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| 125 |
20 ranked wrestlers at 125 lbs & 30% of them are right here in Regional 5. Can you believe that? 6 ranked wrestlers in the top 20 & when it is all said & done three of these guys are staying home. Life isn't fair & apparently neither is NCAA Division III wrestling.
Chip Guzman, what do you say? A three-time Regional champion, with NCAA D3 finishes of 3rd-2nd-2nd. Won multiple titles over the years at North Central, New Standard, & the Collegiate Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW). The only thing this living legend has left to do is win an NCAA D3 title. 30-0 on the season. 99.99999999% sure that Guzman will be our champ.
Silver & bronze? Well, rankings have a bit to say about that, but so do results.
Andrew Punzalan has 19 wins this season, a champion at Millikin, while taking runner-up honors at North Central & the Mid-States Invite.
Adrian Rosas although ranked below Punzalan owns an 8-0 major over Punzalan. He also owns an 18-4 major decision over Mason Jones. 4th at Regionals a year ago, he is 14-0 on the year, a Petrofes champion.
Jones was 5th at last year's Regional. 22-2 on the year, he too has a major of Punzalan 10-2, plus a 2-0 win over Matt Barlay.
Barlay, a freshman that displays the phenomenal recruiting job that Matt Gentry is doing in the Windy City, is currently 20-5 on the season. He too owns a win over Punzalan!! Albeit, a 2-1 tiebreaker. He was also 6th at Pete Willson.
Brady Phelps, another tough freshman in this group, has racked up 20 wins. 3rd at Pete Willson.
When I say 125 is loaded, I mean 125 is loaded.
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| 133 |
It amazes me sometimes how much talent there can be in one Regional. Ethan Spacht 5th in the Regional last season, currently carries a 32-1 record. Titles won at North Central, New Standard & the CCIW. He will be our *1 seed.
5th-4th-4th in the Regional, not only do I believe that Art Martinez is one of the best yet to make the NCAA D3 tournament, I believe he's one of the best yet to All-American. Matter of fact, I think the Spartan has the tools & talent to be a national champion. Let's make it out of the Regional first. 28-3 on the year he's a two-time Pete Willson place-winner & he won Baldwin Wallace.
James Day is a three-time NCAA D3 qualifier with Regional finishes of 2nd-3rd-3rd. A two-time D3 All-American with finishes of 4th & 3rd. He's proven he can beat Spacht in the past & he is currently standing at 32-6. Titles at Millkin & the Mid-States Invitational.
Jackson Rustad throws his name in the hat as a possible qualifier. 16 wins on the year, he so far has 6th & 7th place Regional finishes.
The monkey wrench in this whole operation will be Jordan Rasof. Freshmen usually come into these events ready to rumble, kitchen sink in hand. Compared to upperclassmen often wrestling reserved with it in their mind this is their last shot. This poses in favor of the Warhawk. A Pete Willson Invite runner-up, he already owns wins over both Martinez & Rustad.
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| 141 |
There sure is a lot of talent in Regional 5 huh? Son of gun. All four of these guys are pretty familiar with one another. Three are heading to Cedar Rapids, one is staying home.
A WIAC champ & a Pete Willson champ, Justin Fortugno is 22-5 so far in '25-'26. Owns a 13-11 win over Hunter Keane, a 5-3 win over Sean Conway & he's defeated Josh Robison on three occasions.
Robison, 13-4 on the year was the CCIW runner-up & he owns three wins over Conway.
Conway, one of the biggest surprises at the end of 2025, was silver at both the Regional & the NCAA Division III championships. This year he stands at 32-5 on the year. Titles won at Trine & Al Hanke, he earned his third Pete Willson top 8 finish (5th-8th-3rd). Owns Two wins over Fortugno & a 6:20 fall over Keane.
Kean 34-9 on the year made the finals of Pete Willson & he owns a 5-4 decision over Conway.
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| 149 |
Dom Mallinder makes the second wrestler this weekend who will be going for his fourth Regional 5 title. 23-2 on the season, he already picked up his fourth WIAC title, his second North Central title & his second Pete Willson title. 6th & 5th in the D3 nation thus far, the Warhawk owns a 10-6 win over M².
M² aka Maskim Mukhamedaliyev has proven to be one of the best freshmen in NCAA D3 wrestling today. 37-5 on the year, he was 3rd at Pete Willson.
Look for Kyle Bizjak to be our bronze medalist. The Junior Blue Streak is 12-1 on the year, looking to earn his third Regional placing with 8th & 7th place finishes thus far.
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| 157 |
Don't kid yourself, it's not that the competition isn't very good & very fierce, it is. It's simply that Aiden Smith IS that good. The Bulldog makes it look easy. Both Rhenzo Augusto & Luke Swan are very good wrestlers. Both All-American candidates. Keep that in mind when I tell you Smith majored Augusto 8-0 & tech'd Swan 15-0. A Regional champion last year & 4th in the D3 nation, he is 18-1 on the year, a Petrofes champion.
As to Augusto, it is hard to believe as much as he has accomplished, he is only a sophomore. 25-2 on the year, he won his second Pete Willson title, a title at Millikin, a title at North Central & a title at CCIW. Owns a 5-2 decision over Luke Swan. He was 2nd at last year's Regional, a match shy of D3 All-American honors.
Swan himself is a multiple time Pete Willson place-winner & the champion of the WIAC. 6th in the Regional last year, he is 22-7 on the year.
Three-ranked wrestlers in the weight class, is it even feasible that someone else could come in here and steal a spot?
Well if there is anyone in this bracket capable, that someone is Tom Wagner. 33-7 on the year, he was a match shy of qualification last year.
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| 165 |
A Regional champion last year & 4th in the D3 nation, I'm pretty confident that our gold here is going to be Braydon Peet. The Warhawk is 18-6 on the year, 3rd at North Central & 2nd at the WIAC. On top of that he's also now a three-time Pete Willson Place-winner with finishes of 6th-1st-5th.
As to Silver & bronze? Well here's the peculiar thing about it. Peyton Brooks has the ranking & a better record of 10-4, compared to Nick Cheshier's 11-11 record. Yet Peet destroyed Brooks 14-2 & he barely squeaked by Cheshier 4-3. Parity running wild, makes for an interesting semi-final doesn't it?
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| 174 |
Waters a but rougher up at 174 than what it was at 157, but nevertheless, Jermaine Butler still remains the *1 man in Regional 5. The Warhawk who finished one match shy of NCAA D3 All-American honors in 2024, currently carries a 12-7 record, which includes a 3-1 decision over Jace Luce. He was 6th at Pete Willson earlier this season.
Luce carries a record of 24-8 & he will challenge Butler for a title this weekend. A New Standard champion.
I can't see anyone knocking off Butler or Luce on their way to the semi-finals. I do think they are, whether they finish 1st & 2nd or 2nd & 1st, the two best wrestlers in this bracket. As to bronze? I think that is a bit more up for grabs, but my gut is telling me Joey Jens. 11-5 on the year, he was 5th at last year's Regional.
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| 184 |
A match shy of NCAA DIII qualification a year ago, Casey Aikman is poised and ready to make the trip to Cedar Rapids this year! 21-9 on the season he finished an impressive 3rd at Pete Willson.
Finishing ahead of Aikman at Pete Willson with a 2nd place finish, is Jackson Davis who pinned Aikman at the 5:26 mark. Davis is 28-9 on the year.
As to bronze? A 30-9 record on the year, here's the interesting thing about Zach Huckaby. Davis tech'd him 15-0 in a dual & then he turned around and gave Davis a very close 5-4 match at the Concordia (WIS) invite.
I hate being negative, but it's also my responsibility to be honest. A Regional runner-up last season, Wills Bronson does not seem to be the same wrestler he was a year ago. Sometimes wrestlers find their magic towards the end of the season & I keep that in mind. Maybe he'll get hot again this weekend.
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| 197 |
17-2 on the year, Gunnar Garriques has easily established himself as the *1 seed here in Regional 5. A Pete Willson runner-up, he was 3rd in the Regional a year ago.
23-3, with a 7-0 win over A.J. Frescura, Mateo Casillas looks to be our silver. He won the Millikin Open earlier this year.
Frescura is 25-9 on the season.
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| HWT |
26-3 on the season, Titus Waters last year's Regional champion looks to be the favorite to once again take the gold this weekend.
The battle for silver could very well end up between Mason Knight & Bode Brown. Brown owns a 4-1 decision over Knight, whereas Knight owns a 3-1 tiebreaker over Brown.
The Monkey-wrench in all of this? Cayden Bell. A member of Alma's football team that made it to the second round of the NCAA Division III championships, Bell got a late start to the '25-'26 wrestling season. Nonetheless, in the dozen matches he has wrestled this season, a 10-5 win over Brown is one of them. So is an 8-1 loss to Knight.
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