In the coming months, you are going to hear a lot of conversations about ducking, dodging and the relative lack of importance placed on the regular season.  Many will be whiny fans, which we need.  Others will have good points.
Is it time to rethink the regular season for NCAA DI wrestling?  Can we make it more important?  Do events like the National Duals and Mid Major Duals help the cause?
What if we did something a little more out of the box?
Here is an article I wrote two years ago on the subject
 
So, the first inaugural "Mid Major" Duals is in the books and it got me thinking. How do we make this event important? How do we incentivize teams to attend?
In fact- I have the same thoughts about other events. How do we make the regular season matter, period. To me there are two solutions.
 
1 - Prize money. It is getting more "legalish" to do this. Bowl games pay schools. Why not?
The simple reason is there just isn't as much $$ to go around in our sport and most if it is being spent by wealthy donors with a strong stake in making their pet program better. And that's great. But is there a donor or two out there that could put up $ for winning an event like this? Or the weight classes in Vegas, or Scuffle? 
Perhaps. But let's assume we aren't there yet.
So the other solution is...
 
2 - Allocate NCAA tourney bids at in season events. Imagine if UNI got a bid at every weight for winning the mid major duals? Changes things, doesn't it? Heck, I'd go a step further and give a bid to the individual champs at Vegas, Midlands and Scuffle too. That's 4 bids out of 33 at each weight that are determined through the year. Get the rest settled at conferences. Sounds crazy?
A - other sports do things like this
B - international wrestling does things like this as well.
 
I think it is two-fold positive.  
It's good for the fans, as more teams would wrestle their best guys hoping to get "qualification" out of the way early.
It's good for programs and athletes to have the chance to lock in bids.
I'd actually allow each conference dual champ to send their whole team, all 10 weights as well, but that's probably a bit too extreme for the current thought process. But man, it would make duals matter.
Are we ready for something like this? Probably not.  
Do we need to do something different if we want in season events to matter.
We do.

After some ups and downs during the first couple of days of competition at the 2026 Senior World Championships, Thursday was an excellent day for the American team. Both for the men’s and women’s freestyle teams. Thursday saw the final two women’s weight classes begin competition, while the first two men’s freestyle brackets go underway, as well. In both instances, the two American men and women who started their tournaments today each advanced to Friday’s gold medal matches.
If that wasn’t enough, later in the session Adaugo Nwachukwu captured the first gold medal of the 2026 tournament for the Americans.
Nwachukwu displayed some last-second heroics during her 12-11 victory over two-time world champion and 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Nonoka Ozaki (Japan). During their back-and-forth affair, the two exchanged four-point throws and action-packed sequences. Ozaki came from a 5-0 first-period deficit to take the late lead 11-9. With :14 seconds remaining on the restart, Nwachukwu pushed the pace and was finally able to hustle her way into a takedown during the final few seconds. The takedown gave her criteria and an 11-11 victory. The Japanese corner challenged the flurry; however, the call was upheld, making the final score 12-11.
This was Nwachukwu’s first Senior World medal in only her second appearance at the event. Earlier this month, she finished as the silver medalist at the U23 World Championships.
Nwachukwu’s win is the first by an American woman over a Japanese opponent in a world or Olympic final since Tamyra Mensh-Stock defeated Ami Ishii for a world title in 2022.
In addition to Nwachukwu, Kennedy Blades also grabbed some hardware on Thursday. She posted two wins on the day, one via tech and a fall in her medal round match to claim a bronze medal in the 68 kg weight class. It’s the second straight year that Blades earns a bronze medal at the World Championships.
Cristelle Rodriguez-Dobler (53 kg) and Precious Wieser (72 kg) each wrestled in a bronze medal match, but came up just short.
One of the most anticipated weight classes of the entire tournament starts this morning as action took place at the 97 kg men’s freestyle bracket. It is a group that contains four past Olympic gold medalists and a handful of legendary figures. Two of those collided in the quarterfinals as Kyle Snyder won the latest round in his rivalry with Russia’s Abdulrashid Sadulaev.
As he’s been known to do, Snyder had to come from behind to get the latest win over his Russian rival. Sadulaev got a takedown midway through the second period to take a 4-1 lead. That didn’t last as Snyder was able to score twice from a front headlock position - once with a takedown and the other netted a step out point. The 4-4 match went Snyder’s way on criteria.
After being Sadulaev, Snyder cruised to a 5-0 victory over Poland’s Zbigniew Baranowski to make the world finals. There he’ll face Japan’s Arash Yoshida. Yoshida defeated Snyder at a Ranking Series tournament in 2025; however, Snyder got revenge with a win in the 2025 World semifinals. The Japanese wrestler went on to win his first Senior world medal (bronze).
Speaking of comebacks, the other American men’s freestyle wrestler, Bo Bassett, staged one for the ages in the quarterfinals. Facing Russia’s Abasgadzhi Magomedov, Bassett trailed 12-3 early in the second period. Bassett never wavered and outscored the Russian 11-1 during the final two minutes of the match to take the match, 14-13.
The finals appearance comes less than two weeks after a disappointing medal-less showing from Bassett at the U23 World Championships.
For the gold medal, Bassett will face Armenia’s Vazgen Tevanyan, a two-time Olympian and world bronze medalist.
From one young sensation to the next, in women’s freestyle, Everest Leydecker also advanced to a gold medal match on Friday. Leydecker posted a steady 6-1 victory over Japan’s Nagisa Harada in the 55 kg semifinals.
Like Bassett, Leydecker’s finish at the Senior tournament has already surpassed her result at the recent U23 World Championships (bronze).
Finally, veteran Abby Nette emphatically clinched her first Senior world medal and a trip to tomorrow’s final with a fall over Ukraine’s Mariia Vynnyk in the semifinals. Vynnyk was the returning world silver medalist at 59 kg.
Leading 4-0, Nette held a Russian tie and Vynnyk tried to shoot through the hold. That proved to be unsuccessful and Nette drove her right to her back. After a prolonged fight from Vynnyk, Nette finally got the fall.

