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If you recently listened to the episode of the Short Time Wrestling Podcast where Kyle Klingman and I talked about our experiences 10 years ago with the Wrestling 411 project, you'll know that year, I totaled my car and had to buy a new one.
Well, it's almost fitting that we put a bow on that year in an episode and my trusty 2008 Chevy Trailblazer finally got retired. My wife and I said the last time we got the car out of the shop – which happened to be in Iowa City prior to the World Cup – that this was the last repair. Anything else, and we'd get a new car.
Sure enough, the driver's side window went on the blink and with winter the way it is, that was the final straw. And no, we are NOT minivan folk. So rather than sit and watch wrestling on Saturday, I listened to ODU close out Foreman Field with a football victory and watched updates on Twitter – I'm Jason Bryant and this is Short Time Shots, an update for you, the wrestling fan, on the pertinent happenings in and around college wrestling for November 17.
This day was actually pretty loaded when you look at it. There were 84 dual meets and over a dozen tournaments across all divisions – and that's also exactly what this program covers – all divisions. If you do the math, there's approximately 450 varsity college wrestling teams in this country. Division I accounts for 75 of those and it goes to 77 next year. That's 17 percent of college wrestling. This show talks about that 17 percent and as much as the other 83 percent as possible.
So enough with the car buying and the statistical pleasantries, let's get to the upsets!
Why are we starting with upsets? Because there were two of them on Saturday, the first seeing No. 24 North Carolina head to the valley of the sun and knock off No. 8 Arizona State in Tempe.
The Tar Heels benefitted from a major decision at 141 pounds by Jaime Hernandez and a fall from Devin Kane at 174 and a rare brother vs. brother matchup at 285 pounds. In case you're wondering, returning national champion Zahid Valenica of Arizona State bumped up to 184 and beat All-American Chip Ness 9-6. That bump opened the door open for Kane to pin Jacen Petersen in the third period. With Carolina leading 16-15, Cory Daniel bested his younger brother Brady Daniel 12-3 to cement the upset for Coleman Scott's squad.
The other big upset on the day saw unranked Pitt pick up falls from Micky Phillipi and Taleb Rahmani as the Panthers from Pittsburgh knocked off the 14th-ranked Panthers of Northern Iowa 21-19. UNI led 19-15 heading into the final two bouts, but a pair of transfers – Kellan Stout and Demetrius Thomas – both picked up six-point decisions to give Keith Gavin his biggest win of his coaching career. Thomas, an NAIA national champion as a freshman and a runner-up a year ago, beat UNI's Carter Isley 9-3 to make it a final.
In Brookings, South Dakota, over 1,800 people were a bit let down as Seth Gross didn't weigh-in, denying the much anticipated Gross vs. Daton Fix match from happening. The dual, however, wasn't even much of a consideration as No. 4 Oklahoma State smashed host South Dakota State 45-6. The only Cowboy loss was an injury default at 149 pounds by Boo Lewallen.
No. 8 NC State won three duals at the Wolfpack Duals, topping Davidson 47-6 and then picking up wins over Division II UNC Pembroke 40-0 and NAIA Reinhardt 35-6. The rest of the Pack gets to the mats on Sunday at the Wolfpack Wrestling Club Open in Raleigh.
Trailing 15-14 with just one bout to go, No. 9 Cornell needed All-American Max Dean to deliver a victory. He did that, but did it with some flare as Dean pinned Jackson Moomau in the first period to lift the Big Red past visiting West Virginia 20-15. West Virginia jumped out to a 9-0 lead after picking up wins at 197, 285 and 125. Noah Adams had the duals' most notable win, a 13-7 win over nationally ranked Ben Honis of Cornell. We also saw Vito Arujau wrestling at 133 and Chaz Tucker up at 141 for the Big Red. Hrmmmm.
No. 21 Utah Valley swept a trio of duals as the Wolverines improved to 5-1 with wins over Northern Illinois, Clarion and Harper College. What was one of the most interesting, and perhaps unusual things of this quad at Northern Illinois was the three matches lost by Harper College, which is a junior college in Illinois, were by identical 44-3 scores – and it wasn't the same winner. Hrm.
