Eight Burning Questions For the MAC in 2023-24

Today, it’s time to focus on the MAC! Last year was a bounce-back of sorts for the conference as they got back in the All-American round and saw a very slight increase in NCAA qualifiers. This MAC preview will consist of two parts one today and a second part next week. In this first part, we’ll answer eight burning questions related to the conference and its teams/wrestlers. 1. Can anyone threaten Lock Haven? In 2023, Lock Haven captured the MAC title by a slim, two-point over Central Michigan. With both teams generally returning the bulk of their respective nuclei, the answer is yes, right? Yes, but, this Lock Haven team should be stronger than the previous version. Four of their five 2023 national qualifiers return; however, they’ve added another in Wyatt Henson (141) and have two others who just missed out on qualification (Nick Stonecheck - 149 and Avery Bassett - 165). In addition, the Bald Eagles heavyweight, 2022 qualifier, Isaac Reid is back for a final season. An injury prevented Reid from hitting the mat until late January 2023 and he never seemed to get his feet under him. With a more normal campaign, Reid could be the top 15-type wrestler he looked like heading into the 2022-23 campaign. So, we’ve established that Lock Haven head coach Scott Moore should send out a team that features few, if any, holes. Which teams have enough firepower and depth to ground the Bald Eagles? Central Michigan is the logical explanation. The Chippewas were close last year and return three 2023 national qualifiers. In addition, they have a promising pair of young big men (sophomores Cameron Wood and Bryan Caves; at 197/285, respectively) who gained valuable experience in 2022-23. Word around Mt. Pleasant is that 165 lber Tyler Swiderski has been very impressive and is pushing incumbent, Tracy Hubbard, himself a borderline national qualifier. The top of the CMU lineup has also been refortified with another Cramer brother. Adrien joins brother Alex (a national qualifier at 174) to man the 184 lb weight class. Adrien was 12-9 while redshirting for Maryland in 2021-22, but did not compete last season. Finally, CMU’s stars Corbyn Munson and Johnny Lovett have re-flipped weight classes, which could lead to both being at more comfortable weights and raising their respective ceilings. A team that may not have the consistent dual strength of CMU, but could be dangerous in a tournament situation to Lock Haven and the rest of the league is Cleveland State. Moore’s twin brother, Josh, has assembled a CSU team that has put five wrestlers in the preseason national rankings. Of those five, two are the highest-ranking MAC wrestlers (Ben Smith - 197 and Daniel Bucknavich - 285). Both Lock Haven and Central Michigan finished the conference tournament with a pair of MAC champions, so crowning two titlists should put you in the mix. From a dual standpoint, Clarion might be the most balanced team; outside of Lock Haven. While only two wrestlers made the preseason national rankings (Kyle Shickel - 149 and John Worthing - 174), Keith Ferraro’s team has a host of wrestlers that are on the cusp (Joey Fischer - 125, Alejandro Herrera-Rondon - 157, Cam Pine - 184). Additionally, Clarion is high on some new faces at 133 and 141. Former West Virginia national qualifier Ryan Sullivan is aboard at 141, while the Golden Eagles have true freshman Scott Johnson, Edinboro transfer Tye Varndall, and other joining returner Mason Prinkey. 2. Who joins Anthony Noto on the medal stand? Lock Haven 125 lber Anthony Noto is far and away the top wrestler in the conference this preseason. He finished fourth in the nation last year and enters the year ranked second at the weight. Noto was one of four MAC All-Americans during the 2023 NCAA Championships, which was a far cry from the 2022 tournament when no one from the conference broke into the top eight. During the offseason, two of those All-Americans, Izzak Olejnik and Will Feldkamp, moved on as graduate transfers to schools in the Big 12. Olejnik to Oklahoma State and Feldkamp to Iowa State. The fourth AA, Ethan Laird, graduated from Rider and is now a part of Maryland’s DMV RTC. So, who’s next? To be frank, there isn’t anyone that stands out immediately; however, the possibility exists for the conference to match last year’s number again. Let’s look at 133 lbs. Nationally, the weight is stacked up top, but after the top-ten or twelve, things drop off considerably. Does that open the door for a Gable Strickland (Lock Haven) or Richie Koehler (Rider)? Remember, to AA you don’t have to beat every guy ranked above you. Just one or two. Could they? Sure. Going up to 149 lbs, Corbyn Munson (Central Michigan) starts the year ranked #14 after an up-and-down campaign at 157. Provided the weight cut is fine, why not? Heck, Feldkamp was the 14th seed last year. And 149 has returning AA’s occupying the top-six spots. It’s a strong weight, but not loaded. At 157, Lovett is ranked in the same neighborhood as his teammate Munson (#15); however, 157 is a bit more stacked than 149. Looking at Lovett’s last year at 157 lbs (2021-22), he logged wins over two eventual All-Americans (Will Lewan - Michigan and Hunter Willits - Oregon State) and another over perennial contender (Doug Zapf - Penn), so he’s capable of a very slight upset or two at nationals. Or throughout the season he gets those wins and puts himself in the driver's seat in Kansas City. Those are just a couple of the possibilities, but they were used to illustrate the fact that making the podium is hard, Let's not get it conflated, but at the same time, it can be done. Like Feldkamp, Olejnik was not seeded as an All-American (#12) he had to wrestle his way into the top-eight. 