New York, Michigan and California places to be “This Week in Wrestling”

Updated: November 13, 2014

Important college wrestling events will take place in New York, Michigan and California to highlight “This Week in Wrestling.”

Journey to New York

Journeymen Wrestling is a club in upstate New York that puts on several wrestling events during the year, including the Journeyman Duals, which will be held Nov. 29 at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y. But before that event, Journeyman Wrestling will play host to the Journeyman Tussle this Saturday, Nov. 15, where four schools — Army, Arizona State, Binghamton and Ohio State — will be involved in three duals that will take place at Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, N.Y.

At 2 p.m. (EST), Ohio State will take on Army, while Binghamton wrestles against Arizona State. At 3:45, the Buckeyes and Sun Devils will close out the day with another dual.

This will end a long road-trip for Arizona State, which is coached by Sun Devil-alum Zeke Jones. Two days earlier, Jones’ team was in Morgantown, W.Va., where Arizona State defeated University of West Virginia, 19-13. The Mountaineer program is also headed up by another first-year coach in Sammie Henson. Jones is the former USA National Team coach in men’s freestyle, while Henson served as an assistant coach at the likes of Oklahoma and Missouri, where he also trained some of the more elite-level freestyle wrestlers as a former freestyle World champion himself (1998).

Meet Me in Michigan

New Eastern Michigan coach David Bolyard and his squad will play host to some talented teams this Saturday when 12 other schools descend on the Ypsilanti, Mich., campus for a dual-team event.

The following is a list of schools in the Eastern Michigan Duals and who their opponents will be:

Central Michigan — Edinboro & Northwestern
Chattanooga — Michigan State, Northern Illinois & Kent State
Clarion — SIU-Edwardsville, Northwestern, Central Michigan & Northern Illinois
Eastern Michigan — Northwestern, SIU-Edwardsville & Lock Haven
Edinboro — Central Michigan, Michigan and Northern Illinois
Kent State — Michigan State, Lock Haven & Chattanooga
Lock Haven — Ohio U, SIU-Edwardsville & Kent State
Michigan — Ohio U. and Edinboro
Michigan State — Chattanooga and Kent State
Northern Illinois — Olivet, Edinboro, Chattanooga & Clarion
Northwestern — Eastern Michigan, Clarion & Central Michigan
Ohio U. — Lock Haven, Michigan & SIU-Edwardsville
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville — Eastern Michigan, Lock Haven & Ohio U.

Among the more notable individual match-ups of ranked wrestlers in these duals are:

133 — #1 AJ Schopp (Edinboro) vs. #10 Rossi Bruno (Michigan) & #15 Nick Soto (Chattanooga) vs. #18 Mack McGuire (Kent State)

141 — #2 Mitchell Port (Edinboro) vs. #4 Stephen Dutton (Michigan)

#2 Port (Edinboro) vs. #6 Zach Horan (Central Michigan)

157 — #9 Brian Murphy (Michigan) vs. #14 Austin Matthews (Edinboro)

#9 Murphy (Michigan) vs. #20 Spartak Chino (Ohio U.)

165 — #7 Taylor Massa (Michigan) vs. #14 Harrison Hightower (Ohio U.)

184 — #9 Vic Avery (Edinboro) vs. #13 Dom Abounader (Michigan)

197 — #8 Phil Wellington (Ohio U.) vs. #16 Max Huntley (Michigan)

Roadrunner Open to Fresno

Fresno State president Joseph Castro announced in August that the California school — which dropped wrestling in 2006 — would hopefully bring the sport back this fall.

“It’s no longer a question of whether (wrestling will return),” Castro said at an editorial board meeting of the California newspaper. “That decision was made on my 100th day when I said we were going to do it. … I expect to make an announcement later this fall.”

Wrestling fans of this program — which produced two national champions, Mike Gallego and Stephen Abas — are still waiting to hear when wrestling will return. But for now, the community in central California and Selland Arena will play host to the fourth Roadrunner Open, which officially is hosted by CSU-Bakersfield, Nov. 16.

Among some notable schools that will also compete in Fresno will be Appalachian State, Illinois, Oregon State and Stanford.

This could lead to head-to-head matchups by ranked wrestlers at:

149 — #12 Dylan Cottrell (Appalachian State) vs. #15 Caleb Ervin (Illinois)

165 — #13 Jackson Morse (Illinois) vs. #16 Jim Wilson (Stanford)

174 — #6 Bryce Hammond (CSUB) vs. #18 Joe Latham (Oregon State) vs. #20 Zac Brunson (Illinois)

184 — #12 Nikko Reyes (Illinois) vs. #14 Taylor Meeks (Oregon State)

Hwt — #7 Amarveer Dhesi (Oregon State) vs. #18 Brooks Black (Illinois)

Big Ten Battles Begin for Maryland

Maryland, once an ACC mainstay, begins its venture as a new member to the Big Ten Conference when the Terps travel to Madison, Wisc., and Lincoln, Neb., this Thursday and Sunday to take on the Wisconsin Badgers and Nebraska Cornhuskers, respectively.

Historically, the Terps won 24 ACC team championships, but are relatively young this season under head coach Kerry McCoy, a Penn State alum. After winning their first four duals of the season, Maryland most recently lost at home to George Mason, 17-16, on criteria.

Three Maryland wrestlers are ranked by WIN: Geoffrey Alexander (9^th at 133); Shyheim Brown (17^th at 141) and heavyweight Spencer Myers (11^th).

Devin Carter returns to 141 pounds

Virginia Tech’s Devin Carter, who finished second in last year’s NCAAs to Ohio State’s Logan Stieber at 141 pounds, had planned to wrestle at 149 pounds this winter.

Devin Carter

That all changed at last weekend’s Hokie Open, where Carter lost in the finals to teammate Sal Mastriani. So beginning with the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, Dec. 5-6, the Hokie senior, according to FloWrestling, will return to 141 pounds, where he could again meet Stieber as Ohio State is in the Vegas field as well.

Mastriani, who defeated Carter in overtime of their Hokie Open final, is a redshirt sophomore from Don Bosco Prep in Towaco, N.J. Last year, Mastriani compiled just a 12-16 record as a backup to NCAA qualifier Zach Neibert.

Carter proved to be both a surprise national qualifier, much less a national runner-up, when the native of Christiansburg, Va., injured in knee in December, but healed in time to enter the ACC Championships. He then won four straight NCAA matches before losing 10-1 to Stieber in the championship bout.