The Biggest Stories From Conference Weekend
The Biggest Stories From Conference Weekend
Check out the biggest stories from a wild weekend of conference championships.
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Conference weekend was wild as expected. All seven NCAA wrestling conferences held their championships between Friday and Sunday. There were almost too many unbelievable results to keep track of, but here are the biggest stories from this weekend around the country.
Seven Teams Win Titles
For the second year in a row, Campbell won a Southern Conference title. This year, the Camels were led by five SoCon champions: Korbin Meink at 125, Noah Gonser at 133, Josh Heil at 141, Quentin Perez at 165, and Andrew Morgan at 184. Heavyweight Jere Heino joins the five champs as an automatic qualifier for NCAAs.
Arizona State won its third Pac-12 Championship in the last four years, and they, like Campbell in the SoCon, won half the weight classes. The Sun Devil champs included Brandon Courtney at 125, Jacori Teemer at 157, Anthony Valencia at 174, Kordell Norfleet at 197, and Tanner Hall at 285. Josh Shields was the runner-up at 165 and is a sixth automatic qualifier for NCAAs
Missouri won another MAC title at Northern Illinois. While Brock Mauller was the only conference champ for the Tigers, six automatically qualified for NCAAs. Joining Mauller are 133-pounder Allan Hart, 141-pounder Grant Leeth, 157-pounder Jarrett Jacques, 174-pounder Connor Flynn, and 184-pounder Dylan Wisman.
The NC State Wolfpack took home the ACC title. Along the way, Jakob Camacho and Hayden Hidlay won titles at 125 and 157, respectively. They qualified a total of eight for NCAAs and will be represented at every weight other than 149 and 197.
The EIWA crown belongs to Lehigh this year. Their three champs were the most of any team in the conference. Josh Humphreys won the title at 157 followed by Jordan Kutler at 174 and Jordan Wood at 285. Like Arizona State, Lehigh automatically qualified eight for NCAAs, every weight except for 149 and 165.
In Tulsa, the Oklahoma State Cowboys won another Big 12 Championship crowning individual champions at 125 in Nick Piccininni, 149 in Boo Lewallen, and 165 in Travis Wittlake. A total of nine Cowboys have automatically qualified for NCAAs, including every weight except 285.
Iowa put up 157.5 points to win the Big Ten Championship. Spencer Lee, Pat Lugo, and Alex Marinelli won titles, and everyone except for Kaleb Young automatically qualified for NCAAs, Young is very likely to earn an at-large bid.
Hodge Contender List Shrinks By 5
The Wrestling Nomad has been regularly updating his Official Hodge Rankings throughout the season. The last iteration included the 13 remaining undefeated wrestlers in the country. That list shrunk by five this weekend.
The #9 man on that list, Jack Mueller, was knocked off in the ACC finals by NC State's Jakob Camacho. The Wolfpack freshman beat the NCAA finalist 11-4 on Sunday night to earn an ACC title and put himself in the All-American conversation at 125.
The #6 ranked Hodge contender, Mason Parris, was defeated by the man right behind him on the list, Gable Steveson. The returning third-place finisher at NCAAs was clearly the better heavyweight at Big Tens and put an end to Parris' undefeated streak.
Mark Hall got revenge on #5 Michael Kemerer in the Big Ten finals, reversing a result from the Penn State vs Iowa dual earlier this season. In most years, both of these guys would be in the conversation for the Hodge, but they've traded wins, thus eliminated one another from consideration.
Nick Lee had been #3 on the Hodge contenders list, but he has now split matches with Ohio State's Luke Pletcher. While each now has a loss, this sets up a potential grudge match in the NCAA finals that could be one for the ages.
Similarly, Alex Marinelli got the better of Vincenzo Joseph in Sunday's Big Ten finals, returning the favor for the loss Cenzo gave him earlier this season. Each has only lost to the other, setting up the possibility of writing another chapter in their rivalry at NCAAs.
What Do Big Wins and Losses Mean For Critical Seeds?
