appalachian State at The Citadel Arizona State vs California Baptist @ Walnut, California Army West Point at Long Island Edinboro at Clarion Iowa at Wisconsin Lehigh at Cornell Maryland at Michigan State NC State at Oklahoma State Northwestern at Illinois Pittsburgh at West Virginia Purdue at Northern Illinois Rutgers at Ohio State Stanford at Missouri January 14th (Tuesday) Gardner-Webb at Duke January 16th (Thursday) Gardner-Webb, Lock Haven, Morgan State at Davidson South Dakota State at California Baptist January 16th/17th (Thursday/Friday) Davidson Duals (Brown, Davidson, Hofstra, Little Rock, Lock Haven, The Citadel) at Davidson, North Carolina January 17th (Friday) Campbell at Gardner-Webb Harvard at American Illinois at Iowa Indiana at Purdue Lehigh at Navy Michigan at Northwestern NC State at Virginia North Carolina at Duke North Dakota State at Northern Colorado Northern Illinois at Central Michigan Northern Iowa at Arizona State Penn State at Nebraska Pittsburgh at Bucknell SIU Edwardsville at Kent State Utah Valley at Missouri West Virginia at Oklahoma Wisconsin at Maryland January 18th (Saturday) Binghamton at F&M Binghamton at Drexel George Mason at Cleveland State Harvard at Navy Hofstra at Bloomsburg South Dakota State at Air Force January 19th (Sunday) Cyclone Open (Iowa State) at Ames, Iowa Arizona State at Stanford Army West Point at American Buffalo at Michigan State Campbell at Chattanooga Cleveland State at Central Michigan Edinboro at Ohio Johns Hopkins at Morgan State Michigan at Minnesota North Dakota State at Air Force Princeton at Clarion Purdue at Ohio State SIU Edwardsville at Clarion Virginia Tech at Appalachian State West Virginia at Oklahoma State Wisconsin at Rutgers Wyoming at Oregon State January 20th (Monday) Duke at Appalachian State January 22nd (Wednesday) Arizona State at Missouri January 24th (Friday) Air Force at Presbyterian Bellarmine at Campbell California Baptist at Northern Colorado Bloomsburg, Clarion at Cleveland State Drexel at Bucknell Illinois at Maryland Indiana at Michigan State Kent State at Lock Haven Minnesota at Wisconsin Nebraska at Michigan Northern Illinois at Ohio Oklahoma at Iowa State Oklahoma State at Northern Iowa Oregon State at Little Rock Penn at Columbia Penn State at Rutgers Pittsburgh at NC State Rider at Princeton The Citadel at Davidson Utah Valley at Wyoming Virginia Tech at Duke January 25th (Saturday) Appalachian Open (Appalachian State) at Boone, North Carolina Binghamton at Brown Binghamton at Harvard Bloomsburg at Buffalo Bucknell at Army West Point California Baptist at Wyoming Cornell at Brown Binghamton, Cornell at Harvard Drexel at Rider Kent State at Lock Haven Northern Illinois at Ohio Ohio State at Iowa Oklahoma at Northern Iowa Sacred Heart at F&M VMI vs Chattanooga at Cleveland, Tennessee January 26th (Sunday) North Carolina Open (North Carolina) at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Air Force, Gardner-Webb at Davidson Campbell, Central Michigan, CSU Bakersfield at American Bloomsburg, Glenville State at Buffalo Bucknell vs. Army West Point Clarion, Kent State at Long Island Illinois at Rutgers Indiana at Michigan Lock Haven at George Mason Minnesota at Northwestern Nebraska at Michigan State Oklahoma State at Iowa State Penn at Hofstra Princeton at Columbia The Citadel at Presbyterian Virginia at Stanford West Virginia at Missouri January 27th (Monday) Presbyterian at Appalachian State January 30th (Thursday) Bucknell at Lock Haven January 31st (Friday) American at Lehigh American at Drexel