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Warrior Classic
NCAA D1 Weekly Roundup: 2023-24

NCAA D1 Week 6 Roundup: Holy MATrimony

NCAA D1 Week 6 Roundup: Holy MATrimony

The world's finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the sixth week of the 2023-24 NCAA D1 wrestling season.

Dec 11, 2023 by Andrew Spey
NCAA D1 Week 6 Roundup: Holy MATrimony

The week after a monstrous Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational was a relatively light one as far as the NCAA D1 schedule is concerned. Which is a good thing for me since I spent most of the weekend celebrating the happy nuptials of our very own JD Rader. 

JD spent a surprising amount of his own reception shirtless, but I suppose when half of the wedding party and about a quarter of all the guests had cauliflower ears, the groom popping his top shouldn't really have been much of a surprise. 

Anyway, if you get a chance, please congratulate James on his successful MATtrimony. He will appreciate the wordplay and also he is selflessly postponing his honeymoon to get back on the content grind this week for you, the wise and learned wrestling fan. 

Box Scores | Rankings | Last Week's Roundup

There were a few good rivalry duals this week, which I would have mentioned in the title of this Roundup if I hadn't already decided to lead with JD's wedding. Still plenty of noteworthy results, so let's get noting!

Rivalry Duals

Rutgers defeated Princeton 24-6 to retain to the B1G-Ivy Trophy for the third year in a row. 

The Scarlet Knights delighted over 5,000 Rutgers fans inside Jersey Mike's Arena by winning 7 bouts in their victory over their New Jerseyan rivals. 

No word on who won the debate between Taylor Ham and pork roll.

I grew up in Taylor Ham country and had no idea that such a debate even existed until late into my adult life. I understand now that the pork roll community is very insistent that Taylor Ham is just a brand name and pork roll is a more accurate name for the delicious processed meat product, a point I am willing to concede. However, 'pork roll' also sounds gross, and I am going to always refer to any brand of pork roll as Taylor Ham, just as I am going to keep saying Band-Aid instead of adhesive strip, etc etc. 

What we can all agree on though, is that a Taylor Ham, egg & cheese bagel is a perfect sandwich. 

Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma 28-9 in the last* Bedlum of the Big 12 era. 

The Cowboys have now won 18 duals in a row in this historic series. 

Hopefully, the Sooners heading to the SEC doesn't mean this rivalry has to come to an end, at least on the mat. Whether or not the football teams or other sports figure out their scheduling is not really on my list of concerns. 

*UPDATE: I should have double checked the schedules because this will NOT be the last Bedlum of the season. Additionally, I missed (or forgot) that OU already announced that they will be staying in the Big 12 for wrestling going forward. Hat tip to Lee Cothran of "Dynasty Defined", the number one Oklahoma State wrestling podcast in the world!

Maryland defeated Morgan State 35-6 in what is not quite a rivalry, yet. 

The Terps and the Bears share the state with Navy, but Maryland and Morgan State are the only state schools with wrestling programs in crab country. Morgan State is in its first year as a program after a very long hiatus, and is not yet up to par with the likes of a Big Ten program like Maryland. However, the Bears have some promising young talent already on their squad and it may not be long before they can challenge the Terrapins for state supremacy. This may bloom into a spirited rivalry sooner than later.

Duke beat Davidson 19-17 in the battle of two prestigious private schools in North Carolina.

Not sure if this is technically a rivalry either as Duke would probably reserve that term for competitions with the Tar Heels of North Carolina. But hey, if enough of us talk about this dual like it's a rivalry maybe we can will it into existence! 

The Dual of the Century, of the Week

Pitt upends Ohio State 21-13 in Sunday stunner

17 ranked wrestlers took the mat between these two Power 5 programs of neighboring states. The Panthers got a big boost early from their veteran leader Cole Matthews, who beat CKLV champ Jesse Mendez 4-2. 

The Buckeyes led 13-10 after seven bouts but Pitt swept the final three weights to disappoint the crowd at the Covelli Center. 

Pitt has now won their last three duals against Big Ten programs, having also beaten Illinois and Maryland this season. 

Columbia survives Pin-fest with Northern Iowa in the Co-Dual of the Century of the Week

The Lions outlasted the Panthers thanks to three pins, including a pivotal upset at 141 where unranked Kai Owen of Columbia stuck #7 Cael Happel of UNI in a cradle.

UNI got two pins themselves and a fall of the technical variety from Parker Keckeisen but it wasn't enough to overcome Columbia's six wins in the dual. 8 of the 10 bouts included bonus points in this wild shootout in Cedar Falls.

More Things Happened

There were upsets!

  •  Unranked Cullan Schriever of Iowa beat #11 Angelo Rini of Columbia at 133. Our very own Kyle Klingman live-blogged the dual for you.
  • West Virginia's #25 Jett Strickenberger scrambled his way to an 11-6 victory over #6 Stevo Poulin of Northern Colorado. 125 is a mess I tell you. A mess!
  • Mizzou's #17 Noah Surtin got the sudden victory takedown to beat Wyoming's #10 Jore Volk. Maybe we just don't consider any result at 125-pounds an upset this year. Maybe that's the move. 
  • Navy's Andrew Cerniglia, #28 at 165, beat #10 Garrett Thompson of Ohio, 7-5. Navy won the dual 27-12 in a competition that was maybe more under the radar than it should have been considering there were 10 ranked wrestlers on the mat. Navy being under the radar is pretty common though, right? Or am I thinking of sonar? Honestly, that joke may not work either way. I blame JD and his wedding for that wordplay failure and any other deficiencies in this week's Roundup. 

We've got Insiders!

The Walsh Ironman delivered!

  • One of the premier in-season high school wrestling tournaments happened this weekend at Walsh Jesuit High School outside of Cleveland. 
  • This year's edition of the annual event was a college recruiter's paradise. Read more about your favorite team's recruits in the Iroman College Fan Guide. 
  • The marquee matchup took place in the 165-pound finals as Iowa commit Angelo Ferrari beat Penn State commit Joe Sealey in ultimate tiebreakers. You can watch the match here. 

Speaking of recruits...

A slew of Big Boarders committed last week. Behold!

  • #6 Leo Deluca to Iowa
  • #17 Kody Routledge to Nebraska
  • #46 Cade Ziola to Nebraska
  • #12 Sergio Vega to Cornell
  • #16 Isaiah Cortez to Cornell
  • #38 Elijah Cortez to Cornell
  • #11 Jude Correa to Michigan
  • #37 Jake Hockaday to Oklahoma
  • #67 Vincenzo Lavalle to Princeton
  • #34 Claudio Torres to Virginia Tech

Check out all the details in our 2025 NCAA D1 Commitment List, maintained by our number one married man, JD Rader. 

Speaking of NCAA Dual Rankings...

Well, no one was speaking about them, but we have them now. Here they are!

Yes, this was what the people wanted, nay, demanded: another opportunity to yell at Jon Kozak for his rankings. And we are nothing if not responsive to the demands of the people!

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 would like to highlight the CKLV finals.


Every finals match from the toughest college regular season tournament of the year, for free on YouTube. Hell yeah. 

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].

Next week I'll be in Fort Worth with most of the Flo crew (by the way, I keep seeing people refer to my colleagues as "frat guys". Please note that I am the only member of the team that joined a fraternity in college. So if you want to make fun of anyone at Flo for being "fratty", please make sure to direct all your snide comments and witty japes at me and me alone. I will not countenance stolen fraternal valor on my watch. Thank you.) for more freestyle fun at Senior Nationals. 

But I'll still be back to deliver more D1 news to you, the wise and learned wrestling fans. See you then!