Hello and Merry Christmas on the eve of the big day from down here in Austin, Texas. I hope you are enjoying a lovely holiday season wherever and whenever you may be. 

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It's that special time of year, one filled with hopes, dreams, and wish lists. Some people wish for toys, others for peace on earth and goodwill toward men. Others wish for their boss, brought from their happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people, right here with a big ribbon on his head.

Me? I just want to bring wrestling news and content to you, the wise and learned wrestling fan. 

What are you hoping Gable Claus leaves under your tree tonight? pic.twitter.com/kY2AgfanT8

— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) December 24, 2023

Many of the responses we received from this tweet -- and indeed, much of the discussion within the wrestling community throughout the week -- involved rule changes that stakeholders hoped would improve the product of collegiate wrestling from the fans' perspective. 

While I don't have the time nor inclination to wade too deeply into that particular discourse at the moment (these stockings aren't going to hang themselves by the chimney with care!), I would like to stress one point: do not be afraid to look at the Olympic styles for inspiration. 

Whether it's rules that affect match strategy (like a step out penalty or criteria) or purely administrative changes (like repechage or balanced brackets), vanishingly few changes to folkstyle will "make folkstyle more like freestyle," should that be a concern to you. 

The only thing that will substantially transform what we know as 'folkstyle wrestling' into what UWW sanctions as freestyle wrestling is changing the nearfall rules. In folkstyle you need both control and at least a two count from a ref with an opponent's back at 45 degree angle or closer to the mat. In freestyle you do not need control and point-scoring exposure occurs when the back is at a mere 90 degree angle. 

Leave those parts of the respective rulebooks alone and you will forever have two distinct styles of wrestling. 

With that in mind, we should not let the fact that a rule change or innovation was effective in freestyle (or Greco-Roman) be an impediment to considering its candidacy for the NCAA rulebook. That works the other way too. UWW should look at what the NCAA and other organizations do. 

Not everything in one governing body's rulebook will be a good idea for every other wrestling style. No one is advocating for folkstyle to bring back the ball-draw and clinch. But that doesn't mean you can't improve scholastic wrestling in the USA with ideas first implemented in other styles of wrestling. 

So now that I've gotten my holiday lecture out of my system, let's get to the noteworthy events of the eighth week of the 2023-24 NCAA D1 wrestling season!

Another Banger Edition of the Collegiate Wrestling Duals Took Place in Nashville

Journeymen Wrestling had a very busy fall, capping off a tremendous slate of college wrestling events in a 30 day period with another dual meet extravaganza, this time in the Music City. This year's Collegiate Wrestling Duals featured eight D1 teams wrestle 12 duals over two days. 

Also, the great Zac Brown stopped by!

Wrestling events don’t often attract stars (minus @BillyBaldwin ), but when they do… @zacbrownband shows up! Collegiate Wrestling Duals 2023 - Nashville We are Out ! @allysonschwab 📸 pic.twitter.com/ZLmlgtap3m

— Journeymen Wrestling (@jmenwrestling) December 20, 2023

As for the competition, Iowa State went 3-0 in their round-robin pool on day 1, while Ohio State went undefeated on day 2, making the Cyclones and Buckeyes co-champs. 

Iowa State won seven individual matches in their showdowns with Cornell and Little Rock and six matches versus Pitt. Ohio State won the majority of their bouts against Lock Haven and Northern Iowa but took a slightly less conventional path in their dual against NC State, which is also this week's...

Dual of the Century, of the Week

The Buckeyes won just four bouts in their win over the Wolfpack. 

Three Buckeye pins over top 5 opponents paved the way to victory. "Middle School" McCrone beat #1 Jakob Camacho at 125, Nic Bouzakiz defeated#5 Kai Orine at 133, and Jesse Mendez bested #4 Ryan Jack at 141. Three pinfalls in a row to start the dual! 

Rocco Welsh's win over #28 Alex Faison was the fourth win for Ohio State, and those 21 points would be enough to hold on for the win. 

https://t.co/cWcgsiJ8Og pic.twitter.com/ApyYEY0xuM

— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) December 20, 2023

The Wolfpack never quit, however, as evidenced by some of my favorite pictures of the college wrestling season so far, taken by the great Tony Rotundo. You can check out his gallery of that meet here. It's where I snagged the captivating tableau that is featured at the top of this blog.

Other Notes From Nashville:

• Little Rock's true frosh Nasir Bailey is a contender at 133. He teched #9 Evan Frost of Iowa State in under 2 minutes. He also beat #16 Santaniello of Pitt and kept it to a 4-0 decision in a loss to Vito Arujau.
• Chris Foca of Cornell is adapting well to his bump up from 174 to 184. He went 2-0, beating #15 Reece Heller and #3 Will Feldkamp. 
• ISU's Cuban connection is paying dividends. Anthony Echemendia and Yonger Bastida went a combined 6-0 at 141 and 285 respectively, with 5 total ranked wins between them. 
• We didn't see Meyer Shapiro vs Cody Chittum at 157 nor a rematch of Julian Ramirez vs David Carr at 165 as both Cornellians did not wrestle vs Iowa State, two non-events that sparked way more discourse than can be adequately and accurately recounted here. It was a lot though!
• 125 stayed cursed in Nashville, as #6 Brett Ungar lost to unranked Colton Camacho. Camacho then lost to #22 Kysen Terukina. Terukina then lost to unranked Greg Diakomihalis. Good luck with that, rankers!
• The 125-pound chaos continued on day 2, as #1 Jakob Camacho lost three times, to #32 Trever Anderson, #30 Brendan McCrone, and #4 Anthony Noto.
• Ohio State vs NC State featured 18 ranked wrestlers, including 8 in the top 10. 
• There were two top 5 matchups in the Ohio State vs NC State dual, #3 Jesse Mendez over #4 Ryan Jack, and #5 Jackson Arrington over #4 Dylan D'Emilio. 

