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It’s the big one! Actually the Big Ten. The constant in the college wrestling world is that the Big Ten rules the roost. 2023-24 is no difference as the Big Ten has earned 85 automatic qualifying bids at the 2024 NCAA Championships. Surely they’ll add a few others during the at-large process, as well. The 2024 Big Ten Championships head to the East Coast and will be hosted by the University of Maryland for the first time since the school joined the conference prior to the 2014-15 school year. The resurgent host school has a second seed, along with three others seeded in the top-seven at their respective weights, three years after scoring only two points in the 2021 tournament. As expected all year, Penn State comes into the tournament as a heavy favorite. Cael Sanderson’s team has five top seeds and only one wrestler seeded below fifth. The Nittany Lions just finished their fourth straight undefeated season and only gave up more than ten points in a dual on one occasion. That begs the question, who finishes second? At times, Iowa, Michigan, and Nebraska all looked like they were capable of doing so. Both Michigan and Nebraska have a number-one seed. Penn State won the 2023 title, but Michigan and Iowa have accounted for the previous two conference titles. Individually, there are seven past Big Ten champions set to compete. Two are in one weight class (197), while one wrestler is going for his third B1G title (Carter Starocci) and another is going for his fourth (Aaron Brooks). Without any more introductions the conference that doesn’t need any introductions. It’s the Big Ten preview. Analysis for each weight and top-eight finishers and more. 125 lbs 1. Matt Ramos (PUR) 2. Drake Ayala (IOWA) 3. Eric Barnett (WIS) 4. Patrick McKee (MINN) 5. Caleb Smith (NEB) 6. Braeden Davis (PSU) 7. Michael DeAugustino (MICH) 8. Brendan McCrone (OSU) 9. Dean Peterson (RUT) 10. Tristan Lujan (MSU) 11. Justin Cardani (ILL) 12. Massey Odiotti (NU) 13. Tommy Capul (MD) 14. Blaine Frazier (IND) NCAA Allocations: (9) First Round Match to Watch: #8 Brendon McCrone (Ohio State) vs. #9 Dean Peterson Projected Semifinals: #1 Matt Ramos (Purdue) vs. #4 Patrick McKee (Minnesota); #2 Drake Ayala (Iowa) vs. #6 Braeden Davis (Penn State) It’s the weight class we’ve been talking about all year! And generally, we have it going chalk, that can’t be right. Can it? Do the upsets happen if we’re expecting them? Or only if they’re unforeseen. But seriously, top-ranked Matt Ramos is seeking to become Purdue’s first Big Ten champion since Ryan Lange in 2004. Ramos was third last year before his remarkable NCAA finals run. In a weird coincidence, but appropriate for this bracket, Ramos and second-seeded Drake Ayala could face opponents who have defeated them already this season before the finals. Ramos has a loss to Caleb Smith, while Ayala’s likely quarterfinal opponent, Michael DeAugustino, defeated him in tiebreakers. Two of the veterans in this weight class could shake things up in Eric Barnett and Patrick McKee. Though he’s a two-time All-American, McKee has only finished higher than sixth at this tournament once - and on that occasion, he lost in the opening round. Barnett is the only wrestler in this bracket who has wrestled in a Big Ten final. Somewhere along the way, we need another matchup between these two. They’ve already met 11 times in their illustrious careers. Perhaps one of the more exciting matches to watch in this bracket is Barnett versus Penn State freshman Braeden Davis. The two did not meet during the regular season. Should Davis pull the slight upset, he could get another crack at Ayala. On a neutral mat, I’d give the freshman a very slight edge. Predictions 1st: Matt Ramos (Purdue) over Braeden Davis (Penn State) 3rd: Drake Ayala (Iowa) over Patrick McKee (Minnesota) 5th: Eric Barnett (Wisconsin) over Caleb Smith (Nebraska) 7th: Michael DeAugustino (Michigan) over Dean Peterson (Rutgers) 133 lbs 1. Dylan Ragusin (MICH) 2. Dylan Shawver (RUT) 3. Nic Bouzakis (OSU) 4. Jacob Van Dee (NEB) 5. Aaron Nagao (PSU) 6. Tony Madrigal (ILL) 7. Braxton Brown (MD) 8. Tyler Wells (MINN) 9. Nicolar Rivera (WIS) 10. Cayden Rooks (IND) 11. Dustin Norris (PUR) 12. Andrew Hampton (MSU) 13. Patrick Adams (NU) 14. Brody Teske (IOWA) NCAA Allocations: (7) First Round Match to Watch: #3 Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State) vs. #4 Brody Teske (Iowa) Projected Semifinals: #1 Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) vs. #5 Aaron Nagao (Penn State); #2 Dylan Shawver (Rutgers) vs. #3 Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State) It’s been discussed ad nauseum already, so we’ll just give it a quick mention. The first-round matchup between Nic Bouzakis and Brody Teske probably should have been a quarterfinal match, but isn’t because Teske was noted as the starter after the conference deadline. That creates a very tough bout for Bouzakis right off the bat and gives Teske a very tough path to the top-seven and automatic qualifier status. With graduations and weight changes, this feels like a very different weight class from years past. Aaron Nagao was a Big Ten finalist for Minnesota last year, but most others in the field have not had high finishes. One of those who has is Dylan Ragusin who was fifth and third in each of the past two years. Ragusin made it into February before suffering his first loss of the year - to Jacob Van Dee. Since no one in the conference was unbeaten and Ragusin still has an extensive list of quality wins, he gets the top seed. On the other half of the bracket is Dylan Shawver, who is the highest-seeded Rutgers grappler this year. Shawver locked up the second seed with three big wins down the home stretch over Nic Bouzakis, Aaron Nagao, and Braxton Brown. To wrestle up to his seed, Shawver may need to replicate the wins over Brown and Bouzakis in the quarters and semis, respectively. Predictions 1st: Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) over Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State) 3rd: Aaron Nagao (Penn State) over Dylan Shawver (Rutgers) 5th: Jacob Van Dee (Nebraska) over Braxton Brown (Maryland) 7th: Tony Madrigal (Illinois) over Tyler Wells (Minnesota) 141 lbs 1. Beau Bartlett (PSU) 2. Jesse Mendez (OSU) 3. Real Woods (IOWA) 4. Brock Hardy (NEB) 5. Sergio Lemley (MICH) 6. Danny Pucino (ILL) 7. Mitch Moore (RUT) 8. Jordan Hamdan (MSU) T9. Dan Fongaro (IND) T9. Vance VomBaur (MINN) 11. Kal Miller (MD) 12. Greyson Clark (PUR) 13. Kolby McClain (NU) 14. Felix Lettini (WIS) NCAA Allocations: (11) First Round Match to Watch: #6 Danny Pucino (Illinois) vs. #11 Kal Miller Projected Semifinals: #1 Beau Bartlett (Penn State) vs. #5 Sergio Lemley (Michigan); #3 Real Woods (Iowa) vs. #2 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) This is a beast of a weight class with 11 NCAA spots available, which is the most out of any weight class in any qualifying tournament. There are actually 12 Big Ten wrestlers currently in the national rankings, so there’s a chance that the conference even gets one or two more depending on what happens in College Park and around the country. It’s rare that you have both Big Ten finalists returning, at the same weight class, and neither comes in as the number one or number two seed. But, it’s the Big Ten - sometimes that’s all that needs to be said. Last year, Beau Bartlett got on the NCAA podium for the first time at his ideal weight class. This year, he’s taken it to another level and comes in unbeaten. There have been times when his offense has opened up against tough competition, but he’ll still have a few close matches that leave him vulnerable to an upset. Coming in at the second seed is Jesse Mendez who held that distinction last year at 133 lbs. Mendez moved up and has been even better than his true freshman season. He emerged victorious in a Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational weight class that featured some of the key players here and from around the nation. One of the most anticipated bouts of this tournament could take place in the semifinals, when Mendez squares off with returning champion Real Woods. Since Iowa and Ohio State did not wrestle this season, these two do not have any collegiate history. One of the better potential quarterfinals to monitor is the #4/#5 match with 2023 Big Ten runner-up Brock Hardy and true freshman Sergio Lemley. The two had a classic, back-and-forth battle in Lincoln before Hardy came out on top. Lemley is your typical talented true freshman who may have taken his lumps in November and December, but seems to be coming into form when it counts. The whole bottom half of this weight class is a mess, which is evident by the fact that the preseeds couldn’t determine who should get the #9, between Dan Fongaro and Vance Vombaur. Anyone between the sixth and 12th seed can, and probably will, beat up on each other. It’s one of those weights where it’s an upset in number only. Predictions 1st: Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) over Beau Bartlett (Penn State) 3rd: Real Woods (Iowa) over Sergio Lemley (Michigan) 5th: Brock Hardy (Nebraska) over Danny Pucino (Illinois) 7th: Mitch Moore (Rutgers) over Vance Vombaur (Minnesota) 149 lbs 1. Ridge Lovett (NEB) 2. Austin Gomez (MICH) 3. Caleb Rathjen (IOWA) 4. Tyler Kasak (PSU) 5. Dylan D’Emilio (OSU) 6. Ethen Miller (MD) 7. Joe Zargo (WIS) 8. Graham Rooks (IND) 9. Drew Roberts (MINN) 10. Michael Cetta (RUT) 11. Marcos Polanco (PUR) 12. Braden Stauffenberg (MSU) 13. Aiden Vandenbush (NU) 14. Jake Harrier (ILL) NCAA Allocations: (9) First Round Match to Watch: #7 Joe Zargo (Wisconsin) vs. #10 Michael Cetta (Rutgers) Projected Semifinals: #1 Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) vs. #4 Tyler Kasak (Penn State); #2 Austin Gomez (Michigan) vs. #6 Ethen Miller (Maryland) Like 133 lbs, this is a weight class that looks very different from last season. Redshirts, graduation, weight changes, and new freshmen have given this bracket a new feel. The top seed is Ridge Lovett, a 2021 Big Ten runner-up. Though he missed out on the conference finals in 2022, Lovett ended up in the NCAA championship bout. This year he cruised the most of the regular season before suffering a loss to Arizona State’s Kyle Parco on the final weekend of February. We’ll see if that loss refocused Lovett on the task at hand this week. The second seed, Austin Gomez, was focused on an entirely different task last week as he was in Acapulco qualifying himself and Team Mexico for the 2024 Olympics. Gomez joined the Michigan team midseason and has quickly re-emerged as a title contender. In 2022, it was Gomez who pinned Lovett in the Big Ten semifinals, before winning the title and earning All-American honors. To Lovett’s credit, he dominated the rematch earlier this season. One item we’ll be paying attention to is the health of third-seeded Caleb Rathjen. Rathjen missed Iowa’s season-ending win over Oklahoma State as he was nursing a supposedly minor injury. In the second half of the year, Rathjen emerged as the Hawkeyes starter and picked up key wins against Minnesota, Penn State, and Wisconsin. Because he could be limited, I think it’s a possibility that he gets knocked off in the quarters by home favorite Ethen Miller. Miller comes in a winner of his last five Big Ten duals and will have a large home crowd on his side. I like either the #7/10 or the #8/9 matchup as the two best first-round matches. Zargo/Cetta in particular gives the winner a boost and a push towards the top-eight and automatic qualification. A loss likely relegates one to the ninth-place bracket which is far from ideal. Predictions 1st: Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) over Austin Gomez (Michigan) 3rd: Tyler Kasak (Penn State) over Dylan D’Emilio (Ohio State) 5th: Caleb Rathjen (Iowa) over Ethen Miller (Maryland) 7th: Joe Zargo (Wisconsin) over Graham Rooks (Indiana) 157 lbs 1. Levi Haines (PSU) 2. Michael Blockhus (MINN) 3. Brayton Lee (IND) 4. Jared Franek (IOWA) 5. Peyton Robb (NEB) 6. Chase Saldate (MSU) 7. Will Lewan (MICH) 8. Joey Blaze (PUR) 9. Trevor Chumbley (NU) 10. Isaac Wilcox (OSU) 11. Al DeSantis (RUT) 12. Michael North (MD) 13. Luke Mechler (WIS) 14. Logan Swaw (ILL) NCAA Allocations: (9) First Round Match to Watch: #8 Joey Blaze (Purdue) vs. #9 Trevor Chumbley (Northwestern) Projected Semifinals: #1 Levi Haines (Penn State) vs. #5 Peyton Robb (Nebraska); #2 Michael Blockhus (Minnesota) vs. #3 Brayton Lee (Indiana) This has been my favorite weight class to follow nationally as well as in the Big Ten. There are six past All-Americans, and four Big Ten finalists - including both finalists from last year. In 2023, Peyton Robb was the top seed and was undefeated until he ran into Penn State freshman phenom Levi Haines. Haines prevailed over Robb in the Big Ten finals and again in the NCAA semis. As a sophomore, Haines has won all 15 matches on the year and notched bonus points in two-thirds of those contests. The brackets are set for another Haines/Robb matchup. That is provided Robb can get by rival Jared Franek in the quarters. Franek got by Robb by a point in their dual this year and in overtime at nationals last season. Of course, the NCAA match was while Robb was in the beginning stages of battling a nasty infection that nearly cost him his leg. Earlier in the 2022-23 season, Robb defeated Franek, 7-4. This is a weight where there were likely some questions surrounding the seeding. Brayton Lee enters the postseason unbeaten; however, he only has seen action in eight bouts all year and four B1G duals. Lee wrestled through injuries last season and was nowhere near the wrestler who made the podium in 2021. We’re still not sure how close he is to that form. If he’s close, then he’ll be a finals threat. Chase Saldate was saddled with the sixth seed despite only having one Big Ten loss (Haines) and wrestling in every conference match. And based on the way duals broke, Saldate didn’t hit most of the top contenders in the league. With such a deep weight class you have dangerous wrestlers in that seven through nine range with multi-time All-American Will Lewan (#7), stud freshman Joey Blaze (#8), and Trevor Chumbley (#9), who was the #13 seed at the 2023 NCAA Championships. Predictions 1st: Levi Haines (Penn State) over Michael Blockhus (Minnesota) 3rd: Peyton Robb (Nebraska) over Jared Franek (Iowa) 5th: Chase Saldate (Michigan State) over Brayton Lee (Indiana) 7th: Will Lewan (Michigan) over Trevor Chumbley (Northwestern) 165 lbs 1. Dean Hamiti (WIS) 2. Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) 3. Michael Caliendo (IOWA) 4. Caleb Fish (MSU) 5. Antrell Taylor (NEB) 6. Cameron Amine (MICH) 7. Stoney Buell (PUR) 8. Bryce Hepner (OSU) 9. Tyler Lillard (IND) 10. Blaine Brenner (MINN) 11. Chris Moore (ILL) 12. Maxx Mayfield (NU) 13. Anthony White (RUT) 14. AJ Rodrigues (MD) NCAA Allocations: (10) First Round Match to Watch: #8 Bryce Hepner (Ohio State) vs. #9 Tyler Lillard (Indiana) Projected Semifinals: #1 Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) vs. #5 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska); #2 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) vs. #3 Michael Caliendo (Iowa) Here’s an opportunity to see one of the most anticipated matches of conference weekend with a potential final between the Wisconsin star Dean Hamiti and the Wisconsin high school sensation Mitchell Mesenbrink, who is competing for Penn State. Hamiti captured a Big Ten title last season and was third in 2022, as a true freshman. He’s gone on to place sixth at both NCAA Tournaments. The U20 world champion, Mesenbrink, has taken the collegiate scene by storm winning all 19 of his contests and tallying bonus points in almost 75% of them. So far, he’s knocked off a pair of returning All-Americans - most impressively an 11-1 major decision over 3x AA Cam Amine. Another freshman to watch is the fifth seed, Antrell Taylor. He also fits the bill as a young guy who’s getting better every time he takes the mat. Taylor went 2-2 at the CKLV losing one match via major decision to Stoney Buell. When the two squared off later in the dual season, it was Taylor who prevailed via major. In the lead-up to the release of the Big Ten seeds, many questioned where Amine would end up. He’s been in and out of the Wolverine lineup this year and does not have a Big Ten win. He’s been placed at the sixth slot, though you could have made a case for Buell or Bryce Hepner to be ahead of him. If Amine is healthy, he could give Caliendo fits. Though the two did not meet last season, Amine outplaced him on the NCAA podium. Throughout his career, Amine is someone who has seemed to shine in the postseason. Is this where he turns the corner? Predictions 1st: Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) over Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) 3rd: Michael Caliendo (Iowa) over Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) 5th: Caleb Fish (Michigan State) over Stoney Buell (Purdue) 7th: Cameron Amine (Michigan) over Bryce Hepner (Ohio State) 174 lbs 1. Carter Starocci (PSU) 2. Shane Griffith (MICH) 3. Patrick Kennedy (IOWA) 4. Edmond Ruth (ILL) 5. Rocco Welsh (OSU) 6. Jackson Turley (RUT) 7. Max Maylor (WIS) 8. DJ Washington (IND) 9. Andrew Sparks (MINN) 10. Brody Baumann (PUR) 11. Dominic Solis (MD) 12. Bubba Wilson (NEB) 13. DJ Shannon (MSU) 14. David Ferrante (NU) NCAA Allocations: (8) First Round Match to Watch: #5 Rocco Welsh (Ohio State) vs. #12 Bubba Wilson (Nebraska) Projected Semifinals: #4 Edmond Ruth (Illinois) vs. #8 DJ Washington (Indiana); #2 Shane Griffith (Michigan) vs. #3 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) The entire weight class and the predictions here hinge on the status of Carter Starocci. He suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury during the Nittany Lions final dual meet of the regular season. If Starocci is limited Penn State can either injury default him twice, which puts him outside of the top-eight and forces the NCAA committee to give Starocci an at-large berth. He could wrestle in the quarterfinals and, should he win, he’s in the top-six and could default from that point and finish in the top-six. Or if he’s feeling great, he wrestles the entire tournament. For the purposes of our predictions, we’re guessing Starocci and the PSU staff choose the first option and go with back-to-back, one-second injury defaults. If Starocci is out of the picture it opens up the top half of the bracket. That 4 vs. 5 quarterfinal between Edmond Ruth and Rocco Welsh is huge. The two met during the first weekend of Big Ten dual action and Ruth prevailed, 2-1. It’s reasonable to think that a freshman with Welsh’s pedigree and talent is able to reverse that result almost two months later. Before getting to Ruth, Welsh has a tough first-round matchup against Bubba Wilson. Wilson is a two-time national qualifier who ideally would be at 165 lbs, but the presence of Antrell Taylor has made him move. Even if Welsh is too much, Wilson will put up a strong fight. On the bottom half of the bracket, you have 2021 national champion Shane Griffith as the second seed and Patrick Kennedy as the third seed. For most of the 2023-24 season, Griffith has been content to grind out close wins. His 11-1 major decision over Kennedy was probably his most impressive performance of the season. We’ll see if he can channel that win in the semis. Should Starocci not finish the tournament, in some form or fashion, it could open up a qualifying spot for someone in the lower half of the seeds - someone who may not have qualified under normal circumstances. Predictions 1st: Shane Griffith (Michigan) over Rocco Welsh (Ohio State) 3rd: Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) over Jackson Turley (Rutgers) 5th: Edmond Ruth (Illinois) over DJ Washington (Indiana) 7th: Max Maylor (Wisconsin) over Andrew Sparks (Minnesota) 184 lbs 1. Isaiah Salazar (MINN) 2. Lenny Pinto (NEB) 3. Bernie Truax (PSU) 4. Ryder Rogotzke (OSU) 5. Jaden Bullock (MICH) 6. Layne Malczewski (MSU) 7. Shane Liegel (WIS) 8. Brian Soldano (RUT) 9. Troy Fisher (NU) 10. Roman Rogotzke (IND) 11. Dylan Connell (ILL) 12. James Rowley (PUR) 13. Aiden Riggins (IOWA) 14. Chase Mielnik (MD) NCAA Allocations: (8) First Round Match to Watch: #7 Shane Liegel (Wisconsin) vs. #10 Roman Rogotzke (Indiana) Projected Semifinals: #1 Isaiah Salazar (Minnesota) vs. #4 Ryder Rogotzke (Ohio State); #2 Lenny Pinto (Nebraska) vs. #3 Bernie Truax (Penn State) With the arrival of three-time All-American Bernie Truax in State College, I’m sure many fans expected Truax to immediately jump into the Big Ten finals. Truax has been very good, but not necessarily unbeatable. Of course, he could change the narrative with a couple of slight upsets over the weekend. The top seed is Isaiah Salazar who is probably the most overlooked one seed in the tournament. Salazar comes into the postseason with 18 wins in 19 matches. He is undefeated against Big Ten foes and his most notable victory this year came over Lenny Pinto during early in the conference dual season. Aside from that, Salazar has not met up with many of the top contenders at this weight. This is a weight class that has seen a handful of wrestlers emerge as potential high-finishers and good bets to qualify. True freshman Ryder Rogotzke has become one of the most enjoyable wrestlers in the country to watch and assumed starting duties relatively late in the year. Jaden Bullock used a sixth-place finish in Vegas to solidify his spot in the Wolverine lineup, while Shane Liegel was a DIII national champion for Loras who decided to try his hand at the DI level with his final year of eligibility. He ended up winning Midlands and establishing himself as a legitament threat. One unique feature in this weight class is a set of brothers. We’ve already discussed Ryder, but his older brother, Roman, is the tenth seed for Indiana. Predictions 1st: Lenny Pinto (Nebraska) over Isaiah Salazar (Minnesota) 3rd: Bernie Truax (Penn State) over Ryder Rogotzke (Ohio State) 5th: Jaden Bullock (Michigan) over Layne Malczewski (Michigan State) 7th: Brian Soldano (Rutgers) over Troy Fisher (Northwestern) 197 lbs 1. Aaron Brooks (PSU) 2. Jaxon Smith (MD) 3. Zach Glazier (IOWA) 4. Silas Allred (NEB) 5. Garrett Joles (MINN) 6. Luke Geog (OSU) 7. John Poznanski (RUT) 8. Evan Bates (NU) 9. Ben Vanadia (PUR) 10. Gabe Sollars (IND) 11. Kael Wisler (MSU) 12. Isiah Pettigrew (ILL) 13. Bobby Striggow (MICH) 14. Josh Otto (WIS) NCAA Allocations: (7) First Round Match to Watch: #6 Luke Geog (Ohio State) vs. #11 Kael Wisler (Michigan State) Projected Semifinals: #1 Aaron Brooks (Penn State) vs. #4 Silas Allred (Nebraska); #2 Jaxon Smith (Maryland) vs. #3 Zach Glazier (Iowa) It’s not every year that you have the opportunity to see a pair of returning Big Ten champions meet prior to the finals, but that’s what could happen at 197 lbs. Top-seeded Aaron Brooks has moved up from 184 lbs and looks as good as ever. He’s earned bonus points in 13 of 14 matches this year and has been about as dominant as any wrestler at any weight. Brooks will be aiming for his fourth Big Ten title before moving on to his fourth national chip. A potential semifinal matchup with Brooks could include the 2023 Big Ten champion at this weight, Silas Allred. The two have already met in dual meet competition and Brooks cruised to a 17-4 major decision. It was one of two Big Ten losses on the year for Allred. The other B1G wrestler to beat Allred this year is Iowa’s Zach Glazier. In his first year as a full-time starter, Glazier has been excellent. A 5-1 loss to Brooks represents the only blemish on his record this year. He’s also the only opponent that has held Brooks to a regular decision. Before worrying about another match with Brooks, Glazier will have to contend with the local favorite Jaxon Smith. The sophomore from Maryland was an NCAA Round of 12 finisher last season and was third in the conference, as well. This year he knocked off returning national runner-up, Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State) to make the CKLV finals. Smith and Glazier have not met this season. Things could get difficult early on for Smith on the bottom half of the bracket as he could face 2021 All-American John Poznanski in his first bout. Poznanski has lost his last two duals; however, during his All-American run, it was the Big Ten tournament where he first broke out. The first-round match to watch at this weight is between a pair of talented redshirt freshmen Luke Geog and Kael Wisler. The two did not meet in the regular season. Wisler competed early and often and sports a 23-12 record. He did start to take on water a bit as he moved into the B1G schedule. Geog has a relatively modest 12-6 record, but did hand Poznanski his second loss of the season. Predictions 1st: Aaron Brooks (Penn State) over Jaxon Smith (Maryland) 3rd: Zach Glazier (Iowa) over Silas Allred (Nebraska) 5th: Garrett Joles (Minnesota) over John Poznanski (Rutgers) 7th: Luke Geog (Ohio State) over Gabe Sollars (Indiana) 285 lbs 1. Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) 2. Nick Feldman (OSU) 3. Lucas Davison (MICH) 4. Yaraslau Slavikouski (RUT) 5. Seth Nevills (MD) 6. Nick Willham (IND) 7. Bradley Hill (IOWA) 8. Bennett Tabor (MINN) 9. Josh Terrill (MSU) 10. Nash Hutmacher (NEB) 11. Jack Jessen (NU) 12. Gannon Rosenfeld (WIS) 13. Peter Marinopoulos (ILL) 14. Hayden Filipovich (PUR) NCAA Allocations: (7) First Round Match to Watch: #7 Bradley Hill (Iowa) vs. #10 Nash Hutmacher (Nebraska) Projected Semifinals: #1 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) vs. #4 Yaraslau Slavikouski (Rutgers); #2 Nick Feldman (Ohio State) vs. #3 Lucas Davison (Michigan) In each of the last two years, the Hodge Trophy winner has come from the 285 lb weight class in the Big Ten. There were some monster brackets in both of those seasons. Graduation (and WWE contracts) have made the weight class slightly more manageable, but you still have the undefeated, top-ranked big man in the land sitting atop the bracket in Greg Kerkvliet. Kerkvliet comes into the postseason with a perfect 12-0 record and bonus points in nine of those contests. He also has decisive wins over both the second and third-seeded wrestlers in the bracket. Numbers two and three belong to freshman Nick Feldman and two-time AA Lucas Davison. The pair clashed in the epic dual win that was clinched by Feldman’s third-period takedown over the elder Davison. Feldman was dealing with injuries earlier in the season, but has recently shown the form that made him the top recruit in the high school Class of 2022. Davison is looking to finally break into the Big Ten finals for the first time. Amazingly enough, he has placed fifth at the Big Ten Championships in each of his previous tries. I’m sure that's a trend he’d rather ruin. The top side of the bracket could get interesting with Kerkvliet and former teammate Seth Nevills. Nevills moved on to Maryland in the offseason and finally has gotten extended time as the starter. But to get to match with his old teammate, Nevills would have to go through Yaraslau Slavikouski again. The two met in the final weekend of the Big Ten dual season and Nevills prevailed, 5-2. Slavikouski also transferred last summer. He was seeded sixth at the 2023 NCAA Tournament for Harvard and came up a match shy of All-American status. The first round will provide us with a rematch between Bradley Hill and Nebraska football star Nash Hutmacher. The Cornhusker defensive lineman fell 4-1 in his Big Ten debut to Hill. As a high schooler, Hutmacher placed in the top three in Fargo on six occasions. Despite the fanfare surrounding his football-playing teammate Ben Kueter, Hill put together a very solid redshirt freshman season with 12 wins against only four losses. Predictions 1st: Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) over Lucas Davison (Michigan) 3rd: Nick Feldman (Ohio State) over Yaraslau Slavikouski (Rutgers) 5th: Seth Nevills (Maryland) over Bradley Hill (Iowa) 7th: Nick Willham (Indiana) over Nash Hutmacher (Nebraska) Team Score Projection 1st) Penn State 2nd) Michigan 3rd) Nebraska 4th) Iowa 5th) Ohio State

Friday marks the first day of the DI postseason and both women’s national tournaments. With nine different tournaments to follow over a three day span, it can be difficult to find how and when each event and round takes place. InterMat is here to help with a different version of the viewer guide. It’s broken down by day and has times for each round. Beware, there is a link for each tournament; however, ESPN/ACC Network has multiple links for different days/mats/sessions. Hopefully, the initial link will get you in the right direction. Also!!!!! Times listed are Eastern….not local times! Have fun and get those extra screens and devices hooked up! Friday, March 8th: EIWA Championships - FloWrestling 10:30 AM - Round of 32, Round of 16, Consolations 4:30 PM - Quarterfinals, Consolations MAC Championships - ESPN+ 12:00 PM - First Round 2:00 PM - Quarterfinals/Consolations 5:00 PM - Semifinals/Consolations NCWWC National Championships - FloWrestling 12:00 PM - First Round 5:00 PM - Quarterfinals, Consolations NAIA Women's National Championships - FloWrestling 11:00 AM - Championship First and Second Rounds; Consolations 7:00 PM - Quarterfinals; Consolations Saturday, March 9th Big 12 Championships - ESPN+ 11:00 AM - First Round, Quarterfinals 6:00 PM - Semifinals, Consolations Big Ten Championships - B1G+ 10 AM - First Round, Quarterfinals, Consolations 5 PM - Consolations 7 PM - Semifinals EIWA Championships - FloWrestling 10:30 AM - Semifinals, Consolations 4:45 PM - Finals, Placement Matches MAC Championships - ESPN+ 11:30 AM - Consolation Quarterfinals 1:00 PM - Consolation Semifinals 3:00 PM - Championship Finals/Placement Matches NCWWC National Championships - FloWrestling 12:00 PM - Semifinals, Consolation Semifinals, 3rd/5th/7th Place 8:00 PM - Championship Finals NAIA Women's National Championships - FloWrestling 11:00 AM - Semifinals, Consolations, 3rd/5th/7th Place 8:00 PM - Championship Finals SoCon Championships - ESPN+ 10:00 AM - First Round 12:00 PM - Semifinals 2:00 PM - Consolations 5:30 PM- Consolation Finals 7:00 PM - Championship Finals Sunday, March 10th ACC Championships - ESPN+ 11:00 AM - First Round 1:00 PM - Semifinals 3:30 PM - Consolation Semis 5:00 PM - Consolation Finals 7:00 PM - Championship Finals ACC Network Pac-12 Championships - Pac-12 Network 1:00 PM - First Session 9:00 PM - Championship Session Big 12 Championships - ESPN+ 1:00 PM - Placement Matches 8:30 PM - Championship Finals - ESPN2 Big Ten Championships - B1G+ 12:00 PM - Consolation Semis, 7th place Matches 4:30 PM - Placement Matches - Big Ten Network

The Big 12 brackets dropped and gave us a great look at what to expect this year in Tulsa. Based on seeds, Iowa State and Oklahoma State are tied for first. Two-time returning Big 12 champs Missouri are sitting at 3rd in projections and will be looking to surprise people to win their 13th consecutive conference title. For the most part, the seeds follow rankings but there are some weights that have a lot of change, which could create some chaos. The Big 12 has depth in a number of weights that may be missing an AQ or two. For each weight, I threw in some guys I considered “bracket busters”, ones that could rocket to the top or get some upsets that throw things in flux. The Big 12 is shaping up to be a great tournament with a genuine fight for the team title and will give whatever team wins a lot of momentum as a trophy contender. 125lbs - 6 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #11 Noah Surtin, Missouri #13 Troy Spratley, Oklahoma State #7 Stevo Poulin, Northern Colorado #21 Tanner Jordan, South Dakota State #12 Jore Volk, Wyoming #27 Kysen Terukina, Iowa State Jett Strickenberger, West Virginia #26 Trever Anderson, Northern Iowa This bracket, like most of 125 this year, looks like it could be chaos. There are only six qualifying spots at this weight with eight to ten wrestlers I could see finishing that high. Stevo Poulin and Noah Surtin are returning finalists, where Poulin won an 11-4 decision. Troy Spratley actually beat top seed Noah Surtin in an overtime dual match, but losses to Tanner Jordan and Jore Volk dropped him. Returning Big 12 champ Stevo Poulin’s only losses this season are actually to unseeded wrestlers Eli Griffin and Jett Strickenberger, highlighting the craziness of this weight. Griffin was actually my preseason breakout wrestler pick and has the win over Poulin, but losses to Kysen Terukina, Tanner Jordan, and Trever Anderson. He and Anderson have a first-round rematch, with the winner taking on Surtin for the first time. That quarterfinal could get wild, and if Griffin gets hot then look out. Conrad Hendrickson is another unseeded wrestler to look out for, as the true freshman has been in one takedown matches with Troy Spratley and Kysen Terukina. Add in wins over Jett Strickenberger and Trever Anderson and he could be primed for an upset somewhere. Strickenberger is a wildcard himself, with a unique style that can give opponents issues. If he can navigate a rematch with 2023 qualifier Tucker Owens, a match he won 10-8 this season, then a match with Troy Spratley is intriguing. As crazy as this weight *could* get it is hard to not expect some combination of Surtin/Volk/Spratley/Poulin in the finals. All four are the most established, with the biggest wins and for the most part, have been consistent. That doesn’t mean 125 won’t continue to be crazy and the Big 12 has the depth that could see upsets galore and leave some quality wrestlers needing an At-Large bid. Bracket Busters: Eli Griffin (California Baptist), Conrad Hendricksen (Oklahoma) Semifinal Projection: Noah Surtin (Missouri) vs Jore Volk (Wyoming); Troy Spratley (Oklahoma State) vs Stevo Poulin (Northern Colorado) Finals Pick: Stevo Poulin (Northern Colorado) over Noah Surtin (Missouri) Projected Qualifiers: Noah Surtin, Troy Spratley, Stevo Poulin, Jore Volk, Tanner Jordan, Kysen Terukina 133lbs - 6 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #3 Daton Fix, Oklahoma State #7 Evan Frost, Iowa State #14 Dom Serrano, Northern Colorado #19 Derrick Cardinal, South Dakota State #24 Julian Farber, Northern Iowa #22 Kade Moore, Missouri Hunter Leake, California Baptist Garrett Ricks, Wyoming Daton Fix is looking to make history as the first-ever 5x Big 12 champ, although he could be joined by David Carr later in the night. Fix has never lost to a conference opponent and will be heavily favored to do so again. Earlier this season he beat Evan Frost with an 11-3 major. The battle on the other side of the bracket to get to the finals is intriguing with Frost, Dom Serrano, and Kade Moore. Frost is the most consistent wrestler at this weight this year and has some solid ranked wins. He and Serrano haven’t hit, however, and while Serrano doesn’t have the same high-profile wins he did beat Nasir Bailey, while Frost was teched 15-0. A wildcard looking to prevent that from happening is Kade Moore, a wrestler who pinned Sam Latona and had a wild 10-9 loss to Vito Arujau. He hasn’t wrestled since the Vito match due to an off-the-mat injury, but has an exciting style that had him looking impressive to that point. Looking at other potential upsets, I really like Julian Farber at the five to make the semis. With wins over Nic Bouzakis and Jacob Van Dee, Farber has a lot of upside if he’s wrestling to his potential. Hunter Leake at the seven seed will have to have at least one upset, but I like him and/or Eli Griffin to potentially be the Lancers first qualifier. Fernando Barreto is a name some might not be familiar with but just beat Derrick Cardinal to finish the season and could be dangerous in the right matchup. Bracket Busters: Kade Moore (Missouri), Fernando Barreto (North Dakota State) Semifinal Projection: Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) vs Julian Farber (Northern Iowa); Evan Frost (Iowa State) vs Kade Moore (Missouri) Finals Pick: Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) over Evan Frost (Iowa State) Projected Qualifiers: Daton Fix, Evan Frost, Dom Serrano, Kade Moore, Julian Farber, Hunter Leake 141lbs - 5 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #7 Anthony Echemendia, Iowa State #9 Tagen Jamison, Oklahoma State #8 Cael Happel, Northern Iowa #11 Jordan Titus, Western Virginia #22 Clay Carlson, South Dakota State #28 Josh Edmond, Missouri #29 Haiden Drury, Utah Valley #30 Cole Brooks, Wyoming A weight with only five qualifying spots is one of the deepest, with nine ranked wrestlers and four in the top 12. Beyond that top 12 is two-time All-American Clay Carlson and Josh Edmond who have had one-point matches with three of the top four. Echemendia, Jamison, and Happel have all traded wins and losses this season while Titus lost to Jamison and Happel. Echemendia’s style is always fun to watch, and a match with Wyoming true freshman Cole Brooks should be no different. I like Echemendia in that match to take on the winner of Titus vs Carlson. Titus has been mostly dominant this season but Carlson is looking to peak once again late in the season. Last year Carlson was also the fifth seed, but finished third. The bottom half of the bracket has plenty of intrigue, starting with a likely rematch of Happel vs Edmond. In a dual match just a couple weeks ago Edmond scored the 4-3 upset, but Happel was right there late. Ironically, last year Happel was also the third seed, but lost to the sixth seed Allan Hart from Missouri. Haiden Drury is seeded but still gets a ranked opponent in #31 Gavin Drexler of North Dakota State. The two wrestled in an early February dual with Drury getting the 8-7 win. That is a big match for the back half of the team scores, and could play a role in potential At-Large bids. Bracket Busters: Clay Carlson (South Dakota State), Josh Edmond (Missouri), Gavin Drexler (North Dakota State) Semifinal Projection: