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NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 1 Roundup: Let Mortal Kombat Begin

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 1 Roundup: Let Mortal Kombat Begin

The world's finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the 1st week of the 2023-24 NCAA D1 wrestling season.

Nov 4, 2024 by Andrew Spey
NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 1 Roundup: Let Mortal Kombat Begin

Back like we never left! The world's finest weekly collection of noteworthy happenings in college wrestling returns!

There's been a lot of Olympic wrestling this offseason, what with the Olympic Team Trials, the World Olympic Qualifier, the Paris Olympics, the non-Olympic World Team Trials, and the non-Olympic World Championships, which made the so-called offseason fly by. 

In fact, the last day of the 2024 World Championships, which saw David Taylor end his legendary career with a historic bronze medal, was the same day the season officially began, as Wyoming hosted Campbell on Halloween, getting an exemption from the NCAA to allow them to start the season one day earlier than normal. 

So just as the powerful sorcerer Shang Tsung informed his arch nemesis Liu Kang that it was time to begin the famous interdimensional martial arts tournament known as Mortal Kombat, please allow me to inform you all that it is time to begin rounding up the 2024-25 NCAA D1 Wrestling season! 

Box Scores | Rankings | Last year’s Last Roundup

We’re starting off with the best dual of the week because dual meets are the lifeblood of college wrestling. 

Yes, the NCAA Championship is the crown jewel, but without duals meets you don’t have a season, and without a season you don’t have fans, and without fans you don’t have popularity, and without popularity less and less kids will want to give the sport a try. And humanity will forever be diminished as a result.

So this is a pro-dual blog and we will highlight the most kick ass duals whenever, and wherever possible. 

The Dual of the Week, of the Century

Wyoming Rustles Up a Win Over Campbell in the Dual at the Daddy

Today we are giving due credit to Coach Mark Branch and the Wyoming Cowboys for once again going above and beyond to make one of their duals a spectacle in the best possible way.

Last year Campbell dualed/dueled Wyoming in a remote barn on the high plains. This year the Camels came to Cheyenne to challenge the Cowboys at the festival grounds for Cheyenne Frontier Days. 

As an east coaster, I was unfamiliar with CFD, but as former Laramie resident and trusted friend and colleague David Bray tells me, it is indeed a big deal. There is a reason they call it the Daddy of them all! 

Hence, Dual at the Daddy, if you’re just now putting it together. 

There was some great wrestling, a couple of upsets (Wyoming's O'Brien over #23 Zaccone at 133 and Cambell's Harney over #14 Willochell at 149), but most importantly the vibes were immaculate. 

These kinds of duals don’t happen often, and they don’t happen on their own. So kudos to everyone involved, from the teams to the coaches, to the fans, to UFC Fightpass for the broadcast, and also to Stockon O’Brien for winning Wrestler of the Night. 

If you’re looking for more Cowboy wrestling to watch, the next six home duals will all be live on FloWrestling. 

Wrestling Tournament Time

It’s turbo time! I mean tourney time!

The beginning of the season is always teeming with quality tournies. Many are used by teams to hold defacto wrestle-offs. Mostly though it's just a way to get match counts up early in the season so teams can be more selective in how they utilize their rosters later in the season when dual meets predominate. 

  • North Carolina had four champs and unofficially won the Southeast Open, hosted by Virginia Tech in Salem, Virginia, located just outside of Roanoke, and lovely and unrated down in Southwest VA. 
    • #3 Ty Watters vs #7 Lachlan McNeil was the marquee match of the tournament. Watters won the tense, top-ten matchup with a scramble in sudden victory for the win.
      • The banner pic at the top of this article is of Watters and McNeil in the midst of a crazy scramble, captured by the great Tony Rotundo. 
    • Sonny Sasso started his redshirt sophomore season for the Hokies at 197 with five 1st period pins (and a SE Open title). 
    • Everyone is raving about Raphael Hipolito.
      • The Virginia Tech 157-pounder is being dubbed “New-Andonian” for his electric go-for-broke wrestling style. 
      • Hipolito is originally from Manaus, Brazil, a city deep within the interior of the country.
      • Hipolito has a background in Brazillian jiu-jitsu, which is huge in Manaus, which likely helps with his innovative, crowd-pleasing wrestling style.
  • Ohio State showed out at the Clarion Open with seven champs and 10 finalists.
    • 125 and 133 were Buckeye vs Buckeye finals. #16 Brendan McCrone beat Vinny Kilkeary in what may have been a wrestle-off, and true freshman Ben Davino beat #12 Nic Bouzakis 5-3. Expect Davino take get at least 5 varsity starts before Coach Ryan makes a final decision at that weight. 
    • Rocco Welsh was up at 184 and looked every bit the part, earning a title over #15 Jaden Bullock. Welsh is still slated to wrestle Levi Haines at 174 at the All-Star Classic but we'll see how all this develops. 
    • National champ Jesse Mendez buzzsawed his way through the bracket, which included a win over Lehigh's true freshman Luke Stanich, who was an All-American last year at 125lbs. Stanich beat #7 Sergio Lemley in the semifinals, though he is still likely to redshirt this season. 
    • Michael Beard and Nick Feldman both won titles over ranked opponents at 197 and 285 respectively.
    •  Joseph Walker of Michigan won 174, as evidenced by him sporting this rad helmet that all winners receive as a trophy. 
  • Lehigh had two more champs at the Princeton Open but it was the home team Tigers that carried the day with three champs.
    • Army's Ethan Berginc beat #2 Anthony Noto of Lock Haven, both of whom moved up from 125 in the off-season. 
  • Two Orines won titles at the Battle at the Citadel. NC State had 6 champs in total, including #5 Kai at 141 and Draegen at 133. 

