Pictured: Nebraska's Peyton Robb celebrates after defeating 2021 149-pound NCAA Champion Austin O'Connor (UNC) on November 17. Image courtesy of Jordan Opp / Nebraska Communications.
The 2021-2022 NCAA Division I wrestling season has finished Week Three (Nov. 15 – Nov. 21). And, wow, Week Three was a wild one, full of excellent duals, quality tournaments, surprising upsets, drama and debate, and so much more! It has genuinely been the craziest (albeit most entertaining) weeks of the Division I season thus far.
Here are 10 takeaways (in sequential order) from this past week (Nov. 15 – Nov. 21) in college wrestling.
Wednesday, Nov. 17
North Carolina at Nebraska was a tremendous season-opening dual for Big Ten Network
In hindsight, the Big Ten Network likely couldn’t have asked for a better broadcast to kick off its coverage this season than the way the North Carolina vs. Nebraska dual began. Within the first five bouts, we saw the following:
125: Unranked 17-year-old true freshman Spencer Moore (UNC) went toe-to-toe with TOM’s No. 16, 24-year-old super senior Liam Cronin (Nebraska), losing narrowly, 3-1.
141: TOM’s No. 9, Chad Red, a four-time NCAA Qualifier and three-time All-American, lost to North Carolina’s No. 16 Kizhan Clarke in an overtime affair that lacked legitimate offensive attacks on both sides. Kizhan is talented, but that is not how you expect the bout to go.
157: Defending 149-pound NCAA champ No. 3 Austin O’Connor took a shocking loss to TOM’s No. 19 Peyton Robb by way of a 5-2 decision that didn’t feel as close as the score suggested. However, that loss became less surprising as the weekend progressed.
While the dual got a bit lopsided after halftime, and Nebraska won 27-6, the BTN season-opening dual had some real barn-burners.
Thursday, Nov. 18
Beau Bartlett is starting strong in 2021-2022 for Penn State
Last year, Penn State tinkered with its lineup throughout the season at 149 pounds. Beau Bartlett ended up “winning” the job by the season’s end, but his 8-3 record wasn’t strong enough to earn him a trip to the 2021 NCAAs at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis during his rookie season in-state college.
In the offseason, Beau earned himself a spot on the Junior men’s freestyle World Team. At the 2021 Junior World Championships, Bartlett brought home a age-level World bronze medal. Well, fast-forward to the 2021-2022 collegiate season, Beau has kept the momentum rolling. Bartlett, who earned the starting nod at 149, is a perfect 3-0 on the year. Most impressively, the young Nittany Lion is fresh off of back-to-back nice wins over Corey Crooks (Oregon State) and TOM’s No. 17 PJ Ogunsanya Army-West Point).
Friday, Nov. 20
Ohio State vs. Virginia Tech reminded us of the magic of dual meets
Ohio State went into Blacksburg and escaped with a 17-13 team win in a battle of two top-10 squads. You couldn’t have scripted a better, more climactic ending to the dual. The bout came down to the 10th and final match (heavyweight). The winner at 285 won the dual for his team. In the end, TOM’s No. 7 Tate Orndorff won a 3-2 decision over No. 15 Nathan Traxler thanks to a critical ride from Orndorff in the final 30 seconds while nursing a one-point lead. The bout featured many TOM-ranked vs. TOM-ranked pairings (125, 149, 174, 184, 285) and certainly lived up to the hype. There was even an upset at 125 as Malik Heinselman (Ohio State) bested returning All-American Sam Latona, 5-2, to start the dual. And the scramble session that was the Sasso vs. Andonian scrap at 149 was fantastic. I hope we see that rematch later this season at 149.
The No. 1 Hawkeyes opened their dual meet season in Carver-Hawkeye
It was a bit underwhelming and surprising. It was underwhelming in that a handful of Iowa starters were out. As for the surprise, that came at heavyweight as No.3, Tony Cassioppi lost via fall to Princeton’s Jack Del Garbino.
As we all know by now, the storyline that had the Twitterverse buzzing with rage was the lack of a No. 1 Spencer Lee (Iowa) vs. No. 3 Pat Glory (Princeton) showdown. Spencer was one of five Hawkeye starters not on the mat for the home opener. Max Murin (149), Luke Kemerer (174), Abe Assad (184), and Jacob Warner (197) did not log a varsity match. However, Assad wrestled in an exhibition match before the dual.
Yes, it is unfortunate when a top-notch match like Lee-Glory doesn’t come to fruition. That said, we should have seen this scenario coming when it was first reported late last week that Lee wasn’t wrestling. Additionally, as long as postseason seeding is determined as it is now, we will continue to see these marquee regular-season matchups not materialize. Sadly, the only month that matters in Division I wrestling in March. As long as that holds true, coaches will manipulate lineups for matches, dual meets, and tournaments to give each member of their starting 10 the best chances to earn a podium spot or an NCAA medal in March at NCAAs. And, in a year where the field is older and more talent-rich than ever before, these forfeits and lineup manipulations in the regular season will run rampant.
