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The NCAA Championships are March 15 - 17 and seven Jackrabbits will be competing. As expected, Seth Gross is the #1 seed at 133 lbs. Three other Rabbits are seeded and the brackets can be found here. GoJacks did a nice preview, but we will start the dialogue here as we hope to see some history made at the championships this year.
125 lbs. - Connor Brown has had a really strong freshman campaign. He's matched up against #14 seed, Luke Welch (27-9) from Purdue. The two squared off at the Midlands Championships on Dec 30th and Welch had Brown's number that day, winning 13-4. Other common NCAA qualifiers that they've faced this year include Paul Bianchi from NDSU (both won), #9 Ronnie Bresser, Oregon State (both lost), Christian Moody, Oklahoma (Welch lost, Brown split at Big 12 Championship and lost during duals).
133 - #1 Seth Gross has defeated 3 seeded wrestlers this year including #4 Kaid Brock - Oklahoma State, #8 Mitch McKee - Minnesota, #11 Dom Forys - Pitt, and #15 Ali Naser - ASU. Gross will be a strong favorite to win an individual championship, but watch out for #2 Stevan Micic, a sophomore from Michigan who's reeled off 16 wins in a row since losing two ath the Cliff Keen Invitational on Dec 1st. He's avenged one of his two losses as he handed #3 Luke Peltcher from Ohio State his only two losses of the season in February and March.
141 - Henry Pohlmeyer has drawn #11 Mike Carr (17-5) from Illinois. Carr is a redshirt freshman and had a strong performance at the BIG 10 Championships where he knocked off #8 Nick Lee from PSU before losing to #4 Joe McKenna from Ohio State in the finals. His five losses all come to seeded wrestlers and he avenged one of those when he edged Thomas Thorn from Minnesota 8-6 at the BIG 10's.
157 - #13 Luke Zilverberg will square off against Justin Staudenmayer (22-10) from Brown. Luke blanked Staudenmayer 5-0 at the Midlands Invitational. This appears to be a good opening match, before a second round matchup with #4 Josh Shields from ASU. Shields beat Zilverberg 4-0 during our dual at ASU on November 26th.
174 - #11 David Kocer gets a familiar face in Utah Valley's Kimball Bastian (19-9) in an opening match. A win by Kocer would likely draw #6 Bo Jordan (23-5) from Ohio State. Only three wrestlers have beat Jordan this year and they are seeded #1, #2 and #5. Tough second round opponent.
184 - Martin Mueller drew the short end of the stick by getting #1 Bo Nickal (26-0) of Penn State. Barring a major upset, Mueller will face the loser of Kayne McCallum (17-13) from Eastern Michigan or #16 Jordan Ellingwood (25-10) of Central Michigan. In an odd twist of fate, Ellingwood gets a rematch with MacCallum after MacCallum upset Ellingwood with a sudden victory win in the semifinals of the MAC Championships. I project that Mueller will get a chance at his own rematch with MacCallum. Mueller dominated MacCallum 10-4 at the Midlands Invitational.
197 - #8 Nate Rotert finds a tough matchup in Hunter Ritter (26-9) from Wisconsin in his first match. Ritter went 8-1 in BIG 10 duals this year and finished third in the conference championships. He split with #16 Christian Brunner from Purdue and split with Kevin Beazley from Michigan. Beazley was an All-American last year but had to withdraw from this years Championships after getting injured in the third place match at the BIG 10s. Should Rotert win, he'd likely face #9 Preston Weigel from Oklahoma State. That matchup failed to materialize last week.
125 lbs. - Connor Brown has had a really strong freshman campaign. He's matched up against #14 seed, Luke Welch (27-9) from Purdue. The two squared off at the Midlands Championships on Dec 30th and Welch had Brown's number that day, winning 13-4. Other common NCAA qualifiers that they've faced this year include Paul Bianchi from NDSU (both won), #9 Ronnie Bresser, Oregon State (both lost), Christian Moody, Oklahoma (Welch lost, Brown split at Big 12 Championship and lost during duals).
133 - #1 Seth Gross has defeated 3 seeded wrestlers this year including #4 Kaid Brock - Oklahoma State, #8 Mitch McKee - Minnesota, #11 Dom Forys - Pitt, and #15 Ali Naser - ASU. Gross will be a strong favorite to win an individual championship, but watch out for #2 Stevan Micic, a sophomore from Michigan who's reeled off 16 wins in a row since losing two ath the Cliff Keen Invitational on Dec 1st. He's avenged one of his two losses as he handed #3 Luke Peltcher from Ohio State his only two losses of the season in February and March.
141 - Henry Pohlmeyer has drawn #11 Mike Carr (17-5) from Illinois. Carr is a redshirt freshman and had a strong performance at the BIG 10 Championships where he knocked off #8 Nick Lee from PSU before losing to #4 Joe McKenna from Ohio State in the finals. His five losses all come to seeded wrestlers and he avenged one of those when he edged Thomas Thorn from Minnesota 8-6 at the BIG 10's.
157 - #13 Luke Zilverberg will square off against Justin Staudenmayer (22-10) from Brown. Luke blanked Staudenmayer 5-0 at the Midlands Invitational. This appears to be a good opening match, before a second round matchup with #4 Josh Shields from ASU. Shields beat Zilverberg 4-0 during our dual at ASU on November 26th.
174 - #11 David Kocer gets a familiar face in Utah Valley's Kimball Bastian (19-9) in an opening match. A win by Kocer would likely draw #6 Bo Jordan (23-5) from Ohio State. Only three wrestlers have beat Jordan this year and they are seeded #1, #2 and #5. Tough second round opponent.
184 - Martin Mueller drew the short end of the stick by getting #1 Bo Nickal (26-0) of Penn State. Barring a major upset, Mueller will face the loser of Kayne McCallum (17-13) from Eastern Michigan or #16 Jordan Ellingwood (25-10) of Central Michigan. In an odd twist of fate, Ellingwood gets a rematch with MacCallum after MacCallum upset Ellingwood with a sudden victory win in the semifinals of the MAC Championships. I project that Mueller will get a chance at his own rematch with MacCallum. Mueller dominated MacCallum 10-4 at the Midlands Invitational.
197 - #8 Nate Rotert finds a tough matchup in Hunter Ritter (26-9) from Wisconsin in his first match. Ritter went 8-1 in BIG 10 duals this year and finished third in the conference championships. He split with #16 Christian Brunner from Purdue and split with Kevin Beazley from Michigan. Beazley was an All-American last year but had to withdraw from this years Championships after getting injured in the third place match at the BIG 10s. Should Rotert win, he'd likely face #9 Preston Weigel from Oklahoma State. That matchup failed to materialize last week.
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