It’s going to be a short roundup this week as I’m sitting in a hotel room here in Coralville, Iowa after having watched the USA men’s freestyle complete 'the double'. That's right, America just won the World Cup after winning the World Championships earlier this year in Serbia. And now I only have a couple of hours to get this blog up on your favorite wrestling website. 

So let’s get to the roundup before I cause an international incident and get deported. 

Last week’s roundup

Stone Cold Laser Lock Dual of the Century, of the Week

BEDLAM: Oklahoma State vs Oklahoma

This year’s edition lived up to its reputation. Bedlam means madness, and that’s exactly what wrestling fans in the state of Oklahoma got on Sunday. 

The Cowboys haven’t lost to the Sooners in many years (I’d look up the exact number of years, and many other facts, for this blog but I have the plane to catch in like 5 hours and this deadline isn’t looming and smaller). 

Things were going well for Lou Roselli’s Sooners until the Cowboys turned things around mid-match, capping off the comeback with a ludicrous first-period pin by Luke Surber over former Cowboy Keegan Moore in the last match of the dual at 197, which broke a tie score and sent the Oklahoma State bench into a state of pandemonium. 

Here is the great Adam Engel with a vid from inside the arena in Norman, Oklahoma. 

Keegan Moore pinned and #OkState wins 21-15. Absolutely insane. Never seen anything like it pic.twitter.com/uBsufAOg78

— Adam Engel (@AdamEngel9) December 11, 2022

The very definition of 'bedlam' imo.

Also, Jon Kozak is with me and lent a hand by letting me know OU hasn’t won a Bedlam dual since 2013. John Smith’s career record in Bedlam is 54-6-3. So there you guy, facts courtesy of Detective Kozak. 

By the way, the painstakingly assembled box scores can be found here.

Other Awesome Duals

The Hokies Tame The Tigers

Virginia Tech showed out at home, defeating a stacked Mizzou lineup with their own stacked lineup. Clayton Ulrey won a crucial bout between backups and the starters mostly went chalk. 

Here's a nifty scramble by VT's Hunter Bolen.

No. 9 🦃 🆚 No. 7 🐯

CHRISTIANSBURG COWBOY WAS RIDING TODAY!#Team100 #Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/3GlAbrFfFD

— Virginia Tech Wrestling (@HokiesWrestling) December 11, 2022

Minnesota Goes Three For Three

The Gophers defeated the Mustangs of Cal Poly, the Lions of Lindenwood, and the Bison of North Dakota State, all in one weekend.

It wasn’t all golden for the Gophers, however, as #8 Bergeland lost to Lindenwood’s Napier at 141, and NDSU’s #6 Franek finally bested his rival #10 Brayton Lee at 149.

Drake Ayala Is Back In The Mix

Or at least he wrestled in the UNI Open, and won it. 

Ayala wrestled unattached. You can watch one of his matches below.

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The Hawkeye starters meanwhile were in the Noog wresting the Mocs. Iowa won handily, though notably, Chattanooga’s Rocky Jordan beat Nelson Brands at 174 in a battle of storied wrestling families. Woods, Assad, Warner, and Cassioopi all won for Iowa.

Here's a clip of the Jordan vs Brands match.

174: 2!!!! 3rd period takedown earns 3-1 win for @rocky_jordan2

Chattanooga 12, No. 2 Iowa 13 pic.twitter.com/GHdeIT6EZq

— ChattanoogaWrestling (@UTCWrestling) December 11, 2022

The Nittany Lions Punished The Beavers

Penn State put a hurting on Oregon State in State College. Alex Facundo helped his cause in the rankings with a win over #13 Matthew Olguin. Eight other Penn Staters were victorious, while #13 Brandon Kaylor was the lone Beaver victor at 125. 

Garden State Get Down 

Princeton and Rutgers had their annual Big Ten vs Ivy League dual. It’s always funny to me when people who have never been to New Jersey before visit a place like Princeton, which is all leafy suburbs and cool, old buildings. They’re all like, lol what gives? Where's the toxic waste dump? Hahaha. And I’m all like, hey, shut up. 

Anyway, the final score was 16-16, but Rutgers won thanks to criteria. Imagine that, criteria being used in NCAA wrestling. 

Crabcakes and Football and a Dual Meet Between Navy and the Terps, That’s What Maryland Does 

The University of Maryland beat the Naval Academy, which is located in Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, in the battle for the Old Line State. Why is Maryland called the Old Line State? No idea, and like I said, no time to research. Just wanted to shout out my beloved Terpies. 

Didn’t Think There’d Be Any Interesting Results at the Cleveland State Open, Did You?

Well surprise! Two All-Americans lost in the finals! #4 Cam Amine of Michigan dropped a match to Ohio State’s Bryce Harper Hepner at 165, and Rutgers’ John Poznanski lost to Seth Shumate, also of Ohio State.

Amine and Poz both placed fourth in the NCAA Tournament before, whereas Harper and Shumate are Buckeye backups, to #7 Carson Kharchla and #4 Kaleb Romero, respectively. So there you go, interesting results from the Cleveland State Open!

That’s all for this week. Did I mention America won the World Cup? That’s right, the REAL world cup. No offense to soccer but I very strongly prefer the World Cup that took place in Coralville, which involved a community of people that volunteered many hours of their lives because they deeply care about the sport of wrestling, rather than a World Cup in Qatar, played in stadiums built atop the graves of thousands of victims of human rights abuse. Whoops, there’s that potential international incident I warned myself about. Better wrap things up before I say anything more. See you next time wrestling fans!