By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com

Highly ranked teams might want to reconsider going to the Journeymen/Brute Northeast Duals. 

Why? Strange things seem to happen. On second thought, highly-ranked teams should highly consider going to the Northeast Duals because it's a quality event and sometimes it's a learning experience to get a good scare even a month after Halloween.

Last year, that scare ended up a nightmare as Minnesota fell to Hofstra. This year, it was Maryland's turn to spook an opponent. Pat Santoro's Terps continued the tradition by picking off fifth-ranked Michigan in the day's biggest upset.

There were a few other upsets of note, but only individually. Scott Ervin of Appalachian State was fresh off a tournament title at the Keystone. He lost twice. Bucknell's Dave Marble was beaten by Chris Diehl of Michigan, while Steve Bell of Maryland got a dose of the upset elixir by Central Michigan's Conor Beebe. 

Oh, you mean "those" upsets. 

There's a new No. 1 at 133 pounds and he's from Hofstra. It's only the third week of the season and already Lou Ruggirello's gotten a ton of ink. First there was the win over Tyler McCormick a few weeks back. Then the All-Star invitation and a chance to face Coleman Scott. Well, Scott pulled out and then it was a chance to wrestle Mack Reiter. Ruggirello passed that test and then, five days later, got his chance at Scott and came away with a 3-2 victory, scoring two escapes and a third point on a penalty point. 

Thing is, if it weren't for the win over Scott, Ruggirello would still be behind Reiter, because the All-Star Classic bouts are not official matches recognized by the NCAA and of course, cannot be counted for ranking or seeding purposes - a standard only the NWCA rankings follow.  

Rarely does someone finish 0-2 at the NCAA championships in March and then so quickly earn the No. 1 ranking - this actually only after five dual meets. It's not even December yet, don't go beating everyone so soon.

Oh, that dual got better too. In all, Hofstra wrestlers beat three returning All-Americans … and lost the dual 20-16. Jared Rosholt's punishing decision over James Guerin finished off the Pride, but redshirt freshmen Cody Hill (184) and Quinten Fuentes (149) gave the Cowboys much-needed wins - as did transfer Jake Dieffenbach.

Back to Maryland. The matches went down the line, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Josh Haines upset third-ranked Tyrel Todd of Michigan and then Hudson Taylor followed with a quick fall over Anthony Biondo to make things interesting. At heavyweight, undersized Pat Gilmore won a wild 17-11 match over Michigan's Matt Guhn to ice the dual. 

Other notables from the Northeast Duals: 
- Central Michigan lost four matches in four duals, going 36-4 on the day. They didn't yield an offensive point in their 39-0 victory over Lehigh.
- Oklahoma State wrestled two duals against former Cowboy wrestlers. John Smith's quad topped Teague Moore's Clarion team 38-6 and Pat Popolizio's Binghamton squad 47-3.
- American International was the only non-Division I team in the event. Coach Chaz Seibert's team took a thumping, falling to Clarion 56-0 and Binghamton 42-6. 

Funky loss
Scott wasn't the only #1 wrestler to be dealt a defeat last weekend. Returning National Champion Mark Perry of Iowa fell behind big to unranked Chris Brown of Old Dominion in the Hawkeyes' 28-13 victory over the Monarchs as part of a quad meet at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio.

Brown ended up earning the victory by disqualification with roughly half a minute to go in the match, but while the net result isn't being disputed as a loss, but rather what was the official outcome kind. One source explained via e-mail there was a change of the outcome, actually ruling it a default, but both Old Dominion and Iowa reported the score to local and media outlets as a DQ. The match has been the subject of long threads here on themat.com, so it's pretty clear folks can decide for themselves, and of course, you know they will.

Coming up
The first big super tournament of the season will hit the mats at the Las Vegas Convention Center with the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. With 48 teams, it's one of the largest wrestling invitationals in the sport and it features 35 Division I programs, six Division II's, four NAIA's and two JUCOs.

Headlining the event team-wise are 11 teams ranked in the Top 25: #7 Missouri, #9 Wisconsin, #10 Michigan, #12 Hofstra, #14 Nebraska, #16 Ohio State, #18 Illinois, #19 Pittsburgh #20 Navy, #22 Penn and #25 Old Dominion. 

The CKLV is the one early season tournament that's guaranteed to take the rankings and basically rip them apart, spit them out and leave the ranking panels saying "now what?"

Other events worth keeping eye on include the Penn State Open and one small dual going on in Minnesota.

Big Time
We'll just be hours into the month of December and already, it's time for #1 vs. #2. Do you think coaches J Robinson and Cael Sanderson knew their squads would be this good at this point in the season that they'd schedule this dual so early? Of course. 

The top two teams in the land square off at Williams Arena in Minneapolis on Sunday at 2 p.m. Central. And guess what, people will actually get to watch! How? Details below.

Wrestling on Television
Alright wrestling fans, here's what we've got on TV this week for college wrestling.

The final airing of the NWCA All-Star Classic will hit the air on CSTV on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 3 p.m. Eastern. Sunday, fans in Oklahoma can see Bedlam live locally, but the rest of the nation will have to wait until Tuesday as FoxSports Southwest will re-air Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State from Stillwater on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Central.

And that little dual in Minnesota, airing on the Big Ten Network live on Sunday at 2 p.m. Central.