Nov 11, 2018
Pretty full plate of college wrestling action going down on
Saturday, but first, my oldest Lucy still isn’t feeling good, but
my wife survived her 20+ hour trip back to the U.S. from Singapore
just in time to make dinner.
I’m actually kidding. We picked up dinner on the way home from the
airport and I do most of the cooking because I have the job that
has the home office. She’s also like, super awesome at her job.
With the homestead back to normal, save the kiddo being sick, I’d
like to welcome you to Short Time Shots, a semi-daily podcast aimed
at giving you, the wrestling fan, all you need to know about the
night’s (or previous day’s) wrestling news in a short, somewhat
funny, or not, format. I’m Jason Bryant and I’ve skipped over the
Octoberfests and I’ve gone right to the porters and stouts!
There were 24 duals in Division I on Saturday with most of them
taking place in the Capital Region of New York where Mr. Awesome
Frank Popolizio hosted the Journeymen MyHouse Northeast Duals. We
saw a lot of good individual action and a few upsets, but the
biggest one team-wise came as Utah Valley knocked off No. 15
Rutgers 24-14.
Rutgers jumped out to a big lead early, with a pair of major
decisions at 125 and 133. After Utah Valley’s Matt Findlay picked
up a fall at 141, Rutgers’ Anthony Ashnault matched it with a fall
of his own at 149, giving Rutgers a 14-4 lead after four matches.
Now, say it in your Red Dawn voice, the WOLVERINES, reeled off six
straight wins to close things out, the biggest likely being Grant
LaMont’s 9-6 win over John Van Brill at 157 pounds. Tanner
Orndorff’s 9-2 win over Matthew Correnti sealed the deal after
197.
Utah Valley did fight pretty hard earlier in the day, and that’s
just not one of those cliché headlines when a team gets blown out.
Yes, we saw a few of those already with teams “fighting hard” in a
48-3 loss or something like that. Yeah, you actually didn’t. You
know who did, though? Utah Valley. No. 12 Nebraska, which was
favored by like 19.5 points according to that one online sportsbook
that’s now throwing out wrestling lines, needed a crucial win at
197 pounds by Eric Schultz to avoid the upset. Even without Zeke
Moisey for that dual, the Huskers held on 19-15. No. 12 Nebraska
went 3-0 on the day, also picking up a 28-9 win over Drexel and a
21-15 win over Virginia. No, we didn’t see Louie Hayes vs. Zeke
Moisey. Moisey wrestled one match on the day, one where he had to
do everything he could to beat Drexel freshman Antonio Mininno
8-7.
Elsewhere in Troy, Utah Valley’s Matt Findlay and Virginia’s Sam
Krivus both beat Nebraska All-American Chad Red on the day. Another
Husker, Isaiah White, had a rough day as well. The former Division
II national champion fell to Ebed Jarrell of Drexel and Demetrius
Romero of Utah Valley.
No. 17 Purdue went 2-0, blasting Bloomsburg 35-5 and Drexel 25-14.
No. 21 Wyoming beat Edinboro 33-6 and Virginia 21-9.
I’m going to give Johnny Clark some time here. Sacred Heart is no
stranger to this show. I had their old coach Andy Lausier on the
show on two different occasions, but he’s now at Davidson and Clark
is running the show.
On Saturday in Troy, Sacred Heart won two duals, which was the
exact amount they won last year. They won two duals against
Division I opposition, which has only happened sparingly since
former coach Andy Seras left, like 10+ years ago. And not only did
they win two duals against D1 competition, they did it in the same
DAY. Now the internet archive kinda sucks when trying to pull up
database-drive sites like the old InterMat from 10 years ago, but
the most likely scenario that saw Sacred Heart ever win two
Division I duals in one day was when Seras was coaching them and
the Pioneers were in the CAA.
It was also Sacred Heart’s first Division I win in the last eight
years over a team not named Bloomsburg, Davidson or VMI. While
Sacred Heart did also beat Bloomsburg on Saturday, the win I’m
talking about here is the 24-22 win over The Citadel.
Three things you LIKELY didn’t know about Sacred Heart - it’s
program started in 1999, it’s in Fairfield, Connecticut and it’s
the only Catholic university with a Division I wrestling
program.
While we’re talking about religious schools doing cool things …
Cal Baptist is in its first year transitioning from Division II to
Division I, which means the Lancers are in a bit of a no-man’s land
when it comes to postseason competition. Coach Lennie Zalesky’s
squad earned its first win as a Division I program over a Division
I program on Saturday with a 28-10 win over Cal Poly.
So I found myself watching the closing bouts of Western Colorado’s
18-17 win over Nebraska-Kearney. I love small college wrestling
because of the cool, wacky things that go on. So Western Colorado
was formerly known as Western State College, then it became Western
State Colorado University, if for nothing more than to keep all the
merchandise that said WSC relevant. I guess that old gear ran out
and the board of visitors said, ok, we’re Western Colorado
University now.
