Dec 10, TBD

Coolidge Duals

Today · 8:30 PM UTC

Academy - Palumbo, PA @ Mariana Bracetti

Dec 10, TBD

Episcopal Academy, PA @ Westtown School,

Dec 10, TBD

Abington Friends School, PA @ Academy of

Today · 11:00 PM UTC

Liberty (Wentzville), MO @ Francis Howel

Tomorrow · 12:00 AM UTC

Cocalico Hs, PA @ Manheim Central Hs, PA

Tomorrow · 12:00 AM UTC

West Allegheny Hs, PA @ Connellsville Ar

Dec 11, TBD

Kittatinny Regional Jr/Sr, NJ @ Caldwell

Tomorrow · 3:00 AM UTC

Gonzaga Prep, WA @ Mead, WA

Dec 11, TBD

Bonner Springs HS, KS @ Manhattan HS, KS

Dec 12, 12:00 AM UTC

Fruita Monument, CO @ Riverton, UT

Dec 12, TBD

Springville, UT @ Maple Mountain, UT

Dec 12, TBD

Katy, TX @ Conroe Woodlands College Park

Dec 12, 12:00 AM UTC

East Stroudsburg Area North Hs, PA @ Emm

Dec 12, 12:15 AM UTC

Central Dauphin East Hs, PA @ Palmyra Ar

NCAA D1 Weekly Roundup: 2024-25

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 17 Roundup: It's Tourney Time

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 17 Roundup: It's Tourney Time

The world's finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the 17th week of the 2024-25 NCAA D1 wrestling season.

Feb 24, 2025 by Andrew Spey
NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 17 Roundup: It's Tourney Time

Hello from Bethlehem, PA, where I'm clanking out the final Weekly Roundup of the 2024-25 NCAA D1 wrestling season from the home of both the recently concluded 2025 National Prep Wrestling Championships and the soon to be conducted 2025 EIWA Championships! 

I was at the former and I will be at the latter. 

Box Scores | Rankings | Last Week's Roundup

We're at the end of the regular season road. Already!

I told you it would go fast. I warned you! 

Dual of the Century, of the Week

NC State Stopped By Hokie Hammers, 21-12

More digital ink had been spilt hyping up the Iowa vs Oklahoma State dual meet than this acrimonious ACC tilt, however, the DotCotW selection committee decided this rivalry deserved more attention for how consistently entertaining it has been over the years. 

Underrated by some, real college wrestling-heads know this dual always delivers. Counting Friday's match, the programs are an even 5-5 over the last ten meetings. The Hokies have recently held the edge at home, winning in Blacksburg on the last three occasions, in 2021, 2023 and now 2025. 

An impressive 19 nationally ranked wrestlers took the mat in this marquee dual. And despite the lopsided final score, NC State was still in contention until the second to last bout of the dual (which starter at 141), which saw Eddie Ventresca pull off a minor upset over the previously undefeated (in non-medically forfeit bouts) Vincent Robinson at 125. 

Additionally, the win gave the Hokies a share of the ACC dual meet championship, which they won along with NC State and UNC (the Tar Heels beat the Hokies and the Wolfpack beat the Tar Heels, giving all three teams 5-1 records in the ACC).

Below is the box score:

141: #10 Sam Latona (VT) over Troy Hohman (NCST) (Dec 7-0) 

149: #1 Caleb Henson (VT) over #22 Koy Buesgens (NCST) (Dec 5-1) 

157: #12 Rafael Hipolito (VT) over #14 Ed Scott (NCST) (Dec 3-2) 

165: #27 Mac Church (VT) over #21 Derek Fields (NCST) (TB-1 2-1) 

174: #20 Matthew Singleton (NCST) over #29 Lennox Wolak (VT) (MD 12-2) 

184: #13 Dylan Fishback (NCST) over #20 Thomas Stewart Jr (VT) (Dec 4-1) 

197: #14 Andy Smith (VT) over #26 Christian Knop (NCST) (Dec 2-1) 

285: #4 Isaac Trumble (NCST) over #13 Jimmy Mullen (VT) (Dec 5-3) 

125: #5 Eddie Ventresca (VT) over #3 Vincent Robinson (NCST) (Dec 4-1) 

133: #10 Connor McGonagle (VT) over #16 Kai Orine (NCST) (SV-1 4-1)

Seven of the ten bouts were decided by a takedown or less!

VT also got heroic performances from Rafael Hipolito and Mac Church. 

