Holy cow! Only one week into college wrestling season and what a week! Marquee matches! Upsets! We're starting off with a bang!
Where do I even begin?
Let's start with South Dakota State's Seth Gross. Everyone's been wondering how he'll look coming back off the injury. I'd say fall over Gary Joint of Fresno State and a major decisions over Lane Peters of Army and Casey Cobb of Navy says he's well and healthy!
Army's P.J. Ogunsanya with a huge upset over #14 Cole Martin of Wisconsin
I said in earlier predictions for this season that I thought Minnesota's Brayton Lee would be more than a suitable replacement for Tommy Thorn. An 8-7 victory over Cal State Bakersfield's Russell Rohlfing gives me confidence in that prediction.
B.C. LaPrade of Virginia Tech lost his wrestle-off and yet comes back to defeat #16 Jarrett Jacques of Missouri. Parity anyone?
The MICHIGAN STATE OPEN proved to be every bit as exciting as I thought it would be. Brock Hudkins of Indiana looked very comfortable competing for his new school winning the title at 125 lbs.
How lucky did we get at 141 lbs? #1 Dom Demas of Oklahoma Vs #3 Luke Pletcher of Ohio State! With Pletcher defeating Demas does this mean that he moves to #1? Or does Nick Lee of Penn State move to #1, Pletcher to #2 and Demas to #3? Anxious to see how these results reflect the rankings.
Considering Ke-Shawn Hayes lost to Kanen Storr and Sammy Sasso defeated him I guess that pretty much settles it at Ohio State regarding 149 lbs. I still think Hayes can do big things this year. Heck, maybe 157 will even be better for him.
Taleb Rahmani of Pittsburgh failing to place at 157 lbs. We all have bad days. Glad it's now and not March. I think he'll bounce back just fine.
Speaking of 157 lbs freshman Kendall Coleman of Purdue sure looked good. Defeating EIWA champ Anthony Artalona of Pennsylvania in the finals.
Michigan's Mason Parris decided not to try and go upperbody with Central Michigan's Matt Stencel and it proved to be a working strategy. Some beautiful low shots in route to a rather dominating decision.
The COWBOY OPEN had a few eye openers as well.
Cole Verner failing to place had to hurt but again it's early. Better to have these mishaps now than later.
Theorius Robinson of North Carolina sure looked good this tournament.
Can you believe that former Boise State standout Ben VomBaur tied for 3rd place at 133 lbs? That dude is like 40 years old or older! Graduated college as a fifth year senior in 2003! That's amazing! Very impressive!
Clarion Open wasn't as exciting as I was hoping it would be but still saw some things that made me happy. Loved seeing Cleveland State's Evan Cheek win the title at 141 lbs. The Vikings haven't had much to be excited about in a while and this is good.
Also happy to see Brock Zacherl back and kicking some butt at 149 lbs!
The Princeton Open proved to be a tough tournament especially at 157 lbs! What a loaded bracket! Rider's Jesse Dellavecchia looked solid and smooth in route to the title. Impressed with David Berkovich of Columbia in route to his third place finish.
I didn't realize that Mike D'Angelo still had eligibility left. He's been around for what seems forever.
Army's Luke Hodsden looked very good with an impressive win over #16 Chris Weiler in route to winning 184 lbs.
Jacob Cardenas won 197 lbs. He's not even in college yet. Wow!
THE SOUTHEAST OPEN was even more loaded than I predicted it to be.
Sam Latona of Virginia Tech really adds testimony to how deep the Hokies are 125 lbs. Winning a rather tough bracket with some good wrestlers in it.
Missouri's Alex Butler with a 3-1 over two time SOCON champ Chris Debien at 141 lbs.
Did anyone else think that the seeding at 174 lbs made absolutely no sense? VMI's Neal Richards was undoubtedly the second best wrestler in the weight class. Yet rather than have him meet Missouri's Connor Flynn in the finals and take second, he instead meets him early on and because of the bracket system ends up having to settle for 5th place. I didn't get that at all.
Yet huge thanks to the ones who posted the brackets. Hardly anyone ever puts eligibility on them. I appreciate that. Saves me from having to look it up later.
Last but certainly not least was the Battle at the Citadel!
Was hoping American's Sal Profaci would have a good tournament and I think he did. A third place showing and only losing by a point to the champ I say is a good showing.
Speaking of American Kizhan Clarke looked great winning 149 lbs over Stanford's Requir Van Der Merwe.
Dazjon Castro is looking better. Took 3rd at 165 lbs.
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