Other Things Happened

Stanford went 3-0 at the Fighting Camels Duals, a quad-meet hosted by Campbell. The Cardinal also defeated Purdue and North Dakota State in an excellent showing Stanford under the tutelage of first-year head coach Chris Ayres.  

So proud of this team! 5 wrestlers that are not normally in the starting lineup took the line yesterday, competed with heart, and helped us go 3-0 vs some tough teams. There are no “back ups” on this team, only the next guy up and I love when they get in the lineup.

— Coach Chris Ayres (@CoachOfTrees) December 20, 2023

Northern Illinois hosted a quad of its own, sweeping all three duals against MAC rival Kent State, Northwestern of the Big Ten, and Harper College, an NJCAA program.

The Citadel swept a tri-meet against Duke and Queens University. Fun fact, I get more comments from strangers when I wear Citadel Wrestling gear than any other program. I always have to explain that I didn't actually go there, but I do kinda wish I did. That alumni network is strong!

Hofstra won a pair of duals at a tri-meet hosted by first-year program Morgan State. Bloomsburg was the other team the Pride notched a victory over. Morgan State is going through the growing pains you'd expect for a team that is just getting started, but keep an eye on true freshman Kingsley Menifee at 184. The Virginia native has 5 wins over D1 competition and lost in sudden victory to All-American Gavin Hoffman at the CKLV earlier this season. 

The Pride also notched a win over Edinboro before the team broke for the holidays. 

Far from Perfect. But we did compete tough. 3 wins in a row as we go into a 5 day break. Come back healthy and ready to go for the second half of the season. https://t.co/KVk551dUv7

— Dennis Papadatos (@DenPapadatos) December 23, 2023

The Sheridan Tournament also returned to Lehigh for the first time in over 20 years on Friday. That day also saw the 90th Wilkes Open, the original 'Rose Bowl of College Wrestling', take place at Wilkes University. 

No team scores were kept but Lehigh had the most champs at the Sheridan with three. Connor McGonagle, who beat Sam Latona at the All-Star Classic but then lost to his teammate Ryan Crookham a week later, was registered to compete 141 but had to scratch due to getting dinged up. It does look like McGonagle will stay up at 141 when he returns to the mat so look for another Lehigh roster battle between McGonagle and Malyke Hines at 141. 

Binghamton had two champs at the Sheridan, but also had a squad at the Wilkes Open where they won three weight classes. A lot of people forget but the Wilkes was the Midlands before the Midlands was the Midlands. Wilkes University is an NCAA D3 school but all three divisions participated in this year's tourney. 

The Co-Dual of the Century, of the Week

Mizzou to the Lou and a Win over Illinois Too

Though not quite equidistant between the two schools, St. Louis is in between Columbia, MO and Champaign, IL, so a dual in the Lou between the two big state schools makes plenty of sense. 

Credit to Missouri and whoever else was involved in securing the Stifel Theatre for the event. And also to the stellar crowd for showing up, because the competition space looked fantastic. 

Living for the stage and it’s energy ⚡#MIZ🐯 #TigerStyle pic.twitter.com/KMF14MuKvT

— Mizzou Wrestling (@MizzouWrestling) December 22, 2023

Add to that the dramatic bump by Keegan O'Toole, who weighed in at 165 but then wrestled #5 Edmond Ruth at 174, and you've got the recipe for a crowd-pleasing event. 

The Tigers won 29-6 in a marquee dual meet we hope to see more of in the future. 

Social Media Clip of the Week

Clarion was defeated by Cleveland State at home 25-11, but one of the bright spots for the Golden Eagles was Alejandro Herrera-Rondon picking up a pinfall at 157. 

And at Clarion home duals, falls by the Golden Eagles means a crack at the pin gong, which is what AHR got to do at the end of this clip. 

The commentators tried to warn him! Alejandro Herrera-Rondon gets the fall and smashes the pin gong for the Clarion Golden Eagles! pic.twitter.com/r1sTnln59c

— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) December 22, 2023

Close to 500K views on Instagram already! Also respect to the commentary team for calling out the sequence immediately before Herrar-Rondon hits it for the win. 

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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!

Have you seen FloWrestling's Top 100 American Wrestlers of All Time yet? 

This very extensive project started during the pandemic and took over a year to complete. Learn some wrestling history and then start debating how the list should change now that nearly two years have gone by since the video debuted!

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].

It would fill me with a great amount of Christmas cheer if you sent me emails about things you would like to see in this blog!

Next week: we've got the Midlands and the Soldier Salute on tap, followed by the Southern Scuffle, the F&M Open, and the start of dual meet season. See you on January 1st after week 9!