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NCAA Wrestling Rankings: Final Dual Poll

With the dual season in the books, let's give one last look before turning our attention to Big Tens and Nationals.

Mike McCormkick gets one right.
Mike McCormkick gets one right.
USA TODAY Sports

What a dual season. Action packed from beginning to end, with upsets galore, this has been one of the most exciting wrestling seasons to date. Set aside all of the moaning about National Duals (and we're as guilty of moaning as the next guy), the 2013/2014 season has been one of the best ever - and we still have the best part of the season to come. Let's take one last look at our dual meet rankings before turning the page into the post season.

BSD Rank Last Week Team Wins Losses Top 20 Ws Top 20 L's Last Result
1 1 Minnesota 13 1 9 1 W, 27-12, at Iowa State
2 2 Penn State 15 1 9 1 W, 43-3, vs. Clarion
3 3 Iowa 15 2 8 2 W, 28-10, at Wisconsin
4 4 Northern Iowa 13 0 4 0 W, 21-19, vs. Old Dominion
5 5 Oklahoma State 10 5 3 5 W, 29-10, vs. Arizona State
6 6 Cornell 13 1 2 1 W, 28-19, vs. Hofstra
7 7 Michigan 11 4 7 3 IDLE
8 8 Nebraska 12 2 5 2 W, 22-15, at Wisconsin
9 9 Missouri 10 2 2 2 W, 24-9, at Kent State
10 10 Ohio State 13 5 4 5 W, 23-16, vs. Virginia Tech
11 11 Pitt 13 3 4 3 W, 22-12 vs. UNC
12 12 Oklahoma 11 5 3 4 IDLE
13 13 Wisconsin 12 6 6 4 L, 10-28, vs. Iowa
14 14 UVA 18 3 3 3 IDLE
15 15 Edinboro 11 3 3 3 W, 29-6 vs. WVU
16 16 Virginia Tech 17 5 4 5 L, 16-23, at Ohio State
17 17 Oregon State 11 7 3 5 IDLE
18 19 NDSU 11 6 2 6 W, 32-12, vs. SDSU
19 20 Chattanooga 15 7 1 6 W, 37-3, vs. VMI
20 NR Northwestern 8 7 1 6 W, 24-15, vs. NCState

The Top 3, according to our massive network of pollsters, remain intractable, and, to a certain extent, interchangeable. Wrestle 10 duals each between them, the results would be awfully close - just like they were when they wrestled the first time. A botched referee call here, a surprise pinfall there....Penn State, Minnesota, and Iowa are very close to each other, but a fair distance ahead of the rest of the world.

Congratulations to UNI. The Panthers finished their dual season undefeated for the first time since the invention of electricity, and are the only undefeated squad in Division 1. They accomplished the feat by the most narrow of margins, topping Old Dominion 21-19, despite ODU taking 6 of the 10 bouts. It took 3 pinfalls, and a dual clinching 7-4 decision at heavyweight, for Schwab's crew to go home unblemished. Credit ODU for carrying the fight, led by Billy Curling (174) and Jack Dechow (184), both of whom pulled off upsets against highly ranked foes (Cody Caldwell-174, and Ryan Loder-184). ODU earned the win, but came up just short on bonus points.

Congrats also, to Michigan. New training facilities, outstanding assistant coach hires, and a couple of highly ranked recruiting classes returned the Wolverines into the Top 10 for the first time in too long. And if you can stomach that bit of applause, we might as well toss Pitt (gag) into the mix as well. Congrats to first year coach Jason Peters, winning the ACC in the Panthers' inaugural season in the conference.

Excuse me for a moment, while I get sick to my stomach for having written such things.

Just a second. Almost there...

Okay. Not a lot of shakeup for the final poll. Northwestern, with wins over Stanford last week, and NCState this week, finish with a winning dual meet record despite wrestling in the Big Ten, and earn the final spot in the poll.

Dropped From The Rankings

Last Week Team Wins Losses Top 20 Ws Top 20 L's Last Result
18 Central Michigan 10 11 1 7 L, 14-18, vs. Michigan State

CMU showed well at National Duals, but then had a bit of controversy in a shocking loss to Michigan State. The Chippewas lost a team point on an unsportsmanlike call, following Spartan Garth Yenter's upset win over #16 Joe Roth at 133. Sparty heavy Mike McClure's pin provided the winning margin in a dual whose bouts were split evenly, 5-5. Tom Minkel's team finished their season on a 3-match win streak, which is an incredible accomplishment from where they began the season.

Others Receiving Votes

Last Week Team Wins Losses Top 20 Ws Top 20 L's Last Result
NR Illinois 8 8 0 7 IDLE
NR Kent State 11 13 2 8 L, 9-27, vs. Edinboro
NR Lehigh 8 6 1 4 W, Harvard
NR Old Dominion 8 10 2 5 L, 19-21, vs. UNI
NR Iowa State 9 9 1 5 L, 12-27, vs. Minnesota
NR Stanford 15 5 1 3 IDLE

The Week In Upsets

Another week in wrestling, another bevy of upsets. All hail former #7 Ike Jordan, who pulled out overtime wins against former #1 James Green and former #2 Derek St. John in back-to-back bouts. Not too shabby for a freshman. Jordan propelled himself from a likely 5th or 6th seed at Big Tens into the top spot, with an unblemished conference record, at a weight that features a returning national champ, 4 past All-Americans, and 6 top 20 foes, not including himself. What a crazy season.

Last, it wasn't an upset, but it was noteworthy: Kyven Gadson solidified his top ranking by knocking off former #1 Scott Schiller, 6-4, at 197lbs. Schiller started the year 24-0, including a 6-3 win over Gadson, but is just 2-3 in his last 5 bouts (albeit against 3 pretty stout opponents).

Wt Upset
125 Corey Stainbrook(WVU) dec. #18 Kory Mines (Edinboro), 6-4
125 Nathan Kraisser (UNC) dec. #20 Anthony Zanetta (Pitt), 6-4
125 #13 Ryan Taylor (Wisc) dec. #9 Tim Lambert (Neb), 5-3SV
133 Garth Yenter (Sparty) dec. #16 Joe Roth (CMU), 8-4
141 Todd Preston (Harvard) dec. #20 Laike Gardner (Lehigh), 9-4
141 #15 Edgar Bright (Pitt) dec. #6 Evan Henderson (UNC), 3-1
149 Christian Barber (UNC) dec. #20 Mikey Racciato (Pitt), 4-2
157 #7 Ike Jordan (Wisc) dec. #2 Derek St.John (Iowa), 3-1SV
157 #7 Ike Jordan (Wisc) dec. #1 James Green, 3-1SV2
184 Jack Dechow (ODU) dec. #5 Ryan Loder (UNI), 5-4
197 #1 Kyven Gadson (Iowa St) dec. #4 Scott Schiller (Minn), 6-4
285 Evan Daley (Clarion), dec. #12 Jimmy Lawson, 7-6
285 #10 Conor Medbery (Wisc) dec. #3 Bobby Telford (Iowa), 3-1
285 #6 Nick Gwiazdowski (NCState) dec. #1 Mike McMullen, 5-3SV