Well College Wrestling fans, the best 3 days of the year are starting tomorrow in St. Louis and our Gopher Wrestlers are Fired-up and Ready-to-Go!!!
There will be (6) 3 hour sessions (morning and evening) Thursday, Friday and Saturday and all are on the ESPN family of networks. Also ESPN3 and ESPN2Go will have live broadcasts of every match!!
Here are the brackets and my thoughts and predictions follow:
http://i.turner.ncaa.com/sites/defa...17_ncaa_di_wrestling_championship_bracket.pdf
And the excel version for those of you that want to fill in the brackets:
goo.gl/ouFxEy
My predictions:
125 - Ethan Lizak got a huge break today when PSU announced that #3 seed Nick Suriano was injured and would not participate. This means that if Lizak is on his game, he should win his first three matches and then would face #2 Joey Dance (VA Tech) in the semis. While Dance is very good, he is also beatable. So will we see Ethan in the finals...in a rematch vs Thomas Gilman??
If EL makes the semis, that's an automatic AA...and maybe he'll do better!!
133 - Mitch McKee should win his 1st round match, then he runs into #3 Kaid Brock (OSU). Mitch would be expected to lose here, but he wrestled Brock very closely the first time they met this year (10-7?), so if Mitch wants it badly, he might get through!!
141 - After a 1st round win, Tommy Thorn will have to up his game to get through #3 Joey McKenna (Stanford). But, if he can do that he's got #11 Randy Cruz (Lehigh) who he's beaten in the past. Tommy has about 50% more talent than he has shown to-date, he just needs to finish his moves. I think he does better than expected this time around!!
157 - I'm giving #8 Jake Short two wins before he gets beaten by #1 Jason Nolf, including a 2nd round with over #9 Josh Shields (ASU) who has beaten Jake twice. I'm feeling unusually optimistic about Short and I think he's going to be very aggressive...which will help him a lot!! Has Jake got enough to AA? We shall see!!!
165 - #16 Nick Wanzek gets one win before he runs into #1 Isaiah Martinez (IL). After that, I think he can win a couple matches in the wrestlebacks, then he will have to upset one or two higher seeds to be an AA. It's possible, but not likely.
174 - Chris Pfarr gets #1 seed Zahid Valencia in his first match. Then, like Wanzek, I think he will have to win a couple lesser matches before he needs to upset someone. This is a good year for CP to get experience for next year!!
184 - Although 184 is one of the toughest weight classes this year, Bobby Stevesen really has a very good draw!! He wrestles a pigtail match to get into the 1st round, then he gets #12 Drew Foster (UNI) and he would get #5 Zach Zavatsky (VT) if he wins that far. Yes, those are higher seeds, but I just think it's at least possible for him to advance...if not so likely. Also a good year to gain experience for Bobby!!!
197 - There's not much to be said here, if Brett Pfarr wrestles to his normal level, he should be in the finals vs. #1 J'Den Cox (MO). I think he does it!!
285 - Michael Kroells really excels in the Natty Tournament and I think he will do that again. He will lose to #1 Kyle Snyder in the quarters and then will likely have to beat #4 Jacob Kasper (DU), who I think is seeded too high. He does need to be aggressive and to score early, if he can do that again, he will AA again!!
I got on twitter today and will be tweeting a lot of individual results over the next few days. You can follow me at @Unlimited424!!
So, come on Gopher Wrestling fans, join in and watch us compete!!!
Go Gopher Wrestling!!!
#GopherTough !!!
There will be (6) 3 hour sessions (morning and evening) Thursday, Friday and Saturday and all are on the ESPN family of networks. Also ESPN3 and ESPN2Go will have live broadcasts of every match!!
Here are the brackets and my thoughts and predictions follow:
http://i.turner.ncaa.com/sites/defa...17_ncaa_di_wrestling_championship_bracket.pdf
And the excel version for those of you that want to fill in the brackets:
goo.gl/ouFxEy
My predictions:
125 - Ethan Lizak got a huge break today when PSU announced that #3 seed Nick Suriano was injured and would not participate. This means that if Lizak is on his game, he should win his first three matches and then would face #2 Joey Dance (VA Tech) in the semis. While Dance is very good, he is also beatable. So will we see Ethan in the finals...in a rematch vs Thomas Gilman??
If EL makes the semis, that's an automatic AA...and maybe he'll do better!!
133 - Mitch McKee should win his 1st round match, then he runs into #3 Kaid Brock (OSU). Mitch would be expected to lose here, but he wrestled Brock very closely the first time they met this year (10-7?), so if Mitch wants it badly, he might get through!!
141 - After a 1st round win, Tommy Thorn will have to up his game to get through #3 Joey McKenna (Stanford). But, if he can do that he's got #11 Randy Cruz (Lehigh) who he's beaten in the past. Tommy has about 50% more talent than he has shown to-date, he just needs to finish his moves. I think he does better than expected this time around!!
157 - I'm giving #8 Jake Short two wins before he gets beaten by #1 Jason Nolf, including a 2nd round with over #9 Josh Shields (ASU) who has beaten Jake twice. I'm feeling unusually optimistic about Short and I think he's going to be very aggressive...which will help him a lot!! Has Jake got enough to AA? We shall see!!!
165 - #16 Nick Wanzek gets one win before he runs into #1 Isaiah Martinez (IL). After that, I think he can win a couple matches in the wrestlebacks, then he will have to upset one or two higher seeds to be an AA. It's possible, but not likely.
174 - Chris Pfarr gets #1 seed Zahid Valencia in his first match. Then, like Wanzek, I think he will have to win a couple lesser matches before he needs to upset someone. This is a good year for CP to get experience for next year!!
184 - Although 184 is one of the toughest weight classes this year, Bobby Stevesen really has a very good draw!! He wrestles a pigtail match to get into the 1st round, then he gets #12 Drew Foster (UNI) and he would get #5 Zach Zavatsky (VT) if he wins that far. Yes, those are higher seeds, but I just think it's at least possible for him to advance...if not so likely. Also a good year to gain experience for Bobby!!!
197 - There's not much to be said here, if Brett Pfarr wrestles to his normal level, he should be in the finals vs. #1 J'Den Cox (MO). I think he does it!!
285 - Michael Kroells really excels in the Natty Tournament and I think he will do that again. He will lose to #1 Kyle Snyder in the quarters and then will likely have to beat #4 Jacob Kasper (DU), who I think is seeded too high. He does need to be aggressive and to score early, if he can do that again, he will AA again!!
I got on twitter today and will be tweeting a lot of individual results over the next few days. You can follow me at @Unlimited424!!
So, come on Gopher Wrestling fans, join in and watch us compete!!!
Go Gopher Wrestling!!!
#GopherTough !!!
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