Jason Bryant’s College Wrestling Wrap Sheet is a look at five topics from the world of college wrestling with highlights, things you know and things you don’t. Here’s the five for December 9, 2021.
What can Brown do for you?
The only Division I dual of the night came up in Rhode Island where the Brown Bears beat the Pride of Hofstra 20-15 in an EIWA matchup. After falling behind 15-7 due to wins from Hofstra’s trio of returning national qualifiers – Charles “not Little” Small, Trey Rogers and Zachary Knighton-Ward – Brown won the last four weights, finished off by 174-pounder A.J. Pedro’s 5-2 win over Ross McFarland. It’s Brown’s first dual win since a 48-3 win over Sacred Heart on February 23, 2020. The Ivy League sat out competition last year, so Brown was one of the handful of Division I teams not to compete. As far as the UPS joke, they’ve been down this street multiple times. Supply chain issues might be prevalent worldwide, but my neighbors (ok, us too) are seeing the big brown box trucks all over the block.
Owning the City of Moorhead
Division II Mary officially leads the nation in shutout victories over non-Division I schools located in Moorhead, Minnesota by the score of 41-0. Did you get that? Let me explain. A week ago, Mary beat Division III Concordia (the one in Moorhead) 41-0. On Thursday night, the Marauders again won a dual 41-0, but this time over conference foe Minnesota State Moorhead. I had to double-check the results to make sure it wasn’t simple a resubmission of last week’s results. It wasn’t. Returning All-American Braydon Huber of Mary picked off Jacob Thomas 12-8 at 157 pounds. The Marauders’ Jaden Verhagen (125), Max Bruss (174) and Matt Kaylor (197) all scored falls.
If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much
It’s somewhat fitting that the Central College Dutch have a guy with the last name Van Kley as the AD and wrestling coach. If you’re unfamiliar with the reference, Van (something) is a common last name among the Dutch, which again, is the nickname for Central. The Dutch beat host Nebraska Wesleyan 42-12 in an American Rivers Conference Dual on Thursday. Tenth-ranked Shandon Akeo earned one of five Central falls on the night. Akeo finished seventh at last year’s NWCA Division III championships. The Van Kley referenced by the way is Eric Van Kley, brother of W.I.N. Magazine publisher Bryan Van Kley.
Family Feud, Western Slope style
Colorado Mesa picked up a 33-6 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win over rival Western Colorado. It was a reunion for the father-son coaching rivalry between CMU head coach Chuck Pipher and his son Charlie, the head coach at Western Colorado. Dear ol’ dad got the win. CMU’s Collin Metzgar was solid at 133 pounds with an upset victory over third-ranked and returning All-American Patrick Allis. Metzgar, ranked 11th in the country, prevailed 5-2. The Mavericks picked up another upset at 141 pounds as Erik Contreras beat seventh-ranked Nick Gallegos 4-2. CMU returning All-American Donnie Negus came in ranked fourth and picked up a resounding 16-5 major decision at 197 pounds. The 27-point differential was the largest margin of victory for Colorado Mesa in the series history.
Circling up the NAIA wagons
Several schools were late to post their recaps, post their scores to Trackwrestling and even tweet the results, So here’s what I dug up from the NAIA on Thursday. Briar Cliff topped Dakota Wesleyan 26-16 to improve to 2-1 in the GPAC and 3-1 overall. … Concordia, the one in Nebraska, not the one mentioned above, beat Midland 32-18. The Bulldogs benefitted from four forfeits. Midland won four of the six contested bouts, including returning NAIA runner-up Tyson Beauperthuy’s fall at 197 pounds. … In Kansas City, the first-year men’s and women’s teams at Avila University hosted St. Mary, the one in Kansas, and fell in both duals. The St. Mary men, coached by former Oregon head coach Chuck Kearney, won 28-17, while the St. Mary women won 34-11. … Cumberland University, that’s the one in Tennessee, beat Central Baptist 48-3. A pair of NAIA schools met up with Junior College teams with mixed results. NAIA Cleary beat Mott 21-9, while NJCAA Clackamas topped NAIA Corban 38-7. Of note, that the NAIA doesn’t officially count matches against junior colleges. It’s not a wrestling thing, it’s just an organizational rule.
Bonus Point: Losing a program
On Wednesday, Ohio Valley University in West Virginia announced it was going to close its doors. With enrollment dwindling and financial issues piling up, the Scots wrestling team will be one of the casualties of the closure. The timing, though, is horrendous. The school is done next week. Like after finals – that’s the warning all these students got. To quote the great NBA laureate, Sir Chuck Barkley, “that’s terrible.”
Launched in 2009, Pat Sole was the program’s only coach in its short history and there was just one All-American, Dalton George, who placed sixth at 174 pounds in 2017. This offseason, Ohio Valley reclassified to the NAIA. The question from the wrestling world, or those in the wrestling world who pay attention to a school like Ohio Valley, wondered which conference the Scots would participate in for its qualifier. As the season started, we still didn’t know. The NAIA didn’t know. I ran the question up the food chain several times with no answer. Now we know why. With just 10 wrestlers on the roster, it won’t displace too many, but #reallybro? School is gonna drop that bomb on these kids that their done at the semester? That’s some cold, mismanaged stuff right there.
Bonus Point: Remembering a friend
The wrestling world lost a good man and a good friend and a great wrestler and coach with the passing of Mark Reiland. Here’s a link to Cody Goodwin’s story about Mark, who was one of the brighter spots each and every year in Fargo. Mullet jokes, making fun of Jimmy Jones, talking about how much we used to play Mafia Wars on Facebook.
