NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 13 Roundup: Requiem For Cleveland State
NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 13 Roundup: Requiem For Cleveland State
The world's finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the 13th week of the 2024-25 NCAA D1 wrestling season.
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Hello from the last full week of January! February is right around the corner, and around the next corner after that is the postseason. I told you the season would fly by. I warned you!
Box Scores | Rankings | Last Week’s Roundup
We must start this week’s roundup with unfortunate news. Cleveland State announced they are shuttering their wrestling program. This is the second time in ten years that an announcement like this has been made, however, unlike last time, there doesn’t appear to be much hope in saving the program.
Cleveland State University is in dire financial straits. They are facing mounting budget deficits and dwindling applications. They hired Ernst & Young to help them make budget cuts and those consultants recommended eliminating the wrestling program, as well as softball and women’s golf, plus a bunch of other non-athletic cuts. And sadly, you rarely see an organization go back on decisions backed by their expensive third-party advisors. Just ask Tom Smykowski at Initech.
Of course, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try anyway! By all means, if there's a way, we should save CSU wrestling! But it wouldn't be a bad idea to also prepare for the worst.
And if this is the end, it will hurt. It will hurt because every D1 program that is extinguished diminishes the sport to some degree. And while it’s no secret that some programs are more influential and popular than others, no matter what level of success a D1 team has found, it’s still a roster full of opportunities that will no longer be available to athletes, and that stings.
So hoist a tankard of your favorite beverage to the Cleveland State Vikings. Let us celebrate their remaining matches and honor their legacy the best we can, for as long as we can.
And now to celebrate the noteworthy happenings of week 13 of the 2024-25 NCAA D1 wrestling season.
The Dual of the Century, of the Week
Oklahoma State Derails Panther Train 22-14
You probably guessed from the graphic of this very blog that the DotCotW would be UNI vs OSU, and you wouldn't be wrong!
I chose this dual because it has all the hallmarks of a quality dual: two top-five teams overflowing with talent, thrilling matches with both competitors leaving everything on the mat, drama, excitement, and a mechanical bull on the concourse!
Also our very own Andy Hamilton was there snapping photos and I knew I'd be able to use them for the main picture.
Below is the box score.
125: #4 Troy Spratley (OKST) over #20 Trever Anderson (UNI) (Dec 10-5)
133: #21 Julian Farber (UNI) over Cael Hughes (OKST) (MD 13-4)
141: #5 Cael Happel (UNI) over #4 Tagen Jamison (OKST) (SV-1 4-1)
149: #13 Colin Realbuto (UNI) over #12 Carter Young (OKST) (Dec 6-4)
157: #13 Caleb Fish (OKST) over #4 Ryder Downey (UNI) (SV-1 7-4)
165: #6 Cameron Amine (OKST) over #12 Jack Thomsen (UNI) (MD 10-2)
174: #3 Dean Hamiti (OKST) over #16 Jared Simma (UNI) (MD 16-4)
184: #2 Parker Keckeisen (UNI) over #3 Dustin Plott (OKST) (MD 15-4)
197: #7 Luke Surber (OKST) over #12 Wyatt Voelker (UNI) (Dec 4-3)
285: #3 Wyatt Hendrickson (OKST) over #15 Lance Runyon (UNI) (TF 19-4 4:53)
Things were looking good for the home team, who packed a record 6,030 fans into the McLeod Center after the first four weights.
Cael Happel defeated Tagen Jamison for the fourth time in his career and Colin Realbuto notched a very slight upset over Carter Young.
But the narrow path UNI had for an upset was roadblocked when Caleb Fish upset Ryder Downey in sudden victory. Then the Cowboys' upperweights overwhelmed the Panthers, save for Parker Keckeisen, who registered his fifth win and third major decision over Dustin Plott.
The Cowboys didn't oblige the raucous crowd in Cedar Falls, nor was anyone expecting them to, but that didn't stop the Panther faithful from showing off an impressive display of passionate fandom.
Ready to run it back!#PantherTrain #EverLoyal pic.twitter.com/cIacXU9eKo
— UNI Athletics (@UNIAthletics) January 25, 2025
And the DotCotW is a sucker for passionate fans and record-setting attendance numbers.
By the way, if you ever wanted to know what it's like to be in the practice room while two teams of this stature are geting ready for a big-time dual meet, I've got just the videos for you! Inside a D1 Wrestling Room with Oklahoma State and Inside a D1 Wrestling Room with Northern Iowa are both available on Youtube and both are extremely free to watch!
