NCAA Week 15 Roundup: This Should Be Illegal
NCAA Week 15 Roundup: This Should Be Illegal
Recapping all the biggest stories from the fifteenth week of the 2022-23 NCAA D1 college wrestling season.
Watching a full weekend of NCAA D1 duals AND the Super Bowl is so much fun it feels like it should be illegal! Thankfully though for us sports fans it is not!
Last Week's Roundup | Box Scores
The second-to-last weekend of the season had heaps of great duals, so let's get to it so I can focus on Rihanna's halftime performance to see if my prop bets come through.
The Vince Lombardi Trophy Winning Dual of the Century, of the Week
Iowa State at Northern Iowa: the Mountain Dew Bowl
Coaches Schwab and Dresser brought the drama, and fans brought the energy to a packed McLeod Center in Cedar Falls. And the stakes weren't just about in-state bragging rights, it was about something far more important. It was about being served one's beverage of choice and avoiding having to chug another Diet Mountain Dew.
Both teams brought the heat to the mat, but it would be Dresser's Cyclones who got the best of the Panthers, winning 19-12 and ensuring Schwab would once again be at the mercy of Dresser's soda selection. Or I guess it's his 'pop' selection. Kind of like the 'state' or 'states' debate. Either is fine by me. It's a big country and we should celebrate its diversity!
Anyhow, ISU got key wins from Zach Redding over #17 Kyle Biscoglia at 133 and from freshman MJ Gaitan over #19 Lance Runyon at 174. You can watch the latter match below.
Then the Cyclones got one last shot at the Panthers on their way back to Ames.
Goodnight 😴 pic.twitter.com/f3ysaAelrz
— Iowa State Wrestling (@CycloneWR) February 11, 2023
This is a very fun rivalry and I look forward to it's continuance in future seasons!
Around The Horn Of Plenty
The Coolest Things That Happened In NCAA Wrestling This Week
I missed a lot of the action this week as I was humbly and respectfully traveling to and from Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway, New Jersey to commentate the Rutgers vs Penn State dual on Friday. So I posited a question on Twitter and so many of you wise and learned wrestling fans helped clue me in, which was very much appreciated!
ACC
Friday night duals continue to deliver!
Electric atmosphere in Reynolds for @PackWrestle win over Pitt - upsets of two top 10 wrestlers by @Trephy17 & @kaiorine over Pitzer and Phillipi pic.twitter.com/OuiEcPcKN0
— Mike Giancola (@MikeCGiancola) February 11, 2023
NC State won handily so there are now three teams in the ACC tied for first with 4-1 records: Pitt, NC State and Virginia Tech. And they all wrestle one of the other three ACC programs next week, so a three-way tie for the dual championship is very likely.
Virginia Tech beat the Tar Heels and while the Hokies were pretty heavy favorites going into the match, one of the marquee bouts of the whole week was much closer to a toss-up.
Who do you think wins the biggest individual matchup of the weekend? pic.twitter.com/RD06V8sP67
— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) February 10, 2023
Now there's lots of chatter about Austin O'Connor being the favorite to win the 157-pound NCAA title in March. Tough to argue after his win over Andonian.
@aoconnor157 beating Bryce Andonian by a MAJOR. Not even close.
— Kellie DeSchutter (@KMDeSchutter) February 11, 2023
Big Dub for @aoconnor157!#GoHeels | #TogetherWeWin pic.twitter.com/b9rPRw35ad
— UNC Wrestling (@UNCWrestling) February 11, 2023
EIWA
Binghamton vs Cornell in the EIWA Dual of the Week!
Definitely @BearcatsWrestle vs @BigRedWrestling at Hilton HS in front of a sold out crowd and celebrating 5 athletes between the 2 programs that all wrestled at the high school.
— Kyle Borshoff (@KJBorsh) February 11, 2023
The five Hilton High School grads on those two teams are Collin Burns and Sam and Lou DePrez for Binghamton and Greg and Yianni Diakomihalis for Cornell.
The Big Red prevailed 28-15. The Hilton grads went 1-1, as #1 Yianni got a pin at 149 and #4 Chris Foca majored Sam DePrez.
Additionally, the Harvard Crimson picked up two wins, over Ivy rival Columbia as well as Hofstra.
In other news from the East, Army vanquished Drexel 20-12, with #23 Ben Pasiuk of Army getting an upset win over #10 Mikey O'Malley at 174.
It was rough sledding for O'Malley this week. The Dragon senior was also beaten by #20 Nick Incontrera as UPenn defeated their literal next-door neighbor Drexel, 28-6.
Penn was also pushing P against Princeton, as the two powerhouse programs squared off for some non-punching pugilism. The Quakers beat the Tigers 19-15. Princeton also fell to Tiger head coach Chris Ayres' alma mater, Lehigh, 24-12, all of which will help hash out the seeds at the EIWA Championships in Philadelphia three weeks from now.
Big Ten
Historical aside: Penn State represented the easternmost flank of the Big Ten since they joined the conference in 1990. That is until Rutgers and Maryland accepted membership offers in 2014, pushing the Big Ten's territory fully to the Eastern seaboard of the continental United States.
This weekend, the Nittany Lions confirmed their dominance of the B1G’s coastal community with convincing wins over the Scarlet Knights and Terrapins.
Rutgers was, however, able to boast of a sell-out crowd in Jersey Mike’s Arena, with nearly 8,000 fans in attendance.
Pretty sure that at Jersey Mikes arena pic.twitter.com/iN4eCmC84o
— Mark Colalillo (@mcolalillo) February 11, 2023
There was also cause for celebration in College Park on Friday, as Coach Clemson broke an 8-year drought of winless duals against Big Ten teams when his Maryland squad defeated Purdue at home.
