Week 2 of the 2025-26 NCAA D1 college wrestling season has officially come and gone. And while much of the week felt like a prelude to the National Duals Invitational, there were still plenty of notable results worth commenting on, which is exactly what this blog will do.

Box Scores | Rankings | Week 1 Roundup

We'll start with the return of everyone's favorite reecuring Roundup bit. 

The Dual of the Century... of the Week

Good Dual Cowboys: Oklahoma State Stomps Stanford 33-7

Stillwater has been dealing with elevated levels of hype since David Taylor was announced as the successor to the legendary John Smith as head coach of the Cowboys. Year two of the Magic Man Era has kept those hype levels in the red, with no signs of slowing down. 

The 2025-26 edition of the Stilly Boys features a slew of new faces, and Friday was the varsity debut for Richard Figuero at 133, Sergio Vega at 141, Casey Swiderski at 149, Landon Robideau at 157, LaDarion Lockett at 165, Alex Facundo at 174, Zach Ryder at 184, and Cody Merrill at 197 in Oklahoma State singlets. Only the bookends, Troy Spratley and Konner Doucet at 125 and 285, respectively, have started a postseason for the Cowboys before. 

Figueroa is up from 125, where he was a national champ for Arizona State in 2024. Swiderski is a transfer from Iowa State, where he was an All-American. Alex Facundo and Zach Ryder are both transferred from Penn State, although Ryder is a redshirt freshman and Facundo was a national qualifier at 165 in 2023. Vega, Robideau and Lockett are all true freshmen and have the ability to redshirt despite getting the start thanks to new freshman redshirt rules. Merrill is a redshirt freshman who wrestled unattached last season. 

That's all great, but how did the dual go is what you may be asking. You can read our award-winning live blog here. Or you can read the bullet points below.

• Oklahoma State won 8 of 10 bouts. 
  • Stanford was without the services Nico Provo and Lorenzo Norman at 125 and 174, respectively. 
  • Both schools had two participants at last week's NWCA All-Star Classic.
    • Stanford's participants, Daniel Cardenas and Hunter Garvin, both dropped bouts to Cowboy true freshmen, as Robideau beat Cardenas 11-2 at 157 and Lockett beat Garvin 2-1 at 165. 
    • The two Cowboy ASC participants went 1-1. Zach Ryder won a tight bout over Abraham Wojcikiewicz 4-2 and Casey Swiderski got majored by redshirt freshman Aden Valencia. 
  • Aden Valencia and Landon Robideau both beat veteran All-Americans in what were the most impressive performances for their respective teams. 
  • Tyler Knox also beat an All-American when he defeated Figueroa. Additionally, the Cardinal got a promising performance from California native Angelo Posada in his 5-3 loss to Merrill. 

Want more Cowboy content? Check out this post-dual presser featuring DT, Robideau, Lockett and Doucet!

Last Week's Dual of the Century of the Week

I forgot to do one last week so another shout-out to the Duke Blue Devils for their scintillating 19-18 victory over Sacred Heart that came down to the final bout. The heroes of the dual were Connor Barket, who got a much needed tech-fall at 285 -- which was the penultimate bout of the dual -- and Riley Rowan, who clinched the come-from-behind twam win in the final bout at 125 with a 2-0 victory on the strength of an escape and third-period ride-out. Good dual, Blue Devils. 

New Look Hawkeyes Cruise To Shut Out Victory

The Iowa Hawkeyes also had a revamped lineup, as they added three talented transfers in the offseason: All-American Nasir Bailey at 141 and bloodrounders Dean Peterson at 125 and Jordan Williams at 157. The Hawkeyes also welcomed Massoma Endene at 197. Endene was Junior College national finalist at Iowa Lakes and a three-time NCAA Division III national champ at Wartburg College (also located in Iowa). 

All the brand new Hawkeyes (and all the returning Hawkeyes for that matter) won their bouts as Iowa steamrolled Bellarmine at home last Thursday, 40-0. Perhaps the most anticipated bout was Angelo Ferrari's first official varsity bout at 184. The talented redshirt freshman has already proven his bona fides thanks to a 6-3 win over Dustin Plott in sudden victory in one of the most electric matches in recent Iowa history, but his tech-fall Thursday night was the first official varsity bout (unless he gets hurt and gets a medical redshirt but let's not think about that right now). 

