Another week has gone by in collegiate wrestling and what a fun and exciting one it was! Tons action and excitement throughout both duals and tournaments.
The Tarheels of North Carolina continue to show that they're sick of being known as "The Basketball school with wrestling." They want to be known for their wrestling program too and they proved it by knocking off BIG 10 foe Michigan. Jamie Hernandez looked extraordinarily sharp with a 20-7 major decision over Austin Assad and A.C. Headlee upsets Will Lewan 5-2. Hats off to Mason Parris who defeated Andrew Gunning 4-0 with a dislocated finger. Talk about intestinal fortitude!
The APPALACHIAN STATE MOUNTAINEER OPEN proved to be as exciting as I thought it was going to be. As predicted Sid Flores of Air Force gave Drew Hildebrandt of Central Michigan a good match but settled for second. Oregon State's Devan Turner looked sharp in a convincing win over Codi Russell of Appalachian State. Oddly enough the one I didn't think would win his home tournament was the only one who did in Jonathan Millner at 149 lbs.
What a huge win it was for unranked Phillip Spadorfa of Maryland over #20 Neal Richards of VMI when the Terrapins took on the keydets.
Brayton Lee of Minnesota continues to prove his worth as the new 149 lbs'er on the team. He won the BISON OPEN hosted by North Dakota State with a win over Henry Pohlmeyer of South Dakota State.
At the OKLAHOMA CITY OPEN rookie Reece Witcraft of Oklahoma State looked sharp with a very convincing win over Little Rock's Paul Bianchi in the finals. I thought for sure that senior Andrew Shomers would be the Cowboys starter at 165 lbs, but freshman Travis Wittlake put that thought to rest but handling Shomers well in the finals.
I have to wonder in the case of Louie Hayes of Virginia if he'll go back down to 125 lbs for the 2020-2021 season after Jack Mueller graduates this spring. He isn't big enough for 133 lbs, and it more than showed in his 9-5 loss to Josh Kramer of Arizona State.
It's been about forever since anything positive happened for Sacred Heart. I'm hoping that Brandon Levesque really is as good as he looked against Utah Valley's Demetrius Romero in a 8-7 loss. I hope it wasn't a case of a bad match for Romero or a good match for Levesque. I hope he is that good. I think it's been close to 10 years since Sacred Heart sent anyone to the NCAA tournament.
So cool to see the Northwestern Vs Virginia Tech dual meet on the Hokie baseball field. These outdoor events are proving to be rather popular. 2,946 fans showed up to watch the action.
In essence of disappointments, not sure what was going on with Bucknell's Zach Hartmann. He did not look good at the Bearcat Open at all. Hopefully just a bad tournament.
Who did have a good tournament was Noah Baughman of Cornell who won the title at 141 lbs. I think if there was room for Baughman at 133 or if he could make 125, he's good enough to be an All American. 141 seems like a big weight class for him, but he looked great here. Anxious to see him against tougher competition.
Said earlier and I'll say it again that I think by the time Lou Deprez's career is said and done, he'll be the best wrestler in bearcat history.
Very happy to see Evan Cheek of Cleveland State win a title at the Ohio Intercollegiate Open. The Vikings need some positive results. It's been a while since they had any.
Northern Iowa's Max Thomsen made All American as a freshman and hasn't been back on the award stand sense. If he wrestles anything like he did against Jarrett Degen of Iowa State in the Harold Nichols Open no doubt he'll earn his second AA. He wrestled extremely well.
Wyoming's Stephen Buchanan who is currently redshirting showed us what the cowboys have in store at 197 lbs next season with a victory over NCAA qualifier Jacob Seely of Northern Colorado in the Northern Colorado Open.
Journeymen what a difficult tournament/dual whatever the hell it is to follow. Every year, a huge pain in the royal ass.
Christian Moody of Oklahoma didn't look good at all. Getting pinned in less than a minute and then getting tech'd 17-2. Nevertheless I know that when the BIG XII's roll around, he'll wrestle well. He always does.
D.J. Fehlman of Lock Haven didn't look good either. Lost a few different matches that he's more than capable of winning.
Have to say the same about Colston DiBlasi of George Mason. I thought he'd pin his way through this. Instead he loses twice.
Back towards the positive Isaiah White of Nebraska looked more aggressive than I've ever seen him. A 7-1 victory over Josh Shields of Arizona State was very impressive.
I get a kick out of everyone thinking there's something wrong with Zahid Valencia of Arizona State because he "only" beat Taylor Venz of Nebraska 8-7. Let's act like Venz is a pushover or something, which he certainly isn't.
Mario Gullien of Ohio once again upset Noah Gonser of Campbell, which I thought he would. He just has a style that Gonser cannot figure out.
Sometimes losses reveal as much as wins. Real Woods of Stanford taking #1 Luke Pletcher of Ohio State into overtime is a revelation to me of how good Woods is going to be. That kid has talent.
And those are my thoughts for week two!
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