Friends, we’ve closed the books on January. Fewer than eight weeks remain in this 2018-19 collegiate wrestling season. The post season picture is coming into a bit of focus.

Michigan posted a thrilling win over Ohio State last weekend, and visits the Bryce Jordan Center this Friday night. Nolf - Pantaleo, Cenzo-Massa, Hall-Amine, and perhaps even RBY vs Micic, though that’s questionable due to RBY’s health. But more on that later. For now, let’s take a look at the individual standings.

125 LBS

It’s been a long time coming, but it finally came. Congrats to Devin Schnupp on his first of what hopes to be many more Big Ten conference wins. Away from Happy Valley, the big talk was Iowa’s Spencer Lee sitting out a rematch with Northwestern’s Rivera. When asked why Spencer sat out, Iowa coach Tom Brands claimed “that was our plan”. Which is perfectly fine, except that Spencer answered questions 30 hours prior about his upcoming match with Rivera, and never mentioned sitting. So it must have been a relatively new plan.

133 LBS

Stevan Micic laid a whoopin’ on Luke Pletcher. Micic took Pletcher down early, and then bow-and-arrowed him for the full 4 swipes. Up 6-0 heading into the 2nd period, Micic stomped the throttle, and did it some more. He just missed the tech fall, at 14-1. But daggone, was that a statement match. He’s back, he’s healthy, and he’s not messing around.

Purdue’s Ben Thornton took the first shot (as did most Purdue wrestlers vs PSU), got a leg in the air - and RBY tried his backflip. Instead of escaping, he appeared to twist his knee. RBY finished the match in 1st gear, and lost 7-3. Then he sat out Sunday’s dual vs Indiana. Cael mentioned it is possible that RBY could wrestle this Friday - but that’s a short turnaround, and Micic isn’t the kind of guy you want to test out your knee against. I’d think RBY rests this weekend.

141 LBS

Mitch McKee lost an overtime scramble to Tristan Moran, who’s been making a habit of winning funky scrambles. Mikey Carr beat Max Murin on Friday, and Chad Red on Sunday. That’s a solid weekend of work.

149 LBS

Whew - this is one of the conference’s weaker weights. Wisconsin’s Cole Martin got knocked off by Minny’s latest Thorn brother (Mike?, David?, - no, this one’s Tommy). There’s almost zero chance this weight brings 8 bids to the conference tournament.

157 LBS

Last year Pantaleo took Nolf down twice off of re-attacks. Pantaleo’s a counter puncher, and a former Junior world team member. He’s pretty good at what he does. It’ll be interesting to see how this Friday’s round 2 match with Nolf plays out. Do we get the more methodical and surgical Nolf, like we’ve seen more often since his knee injury (and is perhaps a better prep for the international stage)? Or does Jason harbor a hateful grudge, and go berserker mode, fists of fury, Flash pace, with 40 feints and shots all melded into a blur?

165 LBS

Cenzo posted a pair of falls last weekend, including one in 1:23 over our #6 in conference, Bryce Martin. So if you’re looking for a notional cut-off point in this table for judging quality, that’s a pretty good one.

174 LBS

Myles Amine wrestled a close, conservative match last Friday against Buckeye reserve (?) Ethan Smith. Smith got to Amine’s leg in the closing seconds for what could have been a winning takedown. Getting to legs and finishing are two different things, of course. But Amine might need to cut loose a bit more against Marky this Friday at the BJC.

184 LBS

Hopefully we get to see Sugar Rasheed back on the mat this Friday. But while he’s been out, Nebraska’s Taylor Venz has continued to work. A solid win over Emery Parker moves Venz into our #2 slot for the time being. That’s the best not-Myles-Martin win in the conference.

197 LBS

Bo Nickal.

285 LBS

We’ve listed Ant’ny in the #2 spot for a little while now, and it looks like our friends at WrestleStat.com now agree. Well - at least their algorithm does. And you thought wins over Jacob Aven and Fletcher Miller were no big deal, eh? Not to math, sir. They all matter to math.