Who the Big Ten Top Seeds Didn't Face This Season

We now have the pre-seeds for this weekend’s 2025 Big Ten Wrestling Championships. And as we all dig into them and pick them apart, we also want to look at some of the top matches that didn’t happen during the regular season. For the most part, I looked at who our top-seeded guys didn’t face (for whatever reason) along with some of the other top five seeds that didn’t hit as well. 

Let’s go weight-by-weight and look at some of the matches we didn’t see during the regular season.

Check out the full B1G pre-seeds here!

125: #1 Matt Ramos, Purdue 

Missed Matches
#2 Caleb Smith, Nebraska
#3 Dean Peterson, Rutgers
#4 Luke Lilledahl, PSU
#5 Joey Cruz, Iowa

Summary: No one will dispute that Matt Ramos is the rightful No. 1 seed in the Big Ten. But he didn’t face any of the other top five seeded guys in the weight class. That’s not to say that he hasn’t earned that spot through defeating several of the other guys across the NCAA, it’s just going to be interesting to see how things shake out. With that being said, he did face Peterson as well as Smith last season. He and Peterson split bouts with the Scarlet Knight taking their final meeting at Big Ten’s last year, 7-1. Ramos also lost to Smith 8-4 at CKLV last year as well. Needless to say, these are probably two rematches that the top seed has his eyes on.

133: #1 Drake Ayala, Iowa

Missed Matches
#3 Braxton Brown, MD
#4 Braeden Davis, PSU
#5 Dylan Shawver, Rutgers
#8 Angelo Rini, IN
#9 Nic Bouzakis, Ohio State

Summary: Like Ramos at 125, Ayala’s run to the top seed here at 133 came with just one win over a guy seeded in the top five in the conference and that was No. 2 seed Lucas Byrd. Outside of his late takedown win over Byrd, Ayala could possibly to getting his first meetings with a few guys. Although Ayala and Davis met in last year’s dual meet which was a 4-2 win for Ayala, they haven’t met since moving up to 133 this season. Besides that looming potential rematch that we could see in the semifinals, the others would be the first time for them to hit.

141: #1 Beau Bartlett, PSU

Missed Matches
#4 Vance Vombaur, Minn
#8 Henry Porter, IN
#9 Greyson Clark, Purdue

Summary: Bartlett comes in with an undefeated 18-0 record and wins over just about every top guy in the conference this season. The lone top five guy that Bartlett hasn’t faced this season is Vance Vombaur, who got the No. 4 seed. However, he and Vombaur have some history that the Gopher would probably like to correct and that’s a loss by fall at last year’s NCAAs. Another guy in the top 10 he hasn’t face is Indiana’s Henry Porter who he could see in his first match should he get by Purdue’s Greyson Clark, who Bartlett is yet to see as well.

The biggest match here that we didn’t see this season is the No. 2 vs No. 3 matchup between returning NCAA champ Jesse Mendez and All-American Brock Hardy. Mendez does already lead this series 2-0 with the last win coming at last year NCAAs, but the two have yet to face off this season and are on a collision course to do so in the semis.

149: Shayne Van Ness, PSU

Missed Matches
#7 Sam Cartella, NU
#10 Drew Roberts, Minn

Summary: Yes, there are two guys listed that Shayne Van Ness hasn’t wrestled this season, however, they will both be on the bottom side of the bracket so one of them will have to win in the first round to get a shot at the top-seed in the finals. So, let’s focus on matches we haven’t seen this year that would be good if they happened and the first on the list is #3 Ridge Lovett (Neb) vs #4 Dylan D’Emilio (OSU). The two hit last year at CKLV where Lovett pitched a 11-0 shutout, but this season they never crossed paths and with them being seeded where they are, it’s possible they would only meet on the backside of the tournament or in the finals.

