Hello from a post-Thanksgiving Sunday! Where our bellies are full of leftovers, and our screens are replete wth a smorgasbord of NCAA D1 wrestling!

Week 4 Rankings | Week 5 Box Scores

Roundups: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

The schedule may have been skimpy, but there were morsels yet to slake our appetite for noteworthy happenings from the fifth week of the 2025-26 NCAA D1 college wrestling season!

There were only six dual meets this week, and one tournament on the smallish side, so let's tackle them all in chronological order. But first, we'll eschew the space-time continuum to celebrate the coveted: 

Dual of the Century of the Week

Jackrabbits Garrote Gophers, First South Dakota State Win Over Minnesota in 51 Years!

Don't worry, we'll get to the Cy-Hawk Dual shortly. That dual, however, featured a first in 21 years win, whereas the streak that was broken in Minneapolis was over twice as long as that!

And how do I know that it's been 51 years since SDSU beat Minnesota? Because Jason Bryant said so, and if anyone knows, it's him. 

FINAL: #16 South Dakota State 18, #7 Minnesota 14

First time since November 27, 1974 that the Jackrabbits have beaten the Gophers. #ncaawrestling #collegewrestling

— Jason Bryant (@jasonmbryant) November 26, 2025

Let's check out the box score from last Tuesday's contest, shall we? 

125: #16 Brady Roark (SDSU) over #3 Jore Volk (MINN) (6-4)

133: Chris Cannon (MINN) over Cale Seaton (SDSU) (Dec 8-1)

141: #13 Julian Tagg (SDSU) over #9 Vance Vombaur (MINN) (Dec 5-1)

149: Drew Roberts (MINN) over Avery Allen (SDSU) (Dec 4-2)

157: #14 Cael Swensen (SDSU) over #18 Charlie Millard (MINN) (Dec 7-5)

165: #10 Andrew Sparks (MINN) over Marcus Espinoza-Owens (SDSU) (Dec 2-0)

174: #25 Moses Espinoza-Owens (SDSU) over #21 Ethan Riddle (MINN) (Dec 4-1)

184: #3 Max McEnelly (MINN) over Brock Fettig (SDSU) (TF 20-5 5:44)

197: #7 Bennett Berge (SDSU) over #25 Gavin Nelson (MINN) (Dec 2-1)

285: #21 Luke Rasmussen (SDSU) over #13 Koy Hopke (MINN) (Dec 7-4)

It was a total team effort, but the MVPs are clearly the bookends, with Brady Roark getting the big upset over 2024 All-American and U20 world gold medalist Jore Volk, and then Luke Rasmussen sealing the deal with a win over the young and dangerous Koy Hopke. 

But from Julian Tagg and Moses Espinoza-Owens getting wins over higher-ranked wrestlers, to Cael Swensen and Bennett Berge getting it done against lower-ranked opponents, to Cale Seaton, Avery Allen, and Marcus Espinoza-Owens holding their opponents to regular decisions, nearly the entire Jackrabbit lineup contributed to this victory. 

Minnesota's only bonus for the night was from #3 Max McEnelly. It's still November (for a few more hours, anyway), so no need for the Golden Gopher faithful to panic, but this was definitely a tough dual to drop at home before the holidays. 

And just looked at how pumped these guys are about getting the dub. 

Total team win.#GetJacked x #GoJacks🐰 https://t.co/zK2WCR6LmB

— Jackrabbit Wrestling (@GoJacksWrestle) November 26, 2025

Kudos to Jackrabbit head coach Damion Hahn on the historical victory!

Back To The Regularly Programmed Roundup

In a rare Monday night dual between power programs, Illinois defeated their neighbor to the west, Missouri, 21-16 in Columbia. It was the second time in eight days that the Illini triumphed over the Tigers, as these two programs met in the seventh-place match of the National Duals Invitation, presented by Paycom. 

• That win from two weeks ago earned Illinois an extra $5,000 from the prize pool at NDI. The win last Monday merely earned the Illini bragging rights (which is not nothing!)
• Mack Mauger defeated Spencer Moore in an upset at the time, but you won't find that result in the soon-to-be-published Upsets of the Week article, because our speedy rankers changed the rankings before the latest lists were published, so now it reads as #17 Mauger over #18 Moore, when the rankings were flipped at the time they competed. 
• Kade Moore nearly had #1 Lucas Byrd stuck in a flying cement job (or gator bacon, or whatever you prefer), but Byrd showed why he's a defending champ and fought off his back before fighting his way to a 12-9 decision. 

