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NCAA D1 Weekly Roundup: 2023-24

NCAA D1 Week 10 Roundup: We Are Now Entertained

NCAA D1 Week 10 Roundup: We Are Now Entertained

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

Jan 8, 2024 by Andrew Spey
NCAA D1 Week 10 Roundup: We Are Now Entertained

Welcome to the start of dual meet season! One week in and it’s already delivering!

Box Scores | Rankings | Last Week’s Roundup

And what have these duals delivered? In a word: thrills. In three words: thrills, chills, and action, packed to the gills!

Did I say three words? Wel I meant three ‘words and/or phrases’. 

Anyhow, duals are awesome, and whenever there is a slew of particularly awesome NCAA D1 duals, the conversation amongst the college wrestling cyber community tends to veer toward the NCAA team title and how it is awarded. 

For example, Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale is in favor of making a change and distributing the championship trophy to the winner of a dual tournament.

The conversations that flowed from this tweet are well worth a read if you are adept at following Twitter conversations. 

Objections to switching to a dual meet championships typically revolve around not wanting to 'mess' with the current arrangement, in which a four-month regular season culminates with two tournaments: a conference championship and an NCAA Championship, where the latter determines both individual and team titles.  

Regular season duals still matter in the sense that coaches, athletes and fans care about them -- everyone still wants to win! -- however, their results have no bearing on the postseason. So in that other very specific sense, they, in fact, do not matter.

That does not stop fans from selling out basketball arenas every year for the three-day NCAA Championship, nor does it stop hundreds of thousands of fans from tuning in to watch the NCAA Champion finals on ESPN. 

And while ESPN recently extended their media rights contract with the NCAA for all D1 championships except for men's basketball and football until 2032, it's worth keeping in mind that there is no guarantee that ESPN continues to invest in or even broadcast future wrestling national championships. 

Is there reason to be concerned about ESPN's future interest in the sport of wrestling? Well, according to Nielsen, last year's NCAA finals had an average of 454,000 people watching, and 345,000 people watching the Friday night semis + bloodround session. That sounds like a lot of wrestling fans -- and it is! -- but it's also the lowest ratings the NCAA finals have gotten since at least before 2012, which is the earliest I can find numbers for the finals. 

Wrestling is also competing against other sports for airtime on the Worldwide Leader. Comparison may be a thief of joy, but it also makes for useful, if sobering, assessments, and comparing wrestling viewership to other NCAA sports paints a less than rosy picture for the world's oldest and greatest sport. 

For instance, the 2023 NCAA men’s lacrosse finals game garnered, 757,000 viewers, while the semifinal games drew 323,000 and 313,000 viewers. 

If you scroll to the last chart on this post you'll see a bunch of other sports and leagues that get ratings better than NCAA wrestling. If you hate clicking links I can tell you now that it's not just the usual suspects of NCAA football and men's basketball, but also women's basketball, baseball, softball, and women's volleyball that draw much larger audiences. Those sports also have post-season tournaments that provide many hours of programming that get comparable or better ratings than the NCAA wrestling championship finals. 

This is not to say that ratings are the ultimate measure of a sport’s worth, however, they are the most important thing for television programmers who decide what gets broadcast on their networks. 

Changing the structure of the postseason and how the team trophy is decided is also not without risks. There are trade-offs and downsides to any changes of such magnitude. But there are risks in not changing as well. Big ones. Existential even. 

The logic for change works like this: dual meets are awesome and the best way to showcase the sport to fans, however, they currently lack post-season stakes. A dual meet championship would add stakes to duals and provide more hours of championship programming for ESPN. So if growing college wrestling's audience is an important goal for the sport, then I believe the evidence clearly points in favor of college wrestling switching to a dual meet championship (or a hybrid dual and individual tournament, but we don't have time to get into what that entails as we've digressed from the weekly roundup enough as is). 

The good news for everyone who disagrees is I don't have any say in the matter. That's also the bad news for everyone that does agree with me. 

The other piece of good news that applies to everyone is we've still got some kick ass duals that happened this past week to make note of. So let's start by doing a quick roundup of the fantastic Friday duals we all just witnessed. 

Oregon State sold out their arena for their dual against Penn State! 

NC State sold out their arena for their dual against Oklahoma State!

Ohio State almost sold out their arena for their dual against Cornell!

And there were other great looking duals earlier in the week too. 

On Tuesday, Mizzou hosted Virginia Tech!

And on Thursday, South Dakota State was in the Sanford Pentagon to take on the Wolverines!