157: #1 Ethen Miller, Maryland

Missed Matches
#3 Antrell Taylor, Neb
#4 Jacori Teemer, Iowa
#5 Tommy Askey, MN
#6 Joey Blaze, Purdue
#7 Trevor Chumbley, NW
#9 Brandon Cannon, OSU

Summary: Miller comes in with an undefeated 20-0 record, however, he didn’t wrestle a good portion of the top guys at the weight within the Big Ten. Notably, he sat out of the match against Purdue and didn’t face Joey Blaze and he owns a win over top-ranked, second seed Tyler Kasak by injury default which surely gave him the bump to the 1-seed. On the topside of the bracket the only guy Cannon does have a win over is Chase Saldate, who might earn himself a rematch with Miller if he gets by No. 9 seed Cannon. 

Secondarily, hopefully we see a healthier version of Jacori Teemer. We surely can’t expect him to be 100% with everything he’s dealing with, but a match between Teemer and Taylor, who have never wrestled before, would be fun to watch, even though it will be a tough road (tougher for Taylor with Kasak in his path) to get to each other on the front side of the bracket. 

165: #1 Mitchell Mesenbrink

Missed Matches
#3 Christopher Minto, Neb
#5 Andrew Sparks, Minn

Summary: With the way that Mesenbrink has been ‘mesen’ (see what I did there) people up this year, this is kind of a formality. But for the sake of the article, we have not seen the returning NCAA runner-up wrestle against Minto. During the dual meet, Bubba Wilson took the mat again Mesenbrink which is why this hasn't happened yet, and PSU and Minnesota didn’t wrestle at all this year so that explains the other missing match against Sparks. 

A few other matches between guys in the top five that we didn’t see this year include: #2 Michael Caliendo (Iowa) vs #4 Beau Mantanona (Michigan) and Caliendo against Indiana’s Tyler Lillard or Rutgers’ Anthony White. Lillard and White, the No. 7 and No. 10 seeds, respectively, will face off in the first round and the winner will get their first shot at Caliendo.

174: #1 Levi Haines, PSU

Missed Matches
#5 Clayton Whiting, Minn
#8 Brody Baumann, Purdue
#9 Lucas Condon, WI

Summary: The most notable miss here is Haines match against Whiting who he could see in the semifinals, if Whiting gets revenge on Patrick Kennedy, should they meet there. Kennedy defeated Whiting in the final week of dual meet competition, 8-4, but if results are reversed this time around the Haines/Whiting match could happen. Other than that, the 8 vs 9 match winner between Baumann and Condon in the first round will get Haines which will also be the first meeting for them as well.

184: #1 Carter Starocci, PSU

Missed Matches
#2 Max McEnelly, Minn
#4 Gabe Arnold, Iowa
#9 DJ Washington, IN

Summary: This is the most interesting, missed matchup and the three potential guys across from Starocci could all be in his path. First up is Washington, who is the last active guy in the NCAA that owns a "legit" win over Starocci, which came in his first official match as a starter. Since then, Starocci won their last 2 matches. But they did not hit this year and could meet up in the second round if Washington defeats 8-seed Ryder Rogotzke. Next up would be Gable Arnold (if seeds hold). And I don’t think there’s much to be said here. It’s the match we’ve wanted so long and have missed out on. Lastly is another young buck who has had a great year sitting at 18-0 and that’s the second seeded McEnelly. He been great all year and this would be a must watch match between two potentially undefeated guys.

197: #1 Stephen Buchanan, Iowa

Missed Matches
#3 Jacob Cardenas, Michigan
#8 Gabe Sollars, IN

Summary: Buchanan has had one of the most dominant seasons next to Mesenbrink with how many highly seeded guys in the conference he has defeated this year. The biggest match yet to happen this season in the B1G is between Buchanan and Cardenas. The path for Cardenas to get to Buchanan will involve turning the result against Josh Barr around in the semis to make the finals if everything goes according to seed. 

285: #1 Gable Steveson, Minn

Missed Matches
#2 Greg Kerkvliet, PSU
#8 Jacob Bullock, IN
#9 Seth Nevills, MD

Summary: Let’s cut right to it. The match we want to see is between Gable and Kerkvliet, a rematch from the 2022 NCAA Championship semis. However, that was the last time we saw the two match up since PSU and Minnesota did not wrestle in a dual meet this season. Other than this rematch that goes back to their Minnesota high school days, the other two that haven’t faced Steveson this season are Bullock and Nevills. The winner of this first round match will face Gable in the quarterfinals.