An extremely tough weight class, on the surface our forerunners are Stanford's Shane Griffith who won a title at the last Southern Scuffle, Missouri's Keegan O'Toole and Oklahoma State's Travis Wittlake. O'Toole & Griffith have never met in competition, whereas Griffith owns two similar victories over Wittlake 4-1 & 4-0 & O'Toole owns a 4-3 decision over Wittlake.
Upsets. They happen. They have happened. They WILL happen. Like a bolt of lightning no one can ever predict exactly when or where one will strike, but we no they're going to happen. 165 lbs, strikes me as a weight class where we're going to see a fair share of upsets.
Julian Ramirez of Cornell already owns an upset over Griffith, handing the Cardinal his first loss 3-2 after Griffith went 40-1 the past two seasons. I was hoping for a Griffith-Ramirez rematch at CKLV, but Ramirez lost 15-7 in the quarter-finals to Carson Kharchla of Ohio State, who then dropped a 5-4 decision to Griffith in the semi-finals.
Luke Weber of North Dakota State has already proven their are kinks in the amour of Wittlake, has he pulled off a huge 5-3 sudden victory upset over the Cowboy at least year's BIG 12 championships.
West Virginia's Peyton Hall also strikes me as one who could very well pull off a huge upset this tournament. A win away from being an All American last season as a true-freshman, he is currently 13-0 on the season.
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Our other place-winners? Thomas Bullard of North Carolina State is certainly a candidate. The Wolfpack senior's claim to fame thus far is that he is 3-0 against NCAA finalist Jake Wentzel of Pittsburgh. Looking to add accolades to his resume, a medal from the Southern Scuffle would stick out bright and bold.
Andrew Sparks of Minnesota is a candidate to make the award stand and truth to be known, so is his backup Cael Carlson.
Columbia's Josh Ogunsanya showed us his capabilities with a 7th place finish at CKLV a couple of weeks ago, that included a technical fall over South Dakota State's Tanner Cook and a 5:23 fall over Nebraska's Bubba Wilson.
These three are far from the only wrestlers who might make the award stand.
#24 William Formato Appalachian State
#26 Tanner Cook South Dakota State
#30 Evan Barczak Drexel
#31 R.J. Mosley Gardner Webb
Clayton Ulrey Virginia Tech
Selwyn Porter The Citadel
Caleb Fish Michigan State
John Martin Best Maryland
Tyler Brennan Little Rock
Drew Nicholson Chattanooga
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