Hipps: A look at this year's biggest seeding blunders

Every year the NCAA Division I wrestling committee comes up with some head-scratching seeds for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. This year is no exception. Let's look at some of this year's biggest seeding blunders.

Iowa State's Kyven Gadson has only been defeated by one wrestler this season (Photo/ISU Athletics)

Without a doubt the biggest seeding blunder this year is at 197 pounds, where Iowa State's Kyven Gadson was given the No. 5 seed. Gadson, a returning All-American, is currently ranked No. 1 by InterMat and recently won the Big 12 title. He has only been defeated by one wrestler this season, Minnesota's Scott Schiller, twice. However, Gadson came back to defeat Schiller in the most recent meeting. Not only is the four-loss Schiller seeded ahead of Gadson, but so is Missouri's J'den Cox, who has the same amount of losses as Gadson, but lost their only head-to-head meeting at the Southern Scuffle, and also took a loss to eighth-seeded Phil Wellington of Ohio. At the Southern Scuffle, Gadson placed ahead of Cox and Morgan McIntosh of Penn State, and both are seeded ahead of him. The top seed at 197 pounds was given to Ohio State's Nick Heflin, who has the best record in the weight class and won the toughest conference tournament, but also has the worst loss of the top seeds. Heflin lost to Wisconsin's Timmy McCall on Jan. 10.

At 125 pounds, Cornell All-American Nahshon Garrett should have been handed the No. 1 seed based on his resume this season. Garrett has only one loss this season, which is less losses than any other wrestler in the weight class has, and he has been the most consistent and hottest wrestler in the weight class. His lone loss this season came to defending NCAA champion Jesse Delgado of Illinois, who earned the No. 1 seed. Delgado getting the top seed would certainly have been justifiable if he entered the NCAAs undefeated or even with one loss. But Delgado has two losses, and both occurred after Garrett's lone blemish. One of Delgado's losses came to Iowa's Thomas Gilman at the Midlands. His other loss came to Penn State's Nico Megaludis, a wrestler Garrett is 2-0 against this season. (Delgado did avenge the loss to Megaludis in the Big Ten finals.)

Another seeding blunder at 125 pounds was Josh Martinez of Air Force earning the No. 4 seed. Martinez put together a strong regular season and entered the postseason ranked No. 5 by InterMat. However, Martinez failed to win his own conference tournament and needed an at-large spot to qualify for the NCAAs. Martinez lost in the finals of the West Regional to Wyoming's Tyler Cox by injury default. Cox, an All-American, led 10-2 at the time the match was stopped. Cox is seeded ninth despite winning his conference tournament over the wrestler who is seeded fourth.

While Garrett was a Cornell wrestler who was seeded too low, his teammate, Brian Realbuto, was seeded too high at 157 pounds. Realbuto, a freshman, earned the No. 7 seed at 157 pounds after losing matches to two unranked wrestlers at the EIWA tournament. In addition to his struggles at the EIWAs, Realbuto was pinned by Minnesota's Dylan Ness at the National Duals less than a month ago. Ness, a two-time All-American, was seeded two spots below Realbuto at No. 9. Ness not only has the head-to-head win over Realbuto, but has less losses and more wins over seeded wrestlers. Ness has also beaten two wrestlers seeded in the top six, No. 2 Derek St. John of Iowa and No. 6 Nestor Taffur of Boston U. Realbuto took a loss to Taffur, but did beat Oregon State's R.J. Pena, who won by technical fall over Ness at the Southern Scuffle.

Jason Tsirtsis defeated Nick Dardanes en route to winning the Big Ten championship at 149 pounds (Photo/The Guillotine)

Another head-scratcher is at 149 pounds, where Minnesota's Nick Dardanes, seeded No. 2, sits three seeds higher than Jason Tsirtsis of Northwestern. Both wrestlers have three losses (one to the same wrestler, Michigan's Eric Grajales), and have split matches this season. Their resumes on paper are virtually identical. However, Tsirtsis is coming off a Big Ten title, which included a semifinal victory over Dardanes. The Big Ten champion Tsirtsis absolutely deserved to be seeded ahead of Dardanes, and now finds himself in a tough spot in the bracket with a potential quarterfinal match against NCAA champion Kendric Maple of Oklahoma.

The NCAA Division I wrestling committee was inconsistent in dealing with conference tournament outcomes. In addition to Martinez (125), Realbuto (157), and Dardanes (149), several other wrestlers took losses in their conference tournaments and did not seem to get penalized when it came to NCAA tournament seeds. Nebraska's T.J. Dudley (184) and Virginia's Gus Sako (149) are in that group.

Dudley received the No. 8 seed at 184 pounds despite failing to place at the Big Tens and needing an at-large spot just to qualify for the NCAA tournament. At the Big Tens, Dudley lost Michigan's Domenic Abounader, who is seeded one spot below him, and Michigan State's John Rizqallah, who is seeded 14th.

Sako was given the No. 7 seed at 149 pounds after losing his first match at the ACC tournament to Pitt's Mikey Racciatto. Sako's No. 7 seed could be justifiable if his body of work during the regular was strong enough to absorb the conference tournament loss and remain a top-eight seed, but it simply wasn't. Sako enters the NCAAs with only 21 matches under his belt and has losses to Bucknell's Victor Lopez, who failed to qualify for the NCAAs, No. 11 Josh Kindig of Oklahoma State (who has a win over Maple), and Racciatto. Sako's best win this season came over 10th-seeded Zach Neibert of Virginia Tech in November. Those wrestlers should have fallen, just as Oklahoma's Andrew Howe did after losing to Oklahoma State's Chris Perry in the Big 12 championship match at 174 pounds, even though the two wrestlers split matches this season.

Oklahoma State's Alex Dieringer has one loss, to Iowa's Derek St. John, but is seeded behind the Iowa wrestler who has four losses since that meeting (Photo/Bob Mayeri)

At 157 pounds, Oklahoma State's Alex Dieringer deserved to be seeded No. 1 or No. 2, but instead was given the No. 3 seed. Three are no undefeated wrestlers at 157 pounds, and Dieringer and Nebraska's James Green are the only wrestlers with one loss. Dieringer's lone loss came to Iowa's Derek St. John, who is seeded second, while Green's lone loss came to Wisconsin's Isaac Jordan, who is seeded fifth. The returning NCAA champion St. John does have the head-to-head win over Dieringer, but the Oklahoma State sophomore has the much cleaner resume this season. St. John has four losses this season, with two of those losses coming to wrestlers seeded below him, No. 5 Jordan and No. 9 Ness.

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Hipps: A look at this year's biggest seeding blunders

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