Appalachian State at Bellarmine Chattanooga at Presbyterian Davidson at Campbell Gardner-Webb at VMI Iowa at Penn State Navy at Bucknell NC State at North Carolina Northern Illinois at Cleveland State SIU Edwardsville at California Baptist Stanford at Oregon State Utah Valley at South Dakota State Virginia at Virginia Tech Wisconsin at Nebraska Wyoming at North Dakota State February 1st (Saturday) Army West Point at Lehigh Bloomsburg at Sacred Heart Cornell at Binghamton Duke at Pittsburgh Edinboro Open (Cleveland State, Edinboro) @ Edinboro, Pennsylvania George Mason at Rider Missouri at Oklahoma Northern Iowa at West Virginia Northwestern at Indiana Ohio State at Michigan Princeton at Drexel Purdue at Illinois Utah Valley at North Dakota State Wyoming at South Dakota State February 2nd (Sunday) Mat-Town Open (Lock Haven) at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania Brown at Penn Brown at Princeton Campbell at Rider Central Michigan at Ohio Chattanooga at The Citadel Clarion at Michigan State Cornell at Columbia CSU Bakersfield at Oregon State F&M at Hofstra F&M at Long Island Harvard at Penn Harvard at Princeton Iowa at Maryland Missouri at Oklahoma State Northern Colorado at Arizona State Pittsburgh at Binghamton Rutgers at Minnesota SIU Edwardsville at Cal Poly The Citadel at Davidson VMI at Bellarmine February 4th (Tuesday) Appalachian State at Gardner-Webb February 6th (Thursday) Cleveland State at Edinboro West Virginia vs. Utah Valley at Layton, Utah February 7th (Friday) Air Force at Utah Valley Arizona State at Iowa State Binghamton at Morgan State Buffalo at Northern Illinois Central Michigan at Edinboro Chattanooga at Davidson Drexel at F&M Duke at Virginia Kent State at Ohio Lehigh at Bucknell Michigan at Penn State Michigan State at Northwestern Minnesota at Ohio State Nebraska at Iowa North Carolina at Pittsburgh Northern Colorado at South Dakota State Oregon State at Cal Poly Presbyterian at Gardner-Webb Purdue at Wisconsin Rider at Lock Haven Rutgers at Maryland The Citadel at Bellarmine Virginia Tech at Stanford February 8th (Saturday) Messiah Open (F&M) @ Grantham, Pennsylvania American at Virginia Northern Iowa at North Dakota State Oklahoma State at Little Rock Princeton at Cornell Rider at Bloomsburg West Virginia at Wyoming February 9th (Sunday) Air Force at CSU Bakersfield Brown at American Brown at George Mason Central Michigan at Buffalo Chattanooga at Appalachian State Davidson at Bellarmine Lock Haven at Clarion Maryland at Penn State Michigan State at Wisconsin Ohio State at Indiana Penn at Cornell Pittsburgh at Iowa State Presbyterian, VMI at Campbell Purdue at Minnesota Sacred Heart at Binghamton February 10th (Monday) Hofstra at Long Island February 13th (Thursday) Lehigh at Penn Stanford at Princeton February 14th (Friday) Bellarmine at Gardner-Webb Bucknell at American Campbell at The Citadel Iowa at Minnesota Iowa State at South Dakota State Kent State at Central Michigan Little Rock, Northern Illinois at Cal Poly Lock Haven at Cleveland State Maryland at Purdue Michigan State at Rutgers Northern Colorado at Utah Valley Ohio at SIU Edwardsville Penn State at Ohio State Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech Rider at Edinboro Stanford at NC State Virginia at North Carolina VMI at Davidson Wisconsin at Northwestern Wyoming at Air Force February 15th (Saturday) Columbia at Harvard Cornell at Arizona State Millersville at F&M North Dakota State at California Baptist February 16th (Sunday) American at Virginia American at George