TOM Article

ICYMI: Six TOM Takeaways from Week No. 4 of the 2021-22 D-I wrestling Season (November 22 – 28)

by Christopher Miller

Pictured: Army-West Point's P.J. Ogunsanya (149). Photo via Army-West Point Athletics.

The 2021-2022 NCAA Division I wrestling season has finished Week Four. It was a quieter week on the mats, given that over half of the Division I squads weren't in action over the Thanksgiving holiday, but that doesn't mean there weren't many unique storylines worth further discussing.

Here are six takeaways (in no particular order) from Week 4 (November 22 – November 28) in college wrestling.

A round of applause for Army-West Point

During a season when "ducking" is more common than ever, it was fantastic to see the Kevin Ward and the Black Knights step in to wrestle defending national champ Iowa on short notice in Carver-Hawkeye, no less.

This year, the NCAA field is more talented than ever. As such, coaches are increasingly concerned about manipulating matchups to get the best chances for their team (and individual athletes) during those final three days in late March in Detroit.

While I can't fault coaches for legally working the system to best position their athletes for when it matters most, I do give West Point an extra tip of the cap for stepping on the mat. They used the mentality, "To be the best, you have to beat the best."

It was refreshing to see a coach not think about wins, loses, seeding, and the rest of it. They wrestled just to get out there and compete against the best. The sport needs more of that, in my opinion.

H.S. star Kolby Franklin wins Mat-Town Open

Just as "ducking" and other non-medical forfeits, or "pitch count" methods have become a theme this season in Division I wrestling, having high school seniors win college tournaments has happened regularly, too. Well, it happened again this week as Wyoming Seminary senior and Iowa Hawkeye commit Kolby Franklin took home first-place at the Mat -Town College Open after going 3-0 at 197 pounds.

Some may argue that it was a small bracket. Others may say he was wrestling backups. At the end of the day, a high schooler beat college kids at the second heaviest weight – period. This occurrence is yet another weekly reminder that our wrestlers are getting exceptionally talented at younger and younger ages.

Job Greenwood and Cael Valencia don't care about your ranking

National Division I rankings are something everyone likes to talk about and discuss, but really, they don't mean a damn thing.

We saw that very fact proven on the mat this weekend as then-unranked Job Greenwood of Wyoming took out TOM's then-No. 8 Michael McGhee of Arizona State. Also, McGhee's teammate Cael Valencia (currently unranked and unattached) took out TOM's then-No. 11 Hayden Hastings of Wyoming. Greenwood and Valencia both got the W and authored two of the weekend's biggest upsets.

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how Greenwood wrestles this weekend in Vegas at CKLV. As for Valencia, you have to wonder if they pull his redshirt so he can help the Sun Devils win a team trophy in Detroit in March.

Suriano to Michigan is a game-changer for Detroit

I'd be a fool not to mention the news that Nick Suriano has finally found his new home. Not only does this bring an end to one of the most dramatic transfer decisions in college wrestling, but also it creates at least two exceptional storylines for NCAAs in Detroit in a few months.

Suriano's arrival in Ann Arbor presents a second legitimate NCAA team title threat to Iowa (a threat not named Penn State, that is). Also, Suriano is the most prominent individual threat to Spencer Lee's quest to become a four-time NCAA champ, a feat only four others have accomplished.

Austin Gomez has looked better than could expected in his return to the mat

Talent has never been in question for former Iowa State Cyclone turned Wisconsin Badger, Austin Gomez. Injury woes have always been his Achilles heel (pardon the pun). After all, before taking the mat for Wisconsin on November 1, 2021, Gomez had not wrestled a college match in well over two years due to mounting injuries.

As if shaking off the rust wasn't enough to contend with, Gomez is wrestling up at 149 this season, two weight classes above where he had been in prior seasons. Well, injuries, the extended time away from the mat, and the new weight class aren't bothering the former blue-chip high school recruit out of Illinois.

Gomez is 4-0 with a pair of bonus-point decisions on the year. Gomez also has a couple of convincing 9-4 decisions, one of which was against a ranked foe in Zach Sherman of North Carolina this past week.

Amos still searching for folkstyle footing

Braxton Amos is one of those young wrestlers, just a college freshman, whose NCAA expectations are almost too high to be fair.

Those expectations only grew after a stellar summer on the international scene. This summer, Amos became a two-time Junior World medalist, winning gold in freestyle and bronze in Greco-Roman at the 2021 Junior World Championships in Ufa, Russia. Amos was also an Olympic alternate for Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Well, on the college mat, Braxton is currently 3-1, having suffered his first collegiate defeat to Trey Rogers (5-2) of Hofstra during Week 4. Again, we are still very early into the season, and Amos is settling into a much smaller 197-pound weight class (he wrestled 97kg or 213pounds internationally).

I still see Amos as an All-American and maybe even an NCAA finalist in Detroit, but he hasn't started his collegiate career with the same pop and dominance many expected to see, myself included.

Looking Ahead to CKLV 2021

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