Some of the best wrestlers in the country were on full display this weekend following the holiday break, and there were a lot of statements made to shake up the rankings going into week five of the 2023-2024 NCAA Wrestling season.
Many people had their eyes set on the electric Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas that started on Friday night, which included 48 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 of their weight classes.
The Iowa State Cyclones claimed the title at the CKLV, with seven on the podium to earn their first CKLV title since 1996.
Elsewhere, the best of the Big 10 focused on dual competition, with Penn State defeating Lehigh at Rec Hall, and Iowa edging out Penn in the Palestra.
Here is a full recap of This Week In Wrestling:
CYCLONES HIT THE JACKPOT
Iowa State was able to rack up over 130 team points with a Nebraska team close behind, and earned the title thanks to heavyweight champion Yonger Bastida and six other medalists.
The Cyclones were scoring points all over, winning 24 bouts by bonus points to separate themselves in the team race. Bastida, winning five bouts by bonus points, made a big statement in the finals over Michigan’s #3 Lucas Davidson, winning the match 5-3.
One of the bigger stories coming out of the CKLV is the upset of Iowa State’s #2 David Carr, who was defeated by Cornell’s #4 Julian Ramirez in the semifinals. However, Carr battled back to earn third and defeated Michigan’s #3 Cam Amine 3-1.
The 157-pound bracket was absolutely loaded from top to bottom and filled with All-Americans which seemed to look like a mini NCAA tournament. Nebraska’s Peyton Robb came in as the number one seed in the bracket, and left with a gold medal and the outstanding wrestler award for the tournament. Robb has had a crazy story this offseason dealing with life-threatening injuries following the 2023 NCAA Tournament, but did not slow down once en route to his championship match with Arizona State’s Jacori Teemer.
The CKLV is known to be one of the toughest tournaments of the entire season, and that once again proved to be true with multiple returning All-Americans being beaten and some not even making the podium. With that being said, a bunch of freshmen had a very strong showing and multiple made the podium.
Nic Bouzakis of Ohio State did just that. Bouzakis dropped his opening bout to Stanford’s Tyler Knox, then rattled off seven straight victories to finish third for the Buckeyes.
At 125-pounds, Stanford’s Nic Provo defeated Purdue’s #1 Matt Ramos by a dominant 8-1 decision in the quarter finals, and would stay hot to defeat both Wyoming’s Jore Volk and then Cornell’s Brett Unger in the finals.
CROOKHAM CONTINUES
So far into the 2023-2024 season, there might not be a better story than what Lehigh has going on at 133-pounds. They have two guys ranked well within the top-10, and one of them being a freshman who holds the #1 ranking in the country in Ryan Crookham.
This story started back at the Journeymen Classic to start the season, where Crookham defeated his teammate and probable starter #6 Connor McGonagle in the semi finals. This opened a lot of doors for Santoro and Lehigh, yet could become more of an individual issue later into the season if the circumstances stay the same.
Since then, Crookham has been on a tear. With wins over Cornell’s returning national and world champion Vito Arujau, and now recently beating Penn State’s returning All-American and #3 Aaron Nagao.
Crookham was able to scramble and defend off multiple attacks from Nagao, and scored off his own attacks early on. At this point it seems impossible that Lehigh will not start Crookham for the rest of the season at 133-pounds, however with another 133-pounder ranked in the top 10, many questions remain regarding the Mountain Hawk lineup.
RECRUITING BOARD
Some big recruiting news came out over this weekend, with two Big 10 schools landing massive recruits. Not only that, but Cornell continues to stack their roster for the foreseeable future.
Iowa:
The Hawkeyes get a huge grab after Leo Deluca announced his commitment to the University of Iowa, who is the #6 overall recruit in the 2025 class (FLO).
Blair Academy’s Deluca has rapidly improved his stock as a recruit this summer, and turned a lot of heads after dominating through the 120-pound bracket at Fargo. Along with his Fargo title, Deluca is a national prep champion and the first to commit to the Hawkeyes in the 2025 class.
