2019-2020 College Wrestling: Week Four Recap

Week Four of wrestling is complete and I have to say I feel as strong about the state of college wrestling as I ever have.

The first dual meet at Arkansas-Little Rock!  I think most understand how important this is to the growth of college wrestling.  I would call it one of the most important, if not the most important event to happen to college wrestling in the last twenty years.  Division I wrestling in Arkansas! Opens up the door to endless possibilities.  What was a negative attitude of "never" is now a positive response of "someday." 

Arizona State defeating Penn State leaves me with mixed emotions and probably not for the reasons you'd guess.  I'm ecstatic about Arizona State's huge win.  I'm happy that some are able to see it for what it is & that it is important. It is significant. It does mean something.  Yet I see a lot of people who treat it like it doesn't.    The mentality of "All that matters is March" is excruciatingly detrimental to the growth of wrestling.  This season last damn near a half year & it astounds me that some people have the audacity to think that only three days of it matter.

Can you imagine if Football had that mentality?  If football coaches and fans had the perspective of, "Oh well, we already won enough games to make it to a bowl, so we don't care if we lose this game."    It's laughable to think that.  Or to compare it to basketball.  Teams take the N.I.T. seriously. Fans think it is a big deal.  I can't imagine fans of basketball feeling that all that matters is the NCAA tournament. 

Arizona State defeating Penn State is a huge deal because it's a team from the southwest for one.  Tempe isn't Iowa City and it isn't College Park either.   Seeing that kinda crowd is extremely encouraging.  If a football team upset Louisiana State, they might even cancel classes to celebrate the victory.  I will say Wrestling is doing a better job now than what they were.  It is a big deal, and fortunately quite a few are treating it as such.

NCAA' women's wrestling is here!  This is great for the sport in so many ways. Does it eliminate the issue with Title IX? That's to be seen. Let's give it 10 years and then begin to answer that question.


Utah Valley's Tanner Orndorff looked great against Tanner Sloan. Biggest win of his career thus far.

Christian Lance of Nebraska with a huge upset over Brian Andrews of Wyoming.

Spoke already about Arizona State's epic defeat of Penn State but a few things I want to say specifically in regards to the individual matches.   Josh Kramer wrestled exceptionally well against Roman Bravo-Young.  I thought he'd have a difficult time keeping the match to a decision.  He lost by one point.  I was rather impressed.   I said in a preview on both THE WRESTLING INSIDER & WRESTLERS ONLY that I thought Norfleet would beat Conel.  Not sure if Conel is injured or if his run at the NCAA's a couple of years ago was truly a one hit wonder.  Either way, he's not looking good thus far this season.

Someone who is is Columbia's Joe Manchio.  Big win over Stanford's Gabriel Townsell in the dual meet and a title at the Roadrunner Open.

Not a lot of thoughts on the Lindenwood Open but I was happy to see Vince Turk win a title.  Some have already penciled in Pat Lugo as the Hawkeye's starter come BIG 10's but I haven't. 

Also say the name Lucas Byrd wrestling for Illinois.  I'd imagine relation to four time NCAA qualifier Tyrone.

Princeton is within inches of winning an EIWA crown.  I'm excited.  Gonna see it in 2020?  I think it's a possibility.

Even though he lost both of his matches this weekend I was happy to see Clarion's Jake Gromacki back on the mat.  Was wondering if he'd ever wrestle again or not.

After wrestling like crap at the beginning of the month, Pittsburgh's Taleb Rahmani seems to have gotten himself back on the right track.  A fall over EIWA champ Josh Humphreys.   Teammate Demetrius Thomas looked equally as solid in his 10-6 win over EIWA champ Jordan Wood.

Mason Parris of Michigan and Matt Stencel of Central Michigan are bound to meet again this season, but with three consecutive wins I think Parris may have Stencel's #.

Taylor Lujan of Northern Iowa looked incredible in his 15-6 thrashing of Nebraska's Taylor Venz.  Watching him wrestle yesterday made it hard to believe that this kid hasn't been an All American yet.

Iowa Vs Iowa State wrestling was great.  A few surprises during the match.  It has to feel good for Lugo to finally get that W over Degen.  He couldn't figure him out last year.  Carr was able to live up to the hype and defeat Young.  Brands looked like the T-1,000 from TERMINATOR 2: Judgement Day. That kid must be carrying a 30 gallon tank.  He doesn't wear out. 

Boo Lewallen in a decisive 8-3 victory over Brayton Lee in the Oklahoma State vs Minnesota dual speaks volumes to me.  I've been antsy to see if Lewallen after injuries and not being varsity last season would come back strong or not this season.  I have my answer.


Nothing to much to say about the CORNELL OPEN.  I figured it'd be dominated by Cornell and for the most part it was.

In regards to the ROADRUNNER OPEN A.J. Raya of Cal Baptist looked great in winning the title at 149 lbs.  Russell Rohlfing coming back to take third after a disappointing loss shows that he still has heart. 

I cannot get over how loaded the NAVY CLASSIC was this year.   You can measure the toughness of a tournament by the names of those who fail to place.  At nearly every weight there were some very tough wrestlers, including some that are ranked in the top twenty who failed to place. 

Making the finals and finishing in second place, I wonder if American's Gage Curry might finally start getting the recognition he deserves.  One can only sneak in so many times before it becomes expected.

Look at how good Campbell looked.  Josh Heil, Noah Gonser and Jere Heino all winning titles in fairly competitive weight classes.  I guess I'm still excited about how far Camel wrestling has came.

Michigan State's Jake Tucker wrestled extremely well.

In gaining his 100th win, David McFadden of Virginia Tech won the title at 165 lbs.

Took away some interesting points in regards to KEYSTONE 

Louie Hayes of Virginia a 125 lbs'er wrestling at 133 lbs looked good winning a title.

Seems like forever since something positive happened for Harvard wrestling.  I thought it might here but I wasn't expecting it from freshman Philip Conigliaro who looked extremely impressive defeating Ebed Jarrell of Drexel in the finals.   

Was happy to see Brandon Levesque of Sacred Heart take a strong third.  The Pioneers haven't qualified anyone to the NCAA's in quite some time.  I think he's the next qualifier.

Franklin & Marshall had some things to be happy about.  Both Wil Gil and Emmett LiCastri wrestled fairly well.

Onward to week 5!!