Week 2 Roundup: Top Teams Roll, Hodge Hopefuls Tested
Week 2 Roundup: Top Teams Roll, Hodge Hopefuls Tested
Read about the best action from week 2 of the NCAA wrestling season.
Unlock this article, live events, and more with a subscription!
Already a subscriber? Log In
The second week of the 2019-20 NCAA season gave us our first look at last year's top two teams, was chock-full of upsets, and even offered some drama in the Hodge race. While there was too much action to pack into one article, here are a few things that stood out.
Penn State Put on a Show
On Sunday, the defending NCAA champions rolled out a lineup that only included half of their starters from a season ago. Despite graduating two three-time NCAA champions, the Nittany Lions looked as dominant as ever as they blanked Navy 45-0.
Don't let the one-sided score fool you — this was an exciting dual with a couple of matches coming down to the wire. But those matches were outshined by Penn State's heavy hitters including Mark Hall, who won the fasted fall of the dual award. Check out all the matches from that dual, but for now, enjoy Hall's highlight win.
Ohio State Rolled in Covelli Center Debut
The #3 Buckeyes broke in their brand new wrestling facility with the first dual meet in the building's existence against Stanford. The 29-6 score was lopsided, but the dual did offer a couple of insights into the possible future of this season.
First, Sammy Sasso is human. In week 1, Sasso blitzed the field at the MSU Open which had wrestling fans wondering if he was really that far in front of the field at 149. Sasso looked solid in his 3-1 win over Requir van der Merwe, but he didn't look untouchable.
Second, Luke Pletcher held down his #1 ranking against a very game Real Woods. In one of the most exciting matches of the dual, Real Woods gave Luke Pletcher everything he wanted, but ultimately, it was Pletcher winning in an OT thriller. This was one of the best matches of the weekend.
Hodge Hopefuls Tested
Last weekend, Seth Gross started his senior year with a 100-percent bonus rate. On Thursday of this week, he was held to his first decision of the year against Buffalo's #13 Derek Spann. Gross rebounded with a fall over Tye Varndell in Friday's dual against Edinboro.
Zahid Valencia, another serious Hodge contender, started his season this weekend with three falls and a tech before running into Nebraska's Taylor Venz in the finals of the Journeymen Collegiate Classic. Valencia kept his unbeaten streak alive in the wildest match of the weekend.
Another Batch of Upsets
The list of upsets this week was too long to count, but a few guys had multiple-upset weekends and a couple more notched wins over top-eight guys.
At 133, Josh Kramer beat #19 Louie Hayes of Virginia, #15 Nick Farro of Lehigh, #12 Anthony Madrigal of Oklahoma, and #10 DJ Fehlman of Lock Haven. That's four ranked wins!
The wildest part about Kramer's weekend is that he didn't win his bracket at the Journeymen Collegiate Classic. That honor belonged to Sammy Alvarez, the Rutgers true freshman who, in the round-robin, knocked off Kramer and also had wins over #12 Madrigal, and #10 Fehlman. Alvarez wasn't perfect on the day, dropping a bout to Lehigh's #15 Farro, but he proved that he'll be in the mix this year at 133.
Tate Orndorff was another standout at the Journeymen Collegiate Classic. The #11 heavyweight in the land knocked off #4 Tanner Hall of Arizona State and #3 Jordan Wood of Lehigh. Two top-four wins might make Orndorff the wrestler of the weekend.
At 157, AC Headlee made his presence known up two weight classes from a season ago by knocking off #8 Will Lewan in North Carolina's dual against Michigan.
The landscape at 184 shifted this week as #2 Ben Darmstadt of Cornell lost to Binghamton's #10 Lou Deprez and #22 Andrew Morgan of Campbell took out #4 Nino Bonaccorsi of Pitt.
Check out all the week 2 upsets here.
ISU/UNI Showdown at the Harold Nichols Cyclone Open
Iowa State and Northern Iowa took home most of the titles at ISU's open tournament. Most interestingly, former All-Americans Max Thomsen and Jarrett Degen faced off in the finals. Thomsen won 12-7 making it four straight victories over the always challenging Degen.
Iowa State had a couple of head-to-head wins over Northern Iowa at 174 and 184 by two guys who have moved up in weight this year. Bryce Steiert and Taylor Lujan looked good at their new weight classes defeating Marcus Coleman and Sammy Colbray, respectively.
Roster Battles
Oklahoma State sent a handful of starters to the OCU Open. This could have been partly to decide the roster moving forward. At 165, freshman Travis Wittlake beat teammate Andrew Shomers 5-3 in the finals while 184 pounders Geer and Montalvo opted not to wrestle in the finals. We may learn more about what that means in the coming weeks.
Last week Northern Colorado true freshman 133-pounder Theorius Robison made headlines by beating Wyoming All-American Montorie Bridges. This weekend, he made the finals of the Northern Colorado Open before defaulting to teammate Mosha Schwartz who's back in action after his U23 World Team performance last weekend. Perhaps this means we'll see Schwartz at 133 for the Bears moving forward.
This weekend offered so many more great matches. Check out box score results here, and go to FloArena to dive deep into the Journeymen Collegiate Classic and Northeast Duals.