NCAA Champion Lucas Byrd was thiiiiiiiisss close to getting pinned.

Crazy gator bacon by Kade Moore pic.twitter.com/AxzDfaM7x3

— Christian Pyles (@CPyles8) November 25, 2025

The next day, while the Jackrabbits were ruining Minnesota's day, another Big Ten team was staving off a similar upset, as Wisconsin avoided the upset and defeated Bucknell in another entertaining dual, 19-15.

• There were no upsets, but bonus points carried the day for the Baders, as Wisconsin got majors from #18 Braxton Amos at 285 and #4 Zan Fugitt at 133, plus a tech from #15 Joey Zargo at 149. 
• The Bison got four wins in a row from 165 to 197, including a major from #22 Myles Takats at 174, to tie the score going into heavyweight. 
• Braxton Amos slammed the door on any comeback notions, however, as the redshirt junior seems to finally be finding his blue-chip form at heavyweight after two solid but non-podium placing years at 197 and then two more years on the shelf due to injuries. 

A look at Braxton Amos' dual-winning, 11-2 major decision in the final bout of the night! pic.twitter.com/n3W7OM51cX

— Wisconsin Wrestling (@BadgerWrestling) November 26, 2025

Now We Pause For Giving Thanks

What is the most underrated Thanksgiving side dish in your humble opinion? To me, it is something my family calls Kermit Salad. It's lime jello with cottage cheese and pineapple. Don't knock it until you try it! You know you enjoy all the flavors! 

Also, a can of jellied cranberry sauce is a must. If your table is lacking in cran-in-a-can you have failed the holiday, sorry to say. Anyway, back to wrestling. 

The Co-Dual of the Week of the Century

Cy of Relief: 20 Year Steak Broken

The annual Iowa vs Iowa State rivalry dual, aka the Cy-Hawk Dua,l aka the battle for the traveling Dan Gable Trophy Dual was this Sunday, and it was one for the ages. 

The Dan Gable Trophy hasn't done much traveling lately, as the Hawkeyes have won the last 20 meetings coming into this noon central face-off. You have to go back to December 5, 2004, to find the last time the Cyclones have won this dual. That was before a lot of the wrestlers on these rosters were born. Hot dang it, I'm old. 

I wrote up a preview of the dual (which you can read here) and even attempted the folly of making predictions. 

I got 125, 133, 149, and 174 wrong. I also picked Iowa to win (even though I had Iowa State winning based on the individual picks). So a rough go for this so-called 'expert'. But I don't think I'm the only one to make a few false steps in my Cy-Hawk prognostication (though I will take credit for inspiring the Cyclones to prove me wrong). 

• Peterson vs Poulin was a toss-up, so no great shame in making the wrong guess there. 
• Evan Frost's impressive 11-5 win over #3 Ayala was a surprise to me, though it's past due to recognize that Frost down at 133 is a serious problem. 
• Echemendia over Bailey was not a surprise, but I did think Bailey would keep it closer. Not selling my Bailey stock yet either, by the way. There's a lot of season left, and there's no reason to think Bailey can't elevate his game to meet expectations by March. 
• Jacob Frost apparently had the flu, so my pick wasn't technically wrong, though I will admit I would've picked Paniro had I known he was going to start. Apologies to Ryder Block, I am now more familiar with your game! 
• Zerban over Williams was also not a surprise, except for the margin of victory. And like Bailey, who is also a transfer, I am not ready to sell my Williams stock. Both Williams and Bailey are juniors, they have a lot of wrestling left in their careers. 
• I had Caleindo by major, so I was a little surprised by the tech-fall over Euton, but not too surprised. Caliendo is an offensive machine. 
• Gaitan wins MVP of the dual in my opinion. Kennedy has been wrestling extremely well this season, and MJ proved me, and that guy at Casey's, dead wrong. 
• Angelo Ferrari wrestled a very Angelo Ferrari match, which is not a criticism. Dean is very tricky, yet Ferrari controlled the entire match, despite not scoring a takedown.
• Starting at 285 was an interesting choice by Coach Dresser, but it made for an electric dual, as we were treated to two bangers right off the bat in 285 and 125. The dual was then hanging in the balance at 197, the bout that had the most question marks. Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, Endene had no magic for this match, as Rocky Elam proved he was in plenty fine shape coming off his medical redshirt season. 

