Mike Carr is seeded No. 6 despite placing eighth at the Big Ten Championships (Photo/Sam Janicki, SJanickiPhoto.com)The brackets were released for the 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Wednesday. For the first time, the NCAA committee seeded all 33 wrestlers in the 10 weight classes. The committee examines head-to-head competition (25 percent), quality wins (20 percent), coaches ranking (15 percent), results against common opponents (10 percent), RPI (10 percent), qualifying event placement (10 percent) and win percentage (10 percent).
While the committee did well with many seeds, there are some head-scratching seeds. Let's examine some over-seeded wrestlers at this year's NCAAs.
Mike Carr (Illinois, 141)
NCAA seed: No. 6
InterMat rank: No. 9
Carr has received some generous seeds in the postseason. His best wins during the regular season came over Minnesota's Mitchell McKee and Michigan's Kanen Storr. However, Carr was given the No. 1 seed at the Big Ten Championships over returning All-Americans Nick Lee of Penn State and Joey McKenna of Ohio State. Both Lee and McKenna had far superior regular seasons. At the Big Tens, Carr not only failed to live up to his seed, but he had a disastrous tournament, finishing eighth. He took losses to Chad Red of Nebraska, Tristan Moran of Wisconsin and Max Murin of Iowa. It was almost like the committee gave Carr a mulligan on his performance at the Big Tens. An eighth-place finish in the conference tournament -- with losses to three wrestlers seeded below him -- should not given him a No. 6 seed, especially without any wins this season over wrestlers seeded in the top five.
Mason Parris gets his hand raised after a victory against Clarion (Photo/Sam Janicki, SJanickiPhoto.com)Mason Parris (Michigan, 285)
NCAA seed: No. 5
InterMat rank: No. 11
The true freshman heavyweight showed flashes of greatness this season. In his first match out of redshirt, Parris hammered returning All-American Amar Dhesi of Oregon State 11-4. He picked up several ranked wins this season, including a 6-2 victory over All-American Youssif Hemida of Maryland. However, Parris battled inconstancy. He was 0-3 against Northwestern heavyweight Conan Jennings (No. 12 seed) and was split with No. 9 seed Matt Stencel (Central Michigan), but was pinned in the most recent meeting. However, it was his Big Ten performance that makes his No. 5 seed a head-scratcher. Parris opened with a victory over Hemida before losing to Jennings for the third time this season. In the consolation bracket, Parris was pinned by David Jensen of Nebraska, before rebounding to finish seventh. The fact that his NCAA seed (5) is two spots higher than his Big Ten finish (7) seems strange.
Ryan Deakin (Northwestern, 157)
NCAA seed: No. 3
InterMat rank: No. 5
Deakin had a strong first half of his season and solidified himself as a top-four wrestler at 157 pounds. He won a Midlands title and cruised through the first half of the season undefeated. After Midlands, he dropped matches to Nebraska's Tyler Berger and Penn State's Jason Nolf. While those losses were not unexpected, he took an unexpected loss at the Big Ten Championships to Minnesota's Steve Bleise (which he avenged) and lost by six points Michigan's Alec Pantaleo, who was seeded lower at No. 4. Deakin being seeded over Pantaleo doesn't seem right based on recent results.
Larry Early's season highlight was his win over NC State's Hayden Hidlay (Photo/ODU Athletics)Larry Early (Old Dominion, 157)
NCAA seed: No. 7
InterMat rank: No. 14
Early's shining moment this season came in late November when he defeated Hayden Hidlay of NC State. At the time, it was Hidlay's first-ever regular season loss. The win catapulted Early up the rankings. However, as the season went on, the victory appeared to be an aberration. Early was blanked (4-0) by Logan Parks of Central Michigan (unranked by InterMat, seeded No. 18). He also fell to Virginia Tech's B.C. LaPrade (No. 17 seed). He entered the MAC Championships as the top seed at 157 pounds. He picked up a couple wins, including avenging the loss to Parks, to reach the finals before losing to Jarrett Jacques of Missouri in the finals. The fact that Early is seeded six spots ahead of Jacques after losing a head-to-head match just a few days ago doesn't make a whole lot of sense. While Jacques' seed (No. 13) seems appropriate, Early's seed seems about seven spots too high.
Jamel Morris (NC State, 141)
NCAA seed: No. 14
InterMat rank: No. 20
Morris has not lost a match since the calendar turned to 2019 and recently won the ACC title. He's red-hot heading into the NCAAs. So on the surface, a top-15 seed seems reasonable, right? However, a close examination of his results reveals that he lacks quality wins and has some questionable losses. His best wins this season are over the No. 24 seed Mitch Moore of Virginia Tech and the No. 25 seed Josh Finesilver of Duke. His losses have come against Kyle Schoop of Lock Haven (unranked by InterMat, seeded No. 13), No. 30 Nate Limmex, as well as Division II wrestler Jonathan Miller of UNC Pembroke, a wrestler that went 0-2 at the NCAA Division II Championships. While I like the idea of rewarding a wrestler who performed well at his conference tournament, a No. 14 seed seems a bit generous.
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