(from left) Aaron Brooks, Parker Keckeisen, and Trent Hidlay (Photos/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com)The 2023 NCAA DI Wrestling Championships are less than a week away! In a few short days, 330 wrestlers will make the trek to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with hopes of a national title on their minds. Now it's in a state that hasn't hosted nationals since 2014 and a city that has never hosted the DI Tournament. Our Big 12 friends are plenty-familiar with the venue, the BOK Center, as it has become the home of their conference tournament.
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.
Here are the previously released previews:
125 lb Preview
133 lb Preview
141 lb Preview
149 lb Preview
157 lb Preview
165 lb Preview
174 lb Preview
The Top Seed: #1 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa)
For many fans, one of the more shocking revelations from the bracket release was seeing two-time NCAA champion Aaron Brooks as the three-seed. Two-time All-American Parker Keckeisen got the nod as the top seed based on his 22-1 record and a third consecutive Big 12 championship. Keckeisen carries a 16-match winning streak into Tulsa.
In each of the last two NCAA tournaments, Keckeisen has finished in third place at 184 lbs. Of his four career losses, two came at the hands of Brooks, one in the 2021 NCAA semifinals. Keckeisen’s only loss this season was at the hands of Trent Hidlay in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational finals. Just a couple of weeks later, Keckeisen was able to avenge that loss in a big way. At the Collegiate Duals, Keckeisen locked up Hidlay in a cradle and pinned the former national runner-up.
Keckeisen was remarkable during his first two years in Cedar Falls, but he’s become even more dominant during the 2022-23 campaign. He’s logged bonus points in almost two-thirds of his matches on the year, which is more than doubled the output from 2021 and 12% higher than in 2021-22. So far, Keckeisen has four wins this season over three past NCAA All-Americans.
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