The 2016 NCAA Wrestling Championships complete recap: LIVE! From New York!

It’s broadcast live from Midtown Manhattan and one of the Baldwin brothers was there! That can only mean one thing: the 2016 NCAA Wrestling Championships at Madison Square Garden!

Hosted for the first time ever by the World’s Most Famous Arena (and future MMA venue), the most fearsome college athletes descended upon New York to cap off their year-long quest for glory. After three days and 640 matches featuring the NCAA’s only sanctioned combat sport (and no, I am not counting fencing), many fans have already dubbed it the best tournament in recent memory.

This year’s tournament consisted of 10 weight classes of 33 wrestlers each, arriving from 77 Division 1 programs from across the country. By the end, 80 All-Americans, 10 individual champions and 1 team champ were laureled.

I was lucky enough to attend the event, and I think it was safe to believe Billy Baldwin’s hype, as evidenced by this extremely amateur (probably shouldn’t use those two words together on the internet but, oh well) panorama picture I took of the 19,000+ fans on hand to watch the finals.

Team Race

Final team standings can be found here.

The coronation of Penn State was a foregone conclusion by the end of the 2nd day. Cael Sanderson, future member of the Mt. Rushmore of American Wrestling Coaches, led the Nittany Lions back to the top of the mountain for the 5th time in 6 years. Penn State was coming off a reloading year, which was coming off a 4-peat championship run. Many folks in Happy Valley are expecting a second 4-peat to follow. Some are even talking a minimum 8-peat.

Coming closest to disrupting Penn State’s nascent dynasty was Oklahoma State, helmed by the legendary Oklahoman, John Smith. Ohio State, last year’s champion, and ACC upstart, Virginia Tech, finished 3rd and 4th respectively, completing the list of trophy winning teams.

Coming up just shy of the top four, and thus, a team trophy, were the Iowa Hawkeyes, coached by Tom Brands. This was the first time since Brands took over the program in 2007 that he returned to Iowa City without team hardware.

This can not sit well with the Hawkeye faithful, over 40,000 of whom smashed a college wrestling attendance record at a dual meet against Oklahoma State, which Iowa won, earlier in the season. Iowa had also previously set the gold standard for modern collegiate wrestling dynasties while under the tutelage of Dan Gable, who occupies George Washington’s spot in wrestling’s Mount Rushmore of coaches. Expect this story to simmer all offseason long.

But the lack of drama surrounding the team race did little to diminish the electric atmosphere during the finals. Wrestling is ultimately an individual sport, and the NCAA tournament thrives not so much on the team score as it does the individual brackets. And boy howdy does the NCAA wrestling tournament ever deliver on brackets. Whereas the NCAA’s roundball tournament is forced to make due with one measly, single elimination bracket, wrestling offers ten, bountiful, double elimination brackets.

Please, enjoy this bracket porn. Pour over them. Take all the time you need. When you’re done, I’ll recap the finals weight by weight. If you want to follow along, and have a cable subscription with ESPN, you can pull up the Watch ESPN app, search for ‘wrestling’ in the ‘replay’ section, and click on the link to the finals. It’s pretty much that simple.

125 lbs
Nico Megaludis (3) Penn State defeats Thomas Gilman (4) Iowa 6-3

Nico gets his 1st championship after finishing 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd in his first three trips to the big dance. Megaludis redshirted last year, part of Cael’s reloading efforts. The year off from competition proved to be a boon as Nico triumphed over a very formidable Gilman (who beat the equally formidable reigning champion and number 1 seed, Ohio State’s Nathan Tomasello, in the semifinals), scoring the only takedown of the finals bout.

133
Nahshon Garrett (1) Cornell defeats Cory Clark (2) Iowa 7-6

Garrett was also going for gold after three unsuccessful trips to the NCAAs, going 3rd, 2nd, and 5th the last three seasons. After a disappointing junior year, Nahshon stepped up a weight class from 125 to 133 and dominated all year long, finishing undefeated, including a tight but dominant finals match. Freestyle wrestling fans are salivating at the thought of Megaludis and Garrett battling it out in the 57 kilogram division on a regular basis.

141
Dean Heil (1) Oklahoma State defeats Bryce Meredith (14) Wyoming 3-2

Mean Dean Heil-le-lu-jah squeaked past Meredith, winning as the number one seed in a weight that many saw as being one of the most wide open in the tournament. Bryce Meredith, however, won the battle of interesting storylines. Meredith was the starting 133 pounder for the NC State Wolfpack during the 2014-15 season, but was blocked from moving up to his more natural weight by the emergence of fellow freshman, Kevin Jack, who finished 5th in last year’s NCAAs. Meredith transferred to his native Wyoming where he qualified for this year’s tournament at 141 pounds. This set up Meredith, the 14th seed, and Jack, the 3rd seed, for a 2nd round grudge match. Meredith won 5-4 and continued on to the finals before his Cinderella run was stopped by the ruthlessly efficient, Dean Heil.

149
Zain Retherford (1) Penn State defeats Brandon Sorensen (2) Iowa 10-1

Zain “The Pain Train” Retherford obliterated everyone in his weight class this year, including the stout Brandon Sorensen, the third of three Iowa Hawkeye to be felled in the finals. Zain won by a 9 point margin, the only “bonus” victory of the finals, forcing his way into Hodge Trophy candidacy, wrestling’s equivalent to college football’s Heisman.

157
Isaiah Martinez (1) Illinois defeats Jason Nolf (3) Penn State 6-5

The second most anticipated finals bout after the heavyweight tilt (which we’ll get to shortly). IMar and Nolf split their two previous matches this season. IMar (don’t call him IMart) won the rubber match in thrilling fashion, scoring a takedown in the last 15 seconds. It is Martinez’s second championship in as many years. It is a good thing for wrestling fans that these two have a combined 5 years of eligibility left.

165
Alex Dieringer (1) Oklahoma State defeats Isaac Jordan (2) Wisconsin 6-2

Capping off not just one of the most dominant seasons, but careers, ever, the rock solid Alex Dieringer cemented his legacy as an all-time Cowboy great (and it is not easy to break into that particular collection of worthies). The Ring-a-Ding Kid (no one actually calls him that) earned his 4th All American honors and 3rd championship coming off an 82 match win streak. The capstone to Dieringer’s NCAA career came by way of the recently awarded 23rd Dan Hodge Trophy.

174
Myles Martin (11) Ohio State defeats Bo Nickal (1) Penn State 11-9

New Jersey native, Myles Martin, scored the biggest upset of the night, taking out heavy favorite and number one seeded Bo Nickal, the lone Texan in the tournament. MyMar, a true freshman, outlasted Nickal, a redshirt freshman, in a wild, back and forth match. Neither wrestlers’ style could in any way be described as “cautious.” Once again, it is good for fans that we can look forward to another 3 years of this burgeoning rivalry.

184
Gabe Dean (1) Cornell defeats TJ Dudley (7) Nebraska 5-3

Gabe Dean is an animal. TJ Dudley is beast. They are both juniors. Next year, we could see the battle of beastmanimal part 2. Interestingly, Dudley is also the only wrestler in this year’s tournament from South Carolina, whereas Gabe Dean is the only wrestler who snacks on bundles of rebar.

197
J’Den Cox (2) Missouri defeats Morgan McIntosh (1) Penn State 4-2

Unlike his teammate, Nico, McIntosh was denied his yellow medal on his fourth and final try. No shame in losing to J’Den Cox, though. This would be Cox’s second title and third top five finish. From all known sources, both of these panther quick wrestlers are two of the nicest, kindest, most gracious people you could ever meet who could also tear you into pieces with their bare hands.

285
Kyle Snyder (2) Ohio State defeats Nick Gwiazdowski (1) North Carolina State 7-5

Finally, we arrive at the greatest heavyweight wrestling match of the 21st Century (no, for real). World freestyle champion, Kyle ‘The 20 Year Old Boy King’ Snyder, was pitted against the 2X reigning NCAA champion, riding an 88 match winning streak, Nick ‘The GWIZZZ’ Gwiazdowski. The clash of titans did not disappoint. Trailing by two with seconds left in the 3rd and final period, Kyle Snyder finished a takedown and ride out to force overtime, then sealed the deal 30 seconds into the sudden victory period with another takedown. Soon, Snyder will defend his spot on the US Olympic Team at the team trials in Iowa City, then he is off to Rio, and then, much much later, Valhalla.

SENIORS

For 111 of the 330 student athletes that qualified for the NCAAs, MSG would be the last venue of their competitive collegiate careers. I put together a list of those seniors, including their weight, place, seed, name, school, and home state, in that order.

I don’t have a good feel for which of these former amateur athletes might be transitioning to a professional career in Mixed Martial Arts, but I will be sure to keep my eyes peeled for any information!

Be on the lookout for: David Terao. The unseeded Flyin Hawaiin stole the show, finishing 4th and upsetting a bevy of seeded opponents in an acrobatic, crowd pleasing fashion.

Be on the lookout for: Cody “The Punisher” Brewer, a 4X All-American with a pulverizing style.

Be on the lookout for: Richard Durso, the fighting Diplomat from Franklin & Marshall, the only Division III school whose wrestling team competes at the Divison I level.

Be on the look out for: Jake Sueflohn, a 4 time NCAA tournament qualifier from a powerhouse program.

Be on the look out for: Both Nick Brascetta and Ian Miller, 3X AAs and tough as nails. Really, really tough nails.

Be on the look out for: The Ringer, the most impressive graduate from the class of 2016.

Be on the lookout for: Blaise Butler, who was seeded 5th and 3rd the last two years but came up one win short of All American status both times.

Be on the lookout for: Mathew Miller, US Naval Academy graduate and soon to be commissioned officer.

Be on the lookout for: Morgan McIntosh, Nathan Burak and Conner Hartmann, all 3X All Americans.

Be on the lookout for: Gwiz, easily the most accomplished heavyweight of this class and one of the best ever.

Additional reading: If you’re looking for information about Division 1 College Wrestling, a great place to start is the aptly named website, D1CollegeWrestling. It’s where I got much of the information used in this article. Very highly recommended!

The next big event on the wrestling calendar will be the USA Olympic Team Trials, to be held in Iowa City, Iowa, April 9-10. After the team is set, some of the winners will attempt to qualify the 9 remaining weights (out of a total possible 16) for the Rio Games at tournaments in Mongolia and Turkey. All of 2016’s NCAA Champions are eligible to challenge for a spot on the team.