Many regular season conference championships were sewn up and Senior Days abounded in the penultimate week of the regular season.

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There's a lot to cover as usual so let's dive in to the noteworthy events of the 16th week of the 2023-24 NCAA D1 college wrestling season! 

Dual of the Century of the Week

Penn State Clears Nebraska, Wraps Up Big Ten Dual Championship

We've talked a lot about Penn State in this year's roundups, and for good reason. The Nittany Lions have done a lot of winning, and Sunday night's 22-13 victory over Nebraska sealed the deal on the Big Ten Regular Season Championship, the 10th under Cael Sanderson's tutelage. 

RECAP:
Penn State Downs Nebraska to claim its 10th Big Ten Regular Season Championship under head coach Cael Sanderson!
Read it!#PSUwrhttps://t.co/qSslWKZef8

— Penn State WRESTLING (@pennstateWREST) February 18, 2024

The dual with the Huskers was not without it's drama, however. Nebraska was not intimidated by the 6,600 Penn State partisans in a sold-out Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions were also without the services of #8 Aaron Nagao at 133, which meant Nebraska was favored in three bouts. The Huskers won them all. 

#22 Van Dee beat a game Baylor Shunk, who was subbing for Nagao, by decision. #1 Ridge Lovett (there were a combined six #1 ranked wrestlers at this dual), defeated #12 Tyler Kasak at 149, and #3 Lenny Pinto beat #7 Bernie Truax in a thriller at 184. 

Plus senior Caleb Smith majored freshman Braeden Davis at 125, in what was a minor upset based off the rankings, but also it was 125 so who really knows what an upset is at that weight. 

But those three decisions and one major could not hold up against the onslaught of PSU's big guns. 

Carter Starocci, Aaron Brooks and Greg Kerkvliet all kept their Hodge Trophy candidacies alive with bonus wins, looking as untouchable as ever. Fellow #1s Levi Haines and Beau Bartlett also registered victories, with Barlett's match with #5 Brock Hardy providing the most dramatic moments of the meet.

Bartlett built an early lead, then fended off a determined Hardy. A 7-2 lead after two periods turned into a 9-6  final score, with Hardy threatening to score late. Hardy was also in deep on a shot with about 20 seconds left when potentially dangerous was called. Bartlett requiring injury time, but was able to continue and win. That extinguished whatever slim upset hopes Nebraska still harbored.

Despite the loss, Nebraska can at least say that four bouts were the most Penn State conceded to any team this season, and nine points were closer than any other program got in the final score. You can read an award-winning live blog of the dual by clicking here.  

Penn State also had a rare Monday night dual early in the week, where they dispatched Rutgers 35-3.

Penn State still has a dual against Edinboro to officially close out the season, but with all due respect to the Fighting Scots, the Lions are a lock to finish the season 12-0. 

After that it's Big Tens and the NCAAs, which I suspect will seem more like coronations than competitions.

Around the Horn

Last las week, we'll be checking in on all the conferences and making note of any other freshly minted regular season conference champions. 

Illinois Survives Two Nailbiters

No one had a weekend less conducive to cardiac conditions than the Fighting Illini. On Friday, Illinois beat Purdue by a single point. Trailing by two going into the last bout of the meet, it was heavyweight Peter Marinopoulos coming through in the clutch with a 8-6 win over his Boilermaker opponent, Hayden Filipovich.

On Sunday, Illinois was at it again, with a 20-20 criteria win over Northwestern that was settled by having the most 6-point individual wins (Illinois had one pin, Northwestern had none). 

Dual meet MVP will need to be split three ways. Danny Pucino earned his share by getting the tiebreaking pin at 141, unranked Chris Moore pulled off the biggest upset of the dual with a 5-4 victory over #15 Maxx Mayfield at 165, and heavyweight Peter Marinopoulos came through again in the last match of the dual. Though Marinopoulos lost to Jack Jessen 13-7, by keeping the match to a regular decision he secured the team win by a single point. 

No. 25 at 141 Danny Pucino gets the @IlliniWrestling pin against Kolby McClain of Northwestern. 📌 pic.twitter.com/f0j5xsiJ2Y

— Big Ten Wrestling (@B1GWrestling) February 18, 2024

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Ohio State secured their runnerup finish in conference regular season standings with a win over Michigan State. The Buckeyes finished the season 7-1 in conference duals.

Oklahoma State Smash Sooners in Bedlam II

The second-ranked Cowboys continue to wrestle well, beating their in-state rivals for the second time this season. Daton Fix wrestled for almost the last time in Gallagher-Iba Arena (the Cowboys host Iowa on Sunday) and fittingly won on Senior Day via tech-fall.

Senior day dub for an all-time Cowboy 👏@OKStateAlumni l @_Greatest_Ever1 pic.twitter.com/cpfEh4UlKK

— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) February 19, 2024

OU did notch minor upsets when unranked Tate Picklo beat #24 Brayden Thompson in sudden victory at 174 and #13 Josh Heindselman defeated #8 Konner Doucet 2-1 at heavyweight. 

