Takedown Report

Ryan Crookham’s win over Vito Arujau headlines a wild weekend in men’s college wrestling

Few wrestlers, if any, came into the 2023-2024 college wrestling season with more momentum than Cornell’s Vito Arujau.
Since winning his 133-pound bracket at last year’s NCAA tournament and earning Most Outstanding Wrestling honors, Arujau went on to win the U.S. Open, earn gold at the Pan American Games, outscore NCAA champion teammate Nahshon Garrett 2-0 in Final X and secure his first senior world title.  He had been nearly unstoppable on every stage. Until he met Lehigh’s Ryan Crookham. 
A redshirt freshman from Pennsylvania, Crookham went 8-1 last year and started this season strong by winning the Princeton Open. His defining moment, though, officially came on Sunday, when he beat teammate No. 6 Conor McGonagle in the semifinals of the Journeyman Classic before stopping the reigning NCAA champion Arujau 8-4 in the finals of this open tournament. 
The win marked the second time a No.1-ranked athlete has taken a loss this year, as Purdue’s Matt Ramos dropped to high school star Marcus Blaze last weekend and took a second loss to N.C. State’s Jakob Camacho this weekend. 
These upsets are two of many wild results from across the country last weekend in college wrestling. Let’s break down what these results mean and how they could affect the rankings heading into Week 3. 

Jakob Camacho, Brendan McCrone and Jack Maida cause shakeups at 125 pounds

The 125-pound weight class was always going to be chaos this year. The graduation of 2023 NCAA champion Pat Glory left Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the No. 1 spot after the Boilermaker upset three-time NCAA champion Spencer Lee in the semifinals of last year’s tournament. The spotlight was on Ramos like never before. 
THE PIN HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD: How Matt Ramos beat Spencer Lee in last year’s national tournament
In his first tournament back on the mat for the year, Ramos took a loss last weekend to Blaze before wrestling back for third place. He earned respect for his toughness in the consolation bracket, though his season would continue to be paved with speedbumps. On Saturday afternoon, Ramos dropped a close, competitive bout to No. 12 Jakob Camacho of N.C. State, a result that will cause him to slip further in the rankings while the Wolfpack national qualifier will bump up. Camacho has been a contender on the national scene for a while, and his win over Ramos wasn’t as dramatic as Blaze’s win over the Boilermaker, but the result is still significant and demonstrates Camacho’s talents against top-tier opponents.
This match wasn’t the only upset as this now-volatile weight though. … rest of story … NCAA.com/news/wrestling/Ryan-crookhams-win-over-vito-arujau-headlines-wild-weekend-mens-college-wrestling

November 17, 2023 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized