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The EIWA Dual Of The Week 2022-23

NCAA Week 14 Roundup: Captivated By Criteria

NCAA Week 14 Roundup: Captivated By Criteria

Recapping all the biggest stories from the fourteenth week of the 2022-23 NCAA D1 college wrestling season.

Feb 6, 2023 by Andrew Spey
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Greetings from my blogging perch, high above the rockies of Montana in my custom imported surveillance balloon, and let me tell you, the view from 60,000 is breathtaking!

Only two more weeks of duals before the conference championships. I told you the regular season would go fast!

Last Week’s Roundup | Box Scores

Before we get to the Roundup, have you watched 'RBY: Straight Outta Tuscon' yet? You don't need a Flo subscription, just an hour of time. It's set up to start playing when you open this article, so if you haven't seen it yet, just scroll up and watch! It's worth it, I guarantee it, and that's a blogger's promise!

Okay, now on with the best stories from the 14th week of the 2022-23 NCAA D1 wrestling season! 

10 Out of 10 Wrestling Content Creators Agree on This Dual of the Century of the Week

#3 Iowa State at #17 Pittsburgh

I admit I'm not the trendiest blogger in the game but I try and keep up the best I can and it's great to hear that folks of considerable online influence are turning their attention to the world's oldest and most excellent sport. So allow me to officially give a blogger's welcome to Jersey Jerry! 

Very glad to see him at wrestling events. Not sure if he watched Iowa State at Pittsburgh but he was in the Fitzgerlad Fieldhouse on Friday for the Panthers' win over UNC, and he seems to be a fan of Pittsburgh, so I'll assume we've got his vote for the Dual of the Century of the Week. 

You simply love to see new folks talking up wrestling. After all, a rising tide lifts all boats, so lets get more content creators of all backgrounds to give wrestling a little attention. Make it a deluge even! 

Anyhow, the dual! It came down to criteria! Yes, college wrestling utilizes criteria to break tied duals!

If all ten bouts are wrestled and the team scores are equal, an extra team point will be given to the school with the most individual match wins. If that doesn't do it, the point goes to the team with the most falls, DQs, defaults and forfeits. And then it goes to total match points, and that usually gets the job done, as it did here, as Iowa State won the individual match score battle 51 to 44 and thus got the extra team point to break the tie (criteria breaks ties! if you hate ties than you should love criteria!).

It specifically happened like this: Pitt rattled off three decisions to start the dual. The Cyclones answered with three decisions of their own to tie the score up at 9-9. 

Luca Augustine broke the tie with the win over MJ Gaitan to give the Panthers a three point lead. #4 Marcus Coleman tied it back up with a victory over #17 Reece Heller. 

Then 2021 NCAA runner-up #4 Nino Bonaccorsi had his best match of the season with a 6-4 victory over #3 Yonger Bastida, which again put the Panthers up by a field goal. 

At that point, Iowa State was trailing by three but had built up a lead in individual match points, so a win of any margin at heavyweight would give the Cyclones the dub. 

Ultimately, the one with that dog in him proved to be Sam Schuyler.

Here's a vid of the dual-winning sequence. 

It doesn't get much more dramatic than that. A back and forth meet where every match was a battle. Worthy of using up all the data on your phone plan to keep watching if you had to leave your home in the middle of it. 

Co-Dual of the Century of the Week

#9 Missouri at #14 Oklahoma State

But wait, what's this? I thought we had settled things by getting 10 out of 10 content creators to agree? 

Well, it looks like I once again started writing this Roundup before most of Sunday's duals were completed and I didn't foresee anything topping that ISU v Pitt dual. 

And boy did I end up with egg on my face. A classic case of Blogger's Folly. 

Here we have another dual between top-ranked teams that was determined by criteria. Only this time we get an upset from the home team!

The contest was also back and forth, naturally, but things looked bleak for the Cowboys after six bouts, as the Tigers were leading by one and were favored in three of the final four bouts. 

That's when Luke Surber stepped up for the match of his career when he toppled #1 Rocky Elam 5-4 at 197!

#7 Zach Elam then beat #18 Konner Doucet to give Missouri a one point lead again, followed by #13 Noah Surtin extending that lead to four with a decision victory over Reece Witcraft. 

That meant Oklahoma State needed Daton Fix to win by a major decision, and score at least 10 points, as that would tie the team score, and the Cowboys were trailing 43-34 on total individual match points (edit: 9 points also would've very likely gotten the job done). Naturally, Daton came through in the clutch and won by 11, beating Connor Brown 14-3. 

#15 Kaden Gfeller also notably notched a critical win for the Cowboys, handing #9 Jarrett Jacques just his third loss of the season.

Here's what John Smith had to say about the epic dual.

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So we had two Duals of the Century of the Week this week. Whatever, sue me!

The EIWA Dual of the Week

Cornell administered a severe drubbing of Ivy rival Princeton that included a massive win by #12 Julian Ramirez over 2022 NCAA finalist #3 Quincy Monday at 165 pounds. 

The Tigers, however, were able to bounce back and defeated upstate New York’s other EIWA program Binghamton. 

Cornell wasn’t done reasserting their position as the dominant force in the Ivies and the EIWA, though. They followed up the win over the Tigers with a win in the EIWA Dual of the Week against Penn. 

The Big Red have now won 19 of the last 20 Ivy League titles, which are determined by dual meets as all six Ivy programs compete in the EIWA and qualify for Nationals at the Easterns. 

Cornell got a big lift in team points from this pin by #4 Chris Foca.