3. Can the MAC increase its NCAA Qualifiers? Questions two and three kind of go hand-in-hand. Your chances at All-American increase as you get more bodies at the national tournament. More wrestlers in Kansas City mean more chances at an upset or two or three. More chances to advance via unforeseen injuries defaults. More chances for a wrestler to become a weird stylistic matchup for a Big Ten opponent. In 2023, the MAC was allotted 23 spots at the tournament and added four more through at-large berths for a total of 27. That was the same number that competed in 2022; however, the conference was allotted only 22 spots initially. Part of this question works in conjunction with the Big Ten and Big 12. Those conferences are going to get a ton of allocations. At their conference tournaments, will upsets lead to even more? That ends up cutting into the other conferences. Looking at InterMat’s preseason rankings, 31 MAC wrestlers are mentioned among the top 33 at their respective weights. That’s a good thing and if that number were to hold would represent significant growth. Unfortunately, that number won’t hold. We’re not sure whether it grows or shrinks at this point; however, if I had to guess, I’d put my money on shrinking. Two reasons end up converging together as to why they could shrink. As of now, 11 wrestlers are ranked between #30-33. Should some stud freshmen (or overlooked veterans) work their way into the rankings, it’s not hard to fathom them bumping those MAC wrestlers out of the top-33. Those things happen every year at just about every weight class. Now if the MAC wrestlers take care of business and win matches, earn better spots in the rankings, away from the bubble, then they don’t need to worry about freshmen pushing them out of the top-33. Getting those allotments isn’t that, that hard either. One extra upset, being on the right side of a one-point loss or two, or dualing a top-flight team can do the trick and boost winning percentages, RPI’s, and rankings. If I was forced to guess, I’d think that the MAC will be able to move up from that 27 qualifier number in 2024. Throughout the conference, from top to bottom, there’s enough talent to increase the initial allotments and then steal five or six more spots. 4. Does Ohio rebound from a tumultuous summer? One of the most overlooked stories of the offseason, from a college wrestling standpoint, was the turmoil at Ohio University (and yes, overlooked by InterMat). Right after the 2023 NCAA Tournament, the Ohio staff was put on administrative leave as the school and local authorities investigated allegations of a physical assault during a practice. It wasn’t until August that the Athens City prosecutor's office announced that they had insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges against the staff members. That meant that Joel Greenlee, a head coach at Ohio for 26 years, and his staff could resume activities with the Bobcat wrestling team. With the coaching staff away from the team for almost five months, how much damage has been done to the program? The current roster lists nine true freshmen which is actually a pretty decent number for a team that spent that much time in limbo. While veterans were said to be leading the team through offseason workouts, it likely pales in comparison to what the Bobcat staff had planned to accomplish. Hopefully, the mandated leave doesn’t impact a team that has the potential to be solid and make some noise at the conference tournament. Three NCAA qualifiers return (Peyten Kellar - 157, Sal Perrine - 174, and Zayne Lehman - 184), while a redshirt freshman (Derek Raike - 149) did enough last season to warrant a preseason ranking. That doesn’t include upperweights Austin Starr (197) and Jordan Greer (285), who showed promise last season and could be on the cusp of a breakout in 2023-24. The Bobcats will start the 2023-24 season at Virginia Tech’s Southeast Open on the first weekend of the regular season before dualing Chattanooga and Ashland the following weekend. We understand the need for Ohio University and the local authorities to do their due diligence with an investigation of this sort, but also glad to see Coach Greenlee back on the sideline as has long been a respected member of the coaching fraternity. 