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    Andrew Hipps •

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

    Every year there are surprising seeds when the brackets are unveiled for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. However, this year there seems to be more head-scratching seeds than any NCAA tournament in recent memory. Each weight class is littered with unexplainable seeds, even when knowing the committee's weighted criteria formula: head-to-head (25%), quality wins (20%), common opponents (10%), RPI (10%), qualifying placement (10%), coaches' rank (10%), win percentage (10%) and number of matches (5%).

    Instead of dissecting every weight class and nitpicking the seeds, which could produce a book, we will just focus on the major seeding blunders this year.

    Devin Carter (Photo/Rob Preston)
    The most glaring seeding blunder is at 141 pounds where Virginia Tech's Devin Carter, a returning NCAA finalist, was handed the No. 4 seed. Edinboro's Mitchell Port and Carter have been ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively at 141 pounds all season long. Carter enters the NCAAs with a 26-3 record. His only losses this season have come to his teammate Sal Mastriani (seventh seed at 149 pounds) in sudden victory early in the season and the top two seeds, Ohio State's Logan Stieber and Port. The wrestler seeded one spot ahead of Carter and in the No. 3 slot is Missouri's Lavion Mayes, who failed to reach the finals of his conference tournament. Mayes fell in the semifinals of the MAC Championships to Old Dominion's Chris Mecate, a wrestler Carter defeated this season. The 11th-seeded Mecate is one four seeded wrestlers that Carter has beaten this season. The others: sixth-seeded Nick Dardanes of Minnesota, 12th-seeded Joey Ward of North Carolina and 16th-seeded Mike Morales of West Virginia. Mayes has not only taken worse losses (his other loss was to Central Michigan's Zach Horan), but his losses are much more recent. Carter has not lost a match in 2015. Mayes has lost two matches -- both to lower seeded wrestlers -- since Jan. 17.

    Another mind-boggling seed at 141 pounds is freshman Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers getting the No. 7 seed, two seeds higher than Nebraska's Anthony Abidin. Abidin not only beat Ashnault twice in two meetings this season -- with one of those wins being less than a week ago -- but also outplaced him at the Big Ten Championships and will arrive in St. Louis with a better season resume. Abidin has a 31-4 record this season, with three of his four losses coming to wrestlers seeded in the top seven. Ashnault, on the other hand, is 26-6. One of Ashnault's six losses is to Steven Rodrigues of Illinois, a wrestler Abidin handled twice, including once by pin at the Big Ten Championships.

    Unfortunately for both Carter and Abidin, the seeding blunders place both wrestlers on the same side of the bracket as three-time NCAA champion Logan Stieber of Ohio State.

    Cody Walters
    Ohio's Cody Walters drew the short straw at 174 pounds when he was given a No. 9 seed. Walters, an All-American in 2013, will bring a 30-1 record into St. Louis. His only loss of the season came nearly four months ago at the Navy Classic. He has since reeled off 24 straight wins. His most recent win came over Missouri's John Eblen, who was inexplicably given the fourth seed despite losing to Walters this week and four other wrestlers this season.

    Even though the committee claims that number of matches accounts for only five percent in their weighted criteria formula, the seeds say otherwise. This year, more than other year, the committee chose to penalize those wrestlers who missed a significant amount of time due to injury, even when those wrestlers who have strong resumes in limited action. That is evident when looking at unseeded All-Americans Jesse Delgado of Illinois (125), Josh Kindig of Oklahoma State (149), Hunter Stieber of Ohio State (149) and Nick Brascetta of Virginia Tech (157).

    While it's true that Delgado has missed much of this season due to injury, he has not lost to a wrestler seeded outside the top four. He fell to No. 1 Alan Waters of Missouri at the National Duals and to Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State in the semifinals of the Big Ten Championships before defaulting to fourth place in the toughest conference in the country. Delgado has an opportunity to join an elite group of three-time NCAA champions. The fact that he is unseeded without a bad loss is unfair to Delgado and the other competitors at 125 pounds.

    At 149 pounds, both Kindig and Stieber should have received seeds, especially now with 16 wrestlers seeded in each weight class. The committee does not use results from previous seasons, so Kindig's NCAA runner-up finish and Stieber's two All-American finishes mean nothing in the eyes of the committee members. However, looking strictly at this season's results, there is no question that both should be seeded. Kindig won the Southern Scuffle, which included a finals victory over Missouri's Drake Houdashelt. Houdashelt is the No. 1 seed and the only blemish on his record is the loss to Kindig. The unseeded Kindig will face Edinboro's David Habat in the first round in a battle of returning All-Americans.

    Even though Hunter Stieber has wrestled only seven matches this season, six of those matches have been against NCAA qualifiers, including three against wrestlers seeded in the top four. He is 2-0 against Penn State's Zack Beitz, who earned the No. 12 seed.

    Nick Brascetta
    Brascetta, an All-American two seasons ago who redshirted last season, won an ACC title and did not take a bad loss in 12 matches, but his limited resume put him on the outside looking in when it came to seeding the NCAAs. He opens his NCAA tournament Thursday morning against ninth-seeded Joey Lavalle of Missouri. One has to consider Brascetta the favorite in that match despite the seeds.

    At 133 pounds, two multiple-time All-Americans who missed significant time due to injury, Oklahoma's Cody Brewer and Edinboro's A.J. Schopp, are seeded much lower than where they are ranked by InterMat. Brewer finished the season ranked No. 3 by InterMat after winning a Big 12 title. He is 17-1 and avenged his only loss of the season against Iowa State's Earl Hall in the finals of the Big 12. Still, it was only good enough to land him a No. 13 seed. Schopp, who spent most of the season ranked No. 1 or No. 2, is not expected to be an All-American if the seeds hold. A knee injury kept the Fighting Scot senior off the mat for nearly two months, and he comes in seeded No. 9 despite winning 19 of 21 matches this season. He has wins this season over second-seeded Ryan Taylor of Wisconsin, 10th-seeded Mason Beckman of Lehigh and 14th-seeded Rossi Bruno of Michigan.

    NCAA champion Jason Tsirtsis was a Midlands champion and Big Ten champion (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte Lens)
    The only surprise (to me) at the very top of the seeds was Missouri's Drake Houdashelt getting the No. 1 seed over Northwestern's Jason Tsirtsis at 149 pounds. Both wrestlers have put together tremendous seasons, but I view Tsirtsis' season resume as slightly stronger than Houdashelt's. The returning NCAA champion from Northwestern avenged his only loss this season by topping Iowa's Brandon Sorensen in the Big Ten finals. He also has a win over third-seeded David Habat of Edinboro. Houdashelt's best win came over fourth-seeded Sorensen. His loss, though, is significantly worse than Tsirtsis' when looking at the seeds. While Tsirtsis' lone blemish came to the fourth-seeded wrestler, which he avenged, Houdashelt's loss came to an unseeded wrestler, Oklahoma State's Josh Kindig.
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