NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 6 Roundup: Much Happened In Vegas
The world’s finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the 6th week of the 2024-25 NCAA D1 wrestling season.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Wrestling season!
It’s also nice to be in the full swing of holiday season. Now that we’re all done stuffing our faces with turkey and leftovers it’s time to break out the music and decorations!
Box Scores | Rankings | Last Week’s Roundup
Last week was light on action due to Thanksgiving, but just about everyone was back on the mats this week, so let’s get to it.
We’ll start the week as we did last week, with the Dual of the Century of the Week, because this is a pro-dual blog. Duals are the lifeblood of college wrestling. No duals, no season. No season, no fans. No fans, no new wrestlers, and the sport is forever diminished.
The Dual of the Century, of the Week
Lions Maul Mountain Hawks In The PPL Center
Okay so maybe it was a blowout, and maybe they’re closing all the factories down, and maybe they’re all killing time, filling out forms, standing in line. But also there were 9,769 watching here in Allentown, and that counts for something!
Lehigh hosted their in-state rival in the PPL Center, an arena whose primary tenant is the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, which is a minor league hockey team affiliated with the Flyers.
The Mountain Hawks normally wrestle in Bethlehem, the city that inspired Billy Joel’s song ‘Allentown’, which is where you can find the PPL Center.
Anyhow, here is the box score:
125: #23 Luke Lilledahl (PSU) dec. #17 Sheldon Seymour (LEH), 4-1
133: #1 Ryan Crookham (LEH) dec. #8 Braeden Davis (PSU), 4-2
141: #3 Beau Bartlett (PSU) dec. Carter Bailey (LEH), 5-0
149: #2 Shayne Van Ness (PSU) maj. dec. Matt Repos (LEH), 17-3
157: #4 Tyler Kasak (PSU) dec. Logan Rozynski (LEH), 5-2
165: #1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) tech fall Thayne Lawrence (LEH), 18-1 (TF; 4:37)
174: #2 Levi Haines (PSU) pinned Rylan Rogers (LEH), WBF (4:12)
184: #1 Carter Starocci (PSU) maj. dec. Jack Wilt (LEH), 15-1
197: #21 Josh Barr (PSU) maj. dec. #6 Michael Beard (LEH), 11-3
285: #2 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) tech fall Calvin Lachman (LEH), 15-0 (TF; 2:07)
Penn State won 36-3.
Lehigh’s sole victory came from 133-pound standard-bearer Ryan Crookham, who also got the only takedown
The Nittany Lions won 9 of 10 bouts. … more at … https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/13165110-ncaa-d1-wrestling-week-6-roundup-much-happened-in-vegas
College wrestling notebook: Hendrickson pins his way to CKLV title, Penn State defeats Lehigh at PPL Center, upsets galore in Las Vegas
The Cliff Keen Wrestling Invitational has come and gone for the 2024 season. The tournament was marked by a number of upsets, strong performances on the backside, and a dominant performance by Oklahoma State to capture the team title. The season continued with plenty of action for college wrestling fans to enjoy. Check out a few things that happened during week six.
Upset of the week
There were plenty of upsets at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational this weekend. Cal Poly’s Zeth Romney, ranked at No. 15 in the latest FloWrestling rankings, became the program’s first wrestler in 15 years to win a title at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Romney defeated No. 6 Evan Frost of Iowa State in the finals at 133 pounds, 7-3. Romney was the fifth seed in the bracket while Frost was the No. 2 seed. Romney was also the lowest seeded athlete to win a title.
Dual of the week
No. 1 Penn State defeated No. 14 Lehigh, 36-3, in front of nearly 10,000 fans at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. The Nittany Lions moved to 2-0 while the Mountain Hawks dropped to 1-2. Penn State won 9 of the 10 matches, as Lehigh’s No. 1 Ryan Crookham posted a 4-2 decision over No. 10 Braeden Davis. It’s worth mentioning that No. 23 Josh Barr bumped up to 197 pounds for the dual and defeated Np. 6 Michael Beard, 11-3.
No. 1 Penn State 36, No. 14 Lehigh 3
125: #16 Luke Lilledahl PSU dec. #15 Sheldon Seymour LEH, 4-1
133: #1 Ryan Crookham LEH dec. #10 Braeden Davis PSU, 4-2
141: #3 Beau Bartlett PSU dec. Carter Bailey LEH, 5-0
149: #2 Shayne Van Ness PSU maj. dec. Matt Repos LEH, 17-3
157: #4 Tyler Kasak PSU dec. Logan Rozynski LEH, 5-2
165: #1 Mitchell Mesenbrink PSU tech fall Thayne Lawrence LEH, 18-1 (TF; 4:37)
174: #2 Levi Haines PSU pinned Rylan Rogers LEH, WBF (4:12)
184: #1 Carter Starocci PSU maj. dec. Jack Wilt LEH, 15-1 … more at … https://www.themat.com/news/2024/december/09/college-wrestling-notebook-hendrickson-pins-his-way-to-cklv-title-penn-state-defeats-lehigh-at-ppl-center-upsets-galore-in-las-vegas
Maryland breaks into Top 25; Illinois climbs to No. 11
Manheim, Pennsylvania – While one of the nation’s premier in-season individual tournaments took place in Las Vegas, there was plenty of dual meet action around the Division I mats as competition resumed after the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Maryland (4-0) entered the NWCA Division I Men’s Wrestling Coaches Poll for the first time this season as the new poll was released on Tuesday. Coach Alex Clemsen’s team was ranked for two weeks last season and climbed as high as No. 22 during the 2022-23 season.