In other EIWA news, Lehigh beat Army, featuring the return of #4 Josh Humphreys, who hasn't wrestled since December 20, 2022. The two-time bloodrounder for Lehigh stayed perfect on the season, beating Nate Lukez 6-3. 

Around the Horn of Plenty

A cornucopia of wrestling news!

Big Ten

The Big Ten always delivers heaps of noteworthy results, but we've already taken up a lot of blog space with co-Duals of the Century of the Week, so we're going to have to blitz through the rest of these conferences. 

Penn State impressively dispatched Ohio State 29 to 9. For as good as Ohio State is (and they're very good!) the Nittany Lions were favored in eight bouts, and won all eight. #9 Alex Facundo just barely edged #10 Carson Kharchla, a result that could go the other way next time they see each other, but for now Facundo will get the seeding advantage at Big Tens. 

Iowa also defeated Minnesota 18-13. Iowa was without their starters at 174, 185 and 285, plus the Gophers got an upset at 197 when #24 Michial Foy beat #10 Jacob Warner, though the Hawkeyes did get an impressive victory from #12 Cobe Siebrecht over #16 Brayton Lee. 

Elsewhere, the Fighting Illini squealed by Michigan State in East Lansing, though Sparty got a lift from this heroic performance from #19 Cam Caffey in the closing seconds of his 197-pound bout against #9 Zac Braunagel. 

Penn State rolled in their second dual of the weekend against Indiana despite not enjoying the services of Roman Bravo-Young and Aaron Brooks. Carter Starocci got revenge on DJ Washington who defeated Starocci in his first varsity match back in 2021. This time however it was a major decision in favor of Carter. DJ got the first takedown in the first period but after that, it was all Starocci, who won 11-3. There were some ‘extracurriculars’ following the match at the handshake but nothing too feisty and hopefully any excess steam from that rivalry has now been successfully blown off. 

Additionally, Ohio State defeated Northwestern and Sammy Sasso picked up a very solid victory over previously undefeated Yahya Thomas at 149. 

Not based on a result or anything but I thought this was really cool. 

Big 12

The Bout at the Ballpark returned to Globe Life Field!

The Cowboys took out a short-handed Michigan squad and brought home a Texas-sized win from the billion-dollar stadium the Rangers play their home baseball games in. That occurred on Friday, before OSU's dual with Mizzou at home on Sunday.

Missouri fared better against the Sooners than they did against the NCAA's other D1 wrestling team from Oklahoma. The Tigers won nine bouts to overwhelm Oklahoma 33-3. #8 Mosha Swartz was the lone Sooner to win, beating #7 Allan Hart at 141.

In other Big 12 news, Northern Colorado traveled about 100 miles north and about 2,500 feet up in altitude and defeated Wyoming in Laramie. Wyoming, however, did beat Utah Valley in their other dual of the week. Jore Volk and Jacob Wright both got two individual victories for the Cowboys. 

#1 Andrew Alirez of Northern Colorado also got two wins this weekend, but it wasn't enough for the Bears in their dual with North Dakota State, as the Bison rumbled to a 23-15 win. NDSU also beat Air Force 32-10. 

Pac-12

Cal Poly got two conference wins over Little Rock and CSU Bakersfield. Still no sign of #6 Bernie Truax though, who hasn't wrestled for the Mustangs since January 6.

Arizona State and Oregon State wrestled for a dual that likely determined the Pac-12 2023 Dual Champion in a contest that didn't end until late Sunday evening. Don't worry though, your intrepid blogger would never dream of publishing this article and going to bed without reporting on the results! 

The Beavers were in the dual until the last bout, but #5 Cohlton Schultz slammed the door on any thoughts of an upset at home in Corvallis when he pinned JJ Dixon to give the Sun Devils a 23-16 victory. 

ASU also got minor upset wins from #20 Jesse Vasquez over #15 Cleveland Belton at 141 and Cael Valencia over #19 Aaron Olmos at 174. 

MAC

Two traditional MAC foes, Central Michigan and Kent State, brawled Mt Pleasant, with the Chippewas firing past the Golden Flashes 22-15. 

Lock Haven wallopped Bloomsburg, dishing out a lopsided 40-1 final score. That unlikely tally is the result of the Huskies winning one bout by decision but losing two team points due to penalties, for the rare singular team point total.

SoCon

Chattanooga traveled to Boone, North Carolina to take on App State, who is undefeated in conference duals so far. App State dispatched the Mocs with relative ease, 25 to 6, though Chattanooga’s Jackson Hurst, subbing in for #15 Rocky Jordan, defeated Honorable Mention Will Miller at 174. 

That was the Mountaineers’ second win of the week, having also beaten Garnder-Webb on Monday. App State's win over Chattanooga sets up next week's dual with Campbell at home as the most important contest of the season in the SoCon. It's also one of the best rivalries going in all of D1 wrestling.

ACC

The most exciting dual was Pitt's out-of-conference near-miss against Iowa State. The Panthers also beat North Carolina 21-11 as previously mentioned. 

Elsewhere, NC State handled Virginia 34-4, and Virginia Tech blanked Duke 45-0. Next week, Pitt will try and stay undefeated and all but lock up the ACC Dual Championship against NC State in Raleigh. 

That’s it for this week. Also a hearty congratulations to the immortal Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne for winning ‘Best Rock Album’ at the 65th Grammy for his 13th solo studio album, Patient Number 9. 

And congrats to Lizzo for winning Record of the Year and to Bonnie Raitt for winning Song of the Year. I totally know how those are two different categories, too. No time to explain it now, though, you'll just have to trust me that I know!

Okay, see you next time wrestling friends!