This had to have been a satisfying Sunday for the Cyclones.

Snapped the streak.

🌪️🚨🌪️ pic.twitter.com/tbNBTcDcHp

— Iowa State Wrestling (@CycloneWR) November 30, 2025

Here's the box score, just in case you need a refresher on what happened in Ames. 

Iowa State 20, Iowa 14

285: #1 Yonger Bastida (ISU) over #6 Ben Kueter (IOWA) (Dec 11-4)

125:#7  Dean Peterson (IOWA) over #9 Stevo Poulin (ISU) (Dec 4-2)

133: #6 Evan Frost (ISU) over #3 Drake Ayala (IOWA) (Dec 11-5)

141: #7 Anthony Echemendia (ISU) over #10 Nasir Bailey (IOWA) (MD 15-2)

149: #14 Ryder Block (IOWA) over #4 Paniro Johnson (ISU) (TB-1 2-1)

157: #6 Vinny Zerban (ISU) over #8 Jordan Williams (IOWA) (MD 11-3)

165: #3 Michael Caliendo (IOWA) over #26 Connor Euton (ISU) (TF 20-5 6:18)

174: #14 MJ Gaitan (ISU) over #2 Patrick Kennedy (IOWA) (TB-1 9-8)

184: #1 Angelo Ferrari (IOWA) over #10 Isaac Dean (ISU) (Dec 2-1)

197: #2 Rocky Elam (ISU) over #4 Massoma Endene (IOWA) (Dec 8-2)

Did I mention yet that you can read our award-winning live blog on the dual? No, I didn't. I know that because I had to go back after I published the Roundup to include this passage. But thankfully I did, because now you, the wise and learned wrestling fans, can enjoy the handiwork of the inimitable Kyle Klingman by clicking this link!

And finally...

Appalachian State gave NC State a run for their money. 

• Despite the Mountaineers only having one ranked wrestler in the lineup (#31 Kaden Keiser, who held #8 Koy Buesgens to a 4-2 decision at 149), they scored 14 on the Wolfpack. NC State prevailed, however, by scoring 21 points in their favor.
• NC State is still without the services of their All-American heavyweight, Isaac Trumble. Additionally, Pat Brophy is still expected to be in the lineup at 197 in the second semester, but as such was not ready to compete at this dual. 
• Jarvis Little got a nice upset win at 133 when he bested #14 Zach Redding 9-4. 
• App State won the last three bouts of the dual to give their solid home crowd plenty to cheer about.

It's Tournie Time

There was only one tournament, the Lock Haven Open I, not to be confused with the Lock-Haven Open II, that is later. The LHO I consisted mostly of backups, so not much to write about, but still a cool tournament in a cool place. Lock Haven,  Pennsylvania, is a rad place, though, for real, I highly recommend a visit!

Hey, Here's a Cool Video

Inside South Dakota State's Last Practice Before The 2025 NCAA Wrestling Tournament

In honor of the Jacks' monumental win, check out this video we made after following their team around before the 2025 NCAA Championships!

Why Try? Here's AI

Artificial Intelligence is taking over, so why not harness the power of computers and use them to help fill space in the blog? In fact, there is no reason not to, so that's what we'll do!

I fired up the ol' ChatGPT neural-net and posed to it the following query: What do you make of the result of the 2025 Cy-Hawk wrestling dual meet?

And here's what the impertinent miasma of electrons spat back at me: 

I see this 20-14 Cyclone win as potentially a turning point for the rivalry. It’s more than a fluke: it shows that Iowa State has the right mix of talent, depth, and mental fortitude to challenge (and beat) their historically dominant rival. If they follow this up with sustained performance — strong showings in future duals, conference tournaments, and at nationals — we could be looking at a more balanced rivalry going forward, rather than one dominated by Iowa.

Okay, sure, if you say so, ChatGPT!

That's all for our truncated week of wrestling. See you next week, my friends!