Penn State vs Michigan went down last night, and it was nothing but domination from the Nittany Lions as they won the dual meet 30-8. However heavyweight was the main weight class with ranking implications and with #2 Parris getting the win over #1 Greg Kerkvliet what does this mean for rankings, and the landscape for this season.
Parris and Kerkvliet met 3 times last season with Kerkvliet winning all of the meetings in pretty convincing fashion. They have met on two other occasions, one being at the 2021 Big Ten championships where Parris won by major decision, and at the Olympic trials where Kerkvliet won on criteria.
After looking at the match a few times there were a couple crucial moments. The stall call on Kerkvliet looked to be what made him take that shot in the third which got him taken down.
Maybe could have finished on of the low singles he got earlier in the match. The main point of me saying that is because this will most likely be the Big Ten finals match and possibly national finals match depending on how things go.
As far as the landscape for things moving forward at heavyweight, Parris will move to number 1, and Kerk to number 2. Cassioppi and Davison will move to 3 and 4 respectively which comes into play at Big Tens should rankings hold.
Davison has typically been the harder matchup for Parris and Cassioppi has had Kerkvliet’s number in the past making this more interesting. Kerk and Cassioppi will meet on Friday which will be more interesting now.
Schultz remains the wild card in the weight class moving forward but with his two losses on the season it is doubtful that he will get a good seed at nationals. That being said he will be a deadly quarterfinal match to anyone.
