Today · 5:50 PM UTC

Wittenberg Universit vs Capital

Women's Basketball
Today · 7:00 PM UTC

Sacred Heart vs Towson

Men's Basketball
Today · 9:00 PM UTC

Greensboro vs Elon

Men's Basketball
Tomorrow · 5:00 PM UTC

Green Bay vs Campbell

Men's Basketball
Dec 27, 5:00 PM UTC

Columbia College vs UNCW

Men's Basketball
Dec 28, 12:00 AM UTC

UC Santa Cruz vs Puget Sound

Men's Basketball
Dec 28, 7:00 PM UTC

UW-Stevens Point vs Haverford

Women's Basketball
Dec 29, 7:00 PM UTC

Keene State vs UW-Stevens Point

Women's Basketball
Dec 28, 7:00 PM UTC

St. Mary's (MD) vs Guilford

Women's Basketball
Dec 28, 8:00 PM UTC

Manchester vs St. Thomas (TX)

Women's Basketball
Dec 28, 9:00 PM UTC

Transylvania vs Gustavus Adolphus

Men's Basketball
Dec 28, 10:00 PM UTC

UC Santa Cruz vs Pacific Lutheran

Men's Basketball
Dec 28, 11:00 PM UTC

Cortland vs Dubuque

Men's Basketball
NCAA D1 Weekly Roundup: 2025-26

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 8 Roundup: 2nd Semester-ers

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 8 Roundup: 2nd Semester-ers

The world's finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the 8th week of the 2025-26 NCAA D1 wrestling season.

Dec 22, 2025 by Andrew Spey
NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 8 Roundup: 2nd Semester-ers

Merry Christmas from the Caption Hotel in Nashville, where I am currently filling the lobby with the pitter-patter of little fingertips as I type out the latest roundup of noteworthy happenings from the 8th week of the 2025-26 NCAA D1 college wrestling season!

Week 7 Rankings | Week 8 Box Scores

Roundups: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7

I'm going to be totally real with everyone: It's already 9:00pm on Sunday night, and I'm just now starting the Roundup. As such, it's going to be a very truncated edition, due in part (although this is not an excuse!) to me leaving for Nashville on Friday and then being enmeshed with the Journeymen Collegiate Duals almost exclusively since then. 

So consider it your Christmas gift to me to not give me a hard time this week for leaving out some noteworthy happening that you, the wise and learned fan, thought should have been included. I'm sure I will agree with you that the omission was regrettable! 

I will make it up to you next Monday, when there will be literally no NCAA D1 wrestling to round up, with something special, the likes of which I will determine in the interim. 

With that housekeeping out of the way, let us turn our attention to...

The Dual of the Century of the Week

Cowboys Spoil the Huskers Record-Setting Crowd

Nebraska hosted North Carolina on Friday and were victorious to the tune of 27 to 9. Sunday, however, was a different story, as most of the 7,094 fans in the Devaney Center left disappointed due to Oklahoma State placing the proverbial lump coal in the stocking by beating the home team 22-12. 

Still, that crowd, plus having a raised stage, and a national audience on the Big Ten Network, in addition to all the star power on the mat, is enough to earn the DotCotW this week. 

#2 Sergio Vega pinning #3 Brock Hardy in the first period set the Cowpokes up for the dub. Antrell Taylor, Chris Minto and Silas Allred all got top ten wins for Nebraska, but it would not enough, especially with Nebraska being without the services of AJ Ferrari. 

Elsewhere, the aforementioned Tar Heels rebounded from their defeat to beat Northern Iowa 19-13 in another strong contender for the DotCotW. 

12 ranked wrestlers stepped on the mat (although neither ranked heavyweight participated in the dual), which was decided in the last bout, which happened to be 165, where UNC's #20 Bryce Hepner beat #7 Ryder Downey. 

Another worthy candidate for the weekly appellation is Rider, who defeated Columbia 24-19 in a thrilling, back-and-forth dual that was hanging in the balance until the pentulatime bout. 

Rider's #15 Elijah Griffin going down with an injury default was a serious blow to the Broncs' chances. But Rider responded with upset wins at 165 and 174 from Brendon Abdon and Enrique Munguia, then clinched it with a 2-1 win at 197 by Brock Zurawski. 

