2025 NCAA DI National Championships Preview (184 lbs)
The 2025 NCAA DI Wrestling Championships are less than a week away! In a few short days, 330 wrestlers will make the trek to Philadelphia, with hopes of a national title on their minds. Now it's in a city that hasn't hosted nationals since 2011, but it’s within driving distance of some of the top wrestling areas in the country. The atmosphere for the national tournament is always great, but I expect these East Coast fans to bring a little extra to the Wells Fargo Center.
Before the action on the mat starts, InterMat will go through each individual bracket and highlight the favorites, top matches to watch, and much more.
The Top Seed: #1 Carter Starocci (Penn State)
It’s not every year where you go to the NCAA Tournament knowing you’ll see history. Most of the time it just happens. But that’s the case in 2025 at 184 lbs as Carter Starocci seeks to become the first wrestler to capture five collegiate titles. Of course, that feat has never been attempted before and the reason Starocci is in this position is an extra year of eligibility due to the Covid year (2021).
Aside from a pair of planned injury defaults at the 2024 Big Ten Championships, Starocci hasn’t lost an official collegiate match since the 2021 Big Ten finals. With a win in the Round of 16 Starocci will notch his 100th career win against only four losses (injury defaults included).
Starocci has been as dominant as ever in his final collegiate campaign, earning bonus points in over 90% of his bouts. His previous high came in 2022-23 when he did so in 2/3 of his matches. Starocci earned bonus points in his first 12 matches of the season before getting slowed down by Iowa’s redshirting freshman Angelo Ferrari.
It was a redshirt freshman who pushed Starocci the most in 2024-25. Minnesota’s Max McEnelly got the first takedown against Starocci and took the four-time national champion into sudden victory during their Big Ten finals bout. Starocci was able to refocus and get the win.
In November’s unofficial All-Star Classic, Starocci defeated the returning champion at this weight Parker Keckeisen in sudden victory, as well. Keckeisen was undefeated in 2023-24 and hasn’t lost an official match this season.
The Contenders: #2 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa), #3 Max McEnelly (Minnesota), #4 Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State)
The Conference Champs
ACC: #9 Reece Heller (Pittsburgh)
Big 12: #2 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa)
Big Ten: #1 Carter Starocci (Penn State)
EIWA: #27 Ross McFarland (Hofstra)
Ivy: #6 Chris Foca (Cornell)
MAC: #7 Isaac Dean (Rider)
Pac-12: #33 TJ McDonnell (Oregon State)
SoCon: #24 Devan Hendricks (Bellarmine)
Top First Round Matches
#17 Gavin Kane (North Carolina) vs. #16 Shane Cartagena-Walsh (Rutgers)
#5 Bennett Berge (South Dakota State) vs. #28 Dennis Robin (West Virginia)
#19 Eddie Neitenbach (Wyoming) vs. #14 DJ Parker (Oklahoma)
#7 Isaac Dean (Rider) vs. #26 Ryder Rogotzke (Ohio State)
This is the only weight where we have the top five seeds all finishing in that same order. That means based on the action during the regular season and in the conference tournaments, these competitors have created their own natural order. Now, maybe that’s a bad sign and means that chaos will reign supreme in Philly!
The returning champion is Keckeisen and his finals opponent from 2024 was Dustin Plott. Keckeisen has maintained control of their clashes winning all three of the bouts this season - one via major decision and the other two were relatively comfortable regular decisions. With the emergence of the freshman McEnelly, Plott gets bumped to the fourth seed, so chances are we don’t get a fourth matchup between the Big 12 foes. Keckeisen ran through the 2024 tournament with bonus points in every match - he has been able to tally bonus just about as frequently as during his title-winning season.
McEnelly working his way into the third seed wasn’t necessarily a surprise. He was a perfect 15-0 while redshirting and carried that movement into his first year of official competition for the Gophers. McEnelly started the 2024-25 campaign with six straight tech falls - a streak that was broken by a tiebreaker win over returning All-American Bennett Berge. In his Big Ten season debut, McEnelly majored past conference champion Silas Allred. His potential semifinal matchup with Keckeisen became even more anticipated after the manner in which he competed against Starocci.
