Feb 7, 5:00 PM UTC

Northeastern Diving Invitational

Swimming
Today · 6:00 PM UTC

UT Dallas vs Okla. Christian - DH

Baseball
Today · 6:00 PM UTC

TAMIU vs Cameron

Baseball
Today · 7:00 PM UTC

Tusculum vs Wheeling University

Men's Lacrosse
Today · 8:00 PM UTC

King vs Anderson (SC)

Baseball
Today · 8:00 PM UTC

Chaminade vs CSUDH - DH

Softball
Today · 10:30 PM UTC

Purdue Northwest vs Ferris State

Women's Basketball
Tomorrow · 12:00 AM UTC

Smith vs Wheaton (MA)

Women's Basketball
Tomorrow · 12:30 AM UTC

Purdue Northwest vs Ferris State

Men's Basketball
Tomorrow · 6:00 PM UTC

King (TN) vs Anderson (SC) - DH

Baseball
Tomorrow · 8:00 PM UTC

North Greenville vs Wingate

Men's Basketball
Tomorrow · 8:00 PM UTC

Anderson (SC) vs Coker

Women's Lacrosse
NCAA D1 Weekly Roundup: 2025-26

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 14 Roundup: Don't You Know, Pump It Up

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 14 Roundup: Don't You Know, Pump It Up

The world's finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the 14th week of the 2025-26 NCAA D1 wrestling season.

Feb 2, 2026 by Andrew Spey
NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 14 Roundup: Don't You Know, Pump It Up

Hello from Austin, where I have been infected with dual meet fever in a similar manner as Parker Keckisen's earworm of a walk out song has burrowed into my brain. I do not expect either to be dislodged any time soon. 

Week 13 Rankings | Week 14 Box Scores

Roundups: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13

And how lucky are we to have received another glorious bounty of dual meets in week 14 of the 2025-26 NCAA D1 college wrestling season? Now, to dig into the noteworthy happenings contained within the last seven days of competition! 

The Dual of the Century of the Week

Columbia Defeats Cornell on Criteria for First Win over the Big Red since 1986!

Ardent readers of the Roundup may recall the shoutout Columbia got last week for defeating both Princeton and Penn in a single weekend. This week, Head Coach Donny Pritzlaff upped the ante by downing Ivy League powerhouse Cornell! The Lions added a win over Arizona State on the same day just for good measure! 

In the Cornell dual, Sulayman Bah kicked things off for the Lions with an upset pin over #26 Greg Diakomihalis at 125. Cornell's would then reel off four straight wins before #23 Cesar Alvan got momentum back on Columbia's side with a decision at 165. Next, Nick Fine held #2 Simon Ruiz to a regular decision, which would be the last win for Cornell of the night. 

And unfortunately, at 184, #15 Christian Hansen had to injury default in the first period. And while one could argue that helped swing the bout in Cornell's favor, one might also counter that Columbia was without the services of #14 Aaron Ayzerov at that weight. Injuries are also, sadly, part of the sport. 

Jack Wehmeyer put the Lions within striking distance with a decision at 197, and then Vincent Mueller came through big, literally and figuratively, with an overtime upset over #30 Ashton Davis. 

The score was technically tied after 10 bouts, but Columbia earned the victory by dint of having the most six-point wins, the first dual meet tiebreaking criteria.

It's also the first time Columbia started the season 3-0 in Ivy League duals since 1981. Not bad! 

Columbia then finished their day with a 24-15 win over Arizona State, which included an upset win at 165 where #23 Alvan defeated #12 Nicco Ruiz. 

Earlier in the day, the Sun Devils eked out a victory over Cornell, making it a brutal day for the Big Red faithful as the hosts went 0-2 in the tri-meet. On the bright side, Cornell's #7 Meyer Shapiro notched a crucial win over #3 Kaleb Larkin, 7-4. 

Elsewhere in Duals

As usual, the competition was fierce for the DotCotW honors. There were several duals with 15 or more ranked wrestlers taking the mats. 

