Zahid Valencia defeated Mark Hall in the NCAA finals last season (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)College coaches only have a few more weeks of holiday distractions to navigate until they are able to regroup and refocus their team's attention back towards wrestling. With Christmas and holiday events right around the corner, this week's college slate is relatively light, but it will still feature at least four ranked duals and Saturday's Cleveland State Open.
Friday
No. 14 Arizona State at No. 1 Penn State (6 p.m.)
The Friday night lights will be shining bright in Rec Hall, but the stars who are set to compete will be shining brighter. Five previous NCAA champions will be in action when the No. 14 Arizona State Sun Devils travel to Happy Valley (Pa.) with hopes of upsetting the top-ranked Nittany Lions.
The five wrestlers competing on Friday night that have previously reached the top of the podium at the NCAA Championships are PSU's Mark Hall, Vincenzo Joseph, Bo Nickal, and Jason Nolf, as well as ASU's Zahid Valencia.
There will be 11 ranked wrestlers in action, and a trio of top-20 matchups, but none more important than the 174 pound showdown between the Sun Devil's returning NCAA champion and top-ranked Zahid Valencia and 2017 NCAA champion, No. 2 Mark Hall.
These two are no strangers to each other. They have met several times throughout their wrestling careers, including three times in college. Their first college meeting was two years ago in the NCAA semifinals where Hall topped Valencia, 4-3. The pair met for a second time at last year's NWCA All-Star Classic where Valencia picked up the victory and evened the score at one match apiece. Their third meeting was in the 2018 NCAA finals where Zahid came out victorious and took the 2-1 advantage.
An interesting note regarding Hall's win over the top-ranked Sun Devil in the NCAA semifinals two years ago, it was Valencia's first college defeat, and it still stands as the only one he's faced. Since that loss, Valencia has reeled off 43 straight wins.
Aside from the 2018 NCAA finals rematch at 174 pounds, another top-five bout to keep an eye on is at 165 pounds where the Sun Devil's fifth-ranked All-American Josh Shields will scrap it out against two-time NCAA champion and current No. 1, Vincenzo Joseph.
Shields brings a 9-1 record into Happy Valley and is coming off a 5-4 loss to Wisconsin's second-ranked returning NCAA All-American, Evan Wick, while Joseph brings an unblemished 7-0 record into this match. Even more impressive than his perfect record this season, Joseph has tallied bonus points in each of those seven matches, scoring six falls and a technical fall.
Other ranked wrestlers:
125: No. 7 Ryan Millhof (Arizona State)
141: No. 4 Nick Lee (Penn State)
149: No 11 Josh Maruca (Arizona State) vs. No. 12 Brady Berge (Penn State)
157: No. 1 Jason Nolf (Penn State)
184: No. 4 Shakur Rasheed (Penn State)
197: No. 1 Bo Nickal (Penn State)
285: No. 5 Anthony Cassar (Penn State)
Sunday
No. 11 Nebraska at No. 9 North Carolina State (1 p.m.)
Coach Mark Manning and his Nebraska Cornhuskers close out their 25 mile I-40 road trip with a top-15 meeting with coach Pat Popolizio's North Carolina State Wolfpack.
The No. 11 Cornhuskers are 4-1 on the season, while the ninth-ranked NC State Wolf Pack have a perfect 5-0 record.
Half of the ten matches in this dual feature top-20 showdowns and nine of the ten weights have at least one ranked wrestler. The lone weight class that will not feature a top-20 wrestler is heavyweight.
Of those five ranked bouts, a pair of matches to highlight are the 157 and 184-pound matches.
At 157 pounds, returning NCAA finalist and fourth-ranked Hayden Hidlay (NC State) will square off against two-time NCAA All-American and fifth-ranked Tyler Berger for the third time in their career. Hidlay has won their two previous meetings. Most recently, Hidlay defeated Berger 3-2 to reach the NCAA finals a season ago.
The second top-five battle comes at 184 pounds where Nebraska's returning All-American and third-ranked Taylor Venz will strap up against fifth-ranked Nick Reenan (NC State). Venz's Sunday match with Reenan will be his second top-15 match of the weekend. He'll also compete against the University North Carolina's returning All-American Chip Ness (UNC) on Saturday night.
Other ranked matchups:
125: No. 11 Zeke Moisey (Nebraska) vs. No. 6 Sean Fausz (NC State)
165: No.6 Isaiah White (Nebraska) vs. No. 18 Thomas Bullard (NC State)
197: No. 9 Eric Schultz (Nebraska) vs. No. 19 Malik McDonald (NC State)
Other ranked wrestlers:
133: No. 4 Tariq Wilson (NC State)
141: No. 13 Jamal Morris (NC State)
149: No. 4 Justin Oliver (NC State)
174: No. 9 Mikey Labriola (Nebraska)
No. 19 Cornell at No. 13 Northern Iowa (2 p.m.)
Coach Rob Koll and the No.19 Cornell Big Red travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to take on coach Doug Schwab and the No.13 Northern Iowa Panthers.
West Gym will host a trio of top-20 matchups, with the most important one coming at 141 pounds. Cornell's defending NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis, who missed the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational to further prep his rehabilitated torn ACL, is set to make his return against No. 10 Josh Alber (UNI).
This will be the third time these two have met. Last season, Diakomihalis defeated Alber 5-2 in the dual, and followed that up with an 8-2 win at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
In addition to the top-15 matchup at 141, the matchups at 174 and 184 will also have wrestlers ranked in the top 20.
At 174, UNI's eighth-ranked Taylor Lujan will wrestle No. 14 Brandon Womack (Cornell), while Cornell's eighth-ranked returning All-American, Max Dean (Cornell) will meet seventh-ranked Drew Foster (UNI) for the fourth time in their careers.
Dean owns the 2-1 match advantage heading into their fourth bout. Most recently, Dean beat Foster 6-0 to make it to last year's NCAA quarterfinals.
Other ranked wrestlers:
133: No. 14 Chas Tucker (Cornell)
149: No. 10 Max Thomsen (UNI)
165: No.12 Bryce Steiert (UNI)
197: No. 3 Jacob Holschlag (UNI)
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