The 2018 World Team Trials challenge tournament is coming up in Rochester, MN, on May 19-20. For all 10 weights, the last man standing will get the right to compete in Final X.

If you want to watch the 65kg world team spot get decided in State College, PA on June 16, you'll want to buy your tickets now; VIP tickets have already sold out.

WATCH 2018 WORLD TEAM TRIALS LIVE ON FLO
When: May 19-20 | Where: Rochester, MN

One-half of the 65kg field has been set, and the Penn State crowd may still be treated to an all-Ohio State final that Saturday at Rec Hall. Joey McKenna wound up winning the U.S. Open and now gets to wait to see who will be his opponent. Even with Logan Stieber losing to Jaydin Eierman, many feel Stieber is still the favorite to come out of WTT.

In Final X: Joey McKenna

Commentary: Will Zain Retherford compete? And, if so, will it be at 70kg? The answer to both of those questions should be on the minds of everyone with a rooting interest at 65kg. If the most dominant wrestler in recent wrestling history shows up, he becomes the heavy favorite to win the weight and wrestle in front of his State College fans in Final X on June 16.

However, the tea leaves all seem to indicate Retherford will not be doing any freestyle this spring and summer. Does that mean his former college nemesis and 2017 teammate at the Paris world championships in Logan Stieber is the man to beat? Possibly not, given that he was just upset by Jaydin Eierman at the Open.

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Eierman now owns wins over the guys with the last five NCAA titles at 141lb: Yianni Diakomihalis, Dean Heil, and Logan Stieber. He’ll be the top seed in Rochester, and the most dangerous wrestler in the field. The Missouri sophomore not only beat Stieber but also took out Jayson Ness and teched Nick Dardanes 10-0.

Dardanes is that guy you always underappreciate, and then the Open and Trials roll around and he mollywhops people. There was a bit of a slow start against Anthony Ashnault, who looked like a guy who hadn’t wrestled in 13 months but then picked up steam with an 11-0 win over Joey Ward, 9-0 victory against Andy Simmons, and 8-7 nail-biter with Ness. Sidebar: I hope we see Ashnault at U23s. His freestyle accolades are great and he seems healthy once again.

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Ness hit a bit of a rough patch there for a while, going 5-7 over his last 12 matches. He bounced back with a 6-2 performance in Vegas, featuring four techs and a pin. But he lost two of his consequential matches, the ones already mentioned against Eierman and Dardanes, as well as a 9-8 win over Anthony Abidin, whom he destroyed at halftime of a college dual this winter. The only big win of note was 10-0 over Evan Henderson in the fifth-place match.

Andy Simmons will not have the benefit of wrestling Joey Lazor at the Trials, who he has now teched three times in a row. He'll likely be the last seed, which puts him at seven if Retherford and NCAA champ Yianni Diakomihalis don't wrestle. Diakomihalis has a torn ACL and is expected to be out until October. BJ Futrell was not at the Open due to surgery, so hopefully, he is healthy in time for WTT.

If America were like Russia, Stieber would already be on the team. He's won a world title and junior world silver and was on the world team last year. He is still probably the best guy in the country. But this isn't Russia, and Eierman, who has never made a world team at any age level and hasn't reached the NCAA finals, is on such a trajectory that he's able to do things like pull off wins against Stieber.

Eierman's path to the Trials last year went through the last chance qualifier, and then once in Lincoln, NE, he was teched twice. He came back for U23 Trials and finished third but was teched by Boo Lewallen. Then during the season he pinned Dean Heil and beat the eventual NCAA champ Diakomihalis in separate duals. That leads me to believe he'll be even better in Rochester, which is exactly what he'll need to be to beat Stieber over the course of three matches.

Nomad's Picks

Finals: Eierman over Stieber, two matches to one

Third Place: Nick Dardanes over Jayson Ness