Dylan Fishback had one of the best performances for the Wolfpack, beating rival TJ Stewart for the first time in three collegiate meetings. 

You can read more about the dual in our award-winning recap. 

And props to both the Hokie faithful for showing up in big numbers and creating an electric environment (our favorite thing here in DotWotC HQ) and also to the Virginia Tech media team for doing such a great job hyping the event and for all the excellent content they produced. 

The Greatest Rivalry in College Wrestling

Angelo Ferrari Gains Hero Status As Iowa Stuns Oklahoma State

It's not the DotWotC but it's not like we're gonna not talk about this dual meet anyway. It's not called the greatest rivalry in college wrestling for nothing!

58 team championships and 228 individual titles from the two teams combined. Not bad!

The story going into this dual was that these lineups matched up very closely and were projecting a 5-5 split in bouts. Thus the winner was likely going to get it done with bonus points, which would then slightly favor Oklahoma State, as they have a bonus point machine at heavyweight in Wyatt Hendrickson. 

Hendrickson indeed got a bonus (a second-period tech-fall). Heavyweight and eight other matches were won by the favorites. All except for 184. And even though this blog gets published before Monday morning, you probably already know what happened in that bout. 

#3 Dustin Plott wrestled an incredible match, winning key scrambles and earning a gutsy third period rideout to force overtime. But Angelo Ferrari's offense could not be denied, and the true freshman got the takedown and immediately became a part of Hawkeye lore. 

The question remains whether Gabe Arnold or Angelo will start the postseason -- some folks have already weighed in on the topic -- but in all likelihood Ferrari will remain in redshirt and Arnold will get the nod.

All due props to the Hawkeye fans in Carver who created an electric atmosphere, as well as everyone at Iowa and BTN who worked behind the scenes to put on such a professional, entertaining production. And kudos to the Oklahoma State fans, for amping up the hype and remaining good sports about the outcome. 

Naturally, there will also be bad sports on both sides of the equation, but that's fine. It's college sports, that kind of behavior is to be expected, if not condoned. 

Other Things Happened...

In the Bodacious Big Ten

  • Rutgers hosted a mid-week dual against nearby Ivy rival UPenn. The Scarlet Knights overcame a 13-3 deficit at the half-way point, sweeping the final five weights and winning18-13. 
    • #28 Max Gallagher got things going for the Quakers with a 5-4 upset over #8 Dean Peterson. Rutgers' 2024 Big Ten Champ Dylan Shawver won the next bout, but the next three were all Penn victories. 
    • Anthony White got the momentum back in the Knights' favor with a win before #26 Jackson Turley returned the favor from 125 with a 12-7 upset over #13 Nick Incontrera at 174.
    • PJ Casale, who will likely be the Rutgers postseason starter at 197, got the dub to set up #9 Yarsalau Slavikouski, who sealed the deal with a heavyweight victory. 
  • Penn State wrestled their final tune-up before Big Tens against American. Tyler Kasak was back in the lineup, though Braeden Davis, was not. 133 was the only bout won by American and Davis was the only presumed Nittany Lion starter not to wrestle. 
  • Michigan finished their regular season with a win over Central Michigan. Notably, two MantMen were victorious. #14 Beau Mantanona won at 165 and true freshman Brock Mantanona used his fifth and final varsity date to defeat #8 Alex Cramer at 174. Congrats to both BeauMan and BrockMan!
  • Nebraska wrestled in the penultimate dual meet of the entire NCAA D1 schedule (which finished right before Iowa vs Oklahoma State), defeating Purdue 35-6. 
    • #1 Matt Ramos didn't wrestle so we didn't see a top ten matchup at 125 against the Huskers' Caleb Smith, but we did see a top ten matchup at 157 where #4 Antrell Taylor of Nebraska got the only takedown in his win over #8 Joey Blaze of Purdue. 
    • Unranked Hayden Filipovich scored a nice win for the Boilermakers with a 9-4 victory over #22 Harley Andrews at heavyweight. 
    • Nebraska was deducted a team point because Antrell Taylor wore the wrong singlet, which, I guess is a thing? To me it is silly but I suppose it's in the rule book somewhere. 
  • Northwestern hosts the Big Ten Championships on Saturday and Sunday, March 8-9. 