Here are the match notes to the dual and here is the video I posted in last week's Roundup where our very own Tyler Meisinger spent a day with the young Ferrari phenom. 

Roster Battles Featured In Tourney Time

Saturday and Sunday featured several high profiile tournaments which various teams used to help figure out some roster conundrums, or at least get closer to solving them. 

• Vinny Kilkeary and Seth Shumate won 125 and 197 at the Michigan State Open.
• Arizona State entered Kyler and Kaleb Larkin at 133 and 149 in the freshman/sophomore division of the MSU Open, where they each won a title. 
• Anthony Echemendia and Evan Frost both made the finals of the Iowa State Invitational at 141, which was a no-contest. 
• Paniro Johnson won the 149 Bracket at the same tourney over #22 David Evans, a Penn State transfer to Utah Valley (that path worked pretty well for Terrell Barraclough last season). 
• In fact, the Cyclones swept the last eight weights at their own tournament. Vinny Zerban, Connor Euton, MJ Gaitan, Isaac Dean, Rocky Elam and Yonger Bastida all won their brackets, which would likely give them pole position for any outstanding roster battles. 
  • Jacob Frost did not wrestle in the Iowa State Invitational and will likely still be in the mix for the Cyclone starting job at 149. 
  • Evan Frost is on his way down to 133, which is likely why he did not wrestle Echemendia in the finals. 
  • Stevo Poulin also didn't wrestle at the tournament but is expected to return to the mat and be the starting 125-pounder. 
  • Bastida beat Wisconsin's Braxton Amos in the finals. Nice to see Amos back on the mat for the first time since 2023, when he was down at 197, despite the loss. 
• At the Tiger Style Invitational, Zeke Seltzer won the 141lb division in his home gym, which may give head coach Brian Smith the confidence to start Seltzer this season and have blue-chip recruit Seth Mendoza redshirt. 
• Purdue's Stoney Buell had a successful tournament in Columbia, Missouri, as well, defeating #14 Cael Swenson of South Dakota State. Head coach Tony Ersland might have the right idea with Buell and 2025 NCAA 157lb finalist Joey Blaze swapping weights this season.
• Jackrabbit head coach Damion Hahn was able to flex some impressive depth at the Tiger Style Invite. Three South Dakota State non-starters made the finals, with Cale Seaton winning 133 and Marcus Espinoza-Ownes and Thomas Dineen finishing as runners-up at 165 and 197. 
• Minnesota has a good problem on their hands with two solid options at heavyweight: Bennett Tabor, who won the Bison Open in Fargo, North Dakota, and Koy Hopke, who won the Southeast Open last week. 
  • Hopke was defeated by Nebraska's blue-chip true freshman Cade Ziola in the Bison Open semis. Ziola was then defeated by Tabor in the finals 6-2. 
  • Minnesota head coach Brandon Eggum is likely still mulling his options at 174. Clayton Whiting and #23 Ethan Riddle both made the finals of the Bison Open, which was then a no-contest. 

JourneymenMania in Bethlehem

Journeymen Wrestling, a major force in the wrestling world based out of Albany, New York, hosted two NCAA D1 events in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 

Wranglemania popped off first in Liberty High School, in which 10 programs wrestled nine duals on Saturday. Three bouts headlined the final session: a shorthanded Lehigh squad (missing Ryan Crookham, Luke Stanich and Nathan Taylor) scrape by a game Virginia team; Indiana dispatched Lock Haven with authority 25-8; and finally, Rutgers defeated Navy 24-12, but not before Navy was able to claim two top-ten wins, as unranked Kaemen Smith upset #7 Andrew Clark at 149 and #7 Danny Wask majored #8 Lenny Pinto at 184. 

On Sunday, it was a round-robin bonanza in Freedom High School. 19 schools entered wrestlers into a half dozen or so groups in each weight class. Those groups were often (but not always) divided into two pools. Everyone gets three to four matches in a day is the net result, which is a format that suits the needs of many wrestlers and their coaches early in the season. 

