Surprises, upsets & eye openers. Week three of collegiate wrestling has been every bit if not better than week one and week two.
In dual action I continue to be surprised Dack Punke of Missouri isn't wrestling well. He lost yet another match that I felt he should have won. Yet he started off the season last year a bit slow and continuously got better as the months went by. Perhaps he's simply that sort of wrestler.
I have to eat crow for a moment and take my hat off to Luke Pletcher of Ohio State. He's proving that he deserves his #1 ranking. I've said about him before that he's an extremely defensive wrestler that simply does what he needs to do to win. Yet here he is with yet another major decision thrashing of a top twenty wrestler. This time Pittsburgh's Cole Matthews 23-9. It's nice to see someone with such an arsenal of offense using it.
Speaking of Ohio State, I did not think Chase Singletary would be looking as good as he has lately. His 8-3 decision over Demetrius Thomas was exceptionally impressive.
This Travis Wittlake of Oklahoma State continues to impress me. Drexel's Ebed Jarrell is a very solid wrestler and he stopped him dead in his tracks every time he tried something.
How about Rider's Dean Sherry? I said he'd be game Vs #7 Devin Skatzka and dear lord was he! Sticking him in the first period.
Mario Guillen of Ohio seems to always do this. Last week he beats Noah Gonser and this week he loses to unranked Tye Varndell of Edinboro. I'm going bald where I scratch my head on Guillen's wins and losses.
I knew Real Woods of Stanford and Zach Sherman of North Carolina would be a great match and it was. Woods escaped with the 3-2 victory but this could've gone either way.
Speaking of Stanford when in the heck is Coach Jason Borrelli going to get an apology and some credit from those who continuously doubted him because of his lack of credentials as a wrestler? Tyler Eischens over A.C. Headlee, Shane Griffith over Kennedy Monday and Davis Showunmj over Andrew Gunning. It's more than obvious he knows what he's doing as a coach.
Like I said about Punke from Missouri another wrestler that's disappointing me is Russell Rohlfing of Bakersfield. I thought he'd make a real run towards AA this year. Not that it's too late. There is plenty of the season left but losing 13-5 to Gerard Angelo of Rutgers isn't looking good.
Who is looking good is Sid Flores of Air Force with yet another win over Cole Verner of Wyoming.
People got a kick out of me saying, "Text book execution of Brock Zacherl" in a prior tweet I made in reference to the Clarion Vs George Mason dual. And yet how did Zacherl defeat Colston DiBlasi 4-2 sudden victory? With a textbook execution takedown!
I was happy to see Brent Moore of Virginia Tech with such a high profile win over Sammy Sasso of Ohio state. He often has to sit back within the shadow of Mitch, and it was nice to see him get to be the hero for once.
Speaking of someone who has to live within the shadow of his younger brother, didn't Bobby Steveson look good winning the Daktronics Open? Best I've ever seen him wrestler.
On the topic of Daktronics the loss against Sherry must have woken up an angry giant. Devin Skatzka beat the ever lovin' crude out of everyone he stepped on the mat with.
Kevon Davenport of Nebraska already showing us what he has in his redshirt with a title win over last year's Daktronics champ Henry Pohlmeyer of South Dakota State.
I've been a fan of Iowa Hawkeye wrestling since I was first introduced to it during the 1991-192 season at the tender age of seven years old. Yet I don't get and I find it amusing that diehard Hawkeye fans put so much emphasis and faith into a dual against Chattanooga. Now I like Chattanooga. It's a town I've even considered living in. Big supporter of what was until this year our most "southern" team. Yet let's be real here for a second. This isn't a great year for the Moc's. They don't have much. Their best wrestler blew out his knee. They'll qualify less than a handful of wrestlers to the NCAA's. They aren't winning the SOCON. And yet Iowa fans feel that their win over them is an indication of their National Title potential? I don't think so. Let's see Iowa against Oklahoma State or Penn State before we start thinking that a win over UTC means more than it does.
Hated, hated, hated seeing Jacob Holschlag of Northern Iowa injury default against Northwestern. Can that guy ever have any luck when it comes to health?
The Black Knight Invitational proved to be as good as I thought it would. Army continues to impress me. Kevin Ward has worked his ass off to get the Black Knights to new heights and it shows. My only disappointment was Ben Harvey placing fourth in a bracket where he should've taken second. He's AA material without a doubt, but he has to wrestle better than he did here if that's going to happen.
Very happy to see Trevor Allard of Bloomsburg make the finals. I don't know what it's going to take for him to finally get some recognition, but a win over Michigan's Jelani Embree has to help.
Mason Parris of Michigan with yet another win over Matt Stencel of Central Michigan. They'll meet again. He beats him a third time, then I'd say he has his # this year.
The Wolfpack Open pretty much going down as I thought it would, although not as many participated as I was hoping. Virginia redshirt Robert Patrick looking exceptionally good in his winning the title at 174 lbs.
I still don't Appalachian State's Jonathan Millner is the best on the team, yet along with Cary Miller, he wins yet another title this weekend!
Before I call this a wrap I'll say a few things about Bill Farrell. It's not a college wrestling tournament but it is a tournament full of mostly all former college wrestlers, and some current.
Seth Gross winning 57 kg was a statement. Tech fall over Nathan Tomasello. I'm telling you if anyone even comes close to him in collegiate wrestling this year, that person ought to receive an award.
Nice seeing Evan Henderson wrestle well. As stacked as his weight class was a third place finish was impressive.
Let's start a new category for "Best wrestler to not win four NCAA Titles" because the answer here is Alex Dieringer.
Then Gable Steveson winning 125 kg. I honestly did not think he could beat Dom Bradley. That shocked me.
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