Few wrestlers, if any, came into the 2023-2024 college wrestling season with more momentum than Cornell’s Vito Arujau.
Since winning his 133-pound bracket at last year’s NCAA tournament and earning Most Outstanding Wrestling honors, Arujau went on to win the U.S. Open, earn gold at the Pan American Games, outscore NCAA champion teammate Nahshon Garrett 2-0 in Final X and secure his first senior world title.
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He had been nearly unstoppable on every stage. Until he met Lehigh’s Ryan Crookham.
A redshirt freshman from Pennsylvania, Crookham went 8-1 last year and started this season strong by winning the Princeton Open. His defining moment, though, officially came on Sunday, when he beat teammate No. 6 Conor McGonagle in the semifinals of the Journeyman Classic before stopping the reigning NCAA champion Arujau 8-4 in the finals of this open tournament.
The win marked the second time a No.1-ranked athlete has taken a loss this year, as Purdue’s Matt Ramos dropped to high school star Marcus Blaze last weekend and took a second loss to N.C. State’s Jakob Camacho this weekend.
These upsets are two of many wild results from across the country last weekend in college wrestling. Let’s break down what these results mean and how they could affect the rankings heading into Week 3.
Jakob Camacho, Brendan McCrone and Jack Maida cause shakeups at 125 pounds
The 125-pound weight class was always going to be chaos this year. The graduation of 2023 NCAA champion Pat Glory left Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the No. 1 spot after the Boilermaker upset three-time NCAA champion Spencer Lee in the semifinals of last year’s tournament. The spotlight was on Ramos like never before.
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In his first tournament back on the mat for the year, Ramos took a loss last weekend to Blaze before wrestling back for third place. He earned respect for his toughness in the consolation bracket, though his season would continue to be paved with speedbumps. On Saturday afternoon, Ramos dropped a close, competitive bout to No. 12 Jakob Camacho of N.C. State, a result that will cause him to slip further in the rankings while the Wolfpack national qualifier will bump up. Camacho has been a contender on the national scene for a while, and his win over Ramos wasn’t as dramatic as Blaze’s win over the Boilermaker, but the result is still significant and demonstrates Camacho’s talents against top-tier opponents.
This match wasn’t the only upset as this now-volatile weight though.
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Virginia Tech’s Eddie Ventresca, a No. 27 seed from last year’s NCAA tournament but an All-American nevertheless, also took a notable loss — two in fact — over the weekend that will impact his ranking as well. On Friday night in his home gym, Ventresca dropped 11-3 to Ohio State’s Brendan McCrone, a redshirt freshman who is now 6-2 on the year after losses to Tristan Lujan and Nick Babin at the Michigan State Open. McCrone’s major decision win over the Hokie proved critical in Ohio State’s upset win against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and will likely slot the young Buck into the Top 33 this coming week.
Starting at 125 this afternoon with Middle School McCrone📚 #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/hQhQFUF9Qd
Ventresca, on the other hand, then took a second loss to American’s Jack Maida on Sunday, giving Maida his second ranked upset win in as many weeks. The lone NCAA qualifier for the Eagles last season, Maida went 22-15 up at 133 pounds last season and is now 7-0 down at 125 pounds following his 9-0 shutout over his Hokie foe. His individual victory also gave American four team points in a dual where the Hokies would win the remaining nine weights. Ventresca’s losses create some rankings shifts this week, as the Hokie will no doubt drop, potentially outside the top 15. He’ll have a chance for redemption on Friday though when Virginia Tech travels to New Jersey to take on Rutgers in a dual where Ventresca could meet No. 6 Dean Peterson. These two athletes have never wrestled in college, but they have similar results against common opponents including wins over All-American Pat McKee and losses to N.C. State’s Jarrett Trombley and All-Americans Brandon Kaylor of Oregon State and Liam Cronin of Nebraska.
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This weight will likely continue to evolve dramatically over the next few months, but Camacho, McCrone and Maida all showed that they are contenders in this weight and here to make some noise early.
North Carolina and Navy notch team upset wins
McCrone demonstrated just how much a big win at 125 pounds can set a tone of a team on a quest for an upset, as his major decision propelled the Buckeyes to their first top-five win of the weekend, and Ohio State was just one of several teams to earn standout ranked wins over the weekend.
North Carolina, now under the leadership of first-year head coach Rob Koll, stopped a tough Sun Devil team in Pennsylvania 22-16, moving the Heels to a 4-1 record overall after dropping to Oregon State last week. The Arizona State Sun Devils have consistently been a trophy team, and they came into the dual ranked No. 13 in the country, while Carolina was on the outside of the top 25 looking in. This result will change that.
Coming back to Chapel Hill with ✌️ W’s!#GoHeels | #TogetherWeWin pic.twitter.com/t0HN7r4ri2
The Heels were led by 125-pound Spencer Moore who notched a tech fall against Damian Moreno just one week after upsetting All-American Brandon Kaylor. Carolina also picked up bonus points from Sonny Santiago and Max Shaw via major decisions over Michaek Kilic and Jacob Meissner while Cade Lautt notched a decision over Damion Schunke. Injuries plagued the Sun Devils in this match and in their dual against Lock Haven, as both Jesse Vasquez and Jacori Teemer took injury default losses over the weekend against Lachlan McNeil and Eric Aldefer, respectively.
