The Most Interesting Matches From The Southern Scuffle
The Most Interesting Matches From The Southern Scuffle
The matches from which we learned the most at the 2019 Southern Scuffle NCAA wrestling tournament.
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Where would we find the most interesting NCAA matches of the week? With Penn State and Oklahoma State's starting squads being joined by a coterie of quality D1 teams all at the same tournament, Chattanooga would be where you want to look.
It's also still early enough in the season that there are many lingering questions for which the wrestling world is clamoring for answers. The Scuffle at least helped shed some light on many of these most pressing quandaries. Below, we run down the most interesting and illuminating matches from the 2019 Southern Scuffle.
125 Pounds
Who is going to be the man at 125 pounds for the Nittany Lions? Devin Schnupp is currently in poll position, but true frosh Brody Teske could have his shirt pulled, and the enigma that is Gavin Teasdale is also a possibility... maybe.
Teasdale was entered in the tournament but did not weigh in, so his appearance in a Penn State singlet is on the horizon yet. Teske, meanwhile, wrestled unattached and got tech falled 15-0 by Lock Haven Luke Werner in the quarterfinals, before withdrawing from the tournament.
So it's a safe bet that we will see Schnupp going forward.
One thing that was not in question was whether Nick Picininni was any good. He is, and he demonstrated it once again by soundly beating everyone in the bracket on his path to a championship.
133 Pounds
The most illuminating match of this weight class occurred in the semifinals when uber true frosh Roman Bravo-Young of Penn State took on uber redshirt freshman Austin Gomez of Iowa State. The hype was hot and heavy for both wrestlers and the match did not disappoint.
Gomez was the victor with the match-ender in the second period, but it came after RBY built up a 9-2 lead. So were any questions really answered? Watch the match and judge for yourself!
And then in the finals, Oklahoma State's Daton Fix answered the question of which level he was on, and that would be the one above both Gomez and RBY when he comfortably beat Gomez 6-3.
141 Finals
It's difficult to say what we learned about Oklahoma State's Kaid Brock at 141. Brock has taken a few perplexing losses so far this season and the Scuffle was an opportunity for him to right his ship. But Brock withdrew from this tournament, not after a loss, but after two relatively easy wins in the rounds of 32 and 16.
Brock was the #2 seed, and Penn State's Nick Lee was the #1 seed. But instead of a top 20 matchup between those two All-Americans, we got Lee versus true freshman Real Woods, wrestling unattached for Stanford.
Lee won, but Woods made him work for it, letting Stanford fans know they have a future star waiting in the wings.
149 Pounds
Penn State has a few weight classes where the starting jobs may (or may not) have been on the line at the Scuffle. Brady Berge squeaked out a victory over Jarod Verkleeren at the Keystone Classic back in November, but both Nittany Lions would have had to make the finals for there to be a rematch on the championship side of the Southern Scuffle.
Instead, Verkleeren dropped a 3-2 match to eventual champ, Kaden Gfeller of Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals, and Berge lost to the soon-to-be runner-up Mitch Finesilver 3-2 in the semifinals.
There would be no meeting in the consolation bracket either, as Verkleeren lost to Matt Zovistoski of App State. Zovistoski would lose to Jerrett Degen of Iowa State in his next match, and Degen would fall to Berge in his next match in the consolation semifinals.
157 Pounds
Jason Nolf remains the dominant force that he was coming into the tournament. Nolf unsurprisingly smashed everyone in his path by at least a major decision on his way to his second consecutive Scuffle title.
A decision whose outcome may have actually been obfuscated by the happenings in Chattanooga revolve around Stanford's two 157 pounders: Paul Fox and Dom Mandarino. Mandarino got the better of Fox when the two tussled at the Roadrunner Open back in November. When the two met again in the Scuffle's backside, the outcome was the same, with Mandarino taking a 5-2 decision.
Fox is an All-American from 2017 and bloodround finisher in 2018. Could Mandarino's pair of victories force Fox to either the bench or to move up a weight class? We will have to wait for the next chapter in this West Coast saga to unfold to find out.