Anthony Echemendia (Iowa State) vs Clay Carlson (South Dakota State); Cael Happel (Northern Iowa) vs Tagen Jamison (Oklahoma State) Finals Pick: Cael Happel (Northern Iowa) over Anthony Echemendia (Iowa State) Projected Qualifiers: Anthony Echemendia, Tagen Jamison, Cael Happel, Jordan Titus, Clay Carlson 149lbs - 6 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #6 Casey Swiderski, Iowa State #17 Willie McDougald, Oklahoma #7 Ty Watters, West Virginia #18 Jordan Williams, Oklahoma State #22 Alek Martin, South Dakota State #31 Maxwell Petersen, North Dakota State #27 Gabe Willochell, Wyoming #26 Logan Gioffre, Missouri As evidenced by the seed and rankings discrepancy, this weight could get weird. Swiderski is undefeated against conference opponents and has plenty of dominant wins to make him an easy one. McDougald didn’t have the best regular season but a win over Ty Watters and two wins over Jordan Williams shot him up to the two seed. On the top side of the bracket, there is likely a quarters match with Swiderski vs Gioffre. Similar to Kade Moore, Gioffre has missed quite a bit of time due to injury for Missouri. When he was healthy he looked like he was going to be a factor with wins over Willie McDougald and Jaden Abas and losses to top-eight opponents. Swiderski has looked dominant and I have him in the finals but look out for Gioffre to make a backside run. Jordan Williams has a nice run to the semis, with a potential rematch against Alek Martin in the quarters. Williams pinned Martin in the dual and if he can repeat the result would score some big bonus points. Known as the “Iceman” in high school, Williams has an X factor on the big stage that could come into play. On the bottom side of the bracket Watters has been one of the best true freshmen this season and his lanky build makes him an excellent scrambler. I like him to make a run to the finals if he can navigate McDougald’s stout defense and underhook. McDougald could have a tough run to make it there with a match against Gabe Willochell. Bracket Busters: Jordan Williams (Oklahoma State), Logan Gioffre (Missouri) Semifinal Projection: Casey Swiderski (Iowa State) vs Jordan Williams (Oklahoma State); Ty Watters (West Virginia) vs Willie McDougald (Oklahoma) Finals Pick: Casey Swiderski (Iowa State) over Ty Watters (West Virginia Projected Qualifiers: Casey Swiderski, Ty Watters, Jordan Williams, Logan Gioffre, Willie McDougald, Maxwell Petersen 157lbs - 6 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #2 Vinny Zerban, Northern Colorado #13 Ryder Downey, Northern Iowa #10 Teague Travis, Oklahoma State #14 Cody Chittum, Iowa State #11 Brock Mauller, Missouri #18 Cael Swensen, South Dakota State Landen Johnson, North Dakota State #30 Jared Hill, Oklahoma Vinny Zerban is quietly one of the last undefeated wrestlers at this weight, but he hasn’t wrestled any of the other the top seven seeds. He will likely see Jared Hill in the quarters, a match that was a 4-3 decision win for him at the Southern Scuffle. Surprisingly, a number of the wrestlers in the top six haven’t wrestled each other. The other quarter for that semi could hold the potential finalist with Brock Mauller vs Cody Chittum. Mauller is the established veteran who was a Big 12 finalist last year while Chittum is the blue-chip prospect who has high podium potential. The bottom half of the bracket could see a rematch between Teague Travis and Cael Swensen, which was a 4-1 win for Travis in sudden victory in the dual. Whoever can come through to the semis is likely looking at a match with Ryder Downey. Travis lost to a 4-1 decision to him in the dual, but he’s never wrestled Cael Swensen. Zerban could prove me wrong and win a title, but I think one of the other top five seeds could surprise people and shoot up the rankings. 157 isn’t 125 but has had quite a bit of volatility this season and I think that continues with this bracket. Bracket Busters: Brock Mauller (Missouri), Jared Hill (Oklahoma), Cael Swensen (South Dakota State) Semifinal Projection: Vinny Zerban (Northern Colorado) vs Cody Chittum (Iowa State), Teague Travis (Oklahoma State) vs Ryder Downey (Northern Colorado) Finals Pick: Ryder Downey (Northern Colorado) over Cody Chittum (Iowa State) Projected Qualifiers: Ryder Downey, Cody Chittum, Brock Mauller, Teague Travis, Vinny Zerban, Cael Swensen 165lbs - 6 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #1 Keegan O’Toole, Missouri #2 David Carr, Iowa State #7 Peyton Hall, West Virginia #8 Izzak Olejnik, Oklahoma State #13 Giano Petrucelli, Air Force #25 Cael Carlson, Oklahoma Tanner Cook, South Dakota State Cooper Voorhees, Wyoming The match of the tournament is shaping up to be David Carr vs Keegan O’Toole, with Carr looking to finish his career with five Big 12 titles. It won’t exactly come easy with top opponents in Izzak Olejnik and Peyton Hall looking to avenge regular season losses. With the projected semifinals of Carr vs Hall and O’Toole vs Olejnik, both have happened this season. Carr beat Hall 10-5 and O’Toole beat Olejnik 5-1. Both wrestlers are savvy and could certainly make things interesting but it would be surprising to see an upset. The backside of the bracket could get interesting with another potential rematch in the third-place match between Olejnik and Hall. Hall won the dual match with a 5-1 decision and the only takedown in the match. The top four could wrestle to seed, but with six qualifier spots look out for Tanner Cook looking to make something happen. He hasn’t had the consistency with injuries this year, but he’s always dangerous and could certainly be someone to look out for. If Cook can get some bonus points on the backside that could be a big swing for the Jackrabbits as well. Other than that I think this weight will be pretty chalk and set up a thriller finale. Bracket Busters: Tanner Cook (South Dakota State) Semifinal Projection: Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) vs Izzak Olejnik (Oklahoma State); David Carr (Iowa State) vs Peyton Hall (West Virginia) Finals Pick: Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) over David Carr (Iowa State) Projected Qualifiers: Keegan O’Toole, David Carr, Peyton Hall, Izzak Olejnik, Giano Petrucelli, Cael Carlson 174lbs - 6 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #4 Cade DeVos, South Dakota State #19 MJ Gaitan, Iowa State #21 Brayden Thompson, Oklahoma State #10 Peyton Mocco, Missouri #22 Jared Simma, Northern Iowa #31 Tate Picklo, Oklahoma #20 Gaven Sax, North Dakota State #29 Brody Conley, West Virginia Another Big 12 weight where it feels short an AQ spot or two, there are only six spots with eight ranked wrestlers. The rankings and the seeds are all over the place, which only adds to the chaos. Rising above all that is Cade DeVos who has wins over five of the top seven seeds. Undefeated in conference, he feels primed to be the Jackrabbits first Big 12 champ since Seth Gross in 2018. To do that he’ll likely see Peyton Mocco, a wrestler he’s 2-3 against but won the most recent match in the dual. Mocco is likely to have a highly entertaining match with Jared Simma, who will likely be more than willing to mix it up in the scrambles. The bottom half of the bracket has plenty of intrigue and potential rematches. Brayden Thompson majored Tate Picklo in the first Bedlam, but lost in overtime in the second one. The two are set up to meet in the quarters in a match that could go a lot of ways with the two scrambling. The winner of that is likely to see MJ Gaitan, who pinned Tate Picklo but had a close overtime win with Brayden Thompson. Both Iowa State and Oklahoma State will be looking to their starters to make the finals if they meet up. Some dark horses I like are the aforementioned Picklo, who if he gets hot like last year could make a shocking run. Brody Conley at the eighth seed is intriguing as well as he had a buzzer-beater loss to Jared Simma and a quick fall loss to MJ Gaitan but hasn’t seen any other seeded wrestlers. Running into DeVos early is tough, but I like his chances to make a run on the backside. Bracket Busters: Tate Picklo (Oklahoma), Brody Conley (West Virginia) Semifinal Projection: Cade DeVos (South Dakota State) vs Peyton Mocco (Missouri); Tate Picklo (Oklahoma) vs MJ Gaitan (Iowa State) Finals Pick: Cade DeVos (South Dakota State) over MJ Gaitan (Iowa State) Projected Qualifiers: Cade DeVos, MJ Gaitan, Peyton Mocco, Brayden Thompson, Tate Picklo, Brody Conley 184 lbs - 5 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #1 Parker Keckeisen, Northern Iowa #2 Dustin Plott, Oklahoma State #8 Bennett Berge, South Dakota State #13 Colton Hawks, Missouri #14 Will Feldkamp, Iowa State #11 Sam Wolf, Air Force #28 Dennis Robin, West Virginia Ethan Ducca, Wyoming Despite six wrestlers ranked in the top 15, this weight only has five automatic qualifier spots. Parker Keckeisen is undefeated against Big 12 competition in his career and the heavy favorite to win his fourth Big 12 title with wins over three of the top four. His quarterfinals match will be against Colton Hawks or Will Feldkamp, both wrestlers he majored this season. Despite not starting most of the season, Hawks won the starting spot over Clayton Whiting late in the year including a win over Will Feldkamp. Hawks also has wins over Aaron Ayzerov and Isaiah Salazar this season, but hasn’t had consistency. That could create an opportunity for Feldkamp to get revenge, but if he goes to the backside then Iowa State could score big bonus points with Feldkamp’s skill set. Despite being a returning All-American he is still the five seed and someone I think could outplace his seed significantly. The bottom half of the bracket is shaping up for a Dustin Plott vs Bennett Berge rematch. The two went to overtime in the dual with Plott needing a comeback to tie and scored the winning takedown. Plott is a two-time Big 12 champ at 174 though, and as veteran as it gets for the young Jackrabbit. Dennis Robin could be one to look out for as he just hasn’t seen too much in conference competition. He had a close loss to Sam Wolf, who’s been in and out of the lineup, but otherwise has only seen Dustin Plott and Parker Keckeisen which makes his ceiling tough to gauge. Breaking the top five will be tough, but Robin could surprise with an upset somewhere. Sam Wolf is another one that has potential, but has an injury history and missed Air Force’s last two duals. He had regular-season wins over Clayton Whiting, Dennis Robin, Jaden Bullock, and Chris Foca so he is dangerous. Bracket Busters: Sam Wolf (Air Force), Dennis Robin (West Virginia) Semifinal Projection: Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) vs Colton Hawks (Missouri); Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State) vs Bennett Berge (South Dakota State) Finals Pick: Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) over Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State) Projected Qualifiers: Parker Keckeisen, Dustin Plott, Bennett Berge, Colton Hawks, Will Feldkamp 197lbs - 6 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #5 Tanner Sloan, South Dakota State #6 Stephen Buchanan, Oklahoma #10 Rocky Elam, Missouri #14 Evan Bockman, Utah Valley #24 Wyatt Voelker, Northern Iowa #19 Joey Novak, Wyoming #16 Luke Surber, Oklahoma State Austin Cooley, West Virginia The top of this weight class is stacked with returning Big 12 champ Rocky Elam as the three seed. Tanner Sloan beat both him and Stephen Buchanan this season, and like DeVos is a strong contender to be SDSU’s first champ in over five years. The last time we saw Buchanan, he was also winning a Big 12 title and while we haven’t seen him as much lately, is a strong contender. Sloan seems like a near-semis lock and will likely see the winner of Wyatt Voelker vs Evan Bockman. Bockman won a 4-2 decision last time but I always think it's interesting when a young guy like Voelker can wrestle close against a veteran like Bockman. Both wrestlers are hard to score on so a one takedown match is likely, but a win here gets you to the semis and NCAA’s. On the bottom half of the bracket is a similar story with a potential rematch with Rocky Elam and Joey Novak. A true freshman phenom for Wyoming, Novak had a 5-3 match with Elam in the dual early this season. Even if Novak drops that one, I still like him making it happen to qualify on the backside. Luke Surber at the seven seed would shock many at the beginning of the season but injuries have hampered his season significantly. He’s had close matches with highly ranked wrestlers lately, but hasn’t been able to come up on the winning side. If he and Buchanan are both beat up in a quarters match, it could be a coin flip and Surber has