Following an eighth-place performance at the 2024 Cliff Keen Invitational earlier this month, the Stanford Cardinal men's wrestling program returned to the mat on Dec. 29 in Illinois for the annual Midlands tournament and excelled. Stanford put three athletes on the top of the podium with seven additional place winners in a stellar performance that sets the program up well for its first slate of ACC duals starting in the new year. The North Central women also secured a team title, topping a second-place team of unattached wrestlers by 14 pounds for the program's third Midlands championship.
Here are three of the biggest headlines following the event:
Perseverance pays off for the rising Cardinal squad
One of the biggest storylines of the last two days was Stanford's resiliency and depth on Day 2 of the Midlands tournament. The Cardinal went 32-16 in all individual matches on the opening day of action and trailed a tough, gritty Rutgers team by ten points in the team race.
The semifinals and the finals gave this team an opportunity to make a new statement.
Three of the team's four semifinalists won their weights, with the fourth, All-American Hunter Garvin, going 2-0 with wins over Drayden Morton and Tyler Swiderski to finish third.
Tyler Knox became the team's first champion of the weekend when he topped 2024 Big Ten champion and All-American Dylan Shawver of Rutgers 10-3 in a match that had individual, as well as team ranking, implications. Knox came into the bout seeded ahead of Shawver after Shawver's losses this year to Anthony Noto and TK Davis, but a ranked win over an All-American is still a huge resume-builder for Knox.
#10 Tyler Knox (Stanford) secures a last second takedown and back points to erase riding time, take the lead, and defeat #16 Dylan Shawver (Rutgers) 10-3 in the Midlands 133-pound final!
— Saturday Night Lights Wrestling (@WrestlingSNL)
The Cardinal freshman is now 14-2 on the year with his only losses coming against All-American Evan Frost 3-1 and Nic Bouzakis 17-7. Knox is unlikely to see a wrestler ranked as high as Shawver again until February 7 when the Cardinal take on Virginia Tech, so the win should keep Knox comfortably in the top ten through January, barring any unexpected upsets.
In his first season as a varsity Cardinal wrestler, Knox is absolutely in the All-American conversation, and his performance at Midlands reinforced that.
Knox's success over his Scarlet Knight foe in the finals doesn't mean that Shawver's stock dropped though. Rutgers is a scrappy team that competed hard against the Cardinal, crowing a champ at 125 pounds in Dean Peterson and putting up solid performances across the board with nine athletes — including the aforementioned All-American Shawver (2nd) and his All-American teammates Jackson Turley (5th), John Poznanski (6th) and Yaraslau Slavikouski (3rd) — on the podium. Joseph Olivieri and Shane Cartagena-Walsh both finished as runner-ups in addition to Shawver, at 141 and 184, respectively.
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The challenge for both Stanford and Rutgers, both bubble-Top 15 teams, will be getting as many of their potential podium finishers through the Blood Round at NCAAs.
Last year, Stanford had a solid NCAA performance, putting two on the podium — Daniel Cardenas and Hunter Garvin — and finishing 16th. Rutgers, meanwhile, finished 14th with two All-Americans — Shawver and Slavikouski — of its own. Both teams also have athletes who have finished on the podium before who did not place last year though, all of whom will be hoping to find that level of success again but only one of whom earned a Midlands title.
Increased All-American expectations for Midlands men's champs following breakthrough wins
One of Stanford's big names, Jaden Abas, took seventh in 2021 and has not placed since, though his results at Midlands at 149 pounds imply that he might be finding his rhythm again and priming himself for a podium run again in 2025. Abas ran through his bracket at Midlands, putting up over eight points in four of his five matches and gutting out a finals win over No. 19 Cross Wasilewski of Penn 10-9 in another match that helped lift Stanford over a stronger Quaker team. He's now 15-4 on the year with a win by fall over All-American Anthony Echemendia on his resume.