Also of note, TOM’s No.3 Tony Cassioppi lost via fall to Princeton’s Jack Del Garbino to close the dual. Cassioppi was working for a fall of his own, but the Princeton Tiger was able to roll through and secure a fall for himself, stunning the recent U23 World Champion Tony Cassioppi. The Hawkeye dominated the match but got caught, simple as that. Still, Del Garbino deserves his credit.
Saturday, Nov. 21
Cornell Pummels Stanford as Robb Koll Returns to Ithaca
This matchup was noteworthy for two reasons in particular.
+ Koll returns back to Ithaca after nearly three decades leading the Big Red program.
+ We got our first look at the Cornell starting lineup. It would appear that Greg Diakomihalis is going 125, Vito Arujau is at 133, and Yianni Diakomihalis is going 149.
The dual was also surprising for two more reasons.
+ Defending 165-pound champ Shane Griffith was on the losing end of a controversial 3-2 decision to Cornell freshman Julian Rameriez. A no-call on a takedown at the edge was yet again another debated topic on Twitter this week. In any case, a second national champ went down this week.
+ Yianni was able to get the 3-1 win over freshman All-American Jaden Abas, but it was a strange match. With the match tied at 1-1 (an escape for each), Jaden was hit for stalling twice in the first (1 point) and a “grabbing the shoelace” violation (1 point). Jaden may have lost, but he’s right there against the best at the weight, in my opinion. It was a good but strange match.
Blue-chip freshmen Greg Diakomihalis and Carter Young drop college debuts
Two of the nation’s most-heralded true freshmen made their college debuts on Saturday night. Greg, the younger of the Diakomihalis brothers, dropped a 3-1 decision to Stanford’s Logan Ashton after giving up the winning takedown in the final 10 seconds. The five-time New York state champion (219-2) will look to bounce back the next time out.
As for Carter Young, the three-time Oklahoma state champion and current Senior World Teamer fell 6-4 to Minnesota’s to Jake Bergeland in his college debut. The young Cowboy could get in on numerous shots, but he just couldn’t finish them. That was the difference in the match.
Gable returned and won convincingly
After a herculean effort this summer in Tokyo, resulting in an Olympic gold medal for Team USA in Tokyo, Minnesota NCAA champ and Hodge Trophy recipient Gable Steveson returned to his home mat inside Maturi Pavilion. It went as you’d expect. The Olympic gold medalist won convincingly, 20-7. Oklahoma State’s Luke Surber fought hard, but Gable was too much for the youngster to handle in his second collegiate start.
Sunday, Nov. 21
Lehigh trounces Pitt in cross-state rivalry
One of the more unexpected dual meet results of this wild and wacky Week Three was the Pitt at Lehigh dual. The Mountain Hawks dominated the Panthers, winning seven of 10 bouts to outlast the ACC squad 29-6.
Not much went right for Pitt, but the two results that tilted the dual in favor of Pat Santoro’s squad came at 133 and 165.
The first surprise was Malyke Hines’ defensive pinfall in the final seconds over two-time ACC champ and former All-American, TOM’s No. 7 Micky Phillippi. Phillippi had the lead at the time of the fall. The last time these two wrestled, Phillippi beat Hines 10-5.
Then, in the first matchup after halftime, TOM’s No. 5 Jake Wentzel, an NCAA finalist in 2021, was defeated 4-3 against Lehigh's Brian Meyer. These bouts represented a 15-point swing that was too much to overcome.
Before Sunday afternoon (No. 21), Pitt had won the last two matches vs. in-state rival Lehigh. The Panthers lost 26-9. Luckily for Pitt, they will be back in action today (Nov. 22) for their first home match against the Big Ten’s Maryland Terrapins.
A round of applause for Nebraska’s Peyton Robb
As if dethroning 2021 NCAA champ Austin O’Connor on Wednesday (Nov.17) wasn’t impressive enough, Robb almost bested yet another 2021 national champ in Iowa State’s David Carr in the finals of the Daktronics Open.
Robb had a 5-3 lead over Carr before giving up the tying takedown in the final seconds to force overtime. Carr got the winning takedown in sudden- victory to prevail 7-5. Despite the loss, Robb was unbelievable this weekend. The U23 World Teamer has now placed himself in the title-contender conversation at 157 this season. The Cornhusker is making strides right before our eyes.
Michael Wolfgram has back-to-back ranked wins
During a year where heavyweight is as deep (and credentialed) as it has ever been at the college level, sometimes it is hard to look past the top-10. Especially when you have the following within the top-5:
Gable – Olympic Gold
Parris – Junior World Gold
Cassioppi – U23 Gold
Schultz – Cadet World Gold
Kerkvliet – Cadet World Gold
Well, a currently unranked guy in West Virginia’s Michael Wolfgram is well on his way toward a spot in the national rankings if he keeps it up. On the year, the Mountaineer is 8-1 with recent ranked wins over TOM’s No. 19 and No. 20 in Josh Heindselman (Oklahoma) and Owen Trephan (NC State). The WVU big man is making strides.
Week 1: (Nov. 1-7) TOM’s Takeaway Story – click here
Week 2: (Nov. 8-14) TOM’s Takeaway Story – click here
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