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 10, 2021.
Do you think KFC’s still open?
Two of the nation’s longest college wrestling win streaks continued on Friday as NAIA Grand View and Division II St. Cloud State were victorious. Grand View extended its win streak to 106 in a row, which is the longest in the sport’s history, with a 55-0 win over the first-year program at St. Ambrose. The Vikings have won 130 NAIA duals in a row. Of those 130, 38 have been shutouts. St. Cloud State, ranked second in Division II because for some reason, we’re doing tournament points for the dual meets, smacked ninth-ranked UW-Parkside 37-3 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The win gives St. Cloud State its 74th dual meet win in a row, which is good for fourth all-time in college wrestling history and is tops in Division II. The win streak against Division II teams is only a meager 71 in a row. The last team to beat St. Cloud was fellow-Division II member UIndy (that’s Indianapolis for the uninitiated) back in January of 2017. Grand View’s last loss was to Iowa State in 2013. As far as the matches go, we didn’t get to see a ranked match at 125 pounds as top-ranked Joe Arroyo of Parkside didn’t compete, nor did InterMat No. 6 Paxton Creese. Bummer. No. 13 Dom Murphy of St. Cloud pinned No. 12 Job Ayala in the first period at 174 pounds. No. 10 William Pitzner of St. Cloud State beat No. 13 Reece Worachek 2-0 at 184.
Top-ranked Central Oklahoma rolls
While it’s well-established that I loathe tournament points (see above), the top-ranked team in Division II using both the NWCA rankings and InterMat’s individual rankings is the Bronchos (not misspelled) of Central Oklahoma. The wrestled like a No. 1 team should on Friday, shutting out Drury 48-0 in Edmond. At 141 pounds, UCO’s Nate Keim topped Drury’s Peter Kuster 4-2. Keim was ranked 10th and 11th by the ranking outlets, while Kuster was ranked anywhere from 5th to 10th. Either way, Keim was ranked lower and scored the modest upset, which led SID Mike Kirk’s press release. Wasn’t he supposed to retire? Some of these SIDs are like wrestling coaches, you can’t pry them away.
Coasties prevail … after two decades
If you were born the last time the U.S. Coast Guard Academy beat Johnson & Wales in wrestling, you’re old enough to drink. You’re almost old enough to rent a car. No. 9 Coast Guard ended a 24-match losing streak on Friday, knocking off No. 14 Johnson & Wales 24-14 and tasting victory for the first time in the series since 2001. Really? 2001? I think my mom’s house was still on dial-up in 2001. Coast Guard’s Tony Ulaszek’s pin parade continued as he registered a fall at 149 pounds in the first period to help start the three-bout rally that ultimately gave the Bears the win. Wins by Joe Chapman and Steven Rochard finished off the Wildcats. Ulaszek is putting up Ben Askren-type numbers. He’s 10-0 this season and has NINE falls. Ranked third in the nation by the NWCA, he started off the season with eight straight pins. Brian Shute did one better. It’s also Gary Shute in the book.
Second-ranked Life women roll
Second-ranked Life won seven out of 10 bouts to pick up a 28-15 win over 10th-ranked Indiana Tech in a Mid-South Conference almost trl-meet in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Indiana Tech cruised past Brewton-Parker 38-10. There was no confirmation on whether or not Indiana Tech coach Paul Rademacher and Life coach Ashley Sword Flavin were using Twitter to DM each other matchup requests for the extra matches on the day. It’s not out of the realm of possibility.
Oh, and in Division I
No. 12 Rutgers got off to its best start in school history, improving to 10-0 with a 26-9 win over Army West Point at Jersey Mike’s Arena. Not sure if Rutgers was trolling Army or paying their respect to #AmericasTeam (per Scott Green) by wearing camouflage singlets, but one thing was for sure, Rutgers’ Jackson Turley probably liked it. Even though he didn’t wrestle, he was rocking an ugly cowboy-ish hat after the bout. There really isn’t much to report on this one, as it went as expected, although Bloodround’s Kevin Claunch provided the Twitter line of the night, saying he’d never seen a Greg Bulsak that big before in a Rutgers singlet. Heyooo! Bulsak got a major decision at 197 pounds. … Just east of New Jersey in New York, North Dakota State swept a tri with Edinboro and host Binghamton. NDSU 133-pounder Kellyn March set a record for the Bison, earning a fall in 12 seconds, which is the fastest in the school’s Division I history. In case you are wondering why we’re terming it that way, NDSU was a Division II power through the mid-2000s before the school move to Division I. Former Northwestern coach Drew Pariano was on the color commentary for the ESPN+ stream and before he tweets my text, I’m going to say it here. Wrestling is wacky that you have three schools, competing in Division I wrestling, that really should only ever be in the same competition in something like intercollegiate ice fishing.
Oh by the way, Rutgers is trying to keep pace with Division III Millikin, which also improved to 10-0 with a 45-3 win over Wheaton. These two schools are in the same conference, the CCIW, but oddly, aren’t in the same qualifying region.
Bonus Points: More streaking
Yes, KFC is still open. Also, Hannibal-LaGrange, an NAIA school in Hannibal, Missouri ended its 14-match losing streak to Missouri Baptist with a 30-27 win on Friday. It was also Hannibal-LaGrange’s first victory ever over Missouri Baptist in the series, which dates back to H-LG’s start back in 2007.
No Wrap Sheet on Saturday, December 11 – doing some holiday travel up to the in-laws and won’t be back in time to do anything of substance.
