2021 Midlands Preview 125 lbs

 

Until proven otherwise, this is the man to beat.  Three time NCAA Champion Spencer Lee has not tasted defeat in three years. It's asinine to think that he has yet to win a Midlands title isn't it? The way he looked at the national duals, his health doesn't seem to be an issue at all. In terms of wrestling, a God among men. 

Ha! Forgive me Michigan fans I know good and well that Suriano wrestles for Michigan now! Ah! So sorry about that.  Forgive me. Don't have time to fix it, very pressed for time. 

Can anyone challenge Lee for a Midlands title? Don't know, but what I do know is that there are two guys who aren't afraid of him. Two guys that believe they can beat him. Princeton's Patrick Glory and Michigan's Nick Suriano. On paper, Suriano has came closer having taken Lee to a 5-1 match Vs Glory whose closest match with Lee was 12-6.  The semi-final between Glory & Suriano, should it happen will be a match for the ages. 

Since we're asking if anyone can challenge Spencer Lee of Iowa for a Midlands title, it begs the question, can anyone challenge Glory or Suriano? I'm going with 99.99% No.  I will put in a good word for Northwestern's Michael DeAugustino and Purdue's Devin Schroder though. DeAugustino is ranked lower than what I would personally have him, considering that he was R12 at the NCAA's last year.  Not a knock at the rankers, cause I'd rip myself a new one reading over my own work if I were to try and do rankings. Simply pointing out DeAugustino's capabilities & the fact that he was a runner-up at the last Midlands.  As to Schroder, it's not lost on me that Glory absolutely destroyed him 13-0 in Vegas.  However, lets keep in mind that Schroder still took runner-up at CKLV & he's a tournament wrestler. Find him in the finals? Not likely, but he'll be on the award stand. 

So as of right now we have five highly likely place-winners for the Midlands.  How about the other three places?  Well I'm fairly confident that Eric Barnett of Wisconsin will be one of them. Not 100% positive, but I'd give it the odds in the over/under.  Now that leaves two more places, 7th & 8th.  Who takes those?  Let's ask Stansfield. 

And no, this isn't much of an exaggeration. 125 lbs is notorious for its parity. You can go based on the rankings & of course the seedings are going to matter (this was written before seeds came out) but at the end of the day, a lot of 125 lbs'ers have notable victories over one another.  In accordance to the rankings we have

#18 Jack Medley of Michigan
#24 Dylan Shawver of Rutgers
#25 Gage Curry of Pittsburgh
#26 Jacob Moran of Indiana 
#28 Justin Cardani of Illinois
#29 Antonio Lorenzo of Cal Poly
#30 Anthony Molton of Campbell
#32 Logan Heil of Cleveland State
#33 Ryan Miller of Pennsylvania 

Yet that is far from the # of guys capable of coming home with medals. 

Colton Camacho of Pittsburgh has already beaten Curry & has some other notable wins. 

Korbin Meink & Zurich Storm of Campbell are pretty much dead even with Molton, and any of the three Camels are capable of placing. 

Drake Ayala of Iowa's only loss this season was against NCAA 3rd place All American Pat McKee of Minnesota. Who knows what he can do against other competition. 

Both Beau Bayliss of Harvard & Jacob Allen of Navy can be tough when they want to be & neither would surprise me if they were to walk out with a medal. 

#2 Justin Portillo of Grand View will represent the NAIA.