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Best matches at every weight class from the 2023-2024 college wrestling dual season

The 2023-2024 college wrestling season dual season has officially ended, so with the postseason on the horizon, let’s take a look back at some of the best matches at every weight class. 

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Note: For each weight class, a “winning match” has been identified along with 2-3 finalists. This is an entirely subjective list based on the significance of these wins in the rankings, the storylines surrounding each match and the amount of points put up by the athlete.

125 pounds: Jakob Camacho (NC State) over Cooper Flynn (Virginia Tech), 5-1
Finalists: Patrick McKee (Minnesota) over Eric Barnett (Wisconsin), FALL (4:47); Nico Provo (Stanford) over Matt Ramos (Purdue), 8-1

Call it recency bias, call it rivalry fever, but Jakob Camacho’s 5-1 win on Feb. 23 over Virginia Tech’s Cooper Flynn is the 2023-2024 125-pound match of the season so far. Flynn started the year in Olympic redshirt behind Virginia Tech All-American Eddie Ventresca, while Camacho, despite holding the No. 1 spot in the country for a brief moment, also sat behind teammate and 2023 ACC champion Jarrett Trombley for several duals this year. But, the final dual of the season, it was Camacho vs. Flynn, two athletes who have the talent to win a title but have taken their own unique paths into the lineup, and Camacho claimed victory.
Flynn came into the match ranked No. 4 while Camacho was No. 14 in the country, though the Pack veteran wrestled like he couldn’t care less about the rankings. He came out and attacked, earning the only offensive points of the match. His win also gave NC State three key team points in the Wolfpack’s 20-12 win over the Hokies. 
Camacho and Flynn will likely meet again in the ACC tournament and potentially in the NCAA tournament. But the latest victory belongs to Camacho. This result also shifted the Pack senior up to No. 10 in the rankings and slid Flynn down to No. 6.

LAST YEAR AT 125: Rewatch Matt Ramos’ shocking upset over three-time NCAA champ Spencer Lee
Purdue’s Matt Ramos still paces this crazy weight class at No. 1, with his biggest win coming against Iowa’s No. 2 Drake Ayala in Carver-Hawkeye Arena and his most notable loss coming to Stanford’s No. 18 Nico Provo at the Cliff Keen Invitational. No. 4 Patrick McKee and No. 5 Eric Barnett participated in the other bout that earned “match of the year” finalist status, as McKee pinned Barnett in the second period during yet another result in a long line of back-and-forth outcomes within this rivalry.  If these three spotlighted matches prove anything, it’s to expect the unexpected at 125 pounds. The NCAA champ will be the guy that can best weather the storm of what will be a deep national championship bracket come March. 

133 pounds: Ryan Crookham (Lehigh) over Vito Arujau (Cornell), 8-4 … story at …NCAA.com/news/wrestling/Best-matches-every-weight-class-2023-2024-college-wrestling-dual-season

March 6, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Five B1G Takeaways from the Final Week of the Dual Season

Five B1G Takeaways from the Final Week of the Dual Season (2/28/2024)
We’ve reached the end of the regular season and the final week of duals did not disappoint. B1G Ten teams took the chance to go head-to-head with teams from other conferences to cap things off. 
Big Ten Goes 7-1 in Cross-Conference Competition
To finish off the regular season, Big Ten teams competed against out-of-conference competition and went 7-1. Wisconsin was the lone team that came out on the losing end of their dual meet against UNI. Of note, Iowa took out Oklahoma State in Stillwater, OK for the first time since 2015, Penn State pitched a shutout at home against Edinboro, and Nebraska took care of things in Tempe. 

Lovett Takes First Loss
Nebraska may have taken care of business against Arizona State, but the headliner was Kyle Parco handing top-ranked Ridge Lovett his first loss of the year. Parco scored the only takedown of the bout and added a stall point to get the 4-3 win. Lovett remains No. 1 despite the loss and should be the top-seed at the Big Ten tournament, but he won’t be going in with an unblemished record. 

Hawkeyes Get it Done on the Road
Not to be too redundant with my points of emphasis on this win for Iowa, but damn that was impressive. Oklahoma State hosted Iowa in what was a sold-out crowd in Gallagher-Iba Arena, and a Nationally televised matchup, against their biggest rival. Only one of those teams showed up ready to battle though, and it wasn’t the home team. Iowa seemed to pull the trigger on their attacks much more fearlessly, and with much more consistency, and as the dual kept going it looked worse for the Cowboys. If you’re an Iowa fan, this was a much-needed return to normalcy for them after a couple of tough weeks. They looked great as the season began, and they looked far and away like the second-best team in the country, until all of a sudden they didn’t. After the Michigan dual, I remember hearing a lot of talk about their offense, questions about their approach, and questions about their future, but this seemed like a strong way to answer those questions and to be prepared entering the B1G Tournament. The Hawkeyes still have some questions at 133 and 149 as far as who we will see out there competing at B1Gs, but for them, this seems like more of a luxury than a concern. Ladies and gentlemen, let the conference tournaments begin!!!

Matt Ramos Finishes Strong
We’ve made jokes most of the year about the curse of being ranked number 1 at 125. Yet here we are at the end of the regular season, at the same place we began, with Matt Ramos of Purdue ranked number 1 at 125 pounds. Despite early season losses to Jakob Camacho of NC State, and two losses at CKLV to Nico Provo of Stanford and Caleb Smith of Nebraska, Ramos has been quietly undefeated since. That stretch includes ranked wins over Anthony Molton of Campbell, Dean Peterson of Rutgers, Drake Ayala of Iowa, Eric Barnett of Wisconsin, and Patrick McKee of Minnesota. Despite the loss to Caleb Smith at the end of 2023, I would think that Ramos … story at … Intermatwrestle.com/Takeaways-from-the-final-week-of-the-dual-season-2282024

March 6, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

No. 1 Indian Hills CC seeks to repeat as NJCAA Women’s Invitational champions in Council Bluffs, Iowa

NJCAA brackets
Indian Hills CC in Iowa, which won the inaugural NJCAA Women’s Invitational in 2023, comes in as favorite this year, when the event is held alongside the men’s championships at Mid America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, March 1-2.
Indian Hills is the only program to ever win a junior college national title in women’s wrestling. In addition to winning the first NJCAA Invitational last year, Indian Hills was also the champions at the 2021 and 2022 Junior College National Championships (JCNC), which included programs from a number of college organizations.
The Warriors return three NJCAA individual national champions from last year, Dutchess King (101), Shammilka Miranda Diaz (116), and Eliana Bommarito (235). Bommarito was named Outstanding Wrestler at last year’s nationals.
Wrestling fans will remember over the summer when Bommarito became the first U.S. wrestler to ever win a Senior Beach World Championships. In addition to being an outstanding wrestler on the college level, she is one of the best Beach wrestlers in the world.
Indian Hills returns nine All-Americans from last year. The Warriors have two No. 1 seeds, Bommarito and Tiffany White (191). The team also boasts No. 2 seeds King and Diaz, plus Javanica Mickens (109), Angelica Vicente Gomzalez (123) and Averie Burns (235).
In the most recent NJCAA Women’s Rankings, released on Feb. 10, Umpqua CC was ranked No. 2, led by three No. 1 seeds at the nationals, … story at … Themat.com/Indian-hills-cc-seeks-to-repeat-as-njcaa-women-s-invitational-champions-in-council-bluffs

March 6, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment