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 January 23, 2022.
Iowa State wins 1,100th
Prior to Sunday, there was only one program in college wrestling history to have won 1,100 dual meets. After Iowa State’s 26-9 victory over North Dakota State. Despite the margin of victory, the dual featured four bouts between ranked wrestlers with the Cyclones winning all four. I’ll avoid the alphabet soup of rankings, but Ian Parker beat Dylan Droegemueller 7-4 at 141, David Carr beat Jared Franek 7-3 at 157, Yonger Bastida derrotado Owen Pentz por decisión at 197, and Sam Schuyler topped Brandon Metz at heavyweight. In case you’re wondering, ISU historian Chris Andringa let us know that the Cyclones’ first dual meet victory was a 22.5-6.5 triumph over Nebraska on March 18, 1916. The Cyclones were coached by Hall of Famer Charlie Mayser, the individual for which the gym at Franklin & Marshall College is named. Iowa State’s led the series ever since.
Wilkes wins 900th
Iowa State wasn’t the only history-making program on Sunday. At the John Reese Duals hosted by Wilkes, the host Colonels won the program’s 900th win after going 3-0. Who is John Reese you ask? He led the Colonels’ wrestling program as its head coach from 1952-1994 and much of that when Wilkes was competing at the Division I level in the EIWA. Wilkes is only the second active Division III program to attain the mark, joining Springfield College, which earned its’ 1,000th win in 2017. Wilkes didn’t have to wait long, blanking shorthanded Penn State Behrend 54-0. Wilkes then blasted NAIA West Virginia Tech 49-3 and closed the day with a 30-21 win over Onenota State (Red Dragons!) Wilkes joins some of college wrestling’s finest programs with its historic win. Other programs with at least 900 wins are, as noted above, Oklahoma State and Iowa State as well as Springfield, Oregon State, Iowa, Minnesota, Penn State, Lehigh, Navy and Oklahoma. Congrats to coach Jon Laudenslager, who according to the Wilkes release, has coached the Colonels to 273 of those 902 wins.
Cooking school beats Coasties in New England, Shaughnessy pins everyone
Johnson & Wales avenged an early-season loss to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy by taking down the Bears 19-17 to win the New England Wrestling Association dual meet title on Sunday. Bonus point victories by Justin Lopez at 125, Hayden Brown at 141 and Michael Ross at 174 pounds gave the Wildcats some breathing room, but a 4-1 win at 285 pounds earned them the team victory as Liridon Leka lifted JWU to the 19-17 win. Individually, Roger Williams’ Cole Shaughnessy went 4-0 and picked up four falls with three of them coming in the first period. Shaughnessy improved to 18-3 with 15 pins on the season. He’s ranked 15th in the nation at 184 pounds for the Hawks.
Here’s a link for the full results.
Playing Jacks while watching CHiPS (a rant, if you will)
Two things I remember about growing up was the game jacks and the TV show chips. Both of them have to do with Mrs. Lorie, my childhood babysitter. Her oldest daughter Candice would play jacks all the time. I was just a wee lad at the time and really didn’t quite grasp what the point of the game was. I just knew that after Mrs. Lorie’s “stories” went off, CHiPS would come on, followed by cartoons! The them to the Young and the Restless still drives me batsh*t crazy. You know what else drives me batsh*t crazy? The childishness and tribalistic nature of sports fans, but wrestling fans specifically since that’s where I live.
RANT WARNING!
(Start pensive dad voice)
Note to some of you “adults” in the Facebook chat during Central Michigan’s 21-17 win over South Dakota State. Grow up. Seriously. As someone with no dog in the fight and someone who simply wanted to watch a wrestling dual between two Top 25 teams, the incessant bickering, personal attacks and threats of physical violence by some of you left me hoping for better. Your teams are coached by first-class people, so the needling and childishness amongst those watching took away from the viewing experience of others. Hey, I get it, root for your school. It can be fun to heckle, but when that heckling and banter becomes annoying to everyone else trying to have a good time, it might be time to stop typing. Keyboard warriors exist all over the internet – in fact, this might even be viewed as such – but to see the childishness simply because of a difference in what school colors you are wearing, it disappointed me, mainly because I think very highly of both programs. Maybe I need to get thicker skin? Perhaps, but there was just something about this that rubbed me the wrong way. I’ve heard some outlandish stuff in my time. I’ve said some outlandish stuff in my time, too, but while not “evil” in the sense of wishing death upon someone or something crazy like that, it just wasn’t cool. Each side’s going to blame the other and each guilty party from each side is going to blame their childish responses on the childishness of the other. “I know you are, but what am I, I know you are, but what am I.” South Dakota State got hit for some team points (before I started watching), but what I did see was a match at 174 with Brett Fedewa beating Cade DeVos in overtime in a bout that might have been scored differently on any other day of the year – and I say that without a dog in the fight (again, repeated for emphasis). Fedewa’s neutral danger takedown in sudden victory ended up being one of the key swing match wins to give Central Michigan the modest upset over South Dakota State, which was coming off a big upset over No. 9 Missouri a day earlier. This was one heck of a dual. I know I’m not always the nicest with some of my online replies, but I’m trying to be better. We all should try to be better.
Down goes Dean
It was quite the homecoming weekend for Penn State’s Max Dean. Two days after fighting back to claim an overtime in over Michigan’s Patrick Brucki, the Lowell, Michigan native lost a tight 3-2 decision to Michigan State’s Cam Caffey in Penn State’s 28-9 win over the Spartans on Sunday. Dean was the highest-ranked wrestler to lose over the weekend. Caffey, on the other hand, topped both Greg Bulsak of Rutgers on Friday night. Brucki, somewhat coincidentally, beat Bulsak in sudden victory on Sunday. One loss isn’t something to get worried about, because the Nittany Lions are close to firing on all cylinders. The only question mark that remains is who is going to end up being the guy at 157 pounds. Brady Berge’s return to the team at a new weight has bolstered the lineup there.
Bonus Points: Stupid Cooper Kupp
Hear me out here for a second, because there are a lot of disappointed football fans out there right now after this weekend’s NFL Divisional Playoff round. I’m one of them. You see, I grew up (sadly) as a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan. How, you ask? My late stepbrother Danny’s uncle played in the NFL back in the day. His uncle Frankie was a Miami Dolphin and because Dan Marino was the then-Dolphins quarterback, he was a Miami fan. On the flip side, Frankie was on the coaching staff of the Bucs at the time and when you’re in second or third grade and you see a cool orange pirate, you think the logo is cool and you become a fan of Tampa Bay. Then the harsh reality of how bad this franchise was became abundantly clear. Your Christmas presents were mail-ordered from a catalog because no store in its right mind in the greater Hampton Roads region of Virginia would carry gear for such a garbage team. Well, that also meant a Vinny Testaverde jersey – the cheap replica ones that weren’t even like the “official” replicas. Yeah, grew out of that thing 30 years ago. Anyway, I’ve been there for the grim years. So when the Bucs took two Super Bowl victories in my lifetime, I’m fine with that. It sucks to have seen them lose that game against the Rams, but I’m just glad they’re in contention. It’s weird. Sometimes I like when the Bucs stink, it means I can watch them in peace. But when they win, it’s still fun. Still indifferent on Tom Brady, but he won them a big shiny Lombardi trophy, so he’s good with me there. Oh, and Cooper Kupp is awesome. I just hate him right now. He was a solid horse for me the last three years in my woeful fantasy football teams, but he’s such a fun player to watch, unless you’re the Bucs secondary. At least I’m not a Washington Football Team fan. Or a Cowboys fan. Or an Eagles fan. I’m also not going to attempt to off someone or infer physical violence on anyone for a sporting event.
Another night of writing around 1 a.m. Direct all issues with typos to that brick wall over there! Just kidding. Any and all feedback is appreciated – but you’ve gotta use a real name. That’s all for now.