Nebraska:
This past weekend, Nebraska continued to bolster their 2025 class, landing two big recruits in Cade Ziola and Kody Routledge.
Ziola, a Nebraska native, is the #10 overall recruit at 182-pounds for the 2025 recruiting class. Ziola is a returning state champion and has announced he will bump up to 190-pounds for the 2023 season after wrestling his past season at 170-pounds, and has intentions of wrestling at either 197 or heavyweight once he arrives at Nebraska’s campus.
Ziola has also wrestled some of the best recruits in the country, having tight matches with Iowa’s Angelo Ferrari and Penn State’s Connor Mirasola who were both top recruits in their class. Nebraska gets a good one in Ziola.
Just a few days later, the Cornhuskers landed Kody Routledge, the #4 recruit at 152-pounds for the 2025 class. Routledge, a 2x state champ from Oklahoma, also won the Fargo Freestyle tournament in 2022 to add to his accolades. Routledge chose the Cornhuskers over top schools such as Cornell, Iowa State, Missouri, Ohio State and Oklahoma.
Cornell:
The Big Red continue to add to their intimidating 2025 recruiting class, landing three massive recruits from the west coast.
Sergio Vega, and both Isaiah and Elijah Cortez announced their commitment to Cornell in 2025.
Vega, the #12 recruit at 132-pounds, had an outstanding summer that rapidly boosted him up the recruiting board. Vega took fourth at Fargo this summer, and followed that up with a victory over #1 Ben Davino at the Super 32 tournament where he took second.
The Cortez brothers also announced their commitment for the 2025 class, Isaiah ranked #16 at 120-pounds, and Elijah ranked #38 at 126-pounds.
Both brothers won the California state title just a season ago, and continued their performances by finishing top-5 at the U17 World Team Trials at 55kg.
Cornell now has a ton of talent coming into the room in 2025, with other recruits such as #4 Anthony Knox, #3p Alessio Perentin, #65 Rocco Dellagatta, and #92 Elijah Diakomihalis.
UPSET TRACKER
Due to the mass amount of upsets at the CKLV Invitational, this list would be three pages long if all upsets were added.
Here are all of the upsets that occurred in the top-10 of each weight:
Lorenzo Norman (STAN) over #3 Shane Griffith (MICH), 4-2
Tagen Jamison (OKST) over #4 Brock Hardy (NEB), 13-5
#31 Aaron Ayzerov (COL) over #3 Chris Foca (COR), 9-1
Colton Hawks (MIZZ) over #7 Isaiah Salazar (MINN), 11-5
#30 Nico Provo (STAN) over #3 Matt Ramos (PUR), 8-1
Eligh Rivera (PRIN) over #8 Graham Rooks (IU), 7-4
Tagen Jamison (OKST) over #8 Vince Cornella (COR), 11-2
Tagen Jamison (OKST) over #10 Josh Koderhandt (NAVY), 4-2
#30 Nico Provo (STAN) over #6 Brett Ungar (COR), 5-1
Reece Witcraft (OKST) over #10 Julian Chlebove (ASU), 7-3
#30 Anthony Echemendia (ISU) over #8 Vince Cornella (COR), 13-3
#18 Dylan Fishback (NCST) over #4 Trey Munoz (ORST), 9-6
#19 Meyer Shapiro (COR) over #5 Bryce Andonian (VT), 16-4
#17 Cael Happel (UNI) over #4 Brock Hardy (NEB), 15-13
#14 Sam Wolf (AF) over #3 Chris Foca (COR), 7-5
#18 Garrett Thompson (OHIO) over #8 Matthew Olguin (ORST), 10-2
WHAT’S NEXT
Notable Duals:
Lehigh vs. Oklahoma State, 12/8
Wyoming vs. Missouri, 12/8
Air Force vs. West Virginia, 12/8
Princeton vs. Rutgers, 12/9
Pitt vs. Ohio State, 12/10
Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma, 12/10
Iowa vs. Columbia, 12/10
West Virginia vs. Northern Colorado, 12/10
Penn State vs. Hofstra, 12/10
Tournaments:
Cleveland State Open, 12/9