Ok, we have a new week, and we are resuming the previews for this year’s NCAA season. We did 125-157 last week and now we job into the upper weights starting with 165 lbs.

Conference Champion Predictions

Big Ten – Alex Marinelli (Iowa)

ACC – Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh)

Big 12 – Keegan O’Toole (Missouri)

PAC-12 – Shane Griffith (Stanford)

EIWA – Zach Hartman (Bucknell)

MAC – Izzak Olejnik (Northern Illinois)

SoCon – William Formato (App State)

All-American Predictions

1. Keegan O’Toole (Missouri)

2. Evan Wick (Cal Poly)

3. Shane Griffith (Stanford)

4. Demetrius Romero (Utah Valley)

5. Alex Marinelli (Iowa)

6. Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma St)

7. Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh)

8. Gerrit Nijenhuis (Purdue)

Round of 12

• Cameron Amine (Michigan)
• Zach Hartman (Bucknell)
• Anthony Valencia (Arizona St)
• Thomas Bullard (NC State)

Keegan O’Toole

Keegan O’Toole, I am really high on this guy coming into this year. Put the Junior World Championship aside, this young Missouri wrestler, I think is good enough to win the title this year and the weight is conducive of knocking out big names early. O’Toole had his freshman season last year and comes in with that same Freshman status due to COVID and he went 19-1, with that loss coming to NCAA finalist Jake Wentzel. I think he runs into Cal Poly transfer, Evan Wick in the finals and beats him late. O’Toole is a cradle machine which we have seen, can be very dominant especially in Folkstyle.

Round of 12

So, this is going to be a very interesting blood round, because there are really good wrestlers in this bracket that should place if the weight was not so loaded.

Matchups

• Gerrit Nijenhuis vs Cameron Amine
• Demetrius Romero vs Zach Hartman
• Jake Wentzel vs Anthony Valencia
• Travis Wittlake vs Thomas Bullard

The first blood round matchup pits Big Ten opponents together, between Nijenhuis vs Amine. Nijenhuis would drop from a Quarterfinal loss and Amine would be an early 2^nd Round loser. Nijenhuis gets the edge in this one because I think he is a step above Amine at this point. Next up would-be Romero vs Hartman. Romero was an All-American last season at 174 lbs. and looks to be dropping back down to 165. I see Romero losing early on in this tournament, probably the 2^nd round and Hartman would drop from the Quarterfinals. I like Romero to get back on track and get into the medal matches.

Now we are to Wentzel vs Valencia, in an epic blood round matchup that pits retuning All-Americans together that come into the season eyeing the national championship. Wentzel drops down in the 2^nd round and Valencia is going to drop from a Quarterfinal loss. In a match like this, it is all about momentum and I think with Wentzel having a couple consolation matches under his belt will play to his advantage over Valencia who would be coming off of a disappointing loss. Finally, we run into Wittlake vs Bullard. This will be a sneaky good match because I think, based off of last year, these two are equally as good. Wittlake will drop from the Quarterfinals and Bullard will drop from a 2^nd Round loss. I give the edge to Wittlake here, but this could go either way.

All-Americans

If you are like me, the Semi-Finals are always distracting to the Consolation wrestling going on at the same time. This year in Detroit, I will make sure I will be watching the 165 lb. consolation matches because they are good. After the blood round we will see Nijenhuis vs Romero and Wentzel vs Wittlake. I have Romero defeating Nijenhuis in a close one and Wittlake edging out Wentzel late. So that sets up Consi-Semi matchups between Romero vs Marinelli and Wittlake vs Griffith. The thing about Marinelli for me is that when he gets to NCAA’s, he seems to be burnt out or something because he loses matches, he should not. This year he losses to Wick in the Semi’s, not a bad loss but I think it will be hard to bounce back Saturday morning and Romero pulls off the upset. Griffith vs Wittlake is interesting. Griffith runs into my predicted national champ and loses in a close one. I think he bounces back on Saturday to wrestle for 3^rd.

Ok medal matches are set. For 7^th place we see a great matchup between Wentzel vs Nijenhuis. I give the edge to Wentzel in this one. For 5^th we will see Marinelli vs Wittlake which would be a rematch from a dual meet earlier in the season. I think Marinelli bounces back from 2 straight losses and takes 5^th. For 3^rd this is a great matchup between Romero vs Griffith. I am going with Griffith in this one just because I think he has a touch more talent over Romero.

Wrap-Up

This weight is absolutely loaded, and it is not because of the Big Ten. The PAC-12, with Wick, Griffith, and Valencia, will be a fun conference tournament to watch. Then you add in Marinelli, Wentzel, Hartman, O’Toole, Wittlake, Romero, and Nijenhuis and you have a great bracket. There will be some guys at this weight that any other year would be all-americans, but this is not that every other year. 174 lb. preview will be up very soon so look out for that one, and thanks for reading this one today.