Berge was the freshman who sort of unexpectedly crashed the party last year and finished fourth at this weight. A 26-5 record this year and a third-place finish in the Big 12 proves that it wasn’t a fluke. Seeded fifth, he’ll get tested early on with Allred in the Round of 16.
A couple of Jersey guys have the sixth and seventh seeds with Ivy League champion Chris Foca at #6 and MAC champion Isaac Dean as the #7. Foca is looking to get back on the podium after taking third in 2023. Dean had a breakout season that saw him finish fifth in Vegas despite starting the tournament as a relative unknown.
The rest of the Big Ten contingent will be pushing for spots on the podium, as well, with #8 Jaxon Smith, #10 Edmond Ruth, #11 Gabe Arnold, and #12 Allred. Arnold is a freshman and in his first nationals appearance, while Ruth is the only returning AA from the veterans. Smith and Allred have gotten close - both have lost in the Round of 12 at least once in their careers.
Finally, coming in as the #9 seed is ACC champion Reece Heller. He went 0-3 in a December dual that included Berge, Smith, and Dean - but those account for his only losses of the year. He’s on a 14-match winning streak, a span that includes a Midlands title.
Darkhorse All-American Candidate: #15 Dylan Fishback (NC State)
Speaking of the ACC, Heller’s conference finals opponent Dylan Fishback is someone to watch coming out of the #15 seed. He has a modest 13-6 record, but none of those defeats would be classified as “bad.” They’ve all come to wrestlers seeded in the top nine in this tournament.
For a #15 seed to make the podium, they don’t need to beat a whole bunch of the guys seeded above them, maybe only one or two. Could Fishback be capable of reversing a result or two in Philly or pulling a minor upset? I think so. Despite being positioned next to Keckeisen in the Round of 16, I think he’s bracketed well for such a feat.
Extreme (20+) Darkhorse All-American Candidate: #26 Ryder Rogotzke (Ohio State)
If you’re looking for a fun, exciting wrestler to follow in this tournament, Ryder Rogotzke is your guy. Win or lose, points will be scored and big moves will be attempted. Some will land, others won’t. He’s the epitome of the wrestler who isn’t afraid to give up a takedown attempting a hold that might put his opponent on their back and end the match.
Rogotzke gets a first-round matchup against #7 Dean. Though Dean is seeded much higher than Rogotzke, it will be his first national tournament and you never know how wrestlers respond. If that is an issue, Rogotzke can certainly take advantage of the situation.
Team Race:
The top four seeds come from schools that are expected to be in the trophy hunt. A potential Keckeisen/McEnelly semifinal could be huge on that front. But, before that, McEnelley could square off with either Arnold or Foca, both of whom wrestle for contending teams. That quarterfinal and the semi that follows it will be massive.
Arnold and Allred are both on trophy-contending teams and they are seeded outside of the top-eight. An All-American finish for either (or both) would be a huge boost to their team.
I haven’t talked much about Illinois in this area. They could have an outside shot at a team trophy. Edmond Ruth would be one of the wrestlers they need to get on the podium for trophy hopes to materialize.
Projected Quarterfinals
#1 Carter Starocci (Penn State) vs. #9 Reece Heller (Pittsburgh)
#5 Bennett Berge (South Dakota State) vs. #4 Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State)
#3 Max McEnelly (Minnesota) vs. #6 Chris Foca (Cornell)
#10 Edmond Ruth (Illinois) vs. #2 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa)
Projected Semifinals
#1 Carter Starocci (Penn State) vs. #4 Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State)
#3 Max McEnelly (Minnesota) vs. #2 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa)
Projected All-Americans
1st: Carter Starocci (Penn State)
2nd: Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa)
3rd: Max McEnelly (Minnesota)
4th: Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State)
5th: Bennett Berge (South Dakota State)
6th: #12 Silas Allred (Nebraska)
7th: #6 Chris Foca (Cornell)
8th: #9 Reece Heller (Pittsburgh)
Projected Round of 12 Finishers: #15 Dylan Fishback (NC State), #11 Gabe Arnold (Iowa), #10 Edmond Ruth (Illinois), #8 Jaxon Smith (Maryland)
Projected Consolation Round of 16 Finishers: #7 Isaac Dean (Rider), #19 Eddie Neitenbach (Wyoming), #13 Evan Bockman (Iowa State), #17 Gavin Kane (North Carolina)