141 At The Reno Tournament Of Champions Will Be Tremendous
141 At The Reno Tournament Of Champions Will Be Tremendous
The 141-pound weight class at the 2017 Reno Tournament of Champions is shaping up to be an outstanding bracket.
Just how tremendous might the 141-pound college bracket at the 2017 Reno Tournament of Champions be? Well, how does three of the top five ranked wrestlers plus Kaden Gfeller sound? Indeed, the 141 title race is shaping up to be quite tremendous in Reno, NV, on Saturday.
With North Carolina State, Wyoming, and Missouri all scheduled to send full teams to the "Biggest Little City in the World," we could see a bracket with No. 2 Kevin Jack, No. 4 Bryce Meredith, and No. 5 Jaydin Eierman.
Watch Bryce Meredith record a first-period pinfall in the quarterfinals of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas earlier this month:
All three of those wrestlers have earned All-American honors, representing three-eighths of the podium steps from last March in St. Louis. A Mizzou redshirt sophomore, Eierman placed fifth in 2017, while NC State's Jack and Wyoming's Meredith took third and fourth place, respectively, as juniors.
Jack and Meredith have quite a history. They were teammates for a year at NC State before Meredith transferred to Wyoming, his home state.
The two have met three times so far in their careers. Meredith upset the third-seeded Jack in the second round of the the 2016 NCAA tournament and would eventually finish as runner-up. Jack was eliminated in the bloodround after placing fifth as a freshman the year before.
Jack and Meredith met at the NCAAs again in 2017, and again it was the lower-seeded Meredith who scored the victory.
However, Jack would get his revenge Saturday morning, when he pinned Meredith in the placement bouts to claim third.
Watch Kevin Jack's post-NCAA interview:
Gfeller will, absent any unforeseen injuries, spend the rest of the season redshirting at Oklahoma State, just like his teammate Daton Fix, who, by the way, may be wrestling his first NCAA matches this weekend. Gfeller has a couple of tournaments under his belt already. He won the Bob Smith Open earlier this month and finished third at the Joe Parasi Open in Lindenwood, Missouri.
Gfeller might get a chance at some revenge himself, against Eierman, who took him out in the semifinals of the Parasi Open.
Three All-Americans and one strong candidate for future AA honors is a lot of firepower for one bracket, but there could be more hammers headed to the Reno Events Center this weekend. Cal-Poly is slated to enter NCAA national qualifier Colton Schilling, and Oregon State is expected to bring 2017 qualifier Jack Hathaway.
Hathaway won two matches last March, including an upset over the No. 7-seeded Joey Ward in the first round, so you know he's dangerous. He'll be looking for revenge against Schilling, who caught him in a beautiful throw earlier this month in the consolation rounds of the CKLV. Hathaway had won all three of their previous encounters.
The college division kicks off things off at noon ET (9 AM PT), which you can watch LIVE ON FLO.