ACC Bracket First Thoughts

ACC pre-seeds and brackets dropped late Tuesday afternoon; since the seeding is done by the coaches, they are able to take in the entire body of work for the season. The only time there is specific criteria utilized is if there is a tie in the seeding points that two wrestlers get at any specific weight--this can lead to some interesting seeding choices based on only looking at conference results. Let’s take a look at the seeds and some must-watch first-round matchups. 125 4 Allocations 1 Seed: Eddie Ventresca, VT 2 Seed: Vince Robinson, NCST 3 Seed: Spencer Moore, UNC 4 Seed: Nick Babin, PITT 5 Seed: Keyveon Roller, UVA 6 Seed: FFT Stanford 7 Seed: FFT Duke Must-watch first-round match: Only one first-round match in this weight, but it’s a good one. Keyveon Roller had a great start to the season but struggled in the conference. He will face a scrappy Nick Babin who had a lot of tight matches in ACC duals. Even the odd man out at this weight could have a good case for an at-large bid. 133 3 Allocations 1 Seed: Ethan Oakley, UNC 2 Seed: Connor McGonagle, VT 3 Seed: Tyler Knox, STAN 4 Seed: Kai Orine, NCST 5 Seed: Gable Porter, UVA 6 Seed: Tyler Chappell, PITT 7 Seed: Raymond Adams, DUKE Must-watch first-round match: Kai Orine making the mid-season drop from 141 to 133 left him short of the needed match total to obtain RPI, so he didn’t earn an allocation and will have to steal one to guarantee a trip to Philly. He will face a very gritty Gable Porter, who will be a tough test. Orine’s biggest opponent every day in the postseason will first and foremost be the scale; he has a big pull to get to 133 and a match fresh off the scale against a crafty guy who can throw is intriguing. 141 4 Allocations 1 Seed: Sam Latona, VT 2 Seed: Dylan Cedeno, UVA 3 Seed: Jason Miranda, STAN 4 Seed: Troy Hohman, NCST 5 Seed: Jayden Scott, UNC 6 Seed: Briar Priest, PITT 7 Seed: Christian Colman, DUKE Must-watch first-round match: Troy Hohman has been a team guy this year and when Orine went back down, Hohman chose to go up a weight class to get a chance in the lineup. He made the most of his opportunities in the weight including ACC wins over Jason Miranda and Gable Porter. He will face Jayden Scott who has had an up-and-down season for the Tar Heels but has the potential to make a run in Durham this weekend. 149 4 Allocations 1 Seed: Caleb Henson, VT 2 Seed: Lachlan McNeil, UNC 3 Seed: Jaden Abas, STAN 4 Seed: Koy Buesgens, NCST 5 Seed: Jack Gioffre, UVA 6 Seed: Finn Solomon, PITT 7 Seed: SP ODonnell, DUKE Must-watch first-round match: The next two weights will feature twin brothers Jack and Michael Gioffre as must-watch opening-round bouts. They are both incredibly talented and have some big wins this season; both also missed a large chunk of the middle of the season with illness/injuries and are wild cards in this tournament. Jack will face a very game Koy Buesgens for the opportunity to face reigning NCAA champ Caleb Henson. 157 3 Allocations 1 Seed: Rafael Hipolito, VT 2 Seed: Ed Scott, NCST 3 Seed: Dylan Evans, PITT 4 Seed: Sonny Santiago, UNC 5 Seed: Grigor Cholakyan, STAN 6 Seed: Michael Gioffre, UVA 7 Seed: Nick Tattini, DUKE Must-watch first-round match: Michael Gioffre will have the chance to make some noise as he is as close to 100% as anyone can really be at this point in the season. He will square off with Dylan Evans who has had a solid season for Pitt. 157 is a wild and wide-open weight in the ACC and there is a second match everyone should have their eyes on with Grigor Cholakyan and Sonny Santiago. Santiago was just outside the cut line to earn an allocation and is looking to steal a spot, so he doesn’t have to hope for a wild card. Cholakyan has shown all year that he is willing to go throw for throw with anyone who steps on the mat and is one of my favorites to watch in the conference. 