The Big Ten did big things at college wrestling’s National Duals Invitational Saturday and Sunday in Tulsa as Ohio State thumped Iowa 27-12 to win the $200,000 pot while Nebraska placed fourth, Minnesota fifth and Illinois seventh.
Host Oklahoma State, under coach David Taylor, the former Penn State NCAA champion and Olympic champion, lost an 18-16 semifinal match to Iowa and then defeated Nebraska 33-6 to place third and earn $150,000 out of the $1 million purse sponsored by Paycom of Oklahoma.
The eight other teams in the 16-team field were Lehigh, Michigan, Arizona State, Cornell, Little Rock, North Carolina State, Northern Iowa and Wyoming.
There were plenty of competitive matches between teams that don’t typically meet as 10 matches were decided by 11 points or fewer.
The top 12 teams from last year’s NCAA Championships were invited and four wildcards were named. Penn State was the only team among that top 12 to decline, much to the chagrin of Ohio State coach Tom Ryan and Nebraska’s Mark Manning, who publicly criticized the Nittany Lions for not attending.
Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said last week he likes the national tournament — an individual tournament with a team champion — the way it is but, more importantly, cited how seven of his team’s 10 starters competed in the U-23 World Championships in late October and that the team’s training cycle had been altered because of it. He did not rule out competing in the Duals in the future.
That opened the door for Ohio State and the Buckeyes walked through it with an impressive performance. They stomped a short-handed Nebraska team 30-3 in the semifinals and won the first five bouts against Iowa for a 21-0 lead, including a fall by Nic Bouzakis over Iowa’s Dean Peterson, a Rutgers transfer, at 125 and a 10-4 win by Ben Davino over Iowa NCAA runner-up Drake Ayala at 133.
The Hawkeyes didn’t score a takedown until 165 and that was in sudden victory when Mikey Caliendo took down Paddy Gallagher to start a four-bout Iowa winning streak.
Bouts at 174 and 184 went to sudden victory as well as Iowa’s Patrick Kennedy took down OSU’s Carson Kharchla to win 4-1 and Iowa’s Angelo Ferrari did the same against Buckeye Dylan Fishback, a N.C. State transfer. Lineup newcomer Massoma Endene won four straight for the Hawks at 197 on Saturday and Sunday.
Ohio State heavyweight Nick Feldman, who upset No. 1-ranked A.J. Ferrari of Nebraska, closed things out for the Buckeyes with a forfeit win over Iowa’s Gage Marty, who was subbing for injured Ben Keuter.
Elsewhere, Lehigh, competed without two of its star lightweights and its heavyweight and lost 35-7 to Nebraska and 24-18 to Arizona State. All teams earned a minimum $20,000 from the event.
Michigan beat Arizona State but lost to Nebraska and Missouri. Cornell went two-and-out losing by 10 to Oklahoma State and by 18 to Northern Iowa.
Individually, Missouri redshirt frosh Aoeden Sinclair upset No.1-ranked Max McInelly of Minnesota as four No. 1s — McInelly, Vincent Robinson (125) of N.C. State, Antrell Taylor (157) of Nebraska and A.J. Ferrari (285) — were defeated.
Penn State transfers Alex Facundo at 165 and Zack Ryder at 184, wrestling for Taylor at Nebraska, each lost three of their four weekend bouts.
OHIO STATE 27 IOWA 12
125: Nic Bouzakis, OSU pin Dean Peterson 1:34
133: Ben Davino, OSU dec Drake Ayala 10-4.
141: Jesse Mendez, OSU tech fall over Nasir Bailey 6:13 (17-1).
149: Ethan Stiles, OSU dec Ryder Block 3-2.
157: Brandon Cannon, OSU major dec Victor Voinovich 14-2.
165: Mikey Caliendo, I dec Paddy Gallagher 4-1 SV-1.
174: Patrick Kennedy, I dec Carson Kharchla 4-1 SV-1.
184: Angelo Ferrari, I dec Dylan Fishback 4-1 SV-1.
197: Massoma Endene, I dec Seth Shumate, OSU 8-3.
285: Nick Feldman, OSU won by forfeit.
Ohio State wrestlers thrash Iowa to win initial National Duals Invitational team tournament in Tulsa