In the Bellicose Big 12

  • Iowa State prevailed against Mizzou 21-18 in a wild Saturday dual in Columbia.
    • Iowa State won the first four bouts, which included a pinfall by Garrett Grice at 133, to stake themselves to a 15-0 lead. 
    • Mizzou's #27 James Conway shifted the momentum with an upset win over #6 Cody Chittum at 157, followed by back-to-back pins from Cam Steed and the return of #1 Keegan O'Toole. 
    • The Cyclones answered with a slight upset at 184 by #14 Evan Bockman over #9 Colton Hawks. 
    • A win by ISU's Nathan Schon at 197 clinched it, though Tiger #29 Seth Nitzel salvaged a minor upset over #20 Daniel Herrera to close out Missouri's season with an individual win. 
    • It was also the 100th win of Keegan O'Toole's illustrious collegiate career. 
  • The Battle for the Border Bell was fought between North Dakota State and South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits vanquished the Thundering Herd 23-10.
    • The crowd in Fargo had plenty to cheer about early in the dual, as NDSU got minor upset wins from Ezekiel Witt and #32 Kyle Burwick at 125 and 133. SDSU would win the next seven bouts to clinch the dual, though the fans got one last reason to cheer as Andrew Blackburn-Forst got another minor upset at heavyweight. Additionally, out of every rostered NCAA wrestling, Blackburn-Forst's name most resembles a brand of deli meats. 
  • Northern Illinois University defeated Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 19-12 to settle once and for all, which is best, North or South. Or at least which is best this season, NIU or SIUE. 
  • In the Calamity in Colorado's Clash of Combatants, Northern Colorado edged past Air Force by a single point, 22 to 21. Air Force won the final five bouts, including receiving a forfeit at 125 (where the bout ended), but the Bears had built a big enough lead by then to persevere. 
    • #10 Stevo Poulin did not wrestle for Northern Colorado. No word on his status for the postseason but hopefully he is good to go.
  • West Virginia handed Arizona State their second loss on the weekend, 24-13. 
    • ASU's #2 Richie Figueroa won the marquee matchup of the dual at 125, besting #7 Jett Strickenberger by major, 11-2. No metaphorical clips were emptied into anyone after the match ended. 
  • The Big 12 Championships return to the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma Saturday and Sunday, March 8-9.

In the Elegant EIWA

  • The injury-depleted Lehigh Mountain Hawks defeated the injury-depleted Arizona State Sun Devils in front of a boisterous crowd in the infamous Snake Pit on Friday.
    • No word yet on whether Ryan Crookham will be back for the postseason for Lehigh at 133, although as of Saturday your humble blogger was informed that it was still a possibility. 
    • Lehigh won the first six bouts to effectively put the dual out of reach for ASU, though Emilio Ysaguirre and Pierson Manville each picked up a nice win in the final two bouts of the dual (which started at 157) to make the final score more competitive. 
    • The highlight of the dual for the Mountain Hawks was easily this insane big boy takedown by Owen Trephan.
  • By the way, I'm seeing way too many negative comments about Cohlton Schultz in the comments. I think people don't realize how good Owen Trephan is, nor do they appreciate the fact that Schultz has earned All-American status the last four years and will likely do so again in Philadelphia. Hoping people act less jerky online is a lost cause but for real, some people really do need to relax. 
  • After their dual with Penn State, American University traveled from Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD and defeated Morgan State 30-15 in the Battle of the Balt-Wash Parkway. AU didn't necessarily have to take the B-W Parkway to get to MSU, though. They could have taken I-95, or perhaps they took Old Route 1. Maybe they took one road up and a different one back. There are lots of roads they could have taken. Just look at at map, the space between DC and Baltimore is riddled with roads! 
  • Army's depth overwhelmed New York state rival Binghamton to the tune of 30-6. 
    • Bearcat standard bearer #9 Brevin Cassella got a 3-1 ranked win over #30 Dalton Harkins at 174, while Army's #23 Gunnar Filipowicz returned the favor with a ranked win over Binghamton's #32 Carter Baer at 165. 
  • The 121st EIWA Championships will take place in Stabler Arena on Lehigh's campus Friday and Saturday, March 7-8. 

In the Ardent ACC

  • North Carolina defeated Stanford 24-9 in the 'Koll Bowl'. Tar Heel head coach Rob Koll previously coached Stanford between 2021 and 2023. Before that, he had a much longer stint as the head coach of Cornell.
    • UNC's #19 Joshua Ogunsanya and #14 Ethan Oakley won substantial upsets over #4 Lorenzo Norman and #4 Tyler Knox at 174 and 133 respectively.
    • UNC later dropped their Sunday dual to Oregon State, though heavyweight Nolan Neves did pick up his third ranked-win in his last four matches.
  • Duke will host the ACC Championships Sunday, March 9 in Durham, North Carolina.

