Another day and another preview. We wrapped up the 125 lb preview yesterday and today we hop into 133 lbs.
Conference Championship Predictions
Big Ten – Stevan Micic (Michigan)
Big 12 – Daton Fix (Oklahoma St)
ACC – Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech)
PAC 12 – Michael McGee (Arizona St)
EIWA – Michael Colaicco (Pennsylvania)
MAC – Derek Spann (Buffalo)
SoCon – Jake Rotundo (Citadel)
All-Americans
- Daton Fix (Oklahoma St)
- Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)
- Stevan Micic (Michigan)
- Austin DeSanto (Iowa)
- Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech)
- Lucas Byrd (Illinois)
- Michael Colaicco (Pennsylvania)
- Micky Phillippi (Pittsburgh)
Round of 12
- Brandon Paetzell (Lehigh)
- Matthew Schmitt (Missouri)
- Michael McGee (Arizona St)
- Sammy Alvarez (Rutgers)
Daton Fix
The 2-time NCAA runner-up I believe finally gets it done in the NCAA finals this March. Fix I think without a doubt is one of the most talented wrestlers at 133 lbs but for some reason the NCAA finals has not gone his way. With 2 overtime losses it begs the question if Fix is letting his opponents hang around in the match. This time around I think it will be different. I predict he will get a rematch with Roman Bravo-Young in the finals and jumps out of the gate with his attacks. With the talent of Bravo-Young that is what you need to do and I think this second time around Fix will be able to keep up the pace and take down Bravo-Young for his first NCAA title.
Round of 12
Matchups:
- Korbin Myers vs Matthew Schmitt
- Micky Phillippi vs Brandon Paetzell
- Lucas Byrd vs Sammy Alverez
- Michael Colaicco vs Michael McGee
This will be a fun blood round at 133 lbs and it starts off with Myers vs Schmitt. Myers is coming into this one off of a Quarterfinal loss to DeSanto. Schmitt comes into this one off of an early loss in the second round and battles back. Schmitt gets hurt on seeding in this one because off how loaded the Big Ten will be. Give me Myers in this one to advance. Now to Phillippi vs Paetzell. Very interesting matchup here and I think this will be very close. Phillippi comes into this one off of an early second round loss but battles back. Paetzell on the other hand comes off of a Quarterfinal loss to Fix and drops down to the blood round. Give me Phillippi in this one because I think he comes into this match hot after the early loss.
Now to an explosive matchup between Byrd and Alverez. Alverez comes into this one off of an early loss but comes back to get into the blood round. Byrd on the other hand comes off of a Quarterfinal loss to Micic. I’m going with Lucas Byrd in this one because coming off of last year I was really impressed with Byrd’s performance and I think this year he’s even better. The final blood round matchup is Colaicco vs McGee. This pits 2 conference champions together and I think this will be a good under the radar matchup. Colaicco I think gets hurt by seeding and losses early on and fights his way back. McGee comes into this one off of losing to Roman Bravo-Young in the Quarters. I’m going with Colaicco in this one just because I think he’s a dangerous matchup for everybody.
All-Americans
Ok, now that we got the blood rounds out of the way, let’s get to how the All-Americans shake out. You have Korbin Myers vs Micky Phillippi and Lucas Byrd vs Michael Colaicco. Myers vs Phillippi will be an ACC finals rematch and I think it’s going to be the same result as that match with Myers winning. Byrd vs Colaicco and I really like Byrd in this matchup. Now to the Consi-Semis where we see Myers vs DeSanto in the first matchup. DeSanto is a constant motor and reminds me a lot of how the Brands wrestled, he falls short to Fix in the Semi-Finals but not here. Then we see Byrd vs Micic. I think Micic responds from his Semi-Final loss to Bravo-Young and wrestles for third. For seventh we will see Phillippi vs Colaicco and give me Colaicco in that one. For fifth we will get a close matchup between Myers vs Byrd and I’ll take Myers in that one. For third it’s Micic vs DeSanto and I have Micic but this is a toss up match so I could see this going the other way.
Wrap-Up
So 133 might not have that same firepower that it had in 2018 and 2019 but it still packs a punch. I think we will see great wrestlers loss early and possibly get eliminated early like Chris Cannon from Northwestern. A lot of good wrestlers will not All-American at this weight and I think when you sit back and look at who is at 133 there could be 14 or 15 guys that could be All-Americans. Thank you for reading this article and look for the 141 lb preview coming soon.