Mason Binghamton at Buffalo Columbia at Brown Davidson at Appalachian State Drexel at Hofstra Drexel at Long Island Gardner-Webb at Chattanooga Indiana at Nebraska Iowa State at Northern Iowa Little Rock, North Dakota State at CSU Bakersfield Michigan at Michigan State Morgan State at Sacred Heart Navy at Army West Point Northern Colorado at Wyoming Northwestern at Iowa Oklahoma at Arizona State Penn State at Illinois Princeton at Penn Rider at Clarion SIU Edwardsville at Central Michigan Stanford at Duke The Citadel at VMI Virginia at North Carolina February 19th (Wednesday) Penn at Rutgers VMI at Presbyterian February 20th (Thursday) Bloomsburg at Navy Edinboro at Lock Haven Kent State at Cleveland State Long Island at Sacred Heart February 21st (Friday) American at Penn State Arizona State at Lehigh Brown at Harvard California Baptist at CSU Bakersfield Columbia at Bucknell Edinboro at Bloomsburg Indiana at Chattanooga Maryland at Drexel Michigan State at Central Michigan NC State at Virginia Tech North Carolina at Stanford Northern Iowa at Wisconsin (tentative 21st-23rd) Pittsburgh at Virginia February 22nd (Saturday) Cowboy Shootout (Wyoming) at Laramie, Wyoming Brown at Sacred Heart Bucknell at Cornell Cleveland State at Rider Iowa State at Missouri Northern Illinois at SIU Edwardsville VMI at Sacred Heart February 23rd (Sunday) F&M Invitational (F&M, Penn) @ Lancaster, Pennsylvania Patriot Last Chance Open (George Mason, Hofstra) @ Fairfax, Virginia Air Force at Northern Colorado American at Morgan State Arizona State at West Virginia Bellarmine at Chattanooga Binghamton at Army West Point Cal Poly at CSU Bakersfield Campbell at Appalachian State Central Michigan at Michigan Gardner-Webb at The Citadel Nebraska at Purdue North Carolina at Oregon State Ohio at Buffalo Oklahoma State at Iowa South Dakota State at North Dakota State March 6th (Thursday) Pac-12 Championships at Corvallis, Oregon March 7/8th (Friday/Saturday) EIWA Championships @ Bethlehem, Pennsylvania MAC Championships @ Lawrenceville, New Jersey March 8/9th (Saturday/Sunday)) Big 12 Championships @ Tulsa, Oklahoma Big Ten Championships @ Evanston, Illinois March 9th (Sunday) ACC Championships @ Durham, North Carolina Ivy League Championships @ Princeton, New Jersey March 20-22nd (Thursday-Saturday) NCAA Championships @ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The 2024 Olympic Games came to an end two Sunday's ago. Since there was so much action going on for the last week, you're sure to have missed something along the way. We'll go through each weight class and have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight. Past weight classes Greco-Roman: 60 kg Greco-Roman: 67 kg Greco-Roman: 77 kg Greco-Roman: 87 kg Greco-Roman: 97 kg Greco-Roman: 130 kg Men's Freestyle: 57 kg Men's Freestyle: 65 kg Men's Freestyle: 74 kg Men's Freestyle: 86 kg Men's Freestyle: 97 kg Men's Freestyle: 125 kg Women's Freestyle: 50 kg Women's Freestyle: 53 kg Women's Freestyle: 57 kg Women's Freestyle: 62 kg Women's Freestyle: 68 kg Round of 16 Aiperi Medet Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan) over Juan Wang (China) 4-1 Reetika Hooda (India) over Bernadett Nagy (Hungary) 12-2 Milaimys Marin Potrille (Cuba) over Yuliana Yaneva (Bulgaria) 7-1 Kennedy Blades (USA) over Catalina Axente (Romania) 11-0 Tatiana Renteria (Colombia) over Zaineb Sghaier (Tunisia) 8-4 Davaanasan Enkhamaryn (Mongolia) over Hannah Rueben (Nigeria) 5-2 Yasemin Adar (Turkiye) over Justina DiStasio (Canada) 8-2 Yuka Kagami (Japan) over Genesis