Week 13 of the 2023-2024 NCAA Wrestling season was a crazy one! Fans are approaching and preparing for tournament time; however, the dual meets steal the headlines this week with electric rivalry duals and results you would not think are imaginable to start the wildly entertaining 2023-2024 season.
An all-time classic dual between #7 Ohio State and #11 Michigan went down on Friday night in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes trailed 13-6 through five bouts, yet rallied back to win the last three bouts with it all coming down to #16 Nick Feldman at heavyweight who delivered and defeated #4 Lucas Davidson to clinch the momentous comeback for Ohio State.
#14 Cornell notched their highest-ranked win in program history with an unbelievable performance against #2 Missouri on Sunday afternoon. The Big Red shocked the Tigers with six ranked wins throughout the dual, the biggest being #9 Jacob Cardenas earning a 4-0 upset over Missouri’s #6 Rocky Elam to clinch the team victory at 197-pounds.
John Smith and the #5 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys continue to stay undefeated with a massive 21-12 victory over #4 Iowa State on Saturday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena. The back-and-forth dual consisted of five top-10 featured matchups, which were all considered critical swing matches for both squads. Troy Spratley, Daton Fix, Tagen Jamison, and Jersey Robb came up massive for the Cowboys in must-win efforts to secure Oklahoma State their first top-5 victory of the 2023-2024 season.
With all of the crazy results going on, here is the full recap and important takeaways of This Week In Wrestling:
Feldman Fuels The Buckeyes
The sold-out Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio absolutely erupted when #16 Nick Feldman scored a late third period takedown over Michigan’s #4 Lucas Davison to secure his first career top-5 win and a huge comeback victory for Ohio State.
Despite a turn of the tables, Michigan jumped out to a 16-6 lead going into intermission even with forfeiting to Ohio State’s #3 Jesse Mendez at 141-pounds. However, the forfeit came back to haunt them as it essentially lost them the dual due to a critical point swing. Michigan never forfeits at 141-pounds, but starter and #19 Sergio Lemley was flagged at skin-checks and the Wolverines were without a back-up at either 133 or 141-pounds. If Lemley was allowed to wrestle, he just would have had to not give up a technical-fall or pin to give Michigan the victory.
With that being said, there were multiple instances where the Wolverines could have wrestled better to prevent the forfeit being a difference maker, like at 165 and 184-pounds. Michigan’s #15 Jaden Bullock was the clear favorite to win the bout at 184-pounds, yet he got tech-falled by Ohio State’s unranked Ryder Rogotzke. The Wolverines true-freshman Beau Mantanona held a 7-0 lead over the Buckeyes #21 Bryce Hepner at 165-pounds, however Hepner stormed back in a valiant effort to win 12-10.
Outside of all the “what-if’s”, it was an amazing dual and one that we will all remember for seasons to come.
The Big Red Come Up BIG
The Sunday afternoon matchup between #14 Cornell and #2 Missouri was loaded with talent in just about every bout, as eight of the 10 matchups featured a top-10 wrestler in the weight class.
Mike Grey and Cornell just looked like the better team, as many of their young bucks wrestled like veterans to give Missouri their first loss of the season. #13 Vince Cornella and #12 Meyer Shapiro both earned huge victories for Cornell, and even Sophomore Evan Canoyer did his part in keeping his bout to a decision over #6 ranked Peyton Mocco to boost Cornell to a four-point 20-16 dual victory.
Missouri had great moments as well, especially in a #1 vs #2 premiered bout between top-ranked Keegan O’Toole and Julian Ramirez at 165-pounds. O’Toole found his offense early and cruised to a big 13-5 major decision win. The Tigers also nearly got a massive upset at 133-pounds, as Redshirt Freshman and #27 ranked Kade Moore dropped a narrow 10-9 decision to #2 and reigning World Champion Vito Arujau.
Despite a good effort from Missouri, Cornell won where they needed to and got the victory they earned.
Cowboys Stay Perfect
The featured dual of the week went down in Stillwater, Oklahoma in a top-5 showdown between #5 Oklahoma State and #4 Iowa State.
The Cowboys hot start was exactly what they needed as Troy Spratley, Daton Fix, and Tagen Jamison all notched victories to give Oklahoma State a commanding 9-0 lead after three bouts. The Cyclones were able to get four important victories after the first three bouts, but it was all too late as they missed out on some must-needed bonus points to stay in it.
#3 David Carr and #10 Casey Swiderski were just a takedown shy of bonus points, however they wrestled highly-ranked opponents and did what they could just to get a win. Oklahoma State was able to pull away by winning some toss-up bouts, especially at 125, 141, 157, and 197-pounds. If even a couple of them went the other way, the dual would have been way closer than the score says at 21-12.
Now at a perfect 10-0 record, Oklahoma State has some bouts between their biggest tests of the season between #2 Missouri and #3 Iowa. They will wrestle Arizona State this Friday before traveling to Missouri this upcoming Sunday. The Cowboys will host the #3 Hawkeyes on home-turf to wrap up the dual season on February 25.
High Schooler Defeats #1 D1 Wrestler
While everyone had their eyes on the amazing dual meets this weekend, some good scrapping went down at Lock Haven’s Mat Town Open on Sunday afternoon.
Throughout this year’s NCAA season, we’ve seen some highly-ranked high schoolers show up and test their skills against some of the best D1 competition. This weekend it happened again, as #3 ranked high schooler at 126-pounds, Jax Forrest, defeated Lehigh’s #1 ranked Luke Stanich 8-1 in sudden victory in the Mat Town Open finals.
It’s absurd some of these high school kids are already this good, and it is starting to become more prevalent in our wrestling world. Just a sophomore at Bishop McCort High School, Forrest is a 2022 U17 world silver medalist and wins all the time. Teammates with other standout sophomore Bo Bassett, the two have both beaten highly-ranked D1 opponents and will continue to do so until they both reach the NCAA and can stand on the podium.
What’s Next?
Notable Duals:
#10 South Dakota State vs. Wyoming – 2/1
#1 Penn State vs. #7 Ohio State – 2/2
#3 Iowa vs. #11 Michigan – 2/2
#4 Iowa State vs. #20 West Virginia – 2/2
#5 Oklahoma State vs. Arizona State – 2/2
#9 Minnesota vs. Maryland – 2/2
#5 Oklahoma State vs. #2 Missouri – 2/4
#7 Ohio State vs. #13 Rutgers – 2/4
#6 Nebraska vs. Illinois – 2/4