  • Minnesota defeated Iowa for the first time since 2014.
    • There have been several 'first time sinces' this season for Iowa, much to the dismay of the Hawkeye faithful. This instance came when Iowa was deprived of their regularly starting 125 and 184 pounders. 
    • Minnesota took advantage at both weights, as Jore Volk won by major and Max McEnelly defeated Gabe Arnold in an overtime thriller. 
    • Drew Roberts and Charlie Millard also notched upsets over Ryder Block and Jordan Williams to put the Gophers on top for the first time in over a decade. 
  • Oklahoma State welcomed two programs from the state of Iowa to Stillwater over the weekend and defeated them both. The Cowboys dispatched UNI 34-3 on Friday and on Sunday it was 24-9 drubbing of Iowa State.
    • Jax Forrest, who was in high school a little over a month ago, won twice, including a ranked win over #18 Julian Farber of Northern Iowa. Jax has one more date in which he can wrestle varsity before David Taylor has to make a decision on whether or not to tear off his redshirt. 
    • The Panthers did pick up an upset win at 184 (fitting lyfor 184lb U), when unranked Nick Fox beat #8 Zach Ryder in sudden victory. 
    • LaDarion Lockett had a successful weekend, collecting two more ranked wins over #6 Ryder Downey and #13 Connor Euton at 165.
    • There were no upsets according to seeds in the OSU/ISU tilt, but there were important matchups for seeding purposes. #7 Troy Spratley beat #12 Stevo Poulin, #2 Sergio Vega beat #4 Anthonny Echemendia 4-2, #8 Casey Swiderski beat #6 Jacob Frost, #6 Landon Robideau beat #8 Vinny Zerban, #2 Lockett beat #13 Euton, #7 Alex Facundo beat #12 MJ Gaitan, #2 Rocky Elam beat #7 Cody Merrill and #1 Yonger Bastida beat #7 Konner Doucet. Zach Ryder did not wrestle for the Cowboys on Sunday.
    • The win by Swiderski over Frost was likely extra satisfying as the redshirt junior transferred from Iowa State to Oklahoma State in the offseason. 
    • The attendance in historic Gallagher-Iba Arena was 6,510 on Friday, and it was 10,002 on Sunday. That's a lot of orange vests under one roof!
  • The Hokies beat the Wolfpack in one of the best rivalries in college wrestling. VT is now 2-0 on the season against NCSU, having also won a contest at the National Duals Invitational in November. 
    • Eddie Ventresca remains Vincent Robinson's kryptonite, as Fast Eddie V is now 4-0 lifetime against VRob. 
    • Aaron Seidel continues to rampage, as he teched #20 Zach Redding 16-0. The true freshman Hokie continues to position himself as a title contender in a very crowded 133-pound division. 
    • Another Hokie freshman, Collin Gaj, impressed as he defeated #5 Koy Buesgens at 149. 
    • On the plus side for the Wolfpack, Will Denny got revenge on Ryan Burton, reversing a result from NDI. 
    • And not to toot my own horn, but I'm gonna, and point out that I did a better job making picks for this dual than ChatGPT. 
  • Ohio State raced by Wisconsin 30-10. 
    • #2 Ben Davino, a redshirt freshman title contender at 133. He beat #12 Zan Fugitt 7-2. 
    • Nick Feldman needed a late takedown to complete a comeback against Braxton Amos. Both wrestlers will be in the mix for a high podium step in March. 
    • The best result for the Badgers came at 149, where #14 Joey Zargo upset #4 Ethan Stiles. 
  • Ohio State also picked up the dub against their biggest rival, Michigan, 26-16. 
    • Nic Bouzakis continues to terrorize 125lbs, pinning #29 Diego Sotelo in the second period. 
    • Big Blue got two nice wins at 184 and 285, where Brock Mantanona beat Dylan Fishback and Taye Ghadiali beat Nick Feldman in minor upsets. Those results will be very relevant when it comes time to seed the Big Ten Championships. 
  • Wisconsin bounced back from their loss to beat Purdue 30-12 on Sunday. 
  • Though they lost to Oklahoma State in Stillwater on Sunday, the Cyclones had a better time on Friday in Norman, where they beat the Sooners 29-10. 
    • #8 Carter Schubert continues his breakout season for Oklahoma, as he beat #12 MJ Gaitan 5-1. 
    • Schubert also beat #13 Jared Simma as the Sooner defeated the Panthers of UNI 23-18. 
    • Unfortunately, both UNI's Trever Anderson and Oklahoma's Brian Soldano had to injury default. Here's to hoping for speedy recoveries for both competitors. 
  • Things got chippy in State College, as the Nittany Lions beat Nebraska 26-12. 
    • Brock Hardy pinned Braeden Davis. Following the pinfall, a couple of belly pats from Hardy induced some extracurricular kicks from Davis and a team point penalty for the Nittany Lions. 
    • At 174, Levi Haines lost a match point in the first period when he gave Chris Minto an extra shove when they were already off the mat. That almost came back to haunt Haines, as he won a close 8-6 bout with a very determined Minto. 
    • AJ Ferrari needed riding time to beat Cole Mirasola 2-1. Afterwards, he did the splits, as is his custom.
    • As the best team in a generation in the midst of a dynasty run, Penn State is going to have the spotlight directed squarely at them at all times. So a penalty point here or there becomes news, whereas with most teams, it isn't going to move the needle. If I could briefly editorialize, neither incident amounts to anything in this humble bloggers' opinion. You have to be an ultimate competitor to reach the levels Penn State (and Nebraska, for that matter) are at, and sometimes these things happen. Ultimatley my reaction is a big yawn.
  • In the EIWA, specifically the Patriot League part of the EIWA, Lehigh defeated Army 29-11. 
    • West Pointer #17 Brady Colbert picked up a big (literally and figuratively) 8-1 win over #6 Nathan Taylor at heavyweight. 
    • Mountain Hawk #9 Max Brignola put the dual mostly out of reach when he decked #18 Gunner Filipowicz at 165. 
  • In other Ivy League news, Harvard beat Princeton 19-17, as the Crimson are having one of their more competitive seasons. Penn is also having a strong season, as evidenced by their victory over Harvard 33-4 on Sunday. 
  • App State mauled Campbell 29-12 in one of the fiercest rivalries in the South. 
  • Lock Haven beat Keystone State rival Bucknell 19-15 on the strength of unranked Avery Bassett's win over #14 Myles Takats at 174. 
  • Gardner-Webb's #16 T.K. Davis ran his record up to 15-1 at 141, but the Running Bulldogs fell to Davidson 24-21 on Thursday.
  • Bellarmine stopped the aforementioned Wildcats in their tracks on Friday, defeating them 38-3. The Knights' subsequent dual against App State was rescheduled from Sunday to Monday (most likely the day you are reading this blog). 
  • Little Rock won three sudden victory bouts against Missouri, however, those were the only wins for the Trojans on Saturday, and they fell to the Tigers 33-9. 
  • Rutgers defeated Rider to maintain possession of the B1G MAC Trophy, one of my favorite names in all of wrestling rivalry trophies. 
  • Elsewhere MACtion occurred: Clarion beat Kent State on criteria, 19-18, Buffalo beat Central Michigan 19-14 (the first ever road win for Buffalo against CMU), and Rider beat George Mason in a dual held inside a GMU campus food court! 