Reasco Valdez (Ecuador) 2-0 Quarterfinals Aiperi Medet Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan) over Reetika Hooda (India) 1-1 Kennedy Blades (USA) over Milaimys Marin Potrille (Cuba) 4-3 Tatiana Renteria (Colombia) over Davaanasan Enkhamaryn (Mongolia) 6-3 Yuka Kagami (Japan) over Yasemin Adar (Turkiye) 3-0 Semifinals Kennedy Blades (USA) over Aiperi Medet Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan) 8-6 Yuka Kagami (Japan) over Tatiana Renteria (Colombia) 4-2 Repechage Milaimys Marin Potrille (Cuba) over Catalina Axente (Romania) FFT Genesis Reasco Valdez (Ecuador) over Yasemin Adar (Turkiye) 3-1 Bronze Medal Matches Milaimys Marin Potrille (Cuba) over Aiperi Medet Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan) 6-0 Tatiana Renteria (Colombia) over Genesis Reasco Valdez (Ecuador) 2-1 Gold Medal Match Yuka Kagami (Japan) over Kennedy Blades (USA) 3-1 Notes: In her first Olympic Games, Yuka Kagami came away with a gold medal. It was her third World/Olympic medal and a second straight title - after winning a world championship in 2023. Kagami’s Olympic title gave Japan four gold medals in women’s freestyle from 2024. This is the third straight Olympic Games where Japan had four. In her four Olympic bouts, Kagami scored 12 total points. That’s the lowest point total for any of the Olympic gold medalists across the three styles. Across all three styles, Japan had eight gold medalists in 2024 in 18 weight classes. For all of Japan’s success in women’s freestyle, this is the first time that they have had an Olympic champion at the highest women’s weight. In her first world-level appearance at the Senior level, Kennedy Blades was able to bring in a silver medal. Blades’ medal gave the United States four medalists for a second straight Olympic Games. Milaimys Marin Potrille’s bronze medal gave Cuba two medals in the 2024 Games, without ever having won one at any of the previous Olympic Games. This is Marin Potrille’s first World/Olympic medal. Tatiana Renteria’s bronze medal is the third-ever for Colombia in women’s freestyle. Renteria is now a two-time World/Olympic medalist. This is the first time since women’s wrestling has been offered in the Olympics that there have been three medalists from the Pan-American continent(s) in the same weight class. In addition, one of the bronze medal matchup featured Renteria/Reasco Valdez - so another wrestler from the Pan-American qualifier was fifth. This weight class showed a bit of a changing of the guard as all four medalists are 23 years old or younger. Half of the seeded wrestlers fell in the opening round at this weight. #4 Axente, #6 Rueben, #7 DiStasio, #8 Nagy. This bracket has four past world finalists that did not earn medals at this weight. DiStasio, Adar, Medet Kyzy, and Enkhamaryn. With this being the final women’s weight class conducted, we saw a wrestler from Europe did not medal at 76 kg. That made only four Olympic medals across all women’s freestyle weights from Europe. There were nine in each of the last two Olympic Games (when women’s wrestling was expanded to six weights). Even with four weights, there were six in 2012. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com

