JT#1's Notes, Thoughts & Observations for Week 9 of the 22'-23' Collegiate Wrestling Season

 The upsets, the unexpected results, the parity....collegiate wrestling is an absolute madhouse!! Looking back on the craziness of the week, I am reminded of why I preach unabashedly that college wrestling is so much more than the last three days of it. Yes, you're always going to have those select few guys that no matter how many times you ran the national tournaments over, they're always gonna come out somewhere near the top. That's a fact. Yet it's also a fact that if you ran two back to back national tournaments in a row, with the exact same seeds and exact same pairings, you could end up with completely different results each time. These guys are often so close & a single takedown, an escape here or a riding time point there is often the difference between victory and defeat. I don't know how you can look at all of the results week after week and not come to that conclusion.  Just to think, this upcoming week is going to be even more insane.  We have three of the biggest in-season tournaments coming our way!  The Midlands, The Southern Scuffle & the Soldier Salute! 

Ohio Northern's Jacob Reed Show That DIII Can Hang with DI 

3rd in NCAA DIII this past season, Jacob Reed pulled off a huge 3-2 upset over  MAC finalist Josh Mason of Bloomsburg in the Wilkes Open finals. This moves the sophomore Polar Bear to 23-0 on the season. 

Panthers Step It Up in Upset Over Ohio State 

It takes the effort of the entire team in order to pull off a huge upset & each individual was a help in Northern Iowa's upset over Ohio State. While others looked good in their performances, three individuals in particularly stood out to me. Cael Happel with a very nice 7-5 victory over Dylan D'Emilio.   Colin Realbuto looked real good as he pulled off a huge upset over Sammy Sasso 9-7. In fact Realbuto looked great all week.  I was impressed with North Carolina State's Jackson Arrington defeated both Max Brignola of Lehigh & Dom Demas of Cal Poly. Realbuto defeated Arrington 5-4.  It was also a great effort on behalf of Tyrell Gordon, knocking off All American Tate Orndoff 3-2. 

We Got a New #1 at 184? 

After the craziness at 184, I wouldn't be surprised if we do.  Northern Iowa's Parker Keckeisen sticks North Carolina State's Trent Hidlay as Iowa State's Marcus Coleman pulls off the biggest upset to date with a 9-7 decision of Aaron Brooks of Penn State. Not sure how the official rankers would list it, but ole JT#1 thinks that the next set of rankings that come out (if they come out before the Midlands/Scuffle/Salute) should reflect the most recent results. 


I realize this week's recap was exceptionally short.  I have to say that in the entire season of collegiate wrestling, the week of Christmas is the only week where wrestling isn't my #1 priority.  Things will be back to normal with my novel's worth of thoughts next week, promise.