I don't believe the Big 12 awards a regular season championship but if they did it would go to the Cowboys, who have just one out-of-conference dual against Iowa left on their schedule. That should be a good one!

Elsewhere in the Big 12, Missouri avoided an upset by South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits were up by 3 thanks to a pin by Tanner Sloan over Rocky Elam at 197, but older Elam brother Zach got revenge and a pin of his own at heavyweight to put the Tigers over the top. You can watch a replay here.

Iowa State and Northern Iowa had the week off due to the Last Chance Open being canceled. The next two highest-ranked Big 12 teams, Air Force and Northern Colorado, (tied for #19 in the team tournament rankings) faced off in Colorado Springs. The visiting Bears of Northern Colorado won 32-12, ensuring their relatively short bus ride back to Greely was a positive one. We also have the replays of that dual, which you can find here. 

Little Rock Earns Pac-12 Title

The least Pacific of all the Pac-12 teams went 4-1 in conference duals, as did Arizona State, though Little Rock defeated the Sun Devils 18-15 back in January. 

The Trojans were bested by Stanford this season, but Stanford lost twice this week, to Arizona State on Saturday and Oregon State on Sunday. Thus, by dint of head-to-head tiebreakers, the Trojans are number one, assuming the Pac-12 awards a regular season championship, that is. But even if they don't, we're still calling it in favor of the Trojans. 

Our year. Our team.#LittleRocksTeam | #ROCKedUp pic.twitter.com/PJUlyHo8pT

— Little Rock Wrestling (@LittleRockWRES) February 19, 2024

Campbell Still on Pace for SoCon Crown

Campbell rampaged over Presbyterian 55-0 to bring their record up to a lofty 13-3 while staying undefeated in the conference duals. The Camels have one last dual VMI on Saturday before they can officially claim the regular season trophy, however, they will be heavy favorites to win that dual. 

Army Seniors Finally Get Their First Win over Navy

The Star Series, which I've just learned is what the Army-Navy rivalry is called across all sports, is one of the most famous rivalries in all of college sports. In wrestling, Navy still has a major advantage in the all-time series, which now stands at 51-11-5. However, Army narrowed the gap on Friday with a win over their arch rivals 18-17. 

The win in Annapolis ensured that the Black Knight seniors won't graduate winless against the Midshipmen, as Army's last win over Navy came in 2020. And because these are service academies, there is no redshirting. Athletes get four years, and then they are commissioned and have to begin their service in the military, so this was the last shot at beating Navy for the fourth year guys. 

There were no pins in the dual, thus everyone in the lineup contributed to the one-point victory. Dual MVP though has to go to Gunnar Filipowicz, who upset #18 Andrew Cerniglia 5-4 at 165. Additionally, Gunner has the perfect name for someone in the Army. 

But the real winner of this event is America, who can be proud of both teams, for reasons that I believe are summed up succinctly by this tweet.  

The Army - Navy wrestling match is the DoD’s single greatest ROI investment in human capital for the Special Operations community. Guaranteed there is no higher density of future SOF Officers, both Army and Navy, anywhere in America at any given time.@ArmyWP_Wres @NavyWrestling https://t.co/JzMHqWfl8A

— Tommy Hendrix (@thomasehendrix) February 17, 2024

Elsewhere in the EIWA, Lehigh defeated Princeton 31-6, which keeps their conference record perfect at 7-0. I don't believe the EIWA awards regular season champs but if they did, Lehigh, who also beat Cornell earlier this season, would win it. 

Rider Closes In On MAC Title

The Broncs stayed undefeated in conference duals with a commanding win over Clarion. They can clinch the MAC East Division title with a victory over Cleveland State next week. 

In the East Division, Northern Illinois can claim the title with a win over SIUE in their final dual of the season. 

ACC Regular Season Championship To Be Determined In Raliegh

As expected, the winner of the NC State vs Virginia Tech dual next Friday in Raleigh will decide the winner of the regular season. Both teams have 10 ranked wrestlers so we could see 10 ranked matchups. 

NC State is the favorite, especially if Virginia Tech will be without Bryce Andonian, but you never know with rivalry duals. The atmosphere in Reynolds Coliseum should be electric!

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Who remembers Kizhan Clarke? He wrestled for five seasons at American University, qualified for the 2020 NCAAs, then transferred to North Carolina to use his final year of eligibility as a Tar Heel where he made it all the way to the national championship finals? 

Clarke now wrestles internationally for Germany, where he was born, and just last week earned a bronze medal at the European Championships. 

You can watch Clarke's medal-winning match on YouTube, all for the low low price of one five second ad. Not bad!

Clarke was one of several former NCAA athletes who competed in Bucharest, Romania at the 2024 Euros. Also making the podium was Michigan's Myles Amine, who earned a silver representing San Marino. 

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].

Next week: it's over! Or at least, the regular season is. Iowa at Oklahoma State is the headliner but there are other great duals as well. Should be pretty awesome! See you then wise and learned wrestling fans!