165 Pounds
The absence of Virginia Tech redshirt freshman and junior freestyle world champion Mekhi Lewis made this weight class slightly less interesting. Luckily, All-Americans Vincenzo Joseph, Chance Marsteller and Chandler Rogers were in Chattanooga to pick up the slack.
The pecking order between those three shook out clearly, as Chance beat Chandler and Cenzo beat Chance.
Additionally, like his teammate Real Woods, Shane Griffith made a splash as a true freshman redshirting for Stanford, finishing third. Griffith's highlight of the tournament was probably a 7-2 victory over Rider's #19 Jesse Dellavecchia for third, although Griffith also technically notched a win over Rogers when the latter injury-defaulted out of their consolation semifinal match. Rogers was leading 1-0 in the second period when Rogers appears to injury hamstring while in a scramble. As Rogers went down, Griffith covered for two plus four swipes before the match was halted.
174 Pounds
Joseph Smith is back, but is he BACK? After the two-time All-American from Oklahoma State solidly beat Virginia Tech's two-time All-American David McFadden, I think we can all agree that yes, Joseph Smith is BACK, BABY.
Tempering expectations every so slightly for the scion of the GOAT was Smith coming up short against Penn State's two-time finalist and 2017 NCAA champion Mark Hall in the finals. Hall continued his hot streak, winning the Scuffle after getting revenge over Zahid Valencia in a dual meet against Arizona State just a couple weeks ago.
184 Pounds
Virginia Tech did not bring their All-American senior Zachary Zavatsky to Chattanooga, but the Hokie faithful were treated to the future of 184-pounds. Hunter Bolen, redshirting as a true sophomore, made it to the finals, knocking off Oklahoma State's All-American Jacobe Smith in the quarterfinals and #8 ranked Lou DePrez of Binghamton in the semifinals. Though Tech loses #6 ZZ to graduation next year, they will be in good hands with Bolen when his shirt comes off.
Penn State's Shakur Rasheed, we also learned, is going to do just fine at 184 pounds, after finishing seventh at 197-pounds at the 2018 NCAAs. Rasheed punished all his opponents before Bolen gave him his toughest match of the tournament, losing 4-1.
197 Pounds
Bo Nickal continues to separate himself from the pack. Although Ohio State's Kollin Moore and perhaps Princeton's Pat Brucki may have something to say about Nickal's quest for a third straight NCAA championship, Nickal did little to dissuade his believers as he plowed through the Scuffle's 197-pound field with smooth alacrity.
It was as if Nickal was allergic to being on the mat. The Penn State senior pinned his way through the tournament, only being forced to wrestle in the second period once, in the round of 32, Nickal's first match of the event. His domination of Stanford's #9 Nathan Traxler in the finals was a display of terrifying destruction.
Elsewhere, folks saw Tom Sleigh bells jingling as the Virginia Tech senior rolled past Oklahoma State's #7 Dakota Geer in the third-place bout, further bolstering the Hokie's chances of notching All-Americans in all five upper-weights.
285 Pounds
If folks didn't believe that George Mason's Matt Voss was clutch, even after he beat Northwestern's Conan Jennings in tie-breakers in the last match of the first day of 2018 NCAA championship, they should believe it now, as Voss beat Virginia Tech's Billy Miller in a bonus-time marathon, eking out a victory via criteria. It was 3-3, but they gave the W to Voss based on riding time advantage. So a winner was declared, even though the same amount of points were scored by both wrestlers. Incredible!
There may have been a glimmer of hope for Nick Nevills to wrest the starting heavyweight spot for the Nittany Lions away from his teammate, Anthony Cassar, but those hopes were likely dashed when Nevills lost to Oklahoma State's Derek White in the semifinals by a greater margin than White beat Cassar in the finals.
Cassar is still a title contender, as are a half dozen or so other heavies that are expected to rumble in Pittsburgh in March.