Were there other duals deserving of such a shout out this week? Indubitably, but that's all I got right now. 

Journeymen Collegiate Duals

Journeymen Wrestling, the venerable grappling institution from New York's capital region, is back with (I believe the fourth edition of) their holiday classic. This year's two-day dual meet extravaganza made NCAA history when Penn State set a new consecutive dual meet win record! 

Here's our friend Shane Sparks with more on the topic. 

You can see all the results from that event here. You can watch all the individual match replays here. 

Penn State won every match in their two duals against Stanford and North Dakota State. The Cardinal would defeat the Bison in their matchup, which also produced perhaps my favorite moment of the weekend. 

Additionally, for the Nittany Lions: 

  • Josh Barr returned at 197 and looked as good as ever (plus he's sporting a tank top look, I think, because of some brace or pad or something? He's coming back off an injury at U23 Worlds in late October, which might have something to do with it. Either way, maybe the tank top is in? Something to think about anyway). 
  • PJ Duke beat #4 Daniel Cardenas and Marcus Blaze beat #6 Tyler Knox. Those wins, plus Barr being back, should give Penn State more than enough points in the Team Tournament rankings to put them firmly in first place, thus ending our long national nightmare of Flo's rankings not having PSU at #1. 
  • Finally, Cole Mirasola hit some flashy moves in this first-period pin.

That was day one. In day 2, the headliner was Ohio State vs Iowa State. The Buckeyes were the showcase showdown winners at the National Duals Invitational, while the Cyclones, who were also the champions of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. 

In the battle of recent high-profile tournament winners, it was the Buckeyes who kept their momentum going forward with a 21-13 win over the 'Clones.

#2 Ben Davino and #1 Jesse Mendez notched wins over #3 Evan Frost and #4 Anthony Echemendia at 133 and 141, respectively, to set the Buckeyes up for victory, although the Cyclones got a nice upset from #7 Jacob Frost over #4 Ethan Stiles at 149. 

The dual was also already in hand when #1 Yonger Bastida defeated #3 Nick Feldman. Yonger looks pretty unbeatable, or at least un-take-down-able. He beat Lehigh's #7 Nathan Taylor 4-2 in his other bout of the day. That combo could easily be a quarterfinal and semifinal bout on day 2 of the NCAA championships. Perhaps we just saw a preview? 

Also want to shout out the defense of Isaac Dean of Iowa State at 184. It's unreal and produced some of the best scrambles of the night. Dean went 1-1 on the day, with an overtime win over Rylan Rogers and an overtime loss to Dylan Fishback. 

From a team perspective, however, this should all cause sufficient hype for Ohio State when they hit back to back friday duals on the Big Ten Network in February, first at home against Iowa on Feb 6 and then at Penn State on Feb 13. Assuming the Buckeyes win against the Hawkeyes, the PSU/tOSU tilt should do boffo at the Bryce Jordan Center box office and do some nice numbies on the BTN Nielsen ratings. 

Should be a fun eight days of wrestling, not to mention all the other duals that will be popping off. 

Speaking of duals popping off...

Elsewhere in Dual Meets and Tournies

There were quite a lot of them. Here are some highlights. 

  • App State defeated in-state rivals Duke on Wednesday. 
  • Air Force won a round robin by beating F&M, Davidson and Presbyterian on Thursday.
  • The EIWA's American University picked up a win over the Big Ten's Michigan State on Thursday.
  • Wisconsin defeated Utah Valley but not before the Wolverines earned two of the biggest upsets of the week when #27 Bridger Ricks beat #13 Nicolar Rivera, and unranked Geronimo Rivera beat #9 Zan Fugitt at 125 and 133, respectively. 
  •  At the 2nd Kent State Open II, Sergio Lemley, Teague Travis and Cody Chittum all won titles wrestling unattached. They could still rip off those redshirts and become 'Second Semester-ers' (more on that shortly), but for now are still wearing their 'shirts. 
  • Drexel went 2-0 against Cali teams, besting Cal Poly and California Baptist on Saturday. 
  • There were 10 new champions in Reno at the Reno Tournament of Champions on Sunday. Wyoming won two of those titles, while three more went to Arizona State. 
  • Central Michigan beat CSU Bakersfield and American to win the 2025 Chippewa Challenge. 
  • Virginia won a quad, as the Cavs beat Bucknell, Hofstra, and Morgan State.
  • And finally -- mostly because it's almost eleven pm and the lobby bar where I'm working is closing up -- NC State won three duals to win the Wolfpack Open, which they also hosted. 