Notes from those duals:

  • Mizzou vs VT was an instant classic. 
    • #11 Flynn beat #13 Surtin in sudden victory at 125
    • #24 Kade Moore pinned #11 Sam Latona at 133
    • Crook, Henson and Andonian won close bouts at 141, 149, & 157
    • Andonian vs Mauller was particularly amazing
    • O'Toole DID NOT bump up to wrestle Lewis (though Keegan and Mekhi both won by tech)
    • Whiting and both Elams all won to complete the come-from-behind victory for the Tigers
  • South Dakota State upset Michigan!
    • A pin from Derrick Cardinal at 133 and a tech from Tanner Sloan at 197 helped put the Jackrabbits over the top
    • Austin Gomez made his Wolverine debut with a win
    • True frosh Sergio Lemley and Beau Mantanona both got dubs for Michigan as well
    • #9 Shane Griffith got back on track with an overtime win over #3 Cade DeVos
  • Oklahoma State vs NC State was at one point going to be held in Italy but obviously was not.
    • There were seven ranked matchups! The Cowboys won five of them (Spratley, Fix, Travis, Plott & Doucet)
    • #24 Teague Travis upset #5 Ed Scott in a pivotal bout for OK State
    • The highlight for the Wolfpack was #4 Jack defeating #7 Jamison at 141 and another bonus win for team leader Trent Hidlay
  • There were four lead changes in Ohio State's dramatic win over Cornell.
    • Heavyweight decided the match, and #18 Nick Feldman got the clutch late takedown to beat #19 Lewis Fernandes to secure the win for the Buckeyes
    • Bonus from Bouzakis and Mendez gave Ohio State an early lead
    • Bonus from Shapiro and Foca helped Cornell nearly complete the comeback
    • Rocco Welsh got another start and victory for Ohio State at 174
  • Penn State nearly shut out Oregon State 
    • PSU's #27 Braeden Davis beat #17 Brandon Kaylor and increasingly looks like the guy for Penn State at 125, though he can still make one more start and retain his redshirt status
    • Fellow true freshman Tyler Kasak got the nod at 149 for the Nittany Lions and beat #14 Nash Singleton
    • #1 Levi Haines and #2 Beau Bartlett both looked mortal in their close, hard-fought victories
    • #17 Mitchel Mesenbrink looked terrifying in his 17-2 tech fall of #11 Matthew Olguin in 3:46
    • Oregon State's main highlight came from #5 Trey Munoz, who beat #2 Bernie Truax in the sole Beaver win of the night

On Saturday, Nebraska won a pair of duals in a tri-meet (or a triangular, as some would say) over Wyoming (by a lot) and Northern Iowa (by not a lot).

Of note: 

Making his Cornhusker wrestling debut was the Polar Bear, Nash Hutmacher, who was starting on the Nebraska varsity football team’s defensive line less than a month ago. Hutmacher, a South Dakota native and 2019 Fargo champ, traded his shoulder pads for a singlet over the holidays and got the first start of his collegiate career against Wyoming, where he picked up a pinfall. 

The UNI dual was much closer for the Huskers than their 36-6 victory over the Cowboys. The contest with the Panthers came down to the wire, and though the team scores were tied, Nebraska held criteria due to having the only pin of the meet, which gave them the tiebreaker point and the 18-17 victory. 

That aforementioned pin? Well, you can decide for yourself what you think about it. 

Here’s another angle if you wanna go Zapruder Film on it. 

Another wrinkle to the team score calculation was that both teams. UNI was deducted a team point by the refs (not sure for what at the moment) while Nebraska lost a point due to Allred throwing his head gear in celebration after his win.

Wins by #8 Cael Happel over #6 Brock Hardy at 141 and #12 Ryder Downey over #3 Peyton Robb nearly gave UNI the win over the Big Ten powerhouse, but it was not to be, as Harley Andrews held Tyrell Gordon to 'just' a major decision at heavyweight, which was enough for the Huskers to squeak by on criteria. 

Dual meets: they are something!

We're Not Done with Tournaments Yet

Two big tournaments in the first week of January put a bow on the holiday tournament season. The Southern Scuffle was won by Stanford in Chattanooga. In Lancaster, there were nine different programs with a champ at the David H. Lehman F&M Open, which did not keep team scores.

You can check out the F&M Open brackets here. The Scuffle brackets can be found here. Some highlights are below!

2024 Southern Scuffle

  • First-year Cardinal head coach Chris Ayres didn't have a champ, however, Stanford did have three finalists and 11 top-eight placers. 
  • Stanford would have had another placer with Lorenzo Norman at 174, however, the true freshman from New Jersey was disqualified for flagrant misconduct in the semifinals and all of his team points were taken off the board. 
  • The Southern Scuffle was over by Tuesday, as the annual event is always held on the first and second of January in Chattanooga. Or at least that's been the case for many years. 
  • Oklahoma came in second and had two champs. Stephen Buchanan cruised to a 197lb title with four bonus wins and Josh Heindselman won the heavyweight division. 
  • Hosts Chattanooga placed eighth with four medalists, their best showing at the Scuffle since 2012. 
  • Gardner-Webb's Jha'Quan Anderson was named Most Outstanding Wrestler after winning the 184-pound bracket. 
  • Wisconsin native Noah Mulvaney of Bucknell won the 174lb crown. Watch out for these Wisconsin kids they are winning everything in the NCAA right now. 
  • Vinny Zerban looked excellent winning 157 for Northern Colorado. Watch out for Zerban, he's winning everything right now!
  • Danny Fongaro of Indiana won the 141-pound bracket for Indiana and celebrated by doing what can only be called 'The Ferrari'. As you can see in the banner pic, Fongaro did the splits the best he could and chose to go with two thumbs up rather than the double birds. Don't know if that'll be a thing going forward but maybe?
  • Northern Colorado's Dom Serrano beat the red-hot Nasir Bailey in the semifinals before falling to Bucknell's Keith Phipps in the finals at 133.
  • Stevo Poulin, also of Northern Colorado, beat Stanford's Nico Provo in the 125 finals, proving once again that 125 is just a big ol' mess this season. 
  • Overall a very solid tournament for the Bears of Northern Colorado, marred only by Baylor Fernandes, who was DQ'd from the tournament in his consolation semifinal bout with Indiana's Tyler Lillard. Fernandes has since been removed from the Northern Colorado roster. 

