Takedown Report

Division I top ranked teams’ duals

No. 2 Missouri Wrestling Blanks No. 18 Stanford In Palo Alto, 39-0
PALO ALTO, Calif. – The University of Missouri wrestling team pitched a shutout at No. 18 Stanford, 39-0, on Wednesday, Jan. 10. Mizzou (7-0, 3-0 Big 12) continues its undefeated season and hands Stanford (5-2, 0-0 Pac-12) its second loss this year. 
Missouri started the match strong with an upset at 125 points as a redshirt junior, and No. 10-ranked Noah Surtin bested No. 4 Nico Provo by a major decision, 11-3. Redshirt freshman Kade Moore kept the momentum going with a technical fall at 141 pounds, 24-8. In the 141 pound-match, redshirt freshman Zeke Seltzer earned the 9-6 decision win. The Tigers kept it rolling into the intermission as redshirt sophomore Logan Gioffre (149) and Brock Mauller (157) upended their higher-ranked opposition. Gioffre bested No. 9 Jaden Abas 8-1, while Mauller topped No. 6 Cardenas 14-8.
Coming out of the break, junior Keegan O’Toole got his opponent into two cradles at 165 pounds, the second of which stuck and kept the streak alive. At 174 pounds, redshirt senior Peyton Mocco returned to the mat, earning a 21-8 major decision. Redshirt freshman Clayton Whiting made it four majors on the day, winning 18-5 at 184 pounds. The Elam brothers brought it home, with junior Rocky Elam getting the major decision at 197 and redshirt senior Zach Elam winning by an 8-1 decision. The Tigers swept the matches to finish off Stanford 39-0.  … story at … MUtigers.com/No-2-wrestling-blanks-no-18-stanford-in-palo-alto-39-0

New year kicks off with powerful duals and shakes up Top 10
Manheim, Pennsylvania – Some major matchups kicked off the 2024 calendar year and some shifts occurred in the nation’s Top 10 as the NWCA Division I Men’s Wrestling Coaches Poll was released on Tuesday.
Penn State (3-0) remained atop the poll after the Nittany Lions ventured west and beat No. 17 Oregon State 36-3 before a record-crowd of over 8,500 at Oregon State’s Gill Coliseum. The Nittany Lions have won 47 duals in a row dating back to February 2, 2020. The 8,540 fans broke the Oregon State wrestling attendance record of 6,764 set last year when the Beavers hosted Oklahoma State.
Missouri remained second after victories over Illinois and then-No. 11 Virginia Tech. A key fall at 133 pounds by Kade Moore over Virginia Tech All-American Sam Latona played a significant role in the Tigers remaining unbeaten on the season.
Oklahoma State’s 22-12 win over then-No. 4 NC State in front of 5,500 fans in Raleigh was enough to vault the Cowboys (5-0) up four spots and into the top five for the first time since January 25 of last season. NC State slipped four spots to No. 8 this week. The Wolfpack (10-2) also beat Hofstra 43-5 over the weekend.
South Dakota State was riding high this weekend as its football team won the Division I FCS national championship and its wrestling team beat then-No. 6 Michigan at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. The win, the highest over a ranked opponent in SDSU’s Division I history, helped move the Jackrabbits (4-2) up four spots to No. 11, which is also the highest in the school’s Division I history. Michigan fell six spots to No. 12.
Iowa State moved up to No. 4 after a pair of wins out West. The Cyclones (8-1) beat then-No. 21 Arizona State 28-10 and then toppled Big 12 foe California Baptist 39-3. Nebraska (5-0) remained unbeaten after a big win at home against Wyoming and a nail-biter of a victory over Northern Iowa in Lincoln.
Ohio State (8-1) picked up a dramatic victory at the Covelli Center over then-No. 10 Cornell 21-20. Nick Feldman’s victory at heavyweight gave the Buckeyes the final points to rally past the Big Red. Cornell (4-2) did pick up a big home victory to close out the weekend as the Big Red beat Virginia Tech 24-13 in Ithaca. … story at … NWCAonline.com/Division-1-men-powerful-duals-kick-off-2024-with-shake-up-in-top-10

NCAA DI Rankings Updated (1/9/2024)
After making through the holiday season, we’re back to a normal Tuesday rankings cycle for the duration of the season. Though there wasn’t a full slate of duals, there were some high-profile clashes which led to movement in the rankings. 
The obligatory 125 mention for the week. Once again, the second and third ranked wrestlers suffered losses on the week, which led to some shuffling.  At 133 lbs, Chris Cannon has been removed. Multiple sources indicate that he’ll miss a significant portion of the season, perhaps the postseason, too. 
At 157 lbs, Peyton Robb lost but maintains his #3 spot. The defeat was his first in the regular season since February of 2022. That combined with number’s four and five losing led him to hold his spot. The undefeated (and pictured) Vince Zerban moves up to #4 ahead of Jacori Teemer, who now has two losses and an injury default, and previous #5 Ed Scott, who was beaten by Teague Travis.  For the full rankings: Click Here … story at … Intermatwrestle.com/articles.html/college/ncaa-di-rankings-updated-192024

Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Ohio State make big jumps in WIN’s Jan. 8 rankings
NEWTON, Iowa — Oklahoma State scored a big dual-meet victory over NC State last weekend to make big jumps in WIN Magazine’s Jan. 8 rankings, presented by Cliff Keen Athletic. The Cowboys, coming off a 22-12 road victory over the Wolfpack last Friday, remain undefeated (5-0) and moved up three spots to No. 5 in WIN’s dual rankings. And with seven ranked wrestlers, Oklahoma State is now rated No. 3 in WIN’s Tournament Power Index.
Iowa State also moved up three spots from No. 7 to No. 4 in the dual rankings after the Cyclones (8-1) earned two road wins at Arizona State and Cal Baptist. Meanwhile, Ohio State moved from No. 10 to No. 6 in the dual rankings with a home victory over Cornell last weekend. Penn State, Missouri and Iowa remain the top three teams in the dual-meet rankings, while the Nittany Lions and Tigers are still the top two schools in WIN’s Tournament Power Index, while NC State and Nebraska are tied for fourth in the TPI.
WIN’s TPI predicts how high a team would finish in this year’s NCAA Division I Championships based on a point total associated with individual placement and advancement points that could be scored at the 2024 NCAAs. The following is a breakdown of those points: 20 for 1st place, … story at … WIN-magazine.com/Oklahoma-state-iowa-state-and-ohio-state-make-big-jumps-in-wins-jan-8-rankings

Cowboys Stay Undefeated with Dominant 31-6 Win at Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Oklahoma State wrestling team claimed its fourth ranked win of the season on Friday, handling No. 15 Pittsburgh, 31-6, at Fitzgerald Field House. The win moved Oklahoma State to 6-0 on the year, while Pittsburgh fell to 7-4. 
The Cowboys captured the first six matches of the night and picked up bonus points five times en route to their fourth straight win on the road. With the win, head coach John Smith now trails Harold Nichols by just 10 victories at 482 for second-most in Division I wrestling history. “Pretty good effort at those first five weights,” Smith said. “Really looked good, scored points, separated the scores and did a good job. Sammy Alvarez’s first match out was really good. Teague followed it up, and then won at 165. When you take the first six matches in what could be a tight dual meet, you don’t give them much hope.”
Troy Spratley and Daton Fix got the ball rolling early for OSU, each earning bonus points over ranked opponents to give their squad an early 10-0 cushion. The fall was Spratley’s first as a Cowboy, as Fix has posted bonus points in three of his first four matches this season.
Following Tagen Jamison’s 8-2 decision over No. 27 Cole Matthews, Sammy Alvarez made his Cowboy debut at 149 pounds against No. 26 Finn Solomon. … story at … OKstate.com/Cowboys-stay-undefeated-with-dominant-31-6-win-at-pittsburgh

UNI wrestling freezes Utah Valley, 32-6
Panthers dominate the mat in relocated dual in Ames. UNI improves to 2-0 in Big 12 duals.
AMES, Iowa — A frigid blizzard and blowing snow did not derail the Panther Train as UNI wrestling rolled to a 32-6 dual win over the Utah Valley Wolverines on Saturday night. Due to the winter weather conditions, the dual, which was originally scheduled to be held in Cedar Falls on Sunday, was moved to the Iowa State University campus, where Utah Valley had competed the night prior. Northern Iowa clinched victories in eight of ten weight classes, and scored bonus points in four matches to improve to 2-0 in Big 12 dual competition. UNI has also split its last four duals overall. … story at … UNIpanthers.com/UNI-wrestling-freezes-utah-valley-32-6

No. 23 Lehigh Rallies For Thrilling 17-16 Win Over No. 9 Cornell In Sold-Out Grace Hall
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Trailing by eight with three bouts remaining, No. 23 Lehigh reeled off three consecutive wins by decision to knock off No. 9 Cornell 17-16 Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd of 1,944 at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall.
Wins by junior Michael Beard (197) and sophomore Nathan Taylor (285) meant the match came down to the lightweights at 125. True first-year Luke Stanich won a 3-0 decision over 14th-ranked Brett Ungar to send the Lehigh faithful into celebration and give the Mountain Hawks (2-3) their fourth win in their last five duals against the Big Red. “This was awesome,” explained Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro. “It was a great day for Lehigh wrestling.”
The teams split the 10 bouts with Lehigh having a 2-1 edge in bonus points, by way of first-year Ryan Crookham’s match-opening technical fall victory over Ethan Qureshi at 133.  
In the decisive bout at 125, Stanich and Ungar wrestled a scoreless first period with Ungar warned for stalling. Ungar chose bottom in the second but Stanich went to work with a strong ride as he rode out for all two minutes and forced Ungar into a second stalling call to take a 1-0 lead after two. Stanich escaped early … story at … Lehighsports.com/Wrestling-no-23-lehigh-rallies-for-thrilling-17-16-win-over-no-9-cornell-in-sold-out-grace-hall

January 18, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized