Men’s College Notebook: Two No. 1’s go down, Pitt and Wyoming notch strong wins, Forrest handles Cyclone Open

In the much-hyped Penn State-Iowa dual, #4 Rocco Welsh handed #1 Angelo Ferrari his first loss of the season, earning the deciding point in ride outs. Both known for their stout defense, there wasn't a takedown in the 2-1 bout.

Neither Provo nor Welsh were on the mat last year. Provo took the year away from action and redshirted, while Welsh took a redshirt at Ohio State before transferring to Penn State.

Penn State’s Luke Lilledahl is a strong candidate to take over the top spot at 125 pounds, giving the Nittany Lions possible #1-ranked wrestlers at 125, 149, 157, 165, 174 and 197, depending on publication. If Welsh leap frogs Missouri’s Aeoden Sinclair and Minnesota’s Max McEnelly, we could see seven from Penn State lead their weight class with two months of the season left.

This is becoming a common theme in these weekend recaps, but Penn State had another successful weekend. The Nittany Lions started with a dominating 32-3 win at #4 Iowa, followed by their fifth shutout of the year, 51-0 at Northwestern.

All eyes were on the Friday night dual in Iowa City, and the Nittany Lion dominated the action. Not only did they win nine of the 10 bouts, but they also held an overwhelming 15-2 edge in takedowns.

The NCAA-record winning streak extends to 80 straight. Iowa was the last team to defeat Penn State, 19-17, in 2020. Since that loss, the Nittany Lions have downed the Hawkeyes five straight times by a combined score of 133-44.

Next weekend is Indiana and Maryland, before a three-match stretch versus #6 Nebraska, #13 Michigan, and finishing up with #2 Ohio State on February 13 in the Bryce Jordan Center.

There were three other ranked matchups in the Big Ten this weekend, led by Michigan securing two key victories.

• #13 Michigan defeated #17 Rutgers, 21-12
• #6 Nebraska defeated #9 Minnesota, 20-12
• #13 Michigan defeated #11 Illinois, 18-14

#15 Pitt delivered a thrilling comeback win over #22 West Virginia, 17-15.

Starting at 125 pounds, WVU won the first three bouts and took a 9-0 lead. After an exchange of wins over the next four weight classes, WVU was up 15-7 going into 184 pounds.

Pitt closed out the dual with three straight wins, including a pair of ranked battles. Heading into heavyweight, #15 Dayton Pitzer secured the home win with a 12-1 major decision in the winner-take-all final bout.

Both teams found success on Sunday after this thrilling Friday night battle. Pitt made the trip down to Duke and shut out the Blue Devils, 40-0. In Morgantown, the Mountaineers used a fall at 197 pounds by #20 Rune Lawrence over #11 DJ Parker in the second-to-last bout to come away with a 19-17 win over conference foe #16 Oklahoma.

Wyoming picked up its first victory over a top-10 team in eight years, as the Pokes defended their home gym and took out #10 South Dakota State, 24-18.

Midway through the dual, 157 pounds proved to be the swing match as #32 Jared Hill scored the upset over #17 Cael Swenson, not only with a win, but securing a fall in extra time. The dual was sealed when #9 Christian Carroll scored a 16-4 major decision over #19 Luke Rasmussen at heavyweight.

A lot of backups and redshirts took part in the Cyclone Open, but it was an entry at 133 pounds that caught followers’ attention.

While Oklahoma State was off this weekend, true freshman Jax Forrest made the trip to Ames and won the 133-pound bracket. He went tech-tech-fall to reach the final against 27-year-old Cuban wrestler Reineri Andreu, a two-time U23 World champion who trains at Iowa State.

Forrest took the match 4-0, the lone takedown coming late in the third. Could this be the indication that Forrest is the Cowboys’ starter going forward? Time will tell.