a lot of upside. If brackets go chalk, a match between Surber and Novak on the backside to automatically qualify has fireworks all over it as my two bracket-buster picks. Bracket Busters: Luke Surber (Oklahoma State), Joey Novak (Wyoming) Semifinal Projection: Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State) vs Evan Bockman (Utah Valley); Rocky Elam (Missouri) vs Stephen Buchanan (Oklahoma) Finals Pick: Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State) over Stephen Buchanan (Oklahoma) Projected Qualifiers: Tanner Sloan, Stephen Buchanan, Rocky Elam, Evan Bockman, Joey Novak, Wyatt Voelker 285lbs - 5 AQ’s Seeded Wrestlers: #2 Wyatt Hendrickson, Air Force #3 Yonger Bastida, Iowa State #5 Zach Elam, Missouri #10 Josh Heindselman, Oklahoma #11 Konner Doucet, Oklahoma State #15 Tyrell Gordon, Northern Iowa Michael Wolfgram, West Virginia Kevin Zimmer, Wyoming The top two wrestlers at this weight are both undefeated and have a combined 80% bonus rate this year. Bastida has the stronger overall resume this year, but Hendrickson is the two-time returning Big 12 champ. He hasn’t had the strongest competition but has been dominant against whom he’s faced with 16 pins this year. He is likely looking at a match against the winner between Konner Doucet and Josh Heindselman. These two are very familiar with each other and have traded wins in their careers and this season. Heindselman won the last match in Bedlam, but this match is the epitome of a tossup as the score in every match has been 2-1. Doucet’s defensive-heavy style doesn’t make for exciting matches, but with so many overtime matches his ability to outplace his seed wouldn’t be shocking. The bottom half of the bracket has an intriguing match with Zach Elam vs Tyrell Gordon likely. Elam is 4-0 against Gordon but went to rideouts in the dual recently. Gordon’s athleticism can be tough to deal with at heavyweight and he is someone I wouldn’t be shocked to find an upset to get a qualifying spot. With Yonger just recently majoring Elam 13-4, it seems like a finals match between Bastida and Hendrickson is certain. The two both have absurd athleticism to go with high-level skill and have mostly been untouched this year. Hendrickson’s top work and scrambling is an X factor, but Yonger’s speed and neutral ability feels near unmatched. Whoever wins this match is likely to get the two seed at NCAA’s and heavy favorites to make the finals in an incredible potential heavyweight matchup. Bracket Busters: Konner Doucet (Oklahoma State), Tyrell Gordon (Northern Iowa), Semifinal Projection: Wyatt Hendrickson (Air Force) vs Josh Heindselman (Oklahoma); Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) vs Zach Elam (Missouri) Finals Pick: Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) over Wyatt Hendrickson (Air Force) Projected Qualifiers: Yonger Bastida, Wyatt Hendrickson, Zach Elam, Konner Doucet, Josh Heindselman

How many times have we heard the saying “All that matters is what happens in March.” Well, March is here and we’re ready to get the part of the season that we’ve all been waiting for. However, while that saying may be true for the history books and what gets remembered most, it’s not completely accurate. What happened throughout the season certainly matters too. It gives us context, storylines, and obviously the seeds. And for this, we are going to look at the regular seasons of the top seeds in each weight class, pull out some key potential rematches, and the matches we didn’t get during the dual meet season. Also, it’s important to point out that Ohio State did not wrestle Iowa or Nebraska this season, however, we did see two big matchups at CKLV when Brock Hardy wrestled Jesse Mendez and Ridge Lovett faced Dylan D’Emilio. (For this I only looked at guys seeded in the top 10 + Brody Teske at 133 who got the 14 seed.) # - seed 125: Matt Ramos (Purdue) Key potential rematches: #2 Drake Ayala (Iowa); #5 Caleb Smith (Nebraska) Most relevant missed meetings: #6 Braeden Davis (Penn State); #7 Michael DeAugustino (Michigan) Summary: Ramos dominated the headlines at the start of the season but not for the reason he wanted. Taking losses to high schooler Marcus Blaze and ACC top seed Jakob Camacho (NC State) probably wasn’t the start he was looking for. He also took losses to Caleb Smith and Nico Provo at CKLV. But since then, he’s held down the fort to finish the regular season as the top-ranked guy at the weight after holding that spot at the beginning as well. Despite how well Ramos has bounced back after the early losses to maintain the No. 1 ranking, this weight still doesn’t have a complete favorite in my opinion. 125 has been a roller coaster the entire year with a number of guys from different conferences being at the top, two of which came from the Big 10. Of the potential rematches that could give the top-seeded Ramos some trouble, it’s the one against Ayala that could come in the finals. 133: Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) Key potential rematches: #3 Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State); #4 Jacob Van Dee (Nebraska); #5 Aaron Nagao (PSU) Most relevant missed meetings: #6 Tony Madrigal (Illinois); #7 Braxton Brown (Maryland); #14 Brody Teske Summary: It’s honestly been a dominant year for Ragusin both in redshirt and when he rejoined the lineup at 133. Even though he defeated both Bouzakis and Nagao by bonus points, I still think they are worthy of being listed as big potential rematches, specifically the one with Nagao, who took Ragusin to overtime and was pinned in one of the funkiest ways I’ve ever seen. But the biggest potential rematch is with Van Dee who handed him his lone loss of the season. Van Dee wrestled probably his best match that night and had the home crowd behind him as well. In a neutral setting, things are surely in favor of top-seeded Ragusin if Van Dee gets to the semis to meet him again. 141: Beau Bartlett (PSU) Key potential rematches: #2 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State); #3 Real Woods (Iowa); #4 Brock Hardy (Nebraska) Most relevant missed meetings: #6 Danny Pucino (Illinois); #7 Mitch Moore (Rutgers) Summary: This weight class has been ruled by the top four guys the entire year, with a surprise cameo appearance by Michigan’s Sergio Lemley in week 11. Outside of that, the strong wall of Bartlett, Mendez, Woods, and Hardy have held down the conference for most of the season. Those guys should be the last four standing looking to punch their ticket to the finals with an outside chance of Lemley pulling an upset over Hardy. All eyes should be on the 2 vs 3 battle between Mendez and Woods who would be facing off for the first time. 149: Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) Key potential rematches: #2 Austin Gomez (Michigan); #4 Tyler Kasak (PSU) Most relevant missed meeting: #7 Joey Zargo (Wisconsin) Summary: Lovett went wire-to-wire as the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the weight class despite his lone loss coming to ASU Kyle Parco at the end of the regular season. However, the two potential key rematches for him are with Kasak, who he could see in the semis and Gomez in the finals. Gomez is coming off a stellar performance at the Pan Am Olympic Qualifier where he punched his ticket to the Olympics, so expect a supercharged and ultra-confident version of the guy we saw in Lincoln, NE a month ago. And I’m giving Kasak the Cael preparation caveat here. We’ve seen PSU wrestlers adjust the second time around and come out on top before. Obviously, Lovett is still the heavy favorite here, I just know that we’ve seen Kasak look good since gaining some confidence as the season has gone on. 157: Levi Haines (PSU) Key potential rematches: #4 Jared Franek (Iowa); #5 Peyton Robb (Nebraska); #6 Chase Saldate (MSU); #7 Will Lewan (Michigan) Most relevant missed meetings: #2 Michael Blockhus (Minnesota); #8 Joey Blaze (Purdue) Summary: This is the deepest weight at the Big 10 tournament in my opinion. And let me explain why I have so many guys listed here that could (emphasis on ‘could’) be in the way of Haines here. The first two are obvious, Franek and Robb have been top contenders all year. We know what they bring to the table. However, Haines dismantled both this year in impressive fashion. The other two potential rematches are the more intriguing here as both were 1-point decision wins for Haines during the season. Saldate took him to overtime rideouts and Lewan deployed some of his best defense against the returning NCAA runner-up. When it comes to the missed meetings I’ll start with Blaze. We’ve seen him have some peaks and valleys this season. Of note, he pinned Robb, so he can compete at a high level, he could potentially be Haines' first match of the tournament. Secondly, Blockhus earns the #2-seed and is wrestling very well this season. He has a pretty favorable draw and could meet Haines in the finals. 165: Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) Key potential rematches: #3 Michael Caliendo (Iowa); #4 Caleb Fish (MSU); #5 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) Most relevant missed meetings: #2 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU); #6 Cam Amine (Michigan) Summary: This is going to be a fun weight. Most people believe that Mesenbrink can be on the raised stage at the NCAA Championships. But first is the potential matchup between him and top-seeded Hamiti, who haven’t met yet this year. Hamiti has a great in-conference year going undefeated and will look to do so this weekend to put himself in a great position at NCAAs. His matches with Fish and Taylor were both regular decisions during the year with his match against Fish being a 2-point win. P.S. The potential rematch between Caliendo and Messenbrink will be must-see as well. 174: Carter Starocci (PSU) Key potential rematch: #5 Rocco Welsh (Ohio State) Most relevant missed meetings: #2 Shane Griffith (Michigan); #4 Edmond Ruth (Illinois) Summary: Starocci has been super dominant this season. He has one regular decision win on the year and that came against Welsh a little over a month ago. Welsh could be waiting for Starocci in the semis if he does wrestle after suffering a knee injury to cap off his tech fall in the last regular season dual. On the opposite side of that are the two bouts we didn’t get during the year. First, is the one with Ruth. PSU and Illinois didn’t wrestle this year and there weren’t any other opportunities for them to hit so this could be the first time in their careers they take the mat against each other. And lastly, there is the potential match with fellow NCAA Champ Shane Griffith. During the dual, Griffith showed up, but Starocci sat out with an illness. These two have never met before either with this being Griffith's first time up at 174. 184: Isaiah Salazar (Minnesota) Key potential rematch: #2 Lenny Pinto (Nebraska) Most relevant missed meetings: #3 Bernie Truax (PSU); #4 Ryder Rogotzke (Ohio State); #5 Jaden Bullock (Michigan); #8 Brian Soldano (Rutgers) Summary: For me this is the most interesting weight because top-seeded Salazar has only wrestled one top-five-seeded guy this entire year and that was a 4-1 win over Pinto, who he could see in the finals. After that, there aren’t any other results from this season between Salazar and the field, which is all very close. 197: Aaron Brooks (PSU) Key potential rematch: #2 Zach Glazier (Iowa) Most relevant missed meetings: #5 Garrett Joles (Minnesota); #7 John Poznanski (Rutgers) Summary: Exactly like Starocci, Brooks has one regular decision on the year and that came against Glazier. Of note, Brooks has had 3 matches go the distance this entire season. The only two guys that he hasn’t hit are Joles and Poznanaski. When PSU faced Rutgers, Brooks defeated Mike Toranzo by tech fall as Poznanski had the night off. 285: Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) Most relevant missed meeting: #5 Seth Nevills (Maryland) Summary: It’s not a mistake that the key potential rematches section is missing for Kerkvliet. There really aren’t any. He crushed everyone in his path the entire year. His closest in-conference result was an 8-3 win over third-seeded Lucas Davison. It was one of the three regular decisions that he’s had the entire year. Outside of that, the most intriguing missed match is with his old teammate and partner Seth Nevills, who is now at Maryland with the fifth seed. Kerkvliet pinned Jordan Gabriel when the teams faced off earlier this season.

Big 12 correspondent James Hackney goes bracket-by-bracket through the ten Big 12 weights breaking down all of the key matches, past results, and why wrestlers were seeded where they were.

