The Stanford Cardinal men’s wrestling program will advance to the annual Midlands Tournament in Illinois on Dec. 29 after an eighth-place finish at the 2024 Cliff Keene Invitational earlier this month. He returned to the mat and excelled. Stanford put three players on top of the podium with great performances, earned seven more place-holders, and put the program on track for its first schedule of ACC duals starting in the new year. North Central’s girls also won the team title at the program’s third Midlands Championship, beating the second-place team of unaffiliated wrestlers by 14 pounds.
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Here are three of the biggest headlines after the event.
Patience pays off for rising Cardinal team
One of the biggest storylines over the past two days has been Stanford’s resiliency and depth on day two of the Midlands Tournament. The Cardinal won all individual games on opening day, 32-16, and lost by 10 points to a tough, gritty Rutgers team in the team game.
The semi-finals and finals gave this team an opportunity to make a new statement.
Three of the team’s four semifinalists won their weight classes, with fourth All-American Hunter Garvin taking third place with a 2-0 win over Drayden Morton and Tyler Swiderski. .
Tyler Knox became the team’s first champion of the weekend, defeating 2024 Big Ten Champion and National Champion Dylan Schober (Rutgers) 10-3 in a game that affected not only his individual performance but also the team’s ranking. It became. Knox entered the match seeded ahead of Shover as Shover lost to Anthony Noto and TK Davis this year, but a win over a ranked All-American is still a big resume for Knox.
#10 Tyler Knox (Stanford) secures a last-second takedown and back point to erase riding time and take the lead, defeating #16 Dylan Schober (Rutgers) 10- in the Midlands 133-pound final. I broke it in 3. pic.twitter.com/kmTSCXuhEu
— Saturday Night Lights Wrestling (@WrestlingSNL) December 30, 2024
The Cardinal freshman is currently 14-2 this year, with his only losses coming to All-American Evan Frost (3-1) and Nick Buzakis (17-7). Barring an unexpected upset, this win will give Knox the chance to see another wrestler as highly ranked as Shawver again until February 7th, when the Cardinal take on Virginia Tech. He should be able to comfortably stay in the top 10 until then.
In his first season as a Cardinal varsity wrestler, Knox was completely in the national conversation, and his performance in the Midlands only solidified that.
That said, Knox’s success in defeating the Scarlet Knights in the finals doesn’t mean Shober’s stock has gone down. Rutgers competed fiercely against the Cardinal, with Dean Peterson winning at 125 pounds, and nine players including the aforementioned All-American Schober (second place) and All-American teammate Jackson. They’re a mean team with a solid record. Turley (5th), John Poznanski (6th) and Jaraslaw Slawikowski (3rd) completed the podium. In addition to Shober, Joseph Olivieri and Shane Cartagena-Walsh were also runners-up with 141 and 184 points, respectively.
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The challenge for top-15 teams on the bubble, Stanford and Rutgers, is to get as many potential podium berths as possible through the NCAA Blood Round.
Last year, Stanford had a solid showing at the NCAAs, finishing in 16th place with two players on the podium in Daniel Cardenas and Hunter Garvin. Rutgers, on the other hand, had two All-Americans in Schober and Slawikowski and finished 14th. Both teams have players who have been on the podium before, although they didn’t make it last year, and all will be hoping to achieve that level of success again, but only one of them won the Midlands title. Only one person.
National expectations rise for Midlands men’s champion after landmark win
Jaden Abbas, one of Stanford’s biggest names, finished seventh in 2021 and hasn’t moved up the rankings since then, but his performance at 149 pounds in the Midlands shows he’s getting back into rhythm and will be in the running for 2025. This suggests that he may be preparing to aim for the podium again. Abbas ran through. He qualified for the Midlands and scored eight or more points in four of five games, earning a victory over No. 19 Kros Wasilewski in the final. In another game, Penn won 10-9, helping Stanford defeat a stronger Quaker team. He is currently 15-4 on the year with a fall win over Anthony Echemendia at the U.S. Championship.