Only eight wrestlers from Nomad's aforementioned Hodge contender list remain undefeated. Spencer Lee will probably remain at the top, now followed by Kollin Moore, Gable Steveson, and Ryan Deakin. Those four are likely to be seeded #1 at NCAAs, but the remaining men on the list are interesting.
If conference weekend had gone chalk, we would have expected a Jack Mueller vs Pat Glory semifinal. Could Mueller's loss to Camacho drop him below Nick Piccininni? That result would be big for Glory who already has a win over Piccininni this year.
Noah Adams won a Big 12 title, capping off his undefeated season for West Virginia. This cements him as the #2 seed behind Kollin Moore.
Stanford's Shane Griffith remains undefeated which makes him the only undefeated wrestler at 165. Could that set him up to be the #1 seed at NCAAs, moving a potential Marinelli vs Cenzo rematch to the semis?
Chas Tucker's situation at 133 is similar to Shane Griffith's at 165. He's the only undefeated wrestler of the group, but he hasn't had the opportunity to wrestle the top guys who are all in the Big Ten. The seeding committee's decision about Tucker will have major implications for the 133 bracket in Minneapolis.
Upsets Everywhere
Check back in later for an article about the biggest upsets of the week. They happened everywhere. Out of the 70 weight classes that were contested during conference weekend, only 44 #1 seeds won their weight classes. That means 37.14 percent of all #1 seeds were upset this weekend!
Within the next day or two, we'll run down the biggest upsets from conference weekend as well as a comprehensive list of all the upsets we can find as these will surely impact seeding for the NCAA Championships.
133 at Big Ten Was as Crazy As We Hoped
The premier bracket of all of conference weekend happened at 133 in the Big Ten, where the top four wrestlers in the nation all made it to the semifinals. The drama actually started in the quarterfinals where Seth Gross had a wild match with Joey Silva and Roman Bravo-Young had insane exchanges with Sammy Alvarez.
Despite the depth of the field pushing the top guys, we ended up with Gross vs Rivera and DeSanto vs Bravo-Young rematches in the semifinals.
Gross won his first meeting against Sebastian Rivera at Midlands. Later in that tournament, Rivera sustained an injury that kept him out of most of the regular season. He looked healthy here, however, and earned a gutsy 7-6 win over Seth Gross.
The other semifinal had just as much drama as RBY and DeSanto picked up their rivalry from last year this season in a dual in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. RBY won that match by injury default but won a fully-contested match this time.
In the finals, RBY struck first, but it was ultimately Sebastian Rivera who came away with the win in his home state of New Jersey. Rivera has wrestled the fewest matches of any of the top four this season, so it will be interesting to see how the seeds fall for the NCAA Championships.
Intrigue In The Iowa & Penn State Team Race
It might sound ridiculous to say that the Iowa vs Penn State team race got more interesting this weekend considering the 50.5-point gap between the two squads, but a few developments could have major impacts on that team title race in two weeks.
First, remember that the Big Ten Championship brackets only have 14 wrestlers while NCAA brackets have 33. That means that top point-scorers make a way bigger difference in the NCAA Championships because it is much harder for your second-tier guys to score meaningful points in a bigger bracket.
The first Big Ten development that could impact the team race is the down-performance from All-American Kaleb Young. He will need an at-large bid to get into the tournament after being ranked as high as second this year. Losing potential placement points from Young could really hurt the Hawks.
RBY out-placed DeSanto. Even though RBY had the injury default win over DeSanto earlier this year, we didn't get to see a full match between the two this season until Big Tens. RBY truly seems to have caught and passed DeSanto, a development that could pull the Nittany Lions a bit closer.
Shakur Rasheed had his best performance of the season this weekend, even splitting matches with Jacob Warner. Penn State fans have long considered him to be an important part of their title hopes. Beating All-Americans is a good sign.
Penn State also had five Big Ten finalists compared to Iowa's 4. If the Nittany Lions can do something similar at NCAAs, they might be closer than a lot of people think. Cael Sanderson's squads have been notoriously top-heavy, and their NCAA finalists and champions have scored the points that have won so many team titles.
The question of how close Iowa and Penn State are heading into NCAAs deserves further investigation, but at first glance, there could be reason for some small optimism for Nittany Lion fans.