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 157 Top-20 Notes: In 2022, he was the #2 Fantasy Wrestler at 157 and in 2023 he was the #4 Fantasy Wrestler. Finally, in 2024, Chase Saldate finds himself atop the ranks due in large part to the end of season stretch going 10-1 with six pins. One of Saldate’s four losses was Vince Zerban who, not only was #2 in the 157 Fantasy Wrestling rankings, but was #2 nationally for several weeks at the end of the season (and nationally ranked top-five for seven weeks). Zerban went 21-0 (his first two duals of the season were not against D1 schools, so uncountable) but only faced two wrestlers who ended up in the Top-20 National Rankings (Saldate at #20 and Cardenas at #8). High amount of matches against not a lot of top ranked competition, usually means high fantasy worth. Speaking of Cardenas, Daniel Cardenas had four losses during the regular season, but was able to edge out Meyer Shapiro by one Fpt. Cardenas and Shapiro met early in the season at CKLV with Cardenas getting the victory (and thus the higher fantasy rank). Shapiro would have the last laugh though, beating Cardenas for 3rd at Nationals. The only non-starter to make the 157 Top-20 was Central Michigan’s Mason Shrader who tied Colton Washleski in Fpts at 72 but bested the Bronc by 0.5 PPM. But for Washleski to end up at #6 in the Top-20 should not go overlooked. In 2023, he went 5-14 (-26 Fpts and #264 in the 157 Ranks). Technically speaking, Paddy Gallagher is listed as a “non-starter” but wrestled into January as the 157 starter for OHST. Despite only one match in January and no matches in February to end the season, Paddy finished inside the Top-20 tied for 17th with Peyton Robb in Fpts and PPM. National Champion Levi Haines comes in at #7 with the highest PPM in the Top-20 (4.4 PPM) in the least number of matches wrestled in the Top-20. Going a perfect 15-0 in the regular season, five of his wins came by decision with the rest by major. If he followed a similar trajectory to get to 20 matches, he probably would have finished at least second in the 2024 season ranks. Powered by a regular-season bonus rate of almost 40% (in countable matches) and two losses by decision only, Peyton Kellar makes his second consecutive Top-20 at 157. This time, at #12 compared to his 2023 finish at #8. Michael Blockhus returned to collegiate wrestling for one last ride and, while not reaching the podium in March, was able to put together a great fantasy run in the regular season. He tied national runner-up Jacori Teemer with 56 Fpts but takes the #15 spot with a 1 PPM better stat-line than Teemer. Who Missed The Cut: Two All-Americans miss the Top-20 in Bryce Andonian (VT) and Jared Franek (IOWA). Andonian finished with only 46 Fpts in large part due to having the regular season cut short by injury on January 7th, 2024 (loss by INJ to Shapiro). Had he, say, lost by only a decision and not wrestled the rest of the season, he would have finished with 49 Fpt and taken the #19 spot. Franek, on the other hand, wrestled a full regular season, but only four of his 18 countable D1 matches were won by bonus (two techs and two majors). If non-D1 competitions were included in Fantasy Scoring, Franek would have had an additional 24 Fpts (all from the Luther Open). Ohio State starter for the last part of the regular season and into the postseason, Issac Wilcox had five losses in his last 14 matches, accounting for -17 Fpts. Wilcox finished tied with Teague Travis but a lesser PPM of 1.8 lands him at #21. Brock Mauller (MIZZ) and Lucas Revano (PENN) tied with 42 Fpts, with Mauler having the better PPM at 2.3 compared to Revano’s 1.6. Other notables to miss the Top-20 include Joey Blaze (PUR) with 44 Fpts, Cael Swensen (SDSU) with 37 Fpts, Matt Bianchi (LR) with 36 Fpts, Cody Chittum (ISU) with 32 Fpts, and Brayton Lee (IND) with 20 Fpts in 6 matches.