With three individual champions, Stanford captured the team title at the 60th Ken Kraft for the first time in program history 👏 x
— Stanford Wrestling (@CardWrestling)
Abas has a tougher conference schedule at 149 pounds than his teammate Knox does at 133 pounds, as he'll have to face NCAA champion Caleb Henson and All-American Lachlan McNeil in duals before even making it to the postseason, but Abas, at his best, can certainly compete with the toughest guys in the weight. His career wins over NCAA champion Andrew Alirez and All-American Max Murin, John Millner, Michael Blockhus, Dom Demas, Tyler Kasak show that.
Stanford's third Midland champion, Lorenzo Norman, has a similar kind of resume to Abas with select breakthrough wins, though he's just at the beginning of what is looking more and more like an illustrious career for the Cardinal. In his redshirt season last year, Norman finished 9-7 with the highlight being a win over NCAA champion Shane Griffith at Cliff Keen. This season, Norman is 14-1 with a win over All-American Nelson Brands and his only loss coming 4-3 against two-time All-American Dean Hamiti.
His improvement, both on paper and via the eye test on the mat, is clear.
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Norman is now ranked No. 7 in the country and earned the Champion of Champions honor at Midlands with his win in the 174-pound weight class. His biggest competition in the ACC will be All-American Lennox Wolak, who is ranked No. 4, though Hamiti teched Wolak in their last meeting. Before competing against Wolak though, Norman will have his shot against NCAA champion Keegan O'Toole in the Missouri-Stanford dual on Jan. 12 in what will be another important test to see how Norman stacks up against the best at the weight.
Outside of Stanford and Rutgers' individual champions at 125, 133, 149 and 174, Penn secured an individual champion at 141 via All-American CJ Composto, while Central Michigan's Johnny Lovett took the crowd at 157, Indiana's Tyler Lillard earned a statement title at 165 pounds, Pittsburgh secured two champs at 184 and 197 pounds in Reece Heller and Mac Stout, and Michigan rounded out the winners by way of transfer Josh Heindselman at 285 pounds.
Of these champs, Composto and Heindselman are ranked the highest at 11, while Stout and Heller also sit inside the Top 20 at No. 15 and No. 19, respectively. Composto has been on the podium before and is currently the highest-ranked Ivy League wrestler at the weight, while Heindselman is sixth in the Big Ten, one of the toughest conferences for heavyweights in the country.
North Central looks tough in third Midlands win
On the women's side, North Central owned the finals, winning five weight classes via performances from Brianne Graves (103), Sydney Petzinger (117), Sydney Perry (145), Shenita Lawson (180) and Dasia Yearby (207). Graves, Perry and Lawson’s wins in the finals all came against teammates.
ICYMI 🚨
— NCAA Wrestling (@NCAAWrestling)
Today women’s wrestling took a big step toward becoming the 91st NCAA championship sport, with its projected first NCAA championship occurring in winter 2026. x
Aurora also earned an individual title at 131 Alexis Janiak — who also won the Dan Gable Outstanding Wrestling Award — following her 4-3 win against Virginia Foard, while Presbyterian's May Cuyler rounded out the attached winners at 160 pounds with her 10-7 victory against Tiera Jimerson of North Central.
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The biggest challenger to the Cardinals would have been the Iowa Hawkeyes who edged out North Central last year in dramatic fashion at the National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships, though the Hawks did not send any attached wrestlers to Midlands. Instead, Iowa sent its stars to the Solider Salute where the team put five women at the top of the podium including Brianna Gonzalez at 117 pounds, Cadence Diduch at 138 pounds, Macey Kilty at 145 pounds, Kennedy Blades at 160 pounds and Kylie Welker at 180 pounds. Blades is a huge addition to this Iowa program and will be a name to watch as the season progresses following her transfer to the Hawks this summer after finishing second at the Olympics. Iowa's strength across the weight classes gave the Hawks the tight win over Life University 215.5 to 199.
The growth and strength of women's wrestling continue to be an important storyline as these programs increase both their star power and their depth.
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