By Brian Reinhardt
USA Wrestling

The Friday night excitement at the NCAA Championships is unmatched, most die-hard wrestling fans will say. 

Yes, on Saturday night, 10 national champions are crowned, but the Friday night lead-up is what gets most fans excited. 

The NCAA breaks out the ‘dog bone’, six mats of action. The two middle mats are the semifinals, and the four outside mats are wrestlers fighting off elimination in the consolation rounds. 

It’s in the name, Blood Round. The beginning of the Friday night session features both total exhilaration and pure heartbreak on the same mat. The winner is an All-American and marches on; the loser is done and has to think about how they came one win short of the podium. 

Going through last year’s brackets from the NCAA Championships, here are those wrestlers who fell in the Blood Round but are poised to move past that round this year. 

125 pounds: #10 Dean Peterson (Iowa) 

All four of the wrestlers who fell in the Blood Round at 125 pounds last year are back to compete at the weight this season. Dean Peterson was a three-time NCAA Qualifier at Rutgers but never made it past the Blood Round. He stayed in the Big 10 and transferred to Iowa this offseason for his final year. 

133 pounds: #7 Evan Frost (Iowa State) 

Evan Frost was a 2024 All-American after advancing to the quarterfinals and coming home with a sixth-place finish. But he was unable to go back-to-back last year as he wrestled as the 11th seed, falling one win shy. 

141 pounds: #13 Joey Olivieri (Rutgers) 

Joey Olivieri was one of three Rutgers lightweights (along with Peterson) to fall in the Blood Round last year. His run last year was his second NCAA appearance; his previous was as a true freshman in 2022. This is his final season. 

149 pounds: #6 Cross Wasilewski (Penn) 

Cross Wasilewski burst onto the scene as a freshman last year. He won an Ivy League championship, finished second at the Midlands, and was the ninth seed at the NCAAs and won three matches. 

157 pounds: #9 Brandon Cannon (Ohio State) 

After winning the starting job after the season started, Brandon Cannon reached the Big 10 finals in his redshirt-freshman season and was the fifth seed at the NCAAs. He won three matches in his first try at NCAAs but was upset in the Blood Round. 

165 pounds: #18 (now at 174 pounds) Nick Hamilton (Virginia) 

Nick Hamilton is a two-time NCAA qualifier and the 2024 ACC champion at 165 pounds. Last year, he was the 25th seed and fell in the opening round but won three straight before suffering a loss in the Blood Round. For his final season, he has moved up to 174 pounds. 

174 pounds: #8 Lenny Pinto (Rutgers) 

A three-time NCAA Qualifier at Nebraska, Lenny Pinto transferred to Rutgers for his final season to try to reach the podium for the first time in his career. Last year was his first at 174 pounds; his previous two trips were up at 184 pounds. 

184 pounds: #7 Dylan Fishback (Ohio State) 

A top-five recruit coming out of high school, Dylan Fishback reached the Blood Round in both of his previous trips to the NCAAs, both times while wrestling for NC State. In the offseason, Fishback returned to Ohio when he transferred to the Buckeyes. 

197 pounds: #10 (now at 285 pounds) Wyatt Voelker (Northern Iowa) 

Last year at 197 pounds, Wyatt Voelker was crowned Big 12 champion and was the seventh seed at NCAAs, going on to win three matches. This will be his first season up at heavyweight. 

285 pounds: #6 Nick Feldman (Ohio State) 

The #1 overall-ranked wrestler from the Class of 2022, Nick Feldman earned All-American honors with a fifth-place finish in 2024 in his first year in the lineup. Last year, he was seeded 12th, but fell a win away from an AA repeat. 

WEEK 2 TIDBITS 

• Freshmen ruled the night in the Oklahoma State-Stanford dual. The Cowboys were in action for the first time this season and downed the visiting Cardinal, 33-7. The story of the dual was a trio of freshmen taking out returning All-Americans. 

It started at 149 pounds, as Stanford’s redshirt-freshman Aden Valencia cruised to a 13-3 major decision over #2 Casey Swiderski, the highest-ranked wrestler to lose thus far this year. The Cowboys quickly answered, as true freshman Landon Robideau used a late takedown to secure bonus points (11-2) against Daniel Cardenas at 157 pounds. At 165 pounds, classmate LaDarion Lockett used a second-period rideout to best two-time All-American Hunter Garvin. 

• Iowa opened its dual season with a 40-0 win over Bellarmine inside Carver-Hawkeye. It was the second straight year Iowa has shut out Bellarmine (49-0 in Louisville last year). The Hawkeyes also had a 31-1 advantage in takedowns across all 10 bouts. 

• A pair of former national champions made their season debuts in duals. Not only are both at a new school, but they are also in a new weight class. At Nebraska, AJ Ferrari is up at heavyweight and scored a 4-0 win over #14 Brady Colbert of Army. Richard Figueroa is up at 133 pounds at Oklahoma State, and in his first match, he was up 9-2 in the first period over #5 Tyler Knox of Stanford but dropped a 13-9 decision in Stillwater. 

• Here is a score you don’t see often: VMI defeated Emory & Henry 59-0 Friday night. Emory & Henry is transitioning from D3 to D2 this year, and not eligible for the postseason, so they do not appear to have a full roster.  

Out of a possible 60 team points, the Keydets narrowly missed the perfect team score with only a tech fall at heavyweight. The other nine matches, six pins (four in the first period) and three forfeits. 

While we can’t quite call it a scoring record, it just might be. Asking ChatGPT for scores of either 60-0 or 59-0 involving a D1 wrestling team, no results were returned.