2024 F&M Open

  • This event had a huge number of entries for a one-day tournament, and thus modified wrestle-backs that only went to fifth-place, while semifinal losers wrestled for third and with no match for seventh place. 
  • Pitt's Vincent Santaniello upset Maryland's #13 Braxton Brown in the semis and then defeated Gable Strickland in the finals to win the 133lb title.
  • Connor McGonagle of Lehigh, who was ranked in the top 5 at 133-pound earlier this season and defeated Sam Latona of Virginia Tech in the NWCA All-Star Classic before losing to teammate Ryan Crookham at the Journeymen Collegiate Classic in November, bumped up to 141 for this event where he cruised to the quarterfinals before losing to another teammate, Carter Bailey. Bailey finished as a runner-up to Wyatt Henson of Lock Haven. 
  • #11 Kal Miller was beaten by Penn's Kelly Dunnigan, making it two ranked Terrapins suffering upsets in Lancaster. Dunnigan finished as a runner-up to Army's Matt Williams. 
  • Harvard's #13 Phil Conigliaro was the highest-ranked wrestler to emerge from the brackets unscathed, winning the 174lb division. 
  • Actually he was the highest-ranked wrestler to win outside of #2 Wyatt Henrickson. The Great American Heavyweight collected five pins before Campbell's Taye Ghadiali held him to a 9-3 decision in the finals. 
  • Binghamton's Lou Deprez completed his move from the coach's corner back to the center of the mat, winning his second tournament of the season. The 2021 All-American is currently 9-0. His teammate Jacob Nolan won the 184lb bracket. 

Other Things Happened

  • Brandon Eggum received a contract extension that will keep him at the helm of the Golden Gopher wrestling program until 2026. Eggum was a three-time All-American for Minnesota, placing in 1998, 1999 and 2000. He then stayed in Minnesota to join the coaching staff for the 2001 season. Eggum is currently in his seventh year as head coach.
  • Michael Wolfgram was the hero of the day for West Virginia as he got the techfall at heavyweight to put the Mountaineers over the Columbia Lions 22-21 in the last match of the dual. That contest took place in Atlantic City, a location near and dear to the hearts of many New Jersey wrestling fans, as the state championships are held in that same city in Boardwalk Hall every year. 
  • Hutmacher wasn't the only gridder to swap cleats for wrestling shoes this weekend. Virginia Tech's Jimmy Mullen, a freshman defensive lineman for the Hokie football squad, made his varsity debut at heavyweight against Lewis Fernandes of Cornell. Fernandes got the win in overtime tiebreakers but both wrestlers showed off some impressive big-man scrambling ability. Cornell won the dual 24-13. Unfortunately also of note was Bryce Andonian having to injury default after about a minute of wrestling against Meyer Shapiro. We wish Andonian nothing but the best and a speedy recovery. 
  • Rutgers beat Rider at home on Sunday afternoon. Rutgers also beat Princeton earlier this year. Those results make the Scarlet Knights the undisputed 2023-24 college wrestling champions of New Jersey.
  • In more intra-state rivalry news: George Mason defeated Virginia last Saturday in Richmond, the capital of the Commonwealth. This was the first victory for the Patriots over the Wahoos since 1991.
  • Iowa State won two duals handily over California Baptist and Arizona State. #22 Cody Chittum beating #4 Jacori Teemer and #3 Yonger Bastida beating #5 Cohlton Schultz were the highlights for the Cyclones.  
  • Shane Sparks has grown to love the three-point takedown.

He loves it so much now it's almost as if he's always loved it. 

Lastly, is this something you guys would be interested in?

I plan on doing more like that so let me know what you think!

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!

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You may also know him as the Magic Man. And how cute are those little furry cows? I want one. 

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: more duals! Including the Virginia Duals, which is a tournament made up entirely of dual meets. Neat concept! 

Most other duals are still out-of-conference matchups except for the Big Ten, which will begin their in-conference dual season. Plus, Cornell and Lehigh wrestle as EIWA rivals for the very last time! That's live on Flo, by the way. See you there. 

And thanks to everyone who made it to the end of this severely long edition of the Roundup. You are truly the most wise and learned wrestling fans of them all!