While these defaults, combined with the overall team loss to the Heels, were not what the Sun Devils were looking for when they came East, there was one particular bright spot for Arizona State over the weekend. Upperweight Tony Negron, a former Penn State wrestler, picked up the biggest win over his career against the Tar Heels, topping No. 6 Gavin Kane 6-4 in a win that will likely propel Negron into the Top 33. Negron came up short of qualifying for the national tournament last year, but he’s off to a 5-0 start with 60% bonus, and he’ll likely have No. 17 Colton Hawks of Missouri next week in a second consecutive ranked test. Arizona State has historically had a strong squad in March, and while the injuries are concerning, the progress of Negron and the strength of his teammates make this a program to follow, despite the loss to North Carolina.
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Arizona State and North Carolina aren’t the only two teams who will see a shift in their rankings, for worse or for better, this week. The Midshipmen of Navy and the Pittsburgh Panthers will also move up and down respectively, as the Midshipmen continued their stellar season and topped the No. 16 Panthers 21-12 to stay undefeated in duals.
Navy got off to a hot start against Pitt, winning 125, 133 and 141 pounds, with the latter of those three weights serving as the most notable result as No. 23 Josh Koderhandt topped All-American No. 7 Cole Matthews 5-3. Koderhandt is now 3-0 on the year, a record that mirrors his 133-pound teammate No. 17 Brendan Ferretti’s record after Ferretti notched an upset win of his own against Pitt when he topped No. 10 Vince Santaniello. Teammate Jonathan Ley also notched a win against Jared Keslar in sudden victory to extend Navy’s lead midway through the dual 12-3 before the Panthers went on a run and notched Ws at 165, 174, and 197.
NCAA Team of the Week#NCAAWrestling x @NavyWrestling pic.twitter.com/9VvrZHuvhi
Midshipmen Grady Griess and David Key secured the win for Navy though when they picked up upset wins at 285 and 184 pounds respectively, as Griess outscored freshman star Dayton Pitzer of Pitt and Key pinned national qualifier Reece Heller of the Panthers in the first period. Heller is the second ranked athlete that Key has pinned so far this year and the tenth ranked wrestler that the Mid has topped in his career. Key now moves to 3-0 on the year with 100% bonus at 184 pounds and will look to qualify for the national tournament again this season and make a run in a fairly open weight class. Griess, on the other hand, is 2-1 on the year with his lone loss coming against Luke Luffman last weekend, though the Pitzer win will surely increase his confidence moving forward. This is a Navy team anchored by Griess that just keeps getting better and better from top to bottom.
All-Americans Peyton Hall and Peyton Mocco take losses to Duke, Cal Poly
While several athletes around the country notched upset wins over All-Americans, two additional previous podium-finishers, both named Peyton, took losses this week, as West Virginia’s Peyton Hall and Missouri’s Peyton Mocco dropped to Gaetano Console by fall and Adam Kemp 8-7 respectively.
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Mocco, a sixth-year senior for the Tigers, finished eighth at last year’s national tournament after topping Cade DeVos of South Dakota State in the Blood Round, and he now holds a 2-1 record at this point in the year with wins over Dom Solis and Austin Keal at the Tiger Style Invite and a loss to Kemp in the finals. This upset loss to the Mustang though was close, and this was the first meeting between these two in their careers. Mocco’s part of a deep Missouri team that finished fifth nationally last year. He’s in a room where he’ll continue to develop and will be expected to once again be a podium contender at 174 pounds. This result likely says more about Kemp, also a sixth year senior, than it does about Mocco.
Kemp started his career at Fresno State where he went 17-14 in his first year as a starter for the Bulldogs. After transferring to Cal Poly, Kemp slid into the starting lineup at 165 pounds and posted a 4-5 record during the COVID season before breaking through the following year and qualifying for the national tournament at 174 pounds. He wrestled just four matches last year, going 1-3, but he’s 6-0 now to start the 2023-2024 season with wins over Mocco and All-American Jackson Turley. The 174-pound weight class is deep, but Kemp is making some early statements. The Mustangs, as a team, will compete in the Roadrunner Open next week before prepping for the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, where Kemp will undoubtedly meet another slate of ranked opponents in his bracket and see just where he stacks up in this talented field.
Where the journey starts and ends.#TigerStyle #KansasCity pic.twitter.com/uSYeDNxieM
Down a weight class at 165 pounds, more chaos ensued over the weekend. Duke’s Gaetano Console, a sophomore who lost both of his matches last weekend, rebounded in a notable way this week, beating Daniel Patton of Cleveland State 2-0 before pinning Peyton Hall of West Virginia to deliver Hall his second upset loss of the year. This bout proved to be the only match that West Virginia would lose in its dual against Duke though, as the Mountaineers ultimately topped the Blue Devils 40-6 to move to 3-0 on the year. West Virginia will wrestle Clarion next where Hall is not expected to have a ranked opponent and can look to rebound himself with a solid win. Hall battled injuries last season which potentially impacted his performance in the postseason, but he does have career wins over All-Americans Wyatt Sheets and his capable of making a run, if he’s healthy.
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