3/14/2024 other sports Edit

B1G Tournament Recap: Rutgers Wrestling gets 7 AQ’s and 1 Wildcard

Lex Knapp • TheKnightReport

Wrestling Analyst

Rutgers wrestling was never able to string it together in the back-half of the season. The Scarlet Knights were plagued with injuries in the middle of the lineup, battled illness in the last several dual meets, and were wrestling inconsistently. However, when the lights shined brightest, and the matches mattered most, Rutgers wrestling put together their best showing of the season at the Big Ten Championships.

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Seven Rutgers wrestlers secured automatic bids to the national tournament, which was led by Big Ten Champion, Dylan Shawver (133). Shawver, along with several of his teammates, avenged previous losses from the dual meet season, showing Rutgers wrestling fans just how good this team can be when they are firing on all cylinders.

Jackson Turley (174) and Yara Slavikousi (285) finished in 4th place at their respective weight classes. After dropping his quarterfinal match, Turley rallied off three consecutive wins to land in the 3rd place match. Slavikouski, who was wrestling in his first Big Ten tournament, avenged a loss to Maryland’s Seth Nevills in the quarterfinal round. After a loss to the nation’s top heavyweight, Greg Kerkvliet of Penn State, Slavikouski defeated Iowa’s Bradley Hill to reach the consolation final. Both wrestlers would drop decision losses in the 3rd place match, but punched their tickets to the big dance in Kansas City.

Dean Peterson (125) finished in fifth place in the tournament, and had arguably the biggest upset in the entire tournament. Coming in as the ninth seed, Peterson was on track to run into Purdue’s Matt Ramos, the 2023 national runner-up. Ramos was previously 2 – 0 over Peterson, making the Scarlet Knight a significant underdog.

Thanks to a pair of takedowns and an escape, Peterson had a dominant 7 – 1 win over the Boilermaker, which advanced Peterson to the semi-finals and securing a top six finish in the tournament. Peterson would go on to a fifth place finish, after avenging another previous loss, as he defeated Michigan’s Michael DeAugustino in overtime.

Oklahoma transfer, Mitch Moore (141), and High Point native, Brian Soldano (184), both finished in sixth place. Moore, who previously qualified for the national tournament while at Oklahoma, and prior to that at Virginia Tech, put together three wins over the weekend to qualify for his fifth national tournament. Soldano, who came in as the eighth seed, dropped his opening round match, but was able to rally in the wrestlebacks to lock up one of the eight available automatic bids at his weight class.

Jon Poznanski (197) was able to qualify for his third national tournament with a seventh-place finish, this time, up a weight class. Poznanski previously qualified for the tournament at 184-lbs, before jumping up to 197 for his junior year. Poznanski had his back up against the wall when he fell to the seventh-place match, as the 197-lb weight class was allocated seven automatic qualifiers in the Big Ten. The pressure did not get to Poz, as he won by technical fall over Northwestern’s Evan Bates to punch his ticket.

The weekend was highlighted by Dylan Shawver, who won his first Big Ten title this past weekend at 133-lbs. Shawver, who was already Rutgers’ hottest wrestler all season, showed that he did not reach his peak during the regular season. Shawver wrestled lights out, looking deadly from his feet.

His path to the title got off to a scary start, as he went to sudden victory overtime with Maryland’s Braxton Brown in the quarterfinals. Shawver was able to secure a takedown, moving him on to Iowa’s Brody Teske, who was arguably the best 14th seed in wrestling history. Due to a mistake on Iowa’s end, Teske was the bottom seed in the bracket, which blew the bracket up when he defeated the third-seeded Nic Bouzakis in the pre-quarters.

Shawver, however, only got better as the weekend progressed. The Ohio native secured three takedowns throughout the match, and put the cherry on top with a set of near-fall points to lock up the 12 – 6 decision. This win would put Shawver in the finals with Michigan’s Dylan Ragusin, an opponent who defeated Shawver 8 – 5 in the dual meet this year.

The Scarlet Knight struck first, as he opened the match with an early first period takedown. Following a Ragusin escape, the score was 3 – 1 going into the second period, where Ragusin would start on bottom.

Ragusin escaped, cutting Shawver’s lead to just one point. That would not last long, though, as Shawver through Ragusin from a double over hook tie, which would put Shawver up 10 – 2. Ragusin was able to find a late reversal as time expired in the second period, but Shawver went into the final period with a commanding 10 – 4 lead.

Shawver was never in trouble the rest of the way, only getting stronger as the match went on. The Scarlet Knight picked up two more takedowns, a pair of escapes, and another set of back points. After the final whistle, Shawver secured the Big Ten title with a 23 – 8 technical fall, earning the 133-lb Big Ten title.

The conference title gives Rutgers its fifth Big Ten individual title in program history, and makes Shawver the third wrestler in program history to win a Big Ten Championship. Anthony Ashnault has three of the five titles, while Nick Suriano claims the other. Both former national champions were the last Rutgers wrestlers to win Big Ten titles, doing so in 2019.

Not only was it a historic day from an individual standpoint, but it was also a record day for the team. Rutgers scored 87.5 points, finishing in sixth place, just a half-point behind Ohio State, who took fifth. This was the second highest point total and team finish for Rutgers wrestling in program history. The program’s best was in 2016, when Rutgers finished in fifth place with 106.5 points.

In addition to the seven wrestlers that secured automatic bids, the Scarlet Knights found out on Tuesday there will be another wrestler joining them in Kansas City. Michael Cetta, who started the season as a back-up at 149-lbs, was granted an at-large bid for the national tournament.

Cetta stepped into the lineup when Oklahoma transfer, Jacob Butler, went down with a knee injury early in the season. Cetta went 14 – 11 on the year, earning victories over a couple of ranked wrestlers. His resume was enough to earn one of the four wildcard bids in the weight.

The NCAA tournament will begin on Thursday, March 21st and will conclude on Saturday March, 23rd at the T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City, MO. Brackets will be released live on Flowrestling March 13th on Flowrestling.