Here's a Cool Video

For the sake of nostalgia and not much else, let's do a time warp and enjoy a video of Bo Nickal and Aaron Pico wrestling in Turkey from 2014!


Look at all the baby faces! Time sure does fly when you're blogging about wrestling for a living. 

Why Try? Ask AI!

After my resounding defeat of ChatGPT in the VT/NCSU prediction contest, I figured I'd be a good sport and throw our future cybernetic overlords an easy one and ask it a question that just about any wrestling fan would know. 

The question: "Which weight class is most likely to have a true freshman champion at the 2026 NCAA D1 Men's Wrestling National Championships?"

The wise and learned wrestling fan (e.g. the readers of this blog) would likely say 133, as it contains Arizona State's #5 Kyler Larkin (14-1, and that loss being a medical forfeit in a tournament), Penn State's #6 Marcus Blaze (16-0), Virginia Tech's #7 Aaron Seidel (10-0), and Oklahoma State's #11 Jax Forrest (7-0). 

You could quibble with Kyler Larkin being a 'true' freshman since he is in his second year out of high school, though I believe he could still redshirt if he wanted. 

Other acceptable weight classes would be 141 for Oklahoma State's #2 Sergio Vega (12-0), or 149 for Cornell's #1 Jaxon Joy (19-0, although he's also in his second year out of high school), or 157 for Penn State #2 PJ Duke (13-1) and Oklahoma State's #7 Landon Robideau (11-1), or 165 for Oklahoma State's #2 LaDarion Lockett (10-0).

The issue with picking 141, 149 and 165, though, is that you would have to think that it's more likely that Vega wins 141 and not #1 Jesse Mendez or the field -- or that it's more likely that Jaxon Joy wins 149 than #1 Shayne Van Ness or the field -- or that it's more likley that Lockett wins 165 than #1 Mitchell Mesenrbink or the field -- than it is that one of the aforementioned 133 pounders wins a title. 

And the problem with saying 157 is that even though you have two true frosh contenders, you also have the likes of Cannon, Larkin, Watters, Taylor, Shapiro and the rest of the field. 

133 has the most true frosh contenders. And while it is also extremely deep -- Byrd, Davino, and Frost just to start -- it's still the weight class I'd most expect to see a first-year wrestler at the top of the podium in March. 

Anyway, I typed all that before I hit return on my ChatGPT query, so let's see what this dumb robot thinks already. 

Okay, so the first answer was a bunch of nonsense about historical trends and was way too long and mostly useless, so I said, 'Please just pick one singular weight class as the answer,' and here's what robo-brain said: 

125 pounds.

If you’re forcing a single pick, that’s the one. True freshman champions are unicorns no matter what, but historically the lightest weight gives elite newcomers the cleanest path: less reliance on grown-man strength, quicker skill translation from high school, and more examples of freshmen actually pulling it off there than anywhere else.

This is obviously wrong. There is not a single true freshman ranked in the top 33 at 125 pounds. You failed ChatGPT. 

So we can safely delay the impending singularity for at least one more day. 

That'll do it for week 14. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!