Biggest Team Race Altering Transfers

Biggest Team Race Altering Transfers

What were some of the biggest team race altering transfers that we've seen?

Sep 15, 2017 by Ryan Holmes
Biggest Team Race Altering Transfers
Certainly, transfers happen all the time, but this offseason we had some very big moves. Only time will tell as to the type of impact our recent transfers have, but over the years we have had some team race altering moves that helped teams make wrestling history.

So let's take a look at some of the biggest transfers we've seen that ended up having an incredible impact on how things played out when it came to who went home with the team trophy.

Mocco's move to Stillwater

When Steve Mocco left Iowa to join the Oklahoma State Cowboys it was one of the biggest transfers. Mocco's decision to leave Iowa shook up the wrestling world and altered the team race tremendously. He had just won an NCAA title for the Hawks and took all those points with him to Stillwater which ultimately ended up aiding the Cowboys in their team title run. The Cowboys crushed the competition as they had 153 team points to Michigan's 83 in second place. However, Oklahoma State claimed a history making five titles that year which included Mocco's OT win with a footsweep in the finals over Cole Conrad.

From Blacksburg to Iowa City

When Tom Brands made the move from Virginia Tech to Iowa in 2006, there were five guys (Jay Borschel, Brent Metcalf, Joe Slaton, T.H. Leet and Dan LeCler) that followed him. As we now know, this monumental move had a huge impact on the team race as Metcalf went on to win a title to help Iowa claim the team trophy in 2008 with 117.5 points.

Andrew Long's fresh start at Penn State

After his runner-up finish at NCAAs in 2010, Long got dismissed from the Iowa State wrestling team and was trying to make the effort to get back on the team. However, after a while he figured it would just be better to leave Iowa State and head to Penn State. He ended up finishing third a the national tournament to help Penn State win the team title in 2011. If you take a look at Long's results, you see that he scored 17.5 team point for PSU which made an incredible difference as they scored 107.5 points to win the team title over Cornell who was in second place with 93.5. If you take away the 17.5 points he scored, Penn State would have come up short by 3.5 points and would have taken second place.

Joey McKenna becomes a Buckeye

It took him the entire summer, but McKenna found a new home at Ohio State about a month ago. In his first two seasons at Stanford he came away with a third place finish and then shockingly didn't place last year. Now he's a Buckeye and only time will tell how big of an impact it will make at NCAAs, but it certainly makes tOSU a bigger contender for the team title.

Suriano heads home to New Jersey

Unlike the other transfers on this list, the Suriano move could have some big time implications in the opposite direction. Last season the Nittany Lions ended up with 123 points and five champs as they took home another team title. And they did it without Suriano. However, with tOSU picking up McKenna, Suriano could end up being the missing link this year. In no way am I counting Penn State out, they have the strongest core returning with Zain, Nolf, Cenzo, Mark and Bo, but barring another injury, Suriano could stand to score some big time points at this year's tournament.