SUPER REGION II
Not quite as straight forward as Super Region I. As to who will be the top 3 place-winners/qualifiers in Super Region II, some weights are rather straight forward. Others are absolute chaos. I'll do the best I can to try and give as clear of a preview as I can.
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| 125 lbs |
I believe I have narrowed it down to who will be the Super Region II's top four place-winners. Being a returning NCAA runner-up from 2021, who also owns an 8th place finish from 2018, I would imagine UNC-Pembroke's Nick Daggett will take the #1 seed here. He does have a 4-3 loss to Melvin Rubio of Queens, but I think that cancels out for two reasons. First and foremost he owns decisions of 13-6, 4-0, 5-3 & 6-2 over Rubio. Secondly he owns a 12-6 decision over Evan Carrigan of Newberry, who in turn owns a 2-0 decision over Rubio. The guy to possibly steal a spot here could be Lander's Isham Peace. The freshman recently gave Daggett a respectable 7-4 match.
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| 133 lbs #16 Elijah Lusk Lander |
The only thing I feel confident about saying about 133 lbs is that I'm pretty sure Elijah Lusk will be our Super Region II champion. He oddly enough lost a 4-2 decision to Isiah Olive of Mount Olive & then came back a week later to tech fall him 18-0.
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| 141 lbs |
2021 5th place All American Christian Small of King, is King when it comes to Super Region II 141 lbs. This season he has looked phenomenal, with only two losses on the season, including one against DI ACC champion hopeful Ryan Jack of NC State who he took to an 8-7 decision. Who will be his finals opponent? If I had to guess right now, I'd say two time NCAA DII qualifier Majid Corbett of Limestone. I see the consolation final, with the 3rd place qualification on the line being between Lander's Zeth Brower and Coker's Omar Armengol. Brower defeated Armengol earlier this season 6-2.
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| 149 lbs |
An NCAA DII champion in 2021 & an NCAA DII Runner-up in 2019, I feel pretty safe saying that we're probably looking at our Super Region II champion in Isaiah Royal of Newberry. With that said, it should be noted that once of his closest matches this season was a 3-2 decision over UNC-Pembroke's Jake Piccirilli. Will Piccirilli be Royal's opponent in the finals? Maybe. Two time NCAA DII qualifier Zachary Van Alst of Coker is also looking to take that spot. It should also be noted that King's Demetri Teddlie owns a 5-3 victory over Piccirilli. Four talented wrestlers, only three spots for the National tournament.
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| 157 lbs Absolute pandemonium as far as I'm concerned. Newberry's Wil Evans returns as a 2021 NCAA DII 8th place All American, but I wouldn't hold that previous result to anything. While he's defeated Coker's Patrick Wunderlich 3-2, he's also lost to him by fall at 6:34. He also has losses 10-8 to Cliff Owens of UNC-Pembroke, 7-2 to John Burger of Limestone & 7-5 sudden Victory to Bryson Ethington of Lander. As to Owens, he owns a 14-4 major over Ethington & a 9-7 sudden victory over Jake Nicolosi of Mount Olive. Ethington on the other hand has lost two 3-2 decisions to Wunderlich, while owning a 6-5 decision over him. He also lost 3-2 to Nicolosi, who owns an 8-5 decision over Wunderlich. Need to go over that again? I think we're looking at a bracket that is up in the air that will demonstrate that no matter how much we try and romanticize the idea that "seedings don't matter", in fact the very much do.
165 lbs returns our sanity. 2021 NCAA DII 6th place All American Mitch Dean of Belmont Abbey looks to be our champion as what should be a good semi-final between Lander's Gage Bernall & Coker's Corey Christie will determine our Super Region II runner-up. Whoever loses this bout should take 3rd. Bernall has thus far defeated Christie twice by scores of 6-3 & 4-1.
The fight for qualification will be amongst five talented competitors. It'll be interesting to see who here is able to place in the top 3 & who will be the two odd men out. Per ranking, Caleb Spears of Newberry leads the way, owning two victories over Garrett Hill of UNC-Pembroke b scores of 11-6 and 5-3. Yet, Spears has suffered a loss himself 11-6 to Jack Bond of Lander. Hill and Bond have met three times previously, with Bond owning a 6-4 sudden victory as well as a 5-4 decision, to Hill's 11-9 decision. Queens' Stephon Halliburton has defeated Hill twice by scores of 8-6 sudden victory and 6-4. Yet he's 1-1 with Bond, owning an 8-6 sudden victory, yet having suffered a 9-1 loss. Then there is also Kyle Daley of Limestone who I think could be a factor within all of this, who gave Halliburton a close 7-5 match.
I think result leans to Limestone's Ja'Quez Bostic getting the #1 seed here. He owns a 3-1 sudden victory over Queens' Noah Curreri and a 5-3 decision over Emmanuel's Micha Clemson. Curreri owns a 10-4 decision over Clemson. I think in the order of Bostic, Curreri, Clemson, there we have our top 3 place-winners & our 3 Super Region II 184 NCAA DII qualifiers.  This will be fun to see how these guys end up being seeded. Last season Darius Parker of Lander defeated Bryce Walker of UNC-Pembroke twice 9-4 and 6-4. Yet this season, it was Walker who won their matchup in a 2-1 tiebreaker. Would you therefore give the #1 seed to Belmont Abbey's Logan Branham who pinned Walker in just 19 seconds? I don't know. Regardless of seeds, I feel confident that these will be our top 3 place-winners/qualifiers. |
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| HWT |
Another weight class with some talented guys. I'm confident that UNC-Pembroke's Zach Shaffer makes it on through. He owns a 7-3 decision over Devon Rice of Newberry and a 49 second fall over Cameron Coffman of Lander. After that thought I think we have what could turn out to be a real fight among five colossal HWT's for those silver & bronze Super Region II medals.
Juan Edmonds-Holmes of Limestone presents a case. A pinning machine, he owns falls over Hamilton Cooper of Coker (2:42), Justin Wright of Belmont Abbey (3:47) and Coffman (1:47). He also owns a 3-1 decision over Rice, yet he's also lost to Rice 3-1 sudden victory.
As to Rice, he also owns a victory over Wright 3-2, yet he has a 2-1 loss to Cooper.
I think we're looking at some tight close matches in the semis, consolation semis & the consolation finals.
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From where I'm sitting right now, I think each team in Super Region II qualifies at least one wrestler. I love seeing that. Shows the competitiveness and growth of wrestling. With all qualifiers could say the same.
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