The clear favorite here is Wisconsin's Seth Gross. He avenged a 6-2 loss to Iowa's Austin DeSanto and turned it into a 6-5 win. What really gives him the nod as the likely #1 seed is his win over Penn State's Roman Bravo Young. Now not everyone will agree with me on this but I would give RBY the #2 seed and DeSanto the #3 seed. Either way, we're looking at a likely epic battle between two tremendous talents in the semi-finals.
#4 seed? Personally I'd give the nod to Travis Piotrowski of Illinois over Northwestern's Sebastian Rivera for two reasons. A - Rivera has only wrestled eleven matches this season, with only one of them, a loss to Gross, being against the top talent in the BIG 10. Piotrowski on the other hand is 23-2 over all, with a loss to DeSanto and wins over Michigan State's Garrett Pepple and Rutger's Sammy Alvarez. Nebraska's Ridge Lovett comes into play within all of this as well.
The monkey wrench within all of this Michigan's Joey Silva. He's only wrestled four matches this season but with a convincing 7-2 victory over Pepple, it's obvious that he's a contender to steal a spot. What plausibly saves Pepple from an early round meeting with Silva is a 6-2 victory over Alvarez.
Looking at eight NCAA qualifiers with a strong possibility of nine if Silva knocks someone else out & they get in with an at large berth.
How I would seed?
#1 Seth Gross senior Wisconsin
#2 Roman Bravo Young sophomore Penn State
#3 Austin DeSanto junior Iowa
#4 Travis Piotrowski senior Illinois
#5 Sebastian Rivera junior Northestern
#6 Ridge Lovett Freshman Nebraska
#7 Sammy Alvarez Freshman Rutgers
#8 Joey Silva Freshman Michigan
#9 Garrett Pepple Senior Michigan State
Now I always say that seedings/rankings are different from predictions and this is why. Sebastian Rivera is a returning BIG 10 champion. He had an extremely close match with Gross at the Midlands. I find it hard to believe that he'll place as low as fifth but based on objective statistics, I cannot justify a higher seed.
A weight class I believe should take the top eight with a very strong possibility of at least needing an at large bid (if not getting one) because of Silva.
its cool that johnny thompson has a blog
ReplyDeleteI'm NOT Johnny Thompson.
DeleteWhen I was 14 I joined Themat.com my Nick name was Johnnythompsonnum1. I've went by it ever since.
Can Boo Dryden upset someone and qualify?
ReplyDeleteI'll be doing BIG XII later
DeleteBoo wrestles for Minnesota
DeleteHa. I don't know why but I read that as Boo Lewallen earlier.
DeleteHere I thought 8. I knew Silva didn't have enough matches to consider allocation, yet I'm surprised that BIG 10 was only given 7 here. Pepple will have to steal a spot.
ReplyDeleteHi, I notice you wrote an article a while back called Gone, Lost & Forgotten: Their Best = Florida. on the University of Florida wrestling program. Just wanted to update you that FLA won the SEC Championship in 1975 NOT 1976.
ReplyDelete