It was an abbreviated week of college wrestling due to the intrusion of America’s most gluttonous and least weight-cutting-friendly holiday. However, there was still room left to cram in some awesome wrestling events, even if there was no room in our stomachs to cram any more Thanksgiving leftovers. 

Box Scores, Rankings, Last Week’s Roundup

The two biggest events of the week, by far, were the NWCA All-Star Classic and the Iowa/Iowa State dual. We'll start with the ASC!

All The Classic Stars At The All-Star Classic

The college wrestling extravaganza shined on campus of Penn State

That headline made me think of the song 'All the Small Things' by Blink-182, so naturally I wrote some fake lyrics to the chorus. 

The stars, are all

Here in, Rec Hall

A treat, for fans

All part, of Cael’s Plan

Takedowns worth three, it’s not on TV,

In two days' time, we’ll all eat turkey.

Yessir, they don't call me the poet laureate of the wrestling community for nothing!

As for the event itself, you can check out all our coverage here, and read an award-winning live blog of all the action here. 

The short summary is four Nittany Lions won in front of a near sell-out in State College. The longer summary is as follows:

• 125: Matt Ramos shook off a loss to Jakob Camacho a couple of weeks ago and defeated the current #1 Anthony Noto. The bout was also closer than the 10-2 score would lead you to believe. 
• 133: Lehigh has two top-10 AA caliber 133-pounders as Connor McGonagle defeated two-time All-American Sam Latona in tiebreakers. Ryan Crookham (who defeated Vito Arujau this year, as if you could forget) is the other Mountain Hawk contender at 133. Lehigh now has a classic 'good problem' on their hands. 
• 141: UNC's Lachlan McNeil beat last-minute substitute Josh Koderhandt in a low-scoring but decisive 4-2 match.
• 149: Shayne Van Ness won a key upper body exchange late in his match with Kyle Parco to win 5-1, repeating the result of their bout at the 2023 NCAAs. SVN was the first Lion to win at the ASC. 
• 165: Izzak Olejnik, who graduated Northern Illinois and transferred to Oklahoma State over the summer, impressed when he shut down the indefatigable DJ Hamiti, who had beaten Olejnik in their three previous collegiate matches.
• 174: Carter Starocci looked terrifyingly good, as he widened the gap between #2 Mekhi Lewis with an 11-2 major. This was PSU win #2. 
• 184: Parker Keckeisen battled a lanky and determined Bernie Truax, finally corralling him for a 7-5 with a late-match go-ahead takedown. Keckeisen is keeping the 184lb U tradition going strong at UNI. 
• 197: Aaron Brooks proved that bulking up to 197 is not going to be a problem, as he dispatched last season's NCAA runner-up and current #2 Tanner Sloan for Penn State's third win of the evening. 
• 285: It appears Greg Kerkvliet has jumped levels as he destroyed #2 Wyatt Hendrickson via tech-fall. Kerk was the fourth Nittany Lion to win and did so in the most dominant manner. 

The most viewed highlight of the event according to our social media metrics? None other than this slick ankle pick by Olejnik. 

#6 Izzak Olejnik avenged his three previous losses to #4 Dean Hamiti with two impressive takedowns at the NWCA All-Star Classic! pic.twitter.com/04k3c3ej12

— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) November 22, 2023

There were also four elite women's matches and a bout between last season's NCAA D2 and D3 champs at 157. 

Overall it was an outstanding night of high-caliber wrestling. And a near perfect stream I might add, because if Flo is going to get knocked when they have technical difficulties (they have and they will!) then I'm going to take the time to recognize the folks that work behind the screen when they do deliver. So kudos to our production and streaming crew! 

The Dual Of The Century: Of The Week

Iowa vs Iowa State in the Cy-Hawk/Gable/Corn Series

Flo got to stream the ASC, but it was the Worldwide Leader who broadcast the other big wrestling event of the week. And for the first time ever ESPN put a regular season college wrestling dual on their flagship cable channel. Not bad!

Nearly every match in this incredible dual in front of over 14,000 fans in a sold-out Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa was highlight-worthy.

1️⃣4️⃣2️⃣6️⃣7️⃣

Sell out.

🌪️🚨🌪️ pic.twitter.com/4ezqcSVpNY

— Iowa State Wrestling (@CycloneWR) November 26, 2023

The MVP of the dual however was true freshman Gabe Arnold of the Hawkeyes, who bumped up from 174 to 184 and defeated 2023 All-American #6 Will Feldkamp.

You can read a live blog of the dual here. For another summarized version of the events, keep reading!

• Drake Ayala set the tone for Iowa with a gutsy win at 125 over #10 Kysen Terukina to bounce back from a tough loss to #20 Brandon Kaylor of Oregon State last week. 
• Evan Frost, the Bayou Bandit from Louisiana, answered back for the Cyclones, with an upset of #8 Brody Teske at 133.
• Real Woods won a close one with Anthony Echemendia and then Casey Swiderski got a minor upset (and likely not an upset once the new ranking come out) over Victor Voinovich to tie up the team score 6-6.
• Franek then beat Chittum to give the Hawkeyes the lead before Mister Iowa State, David Carr, majored #6 Michael Caliendo to give the Cyclones a one-point lead 10-9.
• That was the last time Iowa State would have the advantage on the scoreboard, as Patrick Kennedy bumped up to 174 and defeated MJ Gaitan 14-13 in a match that almost got away from Kennedy. 
• Next came Arnold's heroics and then the dual-clinching win by Zach Glaizer over Julien Broderson at 197.
• There would be no drama at heavyweight, as the Hawkeyes had alreadyhad the meet wrapped up, though Yonger Bastida did get the major decision at 285 to cut the margin of victory to four, making the final 18-14. 