Stanford University had three individual champions and won the team title at the 60th Ken Craft Tournament. @MidlandChamps First time in program history👏#gostanford × #goldrush https://t.co/Cvs9pdbIdd
— Stanford Wrestling (@CardWrestling) December 31, 2024
The 149-pound Abbas has a tougher conference schedule than his 133-pound teammate Knox. That’s because he will have to play doubles against NCAA champion Caleb Henson and national champion Lachlan McNeil before advancing to the postseason. You can definitely compete with the best and toughest guys at your weight. His career has featured wins over NCAA Champion Andrew Alires and All-Americans Max Murin, John Milner, Michael Brox, Dom Demas and Tyler Cusack.
Stanford University’s third Midlands champion, Lorenzo Norman, has a similar resume to Abbas with some breakthrough wins, but he has been in the midst of what looks like an increasingly illustrious career for the Cardinal. It’s just the beginning. In last year’s redshirt season, Norman finished 9-7, highlighted by a win over NCAA champion Shane Griffith at Cliff Keene. This season, Norman is 14-1 with a win over All-American Nelson Brands, with his only loss coming against two-time All-American Dean Hamity (4-3).
His progress is clear both on paper and in the eye test on the mat.
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Norman is currently ranked No. 7 in the country and earned Champion of Champion honors at Midlands for his win in the 174-pound weight class. His biggest rival in the ACC is Lennox Wallach, ranked No. 4 in the nation, but Hamity gave Wallach some technique in their last matchup. But before facing Wallach, Norman is scheduled to face NCAA champion Keegan O’Toole in a Missouri-Stanford double on Jan. 12, a match that will see how Norman stacks up against the best players in the division. This will be another important test to see if they can fight.
Other than Stanford and Rutgers individual champions with points of 125, 133, 149, and 174, Penn won the individual championship with 141 points via All-American CJ Compost, and Central Michigan’s Johnny Lovett dazzled the crowd with 157 points. Indiana’s Tyler Lillard won the statement title. At 165 pounds, Pittsburgh secured two champions at 184 pounds, Reese Heller and Mac Stout at 197 pounds, and Michigan rounded out the winners at 285 pounds with transfer Josh Heinselman.
Of these champions, Compost and Heinselmann are the highest ranked at #11, while Stout and Heller are also in the top 20 at #15 and #19, respectively. Compost has been on the podium before and is currently the Ivy League’s highest-ranked wrestler in his weight class, while Heinselman ranks sixth in the Big Ten, one of the toughest conferences for heavyweights in the country. It is located in
North Central looks tough for third Midlands win.
On the girls side, North Central advanced to the finals with Breanne Graves (103 wins), Sydney Petzinger (117 wins), Sydney Perry (145 wins), Shenita Lawson (180 wins) and Dasia Yearby (207 wins). ), they won in five classes. Graves, Perry and Lawson’s finals wins were all against teammates.
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Today, women’s wrestling takes a big step toward the 91st NCAA Championship Sports, with the first NCAA Championship scheduled to take place in the winter of 2026.#NCAAWWrestling × @ShannonScovel pic.twitter.com/jqo32Ng8QC
— NCAA Wrestling (@NCAAWrestling) February 8, 2024
Aurora won 4-3 over Virginia Ford, 131-pounder Alexis Janiak, who also won the Dan Gable Outstanding Wrestling Award, also won an individual title, and Presbyterian’s Mae Kyler also won an individual title against Virginia Ford. He won the match 10-7 and finished as the champion at 160 pounds. Tierra Jimerson of North Central;
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The biggest challenge to the Cardinals was supposed to be the Iowa Hawkeyes, who defeated North Central in dramatic fashion in last year’s National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championship, but the Hawks did not send any of their wrestlers to the Midlands. . Instead, Iowa State will send its star players to the Solder Salute, with the team including Briana Gonzalez at 117 pounds, Cadence Diduk at 138 pounds, Macy Quilty at 145 pounds, Kennedy Blaze at 160 pounds, and Kylie at 160 pounds.・Five women, including Welker, reached the top of the podium. 180 lbs. Blaise is a great addition to the Iowa State program and will be a player to keep an eye on as the season progresses after transferring to the Hawks this summer after finishing second at the Olympics. The Hawks narrowly defeated Life University, 215.5 to 199, due to the strength of each weight class at the University of Iowa.
The growth and strength of women’s wrestling continues to be a key storyline as these programs increase both star power and depth.