We also have match notes about the dual from the NWMA 2023-24 Journalist of the year Kyle Klingman if you'd like to read more!
Co-Dual of the Century, of the Week
The Broncs Win the Ivy-MAC Trophy, or Is It the MAC-Ivy Trophy? Anyway, Rider Beat Princeton 23-19
When I was putting the box scores together I noticed this insane result and couldn't help but include it as a co-DotCotW.
To wit: Rider bonused in the first two bouts of the dual before Princeton came storming back with five dubs in a row with their talismanic 149-pounder #6 Ty Whalen up next. However, Sammy Alvarez stepped up for the Broncs and upset Whalen 7-3.
It wasn't over yet, though, as Princeton still had a six-point lead with two matches to go. That's when Washleski and Munguia came through with a major decision and pinfall to seal the deal for the Broncs in most dramatic fashion.
The box score is below.
174: Michael Wilson (RID) over Xavier Giles (PRIN) (Fall 4:52)
184: Isaac Dean (RID) over Kole Mulhauser (PRIN) (MD 12-4)
197: #16 Luke Stout (PRIN) over Brock Zurawski (RID) (TF 22-5 6:27)
285: Sebastian Garibaldi (PRIN) over Collin French (RID) (Dec 8-4)
125: #25 Marc-Anthony McGowan (PRIN) over Noah Michaels (RID) (TF 19-3 5:21)
133: Drew Heethuis (PRIN) over Will Betancourt (RID) (Dec 5-0)
141: #29 Eligh Rivera (PRIN) over #33 McKenzie Bell (RID) (SV-1 8-5)
149: #16 Sammy Alvarez (RID) over #6 Ty Whalen (PRIN) (Dec 7-3)
157: Colton Washleski (RID) over Jacob Mann (PRIN) (MD 14-6)
165: Enrique Munguia (RID) over Zander Silva (PRIN) (Fall 5:41)
I'm also a sucker for dramatic duals featuring New Jersey programs.
Broncs Defeat Cross-Town Rival Princeton to Reclaim MAC-IVY Trophy
— Rider Wrestling (@RiderWrestling) January 25, 2025
📰https://t.co/VsZEYX2GmL#RiderStrong l #GoBroncs l #MACtion
Princeton bounced back to beat Ivy rival Columbia 34-3 on Sunday. Rider couldn’t keep the momentum going however and lost to Drexel 21-12 on Saturday,
Tri-Dual of the Century, of the Week
Rutgers Writes What Was Once Unwritten Scarlet Knight History With 16-15 Criteria Victory Over Illinois
That's right. If they can hand out a co-Hodge I can award a Tri-DotCotW.
And Rutgers deserved it with a thrilling win that came down a sudden victory triumph at heavyweight by Yaraslau Slavikouski over Luke Luffman. That secured Rutgers' first top 10 win since they beat Wisconsin in 2019.
By the way, we've now recently seen Slavikouski beat Luffman, Luffman beat Ben Keuter, and Keuter beat Feldman. Good luck with that, rankers!
Below is the full box score.
125: #15 Dean Peterson (RU) over Caelen Riley (ILL) by dec., 8-2
133: #3 Lucas Byrd (ILL) over #9 Dylan Shawver (RU) by dec., 6-5
141: #13 Joseph Olivieri (RU) over #17 Danny Pucino (ILL) by dec., 8-4
149: #15 Kannon Webster (ILL) over #24 Andrew Clark (RU) by dec., 8-1
157: Conner Harer (RU) over #22 Jason Kraisser (ILL) by dec., 4-0
165: #16 Braeden Scoles (ILL) over #26 Anthony White (RU) by dec., 4-1
174: #23 Jackson Turley (RU) over #20 Dan Braunagel (ILL) by dec., 4-1
184: #12 Edmond Ruth (ILL) over #19 Shane Cartagena-Walsh (RU) by SV1, 4-1
197: #13 Zac Braunagel (ILL) over #17 John Poznanski (RU) by dec., 4-2
285: #8 Yaraslau Slavikouski (RU) over #9 Luke Luffman (ILL) by SV1, 4-1
The teams split the 10 bouts. Lucas Byrd passed another big test when he prevailed over Dylan Shawver in a nailbiter. Kannon Webster, Braeden Scoles, Edmond Ruth and Zac Braunagel all also picked up ranked wins for the Illini.