This is the last EIWA Championships that will include the Ivy League schools. Next season, the Ivies will host their own conference championship tournament. Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Princeton were original founding members in 1905. Cornell joined in 1908, making them the fourth longest-tenured school in the conference. Next season, Lehigh will become the longest-tenured school, joining the EIWA in 1913. Army and Navy each joined in 1941. The Sharks of Long Island University are the newest members of the conference. LIU became a member in 2019. The Mountain Hawks of Lehigh led the conference with a 7-0 record this season. Cornell won the Ivy League Championship for the third straight season. They have won 20 of the last 21 Ivy League titles. This year, the NCAA allocations were generous to the conference. The 2023 total number was 45 at this time. This year’s net total was 53 – an increase of 8. Another way to look at it – almost every weight class gained an extra automatic spot. It’s a good indication of how the conference compares to a year ago. Looking at other conferences, the EIWA had the highest increase from last season. For what it’s worth, the 6 Ivy League schools leaving the conference, starting next year, earned 23 of the 54 spots. Below is a breakdown of each weight class with summaries of results of last season. It will highlight returning NCAA qualifiers from last season, discuss ranked wrestlers at each weight, plus much more. Hopefully, this improves your viewing experience by providing you with some helpful information. 125 This weight class qualified six wrestlers for the 2023 NCAA Championships. Last season, Princeton’s Patrick Glory was crowned EIWA Champion and became the school’s first NCAA Champion in 72 years. With Glory’s departure, this weight class will see a new champion. Five NCAA qualifiers from a season ago are back to try and claim this title. These five include Brett Ungar of Cornell, Diego Sotelo of Harvard, Ethan Berginc of Army, and Nick Babin of Columbia. Jack Maida was an NCAA qualifier last season up at 133 lbs. Ryan Miller of Penn has been replaced by rookie Max Gallagher. He’s been having a great freshman year. Brett Ungar’s round-of-12 finish last season was the best of this group. Lehigh’s freshman phenom, Luke Stanich is the highest-ranked wrestler in the weight class. Stanich and Maida both have very few EIWA matches this season, putting them in unique positions compared to the rest of the bracket who will have plenty of rematches heading into the weekend. Some other names to watch include Drew Heethuis from Princeton, Carson Wagner of Binghamton, Desmond Pleasant of Drexel, Robbie Sagaris of LIU, and Michael Joyce of Brown. The current coaches’ rankings include five wrestlers - Stanich #3, Ungar #15, Sotelo #24, Maida #28, and Berginc #31. With some quality depth to this weight class, it’s very possible someone will not make a return trip to NCAAs this season. With five automatic qualifiers in this weight class, there will be some talented wrestlers looking for one of the six available at-large bids. This will make the semifinals and consolation semifinals vitally important. Prediction: Until proven otherwise, Stanich is the favorite at this weight. I think he will prevail over Ungar in the finals. Ungar seems to have everyone else’s number over the past two seasons. But, the competition he’ll need to beat to make the final is no easy task. Dark Horse Watch: Princeton’s true freshman Drew Heethuis has a win over Nick Babin – who was an NCAA Qualifier last season. Carson Wagner of Binghamton is another true freshman to be on the lookout for. He has a win over Heethuis this season. Plus, I love myself a fellow Northampton Konkrete Kid alum! What to watch for: 7 wrestlers in this bracket have been in the national rankings at some point during the year. There are only 5 automatic spots up for grabs – leaving two very talented guys looking for at-large bids. All of these quarterfinal matchups will be fun to watch. Personally, I believe Gallagher at the 7 seed taking on #2 Ungar will have upset potential. Gallagher is a tough freshman. If we see a Sotelo and Babin quarter, it will be a fun match. Babin is able to pin almost anyone. 2023 Results 1st - Pat Glory, Princeton*** 2nd- Brett Ungar, Cornell* 3rd - Ryan Miller, Penn* 4th - Ethan Berginc, Army West Point* 5th - Nick Babin, Columbia* 6th - Diego Sotelo, Harvard* 7th - Carter Bailey, Lehigh 8th - Mason Leiphart, Franklin & Marshall * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 133 Last year’s champion at this weight was Vito Arujau of Cornell. Like Glory at 125lbs, Arujau went on to become NCAA Champion. He also won a world title over the summer. Including Arujau, there were seven NCAA qualifiers last season from this weight. Unfortunately, Connor McGonagle’s injury did not allow him to compete, so only six ended up participating. Looking to make it to the championships again are Vito Arujau of Cornell, Michael Colaiocco of Penn, Angelo Rini of Columbia, Brendan Ferretti of Navy, and Kurtis Phipps of Bucknell. Lehigh’s undefeated freshman, Ryan Crookham, is the top-ranked wrestler in the nation after knocking off Arujau in November. Mason Leiphart of Franklin & Marshall placed 8th at 125 lbs at last season’s conference championships. He is in the top ten for technical falls this season – so he knows how to put points on the board. Michael Colaiocco was an EIWA Champ in 2022. Kurt Phipps of Bucknell was crowned champion at the Southern Scuffle tournament this year. Angelo Rini has been injured in the second semester, so his EIWA competition during the year is extremely limited. Army’s Braden Basile completes the remainder of ranked wrestlers in the deep weight. Drexel’s John Hildebrandt has wins over Colaiocco and Leiphart. Another wrestler to keep an eye on is Sacred Heart’s best wrestler Andrew Fallon. He’s 13-2 on the year. He has a 50% bonus rate, and both losses are to ranked opponents. Max Leete of American is another tough wrestler at this weight to keep an eye on. Micah Roes of Binghamton has some quality wins and will be a threat to place high on the podium. The coaches’ rankings currently include 7 EIWA wrestlers - Crookham #1, Arujau #3, Colaiocco #12, Phipps #16, Leiphart #29, Basile #30, and Ferretti #33. The top five in this bracket will automatically earn a trip to NCAAs. It appears, as of now, that Basile and Ferretti are the ranked wrestlers on the outside looking in, based solely on rankings. The quarterfinal matchups will be entertaining, but the consolation rounds in this bracket may be more exciting. Get ready for some potential upsets here! Prediction: Crookham and Vito will most likely be the final here. Flip a coin for the winner. Crookham won the first meeting in November, 8-4. Vito is the reigning EIWA and NCAA Champion. His run to achieve this last season was so dominant – it’s hard to look past that. They have each been affected by injuries. Both have wrestled only three matches each in the month of February. Dark Horse Watch: Although, he’s far from a dark horse. Angelo Rini is more of a wild card. He’s ranked 21st in the national rankings. The downfall is the lack of mat time. His last match was a medical forfeit loss at the Soldier Salute a few days before the 2024 calendar year began. How serious will his injury be? If 100%, he will be in the running for a top-5 finish. For reference, in the early part of the season, he had a win over #10 Bouzakis of Ohio State. For a dark horse candidate, Micah Roes is a guy to watch. The Binghamton Bearcat has seen some time in the rankings. He’s seemed to have better results in the second half of the year. He has two wins over Ferretti of Navy, proving he can beat quality wrestlers. What to watch for: We have a similar scenario here as 125lbs. Two ranked wrestlers did not make the cut to automatically qualify a spot. Ferretti was a qualifier last season, he will need to outwrestle his 7th seed to qualify. His first opponent is 10th-seeded Hildebrandt of Drexel. He has wins over Colaiocco and Leiphart this season. Angelo Rini will be the 8th seed. He really throws a wrench into this bracket – giving Crookham a potentially tough matchup during Friday night’s quarterfinal. Of course, Rini has not seen competition since December. He will need to get by Roes of Binghamton (9th seed) in the first round. This may be the best first-round matchup across all weights. I also really like 11th seed Leete of American vs Basile of Army in this round as well. 2023 Results 1st - Vito Arujau, Cornell*** 2nd - Michael Colaiocco, Penn* 3rd - Angelo Rini, Columbia* 4th - Brendan Ferretti, Navy* 5th - Jack Maida, American* 6th - Kyle Waterman, Drexel 7th - Kurtis Phipps, Bucknell*^ 8th - Hunter Adrian, Brown DNP – Connor McGonagle, Lehigh*^ * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 141 Vince Cornella, of Cornell, was last year’s champion in this weight class. His freshman campaign was cut short after winning one match at NCAAs. Lehigh’s Malyke Hines was an EIWA champion back in 2021 when he was still at 133lbs. Josh Koderhandt of Navy has been an EIWA finalist in the past. He has qualified for “The Big Dance” twice before. Last year, Dylan Chappell of Bucknell was the EIWA runner-up at 149lbs. It’s safe to say this class has a ton of quality talent. Not to mention, CJ Composto is the lone returning All-American in the weight class. He claimed 8th place at 141 lbs at the 2022 NCAA Championships. This was following a runner-up finish at conferences two weeks prior. Hines was also a round-of-12 placer last season, just one win shy of the podium. He has the most NCAA Tournament appearances with three. If you add a guy like Columbia’s Kai Owen, who has a win by fall over #6 Cael Happel of Northern Iowa – this weight class is very competitive. Interestingly, there are only three returning placers from this weight last year back in the bracket this season. Under the radar guys would include Jordan Soriano of Drexel, Tyler Vasquez of Princeton, Pat Phillips of F&M, and Harvard’s Michael Jaffe. Looking at coaches’ rankings, the EIWA has 5 ranked wrestlers – Cornella #12, Koderhandt #13, Hines #17, Composto #18, and Owen #t-32. The top four will earn automatic bids for NCAAs. The potential semifinals for this weight class will be very entertaining, as the top four are so close to one another in the national rankings. Winning this bracket could give the champion a top-10 seed at NCAAs, putting them in a great position to go on a run and earn a spot on the podium. Prediction: Cornella’s injured knee is pretty evident. How much will it hinder his performance? Koderhandt has one loss this semester to returning All-American, McNeil of UNC. He’s been looking great. I’ll take him to win it all. Dark Horse Watch: I like Michael Jaffe of Harvard here. He’s a senior who only wrestled the second semester. He was up big against Composto in a dual but ended up losing the match. He has the potential to beat some of the higher seeds. Coincidentally, he will have Composto in the first round to avenge his earlier loss. What to watch for: The top 4 seeds all have a legit chance of winning this bracket. Dylan Chappell at the 7th seed is something to look out for. He was the runner-up at 149 lbs last season. Cornella suffered a knee injury that looked somewhat serious at the end of January – causing him to miss a few weeks. These two circumstances can make this quarterfinal match-up interesting. Phillips and Soriano will face each other for a third time in the first round. Phillips won the first two meetings. 2023 Results 1st - Vince Cornella, Cornell* 2nd - Carmen Ferrante, Penn* 3rd - Josh Koderhandt, Navy* 4th - Malyke Hines, Lehigh* 5th - Matt Kazimir, Columbia* 6th - Darren Miller, Bucknell 7th - Justin Hoyle, Hofstra 8th - Julian Sanchez, Army * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 149 This bracket will be wildly compelling, as none of the returning podium winners return for action this season. Yianni Diakomihalis claimed his fourth EIWA and NCAA title last season. Leading the way with the top seed this year will be his replacement, Ethan Fernandez of Cornell. He’s been undefeated in EIWA competition thus far. Eligh Rivera of Princeton has had a fine freshman year, as did Lehigh’s pinning machine Kelvin Griffin. Matthew Williams of Army is a senior putting together a nice campaign. Jack Crook from Harvard is in the mix too. He has wins over Williams and Rivera, making him a threat to place high. Two freshmen can bust this bracket open. Penn’s Jude Swisher spent half the season at 157 lbs, before coming down to 149 lbs in the beginning of February. He has a fall over Crook, plus some quality wins up at 157 lbs. The other freshman to keep an eye on is Hofstra’s Noah Tapia. His signature win on the season is over Oklahoma State’s Jordan Williams – who was ranked #14 at the time. The coaches’ rankings only include three EIWA wrestlers at the moment – Fernandez #21, Swisher #28, and Rivera #31. The NCAA allocated four automatic bids for this weight class. With the seven names mentioned above, it’s easy to see multiple people may be left home when all 33 qualifiers are announced for this weight. Last season, this weight class only had two automatic qualifiers with one at-large bid selection. Once again, this weight class is one of the least deep weights in the conference. Prediction: Looking at how the seeds turned out, I would argue the two highest-ranked wrestlers will be on the same side of the bracket. Fernandez and Swisher will meet in the semis. I think the winner of this match takes the title. Fernandez had a one-point win over Swisher. I think Swisher avenges the loss to take the EIWA crown. Griffin is dangerous on the bottom half of the bracket. But, Williams of Army has beaten him twice this season already. Dark Horse Watch: I like two freshmen. Dom Findora of Drexel has 21 wins on the year. Noah Tapia of Hofstra is an option here too with 20 wins. He has a win over #18 Jordan Williams of Oklahoma State. Findora won the head-to-head match-up. This bracket will only qualify 4 wrestlers, so they will need to pull off a few wins here to qualify for the national tournament. What to watch for: As mentioned, there is not a ton of depth here. Unfortunately, my two darkhorses will square off in the first round. Rivera, Crook, and Smith are all very capable of earning at-large bids if needed – assuming they do not knock off any higher seeds. I would not count that out as a possibility. The quarterfinal matchups could be entertaining, especially Smith and Williams. Who does not love watching Army and Navy battle it out!? Griffin and Crook could be an interesting match as well. 2023 Results 149 – 2 Automatic Qualifiers, 1 At-Large Selection ** 1st - Yianni Diakomihalis, Cornell*** 2nd - Dylan Chappell, Bucknell* 3rd - Doug Zapf, Penn*^ 4th - Trae McDaniel, Army 5th - Luke Nichter, Drexel 6th - Danny Fongaro, Columbia 7th - Max Brignola, Lehigh 8th - Marshall Keller, Princeton * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 157 Cornell’s freshman phenom Meyer Shapiro leads the way at this weight. Since his two losses at the CKLV Invite in early December, he’s been nearly untouchable. He has over 19 wins on the year, only five of those wins were by decision. Interestingly, three of those five wins came from conference opponents. Lucas Revano of Penn was one of them. Revano has been a multiple-time EIWA place winner at 165 lbs and qualified for NCAAs once in that span. Lehigh’s Max Brignola is also a multiple-time place finisher, and one-time NCAA qualifier. The final former qualifier is Nate Lukez of Army. Drexel’s Tyler Williams is one of two returning placers from this weight class a year ago, along with Lukez. Blake Saito of Brown and Rocco Camillaci of Princeton each have a win over Williams this season. At least on paper, the top four are pretty set. The remainder of the guys may be battling for the 5th through 8th podium spots. LIU’s Rhise Royster was one of the opponents to not be majored, or worse, by Shapiro. Expect him to potentially stir things up in this bracket. Also keep an eye on guys like Jonathan Ley of Navy, Jaden Le of Columbia, and Jimmy Harrington of Harvard. The coaches’ rankings show 3 EIWA wrestlers – Shapiro #6, Brignola #20, and Revano #25. We will only see three automatic bids to NCAAs here. It appears Lukez just missed the cut line for an auto bid. There is potential to have a fourth via at-large selection for whomever earns that placement. It will always depend on how the bracket shapes up over the weekend – and across the country. Prediction: Shapiro is the favorite here. The bigger question is – who he will face in the finals? If seeds hold, a Revano vs Brignola rubber match semi-final will be exciting. Shapiro has decision wins over both opponents during the year. Dark Horse Watch: Tyler Williams of Drexel went on an impressive run last season at EIWA’s when he earned 8th place as a 12 seed. He’s made a run before, why not again? With a minimal amount of automatic qualifiers, he’ll need to have more than one upset. Although Harrington is seeded 7th, he may be someone who overperforms his seed and places high enough for an automatic bid. What to watch for: There are not many allocations here. It looks like Army’s 4th seed, Nate Lukez, will need to wrestle above his seed to earn an automatic allocation to make a return trip to NCAAs. A majority of these first-round matches will be great, as many of these wrestlers have beaten each other over the course of the season. Clark of Hofstra with the 6 seed against Williams of Drexel at 11th seed is a rematch from this season where Williams won. Another first-round match I like is Camillaci of Princeton versus Harrington of Harvard. Camillaci won the previous meeting in sudden victory. 2023 Results 1st - Josh Humphreys, Lehigh** 2nd - Anthony Artalona, Penn* 3rd - Nathan Lukez. Army* 4th - Trevor Tarsi, Harvard 5th - Nick Delp, Bucknell 6th - Jack Nies, American 7th - Ty Whalen, Princeton 8th - Tyler Williams, Drexel DNP - Cesar Alvan, Columbia *^ * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 165 This weight class seems to be one of the deepest weights every year. This year is no different. Last year’s champion, Julian Ramirez, is back to defend his title. His season came to a heartbreaking end when he lost in the bloodround at NCAAs. Brevin Cassella of Binghamton is looking to qualify for NCAAs once again. Andrew Cerniglia is up at a new weight for Navy. He’s been a place winner at 157 lbs and has stormed onto the scene as of late this season. Bucknell’s Southern Scuffle Champion, Noah Mulvaney, is looking for his first NCAA trip after an impressive start to his career. Army’s Gunner Filipowicz is looking to become a first-time qualifier as a freshman. Lehigh’s Jake Logan placed 8th at 174 lbs last season at conferences. He’s hovered around the .500 mark all year – but his recent win over Mulvaney is a quality one. Other names to look out for include Drexel’s Cody Walsh and Blaine Bergey of Princeton. Columbia’s Kyle Mosher has been hot the second half of the year as well. Expect some fireworks here. With a late substitution, Harvard will utilize Cael Berg in lieu of last year’s NCAA qualifier, Josh Kim. Penn’s Kaya Sement has been replaced by Adam Thomson also. Looking at the coaches rankings, the EIWA is well represented with 7 wrestlers – Ramirez #3, Cassella #15, Cerniglia #17, Mulvaney #19, Filipowicz #21, Logan #31, and Walsh #33. There are only five automatic bids this season – leaving two ranked wrestlers on the outside looking in. Last year’s bracket ended with six NCAA qualifiers. This year has the same potential. With deep brackets like this one, the quarterfinals and wrestle-backs will be exciting with so much on the line early on. Prediction: It’s pretty self-explanatory as to why Julian Ramirez is the favorite. He’s the returning champion and ranked #3 nationally at the moment. His likely finals opponent can be either Cassella of Binghamton or Cerniglia of Navy. Dark Horse Watch: Kyle Mosher of Columbia is sneaky 10-seed. His first-round match with Logan may be a toss-up. Mosher has been wrestling well the last half of the season. Blaine Bergey is a guy who can catch fire out of the 12th seed spot too. Adam Thomson is last minute addition, being thrown in at the 15th seed. He represents Team Canada on the freestyle scene, so he has some skills that should be taken seriously in folkstyle. What to watch for: With only 5 automatic bids to NCAAs, there will be major talent not making the cut and relying on an at-large bid. As of now, both Walsh and Logan are on the outside looking in. Keep an eye out for Logan at the 7 seed. We’ve seen him beat Mulvaney, so Cassella better be ready for a tough match-up. 2023 Results 1st – Julian Ramirez, Cornell* 2nd – Quincy Monday, Princeton** 3rd – Josh Ogunsanya, Columbia* 4th – Brevin Cassella, Binghamton* 5th – Josh Kim, Harvard* 6th – Dalton Harkins, Army 7th – Lucas Revano, Penn 8th – Evan Barczak, Drexel*^ * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 174 This is another deep weight class. This year’s bracket contains two former EIWA champions, Phil Conigliaro of Harvard and Ben Pasiuk of Army. Conigliaro won at 165 lbs in 2022. Pasiuk was a champion at 174 lbs in 2021. Conigliaro finished in the Round of 12 that season, while Pasiuk’s highest placement at NCAAs is a top-16 finish. Penn’s Nick Incontrera has been very solid all year, being ranked inside the top 10 nearly all season. Navy’s freshman, Danny Wask, is wrestling at a high level inside and outside of the conference. Expect him to be in the mix for the top four. Lennox Wolak of Columbia was 3rd place in last year’s bracket. He will look for another podium finish and a trip to NCAAs. Myles Takats of Bucknell is having a great freshman year with over 20 wins. Hofstra’s veteran, Ross McFarland, is a name to know as well. He was 7th in the bracket a season ago. Franklin & Marshall’s Noah Fox has a win over McFarland, as does LIU’s Chris Connolly. Other names to watch include Dimitri Gamkrelidze of Binghamton, Jack Janda of Drexel, Connor Herceg of Lehigh, Lucas White of American, and Jonathan Conrad of Brown. Cornell’s Benny Baker has come on strong as of late. Many of these guys have beaten each other, so they are all in the mix to find the podium. The coaches’ rankings have a healthy number of EIWA representatives with 5 ranked wrestlers – Conigliaro #5, Incontrera #7, Pasiuk #12, Wolak #14, and Wask #26. In terms of automatic qualifiers, expect the six in the bracket to move onto The Big Dance. This will be a fun bracket to watch, with many rematches from earlier in the year that could have gone either way. There will be some great first-round matches here, and there will be plenty of battles just to make the podium. Prediction: The top two here are Incontrera and Conigliaro. Conigliaro has already been an EIWA champion in years past. He won the only matchup this year between them in a tight bout. This is essentially a coin flip, assuming they both meet in the finals. I have a gut feeling Penn will make the adjustments and Incontrera will win the rematch. The winner of this bout will be in the driver’s seat for a top-8 NCAA seed once brackets are released. Dark Horse Watch: There are a handful of dark horse options at this weight. Based on recency bias, Benny Baker makes the most sense. He has a recent win over #31 Faison of NC State. After that, he beat a tough Gamkrelidze of Binghamton, who wrestles everyone close. Lehigh’s Connor Herceg has a win over Baker in their dual meet matchup. This will be a fun bracket to see who steps up. With 5 ranked wrestlers and 6 automatic bids – it will be an entertaining battle for an automatic spot. What to watch for: The first of the opening round match-ups I love here is Fox and Gamkrekidze. Takats and McFarland is the other one to keep an eye on. The assumed Wask and Pasiuk quarterfinal match will be a good one. The two EIWA champions will be on the same side of the bracket. Conigliaro and Pasiuk would be a matchup worth watching if it occurs. 2023 Results 1st - Chris Foca, Cornell** 2nd - Benjamin Pasiuk, Army* 3rd - Lennox Wolak, Columbia* 4th - Philip Conigliaro, Harvard* 5th - Sammy Starr, Navy 6th - Nick Incontrera, Penn*^ 7th - Ross McFarland, Hofstra 8th - Jake Logan, Lehigh DNP – Mickey O’Malley, Drexel*^ * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 184 The deep brackets continue at this weight. Chris Foca of Cornell was an All-American last season after a 3rd place finish at NCAAs while at 174l bs. He’s bumped up to 184 lbs and maintained a top-10 ranking all season. Columbia’s Aaron Ayzerov seems to have Foca’s number, beating him twice this season. He’s looking to be an NCAA qualifier for the first time. Last year’s runner-up, Jacob Nolan of Binghamton, has been to NCAAs three times already, finishing in the top-16 a year ago. James Conway of Franklin & Marshall claims the most overall wins on the year with 26. Penn’s Max Hale and Princeton’s Nate Dugan are each in the podium hunt as well – as both wrestlers find themselves in the rankings. Navy’s David Key has had a quiet year, but he’s a two-time NCAA qualifier. He will be ready to go for the postseason. Bucknell’s sophomore, Mikey Bartush, has had a nice season thus far. Expect him to be in the mix for the top eight. Anthony D’Alesio of LIU has a win over Conway and has put together a strong second half of the season. Leo Tarantino of Harvard will find himself in the mix as well. His win over All-American, Gavin Kane of North Carolina, in January is a sign he can win over quality opponents. The coaches’ rankings include a healthy number of 6 wrestlers – Foca #7, Nolan #13, Hale #19, Ayzerov #20, Dugan #21, and Conway #23. With so many EIWA wrestlers in the rankings, there will be 7 auto bids to NCAAs. From the quarterfinals and on, expect some tightly contested matches with so much at stake. Prediction: It’s hard to go against the returning All-American in Chris Foca. The Cornell stud was at 174 lbs last season where he finished 1st at EIWAs and 3rd at NCAAs. He just can’t seem to find a way to overcome Columbia’s Aaron Ayzerov. Interestingly, Ayzerov has beaten Foca twice this season. We can see a third match between them if Ayzerov wins in the quarters. The bottom half has a handful of options for finalists. Nolan earned the sixth seed, while being the highest ranked behind Foca. He will be my pick. Dark Horse Watch: LIU’s Anthony D’Alesio may be someone to bust this bracket. He has a win over F&M’s Conway when he was ranked top 20. An overtime loss to Nolan is impressive too. Showing a little bias, it would be awesome to see D’Alesio be LIU’s first D1 NCAA qualifier. As mentioned, Harvard’s Tarantino has a quality win over a returning All-American. Do not count him out. What to watch for: Another seven versus ten match-up is on my list here. D’Alesio is a dangerous 10 seed. His first-round opponent in Bartush of Bucknell has an overtime win against him. If D’Alesio can win that, he would have Conway in the quarterfinals – whom he has a win over already. If you are LIU, you have to like his path to a semifinal match. If seeds stick, the quarter match-ups between Dugan and Nolan, and Hale and Ayzerov will be great wrestling with a trip to NCAAs on the line. 2023 Results 1st - Tate Samuelson, Lehigh* 2nd - Jacob Nolan, Binghamton* 3rd - David Key, Navy* 4th - Brian Bonino, Drexel* 5th - Nate Dugan, Princeton 6th - Jacob Ferreira, Hofstra*^ 7th - James Conway, Franklin & Marshall 8th - Aaron Ayzerov, Columbia * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 197 The 197lbs weight class in the EIWA is the most impressive, many would argue, in terms of both quantity and quality. Three All-Americans lead the charge here between Michael Beard of Lehigh, Jacob Cardenas of Cornell, and Lou DePrez of Binghamton. Beard was an All-American in 2021 while at Penn State. He was a victim of the infamous bloodround last year. DePrez was an All-American during the 2021 season and has lost in the Round of 12 twice. DePrez’s story has been unique, as he started the season on staff. He became eligible for one more semester thanks to a medical redshirt after a season-ending injury last year. Cardenas earned a podium finish last season when he was 8th at NCAAs. He followed that up with a world title at the U23 championships over the summer. He will look to defend his title as EIWA Champion. This top-heavy bracket is still full of quality wrestlers after these three. Luke Stout of Princeton has been ranked in the top 15 nationally all season. He’s been an NCAA qualifier twice before. Also looking to return to The Big Show is Penn’s Cole Urbas. His long and lengthy style can cause fits for wrestlers. John Crawford from Franklin & Marshall has good wins under his belt. Expect him to be in the run to qualify for NCAAs, which would be his first trip. Last year’s 6th-place finisher was Jack Wehmeyer of Columbia. He is ready to make some noise and become an NCAA qualifier for the first time also. Bucknell’s Logan Deacetis will be in this same boat as well. The coaches’ rankings have many EIWA wrestlers – 7 to be exact – Beard #3, DePrez #7, Cardenas #8, Stout #12, Urbas #26, Crawford #29, Wehmeyer #30. This will be another weight where most of the podium will qualify you for NCAAs. There are six automatic bids up for grabs, but a 7th place finish could earn an at-large bid. We will see how the cards fall, but the depth of the bracket makes it one to keep a close eye on! Prediction: Michael Beard of Lehigh has beaten everyone else in the conference handily this season. He should be the favorite until proven otherwise. His finals opponent will most likely be Lou DePrez of Binghamton or Jacob Cardenas of Cornell. DePrez won the regular season matchup between them. For what it’s worth, Cardenas was the EIWA champ last year after avenging a loss to Beard in the finals. This year, Cardenas will need to avenge two losses to reclaim the EIWA title. Dark Horse Watch: I’ve been a Cael Crebs fan before he stepped onto Navy’s campus. He’s battled injury this year, which reflects on his 7-8 record. Assuming he can come into EIWAs healthy, he is able to go on a run. He’s tough on top and long – which may cause fits for some of the 197lbs wrestlers. I like his opportunity to be a double-digit seed on the podium when it’s all said and done. What to watch for: The top four in this weight class are a tier above the rest. I do not foresee too much bracket-busting, unfortunately. The likely quarter between Urbas and Stout has been a recurring theme – however, Stout has won all four career matches. Will we see a rematch of last year’s final in Beard and Cardenas? 