The daily wrap-up of five things from the world of college wrestling. It’s stuff you know, stuff you might not know and full of wrestling knowledge.
1. Picking off the champ
Fairmont State brought back its wrestling program last year and in the first year of the restored program, it crowned an individual national champion in Lukas Martin at 149. Well, Martin’s quickly become the hunted as Davis & Elkins’ 149-pounder Craig Cook knocked off the returning champion Martin 6-4 in the Senators 40-6 win over Fairmont State. Cook came in ranked 14th, while Martin, not surprisingly, was ranked No. 1.
2. Splitting it up
Lourdes welcomed Siena Heights back to the college wrestling mats on the men’s side with a 53-4 dual meet victory in Ohio. Siena Heights restored wrestling and this was the school’s first match of its new era. It wasn’t all smiles for the Grey Wolves of Lourdes as Indiana Tech’s women’s team came in and picked up a 45-0 shutout.
3. Taking it outside
San Francisco State was one of a handful of Division II teams that sat out all of last season. Coach Jason Welch and the Gators first match back was an outdoor tilt at Granada High School about an hour inland in Livermore. Western Colorado spoiled the return though as the Mountaineers won eight out of 10 bouts and came away with a 34-8 victory. Western registered falls from Cody Fatzinger at 125 and Dean Noble at 141.
4. Oh Canada
On the same day alum Ana Godinez won a U23 World Title for Canada, Simon Fraser University doubled up with men’s and women’s dual victories over Alberta. In case you were unaware, Simon Fraser is in Burnaby, British Columbia and is the only Canadian school in the NCAA. For years, Simon Fraser competed in the CIS, which is now known as U-Sport, it’s kind of the Canadian version of the NCAA. Well, there’s men’s and women’s freestyle wrestling up there, and Alberta is one of those U-Sports teams. So we had the rare crossover, wrestled in freestyle. While team scores weren’t kept since it didn’t count for either school since the NCAA men don’t wrestle freestyle and we don’t really have any reason reason why the dual against Alberta wouldn’t count, other than they’re not in any American college system. Simon Fraser won six of 10 bouts on the men’s side and four of six on the women’s side.
5. Quack Quack Quack, Mr. Ducksworth
Stevens Institute is off to a solid start at the Ithaca Invitational as the Ducks lead after Day 1. Four different Stevens wrestlers have two falls as Kyle Slender, Hunter Gutierrez, Brett Kaliner and Michael Conrad are piling up the bonus points for the Ducks. Johnson & Wales sits in second, followed by Castleton, Baldwin Wallace and host Ithaca in the 11-team field.