Besides Yara, the hero of the night for the Knights was true freshman Conner Harer, who got a ranked shutout win over Jason Kraisser. Jackson Turley also wrestled an incredibly savvy match against Danny Braunagel.
Then the boys gave Goody a well-deserved Gatorade bath.
What. A. Win!#RelentlessPursuit | #GoRU pic.twitter.com/LuV3o3tA2d
— Rutgers Wrestling (@RUWrestling) January 26, 2025
And why not celebrate with a little Natasha Bedingfield?
Song of the season?
— Rutgers Wrestling (@RUWrestling) January 26, 2025
🎵 Unwritten 🎵 #RelenlessPursuit | #GoRU pic.twitter.com/RpdJAO0rzf
A good time was had by all in Piscataway.
The Tom Borrelli Coaching Tree Jamboree
The annual event also known as the Chippewa Challenge occurred for the fourth consecutive year. It consists of a dual meet round robin between the four programs coached by athletes who were once coached by the legendary Central Michigan head coach Tom Borrelli: Ben Bennett's Central Michigan Chippewas, Jason Borrelli's American Eagles, Scott Sentes' Campbel Camels, and Luke Smith's CSU-Bakersfield Road Runners.
Campbell won for the second straight year, though it was a near-run thing for the Camels. Their margin of victory over CMU was six points, for American it was a mere 4 points, and against CSUB they squeaked by with a margin of a single solitary team point.
Back to back Chippewa Challenge Champions‼️ pic.twitter.com/ynpZpYCsbA
— Scott Sentes (@TheCoachSentes) January 26, 2025
Congrats to the fighting Camels!
I will now go around the horn to different conferences, giving each conference its own section with its very own nickname. First up:
Big Ten Talk
Penn State continued their inexorable march to the 2025 national title with a 35-3 win over the aforementioned Scarlet Knights.
- Rutgers' Dean Peterson handed Luke Lilledahl the first loss of his collegiate career 4-1 by scoring the lone takedown late in the third period.
- Braeden Davis shut down Dylan Shawver to pick up a top ten win at 133 in a low scoring 2-1 bout.
- I live-blogged the dual if you'd like to read more.
Illinois stopped the Terps' three-dual Big Ten winning streak with a 33-7 victory.
- Before Lucas Byrd beat Dylan Shawver he came up big with a 7-3 win over #11 Braxton Brown 7-3.
- Luke Luffman, fresh off his victory over Ben Keuter last week, defeated #12 Seth Nevills at heavyweight.
- Maryland picked up a solid win from their 184lb standard bearer, Jaxon Smith, who beat #12 Edmond Ruth 4-3.
Nebraska thumped Michigan 38-6 in one of the most lopsided victories in that rivalry's history.
- Brock Hardy helped the Huskers' cause with a 13-4 major over #9 Sergio Lemley at 141.
- Nebraska has a good problem on their hands with two quality 165-pounders in Bubba Wilson and Christopher Minto. It was Minto who got the nod against the Wolverines and it paid off for Head Coach Mark Manning as Minto beat #18 Beau Mantanona 7-2.
- Mantanona did pick up a nice win over #16 Tyler Lillard of Indiana later in the weekend. Michigan won that dual but Indiana is looking tough these days under head coach Angel Escobedo.
- Jacob Cardenas and Josh Heindselmen kept Michigan from getting shut out against Nebraska when they won at 197 and 285 respectively.
Iowa shrugged off upset concerns with a 24-13 victory over Ohio State.
- it looked like the Buckeyes had a path to an upset when it was announced that Drake Ayala would not be in the Iowa lineup in the lineup. But that was not to be.
- The first match of the dual spelled trouble for Ohio State as #29 Joey Cruz upset #12 Brendan McCrone 6-5.
- True freshman Ben Davino got a spot start for Nic Bouzakis and got a tech-fall win over Ayala's backup.
- #1 Jesse Mendez made it back-to-back wins when he followed Davino, but that was as good as it would get for tOSU.
- Kyle Parco, the triumphant return of Jacori Teemer at 157, and Michael Caliendo all got momentum back on the Hawkeyes side with two decisions and a major, respectively.
- #6 Carson Kharchla scored a very minor upset over #5 Patrick Kennedy at 174 to breath life in Ohio State's hopes.
