Takedown Report

The dream college wrestling matchups we’d like to see this season — at every weight

The bright lights. The big stage. Two athletes, two schools and one trophy per weight. This is the scene waiting for twenty athletes at 2020 NCAA finals this year in March, but the excitement of the college wrestling season isn’t limited to that one tournament.
WRESTLERS TO WATCH: These are the 25 college wrestlers you need to know heading into the 2019-2020 season
Rivalries will be reignited in just a few months as the athletes begin their early season duals against conference and non-conference foes. While most teams have not finalized their schedules for the 2019-2020 year, these are ten of the best college wrestling matches we hope to see this season. 

125 pounds: Spencer Lee vs. Sebastian Rivera 

When the 2018-2019 wrestling season started, Iowa’s Spencer Lee held firmly onto the No. 1 ranking at 125 pounds. He had won the 2018 NCAA championship, earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors the previous year and was the pre-season favorite to earn the title again. He looked unbeatable. Enter Sebastian Rivera. The Northwestern then-sophomore lightweight plowed through the 125-pound bracket at the Midlands Tournament in December and topped Lee in the finals 7-3 to deliver the Hawkeye his first loss since the 2018 Big Ten tournament. After finishing sixth in the national tournament the year before, Rivera was the new man to watch at 125 pounds, and he was on a mission to take that title away from Lee. The two athletes did not wrestle each other at the Iowa-Northwestern dual, but they met again at the 2019 Big Ten tournament with Rivera taking the W again over Lee for the second time that season. Rivera won the conference title and claimed the No. 1 seed at the NCAA tournament. His chase for gold, however, ended after Virginia’s Jack Mueller took him down in the national semifinals. The man later beat Mueller? Lee. Iowa’s 2018 champ picked up another individual title and stayed perfect on the national stage. Rivera should have a number of chances to pick up more wins against Lee, but what he really wants is a chance to top the Hawkeye in late March. 

133 pounds: Nick Suriano vs. Daton Fix 

Defending NCAA champion Nick Suriano and 2019 senior World Team member Daton Fix have only wrested each other twice so far in college, but both times they’ve gone to battle, these two lightweights have put on a show. Fix topped Suriano 3-2 in a second tie-breaker during their first contest in January of 2019, but Suriano reversed the outcome at the national tournament. The Rutgers then-junior made school history when he beat Fix 4-2 in sudden victory to earn the first individual national title for his program. Rest of the story and video at
https://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling/article/2019-08-16/dream-college-wrestling-matchups-wed-see-season-every-weight?mc_cid=652fd4c019&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

August 23, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized