Lucas Davison and Michigan recently experienced an extreme example of the tumultuous nature of Big Ten dual wrestling wars, going from pure elation to utter frustration in a span of seven days.  

When the two-time All-American heavyweight stepped on the mat to close out a Feb. 2 match against Iowa, the Wolverines had already clinched their first win over the Hawkeyes since 2018. 

Davison put an exclamation point on the upset with an 11-2 win over Bradley Hill as Michigan prevailed, 24-11. The Wolverines had not beaten Iowa by a greater margin since a 25-6 win on January 20th, 1968. 

Michigan wrestlers Michael DeAugustino, Sergio Lemley and Will Lewan knocked off the three Hawkeyes (Drake Ayala (125 pounds), Real Woods (141) and Jared Franek (157) ranked among the top four in their weight classes coming in. Overall, the Wolverines outscored Iowa, 31-22, after the second period, including a dominant 25-5 in their seven victories.

The scene was entirely different when Davison made his way to the mat for the final match of a dual against Nebraska a week later. This time, Michigan was trailing, 27-3.

Davison concluded the evening on a positive note with an 8-0 shutout of Nash Hutmacher, raising his record to 12-3 this season, including two pins, four technical falls and four major decisions. 

Before then, however, the Wolverines won only at 174 pounds (Shane Griffith) and four Michigan wrestlers (DeAugustino, Dylan Ragusin, Austin Gomez and Cam Amine) ranked among the top ten coming in, lost their matches. 

The Wolverines were outscored, 29-14, after two periods.

"They were both nearly identical matches, really, with one team coming out with strong early wins and the rest of the team taking advantage of that momentum to win some tough, close matchups," Davison said. "We really put it all together against Iowa, winning several tight matches and feeding off each other. The script was flipped on us against Nebraska, but I think it was closer than the final score says. We lost some hard-fought matches that could have gone either way, but we couldn't quite get in the right positions to win." 

Road duals against Indiana (Friday) and Central Michigan (Feb. 25) remain as Davison and the Wolverines focus on putting the Nebraska loss behind them and building momentum for the Big Ten Championships. 

Michigan is 6-4, 4-3 in the Big Ten. 

"We're really looking to dominate the last two duals, see everybody wrestle their best matches and light up the scoreboard," Davison said. "At the same time, we are not looking to peak for these two duals, of course. We want to continue preparing and challenging ourselves in practices to be ready for the biggest matches in March."

With a deep, veteran lineup featuring six All-Americans, seven NCAA qualifiers and nine ranked wrestlers, Michigan appears in good position to at least better last season's finishes of fifth in the Big Ten and sixth at the NCAA Championships.

In addition to the returning NCAA qualifiers, true freshman Sergio Lemley is ranked #13 at 141 pounds and Jaden Bullock, whose career record was 15-14 entering this season, has been ranked between #11 and #16 at 184. 

"Our team is a mix of guys who bring experience and talent, but also some younger studs like Sergio who are really doing well," said Davison, who is ranked #6. "He brings great energy to our program on and off the mat, so it's nice that it's not just the older guys having success. Our mindset is chasing Big Ten and national championships as a team and our room is fun place to be as everybody works to peak at the right time."

Davison, who transferred from Northwestern following last season, has pushed his career record to 103-34, including 65-19 since moving from 197 pounds to heavyweight at the beginning of the 2021-22 season. 

The four-time NCAA qualifier has always been a workhorse and is the only Wolverine who has wrestled in all 10 duals this season. Davison has been part of the lineup for 48 of a possible 52 duals during the past five seasons, including the last 31 straight. 

Davison announced his intention to enter the transfer portal on April 4 and revealed he was heading to Michigan just two days later. That's the opposite path of brother Andrew, who began at Michigan before becoming a two-time NCAA qualifier for Northwestern.

Their father, Keith, was a two-time All-American and Big Ten champion for Wisconsin in the early 1990s. 

"My time at Michigan has been nothing but an incredible experience with the great support the program gets, a great staff of four full-time coaches and superior facilities," Davison said. "I love that we have such a huge team with more than 35 guys in the room every day which makes for a great atmosphere."  

Academically, he is completing a graduate certificate in real estate development after earning a bachelor's degree in learning and organizational change and a master's in management studies at Northwestern. 

"My main reason for coming to Michigan is that I strongly felt it was the best place for me to better myself and win a national championship," Davison said. "There are just so many people around to help me improve from the coaches to teammates and the Cliff Keen (Wrestling Club) guys like (World and Olympic medalists) Mason Parris and J'den Cox. It's possible for me to work with a different training partner nearly every day."

Davison, an Indiana state champion, has stepped into some mammoth shoes in replacing Parris, the 2023 Hodge Trophy winner, NCAA Champion and four-time All-American. 

Soon after arriving on campus in mid-June, Davison learned how exactly he would be spending the summer -- as Parris' training partner for the World Championships in September. With Davison's help, Parris won a bronze medal in the 125-kilogram, freestyle competition. 

"I thought my focus for the summer would be folkstyle-based and was not expecting to be working with Mason like that, but what an amazing experience," Davison said. "I learned so much while training with him like improving my hand-fighting skills and putting up a great defense so you don't get locked up or picked up by the big cats. Also, really being forceful finishing shots and not sitting in positions for too long." 

Davison, fifth and sixth at the past two NCAA Championships, is the second-highest-ranked Big Ten wrestler behind #1 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State). He dropped an 8-3 decision to the three-time All-American on Jan. 19 and lost to him, 5-3, at last year's Big Ten Championships.

Davison's other losses this season have been to #3 Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) and #9 Nick Feldman (Ohio State) by a combined three points. He hopes to get another shot at Kerkvliet and Feldman at the Big Ten Championships next month. 

Davison's best win so far in 2023-24 came against #10 Yaraslau Slavikouski (Rutgers). He has also knocked off #4 Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) and #5 Zach Elam (Missouri) in past seasons.

"I'm feeling pretty good about how I'm wrestling right now," Davison said. "I've had a couple of tough losses, but hopefully I'll get a chance to win rematches in March. The losses helped me focus on what I need to fix and adjustments I had to make. I'm going to be wrestling at the top end of my game and well-prepared for the most important time of the season." 

Stingy Shane

Opponents have always found offense hard to come by against 2021 NCAA champion and three-time All-American Shane Griffith.

New scoring rules, including awarding three points for takedowns and near-falls worth two or three points, instead of only four, have done little to help those taking on Michigan's 174-pounder. 

In fact, Griffith has seemingly become even stingier, allowing more than two points in just two of 13 matches this season and more than four points in none.

He has really been on a defensive roll of late, winning seven straight matches by a combined score of 40-7 and giving up more than a single point just once during that streak. 

Griffith, ranked #3 overall and second in the Big Ten behind top-ranked, three-time national champion Carter Starocci (Penn State), has held #4 Cade DeVos (South Dakota State), #5 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) and #13 Rocco Welsh (Ohio State) to a single point and shut out #20 Bubba Wilson (Nebraska). 

Griffith, who transferred from Stanford last May, has gone 30 consecutive matches without allowing more than four points dating back to last season. 

He is 12-2 this season, including a forfeit loss, with a technical fall and five major decisions. Griffith will attempt to continue his streak during Friday's dual at Indiana, likely against #17 Donnell Washington, a four-time NCAA qualifier. 

Barring some unforeseen circumstances, he will have to go through Starocci for a second national and conference title (Griffith was Pac-12 champion in 2020). The two have not squared off on a collegiate mat, but Griffith decisioned Starocci when both were in high school.