- But then Gabe Arnold, Stephen Buchanan, and Ben Keuter won the final three bouts. Kueter impressed in particular with his 5-4 upset over #5 Nick Feldman.
- Then Gabe Arnold said he was coming for Starocci's head!
Gabe Arnold calls his shot for next week vs Penn State pic.twitter.com/ZMiMeukCJj
— Ross Bartachek (@rossbchek) January 25, 2025
Big 12 Blather
Oklahoma State outdid Iowa State in a classic matchup of college wrestling bluebloods and Big 12 OGs.
- The Cyclones got solid wins from the Frost brothers of Louisiana at 133 and 141. In particular, Jacob scored a nice upset win over #4 Tagen Jamison at 141.
- Paniro Johnson kept the ball rolling for Iowa State with a 4-2 win over Carter Young, and then Cody Chittum prevailed over Caleb Fish in an odd bout at 157. There were some questionable calls in that Chittum/Fish, specifically one involving reaction time, but I don't have the time nor energy to get into all that right now.
- The Cowboys then won the final five bouts to shut the door on Iowa State's upset hopes.
Speaking of bad calls, or more accurately, bad rules, this happened at the West Virginia-Missouri dual.
During the West Virginia vs. Missouri dual on UFC Fight Pass, West Virginia was penalized a team point for a headgear toss.
— Saturday Night Lights Wrestling (@WrestlingSNL) January 26, 2025
The toss: pic.twitter.com/qWRYlmCm6w
Folks, what are we doing? Why would throwing a head gear like that cause a team point to be deducted? I'm not saying the refs made the wrong call either. It's probably the correct call according to the rule book. I'm saying it's an insanely bad rule. Why does it have to be this way? I'll probably never know.
Missouri won 22-16 so it didn't matter but still.
- Strong performances by Mizzou;'s light and middleweights carried the day for the Tigers.
- WVU's #3 Peyton Hall avoided an upset at 165 with a gutsy come-from-behind win over #10 Cam Steed.
Wyoming took Utah Valley to the woodshed 25-10.
- Cole Brooks picked up a 7-2 upset win over #18 Haiden Drury to lead the charge for the Cowboys.
- #4 Terrell Barraclough continued his winning ways with a tech-fall at 165. The Wolverine senior is now 17-1 on the season.
- Wyoming also beat California Baptist to go 2-0 on the weekend.
Eastern Promises
Drexel had a big weekend, defeating Bucknell on Friday and Rider on Saturday.
- This is the EIWA section by the way.
- Mickey O'Malley wrestled in just his fourth and fifth matches of the season, both wins: a tech-fall and a 13-10 victory over #28 Dillon Bechtold of Bucknell.
- Jordan Soriano also notched an upset over #15 Dylan Chappell at 141 to put the Dragons over the Bison.
- As mentioned earlier, Drexel defeated Rider 21-12. 2112 is also the name of a sublime album by Canadian rock legends Rush.
- Rider is also in the MAC, but it was Drexel's win so they're going in the EIWA section.
Bucknell bounced back against their fellow Patriot League foe, Army, with a 21 to 13 victory.
- Two sudden victory wins against ranked opponents at 165 and 174 ensured the Bison victory. #27 Noah Mulvaney beat #21 Gunner Filipowicz at 165 and #19 Myles Takats beat #32 Dalton Hawkins at 174.
Binghamton beat Brown in an EIWA/Ivy battle that would've been an all-EIWA dual if it had occurred last year.
- The dual meet was tied going into the final two bouts, which were 133 and 141.
- First Jacob Joyce of Brown beat Micah Roes 6-5 at 133.
- Then Nate Lucier of Binghamton beat Ian Oswalt 7-6 with a go-ahead takedown in the final seconds of the match.
- That left the score tied, though Brown had criteria. But before Lucier hand got raised, Oswalt committed unsportsmanlike conduct (you'll have to watch the replay yourself if you want to know what happened - nothing too scandalous but I am not going to describe it either), which deducted a team point from Brown's score which gave the Bearcats the victory.
- I've personally never seen anything like that before. Wild stuff.
MAC Machinations
Perhaps the recent horrible news motivated Cleveland State as they went 2-0 on the weekend.
- First, the Vikings blanked Bloomsburg 40-0.
- Then CSU calamatized Clarion 24-10.