2023 Results 1st - Jacob Cardenas, Cornell** 2nd - Michael Beard, Lehigh* 3rd -Luke Stout, Princeton* 4th - Jacob Koser, Navy* 5th - Trey Rogers, Hofstra* 6th - Jack Wehmeyer, Columbia 7th - Sean O`Malley, Drexel* 8th - Daniel Lawrence, Army DNP – Cole Urbas, Penn*^ * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion 285 The big boys make an argument that the EIWA is the deepest conference at heavyweight across the nation. The conference’s 8 automatic qualifiers are good enough proof to make this claim – as it is more than any other conference. Last year’s champ, Grady Griess of Navy, returns this year. In order to defend his crown, he will have a tough path with such a loaded bracket. Nathan Taylor of Lehigh has been a force this season while beating everyone in the conference he’s faced. Binghamton’s Cory Day is looking to return to NCAAs once again. His skillset on top is what separates him from most heavyweights. Speaking of top wrestling, the same can be said about Cornell’s Lewis Fernandes. He has won a lot of close matches in his career thanks to his mat wrestling ability. Keaton Kluever is new to the conference. The Hofstra heavyweight has an early season win over Fernandes. He will make his EIWA Championship debut, and possibly, NCAA championships debut. Bucknell’s Dorian Crosby has competed at NCAAs before, as has Matt Cover of Princeton. Freshman, Lucas Stoddard of Army, has wins over both of them. He is one to watch as well, making his first EIWA Championships appearance. William Jarrell of American has had a nice season also. He knocked off Campbell’s Ghadiali in a dual, who was ranked 8th at the time in the national rankings. John Stout of Penn has been coming on strong at the end of the year. He may be someone who can earn his way onto the podium. The coaches’ rankings include 8 EIWA wrestlers. Considering they rank 33, the conference makes up a quarter of the rankings at this weight. EIWA ranked wrestlers include Taylor #t-7, Day #14, Griess #15, Fernandes #17, Kluever #19, Stoddard #24, Crosby #25, and Cover #28. All 8 place-finishers on the podium will advance to NCAAs. Because of this, the conference will have a 9th place wrestle off for the first time in history. A wrestler finishing one spot outside of the automatic allocation placement goes a long way for the at-large selection process. Expect the four wrestlers that lose in the second round of wrestlebacks (bloodround) to be placed in a single elimination bracket on Saturday. The winner of this mini bracket will earn 9th place. This is an added wrinkle to this year’s conference tournament. Prediction: Nathan Taylor has made vast improvements since last year. He is a legit All-American threat. He’s beaten all other heavyweights in the conference during the year. He will be the favorite. Binghamton’s Cory Day and Grady Griess may be slight favorites over the field to face Taylor. Griess was last year’s EIWA champion, but Day has two wins over him thus far. This is a deep weight, so assuming one of them makes the finals may be a stretch. Dark Horse Watch: Columbia’s Vincent Mueller should be considered a potential dark horse threat. He has a late-season win over American’s Jarrell. Jarrell was in the coaches’ rankings thanks to a win over #8 Ghadiali of Campbell in January. Mueller’s lone losses in the conference are to Stoddard and Crosby – both of whom are ranked in the nation. This is a very deep weight, so expect some tight matches early on. What to watch for: For the first time in EIWA history, the conference will wrestle for 9th place. Since the top-8 advance to NCAAs, there needs to be an alternate in case there’s an injury, disqualification, etc. Plus, the 9th-place finisher has better odds of earning an at-large bid since the final placement in the conference is just one spot outside the allotted auto-bid placement. In the early round, Jarrell and Crosby will be good. Both guys have seen the national rankings at one point this season. Crosby won the dual during the year 7-2. I expect the two middle quarters to be great. Kluever vs Fernandes is a rematch from November that Kluever won via fall. Stoddard and Griess is a classic Army vs Navy battle. Griess is the returning EIWA champ and defeated Stoddard in overtime when they met in mid-February. It’s worth repeating how deep this bracket is. This was a historic year for the conference at the 285lbs weight class. 2023 Results 1st - Grady Griess, Navy* 2nd - Nathan Taylor, Lehigh* 3rd - Yaraslau Slavikouski, Harvard* 4th - Ben Goldin, Penn* 5th - Cory Day, Binghamton* 6th - Dorian Crosby, Bucknell* 7th - Brendan Furman, Conell* 8th - Austin Kohlhofer, Army DNP – Travis Stefanik, Princeton*^ * denotes NCAA Qualifier *^ denotes NCAA Qualifier via At-Large Bid ** denotes NCAA All-American *** denotes NCAA Champion Team Looking to defend the team title is Cornell University. The Big Red scored 165.5 team points at the 2023 EIWA Championships with six individual champions. The team race is most likely Cornell’s to lose, barring anything crazy happening. If the race plays out similar to last year, it will be locked up after the first day. Last year’s runner-up was Lehigh with 120.5 points. Penn was third with 106. Columbia and Navy tied for fourth with 95 points each. Cornell will look to three-peat as EIWA Champions after winning the team title at EIWA’s in 2022 as well. These same teams will be in the hunt for the top-5. Army will be a new team to discuss. They finished in 6th last year. They have some more firepower this year after earning a top-25 team ranking to conclude the season. Binghamton is ready to make a top-5 run as well. They have a ton of talent in the upper weights. If their lightweights can pull some upsets, it could help the Bearcats break through.

In the interim between the B1G regular season and the B1G conference tournament, I couldn’t figure out what to write about. Then I thought, everyone loves awards and categories (everyone does, this is not up for debate), so that’s what I’m giving you. Will these awards be repeated next year? Who knows! Are there physical awards being handed out? Absolutely not! Will the winners be telling their grandkids about this? Most definitely. Let’s get right to it! Breakout star - This award goes to Ryder Rogotzke of Ohio State. There were several strong candidates for this award, but I can’t get past Ryder “Ride or Die” Rogotzke and his ability to seemingly beat anyone at any given time. The Buckeye true freshman started the season by losing his challenge match to Seth Shumate, but has finished the season by earning the coveted “Black Shirt” status, and compiling a 15-6 record (13 pins and one technical fall, which if my math checks out, means that he had 1 actual decision victory on the year). There has been some exciting action from newcomers this season, but none as consistently exciting as Ryder. He’s ready to get weird with it, so be ready to watch it all unfold. B1G Wrestler of the Year - People think that wrestlers go through a grind during the college wrestling season. I’m not saying that they don’t, but don’t underestimate the grind and laborious nature of picking the B1G Wrestler of the Year. So many Nittany Lions to choose from! Do we go with the most wins? I can’t bring myself to do that. Despite Beau Bartlett having the most wins, he was less dominant than many of his high-profile teammates. I can’t use winning percentage, because there are too many guys who remain undefeated on the team (the aforementioned Beau Bartlett, Levi Haines, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Carter Starocci, Aaron Brooks, and Greg Kerkvliet). All of those guys also have won more than half of their matches by bonus points, but Aaron Brooks has an absurd 92.86% bonus point winning percentage (shoutout WrestleStat). Of his 14 wins, 13 have been by bonus points. In fact, to this point in the season, the only person to hold him to a regular decision was Zach Glazier of Iowa (5-1 decision) the 3 seed at 197 for the B1G tournament. It’s hard to argue that someone this dominant isn’t the B1G Wrestler of the Year. So congratulations Aaron Brooks! You did it! B1G Match of the Year - This is kind of a legacy award for me, but these two deserve it. I love the Wisconsin v Minnesota battles, and most specifically, the 125 pounders. We have been so lucky to watch Pat McKee and Eric Barnett battle so many times, and despite the head-to-head record being slightly in favor of McKee (6-4 McKee > Barnett to this point), the matches always seem to be insane and exciting to watch. I was genuinely bummed to see that McKee and Barnett weren’t on the same side of the B1G tournament brackets, but I truly hope they either both make the finals, or meet on the backside, because it’s straight-fire watching these two battle. It’s like the Game of Thrones episode “Battle of the Bastards”, but a wrestling match. This season, in McKee’s last home dual of his career, it started with a takedown for Barnett (who at this point held a 3-1 regular season win total over McKee) and an eventual 4-1 lead after an escape in the second. McKee however gets a shot of his own, culminating in a wild scramble, and an eventual figure four on the head of Barnett, ending up in a pin for the Golden Gopher. You’d think that maybe an overtime match or something else would win this award, but not this year. Congratulations to Barnett and McKee for this match, and the battles over the years. B1G Dual of the Year - There was a lot of build-up headed into Michigan v Ohio State, and it absolutely delivered. The Buckeyes hosted the Wolverines in this season's installment of the continued rivalry. The dual started in just about complete control for the road team, as they won four of the first five matches. Sadly, we missed out on a potentially awesome match at 141, as Sergio Lemley did not pass the skin check. I don’t know when it will happen, but Mendez v Lemley will eventually be so much fun for us all. I hope it happens sooner rather than later. The Buckeyes win their first match of the dual at 165 with a late takedown for Bryce Hepner to take the 12-10 win over Beau Mantanona. Shane Griffith gets the 2-1 win at 174 over another stud freshman in Rocco Welsh, bringing the Wolverine lead to 19-9. With three matches left, two of which Michigan was favored in, it felt like the dual was essentially over. At this point, Michigan had won all of the actual matches except for one. This is when Ohio State turned up the heat, with a huge 21-0 technical fall for Ryder Rogotzke over Jaden Bullock followed by a decision for Luke Geog over Rylan Rogers. Two matches and eight team points later, we enter heavyweight with freshman Nick Feldman taking on Lucas Davison, the multiple-time All-American transfer from Northwestern. Feldman stepped up big at home for his team, and sealed the dual victory with a 4-3 victory over Davison, declaring to the NCAA field that he is as dangerous as they come. It was a wild dual to watch when it happened, and kind of more wild to recap after the fact. Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes on winning dual of the year. B1G Coach of the Year - This award I had to break up and share between two coaches. Cael Sanderson is undoubtedly one of those recipients. He just continues to win! Sure, he was expected to win with this roster and some of the recent transfers, but this has been especially impressive. Messenbrink is probably somehow better than we thought (and I thought he was going to be a super freak, but this is nuts), Starocci and Brooks' dominance has been great. Kerkvliet in a field without Parris or Steveson has clearly shown that he’s head and shoulders above the competition, and they even seemingly broke the curse of 125 with a beast in Braeden Davis. All of this deserves recognition and a share of the Coach of the Year award. But this is what was expected on some level right? We thought this team was going to be amazing, and it turns out that they’ve delivered on those expectations. What was a little surprising to me was just what Nebraska and coach Mark Manning have done. We knew that there were some returning studs in guys like Hardy, Lovett, Robb, and Allred, but what to expect from the rest of the Cornhusker team? Well, it turns out the answer was a lot. Caleb Smith has shown the ability to beat some of the nation's best as he transferred in from the SoCon, Antrell Taylor has beaten All-Americans and is clearly a guy to watch out for, they even got a 300+ pound defensive tackle from the football team to cut weight and be their Heavyweight. They currently sit in third place in both the Intermat dual and tournament rankings, and I don’t know if even the biggest Husker fan would have predicted that at the beginning of this season. Also, Lenny Pinto has clearly jumped levels this year and has a bright future for this squad. So congratulations to both Mark Manning and Cael Sanderson on your shared B1G Coach of the Year award.