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 5, 2021.
Hawkeyes take spirited win
Top-ranked Iowa topped Iowa State 22-11 in front of a raucous crowd of 9,272 fans at Hilton Coliseum. The dual featured one major upset, a wrestler stalled out, two team points deducted and a post-match near mêlée. The biggest match that shook things up was Yonger Bastida’s one-point win over All-American Jacob Warner at 197 pounds. Bastida cost his team a point when he spiked his headgear after the win, which is again, one of the stupidest rules in the wrestling. The headgear just landed in Council Bluffs. As discussed on the post-match Stalemates Live Stream, it was a whole lot of nothing when you look at everything. Yeah, there was chirping, maybe a shove here and there, but overall, it was pretty tame and you can enjoy the boards and social media from each fanbase pointing the finger at each other. Hawkeye fans will blame the Cyclones, the Cyclones are going to blame the Hawkeyes. Overall, it was pretty meh. Great rivalry for sure, and I’m sure all this is going to be overblown just about everywhere. There’s gamesmanship and there’s unsportsmanlike conduct. There was a bit of both and while I might be a bit of a “get off my lawn” guy when it comes to unsportsmanlike conduct, things like celebrating a win in a manner like Bastida, to me, isn’t unsportsmanlike. If I had to guess, the war of words between the Cyclones and Hawkeyes was “spirited” and I’m sure they weren’t just yelling at one another to find out who was bringing the ham to Christmas dinner.
Another sellout in State Coll… err, University Park
The M*A*S*H* Unit that is Penn State wrestling survived another dual with an in-state rival as the second-ranked Nittany Lions got past visiting Lehigh 23-16 before another sold-out Rec Hall crowd. It wasn’t the best day for the the striped shirts and the partial Rec Hall crowd let them know about it. Returning NCAA champion Nick Lee earned career victory No. 100 with his major decision at 141 pounds over Connor McGonagle. Manzona Bryant, no relation, had a thrilling 6-5 upset over Penn State’s Beau Bartlett at 149 pounds. The finish of the match was marred by a no-call on what appeared to be a Bartlett escape and a subsequent review review upheld the call. Bryant finished the sequence on top, so if there was the E1 in that situation, Bryant would have continued through and came away with the T2. Bryant’s lucky the call wasn’t overturned, since it would have taken the action back to neutral, the point of the escape, and his immediate not takedown would have ended up in the ether. Lehigh’s Josh Humphries survived a super good scrap from unheralded Tony Negron at 157 pounds. Penn State scored four straight wins to turn a 10-7 deficit into a 23-10 lead heading into Jordan Wood’s forfeit at heavyweight. Word is Penn State heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet’s been under the weather, but would have gone should he have been needed.
Shooting blanks, but hitting the target
LeRoy Gardner’s University of the Ozarks squad swept a home quad on Sunday to improve to 5-3 on the season. The Eagles beat Schreiner, Fonbonne and Emory & Henry by a combined 170-0. Gabriel Brandenburg and Jaylen York each had two falls on the day, while fourth-ranked 125-pounder Nathan Rankin improved to 16-2 on the season, highlighted by a fall and a tech. Ninth-ranked Jacob Dado improved to 15-2 on the year. His lone losses are to Division I competition. In case you’re wondering about the opponents – Fontbonne is a relatively new Division III program in Missouri, Schreiner is the lone NCAA wrestling program in Texas and recently elevated its wrestling program from club to varsity status and Emory & Henry is a second-year program that’s already transitioning from Division III to Division II.
Streaking again
Earlier this week, Grand View extended its college wrestling-record win streak to 105 after a pair of dual meet victories. St. Cloud State scored three more wins on Saturday at the Carolina Clash hosted by the relatively new program at Lander University. St. Cloud State topped host Lander 31-13, UNC Pembroke 33-5 and West Liberty 26-12 to extend its winning streak to 73 in a row. The streak is currently the fourth-longest in college wrestling history and the Huskies are three away from tying Oklahoma State for third-place all-time. The Huskies could move into third place should they beat UW-Parkside later this week and then win their first three matches at the NWCA Multi-Divisional National Duals in Louisville in early January.
Acronyms, the EIWA and Lancaster
Both Hofstra and Franklin & Marshall went 2-0 on Sunday. The Pride beat Duke 25-19 and host American 27-13 in a trl-meet in Washington, D.C., while F&M won a home tri over a pair of acronyms. The Diplomats topped LIU 32-16 and edged VMI 24-22. Just down Millersville Pike from the F&M campus sits Millersville University. The Marauders trounced Shippensburg 41-3. Millersville and F&M will meet later in the year for the Rupp Cup, named after Ted Rupp, who famously coached both programs during his coaching career. He even coached them both at the same time at one point. I also came up with the name “Rupp Cup” back in 2007. It’s true.
Bonus Point Update
Why nothing on the CKLV? I was traveling with some family-related things back in Virginia and to be quite honest, I wasn’t going to write anything you didn’t already know about. I might have found some cool stuff to pull out of the brackets, but I had to take a drink of a 40-year-old bottle of mezcal in my late father’s honor.
