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Men’s College Notebook: Rutgers Upsets Minnesota; Ohio State Tops Iowa

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by Brian Reinhardt

Dylan Shawver hand raise at 2024 NCAA National Championships

Dylan Shawver hand raise at 2024 NCAA National Championships

#RelentlessPursuit


#17 Rutgers had the best dual win of the weekend, as the Scarlet Knights protected their home mat with a 23-15 win over #6 Minnesota in front of 3,702 fans.


The win was Rutgers’ first over Minnesota since they became Big 10 foes in 2015. The Scarlet Knights also defeated their highest-ranked opponent since 2016 (#4 Nebraska).


Starting at 125 pounds, and a big upset by #28 Ayden Smith over #10 More Volk (7-2), Rutgers won four of the first five bouts to take a 13-5 lead into the break. Minnesota won two of the next three to close it to 17-12 going into the final two matches.


At 197 pounds, #16 Remy Cotton closed out any Golden Gophers comeback, as he scored a fall in extra time over #25 Gavin Nelson to clinch the home victory.

#GoBucks


#1 Penn State looms large next week for #2 Ohio State, but the Buckeyes did not look ahead and took care of business against #5 Iowa, 24-9. 


It was their ninth top-10 win of the season. Also, their 17-0 overall start to the 2025-26 season is the best in program history. The Buckeyes finished 7-0 at the Covelli Center for the first time.


Starting at 157 pounds, Iowa took a 9-0 lead with three straight decisions. It would be the Hawkeyes’ only wins of the night. Ohio State closed with 24 unanswered points for the win.


The key stretch came with three straight top-10 wins at heavyweight, 125 and 133 pounds. #2 R-Fr. Ben Davino picked up his second win of the season over two-time NCAA finalist Drake Ayala, this time 4-2.


Coupled with their 21-16 loss to #9 Minnesota last week, the Hawkeyes have dropped back-to-back Big 10 duals for only the second time (2023-24) in the last eight years. The five dual losses on the season are now the most in a single season for an Iowa team since 2006-07 (five).

#PSUwr

Penn State also kept its perfect record heading into the #1 vs. #2 showdown this weekend, with a dominating 38-3 win over #10 Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Nittany Lions won the first nine matches, including five by tech fall.

#TigerStyle


#20 Missouri fell behind at #16 West Virginia 13-3 after the first five bouts, but the Tigers closed the dual with five straight wins and picked up an impressive 26-13 win in Morgantown.


As WVU held the 13-3 lead at the break, Missouri put 12 team points on the board in the next two weight classes to capture the lead for good. It was an injury default at 165 pounds before #9 Cam Steed scored a fall just 23 seconds into his match against #13 Brody Conley at 174 pounds that gave Missouri the lead. The Tigers closed with three straight decisions.


Missouri improves to a perfect 6-0 all-time in duals against fellow Big 12 foe West Virginia.

#ForksUp

It was another comeback in Tempe, as Arizona State found itself down 16-4 to #22 Oregon State, but won five straight matches to pull out the 23-16 win.


After the break, the Sun Devils won the final five matches, two by bonus points.


Arizona State pulled the team score to 16-10 in favor of the Beavers going into 184 pounds. The momentum switched, as Shay Addison turned a reversal into a fall in the third period. Then unranked Colton Hawks posted a 6-4 win in extra time over #4 Justin Rademacher, the highest ranked win of his career, which dates back to 2021 at Missouri.


It marked the Sun Devils’ eighth straight win over rival Oregon State dating back to 2015.


But in a reverse of fortune on Sunday, Arizona State fell at #18 Oklahoma 31-9. The Sooners won seven of the 10 bouts, winning the first four and taking a commanding 15-0 lead.


Neither of the Larkin brothers was in the lineup this weekend.

#IUWR

Indiana came into the weekend ranked 22nd in the nation; they will surely rise in this week’s poll. The Hoosiers picked up their third ranked win of the year, defeating their highest ranked opponent to date, #15 Wisconsin, by a dominating 30-9 performance in Madison.


Indiana won the first eight bouts of the dual, jumping out to a 30-0 lead. The Hoosiers did not allow a takedown until the second-to-last match at 197 pounds.


The Hoosiers had five wins over ranked opponents in the dual, and three unranked wrestlers picked up ranked wins.


True freshman Jackson Blum scored the lone takedown of the bout and downed #8 Zan Fugitt 4-1 at 133 pounds. It was then back-to-back ranked wins for Joey Buttler at 149 pounds (4-1 over #12 Joe Zargo) and Bryce Lowery at 157 pounds (fall at 1:56).

#GOBIGRED


Cornell had an impressive showing in a pair of road Ivy League matchups. First, it was a dominating 31-5 win at Princeton on Saturday, then a very entertaining 19-13 win at Penn on Sunday.


The Quakers won the first two bouts to jump out to the early lead, but the Big Red responded with three straight ranked wins to take a 9-6 lead into the break. Penn tied it up after 165 pounds, but a major decision by #2 Simon Ruiz and a decision by freshman Louie Cerchio, now up at 184 pounds, sealed the road win.