The Second Wave Of College Wrestlers Who Will Crash The Rankings
The Second Wave Of College Wrestlers Who Will Crash The Rankings
Taking a look at who might shoot up the rankings as we enter the Southern Scuffle and Midlands portion of the D1 schedule.
There are tiers to every weight in any given college season, and the beautiful thing about rankings is how often they change as guys emerge as stars, falter, change weight, or graduate.
So far, we've seen the likes of Drew Mattin, Taylor Venz, Yianni Diakomihalis, and Derek White push themselves into the All-American tier. But that was only the first part of the season. With Midlands taking place Dec. 29-30 and the Southern Scuffle on Jan. 1-2, who might be making a push over the next month or so in the second wave of rankings crashers?
125: #15 Sebastian Rivera (Northwestern), FR
The redshirt freshman is 8-0 on the year with six bonus-point wins and has career wins over #16 Travis Piotrowski, Johnny Jimenez, Barlow McGhee, and Shakur Laney. Now, Rivera will get a crack at guys such as #10 Luke Welch, #13 Ryan Millhof and #14 Jake Gromacki at Midlands as well as during his Big Ten schedule.
133: #20 Montorie Bridges (Wyoming), FR
Out of Oklahoma, Brideges was #93 on the Class of 2016 Big Board. He beat Taylor LaMont in the National Collegiate Open finals last year and has picked up wins over Ian Parker, Dresden Simon, and Rico Montoya, with close losses to Austin DeSanto and Luke Pletcher. Wyoming has a history of turning guys like this into NCAA qualifiers who tend to outperform their seed.
141: Nicholas Gil (Navy), JR
Gil did not have a loss until CKLV and is entering a Southern Scuffle with only three ranked guys in it. Two of them are #17 Luke Karam and #19 Russell Rohlfing, so really all he would have to do is take third to get ranked. After the top eight, there is plenty of opportunity for Gil to establish himself. Sidebar, the easy answer for this would be Nick Lee if his redshirt gets pulled.
149: #19 Zander Wick (Wisconsin), FR
His brother has already climbed to #6 at 165, and if Zander's CKLV quarterfinal had gone just a little differently, I’d need a different choice. Wick nearly knocked off Colton McCrystal in Vegas and had wins over Jarrett Degen, Michael Sprague, and Sam Krivus. This seems like a snowball-type season for Wick, that ends with him in a nail-biter in the round of 12, having surpassed juniors and seniors in their rank, bonus rate, and win totals.
157: #18 Justin Thomas (Oklahoma), FR
Sometimes there are matches that stick in your head from big tournaments. At last year’s CKLV, Paul Fox had a barn burner with Brian Murphy that impressed me, and Fox wound up being an All-American. This year’s version was Thomas against Tyler Berger, when Berger needed a takedown as time expired to force overtime where he eventually won. A California state champ and Ironman runner-up, Thomas has the pedigree to turn matches like that into wins.
165: #11 Chance Marsteller (Lock Haven), JR
Up till now, this article has focused on low-ranked or unranked guys who can make a push to be in the top 10, round of 12-type conversations, particularly freshmen. This one is about a guy who can enter the national title picture. Marsteller has 10 pins or techs this year and might get a shot at defending champ Vincenzo Joseph at the Scuffle.
174: #14 Dylan Lydy (Purdue), SO
I don’t know who, but one of the young starters on Purdue is going to pan out to be an All-American. The Boilermakers' 2016 recruiting class seems like the better bet, but Lydy was part of the 2015 class that was Tony Ersland’s first as head coach for the Boilermakers. The addition of assistant coach AJ Schopp has only increased that likelihood for Lydy.
184: Andrew Marsden (Oklahoma State), SO
Plot twist! With Preston Weigel coming back, it sounds as if Marsden will be dropping down to 184. If weight isn’t an issue, his freewheeling style could work just as well down a few pounds.
197: #18 Jacob Seely (Northern Colorado), SO
When trying to predict the future with something like “wrestlers who could make a rankings jump,” a safe bet is to take the type of guy with a Fargo title who made two straight junior world trials finals. Assuming he is healthy for the Scuffle, he’ll see a field that is ripe for upsets.
285: #12 Youssif Hemida (Maryland), JR
Heading into Midlands, Hemida has yet to lose a match. The top three at heavyweight in the Big Ten seem pretty set, but a win over Sam Stoll would vault him into the All-American range.