Penn State (2-0) remained the unanimous No. 1 after blasting then-No. 22 Lehigh 36-3 at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The dual drew 9,769, the largest home crowd in the storied history of Lehigh wrestling. Iowa improved to 6-0 after taking out Army West Point and Princeton at Journeymen Wrestling’s Uncivil War in St. Charles, Missouri. The Hawkeyes pulled out a 23-16 win over the Black Knights and a 39-3 win over the Tigers.
The rest of the Top 10 was in Las Vegas, where third-ranked Oklahoma State won the team title at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
Illinois moved up two more spots to No. 11, after defeating Indiana 34-3 prior to the Big Ten’s conference championship football game in Indianapolis. Currently, seven of the nation’s top 11 teams reside in the Big Ten.
Rutgers picked up a pair of wins to improve to 5-2. The Scarlet Knights beat Lock Haven 34-6 and in-state rival Princeton 32-7. No. 20 Little Rock and No. 21 Oklahoma both beat Central Michigan over the weekend. Little Rock (4-0) won 27-15, while Oklahoma (3-0) won 28-6.
Methodology: The NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll is voted on by two coaches from each Division I wrestling conference. Each first-place vote is worth 25 points, 24 points for a second-place vote, 23 points for a third-place vote, and so on, through to one point for a 25th-place vote. The poll is based on dual meet results.
NWCA Division I Men’s Wrestling Coaches Poll December 10, 2024 details at https://nwcaonline.com/
| Rank | Team (First) | Record | Points | Conf. | Previous |
| 1 | Penn State (16) | (2-0) | 400 | Big Ten | 1 |
| 2 | Iowa | (6-0) | 380 | Big Ten | 2 |
| 3 | Oklahoma State | (4-0) | 368 | Big 12 | 3 |
| 4 | Nebraska | (3-0) | 352 | Big Ten | 4 |
| 5 | Ohio State | (3-0) | 329 | Big Ten | 5 |
| 6 | NC State | (5-0) | 315 | ACC | 6 |
Oklahoma State dominates team race at Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, Hendrickson named Outstanding Wrestler
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The third-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys, led by two individual champions and eight place winners, improved on a strong day one lead to win the team title at the 2024 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
In the team race, Oklahoma State was leading by 21.5 points entering day two. The Cowboys put up a dominant 192 points in Las Vegas, 77 points ahead of second-place finisher Nebraska. The Huskers scored 115 team points, edging out third-place Ohio State who tallied 110.5 points. Virginia Tech secured 90 team points, and 2023 team champion Iowa State rounds out the top five with 89.5 team points.
In his first season at the helm for the Cowboys, 2020 Olympic champion David Taylor has coached his team to a dominant performance at one of the biggest midseason tournaments in collegiate wrestling. Oklahoma State had all ten in its line-up reach the podium in Las Vegas, and five wrestlers reached the finals after the third session.
The two champions for Oklahoma State were Dean Hamiti Jr. at 174 pounds and Wyatt Hendrickson at 285 pounds. Hamiti edged Lorenzo Norman (Stanford) in a 4-3 match that came down to a riding time point after Norman took the lead with a first-period takedown. Hamiti scored two on a reversal in the first, then evened the score at 3 with an escape in the second period. Hendrickson capped off the night with a pin against Isaac Trumble (NC State) at 2:35 in a battle of U23 World Champions. He was also named the Outstanding Wrestler for his performance this weekend.
At 125 pounds, Matt Ramos (Purdue) displayed dominance early, securing a 6-2 lead over Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech) in the first period with a pair of takedown-escape sequences. Despite Ventresca earning a point from a stalling call in the third period in an effort to narrow the gap, Ramos held on for the victory.
In the 133-pound final, Zeth Romney (Cal Poly) showed precision, using an early escape and a second-period takedown to secure a 7-3 win over Evan Frost (Iowa State). Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) edged out Tagen Jamison … more at … https://www.themat.com/news/2024/december/07/oklahoma-state-dominates-team-race-at-cliff-keen-las-vegas-invitational-hendrickson-named-outstanding-wrestler
TDR blog
After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
Martin Fleming, Editor
Takedown Report
Takedown Report 