There were a ton of duals in the world of Division III with Roanoke, Virginia hosting the Southeast Duals. Mount Union, which was fresh off its big win over Baldwin Wallace this week, went 4-0 with a 32-15 win over Messiah, a 33-14 win over Lycoming and a pair of shutouts, 54-0 over Huntingdon and 51-0 over Penn College. Wilkes also went 4-0, beating Averett 27-12, Bluefield 51-0, Greensboro 33-10 and Otterbein 30-21.
Central College – they're the Dutch and coached by a guy named Van Kley – fitting I know – went out to Muhlenberg in Pennsylvania and won five duals to come away with the title at the Scotty Woods Duals. Central beat host Muhlenberg 36-6, Washington & Jefferson 42-11 and Keystone 54-3 as well as two shutout wins over a pair of junior colleges.
Olivet swept the Comet Duals, going 4-0 with wins over Manchester, Millikin, Cornell College and Mt. St. Joseph. Individually, Manchester's JaVon Phillips was most impressive, pinning all four of his opponents on the day at 157 pounds.
Up in New England, Matt Oney picked up his first win as the new head coach at WPI as the Engineers, yeah, go figure a Polytechnic school would be called the Engineers, beat Castleton 31-19. What was most notable though at the WPI duals was No. 14 Roger Williams picking off No. 24 Stevens Tech 24-18. Anthony Malfitano's pin at 197 pounds was the back-breaker, giving the Hawks the win.
We did have some tournament action to tackle with the Navy Classic taking place in Annapolis. Michigan State had two champions and nine placewinners overall to capture the team title with 126 points. Indiana was second with 95.5, followed by Navy and Old Dominion.
Six different teams had champions, as Michigan State was led by individual champions RayVon Foley at 125 pounds and Cameron Caffey at 184. Foley beat Ohio's Shakur Laney 7-4, while Caffey beat Old Dominion's Antonio Agee 12-6. Navy had two champs – Casey Cobb at 133 and Nicholas Gil at 141. Gil beat All-American Sa'Derian Perry 7-6.
Other champions were Josh Heil of Campbell at 149, Larry Early of ODU at 157, Jonathan Viruet of Brown at 165, Andrew Morgan of Campbell at 174, Jake Kleimola of Indiana at 197 and Zack Parker of Ohio at 285.
Host Springfield won the Doug Parker Invitational, placing seven and outdistancing second-place Centenary 111.5 to 102.5. Nine different teams had champions with Springfield's Ryan Peters at 141 and heavyweight Joe Fusco picking up titles for the Pride.
Some notables from the opens around the country:
At Lindenwood
Ohio State's Malik Heinselman edged Iowa State's Alex Mackall 11-10 to take top honors at 125 pounds. Iowa State's Austin Gomez reportedly stormed back from a big deficit to claim a 15-13 win over Danny Swan of Division II Lindenwood in the finals at 133. Iowa's Vince Turk beat Iowa State's Ian Parker 6-5 at 141. Iowa's Nelson Brands won at 165, beating former Hawkeye Joey Gunther in the semifinals on his way to the title. NAIA national champion Lucas Lovvorn of Baker won the title at 174. Among his notable wins was a 5-4 win over Iowa State's Marcus Coleman in the semifinals. Illinois' Emery Parker and Iowa State's Willie Miklus won titles at 184 and 197, respectively, while Iowa freshman Anthony Cassioppi had three falls and a major on his way to a heavyweight crown.
Also of note, Oklahoma State freshman Travis Wittlake won five matches to claim gold at 174 pounds in the freshman/sophomore division …
All these results and even the stuff I didn't mention is available at the nation's most comprehensive college wrestling results and schedule page at almanac.mattalkonline.com or just click the scoreboard link on the main page of Mat Talk Online. This service, like this podcast, is free, but if you want to throw something that shows you appreciate what I'm doing here, you can do that at mattalkonline.com/jointheteam or contact me @jasonmbryant on Twitter for other options, such as Paypal or Venmo.
Now, to figure out these car sets … and who's got time for that? You do, because you've always got time, for Short Time.
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