To give you an idea of how loaded the 141 lbs weight class will be, I left some names off the list. I never do that. Yet I sat down and asked myself who seriously had the best chance at a top 12 showing in Vegas and I took a list of what was 24 and narrowed it down to 19. Now the five I left off, will probably all end up upsetting their way to outstanding finishes, but that's the gamble you take in prediction. We're talking 17 ranked wrestlers duking it out for a spot on the award stand.
A quick note = Jordan DeCatur has the ranking and he did win the wrestle-off, so I'm going to assume as this point he'll be the starter for CKLV. I suppose it could be Dylan D'Emilio and if it is, so be it, but I'm treating it as if it'll be DeCatur.
Picture guide
Ranking & Name
School Name
CKLV Placings earned in previous seasons
What I would Seed
With all of the parity, upsets & the fact that I don't always agree with the rankings, seeding this was much more difficult than 125 & 133. I used a combination of factors to determine how I would seed. Ranking, head to head results, last season's results (speaking specifically to CKLV) and if need be other results as well. Overall CKLV helps to illustrate how insanely tough NCAA Division I wrestling is & how difficult it is to be on your top game for all of the season.
*1 I give to Frankie Tal-Shahar of Northwestern for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost his #5 ranking. Even though he finished R12 here last year compared to South Dakota State's Clay Carlson winning the tournament, he did beat Carlson 4-3 when they met later on at the NCAA championships. He also owns two decisive victories over Purdue's Parker Filius by scores of 11-6 & 11-4.
*2 Carlson as mentioned was champion here last season. He also has victories over Vince Cornella of Cornell, Ryan Jack of North Carolina State, Cael Happel of Northern Iowa & Filius.
*3 I give to Cole Mattin of Michigan. He was 4th here last season & he has a 3-2 victory over Tal-Shahar, along with victories over Angelo Martinoni of CSU-Bakersfield, Lawrence Saenz of Cal Poly and Filius.
*4 is Tom Crook of Virginia Tech. The true freshman has looked exceptional thus far this season winning the Southeast Open & garnering up some pretty impressive victories. This will be the best of the competition he's faced this season & I'm anxious to see if his stock goes up or down post the Midlands. He's ranked #13 as of right now & I can't see him remaining at #13 once this tournament is said & done. He'll either move up in the rankings or down.
Seeds *5, *6 & *7 I base on rankings and result. Jack has a 9-7 victory over Brock Hardy of Nebraska & Cornella is ranked one spot higher than Hardy. Hence *5 Jack, *6 Cornella & *7 Hardy.
*8 I give to Cael Happel of Northern Iowa who does for the record own a 8-6 victory over Carlson.
*9 is a guy I feel could very well win the tournament. Inconsistency, some recent losses & his current ranking make it difficult to think he'll be seeded much higher considering all the competition. However, this guy has an on switch that when operating at full capacity has the ability to beat anyone. He really came alive at the NCAA's last season with some huge upsets. It's hard to tell if he'll turn it on or not this tournament but if he does, watch out. Against the field, he owns a 15-4 major over Mattin.
Some may get testy with me putting Jesse Vasquez at *10, but I'll tell you why I did it. He hasn't faced much of the competition in this bracket & he was pinned by Hardy in 3:36. Trying to be as objective & based on the criteria as I can be, I feel *10 was fair. I'll say the same for *11 Cleveland Belton of Oregon State. He's looked good thus far this season with wins over Malyke Hines of Lehigh & Martinoni but we have yet to see him in a tournament of this scale.
As to the seeds, I put Jordan DeCatur of Ohio State at *12. Based this on his ranking.
Now, all 12 of these guys are ALL place-winner material. Some I'd be very surprised if they didn't make the award stand, but as tough as this bracket is, I wouldn't rule it out.
There are seven more guys, who I feel also stand a shot at bringing home a CKLV mdal.
Matt Kazimir of Columbia. Despite a bit of a rocky start to the 22'-23' season, I wouldn't at all be surprised to see Matt Kazimir finish with the top 8 here. He owns victories of Saenz as well as Bucknell's Darren Miller. More notably, among his losses many of them have been close matches. A 3-1 loss to Crook & a 3-1 loss to DeCatur. There's no reason to think he couldn't turn those into victories.
Miller is another one to look out for. Some may argue that he should be seeded in my top 12 & I should be talking about someone else here.
Martinoni was 8th here last year & could very well sneak his way back on to the award stand. He took Mattin to a 5-4 decision the last time the two met.
Saenz was one match shy of placing here last year. He owns both a 6-3 decision & a 1:02 fall over Martinoni.
Josh Koderhandt of Navy is one to think about in a tournament like this. At 133 lbs last season, he finished 5th here. Yet I think he's finding 141 lbs to be a bit more of a challenge. While he does own a 17-5 victory over Seth Koleno of Clarion & a 12-5 decision of Job Greenwood of Wyoming, he's also suffered some losses. He lost 5-3 to Miller & he was nearly tech'd by Cornella 15-3. Oddly enough, Koleno owns a 11-8 victory over Cornella. Make sense of that will you?
Some may get testy with me putting Jesse Vasquez at *10, but I'll tell you why I did it. He hasn't faced much of the competition in this bracket & he was pinned by Hardy in 3:36. Trying to be as objective & based on the criteria as I can be, I feel *10 was fair. I'll say the same for *11 Cleveland Belton of Oregon State. He's looked good thus far this season with wins over Malyke Hines of Lehigh & Martinoni but we have yet to see him in a tournament of this scale.
As to the seeds, I put Jordan DeCatur of Ohio State at *12. Based this on his ranking.
Now, all 12 of these guys are ALL place-winner material. Some I'd be very surprised if they didn't make the award stand, but as tough as this bracket is, I wouldn't rule it out.
There are seven more guys, who I feel also stand a shot at bringing home a CKLV mdal.
Matt Kazimir of Columbia. Despite a bit of a rocky start to the 22'-23' season, I wouldn't at all be surprised to see Matt Kazimir finish with the top 8 here. He owns victories of Saenz as well as Bucknell's Darren Miller. More notably, among his losses many of them have been close matches. A 3-1 loss to Crook & a 3-1 loss to DeCatur. There's no reason to think he couldn't turn those into victories.
Miller is another one to look out for. Some may argue that he should be seeded in my top 12 & I should be talking about someone else here.
Martinoni was 8th here last year & could very well sneak his way back on to the award stand. He took Mattin to a 5-4 decision the last time the two met.
Saenz was one match shy of placing here last year. He owns both a 6-3 decision & a 1:02 fall over Martinoni.
Josh Koderhandt of Navy is one to think about in a tournament like this. At 133 lbs last season, he finished 5th here. Yet I think he's finding 141 lbs to be a bit more of a challenge. While he does own a 17-5 victory over Seth Koleno of Clarion & a 12-5 decision of Job Greenwood of Wyoming, he's also suffered some losses. He lost 5-3 to Miller & he was nearly tech'd by Cornella 15-3. Oddly enough, Koleno owns a 11-8 victory over Cornella. Make sense of that will you?
So here we go, very tough bracket. It wouldn't surprise me at all if someone who fails to place here ends up an All American by season's end. Many argue that CKLV is the toughest in-season tournament and looking at 141 lbs, it's hard to argue against that.
No comments:
Post a Comment