College wrestling season is officially back, and the first weekend of the season brought plenty of fireworks, upsets and epic matches. Here are some of the most notable results and takeaways from the opening few days of the year:
Wyoming and Campbell raise the bar for elite college duals
As mentioned in my weekend preview, one of the biggest stories heading into the first weekend of college wrestling was the Wyoming vs. Campbell dual in a rodeo venue. This match delivered.
Not only did Wyoming and Campbell put forward an incredible evening that highlighted the ‘fun’ of college wrestling, but they also created ten stellar matches, highlighted elite sportsmanship and a vision for what the future of college wrestling could look like. These are two teams pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the sport and making headlines doing it.
From a wrestling standpoint, Stockton O'Brien of Wyoming earned “Wrestler of the Dual” honors for his pin against Campbell’s No. 18 Domenic Zaccone, but the entire dual featured great action.
Stockton O'Brien is your FIRST Outstanding Wrestler of the season and walks away with the belt!
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass)
Campbell’s Anthony Molton battled tough against Wyoming All-American Jore Volk, despite losing 2-0 at 125 pounds, and Cole Brooks of Wyoming picked up a sudden victory win against Campbell’s Shannon Hanna at 141 pounds. Wyoming also earned wins at 157 pounds from Jared Hill (also in sudden victory), Cooper Voorhees at 165 pounds, Eddie Neitenbach at 184 pounds and Joey Novak at 197 pounds to win the dual 28-12, reversing last year’s result.
Iowa debuts new lineup, tops Oregon State in front of strong Beaver home crowd
Joining Wyoming on the list of ranked teams who started the season 1-0 is the Iowa Hawkeyes who definitively topped Oregon State 30-7.
Iowa won eight of ten weights overall, only losing at 125 pounds and 157 pounds. Nearly all of the Iowa’s starters though were either new to the lineup or in new weights, with the exception of Caleb Rathjen at 157 pounds, All-American Mikey Caliendo at 165 pounds and Nelson Brands at 174 pounds, the latter of whom held down his spot at 174 in 2023 before sitting out a year for a gambling suspension. Both Caliendo and Brands picked up wins, with Caliendo earning a tech fall against Kekana Fouret and Brands beating Sean Harman 2-1.
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Iowa’s Drake Ayala — who moved up to 133 pounds after finishing second at 125 pounds last year — and Gabe Arnold — an upperweight who redshirted last year and wrestled at 184 pounds — added bonus by way of tech falls against their Oregon State opponents while new Hawkeye and former Oklahoma All-American Stephen Buchanan earned the biggest win of the night with his victory against All-American Trey Munoz at 197 pounds 9-5.
Roll the tape.
— Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling (@Hawks_Wrestling)
Iowa’s win over Oregon State was a solid start to the season for the Black and Gold and gave the team the highest-ranked program win across all bouts over the weekend. The Hawks look tough.
Hokies, Panthers, Cardinal, Trojans & Tigers start their seasons in the Top 25 with dominant wins
Iowa was the only team to pick up a ranked win over the weekend, but a number of other ranked teams earned lopsided wins over non-ranked foes. The most dominant win from a ranked team came at the hands of the Panthers of Pittsburgh as they, like Wyoming, reversed a result from last year and dominated the Midshipmen of Navy, 35-3. Nick Babin led the way for the Panthers with his pin against Nick Treaster, while Vinnie Santaniello and Dayton Pitzer added tech falls.
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Virginia Tech also won by an over-30 point margin against UT-Chattanooga (37-6) in which the Hokies debuted several new athletes and weight changes. Among them, transfer athlete Connor McGonagle at 133 pounds, All-American Sam Latona up at 141, freshman Sonny Sasso at 197 pounds and big-time recruit and two-sport athlete Jimmy Mullen at heavyweight. Redshirt freshman Rafael Hipolito, Jr. also made his debut in style at 157 pounds. All five of these athletes recorded a win, with McGonagle, Sasso and Mullen all notching pins and Hipolito securing a tech.
In one of the closer duals of the weekend, No. 11 Missouri escaped Northern Colorado by 11 points, beating the Bears 25-14. Both returning national champions in this dual — Missouri’s No. 1 Keegan O’Toole and Northern Colorado’s No. 1 Andrew Alirez — earned bonus point victories in the match, with Alirez majoring Missouri’s No. 12 Josh Edmonds, and O’Toole teching Aydin Rix-McElhinney. Missouri freshman Aeoden Sinclair also made a flashy debut at 197 pounds for the Tigers with his major decision, while 184-pounder Colton Hawks added a major and Cam Steed picked up a pin at 165 pounds.
Both No. 18 Little Rock and No. 20 Stanford went 2-0 on the weekend with wins over Central Michigan and Nebraska-Kearney and CSU-Bakersfield and Utah Valley, respectively. The Trojans topped both of their opponents by over 25 points, beating the Chippewas 32-6 and the Lopers 38-10. Pacing the Trojans was All-American Nasir Bailey who teched both of his opponents before the end of the second period. Bailey’s opponents weren’t ranked, but his dominance still sends a message that he’s here to compete for a title at 133 pounds.
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Stanford, similarly, had an athlete with two techs pace the Cardinals to both wins: 174-pounder Lorenzo Norman. After famously beating NCAA champion Shane Griffith last season but missing the podium at NCAAs himself, Norman comes into the year ranked No. 18, though his dominant performances, albeit against unranked wrestlers, show the kind of offense he’s capable of this year. Stanford’s Tyler Knox also picked up two wins in the duals at 133 pounds, as did All-American Jaden Abas at 149 pounds, Grigor Cholakyan at 157 pounds and Luke Duthie at 184 pounds.
Individual breakout stars make statements
The Stanford duals weren’t just notable because of the Cardinal wins — they also featured two of the biggest individual bouts of the weekend. In the first of Stanford’s two duals, the Utah Valley Wolverines secured a huge individual win from veteran Terrell Barraclough at 165 pounds over Stanford All-American Hunter Garvin 11-9. Barraclough spent the last five years at Penn State as a backup at 149, 157 and 165, but he has now returned to his home state for one last shot, and his win over Garvin suggests he could be on the path to the podium.
No. 7 Barraclough tops No. 3 All-American Garvin in an 11-9 decision! |
— UVU Wrestling (@UVUwre)
Barraclough headlined the Utah Valley dual against Stanford, but a different more notorious wrestler highlighted the individual bouts in the Stanford vs. CSU Bakersfield dual. CSU Bakersfield transfer AJ Ferrari took the mat for the second time as a Roadrunner in this bout and shut out Stanford’s Nick Stemmet 5-0. This match looked different than their last battle when Ferrari nearly teched the Cardinal, but a win is a win, and Ferrari is now 2-0 on the year after his win against Stemmet and a win against Utah Valley’s Kael Bennie.
Beyond these West Coast battles though, two other athletes notched key wins in Open tournaments. In one of the most impressive matches of the weekend, returning NCAA finalist Jesse Mendez turned up the offense against returning All-American Luke Stanich at the Clarion Open, beating the Mountain Hawk 14-3. Mendez was one of just a handful of wrestlers to notch a win over an All-American this weekend, and he did so with force. Stanich is bumping up from 125 to 141, but he did finish fifth last year, and Mendez made this win look easy.
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Rounding out the names to know from the weekend is West Virginia’s Ty Watters who, in a battle of All-Americans, topped North Carolina’s Lachlan McNeil 4-1 in a sudden victory at the Southeast Open. Credit to both of these guys for toeing the line. These kinds of ranked matchups so early in the season are special.
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