8 Top-10 Upsets In Week 16
8 Top-10 Upsets In Week 16
Week 16 of NCAA wrestling featured eight upsets over top-10 wrestlers and 27 upsets overall. Here are this week's biggest upset stories.
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The second to last weekend of dual meet action had 27 upsets, eight of which were over wrestlers inside the top 10. Here are the biggest upset stories of the week along with every upset we could find. If you saw an upset we missed, email david.bray@flosports.tv so we can be sure to include it.
Lee Over Pletcher for #1
The most consequential upset of the weekend could have been a preview of the NCAA finals match at 141. Nick Lee took out #1 Luke Pletcher in a packed Bryce Jordan Center in a match that helped push Penn State past Ohio State.
Pletcher scored first, but Lee controlled the action in the second and third periods to earn an 8-4 win. Before Saturday's match, Pletcher and Lee had been two of the most dominant wrestlers in the country, sitting at fourth and fifth in the Hodge Rankings. Now, Nick Lee will take over as the #1 141-pounder in the country while Pletcher will regroup for a potential rematch in the Big Ten finals.
3 Top-10 Upsets in UNI vs ISU
Three of this weekend's seven upsets over top-10 opponents happened in the UNI vs Iowa State dual on Sunday in Ames. At 125, Jacob Schwarm crunched Alex Mackall with a cradle to earn a first-period pin.
Max Thomsen improved his record to 5-0 against #8 Jarrett Degen, but since Thomsen was ranked #11, this was technically an upset. The biggest upset of the dual came at 174, where #19 Sammy Colbray notched his first major win at 174 by beating #5 Bryce Steiert.
7 Upsets at 197 Including 3 in the Top 10
Over 25 percent of this weekend's upsets came in a single weight class. Wrestlers ranked #3, #9, #10, #11, and #13 at 197 all went down causing rankings chaos right before the postseason.
By far the biggest upset of the bunch was unranked Brandon Whitman of North Carolina taking out #3 Ben Darmstadt of Cornell. On top of that, #18 Greg Bulsak of Clarion had another solid win over #10 Ethan Laird of Rider, and unranked Jaron Smith of Maryland pinned #9 Lucas Davison of Northwestern.
Bullard Over #7 McFadden in Dual of the Weekend
Thomas Bullard of NC State pulled out a 2-1 win over Virginia Tech's #7 David McFadden. Even though McFadden has taken a couple of losses this year, this was still a surprising and impressive result for Bullard.
Not only did this result create waves for ACC seeding, but it also was instrumental in NC State's efforts to win the dual 21-18 over Virginia Tech. Bullard is now undefeated in the ACC and 21-5 overall on the year though he has not faced North Carolina's Kennedy Monday, who also has a win over McFadden and is 20-5.
All the Upsets
125
125: #12 Jacob Schwarm, Northern Iowa F;2:17 #8 Alex Mackall, Iowa State
125: #25 Nic Aguilar, Rutgers D;3-1 #11 Michael DeAugustino, Northwestern
125: #26 Logan Treaster, Navy D;3-1 #15 Kilian Cardinale, Old Dominion
133
133: #26 Darren Miller, Bucknell D;6-4 #23 Nick Farro, Lehigh
133: #26 Jarrett Trombley, North Carolina State F;:44 #24 Collin Gerardi, Virginia Tech
141
141: #2 Nick Lee, Penn State D;8-4 #1 Luke Pletcher, Ohio State
141: #24 Mitch Moore, Virginia Tech D;7-3 #11 Tariq Wilson, North Carolina State
141: Noah Baughman, Cornell D;3-1 #12 Zachary Sherman, North Carolina
141: Parker Filius, Purdue D;8-6 #13 Dylan Duncan, Illinois
149
149: #11 Max Thomsen, Northern Iowa D;3-1 #8 Jarrett Degen, Iowa State
157
157: Jared Prince, Navy D;3-2 #13 Larry Early, Old Dominion
165
165: #10 Thomas Bullard, North Carolina State D;2-1 #7 David McFadden, Virginia Tech
165: #17 Kennedy Monday, North Carolina D;8-5 #11 Jake Wentzel, Pittsburgh
165: #24 Cael McCormick, Army West Point D;2-1 #16 Zach Hartman, Bucknell
174
174: #19 Samuel Colbray, Iowa State D;7-6 #5 Bryce Steiert, Northern Iowa
174: #12 Anthony Mantanona, Oklahoma D;10-5 #11 Joseph Smith, Oklahoma State
184
184: Max Lyon, Purdue D;5-2 #14 Zach Braunagel, Illinois
184: #22 Johnny Sebastian, Wisconsin D;5-2 #20 Jelani Embree, Michigan
197
197: Brandon Whitman, North Carolina D;6-3 #3 Ben Darmstadt, Cornell
197: Jaron Smith, Maryland F;2:18 #9 Lucas Davison, Northwestern
197: #18 Greg Bulsak, Clarion D;8-1 #10 Ethan Laird, Rider
197: #15 Jake Woodley, Oklahoma D;10-9 #11 Dakota Geer, Oklahoma State
197: #19 Tanner Sloan, South Dakota State D;7-2 #13 Nathan Traxler, Stanford
197: Drew Phipps, Bucknell D;6-4 #24 JT Brown, Army West Point
197: Timothy Young, Old Dominion D;5-3 #25 Jacob Koser, Navy
285
285: #23 Gary Traub, Ohio State D;5-4 #16 Seth Nevills, Penn State
285: Deonte Wilson, North Carolina State D;3-1 #20 John Borst, Virginia Tech