The Southern Scuffle has been very interesting throughout day 1. With a few upsets going down a few guys not showing up for one reason or another and some guys making very impressive runs we will be recapping day 1 of the action and letting you know what to look forward to during day 2.
125 Pounds
The biggest what if of this bracket was Greg Diakomihalis of Cornell to see where exactly he was at this point in time. That was shut down fairly quickly when he was downed 5-3 by Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech.
Biggest story of 125 is Drake Ayala who defeated Noah Surtin of Mizzou in the quarters. This is not even the biggest reason why, Spencer Lee just announced that he will be gone for the rest of the season due to surgery. The question here is does Iowa go with Ybarra or do they pull Ayala’s redshirt and hop to still make an improbable title run at NCAA’s. This tournament may be a big telling if he is ready or not. He will need to get through 3rd place All American Patrick McKee of Minnesota in the semis and most likely Killian Cardinale of West Virginia assuming he makes the finals.
Now as for the top seeds Cardinale and McKee they look good, nothing crazy but they have done what they needed to which was win so it should be a good fun round in the semifinals.
133 Pounds
The only real story here is Rayvon Foley of Michigan State vs Cullen Schreiver of Iowa in the top half semifinals which is most likely going to decide the winner here. Foley has looked as dominant as ever this tournament while Schreiver is coming off of a 3-2 win over Spann of Buffalo.
141 Pounds
Clay Carlson will be taking on Allan Hart in the top half of the bracket while Andrew Alirez will be taking on Real Woods in the bottom half. Both could be essentially written off as swing matches but with the way these guys have been wrestling it is looking like a Carlson vs Alirez matchup will happen again. Who gets the win this time? It looks pretty even as of now.
149 Pounds
Not much to talk about here except Cody Chittum making it to the quarterfinals where he was knocked off by Josh Finesilver of Duke.
As for the rest of the bracket it does seem like we will be getting the Finesilver vs Edmond match as we predicted so it should be a decently fun bracket to watch.
157 Pounds
Brock Mauller vs Chase Saldate is going to be a very good match to watch. Honestly might have to give the edge to Chase here with how he looked in the quarters but Mauller’s experience speaks for himself as he was inches away from defeating Austin O’Connor last season at Nationals.
Franek vs Jaques, if this match goes the way we think it will we could be seeing an all Mizzou final which would be interesting. Obviously Mauller would be a somewhat heavy favorite there but a great match either way.
165 Pounds
Keegan O’Toole. That is it.
174 Pounds
Mocco vs Finesilver in the top half should be an interesting matchup. Would have to learn more towards a Mocco win here even though Finesilver is the more favored wrestler. Do not really expect to see anything too crazy here as a whole to be honest.
184 Pounds
We should be getting the Loew vs Bolen rematch in the finals should everything go to plan.Hunter Bolen will have Kyle Cochran in the semis who has had a very impressive run so far this tournament with a 5-0 win over Kent in the quarters.If the Bolen vs Loew rematch goes down it should be another barn burner that could go either way.
197 Pounds
I like this semi matches a lot. Rocky Elam vs Tanner Sloan on the top half which should be a decently competitive match in Elam’s favor. On the bottom half things get interesting where All American Michael Beard will face Cameron Caffey in which I would have to see as a toss up. Either way we do see this Beard vs Elam macthup happening in the finals and it will be a good one no matter what.
285 Pounds
Wyatt Hendrickson of Air Force is the top seed and has 2 pins and a tech to start things off. He will have Brandon Metz of North Dakota St in the semis where I do not really see a way that he does not win. On the bottom half of the bracket things get interesting as Aaron Costello beat Hunter Catka last night with. last second go behind. He will be facing Cornell’s Lewis Fernandes in what should be a good match.
Fernandes vs Hendrickson will be your projected finals and it should be a very good one. By the way Hendrickson has looked he has the big a big favorite however.