Around the Horn (More Things Happened)

  • AJ Ferrari is back! The mercurial 197-pounder with a max deadlift of 665 pounds returned to varsity competition for the first time since January of 2022, when he was a member of the Oklahoma State program. 
    • Ferrari notched two wins on Friday night, a tech-fall over Utah Valley and a decision over rival Nick Stemmet of Stanford.  
    • And yes, AJ did the split and double birds (in this case, Roadrunners) after his win over Stemmet. 
  • Stanford beat Utah Valley during Adam Hall’s debut weekend as a head coach of the green Wolverines (green is not an official part of their mascot but I figured I’d mention it to distinguish them from their midwestern counterparts). 
    • Penn State transfer #14 Terrell Barraclough, now of Utah Valley, had the match of the night with the upset win over #3 All-American Hunter Garvin of Stanford.
    • Stanford’s #3 Daniel Cardenas did not start, which is more evidence of him taking a redshirt this season. But that’s the thing with redshirts, you can be in one until the last moment of the regular season and then not be in one for the postseason.
  • Utah Valley beat CSUB for Adam Hall’s first win of his career at the helm of the Wolverines.
  • Missouri beat Northern Colorado in a dual that saw two national champs compete.
    • #1 Andrew Alirez looked slicker than an oil spill in beating #10 Josh Edmond at 141.
    • #1 Keegan O'Toole did Keegan things en route to a tech over Aydin Rix-McElhinney at 174. 
    • We got the first look at Mizzou's blue chip recruit, true freshman Aeoden Sinclair, who got a spot start for Rocky Elam at 197. Sinclair won by major and is still expected to redshirt this season.
  • Iowa dominated Oregon State but the atmosphere in Corvallis was still superb.
    • Nelson Brands and Gabe Arnold did the weight class do-si-do, with Brands moving down to 174 and Arnold up to 184, where it appears they’ll stay for the remainder of the season.
    • Buchanan and Munoz was the match of the weekend as fas as I’m concerned. Buchanan looks like the real deal but Munoz also showed he can compete at 197 with the best in the nation.
    • Gill Colusieum has a matside beer garden, which I think should be mandatory for all D1 duals.
    • Check out Terry Brands mixing it up with the Beaver fans after Buchanan defeated Munoz.

Simply delightful.

Check Out My Guy JD

He absolutely did not have to go off like this on a project, but go off he did, and we are all the beneficiaries of his labors. 

Want more details about this topic? JD has way more info packed into this article. 

Heavy Metal Matness 

One thing I like is wrestling. Another thing I like is heavy metal music. So in this reoccurring segment, which I will do until I get bored with it, I will compare NCAA wrestling programs to heavy metal bands, a bit inspired by the Salty Walkon. 

First up is Penn State, who I liken to Linkin Park. 

Why Linkin Park? Because they sold a ton of records (back when people still purchased music on physical media) and are basically the last heavy metal band to acquire a mainstream audience and gain cultural relevancy. Penn State, meanwhile, is in the midst of a dynasty, and is thus the latest wrestling program to gain a massive fan base. So their popularity lines up with Linkin Park's, if you stretch the timelines of NCAA wrestling and heavy metal music when culturally relevant. 

Looking up Linkin Park's hit singles is kind of like looking up a list of Penn State's Hodge Trophy finalists and winners. Hit after hit to the point where, even though you know there are a lot of them, you're still surprised by the sheer number. 

Linkin Park has a new lead singer (RIP Chester Bennington). There is some pushback from the Linkin Park fan base against newcomer Emily Armstrong, however, I'm personally pumped for her addition. Armstrong was in another band called Dead Sara, and they are excellent, as is their song Weatherman. 

I am very much looking forward to the new Linkin Park album when it comes out in another week or so. Definitely more so than I have been for any other Linkin Park album, as I never really followed them that closely before. 

Thank you for reading the inaugural edition of Heavy Metal Matness. 

What Would YOU Like To See In This Blog? 

It wouldn’t exist with you so I implore you to provide feedback! 

Send all suggestions, requests, commendations and condemnations to me at [andrew.spey@flosports.tv]. I’m also usually available on Twitter (@speywrestle). 

Thanks for reading! I appreciate your time very much! See you on the internet!