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NCAA D1 Weekly Roundup: 2023-24

NCAA D1 Week 1 Roundup: Three Is The Magic Number

NCAA D1 Week 1 Roundup: Three Is The Magic Number

Welcome back to another season of NCAA D1 wrestling as we rundown all the top stories of the last week of action.

Nov 6, 2023 by Andrew Spey
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Rejoice, dear friends and comrades, for another NCAA wrestling season is here, and it already rules.

Box Scores | Rankings | Last Year's Last Roundup

One thing long-time college wrestling fans will immediately notice is that takedowns are now worth three points.

This rule change, which elicited mixed emotions from the wrestling community when it announced over the summer, will at the very least accomplish the goal of making takedowns worth three-times as much as an escape, when before they were worth merely double. 

If all other outcomes are a wash, and all that is accomplished by the three-point takedown is a rebalancing of the takedown/escape points ratio, then I would be strongly inclined to consider the rule changes a massive success. 

Thus I am bullish on the three-point takedown, despite my inclusion in the large group of people that will lament the loss of being able to yell “TWOOOOO” from the stands. “Three” simply does not ring out as pleasingly boisterous to the ear. 

My advice, regardless of your opinion on the matter, is not to worry about it too much and just enjoy the competition. You get a finite number of college seasons in your lifetime, don't let something as trivial as takedown point totals get in the way of enjoying any one of them!

Speaking Of Three-Point Takedowns

The first official three-point takedown in a “countable” NCAA D1 match (meaning in-seasons between two D1 wrestlers from different teams) was achieved by Nate Lukez of Army on Chris Earnest of Campbell. 

Earnest would go on to win the match 9-6 and Campbell would defeat the Black Knights at the Battle at Liberty. NC State would beat Presbyterian in the other dual that was part of the event held in an airplane hanger on a military base in North Carolina. 

It was a very fun event to kick off the season with perhaps the most unique walkout tunnel in college wrestling history. 

Hawkeyes In SoCal

The #2 ranked Hawkeyes get their first win over the season after traveling to the west coast and defeating the Lancers of California Baptist. All ten Hawks notched wins in Riverside, California. 

That Iowa squad went without the services of Nelson Brands at 174, Abe Assad at 184 and Tony Cassioppi at 285, however, it was with the services of recent middleweight transfers Victor Voinovich at 149, Jared Franek at 157 and Michael Caliendo at 165. 

Below are some reactions from the Hawkeyes themselves following their season kick-off. 

Fans will have to wait until Sunday, November 19 for the next Hawkeye dual, when they are back in Iowa City to wrestle Oregon State. No word on when fans can expect the next episode of Morning Stroll with Sam Stoll or Good Murin America.  

You can watch the replay of the full dual while you read this recap by the great Iowan Kyle Klingman here.

Fans of the #1 ranked Penn State will have to wait until next week when the Nittany Lions start their season at the Journeymen Collegiate Classic. 

Elsewhere In Dual Meet Country

In a big country, duals stay with you, like a lover's voice fires the mountainside.

A brace of D1 duals popped off on day 2 of the college season: Oregon State went to Chapel Hill and defeated the Tar Heels, while Maryland beat their beltway brethren at American University. 

On Friday, NC State defeated the Mountaineers in the mountains of North Carolina, while Rutgers swept Duke and Cal Poly in a tri-meet in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Saturday rendered unto fans even more duals. Navy got the dub for the EIWA over Big Ten’s Illinois in the Land of Lincoln, and the Huskers of Nebraska went north and stopped the Thundering Herd of NDSU in their tracks.

And In the battle of the big brains, Stanford admonished Duke.

On Sunday, David Carr was back in his home gym of Perry High School in northeast Ohio as the Cyclones defeated Cleveland State.

It's Tourney Time!

Are you part of the Tourney Team? If you're not part of the Tourney Team, you don't run with us. We're the ones that run. Until you're part of the Tourney Team, walk, slowly.  

The Southeast Open

Six different D1 programs won titles at the Southeast Open, hosted by Virginia Tech in Roanoke, Virginia. West Virginia, Oregon State, Virginia Tech, Ohio, Utah Valley and Campbell all had wrestlers climb to the top of the podium in this deep but balanced week one tournament on Saturday.

WVU’s Jett Strickenberger upset #14 Brandon Kaylor to win 125. Oregon State was on the other side of an upset in the 133 semifinals, when Gabe Whisenhunt beat #4 Sam Latona of VA Tech. 

There will be a lot of movement in the 133-pound rankings next week, as Franklin & Marshall’s Mason Leiphart beat #24 Haiden Drury in the round of 16. If you predicted Whisenhunt over Leiphart in the finals before the tournament started then please claim your prize as either the greatest NCAA wrestling predictor of all time. 

WVU’s second champ came by way of Jordan Titus, who beat two ranked opponents on his way to the 141lb crown. #4 Caleb Henson demolished the 149lb field, but keep your eye on WVU runner-up Ty Watters, who beat 2023 true frosh NCAA qualifier Tom Crook on his way to the finals match. 

The Mountaineers had a less auspicious outing from their 165lb All-American Peyton Hall, who lost to Garrett Thompson of Ohio in the semis. Thompson went on to win in the finals over similarly unranked Kekana Fouret of Utah Valley. 

174 saw Travis Wittlake and Mason Reiniche, both Beavers of Oregon State, agree to share second place when they both made the finals and declared their match a no-contest. 

Trey Munoz earned an outright title for the Beavers at 184, beating multiple ranked wrestlers in his bracket. #12 Evan Bockman was the lone Wolverine titlist as he won 197 for Utah Valley. 