In the Intrepid Ivy

  • The Ivy League treated the Bucknell Bison rather rudely this weekend. First Columbia beat Bucknell 25-16 in Lewisburg, PA, then the Bison traveled to Ithaca, NY and lost to Cornell 27-18. 
    • #16 Myles Takats picked up two wins for Bucknell at 174, including a quality win over #11 Simon Ruiz of Cornell. 
    • #5 Julian Ramirez and #8 Chris Foca finished their regular season careers at Cornell with home wins. 
  • Brown beat Harvard 36-6 in a dual that featured a ranked matchup at 157 where Brown's #33 Blake Saito beat #32 James Harrington of Harvard.
  • The first ever Ivy League Wrestling Championship will happen Sunday, March 9 in Princeton, NJ. 

In the Salubrious SoCon

  • App State vs Campbell is notoriously slept on as far as D1 college wrestling rivalries. When these two North Carolina programs meet they bring a level of intensity rarely found in NCAA competition. Sunday's dual was no exception, as it came down to the final bout in a tense gym in Boone, NC. The Camels prevailed 21-15 and secured a share of the SoCon dual championship.  
  • There was another fire dual in the SoCon, as the Chattanooga Mocs survived the upstart Bellarmine Knights, 16-15. Eli Knight (appropriately named) was the hero for UTC, beating Bellarmine's #26 AJ Rallo 5-4 in a bout that proved to be the difference maker. 
  • Ashville, NC will host the 2025 SoCon Championships Friday and Saturday, March 7-8 in the Kimmel Arena.

In the Pachydermatous Pac-12

  • The Beavers put on a show at home against North Carolina. 
    • Oregon State won six of ten bouts, including a tech-fall by #8 Trey Munoz at 197, in case you were wondering if he was back and ready for the postseason. 
    • The most impressive win for Oregon State came from redshirt freshman Ethan Stiles, who beat #5 Lachlan McNeil to demonstrate his All-American contender credentials. 
    • It should also be noted that UNC was missing a couple of starters who were getting multiple matches at the Wildcat Open, though that should not take away from the Beavers' stellar performance. 
  • Despite CSU-Bakersfield losing both duals to Bear Republic rivals Cal Baptist and Cal Poly, AJ Ferrari was back in action for the Roadrunners, going two for two on the weekend. Also: the double bird-splits hit different in outdoor duals.
  • Oregon State will host the Pac-12 Championship in Corvallis on Thursday, March 6.

In the Monstupolus MAC

  • Cleveland State wrestled what might be their last two duals in program history. Or maybe not! Efforts are underway to try and save the program. And we all hope they very much succeed! 
    • But if this is to be the end of the Vikings, their final home dual on Thursday, a sell-out, was a fitting tribute to the pugnacious and hardscrabble wrestling team. 
  • The Vikings defeated in-state rival Kent State 21-12 and Viking heavyweight #31 Daniel Bucknavich won again, staying on track to qualify for the 2025 NCAAs.
    • CSU then traveled to Rider for a Saturday dual in which they were shut out, but that was an away dual so let's not focus on that right now.
  • Elsewhere in the MAC, Central Michigan completed its tour of the Mitten State this weekend. The Chippewas defeated Michigan State 22-12 but fell to Michigan 31-11.
  • Additionally, Lock Haven defeated Edinboro 31-11 to win the unofficial PSAC Championship. The PSAC is the Division II athletic conference in which all the other sports at Lock Haven, Edinboro, Bloomsburg, and Clarion compete.
  • Ohio stopped the Buffalo Bulls but Bobcat #23 Jeremy Olszko could not stop Marcus Petite from getting the upset win at 184. Marcus was pumped. 
  • Rider will host the MAC Championships March 7-8.

Last Chance Tournies

There were four tournaments held in various parts of the country (Laramie, WY; Davidson, NC; Fairfax, VA & Lancaster, PA) where wrestlers looking to pick up some extra matches for NCAA qualifying purposes could attend. The Cowboy Shootout, the Wildcat Open, The Patriot Last Chance Open, and the F&M Invitational, all had at least one ranked wrestler in the finals. 

Check out the Sunday section in the box scores for finals results and links to all the brackets. 

One of the more notable contested weights was 133 at the Patriot Open hosted by George Mason. That division was split into two brackets. #10 Connor McGonagle of Virginia Tech won one of the brackets. Those three wins helped make up for lost time due to injury, and McGonagle now sports a 12-1 record on the season. 

