As the dual season gets in full swing for the 2018 NCAA wrestling season, the season's story continues to shift, perceptions evolve, and contenders both emerge and fade. 

Here’s the rundown of last week in Division I wrestling.

Penn State Now At Full Strength

The Nittany Lions pulled Nick Lee’s redshirt last week in a decision as exciting as it was predictable. With Jered Cortez injured, the readiness and skill of the true freshman Lee made him the right option given the team race Penn State finds itself in this season.

Lee looked fantastic in both matches at Michigan and Michigan State. Sal Profaci made things interesting against Lee on Friday, though the UM redshirt sophomore ultimately fell 9-5. Lee’s offense kicked into fifth gear against MSU’s Javier Gasca with a Nolf-esque tech fall on Sunday. Between Lee's showing at the Scuffle and this weekend, I think he has top six potential.

The Nittany Lions also split duty at 197. Shakur Rasheed, a junior, continued his hot streak with a 7-1 win over returning All-American Kevin Beazley of Michigan, while sophomore Anthony Cassar was a dominant, 16-2 winner over MSU's Nick May.  While it could be just keeping Shakur hungry, you have to assume the race for the 197 job in State College, PA, is still being contested.

Michigan's Logan Massa made his return for the first time since his CKLV injury. Penn State sophomore Vincenzo Joseph wasn’t interested in requiring the same theatrics his NCAA 165lb semifinal featured. This match was all Cenzo early and was capped off with yet another over/under inside trip from the 2017 NCAA champ.  

For the rest of PSU's lineup, this seemed like the first match in which the Nittany Lions didn’t appear to be 100 percent clicking. At 157lb, UM's Alec Pantaleo earned two takedowns against Penn State's Jason Nolf and was trailing by just one point going into the third before being ridden out. So the takeaways are that Pantaleo keeps looking awesome and maybe Nolf has found someone who is a stylistic problem. Then again, we could see Nolf get a major next time and I think we’d think nothing of it.

Mark Hall and Bo Nickal both won but were emphatically challenged by Michigan's Myles Amine and Domenic Abounader, respectively. Hall dominated early in his 174lb matchup, but Amine put on a few points including a late takedown to fall 6-5 as time expired. At 184lb, Nickal had to scrap hard with Abounader for seven minutes and pull a few Houdini-like escapes from takedown attempts to avoid the upset loss.  

Ohio State’s McKenna Has Same Thorn In Side

I (and many others) were bullish on OSU junior Joey McKenna in his 141lb rematch against Minnesota's Tommy Thorn on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. A booming McKenna double leg gave us even more confidence. Then disaster struck in the second. After nearly escaping, McKenna was put on his back twice after granby rolls for eight near fall. McKenna was unable to overcome this. WATCH MATCH

Of note, Ohio State earned no pinfalls (or pin-chains for that matter) for the first time all year. At 165lb, Te'Shan Campbell was downed by Minnesota’s Wanzek as well. As amazing as the two teams are here, both showed some vulnerability in spots. 

The Buckeyes' Nathan Tomasello looked all the more machine-like when he made every 25 give a collective *GULP* after his complete demolition of NCAA finalist Ethan Lizak.

#4 Iowa Takes Down #5 OK State At Carver

The Hawkeyes proved why they were the higher ranked team heading into Sunday’s dual with a 20-12 victory over Oklahoma State. 

Key matches included a 10-5 win for Iowa's Spencer Lee over Nick Piccininni at 125lb. Lee put up 10 in a hurry with a high-crotch takedown, four nearfall on a tilt, and a gritty reattack. However, Lee seemed reluctant to build his lead in the second and third periods, while Piccininni managed two takedowns of his own.

Seeing the Hawkeyes' Brandon Sorensen tech fall Boo Lewallen at 149lb was among the biggest surprises of the day. Sorensen is oft-critiqued for a more conservative style. Here we saw frequent attacks and pressure against Lewallen, who has some fantastic wins in his career.  

The Bull, #11 Alex Marinelli, keeps passing tests at 165lb. The Iowa redshirt freshman showed unreal power in his two takedowns against then #7 Chandler Rogers.  

With Pat Downey entering the Iowa lineup next week, the Hawkeyes are quickly budding into a trophy team with their full potential close to being realized.

Push It To The Limmex

OK, I stole that line from Andrew Spey, but I can’t help it. Purdue’s Nate Limmex has been an incredible surprise this year at 141lb. He just took out eighth-ranked Chad Red of Nebraska in their teams' dual on Friday in Lincoln, NE. WATCH MATCH

We’ll Probably Never See This Again

Missouri redshirt senior Barlow McGhee had five takedowns to Buffalo redshirt sophomore Justin Patrick’s one last Thursday. Patrick had zero near-fall points and won the match 11-10 in sudden victory. The difference was made up with riding time and a whole lot of stall points. 

Ali, Finally!

OK, after around two years of pumping up Ali Naser, we’re finally seeing what we thought was possible when he transferred to Arizona State after downing NATO and Coleman Scott in freestyle. Last week, the Cali product and senior 133-pounder took out #3 Jack Mueller and #17 Dennis Gustafson. Of course, the situation is confounded with a loss to a currently unranked Ian Parker. Still it’s some hope for the ASU lightweight situation. Ryan Millhof, who had a disastrous Midlands, also rebounded by going 3-0 this week and taking out #14 Jay Schwarm of UNI.

Looking Forward

It’s a steady diet of duals next week. Here are my favorites of next week:

Cornell vs. Lehigh: Lehigh’s favored, I guess. Cornell seems to find ways to win, plus Fredy Stroker III is in the mix?

Purdue vs. Penn: Limmex vs. Lee

Michigan vs. Minnesota: Lizak/Mattin, Wanzek vs. Massa will be interesting too.

Iowa vs. Ohio State: Kemerer/Micah, NATO vs. Spencer Lee. PD3 vs. Myles Martin! Tom Ryan vs. Tom Brands!! KYLE SNYDER!!! HE WON THE DAGGONE OLYMPICS! SUNDAY BABY!