The 2023 edition of the NWCA National Duals featured breakthrough performances by upstart programs and stunning individual upsets, but three of college wrestling’s longstanding powers stood tallest in the end. 

Grand View captured its 11th straight title in NAIA, St. Cloud State returned to the top of the NCAA Division II heap and Augsburg claimed its eighth D3 title Saturday in Louisville. 

Here’s a look at some of the top developments from the second day of the duals:

— Grand View entered the weekend as the prohibitive NAIA favorite and the Vikings made light work of their bracket destruction. Grand View went 18-2 on Friday and scored bonus points in all but four matches and followed that up with a 17-3 day with five bonus-point victories on Saturday. The Vikings notched a 36-0 semifinal win against a Doane squad that withheld several of its top stars and then completed their title run by beating Life in the finals for the National Duals finals for the fourth straight time. 

Grand View swept the first five matches against Life. In a rematch of last year’s NAIA title bout and a showdown between the past two national champions at 125 pounds, Grand View’s Esco Walker scored an overtime takedown to beat Brandon Orum 4-2. The Vikings also picked up a 6-1 win from top-ranked 133-pounder Carson Taylor against #3 Jacob Ruiz and fourth-ranked Blake Gonzalez downed #2 Brevin Balmeceda 9-5 at 149 to help launch Grand View out to a 16-0 dual lead. 

“I just felt like we fought,” Grand View coach Nick Mitchell said. “What did I get taught when I was in college (at Wartburg) and coaching with (former Wartburg) coach (Jim) Miller? It’s all about the fight. It’s all about the effort. That’s what it is and you let the outcome take care of itself. Our guys hung their hats on that in this dual and because of that, we won some really tight matches. We did our job when it came to the fight.” 

— St. Cloud State arrived in Louisville as a proud and prestigious program aiming to regain its spot atop the Division II mountain. 

The Huskies watched their 77-meet dual winning streak end in last year’s finals against Central Oklahoma and then left the NCAA Championships last March without the title trophy for the first time since 2017. 

But Steve Costanzo’s bunch demonstrated Saturday that it still has the ingredients of a champion. Fueled by Paxton Creese’s dramatic overtime pin at 125 and hard-fought wins by Joey Bianchini and Nick Novak at 149 and 157, respectively, the Huskies knocked off #1 Central Oklahoma 19-16 in the Division II title dual. 

In the opening bout of the dual, Studd Morris was on the verge of scoring an overtime takedown when Creese created a flurry and sat back in the Central Oklahoma 125-pounder’s lap for a fall. 

“That was big,” Costanzo said. “You’ve got to keep wrestling, right? If it’s seven minutes of wrestling or nine minutes of wrestling, you’ve got to keep wrestling. Fortunately, we put ourselves in good position. A guy got out of position, we took advantage of it, they called the fall and that was big for us.” 

So were pivotal wins at 149 and 157. Seventh-ranked Bianchini downed #5 Brik Filippo 9-8 at 149 and a takedown in the closing seconds allowed eighth-ranked Novak to also push his riding-time advantage over a minute in a 6-5 win against #2 Gabe Johnson at 157. 

St. Cloud State also picked up key wins from top-ranked 174-pounder Abner Romero and seventh-ranked Dominic Murphy at 197. Late in the first period of a scoreless bout, Murphy fended off a shot from top-ranked and reigning 197-pound national champ Dalton Abney with a cross-ankle counter. Abney’s other foot got twisted into the mat as he went to his back in pain during a sequence in which Murphy scored a takedown and two-point near-fall. 

Abney hung in there the rest of the bout, but his mobility and explosiveness were limited and Murphy scored a 9-0 major decision that gave the Huskies a 19-13 lead going to heavyweight. 

— Johnson & Wales rolled into Saturday’s D3 title dual fresh off a win against top-ranked Wartburg and in pursuit of its first National Duals title. 

Augsburg stopped the Wildcats in their tracks, winning eight of the final nine bouts, including three by fall to blow out Johnson & Wales 35-8. 

“We’ve been talking about how dangerous this team is all year, but we need to be consistent,” Augsburg coach Tony Valek said. “I think that was the first dual where we fired on all 10 cylinders at once and that’s the kind of result we can have.” 

Top-ranked Joziah Fry launched Johnson & Wales out to an early lead with a technical fall at 125, but it was nearly all Augsburg after that. 

Sam Stuhl scored a technical fall for the Auggies at 141 before Seth Goetzinger (174), Parker Venz (197) and Tyler Kim (285) notched falls. Goetzinger trailed 4-0 and was on the bottom in the third period when he put top-ranked Michael Ross in danger and scored the fall. 

Johnson & Wales picked up its only other win in the dual at 157, where Hayden Brown, who wrestled 149 the rest of the weekend, moved up and posted a 5-4 win against top-ranked Tyler Shilson. 

Augsburg went 27-13 in matches on the weekend. Its tightest dual came in the semis, where the Auggies dropped four consecutive matches in the middle and trailed after 174 against UW-La Crosse. But Augsburg picked up a pivotal fall at 197, where Venz pinned top-ranked Ben Kawczynski to seal the dual.