Minnesota's #11 Tyler Wells won the other bracket picking up two wins and bringing his record up to 11-5. Wells beat Lehigh's true freshman Matty Lopes in sudden victory in the semifinals. Lopes, who now has an 8-3 record after going 2-1 at the tournament, will likely start the postseason at 133 for the Mountain Hawks if Ryan Crookham is unable to wrestle due to injuries. 

Heavy Metal Matness

It's the final edition of Heavy Metal Matness and there are still 64 teams I've yet to compare to heavy metal bands. Also, I realized I boofed it and used Michigan twice, in week 13 and week 15. My bad. Too much headbanging probably.

This week I'm going to list schools and bands rapid fire style, with no explanations. Can I think of 60+ rad bands to shout out? I bet I can!

I'll list the schools alphabetically by conference, because that's how I organized the schedules article and I copied and pasted that list below. There are no favorites, I love all these schools and bands equally. 

  • Duke - Dream Theater
  • North Carolina - Guns N' Roses
  • Pitt - Deftones
  • Stanford - Gojira
  • Virginia - The Cult
  • Air Force - Death From Above 1979
  • Arizona State - The Prodigy
  • Cal Baptist - Thousand Foot Krutch
  • North Dakota State - Turnstile
  • Northern Colorado - Don Broco
  • Oklahoma - Led Zeppelin 
  • South Dakota State - Ozzy Osbourne
  • Utah Valley - Ugly Kid Joe
  • Wyoming - Pearl Jam
  • Indiana - The Warning
  • Maryland - Helmet
  • Michigan State - Royal Blood
  • Northwestern - Primus
  • Ohio State - Nine Inch Nails
  • Purdue - Ghost
  • Rutgers - Volbeat
  • Wisconsin - Iron Maiden
  • American - Soul Asylum
  • Army - Five Finger Death Punch
  • Binghamton - Queens of the Stone Age
  • Bucknell - Halestorm
  • Drexel - Soundgarden
  • Franklin & Marshall - Foo Fighters
  • Hofstra - Type O Negative
  • Long Island - Sleep Token
  • Navy - The Sword
  • Sacred Heart - Bad Omens
  • Morgan State - Sepultura
  • Brown - Muse
  • Columbia - Disturbed
  • Harvard - Fair to Midland
  • Penn - Mammoth VHW
  • Princeton - Manowar
  • Bloomsburg - Bring Me the Horizon
  • Buffalo - Living Colour
  • Central Michigan - Nirvana
  • Clarion - Prong
  • Cleveland State - Local H
  • Edinboro - Dio
  • George Mason - Pitchshifter
  • Kent State - White Zombie
  • Lock Haven - The Offspring
  • Northern Illinois - Rise Against
  • Ohio - KMFDM
  • Rider - Bad Religion
  • SIUE - Architects
  • Cal Poly - Van Halen
  • CSU-Bakersfield - Maneskin
  • Little Rock - Static-X
  • Oregon State - Red Fang
  • App State - ASG
  • Bellarmine - Fear Factory
  • Campbell - Strapping Young Lad
  • Chattanooga - Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Citadel - Sabaton
  • Davidson - Sevendust
  • Gardner-Webb - Lamb of God
  • Presbyterian - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
  • VMI - Beartooth

And as a reminder here are the first 16 comparisons from the last 16 Weekly Roundups. 

  • Penn State - Linkin Park
  • Iowa - Metallica 
  • Oklahoma State - Black Sabbath
  • Iowa State - Slipknot
  • Lehigh - Clutch
  • Missouri - Rush
  • Minnesota - Snot
  • Nebraska - Mastodon 
  • Cornell - Tool
  • Virginia Tech - Pantera
  • Northern Iowa - Megadeth
  • West Virginia - Silver Chair 
  • Michigan - Alice In Chains
  • NC State - Rage Against the Machine
  • MichiganX2 :( Faith No More
  • Illinois - Korn

That took up a lot of space, didn't it? Good thing it's a free blog! 

Never heard of these bands? Heard of these bands and think they suck? Tell me which bands I should be listening to instead, please!

Send Me Feedback

It's too late to send me suggestions about what you would like to see in this blog, at least until November. But you can always send me suggestions for what kind of content you'd like to see here at Flo! 

And, of course, general commendations and condemnations are also always welcome. Send them to me on twitter @speywrestle or via email at andrew.spey@flosports.tv. 

We really did it. We made it to the 2025 postseason. I'm proud of us all.