And that is how Iowa won their 19th straight dual over Iowa State

19 Straight. Hawkeye State. #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/9vAPD4ZGqq

— Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling (@Hawks_Wrestling) November 26, 2023

On the mic for commentary was the great Shawn Kenny, the legendary Jim Gibbons, and the GOAT Jordan Burroughs, who should all be commended for their excellent work, as should the inimitable Quint Kessenich for his mat side reporting. 

You can read JB's thoughts on the dual on this Twitter thread he posted after the dual. 

This dual had all the fixings of a great matchup. I truly thought Iowa state would pull it off for the first time in 20 years.

Here’s my Top 5 takeaways:

(Thread)

— Jordan Burroughs (@alliseeisgold) November 27, 2023

Seeing this event on ESPN was great for the community and hopefully a sign of things to come. 

Last Sunday ESPN aired two college basketball games over the time slot occupied by this dual. One got 500,000 viewers according to Nielsen while the other got 316K. 

Ideally, the meet did comparable numbers but there's no reason to fret over TV metrics in my opinion. Let ESPN and the television programmers worry about the ratings. If you're reading this blog you're a wise and learned wrestling fan who's already consuming most of your wrestling content via online streaming, and that isn't going to change no matter what ESPN or the other cable channels do. 

Best to just enjoy the sport however you can!

Other Stuff That Happened This Week

It wasn't a super busy week but other things still happened!

Morgan State's First Win In 25 Years

Morgan State, an HBCU located in Baltimore, returned to action this season after a 25-year hiatus. The Kenny Monday coached Bears notched their first win of the season last Monday with a 53-0 shutout of Marymount, a DIII program in Northern Virginia. 

History about to go down in 30 minutes @MSUBearsWrestle, and I am here with @wrestlingbypir8 to experience it. pic.twitter.com/QveuVpc5bQ

— Rock Harrison (@rockreax) November 20, 2023

American University Enjoyed Turkey Time

Just down the Balt-Wash Parkway (or down old Route 1 or I-95), from Morgan State is the District of Columbia's American University, who got the dub over just-outside-the-beltway (or just-inside-the-beltway if you count GMU's law school) rivals George Mason. 

AU won and then scarfed down some turkey legs, much to the delight of everyone. 

Only one thing left to do when you win the Turkey Tussle…

Can guarantee the mat area has never smelled that good after a wrestling match! 🍗 pic.twitter.com/DilfOlmFym

— AU Wrestling (@AU_Wrestling) November 22, 2023

Pitt Triumphed Over Maryland

Staying in the DMV, it was the Panthers who trampled the Terrapins 21-16 in College Park, Maryland, although the Terps did get a pair of upset wins with Braxton Brown beating Vincent Santaniello at 133 and Kal Miller beating Cole Matthews at 149. 

Minnesota Prevailed Over SD State In The Hahn Bowl

South Dakota State head coach Damion Hahn took the Jackrabbits to his alma mater in Minneapolis, however, the Gophers spoiled the homecoming to the school where Hahn won two NCAA championships. 

SDSU's Taner Jordan got a nice upset win at 125 over #8 Pat McKee but it wasn't enough, as Michael Blockhus came through in the clutch with a sudden victory win over Cael Swenson to swing things back in Minnesota's favor. The Gophers would go on to win 19-13. 

Blockhus gets the sudden victory takedown and sends the #Gophers to intermission ahead 9-6! pic.twitter.com/ZyngSvkxey

— Minnesota Wrestling (@GopherWrestling) November 26, 2023

Cornell Dominated The Mat Town Open

Finally, because we literally mentioned everything else, Cornell (and their affiliated Spartan Combat RTC) won seven weights at the only major tournament of the week. 

It wasn't just Iowa that was celebrating corn this week!

It's corn! pic.twitter.com/mD8i83v5Xo

— Andrew Spey (@SpeyWrestle) November 26, 2023

The Lock Haven-hosted tournament was also the first appearance of Kurt McHenry on the mat in a Penn State singlet. The two-time U17 world champ dropped a close one in sudden victory in the 125lb semifinals to Carson Wagner of Binghamton and then medically forfeited in the consolation round (which now counts as a loss for NCAA qualification and seeding purposes). 

This is more evidence for the increased likelihood of Penn State eventually pulling Braeden Davis' redshirt and naming the true freshman from Michigan as their postseason starter. However, Coach Sanderson has a good amount of time before he has to make the decision, and Davis will be able to make three more varsity starts while maintaining the ability to keep that redshirt. 

Shameless Plug For FloWrestling Original Videos

One thing you often hear from the wrestling community is that they want the sport to be more accessible in order to draw in more new fans to the world's oldest and raddest sport. And we here at FloSports couldn't agree more! 

That's why we've been putting more and more of our best content on YouTube, so that you diehards reading this (free) blog can share those videos with your friends and family, all for free!

This week I'm cheating and not posting a film or original series but instead the entire All-Star Classic that we just uploaded to YouTube. 

That's right, you can now watch every match from the ASC in its entirety for free! 

Not bad! Don't forget to share and tell your friends!

Send Me Tips!

This roundup is for you, so if you see something noteworthy happen in D1 NCAA wrestling, let me know so that I can make note of it! 

Best way to reach me is on Twitter (@speywrestle) or email [andrew.spey@flosports.tv].

That's all for week four! Enjoy your turkey sandwiches and get ready for next week when the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational pops off. That event is primed to be the second best tournament of the year after the NCAAs. Let the hype begin!