NCAA Week 1 Round-Up

The biggest stories from the first week of the 2021-2022 college wrestling season.

Nov 8, 2021 by Jon Kozak

College wrestling is back! Between upsets, high school stars at opens and our first look at freshman, college wrestling first week was electric. Take a look at the biggest stories from this past week in wrestling.

High School Stars At The Opens

3 of the 6 pound-for-pound high school seniors were in action at the Clarion Open and Southeast Open. Nick Feldman and Ryan Crookham took the mats at Clarion while Caleb Henson was in action in Virginia. Crookham won his first match over Jonathan Miranda (Navy) but then forfeited out of the tournament out of precaution.

Nick Feldman was one of the biggest stories of the weekend after he made the finals at Clarion with wins over #22 Zachary Knighton-Ward (Hofstra) and Pittsburgh’s Jake Slinger. Feldman did end up forfeiting in the finals, but his win over national qualifier Knighton-Ward was enough to spark the excitement of Ohio State fans for their future heavyweight. Caleb Henson didn’t face the same level of competition as Feldman but did go 4-0 with 2 bonus point victories. The future Hokie still has a year until he’s permanently in Blacksburg but he’s already proven he’s ready for the collegiate grind.

Feldman's win over Knighton-Ward:

Henson’s finals win over Marshall Keller:

Oklahoma Shows Up At MSU Open

Tony Madrigal and Jake Woodley balled out at the Michigan State Open. Both came away with titles from East Lansing and had multiple wins over ranked opponents. Madrigal first made noise when he took out #18 Dylan Ragusin and then went on to defeat All-Americans in back-to-back matches - #5 Lucas Byrd and #14 Rayvon Foley.

Up at 197, Woodley had consecutive ranked wins over #12 Cam Caffey and #8 Patrick Brucki. Coming off a 6th place finish at NCAA’s, Woodley looks to be ready to challenge the top tier 197 competitors in the nation. In just about a month, Woodley should get his shot against defending national champion, AJ Ferrari in the Oklahoma vs Oklahoma St. dual on December 12th.

Oklahoma also had a champion at the MSU open from Joey Prata at 125 and finalists in Mitch Moore (149), Anthony Mantanona (174), and Josh Heinselman (285). Of note, both Moore and Heindselman forfeited in their finals matches.

Madrigal's upset win over Lucas Byrd:

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Jake Woodley's win over Patrick Brucki in the finals of the Michigan State Open:

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Mixed Results For Penn State's Freshman

While Penn State didn’t send their “A Squad” to the Clarion Open, Nittany Lion fans had some of their brightest prospects in action. The group experienced mixed results in their first collegiate action. At 165, Alex Facundo came away with 6th place after going 3-1 and forfeiting in the 5th/6th place match. Facundo won his first two matches before losing to Maryland’s John Martin Best 3-2 in tiebreakers. At 149, Shayne Van Ness went 2-0 before he forfeited his remaining matches. In those 2 matches, Van Ness won both by bonus points (MD over Boyd and Fall over Leandrou). At 133, David Evans had the best result of the crop, going 3-1 and placing second. It seems Penn State is still searching for their answer at 125 as true freshman Gary Steen failed to place, going 0-2.

Facundo's match against John Martin Best:

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New Look Badgers

Wisconsin got their season started with a 30-3 win over Buffalo and had a number of new faces in the lineup. Half of their lineup made their debut for the Badgers and all came away with wins - Joe Zargo (141), Austin Gomez (149), Dean Hamiti (165), Andrew McNally (174), and Braxton Amos (197). Notably, Austin Gomez is wrestling up 2 weight classes at 149 from when we last saw him at 133 for Iowa State. True Freshman Dean Hamiti was dominant in his 18-5 major decision win over Jay Nivison. And finally, after winning a junior world championship this summer, Braxton Amos made his collegiate debut with a controlling 8-2 decision over Buffalo’s Sam Mitchell.

Man did it feel good to be back last night. Not the performance I had hoped for myself, but I needed to get some rust off. I’M BACK.
— Austin Gomez (@agomez_149) November 2, 2021

Tony Cassioppi 2.0 Has Arrived

Much was made about the changes in Tony Cassioppi’s physique entering this season. Cassioppi absolutely lived up to the hype at U23 Worlds by blitzing through the field and coming away with a world title. Cassioppi was largely unchallenged throughout the tournament - he outscored his opponents by a combined 41-7 and recorded a tech-pin in the world finals. Coming off this U23 world title, you can’t help but wonder if Cassioppi has closed some ground on Mason Parris and Gable Steveson.

Also, as Andy Hamilton pointed out, heavyweight in the NCAA’s this year is INSANE.

Top 5 in the college heavyweight rankings
Gable Steveson — Olympic champion
Mason Parris — Junior World champion
Tony Cassioppi — U23 World champion
Cohlton Schultz — Cadet World champion
Greg Kerkvliet — Cadet World champion
— Andy Hamilton (@Andy_Hamilton) November 7, 2021

Cassioppi's Finals Match: