Wednesday, November 30, 2022

2022 CKLV HWT Preview

 





This is going to look different than my 2022 CKLV Previews for 125 through 184. I was NOT expecting preseeds to come out as early as what they did. I'm used to night before, give me no time to sit down, study them, think them over....So it was a pleasant surprise to see them this morning.  These types of previews usually take me about and hour a piece to write, so it's not realistic that I was going to try and write these all up two days before the event. However, I still hadn't written up 197 or HWT yet, hence why they reflect the actual seeds.  


So for 197 & HWT, Picture Guide ='s 

Ranking & Name 
School Name
CKLV Finish last season
WHAT THEY ARE ACTUALLY SEEDED 




While some of the top dawgs are not a part of this tournament (speaking specifically to Penn State's Greg Kerkvliet & Iowa's Tony Cassioppi) many of our nation's top HWTs will be a part of this tournament.  As it is a real possibility that Gable Steveson of Minnesota will not be returning second semester, one of the #1 questions is, who will be the new king in town? 

Many feel that it'll be NCAA runner-up Cohlton Schultz of Arizona State who is the top seed here. There is great reason to think that he'll win CKLV & remain at number one.  He seems to never stop improving and he has an arsenal of upperbody attacks that seem unstoppable.  

Yet, let's not count out *2 Mason Parris of Michigan. The Wolverine has proven that he can go toe-to-toe with the Sun Devil before & it'll once again be a war if these two meet in the finals.  Schultz edged Parris 6-5, the last time they met. 

Will either Schultz or Parris have trouble in their routes to the finals? 

*3 Yaraslau Slavikouski of Harvard looks like he could potentially pose challenge. He's not near as fancy or flashy on the mat as his two adversaries. Often he's comfortable winning matches by close scores. Even times by a single point.  Lucas Davison of Northwestern, Tate Orndorff of Ohio State, Owen Trephan of North Carolina State & Zachary Knighton-Ward of Hofstra. A point or two ahead was good enough for the Crimson.  Could this possibly come back to bite him in the rear? 10-0 or 1-0, if guys can't score on you, guys can't score on you. 

*4 Lucas Davison of Northwestern gives me a gut feeling that he could be a surprise this tournament. Like a Tasmania Devil or a Honey Badger, I am perplexed by his strength. How can someone who looks that much smaller than his opponents be that freakin strong?  It's quite deceptive but he is.  He stuck Orndorff in 46 seconds & in their other meeting controlled a 10-5 decision. He also owns a 3:28 fall over Nevills. He's hung in their with Parris in 7-2 & 8-5 matches. If he's improved as much from 21'-22' to 22'-23' as he did from 20'-21' to 21'-22', look out! 

*5 Orndorff is a guy that looks like he's improved a lot too. I mentioned this in a article earlier that he looks leaner and meaner than ever. He already owns a 9-5 victory over Wyatt Hendrickson of Air Force, plus wins over ZKV, Tyrell Gordon of Northern Iowa, Nevills and Hunter Catka of Virginia Tech. 

*6 Hendrickson has had his ups and downs, but when he's on, he's hard to beat. A 1:33 fall over Fernandes, he's both pinned and majored Nevills, with a major over Catka & wins over Godon and Griess. 

*7 Lewis Fernandes among dominating victories over ZKW, Grady Griess of Navy & Gordon, also owns a 5:22 fall over Slavikouski.  It wouldn't surprise me at all to see him much higher than his predicted 7th. 

*8 Nevills for what it's worth. although it was seasons ago, has a 5-2 victory over Schultz & a 5-1 victory over Orndorff. 

*9 Griess has thus far done an outstanding job of climbing up the rankings. I believe finding his way onto the award stand here would get him even higher on that ladder. 

*10 Trephan is very capable of out wrestling his seed. He owns a 12-4 major decision over Nevills. 

*11 ZKW owns a 4-2 victory over Griess & ironically enough *12 Gordon owns a 4-2 victory over ZKW. 

As to the rest of the HWT CKLV hopefuls? 

Edinboro's Jon Spaulding will be a threat to a top 12 performance. A win 4-3 win over ZKW suggest that, maybe even more. He's a big, thick, solid HWT. The type with a low center of gravity that can be difficult to score on. 

Moving up to HWT seems thus far to be the best thing that's ever happened to Oregon State's JJ Dixon. He never did wrestler like a 197'er and it's showing that he's much better suited for HWT. Does that mean he can hang with some of the best big guys? We'll see this weekend. 

I honestly wonder if Hunter Catka of Virginia Tech will even be at this tournament. While preseeds came out before I began writing this preview, the actual brackets have not.  A part of me is thinking, "There's no way Hunter Catka wouldn't be a top 12 seed."  Yet he other part of me wonders with all of the parity, the odd results of head to head matchups, if maybe for one reason or another he IS going to be in this tournament, he simply missed the cut of being seeded. Either way, he IS a threat to a top 12 finish. Hell, he's a threat to a top 8 finish.  He owns a 5-3 decision over Nevills. 

Lastly, Jayden Woodruff of Utah Valley hasn't faced much competition, but he's faced enough to have been R12 here last season & earn a top 33 ranking. That speaks for itself. 


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