It came down to the finals matches on Sunday to determine a team winner in men’s freestyle at the U17 World Championships. Coming into the final session, the American team held a one-point lead over Iran. The United States and Iran had a head-to-head gold medal matchup at 45 kg in a bout that appeared as if it may decide the team race. That proved to be the case as Sammy Sanchez (USA) had an incredible comeback to run down Amirabbas Ramezanibaza (Iran). The opening period belonged to the Iranian as he secured a takedown and then transitioned into a leg lace, all while Sanchez was on the shot clock. Once that sequence was finished, Sanchez trailed 5-0 which is how the first period would end. Undeterred, the second period would be all Sanchez. Early in the final period, Ramezanibaza took an errant shot that was blocked by Sanchez, who spun for a takedown to get on the board. Along the way, the Iranian was called for a caution after a singlet pull, making the match, 5-3 in favor of Ramezanibaza. Sanchez quickly took the lead with a single leg and a dump that netted him a pair of two-pointers. During the same action, Sanchez kept Ramezanibaza’s arm for another exposure to flip the script and lead, 9-5. The California native was able to prevent Ramezanibaza from scoring from a pair of different front headlock situations during the final :30-plus seconds of the bout to win a U17 world championship. Sanchez wasn’t the only American who left Amann, Jordan with gold on Sunday - fellow lightweight Dom Munaretto also struck gold. Munaretto was tasked with facing Faith Christian’s Freddy Bachmann, who was wrestling for Puerto Rico. A shot clock point for Bachmann after Munaretto was put on the clock accounted for the only scoring in the opening period. Munaretto got his own shot clock point in the second period to take the lead on criteria. With the final seconds ticking off the clock, Bachmann went for a desperation throw which Munaretto stopped and earned a takedown himself. It made the final score 3-1. Munaretto is now a two-time U17 world champion - he won the 45 kg weight class in 2022. He is the fourth American in men’s freestyle to win multiple U17 world championships, joining Kurt McHenry (2016/17), Yianni Diakomihalis (2015/16), and Gable Steveson (2015/16). Speaking of Diakomihalis, his younger brother, Elijah earned a bronze medal at 92 kg. The younger Diakomihalis posted an 8-3 win over Aliaksei Khadunou (AIN - Belarus). Saturday afternoon saw the United States capture their other gold medal in men’s freestyle as Michael Mocco dominated his way to the 110 kg title. Shortly after the opening whistle, Mocco notched a takedown from a low-leg attack and transitioned into a leg lace for a quick 10-0 tech fall in only :18 seconds on Kyrgyzstan’s Yedige Kassimbek. Mocco outscored his four opponents by a 47-6 margin throughout the tournament. Henry Aslikyan (48 kg) and Keanu Dillard (55 kg) were the other medalists for the men’s freestyle squad. The Americans had three gold medalists, three bronze medalists, and three others who fell in bronze medal matches. The US women’s freestyle team was led by the 61 kg representative Taina Fernandez who crushed the field on the way to a gold medal. Fernandez pinned three out of her four opponents on her way to a world title. In the gold medal match, she put away Japan’s Sae Noguchi via fall in 3:22. Fernandez’s only non-fall of the tournament was in the opening round when she teched Ozdenur Ozmez (Turkiye) 11-0 shortly after the second period commenced. The only other American woman who medaled was Morgan Turner who was a bronze medalist at 46 kg. It was the second consecutive U17 world medal for Turner - last year she was a gold medalist at 43 kg in Istanbul.

The 2024 Olympic Games came to an end last Sunday. Since there was so much action going on for the last week, you're sure to have missed something along the way. We'll go through each weight class and have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight. Past weight classes Greco-Roman: 60 kg Greco-Roman: 67 kg Greco-Roman: 77 kg Greco-Roman: 87 kg Greco-Roman: 97 kg Greco-Roman: 130 kg Men's Freestyle: 57 kg Men's Freestyle: 65 kg Men's Freestyle: 74 kg Men's Freestyle: 86 kg Men's Freestyle: 125 kg Women's Freestyle: 50 kg Women's Freestyle: 53 kg Women's Freestyle: 57 kg Women's Freestyle: 62 kg Women's Freestyle: 68 kg Round of 16 Magomedkhan Magomedov (Azerbaijan) over Luis Perez Sosa (Dominican