Jan 6, 2018
So it’s been a few weeks since we downed a few shots, and no, I’m not talking about your double imperial homebrewed egg nog. I love craft beer, especially the stuff made up here by Minnesota’s finest, but come on -- no one needs a Russian Imperial triple-hopped barrel aged collaborative fest bier, unless that beer is FREE! I’m Jason Bryant, and this is Short Time Shots, a look back at the days happenings in college wrestling.
To me, the most important thing going on was the NWCA Multi-Divisional National Duals. The event featured 86 teams from five college divisions, over 50 ranked teams and an astounding 345 nationally ranked wrestlers. Basically, there’s currently 76 teams in Division I wrestling -- there were more teams in this event than there were in the nation’s most popular division.
Why? Because these ranked Division I duals won’t take that long to power through. By the way, Happy New Year.
No. 2 Ohio State squashed Maryland 44-3, but that’s not surprising. Nathan Tomasello made his much-anticipated season debut at 125 pounds and he didn’t spend that much time on the mat, registering a technical fall against Maryland’s Brandon Cray.
Third-ranked Oklahoma State scored bonus victories from heavyweight Derek White and 133-pounder Kaid Brock to get past fifth-ranked NC State 19-16 in the Tussle for the Troops, the first ever NCAA college dual meet to take place outside of North America. Why do I have to specify North America? Simon Fraser is an NCAA Division II school and they’re in Canada, so it wouldn’t be the first NCAA dual outside of the U.S. and it wouldn’t be the first Division I dual either, considering D1 teams have wrestled at Simon Fraser in the past.
Oh, yeah -- Kevin Jack beat Dean Heil with a late takedown in the third period. After winning over 50 in a row, Mean Dean has lost two straight. 141 is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Shout out to you Hanna Grisewood.
Seventh-ranked Iowa laid the wood to Michigan State, picking up six falls and coming away with a 49-6 victory. STOP BURYING THE LEDE! Spencer Lee made his Carver-Hawkeye debut and promptly decked another talented freshman, RayVon Foley in 46 seconds. Not to be confused with the 46 MINUTES I had to wait today for my Freaky NOT FAST Jimmy Johns lunch delivery. Anyway -- anyone remember that story about the Iowa college student that tried to bribe a police officer to get out of a ticket with some Jimmy John’s? I’d have taken it.
Michigan shut out Indiana 43-0. Things went about how you might expect there. South Dakota State, which sits at No. 15, the highest ranking in school history, beat Oregon State 30-15. Seth Gross, ANOTHER fall at 133 pounds. Seriously, if it weren’t for guys named Nolf and Retherford, Gross would be getting a lot more chatter.
General funkiness down in Chapel Hill as Wyoming went 4-0, beating No. 19 North Carolina, American, Duke and Army West Point. North Carolina has proven to be a nightmare when coordinating the Division I coaches poll. This is the same team that started the year ranked, lost 31-6 to Purdue, beat No. 8 Minnesota and then loses to Wyoming -- the same Wyoming team that split with Oklahoma State. Sure, no AC Headlee or Ethan Ramos for UNC. Dalton Macri had a really tough day up at 141 pounds for the Heels.
Now, time to roll! National Duals Time. Oh wait, one more thing.
I was going to mention this on Thursday night, but quite frankly, it was late and I had to take my inlaws to the airport at O’Dark Thirty.
Fresno State picked up its first win against a Division I opponent since reinstatement with a 29-13 victory over Cal Poly. Josh Hokit, welcome to the party. Right off the football field and in there with a fall. Attaboy coach Steiner.
While Thursday’s competition at the NWCA Multi-Divisional National Duals was fueled by upsets, traditional powers settled in on Friday where three championship streaks continued as the finals wrapped up at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Grand View collected its seventh straight NAIA National Duals championship, Clackamas won its fifth in a row in the NJCAA division, while St. Cloud State won its second straight title in Division II. Augsburg beat rival Wartburg to end the Knights’ seven-year win streak in Division III, while Campbellsville won its first title in the WCWA division.
Hosted by the NUWAY, the NWCA Multi-Divisional National Duals is presented by Applied Silver, InBody, Therawox and the United States Marine.
WCWA
The Lady Tigers of Campbellsville are the new queens of the
National Duals. A down-to-the-wire finish gave coach Lee Miracle’s
team the school’s first National Duals championship in any division
with a 24-19 win over second-seeded McKendree.
