When the 2015 NCAA Wrestling season gets going, many eyes will turn to this weight.  Between having one of the most exciting wrestlers in the country at 157 pounds (Isaiah Martinez) this weight has a crop of elite talent that should all produce at a high level.  This weight has to rival 141 pounds in terms of overall redshirt talent, right?  Maybe it doesn't have the proven title contenders like Henderson and Retherford, but you'll be hard pressed to find a better group of 7 redshirts at 1 weight at the NCAA level. 

Let's get to 157 Pounds!
Tyler Berger-Nebraska-The Husker’s will have a capable replacement for 4 time All American James Green. While Berger will have some big shoes to fill, there is early indication that he can get the job done. He took quite a few losses that could be concerning but when you consider his wins and the fact that he was a redshirting I think you’ll be encouraged. He was able to knock off a few studs at 149 pounds: Mike Racciato, Christian Pagdilao, Clayton Ream, Christian Barber and Matt Cimato. Berger was a well credentialed blue-chipper out of high school and was actually the last high school loss for another guy we’ll get to on this list, Jason Nolf. Berger is a top monster and has the goods to go with many of the best on his feet.

Bryce Brill-Northwestern-The plan was for Bryce to start last year, but injuries derailed that plan. So we will see him hopefully at full strength next year for the Wildcats.  Brill was a stand-out in Illinois winning 3 state titles.  He also was a 4 time winner at the ultra-competitive Al Dvorak!  Here's his Finals win his Senior year! Brill, who was 4-0 before his injury with a win over Stanford’s Max Hvolbek is a part of a very talented Freshman class for Northwestern. He’ll be joined by Johnny Sebastian as well. I felt his set ups for his attacks needed some work coming into last season. Knowing the job the Northwestern staff typically do in development, I have no worries about Brill coming in and winning right away for Northwestern. 

Austin Matthews-Edinboro-Like Bryce Brill, Matthews season was cut short by injuries. He was ranked 10th at the time, so you can expect a comparable ranking coming into next year for the Fighting Scot. Matthews has wins over Blaise Butler, Brian Murphy, Markus Schiedel and Anthony Perrotti in his very young career. In the Edinboro room you can bet his improvement will be noticeable quickly provided he gets healthy. I loved his upside coming into this year and think he can do big things next year as well. Definitely among the more proven commodities in this crop. 

Jason Nolf-Penn State-Not breaking anything you didn’t already know, but Jason Nolf is going to be fantastic next year. We saw him make a run to the finals at the Scuffle knocking off Brian Realbuto, Thomas Gantt in the quarters (we’ll get to him) and Russell Parsons along the way. His lone loss last year was his Scuffle Final against James Green.  He took home titles at the NLO and ESU Open as well where he knocked off Brown’s Justin Staudenmeyer. Nolf is goin to make his money on his feet where he wrestles an incredibly high pace. His scrambling ability can get him out of sticky situations when he looks like he could get scored on. I feel extremely confident he would have placed this year at NCAA’s and believe that he’ll be even more ready to go next year. This kid could be a title contender.  Maybe I’m a tad ahead of myself, but I feel very confident he’ll make waves.  Here's his win over Brian Realbuto:




Jake Danishek-Indiana-I’m not 100% certain Danishek wrestles at this weight this season. 149 could be a possibility. That being said, he competed all year at 157, so I’m going with that until I hear otherwise. Danishek wrestled around 25 matches this year falling only to Micah Jordan, Mike Kelly and Louis Mascola. Not a bad loss in that bunch. His wins won’t blow you away but to be that solid in 5 tournaments you have to feel good about his production capability next year. I watched Jake beat Mason Manville at Ironman 2 years ago and thought he was close to D1 ready from a physicality standpoint. He will be an integral cog for what will be an extremely young Indiana team next year.

Thomas Gantt-NC State-I’m not sold on where we’ll see Gantt next year because he switched between 157 and 165 a few times. As a matter of fact he alternated the entire year in this order: Citadel Open-165, Hokie Open-157, Wolfpack Open-165, Southern Scuffle-157, Appalachain Open-165. Crazy right? So it’s a guess for me that he’ll be at 157. I expect production either way. He knocked off Dylan Alton, Joey LaVallee, Mitch Minotti, Max Hvolbek, and had a nice win overAaron Walker last year at the Hokie Open. His only loss last year was to Jason Nolf. Gantt is long for the weight and uses it well. He’s tough to take down and can get to the legs both from ties as well as from space.  Great work from an underhook as well as an overhook.

Chance Marsteller-Oklahoma State-Chance was certainly more productive at 165 last year, so if you think that’s where he’d do best, I don’t disagree. The problem is, Alex Dieringer is back and unless he moves up, Chance is outta luck! Chance wrestled 3 tournaments at 157 and he placed 1st, 1st and 4th losing to Anthony Collica (who many think will go down to 149 next season) and Trevor Wiest at the Joe Parisi Open. At the Scuffle Marsteller had an excellent showing beating All American Ethan Ramos, a classic with Dylan Palacio and another win over round of 12 Mike England. His two losses came to Nick Sulzer and Peyton Walsh. We’ve seen Chance morph from phenom status, to tempered expectations but that’s not entirely fair. It was obviously an adjustment period for him and just last year coming off a very forgettable redshirt season, Dean Heil had it when it mattered most. More and more we’re seeing Oklahoma State guys come on at the end. If Chance finds his way into the lineup I expect him to place, and place high. Oh yeah, we caught up with Chance this February at the NCO, listen to his very candid thoughts on year one at Oklahoma State here. 

Luke Smith-Central Michigan-I missed Luke in my initial sweep of the redshirt scene.  He got injured very early this year and only wrestled one match this season, a loss to Austin Matthews.  Let's get a refresher course on the Chippewa's production a year ago.  To be frank, Smith was down right struggling early last year, but he managed to string some very nice wins together: Austin Matthews, Joey LaVallee, Dylan Alton, Zac Brunson, Tristan Warner, Kyle Bradley, Thomas Gantt and James Vollrath!  That's a tasty group of wins there!  Smith advanced to the round of 12 in 2014 before falling to Derek St. John.  He will, like many of these guys be right in the thick of the All-American hunt! 

Dylan Cottrell-West Virgina-It’s a unique situation for Cottrell who transferred in the middle of last season from Appalachain State to West Virginia. He wrestled half the year for App State where he knocked off Racciato and Lopez. He was very productive 2 years ago as well when he was an NCAA qualifier. Under Henson and company you can expect improvement for Cottrell. The lone ranked win he had last year was over Mike Racciato, but he also knocked off Tywan Claxton as well last year.
 
Other Redshirt Reports:
125 Pounds
133 Pounds
141 Pounds
149 Pounds