Notable results from the top group include:

• Matty Lopes from Lehigh defeating Evan Mougalian of Penn 3-2 at 133. 
  • It's unknown how long Crookham will be on the shelf, but having Matty Lopes as an option is very solid plan B for Mountain Hawk head coach Pat Santoro. 
• Penn's #6 Cross Wasilewski and Harvard's #23 Jimmy Harrington held off Penn State backups in the finals, with a 4-2 win over Connor Pierce for Cross at 149 and a 10-9 victory over Joe Sealey for Jimmy at 157. Ivy League fans were undoubtedly pleased by those results. 
• Maryland's #5 Jaxon Smith rebounded from his loss at the All-Star Classic with one of the best wins of the event when he defeated #16 James Conway of Franklin & Marshall.
• Also winners get this cool Hammer Award

Laid down the hammer to open the 2025-26 season 😤

📰 https://t.co/4XMb2voQJs#TheBuild x #FightOnPenn pic.twitter.com/wc0ZuOKZY4

— Penn Wrestling (@PennWrestling) November 9, 2025

Hanging Banners

NC State honored their first national champ since Michael Macchiavello won the 197lb division in 2018 when they hosted a banner for the 2025 125lb champ Vince Robinson to the top of Reynolds Coliseum.

Such a special moment for Vince, Coach, and the program 🐺#PackMentality pic.twitter.com/ngbEOYfbri

— NC State Wrestling 🤼‍♂️ (@PackWrestle) November 9, 2025

Nebraska had TWO banners to add to their collection of national champions. Ridge Lovett and Antrell Taylor won 149 and 157-pounds, respectively, last season. Thousands of Big Red fans packed into the Devaney Center to watch a dual meet between Nebraska and Army, including one of boxing's best ever, Bud Crawford, who is from Omaha, Nebraska (as is Antrell Taylor). 

There were other Husker alums in the building, such as one of the wrestler's best ever, Jordan Burroughs, who got to witness AJ Ferrari's Cornhusker debut. AJ defeated Army's ranked heavyweight Brady Colbert 4-0. 

HWT | @mrfasttwitch takes care of business in his Husker debut with a 4-0 dec. over No. 13 Colbert 💪 pic.twitter.com/4AcYP3Vf7W

— Nebraska Wrestling (@HuskerWrestling) November 8, 2025

Hey, Here's a Cool Video

The Iowa Hawkeyes just picked up a bevy of blue-chip recruits, the news of which was literally broken on the Baschamania podcast while I was typing up this Roundup. One of those recruits was Joe Bachmann, which would make this the perfect time to direct wrestling fans, especially the Hawkeye faithful, to this video, which our very own Tyler Meisinger and Connor Petros made. Ty-ty and the Con-man followed Joe Bachmann and friends around on the first official day of recruiting, producing this veritable piece of cinema as a result. 

A very cool video indeed in my humble opinion. Share it with your friends, it won't cost them anything to watch it!

What's On Tap Next Week?

I think you already know, but it's always worth mentioning the National Duals Invitational anyway because that event simply can't get enough hype. 

There will be 29 dual meets going down Saturday and Sunday, November 15 and 16, in the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 16 of the top D1 programs in the nation will compete in a dual meet tournament with a $200,000 grand prize on the line for the winner, courtesy of the good people at Paycom. You can watch 28 of those duals right here on FloWrestling dot org. The finals will be on ESPN 2. Not bad!

Want to know more? Of course you do. Click here and read more about the biggest wrestling event, with more content being added every day. Truly, it is a great day to be a college wrestling fan!

Heavy Metal Luncheon

Let's say you're planning on hosting a luncheon, where a dozen or so friends and acquaintances will come to your home and be elegantly served a multi-course meal. Now, let's say you want the theme of your luncheon to be heavy metal music. What tracks should you play? 

I would recommend the music of Chevelle, a grunge band from Illinois that fits somewhere on the heavy metal spectrum between the Deftones and Tool. Specifically, I would recommend playing Jars, the Red, Face to the Floor, Vitamin R, and Send the Pain Below. 

This doesn't have much to do with wrestling but I get compensated by the word, so I'm padding this blog with another section about the music I'm listening to as I write. Also, Chevelle is great music for a workout or wrestling practice. So there, I tied it back into the world's oldest and raddest sport, around which this entire website is centered. 

All right, that's all for now, see you next week, wise and learned wrestling fans!