It’ll be several weeks before high school wrestling starts here in the Lehigh Valley, so there’s no real need to dive into that yet, but college wrestling is in full swing already. For most of the last 15 years, the team to beat has been Penn State. That really doesn’t seem to have changed at all.

Penn State is redshirting two returning All-Americans, a World Champion from Japan, and also is missing a returning National runner-up at 197, but they shut out Oklahoma in their opener. Just for good measure they sat out a senior Team USA member at 157, and it still didn’t matter. They did so in a packed arena, something most programs can’t do, which just further underscores that it’s Penn State’s world. Penn State had guys wrestling off in other tournaments, in their own dual, fighting in MMA, and transfers on other powerhouse teams now. They’re everywhere in this sport and really should win another National Title in 2025.

Closer to home, Lehigh had a tough start at the National Duals. They went without two former All-Americans expected to contend for National titles this year, so it doesn’t mean the season will be all bad. Lehigh went 1-2, losing to #2 Nebraska and #15 Illinois. They beat Arizona State for a nice win. 157 pounder Logan Rozynski beat defending national champion Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) and defending All-American Sheldon Seymour (125) went 3-0 on the day. Lehigh will be quite tough once they’re healthy.

Speaking of Nebraska, many though it would be them, or Iowa, or Oklahoma State pushing Penn State this year. Ohio State beat them all this weekend and won the National Duals. Their lightweights really rolled through Nebraska and Iowa on Sunday in a bit of a surprise. None of the duals were really that close. Iowa was second, Oklahoma State third, and Nebraska fourth. So that’s a total early re-shuffle.

On the women’s mats, Lehigh won their first ever dual meet this weekend at Lock Haven. #1 Iowa won a match on the U.S.S. Yorktown against #6 Presbyterian. Next weekend’s Missouri Valley Open is one of the biggest events in the sport, and will be the first major test of the year.