- Cleveland State's lone ranked wrestler, #31 Daniel Bucknavich, won twice.
- All of you must root for Bucknavich to qualify for the NCAAs and win matches in Philadelphia, by the way. This is mandatory.
- Clarion did pick up two wins on the weekend in their other duals, 19-15 over LIU and 23-12 over Kent State.
Lock Haven powered past the Patriots of George Mason 29-17.
- The only upset of the dual was when GMU's unranked Tyler Kocek beat #31 Tucker Hogan at 197.
- Player-coach Gavin Hoffman picked up another victory at heavyweight for the Bald Eagles.
ACC Siesta
NC State stopped Pitt 22 to 13.
- #19 Luca Augustine gave the Panthers a mild upset at 174 with a win in tiebreakers over #17 Matty Singleton.
- Wolfpacker redshirt freshman Vincent Robinson stayed undefeated (outside of a countable medical forfeit) with a 6-2 win over #26 Nick Babin at 125.
Hokies halt Duke 32-15.
- Duke's brightest performance came at 165 when #29 Aidan Wallace beat #22 Mac Church in sudden victory.
- Redshirt freshman #14 Jimmy Mullen got revenge for VT at heavyweight when he beat #23 Connor Barket by tech.
Stanford stymied Virginia 34-9.
- In the last dual of the weekend, the Cardinal steamrolled to victory thanks to wins from no less than seven ranked wrestlers.
- However, UVA's Southern Scuffle champ #21 Dylan Cedeno remains undefeated at 141 with his win over #28 Jason Miranda.
Ivy League Luncheon
The Cardiac Quakers keept things interesting with a 24-20 win over Columbia.
- Columbia had the Quakers in trouble after upsets at 174 and 184 as unranked Jack McGill beat #7 Nick Incontrera and #31 Nick Fine beat #18 Maximus Hale.
- But not wanting to get left out of all the excitement, UPenn won the final three bouts in their dual vs the Lions to complete the comeback win.
- The dual was still on the line going into the last match when #12 CJ Composto closed out the dual with an 8-4 win over Kai Owen at 141 to complete the comeback.
- Penn's five other ranked wrestlers also won to ensure Penn would return home to Philly with the dub.
- Do you think the Penn squad took Amtrak to Columbia? Maybe the Acela even? Northeast Corrider-heads know what I'm talking about.
Pac-12 Parade
Little Rock keeps the hits coming as they top Oregon State 29 to 14.
- Despite the team loss, Beaver redshirt freshman #33 Ethan Stiles picked up the win of the dual when he upset #14 Jordan Williams 5-1.
- Trojan big dogs #5 Stephen Little at 197 and #8 Nasir Bailey at 133 both won, by pinfall and tech-fall, respectively.
Heavy Metal Matness
Yep, still doing this bit! I couldn't end it while the great Shane Sparks is bringing up one of the greatest bands of all time on Twitter!
Best walk out song right now is @Benkueter1 coming out to Man In The Box by @AliceInChains. @Hawks_Wrestling @B1GWrestling
— Shane Sparks (@ShaneSparksBTN) January 26, 2025
As such, today I will compare Alice in Chains to Michigan.
Alice in Chains is considered one of the preeminent grunge bands, but I'll be honest, despite living my teenage years in the grunge era and adoring pretty much all those bands, I still have no idea what technically qualifies as a grunge band and what doesn't. I guess because AiC is from Seattle and plays fairly heavy music they qualify but all the grunge bands are quite different musically in my opinion.
Anyway, I don't think Alice in Chains frontman Jerry Cantrell gets his due credit. He is a prolific songwriter with a much larger range than people realize. Man in the Box is a tremendous tune but the Alice in Chains catalog is so much more than that.
Sean Kinny is also an underrated drummer. No Excuses has the best drum beat in all of rock history. Prove me wrong.
Similarly, I don't think Michigan gets enough credit for being a foundational program in D1 wrestling. Perhaps it's because six other Big Ten teams have won NCAA titles and the Wolverines never have. In any event, Michigan has been good forever and I suspect they will continue to be good for a very long time.
It's also a big plus when one of the most popular sports brands in college athletics has a good wrestling team. Lots of potential new fans to be harvested from the so-called 'Walmart Wolverines' out there.
Both Alice in Chains and Michigan wrestling kick ass. Listen to Alice in Chains and watch Michigan wrestling in my opinion.
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