A fall by Konnor Schmidt at 197 pounds gave Western Colorado a
four-point lead heading into heavyweight and Kearney’s Jarrod
Hinrichs did everything he could to score bonus points to try to
send the dual to criteria or win outright, but came up just short
10-3, which clinched the dual for the Mountaineers. This was under
a mat lamp, there were dudes with their chests painted hoopin’ and
hollerin’ around the mat. It was a wild atmosphere. By the way,
Western Colorado holds the distinction of being the highest school
in college sports - NO, I don’t mean that kind of high with the
laws in Colorado, I mean the altitude. Gunnison, Colorado sits
7,700 feet above sea-level. The University of Wyoming holds that
distinction in Division I, at just over 7,200 feet.
Yes, I was a geography nerd as a kid.
The last time Clackamas Community College tasted defeat came back
in 2015 when Division I Oregon State topped the Cougars. And this
narrative of winning streaks will continue as Clackamas won its
40th straight dual, topping NAIA Eastern Oregon 34-10 on
Saturday.
The Clackamas win streak is the nation’s third longest in any
division, behind NAIA Grand View, which has won 64 dual meets in a
row dating back to November 7, 2014 when the Vikings were narrowly
defeated by Iowa State, yes, THAT Iowa State 22-18.
In case you’re wondering, Penn State’s streak is second behind
Grand View at 45 and counting.
In Division III, Springfield won the City Championship, beating the
other three college wrestling teams in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Pride beat Western New England 24-17, American International
45-8 and Springfield Tech 45-6.
Now to some notable tournament nuggets. The first one we’ll go with
will be out in Fargo, where Mike Quamme is still likely buying
beers at the Bison Turf. Don’t know Quamme? Ask Chris Willaert
about their trip to Rio … oh wait, that’s right, Willaert wasn’t
there. Quamme was one of the dudes who was with me and Julia Salata
when we were all over Olympic Late Night with Ryan Seacrest. He’s
also an NDSU alum.
Oh yeah, NDSU. Gable Steveson, wrestling unattached, won the Bison
Open beating 2017 All-American Tanner Hall of Arizona State 3-1 in
sudden victory in the finals. Minnesota beat Air Force 33-3 in
Colorado Springs on Friday night, so as of this moment, Steveson’s
on redshirt. How long he stays there remains to be seen.
Anything else notable? Well, other than Lee Pritts reminding me
where he taught me how to play blackjack on Friday night, nah, not
really. Returning national champion Zahid Valencia won at 174
pounds, picking up three falls and spending 4:48 on the mat all
tournament.
In Des Moines at the Grand View Open, it was mostly a redshirting
freshman showcase as titles were won by Nebraska’s Alex Thomson,
Iowa State’s David Carr, and Iowa’s duo of Nelson Brands and
Anthony Cassioppi.
At the Kaufman-Brand in St. Louis, Missouri’s Brock Mauller won
again. Everytime this kid wins a tournament, he’s going to get into
Short Time Shots. It could be the Afton Quadrangular, I don’t care.
I want more Brock Mauller.
At the Northern Colorado Open, Aaron Brooks won again. What’s also
interesting about that tournament is Northern Colorado’s Rico
Montoya, an NCAA qualifier last season at 133, won at 125
pounds.
Johnson & Wales had five champions and scored 153.5 points to win
the Roger Williams Invitational up in Bristol, Rhode Island. One
thing some of you folks don’t know about is how active and
competitive Division III is. Johnson & Wales’ returning national
champion Jay Albis, who saw both positive and negative comments
from fans after first-period tech fall against a Division I
opponent last week, well, he was upended 6-4 by Southern Maine’s
Peter Del Gallo in overtime in the finals at 125.
Not to bring up Albis’ loss in a negative light, but seriously
folks, if you would just GO to a Division III tournament and start
following it as a whole, you’ll see the competitiveness there is
among some of the best … in the WORLD. I announce the biggest and
best tournaments the world has to offer and TRUST ME, the Division
III championships is one of the most fun tournaments on the
planet.
UNSCRIPTED DIVISION III RANT
JWU champs were Jordan Robinson at 133, Gabe McDaniel at 141,
Da’Mani Burns at 149, Khamri Thomas at 184 and Michael DiNardo at
197.
North Central won the Trine Invitational, outdistancing
second-place Olivet 149.5 to 127.
In California, West Hills College edged Bakersfield College
158.5-158 to win the Southeast Wrestling Alliance Conference.
That’s in the California Community College league. They wrestle a
fall semester only. West Hills had three champs. Bakersfield, the
RENEGADES, had four.
Not much on the women’s side to report, other than Emmanuel beat
King and the University of the Cumberlands in dual meet
competition.
As always, all these scores and more available at the nation’s most
comprehensive college wrestling scoreboard at
almanac.mattalkonline.com.
Want to say thank you? Join the team and send a contribution our
way at mattalkonline.com/jointheteam.
That was Short Time Shots for November 10, 2018.
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