125: Taylor LaMont (Utah Valley)
NCAA Seed: No. 7
InterMat Ranking: No. 12
The Utah native LaMont came to Utah Valley with high expectations. He was a four-time state champion, four-time Fargo champion and Junior world bronze medalist in Greco-Roman. LaMont has lived up to the hype in his redshirt freshman season, compiling a 25-3 record heading into the NCAAs. However, aside from a win eighth-seeded Ethan Lizak, LaMont hasn't beaten any of the top 10 seeds, and has losses to 13th-seeded Zeke Moisey of WVU and unseeded Drew Mattin of Michigan. His loss to Moisey came just this past weekend at the Big 12 Championships. It seems as though the committee is giving him a pass on the recent conference loss. LaMont, in my opinion, should be seeded in the 10 to 12 range.
133: Dennis Gustafson (Virginia Tech)
NCAA Seed: No. 9
InterMat Ranking: No. 14
Gustafson is coming off a strong performance at the ACC Championships. He entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed and notched wins over Tariq Wilson of NC State and Jack Mueller of Virginia en route to the title. However, it should be noted that he is 0-2 against 14th-seeded Korbin Myers of Edinboro and has losses to 11th-seeded Dom Forys of Pitt and 15th-seeded Ali Naser of Arizona State. A strong conference tournament performance should be rewarded, but it seems like a slight recency bias. A 12-15 seed seems more appropriate for Gustafson.
141: Nicholas Gil (Navy)
NCAA Seed: No. 14
InterMat Ranking: No. 19
While Gil has wrestled well over the past two months, he lacks quality wins and has some questionable losses. He lost by technical fall to Minnesota's Tommy Thorn, an All-American last season who enters the tournament unseeded. He also dropped a match to UNC's A.C. Headlee. Nebraska's Chad Red may have been more deserving of a seed at 141 pounds. Red defeated Thorn and teched Headlee.
149: Beau Donahue (NC State)
NCAA Seed: No. 14
InterMat Ranking: No. 20
It's hard to find much to argue with when it comes to seeding at 149 pounds. I might be splitting hairs here, but I'm not sure Donahue deserves to be seeded. He had a disappointing performance at the ACC Championships, going 1-2. In his last match he was hammered 8-1 by Virginia's Sammy Krivus. His most notable wins this season have come over Ryan Blees of Virginia Tech and Boo Lewallan of Oklahoma State, but he seems to be trending in the wrong direction heading into Cleveland.
157: Tyler Berger (Nebraska)
NCAA Seed: No. 8
InterMat Ranking: No. 13
Berger suffered his second loss this season to Wisconsin's Andrew Crone at the Big Ten Championships. Crone not only beat Berger 6-2 on Sunday, but dominated him 11-3 earlier this season. Crone, despite two convincing victories over Berger and a higher conference finish, find himself seeded six spots below the Husker sophomore at No. 14. Berger was pinned this season by UNC's Kennedy Monday. It seems as though Berger is seeded 4 or 5 spots too high.
Chance Marsteller (Photo/LHU Athletics)165: Chance Marsteller (Lock Haven)
NCAA Seed: No. 9
InterMat Ranking: No. 5
Marsteller has been one of the great redemption stories in college wrestling this season. Less than two years ago it appeared his college wrestling career might be over, but he was given a second chance at Lock Haven and has made the most of it. He is 39-2 this season and helped guide Lock Haven to a conference title. One of his losses came to a wrestler redshirting (Bryce Steiert of UNI) and the other to Rider's Chad Walsh, a wrestler he has split two matches with. Walsh and Marsteller have very similar season resumes -- and it seems as though they should be seeded within a spot or two of each other -- yet Walsh earned the No. 4 seed and Marsteller is seeded five spots lower at No. 9.
174: Forrest Przybysz (Appalachian State)
NCAA Seed: No. 12
InterMat Ranking: No. 17
Przybysz is one of the top wrestlers in the SoCon and will be looking to give Appalachian State coach JohnMark Bentley his fourth All-American. He enters the tournament with a 24-7 record, but has only one win over a seeded wrestler and has losses to unseeded wrestlers Josef Johnson of Harvard and Matt Finesilver of Duke. The loss to Finesilver came in the final match of the regular season and by the score of 15-1.
184: Michael Coleman (Navy)
NCAA Seed: Unseeded
InterMat Ranking: No. 14
Coleman, an All Academy champion and two-time NCAA qualifier, comes into the tournament with a 31-6 record and no bad losses. At the EIWA Championships, he topped Binghamton's Steven Schneider, who earned a No. 12 seed. Coleman certainly has a case to be seeded.
197: Jake Smith (West Virginia)
NCAA Seed: Unseeded
InterMat Ranking: No. 13
The unseeded Smith is coming off a runner-up finish at the Big 12 Championships where he beat Oklahoma State's Preston Weigel, who earned a No. 9 seed. He also has a victory over Big Ten third-place finisher Hunter Ritter of Wisconsin. Smith had a 6-5 overtime loss in January to Sam Colbray of Iowa State, which hurt his case for being seeded.
285: Cory Daniel (North Carolina)
NCAA Seed: Unseeded
InterMat Ranking: No. 15
Daniel has been on quite a run since the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in early December. He has won 14 of his last 16 matches, with his only losses during that span coming to All-Americans Tanner Hall of Arizona State and Jacob Kasper of Duke. At the ACC Championships, Daniel defeated off NC State's Michael Boykins, who earned a No. 14 seed. Daniel not earning a seed is surprising.
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