It was truly a tale of two halves as McKendree jumped out to a 17-4 lead after winning the first five matches. The WCWA competes using international freestyle rules, allowing teams to score team points in a loss. Some lineup shifts by Campbellsville saw several wrestlers bump up two weights to maximize matchups including Grace Bullen, who went up to 143 from 130, and three-time WCWA champion Kayla Miracle, who went up to 155 from 136. Koral Sugiyama started Campbellsville’s roll of five straight wins with a fall over Brenda Reyna at 2:35 at 136.
Bullen and Miracle followed with fa fall and a technical fall. Bullen pinned McKendree’s Alexis Porter in a matchup of past Junior world bronze medalists. Miracle’s tech gave Campbellsville its first lead at 18-17 with two weights left.
Campbellsville’s Mariah Harris scored a 9-9 criteria over All-American Brandy Lowe at 170, putting the pressure on 191-pounders Kaitlyn Hill of Campbellsville and Destane Garrick of McKendree. Needed a shutout, a technical fall or a fall to win the dual for her team Garrick controlled the action early, but Hill hit a pair of four-point moves to pull out a 13-13 criteria victory and seal the win for Campbellsville.
Division II
St. Cloud State abruptly ended Seton Hill’s Cinderella run through
the Division II bracket, smoking the Griffins 41-0 in the Division
II final. The victory gave coach Steve Costanzo and the Huskies its
19th dual meet victory in a row and the program’s fourth Division
II National Duals title. They also won titles in 2012 and 2013.
St. Cloud State was the only seeded team to place in the top four -- they finished the event 34-6 individually.
Division III
Wartburg’s seven-year run atop the National Duals in Division III
came to an end at the hands of longtime rival Augsburg. The Auggies
split 10 matches with the Knights, but falls by David Flynn at 141
pounds and Lucas Jeske at 165 pounds were vital in the 21-17
victory.
It was the 11th time the two teams have met in the Division III National Duals finals and the win on Friday gave Augsburg a 6-5 lead in the overall series when the teams meet in the championship final. Wartburg has 11 titles in the event, compared to the six won by Augsburg. Wartburg has reached the title match in all 17 years of the Multi-Divisional format.
Augsburg opened winning the first three bouts, highlighted by Flynn’s fall over Martine Sandoval. Wartburg would chip away at the lead after wins by All-Americans Cross Cannone and Logan Thomsen before top-ranked Jeske picked up a fall late in the second period to put Augsburg handily in the lead. Stephen Larson’s 6-4 win at 184 pounds clinched the win for coach Jim Moulsoff’s Auggies, who had to get past a scrappy Johnson & Wales team just to make the final.
Augsburg and Wartburg will reacquaint themselves in the annual Battle of the Burgs dual on February 1 in Waverly, Iowa. I will drive there. It will happen.
NAIA
Grand View won its seventh straight NAIA National Duals title on
Friday, defeating sixth-seeded Williams Baptist 33-9. The seventh
title in a row ties Wartburg’s all-division record that ended on
Friday.
Williams Baptist briefly held a 6-3 lead after Nick Souder’s pin over Omeed Chamanzad at 133 pounds, but Grand View would win seven of the next eight bouts, including national champion Josh Wenger’s 7-2 win over All-American Tyler Fraley at 149 pounds. Fellow national champions Grant Henderson (165) and Evan Hansen (197) scored bonus victories before Dean Broghammer avenged last year’s NAIA semifinal loss to Williams Baptist’s Demetrius Thomas with a 3-2 decision at 285 pounds, sparked by Broghammer’s takedown late in the second period.
Grand View’s dual meet streak has been impressive. The Vikings have won 60 straight duals and 89 of 90 duals overall since the start of the 2011-12 season. The lone blemish was a loss on November 7, 2013 at Division I Iowa State. Now in the program’s 10th season, Grand View has lost just nine duals in school history.
NJCAA
Clackamas stopped Northeastern Oklahoma A&M 27-14 to earn the
Cougars’ fifth straight NJCAA championship. It’s the third straight
year Clackamas has defeated NEO in the junior college final.
The key for Josh Rhoden’s squad came with four straight wins
between 149 and 174 pounds.
At 165, Clackamas’ Dayton Racer beat NEO’s Wyatt Jordan 10-4 in a
matchup of returning national champions. Racer, last year’s champ
at 157, trailed early and with the score tied at four with just
over 30 seconds left, Racer scored a takedown and four nearfall
points to pick up the victory.
Clackamas’ top-ranked Dylan Reel needed overtime to get past Devin Crawl at 174 pounds, while Gage Harrah is sure to break into the NJCAA rankings after his 48-second fall over Gus Boyd at 197 pounds.
The title is Clackamas’ sixth overall. The Cougars previous won the NJCAA National Duals title in 2011.
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