@TerpsWrestling did some cool things in College Park tonight… #TurtlePower https://t.co/odZAnU6JUA
— Coach Clemsen (@alextclemsen) February 11, 2023
Now that’s what I call Turtle Power.
One of the more impressive individual results in the B1G was Iowa's Cobe 'Chrysler Siebring' Siebrecht defeating Taylor Lewan of Michigan.
Siebrecht over Lewan
— Hawk Gawd 🐤 (@iAhAwKeYesss) February 11, 2023
That was in a dual where Iowa administered a sound 33-8 drubbing of Michigan. Spencer Lee continued on his warpath to a fourth NCAA title with a major decision over #22 Jack Medley, though #1 Mason Parris did gut out a come-from-behind victory over #3 Tony Cassioppi to give the Wolverine faithful something to cheer about.
Elsewhere, traditional Big Ten bluebloods Minnesota and Wisconsin produced a couple of high-profile ranked matchups. #6 Eric Barnett of Wisconsin beat a surging #5 Pat McKee at 125, and #18 Braxton Amos edged #16 Michial Foy 2-1 just a week after Foy beat Iowa's NCAA finalist Jacob Warner. It wasn't enough for the Badgers to get the team win, however, as the Gophers took the dual 18-15.
And Nebraska got an impressive 25-16 win over Ohio State in Columbus. Lots of highly ranked wrestlers on both squads but there were no upsets and only twice did we see a top 10 matchups: at 125, where #3 Liam Cronin of Nebraska beat #10 Malik Heinselman of Ohio State, and at 174, where Nebraska's #2 Mikey Labriola defeated OSU's #5 Ethan Smith.
MAC
Clarion extended their dual win streak to eight with a 23-9 win over Buffalo.
Personally I like the Golden Eagles winning their 8th straight and staying atop the mac.
— nick deloia (@catfur7) February 11, 2023
However, the Golden Eagles had their wings clipped by Rider just a couple of days later, as the Broncs defeated the Golden Eagles 25-12 thanks to key wins in the middleweights by Colton Washleski and Michael Wilson at 157 and 174.
This leaves the 2023 MAC dual meet title undecided, as five different teams sport an .800 winning percentage in conference duals leading up to the final week of the regular season.
There were some other solid individual results from the MAC last week.
Northern Illinois' Blake West beat #7 Mike DeAugustino.
Blake West @NIUWrestling beats Deaugustino 7-2 OT
— Corby (@CorbyMat) February 11, 2023
And Edinboro's Ryan Burgos beat #22 Quinn Kinner of Rider, although the Broncs won that dual as well, 23-8.
Ryan Burgos (Edinboro) beating Quinn Kinner (Rider)
— madison hollenbeck (@madisonhollenb) February 11, 2023
I was also alerted to some puzzling news.
That never happened. Mac wrestling doesn’t exist according to Flo
— Shane Thomas (@friendshane2) February 11, 2023
Never heard of this policy before but I am happy to regularly defy it every week in the roundup!
Big 12
The aforementioned Dual of the Century of the Week got some extra love from CP, to which I wholeheartedly concur.
UNI vs ISU was incredible. Hats off both teams. https://t.co/pBzIWQ9cSz
— Christian Pyles (@CPyles8) February 11, 2023
That makes three D1 Iowan teams in the top 15, including two in the top five. It's a great day to be a college wrestling fan in Iowa, imo.
In other scintillating Big 12 action, Oklahoma won 6 of 10 bouts to defeat the Jackrabbits in Brookings, SD. That includes a win by #7 Mosha Schwartz over SDSU’s #11 Clay Carlson, who All-Americaned in 2021. Schwartz runs his season record up to 18-2 and has now peeled off seven ranked wins in a row: #11 Carlson, #23 Droegemueller, #15 Hart, #8 Happel, HM Swiderski, HM Titus and #20 Koderhandt.
Schwartz's most recent ranked win is below.
Oklahoma State also got the better of the Jackrabbits 19-12. #13 Cade DeVos of SDSU upset #7 Dustin Plott at 174, but that was following an upset for the Cowboys at 165 as #22 Wyatt Sheet defeated South Dakota State's pinning machine, #14 Tanner Cook.
Additionally, Oklahoma State defeated Stanford 25-9. Sheets almost notched his second upset of the weekend but #3 Shane Griffith pulled out the win in sudden victory.
SoCon
Presbyterian was trailing Gardner-Webb by three going into the last bout at home. That’s when Malcolm Wiley stepped up at heavyweight and delivered a major decision to get the outright win for the Blue Hose, their first SoCon victory in program history! No need to figure out tiebreaking criteria when you score more points than your opponent!
Elsewhere, Campbell dispatched Chattanooga, remaining undefeated in conference duals and setting up another classic grudge match with Appalachian State for all the SoCon dual meet marbles next week.
Additionally, Bellarmine got yet another D1 win when they defeated the Citadel. Coach Ned Shuck is stacking up dubs in Louisville!
Pac-12
Stanford got stopped by Oklahoma State but they also got a big in-conference win with a 43-0 blanking of CSU Bakersfield.
Oregon State also got a nice out-of-conference win with a 20-10 victory over Wyoming.
And Little Rock split out-of-conference duals with two MAC opponents, beating Ohio but losing to SIU-Edwardsville.
Finally, I was once again subjected to some merciless cyber-bullying.
Your mom https://t.co/Z9U5Fk8vBQ
— ErectHammer142 (@EHammer142) February 11, 2023
All part of the job, I guess!
I hope everyone won a million dollars betting on the Super Bowl. Or perhaps you didn't make any wagers. Also a smart move!
See you next week, when the regular season will have somehow already concluded!