Republic) 9-0 Zbigniew Baranowski (Poland) over Radu Lefter (Moldova) 8-2 Givi Matcharashvili (Georgia) over Steyn DeLange (South Africa) 5-3 Murazi Mchedlidze (Ukraine) over Ibrahim Ciftci (Turkey) 5-1 Kyle Snyder (USA) over Awusayiman Habila (China) 9-5 Arturo Silot Torres (Cuba) over Erik Thiele (Germany) 5-0 Alisher Yergali (Kazakhstan) over Mostafa Elders (Egypt) 6-2 Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bahrain) over Amirali Azarpira (Iran) 4-3 Quarterfinals Magomedkhan Magomedov (Azerbaijan) over Zbigniew Baranowski (Poland) 7-2 Givi Matcharashvili (Georgia) over Murazi Mchedlidze (Ukraine) 11-0 Kyle Snyder (USA) over Arturo Silot Torres (Cuba) Fall 3:36 Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bahrain) over Alisher Yergali (Kazakhstan) 14-2 Semifinals Givi Matcharashvili (Georgia) over Magomedkhan Magomedov (Azerbaijan) 5-0 Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bahrain) over Kyle Snyder (USA) 6-4 Repechage Murazi Mchedlidze (Ukraine) over Steyn DeLange (South Africa) 5-3 Amirali Azarpira (Iran) over Alisher Yergali (Kazakhstan) 6-1 Bronze Medal Matches Magomedkhan Magomedov (Azerbaijan) over Murazi Mchedlidze (Ukraine) 10-0 Amirali Azarpira (Iran) over Kyle Snyder (USA) 4-1 Gold Medal Match Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bahrain) over Givi Matcharashvili (Georgia) Fall 1:52 Notes: Not only is Akhmed Tazhudinov the first Olympic champion for Bahrain in men’s freestyle, but he is also their first medalist. Tazhudinov was one of only two wrestlers to earn a fall in a gold medal match at this year’s Olympic Games. At 21, Tazhudinov was the youngest Olympic gold medalist in men’s freestyle in 2024. Tazhudinov is now a two-time World/Olympic gold medal winner (in as many tries). In nine matches at the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 Olympic Games, Tazhudinov has only wrestled the full six minutes twice (versus Snyder and Azapira). Givi Matcharashvili earned his first Olympic medal when he took the silver. It’s his third World/Olympic medal after taking bronze at the last two world championships. We had a very young podium with Matcharashvili being the oldest of the four medalists at 27 years old. Magomedkhan Magomedov also grabbed his first Olympic medal by taking the bronze medal. He is now a three-time World/Olympic medalist. Magomedov’s medal gave Azerbaijan multiple medalists for the third time in the last four Olympic Games. Two of the medalists (Tazhudinov and Magomedov) previously have competed for Russia. Amirali Azarpira claimed his first World/Olympic medal with a bronze in Paris. Azarpira’s medal gave Iran four medal in men’s freestyle. The last time Iran had that many was in the 1956 Games in Melbourne. Kyle Snyder lost to Azarpira in the bronze medal match. It marked the first time in his Senior level career (2015 - present) that he did not medal at a World/Olympic event. This weight class had the most competitive first round of any men’s freestyle weight class. Only one match ended via fall or tech. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com

The 2024 Olympic Games came to an end last Sunday. Since there was so much action going on for the last week, you're sure to have missed something along the way. We'll go through each weight class and have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight. Past weight classes Greco-Roman: 60 kg Greco-Roman: 67 kg Greco-Roman: 77 kg Greco-Roman: 87 kg Greco-Roman: 97 kg Greco-Roman: 130 kg Men's Freestyle: 57 kg Men's Freestyle: 74 kg Men's Freestyle: 86 kg Men's Freestyle: 125 kg Women's Freestyle: 50 kg Women's Freestyle: 53 kg Women's Freestyle: 57 kg Women's Freestyle: 62 kg Women's Freestyle: 68 kg Round of 16 Vazgen Tevanyan (Armenia) over Goderdzi Dzebiashvili (Georgia) 11-0 Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia) over Alejandro Valdes Tobier (Cuba) 5-0 Kotaro Kiyooka (Japan) over Maxim Sacultan (Moldova) 10-0 Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico) over Georgii Okorokov (Australia) 12-2 Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary) over Ernazar Akmataliev (Kyrgyzstan) 11-0 Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan) over Austin Gomez (Mexico) 7-0 Islam Dudaev (Albania) over Gaku Akazawa (Samoa) 10-0 Rahman Amouzad (Iran) over Zain Retherford (USA) 8-0 Quarterfinals Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia) over Vazgen Tevanyan (Armenia) 7-5 Kotaro Kiyooka (Japan) over Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico) 8-6 Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary) over Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan) 10-3 Rahman Amouzad (Iran) over Islam Dudaev (Albania) 11-0 Semifinals Kotaro Kiyooka (Japan) over Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia) 5-1 Rahman Amouzad (Iran) over Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary) 10-0 Repechage Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico) over Maxim Sacultan (Moldova) 15-4 Islam Dudaev (Albania) over Zain Retherford (USA) FFT Bronze Medal Matches Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico) over Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia) 10-9 Islam Dudaev (Albania) over Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary) 13-2 Gold Medal Match Kotaro Kiyooka (Japan) over Rahman Amouzad (Iran) 10-3 Notes: Kotaro Kiyooka’s Olympic gold medal came in his first appearance at a Senior World/Olympic-level event. Just a year ago, Kiyooka finished ninth at the U23 World Championships. With Kiyooka’s gold medal, it marked the first time that Japan would capture multiple gold medals in men’s freestyle in a single Olympic Games since 1988 when Takashi Kobayashi (48 kg) and Mitsuru Sato (52 kg) both earned gold medals. This was the second straight Olympic Games where a Japanese wrestler came away with gold at this weight class. In 2020, Takuto Otoguro won the gold medal. It’s also three out of four as Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu won the 66 kg gold medal in 2012. Kiyooka’s gold medal gave Japan 8 in the 2024 Olympic Games across all three styles - which is remarkable for 18 weight classes (2 in men’s freestyle, 2 in Greco-Roman, and 4 in women’s freestyle). Rahman Amouzad made the finals after outscoring the opposition 29-0 across three matches. Two of his wins came against 2023 world champions, Zain Retherford (70 kg) and Iszmail Musukaev (65 kg). Despite all of their international success, this is the first Olympic medal in this weight range (62-68 kg) for Iran since 1992 when Asgari Mohammadian was a silver medalist (to John Smith). Amouzad is now a two-time world/Olympic medalist with his silver medal to go along with a 2022 world championship. A bronze medal from Islam Dudaev gave Albania two medals in the 2024 Olympic Games in men’s freestyle. Previously they had none. The bronze was Dudaev’s first World/Olympic medal. To get on the podium, Dudaev won a 13-12 shootout against 2023 world champion Musukaev. That Dudaev/Musukaev matchup pitted a pair of former Russian wrestlers against each other for a medal. Sebastian Rivera became only the second wrestler representing Puerto Rico to medal. In 2012, Jaime Espinal was a silver medalist at 84 kg. Rivera is now a two-time World/Olympic medalist after taking silver at the 2023 World Championships. Rivera was the only wrestler from the 2023 world podium to make the 2024 Olympic medal stand. Retherford, Rivera, and Austin Gomez were NCAA All-Americans in the field at 65 kg. Though they were in the same Olympic bracket, the three accounted for All-American honors at four different collegiate weight classes. Rivera (125/133/141), Retherford (141/149), Gomez (149). For the most part, there was a youth movement on the podium at this weight. The finalists were 22 (Amouzad) and 23 (Kiyooka), and Rivera is 25. The oldest was Dudaev who is 29. Despite the depth at this weight, only one seeded wrestler fell in the opening round - #5 Maxim Sacultan (Moldova). He was defeated by the eventual champion, Kiyooka. This weight class featured three first round matches between past world medalists. Tulga Ochir/Valdes Tobier, Musukaev/Akmataliev, Amouzad/Retherford. All three matches ended with the losing wrestler being shut out. Despite the number of great wrestlers at this weight class, the first round matches were generally all blowouts. A 5-0 win by Tulga Ochir over Valdes Tobier accounted for the “closest” bout of the opening round. After the Olympic Games, Haji Aliyev announced his retirement. He’ll finish as a two-time Olympic medalist (silver/20, bronze/16) and a three-time world champion. Aliyev and Valdes Tobier were the only wrestlers in this bracket competing in their third Olympic Games. For the second straight Olympic Games, Musukaev fell in a bronze medal matchup. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com

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