5. When does Ludwig hit 100? Earlier this preseason, InterMat posted an article about milestones to watch during the upcoming 2023-24 season. One of those that involved the MAC was Northern Illinois’ Ryan Ludwig who has 100 career dual meet victories well within his sights. As of now, Ludwig is sitting on 93 wins. His squad had six wins in back-to-back years, before going 8-5 in 2022-23. Looking at Northern Illinois’ schedule, they are very dual-heavy in the first half of the season. That bodes well for an early run at 100. The dates to circle are December 15th at Cal Baptist and December 19th for a quad hosted by the Huskies. If NIU is perfect in the first six matches, they’d be on the brink of 100 against the Lancers. Should they stumble in one of their first six dual (maybe against Purdue), win #100 could come at the quad that features Kent State, Northwestern, and Harper College. With seven MAC duals later in the schedule, here’s to the start of the next 100 for coach Ludwig. 6. Who are new faces to watch? True Freshman Scott Johnson (Clarion - 133), Kyle Snider (Kent State - 184) Redshirt Freshman Jacob Brya (Northern Illinois - 141), Marcel Lopez (SIU Edwardsville - 133), Bradley Gillum (SIU Edwardsville - 165/174), Evan Maag (George Mason - 157), Chase Kranitz (Buffalo - 174), Raike Transfers: Will Betancourt (Rider - 125), Wyatt Henson (Lock Haven - 141), Sullivan/Herrera-Rondon (Clarion), Adrien Cramer (Central Michigan), Brandon Wittenberg (George Mason - 133), Chad Nix (George Mason - 133), AJ Burkhart (Kent State - 174) Going back to questions two and three. Only Raike, Henson, and Wittenberg are currently in the rankings. Should another couple of new faces prove to be high-quality starters, it would be even easier for the league to improve upon its 2023 qualifier numbers. 7. What about a dark horse team? How about George Mason? Day one at the 2023 MAC Championships saw the host Patriots put together some magic that saw Nathan Higley and Peter Pappas advance to the conference finals. Higley became Mason’s first finalist since the school moved to the MAC, while Pappas ended up as GMU’s first champion during that span. Pappas has since traded his singlet for a whistle and slot on the Patriot coaching staff, but there is still plenty of talent in the revamped GMU room. Like Clarion, George Mason has a few guys that are on the cusp of the preseason rankings. 125 lber Markel Baker would have been ranked #34 had we gone that high. Evan Maag redshirted at 149 lbs and amassed 22 victories, two of which came over past national qualifiers, and is now expected to start at 157. Malachi Duvall notched 23 wins in 2022-23 at 184 lbs (one of which was over an NQ). Tyler Kocak is expected to start at 197 a year after he saw action primarily at 184, but even wrestled heavyweight. Despite the changes, he won 17 of 30 matches. Finally, heavyweight Chad Nix was 11-7 at Campbell, after barely seeing the mat during his first two years. Frank Beasley’s team starts the year with Higley and Brandon Wittenberg ranked in the top-33. Wittenberg has been stuck behind multiple All-American lightweights at Virginia Tech, so we’re not totally sure of his ceiling. Last year, he did register wins over NCAA qualifiers Joe Manchio (Columbia) and Ethan Oakley (Appalachian State). Challenging Lock Haven or Central Michigan might be a bit ambitious in 2023-24, but George Mason certainly could shake things up if the stars align properly. 8. What are the key dates outside of the MAC? Out-of-Conference Duals November 2nd: SIU Edwardsville at Illinois November 5th: Cleveland State vs. Iowa State @ Massillon, OH November 9th: Oklahoma at Central Michigan November 10th: Rider at Indiana November 11th: Lock Haven vs. Arizona State @ Bethlehem, PA November 11th: NC State vs. Bloomsburg @ Bethlehem, PA November 11th: North Carolina at Buffalo November 12th: Edinboro at Ohio State November 12th: Kent State at West Virginia November 16th: West Virginia at Clarion November 17th: Virginia at Buffalo November 18th: Central Michigan at North Carolina November 18th: Minnesota at George Mason November 19th: Central Michigan at Illinois November 19th: Michigan at Rider November 19th: Northern Illinois at Purdue December 1st: Rutgers at Edinboro December 7th: Michigan State at Buffalo December 9th: Central Michigan at Indiana December 9th: Wisconsin at Rider December 10th: Buffalo at Rutgers December 16th: Michigan State at Clarion December 19th: Lock Haven vs. Northern Iowa, NC State, Ohio State @ Nashville, Tennessee December 19th: Northwestern at Northern Illinois January 6th: Ohio at Michigan State January 7th: Rider at Rutgers January 11th: Little Rock at Cleveland State January 11th: Princeton at Rider January 14th: Campbell at Central Michigan February 4th: Ohio at Central Michigan February 10th: George Mason at Virginia Tech February 17th: SIU Edwardsville at Ohio February 22nd: Rider at Pittsburgh February 23rd: Central Michigan at Michigan State February 25th: Edinboro at Penn State February 25th: Michigan at Central Michigan Tournaments November 18th: Navy Classic (Bloomsburg, Cleveland State, Edinboro, Kent State, Lock Haven, Ohio) December 1/2: Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Ohio, Rider) December 29/30: Midlands (Buffalo, Central Michigan, Cleveland State, George Mason, Northern Illinois, SIU Edwardsville) January 1st/2: Southern Scuffle (Bloomsburg, Clarion) January 12/13: Virginia Duals (Kent State)

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Eight Burning Questions For the MAC in 2023-24

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