NCAA Wrestling 'Dogs of the Week and More

UNDERDOG OF THE WEEK

Parker Kropman, Drexel, 149 lbs.

Dual Match: #14 Princeton at Drexel (Princeton wins 27–13)

National Ranking: UNRANKED

The upset: Decision over #2 Matthew Kolodzik 3–1

What are the most underrated things in Philly?

The meatball hoagie from Wawa

Parking in the middle of the street

Moving to a different city

Parker Kropman?

The unranked redshirt sophomore went into his match against #2 Matthew Kolodzik (2x All American, 17-1) with just a 7-6 record, but he came out with arguably the biggest upset of the year and hundreds (thousands?) of wrestling fans finding out about his existence. If it was just a fluke, we’ll find out in a couple weeks when both wrestlers compete at the EIWA Championships in Binghamton.

WRESTLER OF THE WEEK

Nick Piccininni, Oklahoma State, 125 lbs.

Dual Match: #3 Iowa at #4 Oklahoma State (Oklahoma State wins 27-12)

National Ranking: 4th

The win: PIN over #2 Spencer Lee 4:55

The 4th ranked redshirt junior from Long Island turned Stillwater into Class 5 raging rapids when he PINNED the defending NCAA champ, Spencer Lee, in the second period to start off the biggest dual of the college season.

Thunder players and F5 tornadoes could only dream of bringing that much noise and chaos to an Oklahoma arena. A Sooner or Cowboy football player could NEVER put six on the board with that much electricity. Less than a year ago, Picccinninnni (sp?) was getting pinned by Lee in the quarter finals of the NCAA championships. But yesterday, the 1x All American did the virtually unthinkable by pinning the virtually unpinnable in front of nearly 14K fans. To be perfectly honest, it reminded me of when Logan Stieber shocked the world by pinning me in the pigtail round of the 2012 Buffalo Invitational.

Side note: I recently completed an interview with Spencer Lee so expect that to be posted this week. 

In the past, I’ve written some slightly negative things about the state of Oklahoma—moderately critical things like “the whole state smells like decaying roadkill and there’s a lot of weird STDs there” and “the only pro about living in Oklahoma is the potential of a tornado sucking you up and air dropping you in a different state.” It takes a big man to admit his mistakes and an even bigger man to double down and reiterate that Oklahoma is a massive shithole BUT it’s one of the best atmospheres in the world for amateur wrestling.

Highlighted by Piccininni’s pinnininni pin and #2 Daton Fix’s 2-0 win over #3 Austin Desanto, Oklahoma State lit up Iowa 27-12 and finished the year undefeated for the first time since 2005.

CELEBRATION OF THE WEEK

Chandler Rogers, Oklahoma State, 174 lbs.

With the rise of Fortnite, the Caucasian Community has only been getting catastrophically worse at the art of celebrating victories. So when I heard that a white guy named Chandler went ALL OUT on a post-match celebration, I instantly got nauseous and fully expected the worst. But in a shocking twist, the 11th ranked All American delivered with a breathtaking performance which included choreographed cowboy impersonations, flawless anatomical letters, and top-notch crowd participation.

MILD TWITTER BEEF OF THE WEEK

Kyle Dake (former 4x NCAA champ for Cornell) vs. Iowa Wrestling and Luke Eustice (former NCAA runner up for Iowa)

It’s hard to tell who won this vicious argument, especially since both fighters ended their tweets with equally potent and destructive hashtags.

Pair of Twins of the Week 

Josh Finesilver and Matt Finesilver; Mitch Finesilver and Zach Finesilver, Duke, 141, 149, 165, 174 lbs.

The non-incestual Finesilver family foursome went four-for-four and put up 13 total points for Duke in their 23-16 loss to North Carolina.

The wins:

141: Josh Finesilver (2nd Team All Ear) decision over #15 AC Headlee 12–10

149: #7 Mitch Finesilver (Honorable Mention All Ear Team) decision over #4 Austin O’Connor 6–4

165: Zach Finesilver (1st Team All Ear) MAJOR decision over Sawyer Davidson 13–3

174: #15 Matt Finesilver decision over Devin Kane 5–0

VETERAN EARS OF THE WEEK

John Erneste, Missouri, 133 lbs, Redshirt Senior (First Team All Ear)

National Ranking: 10th

Performance: TECH FALL over #8 Austin Gomez (Iowa State) 22-6

ROOKIE EAR OF THE WEEK

This kid, ?, ?

This anonymous high school wrestler from Iowa deserves some kind of recognition for keeping a smile on his face after growing a regulation ping pong ball on his head.

“WOULD YOU RATHER?” OF THE WEEK

Would you rather have a picture of your post-ice bath dick go viral on the internet or wrestle Jason Nolf in a college wrestling match?

Jason Nolf embarrasses more college wrestlers than the Herpes Simplex Virus, postseason alcohol consumption, and girls taller than 5’5″ combined. So it was only fitting that in his last career dual match, the undefeated phenom nonchalantly humiliated his opponent and added some extra pizzazz (clapping his hands once) to his typical post-match routine. Also, shoutout to the Buffalo backup for getting a reversal and not getting overly triggered by the Twitter heat.