165 5 Allocations 1 Seed: Hunter Garvin, STAN 2 Seed: Nick Hamilton, UVA 3 Seed: Derek Fields, NCST 4 Seed: Jared Keslar, PITT 5 Seed: Mac Church, VT 6 Seed: Aidan Wallace, DUKE 7 Seed: Charlie Darracott, UNC Must-watch first-round match: 165 has been the most wide-open weight in the conference all season, so it’s fitting there are the most allocations on the line here. There is a lot of volatility at this weight and potential for big first-round upsets. Two important matches to keep an eye on in the opening round: Mac Church against Jared Keslar and Derek Fields against Aidan Wallace. Church started the year strong and has been on a bit of a slide, but is capable of beating anyone in the field. Keslar has been up and down all year with some good wins and some odd losses - this is very much a toss-up. Aidan Wallace made a huge impression mid-year getting to the Southern Scuffle finals, but hasn’t had the momentum since hitting ACC duals. He will face a very tricky Derek Fields who has shown to be a solid force in the middle of the lineup and consistently good, but doesn’t have any marquee wins on the year. 174 4 Allocations 1 Seed: Josh Ogunsanya, UNC 2 Seed: Lorenzo Norman, STAN 3 Seed: Luca Augustine, PITT 4 Seed: Matty Singleton, NCST 5 Seed: Lennox Wolak, VT 6 Seed: Rocco Contino, UVA 7 Seed: Gaetano Console, DUKE Must-watch first-round match: I don’t think anyone in the country would have expected this to be how seeding would look at this weight when looking at the lineups at the beginning of the season. Lennox Wolak has been a head-scratcher all year - he has shown flashes of the skill that made him an All-American sprinkled between stretches of bad losses. He will face Matty Singleton in the opening round. Singleton has built a lot of momentum on the back end of the season, including a big win over Wolak in the final dual of the year. This one could have a lot of implications on the team race and both the Hokies and the Wolfpack have this one circled. 184 3 Allocations 1 Seed: Reece Heller, PITT 2 Seed: Dylan Fishback, NCST 3 Seed: Gavin Kane, UNC 4 Seed: TJ Stewart, VT 5 Seed: Tye Montiero, STAN 6 Seed: Justin Phillips, UVA 7 Seed: David Hussey, DUKE Must-watch first-round match: This is another one that has a very different feel than we expected to start the year. Like Wolak, TJ Stewart has had some tough stretches of bad losses in between stints of the incredible wrestling that we saw last year when he made the podium. The Hokies will need Stewart to be back in his postseason form to make a run for the team title. He will have an opening match against Tye Montiero of Stanford that he will need to use to build some positive momentum going into a big semifinal against Reece Heller; Stewart had a SV win over Heller in their only meeting last season. 197 3 Allocations 1 Seed: Mac Stout, PITT 2 Seed: Nick Stemmett, STAN 3 Seed: Andy Smith, VT 4 Seed: Cade Lautt, UNC 5 Seed: Christian Knop, NCST 6 Seed: Steven Burrell Jr., UVA 7 Seed: Kwasi Bonsu, DUKE Must-watch first-round match: 197 has been a top-heavy weight in the conference all season. Andy Smith was the preseason favorite but Mac Stout has had an incredible season, reeling off an 18-match winning streak after a couple early losses. The one to watch here has potential team race implications. Cade Lautt has had a quietly strong ACC season, even in his losses he was able to slow the matches down and keep them close. He will face senior Christian Knop who is making his ACC tournament debut. The Wolfpack is hoping for some important points from Knop and an opening win could be huge. 285 5 Allocations 1 Seed: Isaac Trumble, NCST 2 Seed: Jimmy Mullen, VT 3 Seed: Nolan Neves, UNC 4 Seed: Dayton Pitzer, PITT 5 Seed: Peter Ming, STAN 6 Seed: Conner Barket, DUKE 7 Seed: Gabe Christensen, UVA Must-watch first-round match: Isaac Trumble has been atop the conference all season and is a heavy favorite to win the title. But even with a clear leader at the weight, 285 has been a deep weight for the conference and has seen multiple upsets. I would call both the 4-5 matchup with Pitzer and Ming as well as the 3-6 with Neves and Barket toss-up matches. Neves had an awesome ACC run to earn the 3 seed and will face Barket who has had flashes of his potential all season. Dayton Pitzer had a tough back half of his ACC season but opened ACC duals with a win over Ming, who he will see in the opening bout.

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