The Second Semester-ers

There were several notable wrestlers who didn't compete in the first semester, but were back on the mat now that first semester exams are over. Here's the ones I noticed. 

  • 141 Vince Cornella, Cornell
  • 157 Meyer Shapiro, Cornell
  • 197 Patrick Brophy, NC State
  • 197 Josh Barr, Penn State

I'm sure there are more. Tell me who I am missing and I will add them to the list tomorrow or whenever you tell me!

Hey, Here's a Cool Video

Ohio State Young Bucks B1G Bus Ride


A lot of the Young Bucks in this vid also helped the current Buckeyes beat Iowa State this week, so why not check out this video Bader made when those guys were freshmen? 

Why Try? Ask AI

I asked Perplexity (can't give all my business to ChatGPT) the following question: What was the biggest storylines from the 2025 Journeymen Collegiate Wrestling Duals from Nashville, Tennessee on December 20 and 21?

And got the following answer:

Penn State’s historic dual meet dominance, Ohio State’s win over Iowa State, Illinois’ 2–0 day over ranked opponents, and a few key individual upsets headlined the 2025 Journeymen Collegiate Wrestling Duals in Nashville.

Penn State’s record and shutouts

Penn State extended its NCAA Division I record to 77 consecutive dual wins with a 42–0 shutout of Stanford at the Duals.

The Nittany Lions outscored opponents 88–0 in bout points across 20 matches in Nashville, underscoring how lopsided their performance was.

Ohio State vs. Iowa State showdown

No. 2 Ohio State beat No. 3 Iowa State 21–13 at the event, handing the Cyclones their first dual loss of the 2025–26 season.

The dual featured multiple top‑10 individual matchups, with Jesse Mendez topping Anthony Echemendia at 141 and other Buckeye stars holding serve to secure the team win.

Illinois knocks off Cornell and Lehigh

No. 10 Illinois went 2–0 on Sunday, beating No. 18 Cornell 21–14 and No. 20 Lehigh 24–12 to close its nonconference schedule at 7–2.

Braeden Scoles’ win at 165 and Colin Kelly’s bonus‑point performance at 174 were pivotal, giving the Illini separation in both duals against ranked opposition.

Upsets and breakout individual performances

At 125, North Dakota State’s Ezekiel Witt scored one of the biggest upsets of the weekend by knocking off Stanford’s higher‑ranked Nico Provo, highlighted by FloWrestling as a marquee moment.

Illinois’ Scoles also notched an upset over higher‑ranked Max Brignola at 165, while several underdogs from Little Rock and NDSU picked off individual bouts against heavily favored lineups.

Depth of ranked teams and field strength

The Duals brought a dense cluster of ranked teams to Montgomery Bell Academy, including Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa State, Illinois, Cornell, Lehigh, Stanford, North Dakota State, and Little Rock.

The combination of historic streaks, top‑3 team clashes, and high‑profile individual upsets made the Nashville edition one of the more stacked mid‑season dual events on the calendar.

Okay, not bad. Of the 13 sources Perplexity said they consulted, three were from FloWrestling, so I feel zero shame in republishing Perplexity's content (which is fact, made up of other people's content) as new content. 

The other sources Perplexity cited were recaps from Illinois, Lehigh, Penn State, and Ohio State's SIDs, plus this Iowa State student paper and these two Penn State-related outlets. I encourage you to check them out, as I'm sure they worked hard on the content that the computer hive-mind absorbed and repurposed for itself. 

Okay, that's all the time I got for the Roundup. Gotta wake up for a 5:30AM ride to the airport tomorrow. Happy Holidays, friends, and see you (for something I will figure out later) next week!