 
American results
Women’s Freestyle
53 kg
Bronze Medal Match - Andreea Ana (Romania) over Cristelle Rodriguez-Dobler  6-3
 
55 kg
Round of 16 - Everest Leydecker over Karla Godinez Gonzalez (Canada)  2-1
Quarterfinals - Everest Leydecker over Anastasia Blayvas (Germany)  Fall 3:55
Semifinals - Everest Leydecker over Nagisa Harada (Japan)  6-1
 
59 kg
Round of 16 - Abby Nette over Gloria Niyonkuru (Burundi)  Fall :43
Quarterfinals - Abby Nette over Svetlana Lipatova (Russia)  7-6
Semifinals - Abby Nette over Mariia Vynnyk (Ukraine)  Fall 2:12
 
62 kg
Gold Medal Match - Adaugo Nwachukwu over Nonoka Ozaki (Japan)  12-11
 
68 kg
Repechage - Kennedy Blades over Srishti (India)  11-1
Bronze Medal Match - Kennedy Blades over Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia)  Fall 5:10
 
72 kg
Bronze Medal Match - Tanu Sharma (India) over Precious Wieser  9-5
 
Men’s Freestyle
65 kg
Round of 32 - Bo Bassett over Peiman Biabani (Canada)  Fall 1:12
Round of 16 - Bo Bassett over Quentin Sticker (France)  12-0
Quarterfinals - Bo Bassett over Abasgadzhi Magomedov (Russia)  14-13
Semifinals - Bo Bassett over Abdulmazhid Kudiev (Tajikistan)  12-2
 
97 kg
Round of 16 - Kyle Snyder over Alperen Tokgoz (Turkiye)  10-0
Quarterfinals - Kyle Snyder over Abdulrashid Sadulaev (Russia)  4-4
Semifinals - Kyle Snyder over Zbigniew Baranowski (Poland)  5-0

 
Friday’s Gold Medal Matches
Women’s Freestyle 
55 kg - Everest Leydecker (USA) vs. Nataliia Klivchutska (Ukraine)
59 kg - Abby Nette (USA) vs. Manisha Bhanwala (India)
 
Men’s Freestyle
65 kg - Bo Bassett (USA) vs. Vazgen Tevanyan (Armenia)
97 kg - Kyle Snyder (USA) vs. Arash Yoshida (Japan)

 
Final Results
Women’s Freestyle
53 kg
Gold Medal Match: Moe Kiyooka (Japan) over Lucia Yepez Guzman (Ecuador)  6-0
Bronze Medal Match: Andreea Ana (Romania) over Cristelle Rodriguez-Dobler (USA)  6-3
Bronze Medal Match: Jonna Malmgren (Sweden) over Jin Zhang (China)  5-2
 
62 kg
Gold Medal Match: Adaugo Nwachukwu (USA) over Nonoka Ozaki (Japan)  12-11
Bronze Medal Match: Amina Tandelova (Russia) over Esther Kolawole (Nigeria)  7-3
Bronze Medal Match: Bilyana Dudova (Bulgaria) over Johanna Lindborg (Sweden)  5-2
 
68 kg
Gold Medal Match: Jia Long (China) over Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan)  4-3
Bronze Medal Match: Kennedy Blades (USA)  over Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia)  Fall 5:10
Bronze Medal Match: Adela Hanzlickova (Czech Republic) over Manola Skobelska (Ukraine)  6-6
 
72 kg
Gold Medal Match: Zelu Li (China) over Wiktoria Choluj (Poland)  4-3
Bronze Medal Match: Tanu Sharma (India) over Precious Wieser  9-5
Bronze Medal Match: Mahiro Yoshitake (Japan) over Zhamila Bakbergenova (Kazakhstan)  6-4

Get your fantasy lineups set for week one of the 2026-27 season. Tony and Todd go through the smart plays to get your season started on the right foot.