Heavyweight belonged to Taye Ghadiali of Campbell, who is off to a hot start after winning his match at the Battle at Liberty and then defeating multiple ranked opponents to win the Southeast Open just a couple of days later. 

The Clarion Open

This tournament got a little crazy.

The brackets were massive for a week 1 tournament, with nationally-ranked wrestlers in every weight class. Plus, a handful of blue chip high schoolers entered the tournament, several of whom made quite the splash inside Tippen Gym. 

Two of the most sought-after uncommitted recruits, Jax Forrest and Marcus Blaze, who are #1 and #3 respectively in the 126-pound rankings and #5 and #7 in the pound-for-pound rankings (Luke Lilledahl is sandwiched between them on both lists), both entered the 125-pound bracket. 

The two tantalizing tyros met in the quarterfinals, where Blaze scored a clutch takedown-to-nearfall to earn the come-from-behind win. That set Blaze up with a match against Purdue's #1 ranked Matt Ramos, the man who stopped Spencer Lee in the semifinals of the 2023 NCAAs. 

Blaze took Ramos to sudden victory, survived a Ramos attack with some other-worldly scrambling, then shot low on Ramos to secure the match-winning takedown, exploding the brains of many wrestling fans throughout the internet. 

You can watch the whole match here. 

Blaze wasn’t the only high schooler to make the finals, as Bo Basset defeated #17 Angelo RIni in the 133-pound semifinals to reach the first-place match. 

Blaze fell to #12 Brayden Palmer of Chattanooga (who is moving down to 125 this year) but Bo Basset came back from an 8-2 first-period deficit to defeat Pitt’s Vincent Santaniello and win the 133lb title. 

It wasn’t all just about the high schoolers though. Ohio State’s #5 Jesse Mendez looked sharp in his four matches, winning by three techs and a pinfall before he and teammate Brandon Cannon shared second place with a ‘no-contest’ bout in the 141lb finals. 

Another Buckeye, #9 Dylan D’Emilio, won the 149lb title in convincing manner, as did Ohio State’s #15 Paddy Gallagher at 157. 

Redshirt freshman Nick Feldman capped off a stellar night for Ohio State, as he claimed the heavyweight crown in Clarion, PA. 

Also winning titles were Reece Heller and Mac Stout of Pittsburgh at 184 and 197, and Noah Mulvaney of Bucknell at 165.

Ohio State had the most champs and placers, while Columbia had very impressive 10 wrestler finish in the top 6 (modified wrestle-backs to help limit match counts as the tournament takes place all in one day, meant semi losers drop to the third place bout and everyone else wrestled to fifth with no 7th place bout). 

The hosts also had a very solid tournament as three Golden Eagles made the finals and a fourth Clarion wrestler placed third. 

The Clarion Open also awards some of the best trophies in the biz. 

Elsewhen in Tourney Time: Princeton won two weights at the Princeton Open, but EIWA rival Lehigh were the big winners, with seven champs. 

There were six D1 teams at the Battle at the Citadel, and all six had finalists. Indiana won the team title with Drexel finishing in a close second.

Notable Debuts

Buckeye fans got to see a couple of big-time recruits take the mat in an Ohio State singlet for the first time. Rocco Welsh and Nick Feldman both made their collegiate debuts at the Clarion Open on Sunday. 

The aforementioned Hawkeyes had a few Black and Gold debuts, as All-Americans Franek and Caliendo traded their North Dakota State singlets for Hawkeye togs and NCAA qualifier Voinovich was in his Iowa singlet after being in a Cowboy orange uniform at Oklahoma State last season. 

Another former Cowboy making a debut with a new team was Travis Wittlake, who returned to his home state of Oregon and made the finals of the Southeast Open in a Beaver singlet. 

NCAA Championship Tickets

That’s right, the season just started but tickets to the Big Dance are available to the public now! 

There aren’t many seats available -- in fact I only saw three seats for sale for the session 6 finals as of the typing of this section of the roundup on Sunday evening -- and what little that is available is very expensive. However, that just means demand is high, which is a good thing!

Of course, it’s not so great if you’re looking to go to Nationals and don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on the trip, but that’s what happens when an event becomes popular; tickets to attend become more expensive!

Another way to get tickets to the NCAA Championships is through a school, as each team that qualifies wrestlers to the tournament gets an allotment of tickets for their boosters. There may be high costs or a long waiting list to get tickets for the most popular programs so maybe try becoming a booster of a program that might present an easier path to procuring tickets. 

And who knows, maybe supporting a new program ends up being the most rewarding experience of your life!

Shameless Plug For FloWrestling Original Videos

One thing you often hear from the wrestling community is that they want the sport to be more accessible in order to draw in more new fans to the world's oldest and raddest sport. And we here at FloSports couldn't agree more! 

That's why we've been putting more and more of our best content on YouTube, so that you diehards reading this (free) blog can share those videos with your friends and family, all for free!

This week, I'd like to highlight The Young Bucks, a series produced by the legend Mark Bader. Ohio State has granted our films team unprecedented access to the program, which will allow you to go behind the scenes with the Buckeyes and their much-heralded high school class of 2022 recruits.

You can watch the first three episodes on YouTube, collected here on this playlist. Episode 4 should be playing in the video at the top of this blog. A trailer for the series is below.


Please enjoy and share!

Send Me Tips!

This roundup is for you, so if you see something noteworthy happen in D1 NCAA wrestling, let me know so that I can make note of it! 

Best way to reach me is on Twitter (@speywrestle) or email [andrew.spey@flosports.tv].

Email me right now, please!