We\u2019ve got no guest on Short Time tonight, but we\u2019ve got a lot of news from the kickoff weekend for most of the college wrestling programs around the country. Granted, the women and California junior colleges have been wrestling prior to this weekend, so we\u2019re not trying to slight them, but with the All-Star Classic, some duals and some opens, here\u2019s a quick rundown of the weekend\u2019s happenings.
The NWCA All-Star Classic came and went in Philadelphia on Saturday at the Palestra. Unfortunately, a lot of the chatter seems to be floating around the nation\u2019s best wrestler who didn\u2019t compete \u2013 Ohio State\u2019s Logan Stieber. Stieber weighed in but wasn\u2019t cleared by his doc, so there was no match. Some out there want to chastise this for not being reported up to their standards. Well guess what folks, when that\u2019s all the information you\u2019re given, that\u2019s all you have to deal with. If you think anyone of us has any type of pull with a medical professional for a college athlete, I\u2019d implore you to read Mark Palmer\u2019s post on themat.com\u2019s college forum, which explains why many of wrestling\u2019s \u201cnewsy\u201d injuries aren\u2019t covered like the major college sports. Unfortunately, that\u2019s the way it works. I only found out moments before the exhibition matches started and my responsibilities with Fox College Sports for the television production prevented me from issuing a release from the NWCA. If you want to make a big deal out of it, that\u2019s your prerogative. Spare me the \u201cbad for the sport\u201d angle.
Now, with matches that did happen, we saw two defending champs go down as Mike McMullan of Northwestern beat Nick Gwiazdowski from N.C. State at heavyweight and Minnesota\u2019s Scott Schiller beat Missouri\u2019s J\u2019Den Cox in overtime. It\u2019s going to be tricky to use the Cox-Schiller match for ranking purposes, because the match did include a situation where the experimental rule was used. That experimental rule was where if the wrestlers go out of bounds while the top man is in control, the top man has the option to put the bottom man in neutral without giving up an escape point. We\u2019ll have to discuss how this works with TheOpenMat.com\u2019s next set of individual rankings. The matches at the All-Star are not official and can\u2019t be used for seeding at nationals, but some ranking services have still used the results for their respective rankings. If it was wrestled under the same rules we\u2019d see in March, then sure, use it, but Cox might end up staying No. 1 simply because this experimental rule did show up in the bout.
Alex Dieringer looked good moving up to a new weight class. He stuffed Virginia\u2019s Nick Sulzer at 165 4-2. Other winners were Missouri\u2019s Alan Waters, Edinboro\u2019s A.J. Schopp, Northwestern\u2019s Jason Tsirtisis, Nebraska\u2019s James Green and Robert Kokesh, and Cornell\u2019s Gabe Dean. Most exciting showcase match was Virginia Tech\u2019s Devin Carter rallying to beat Penn\u2019s C.J. Cobb 17-11. Both wrestlers are originally from New Jersey, although Carter moved to Virginia in the eighth grade.
Stanford beat Cal Baptist in a season-opening outdoor dual that drew about 2,600 fans. Notable \u201cwhere has he been\u201d comes from Cal Baptist as Minnesota native and former Buffalo and Menlo wrestler Jake Waste has resurfaced at Cal Baptist.
In notable open competition, the much ballyhooed Ohio State Buckeyes looked sharp at the Michigan State Open. The Buckeyes crowned open division champions with Nathan Tomasello at 125, Josh Demas at 157, Bo Jordan at 165, and Kyle Snyder at 197.
Jordan topped Michigan\u2019s Taylor Massa 4-1 in the final at 165 pounds, while Demas edged Michigan\u2019s Brian Murphy 2-1. Tomasello rolled past Northwestern true freshman Stevan Micic 11-2. Earlier in the day Micic beat 15th-ranked Connor Youtsey of Michigan. Kyle Snyder\u2019s college debut was pretty sound. He beat Max Huntley of Michigan and Phil Wellington of Ohio in the semis and finals to win his first college tournament. Expect to see Snyder break into the rankings this week on TOM.