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The top seed here is #4 Nick Piccininni of Oklahoma State. He’ll be the heavy favorite throughout this tournament. He’s likely to have a semifinal against the winner NC State’s Jakob Comacho and Stanford’s Gabe Townsell, the 5 and 4 seeds, respectively.

On the bottom half of the bracket, the #2 seed, Rutgers’ #9 Nic Aguilar, could have a tough quarterfinal match against Old Dominion’s Michael McGee who was a match away from All-American honors last season. The other quarterfinal on the bottom half is seeded to feature the 3 seed Sidney Flores of Air Force and the 6 seed Luke Werner.

This bracket has a couple of guys who could disrupt the seeds. Virginia Tech true freshman Sam Latona and Rider’s Jonathan Tropea are potential landmines on the top half of the bracket while Northern Colorado’s Jace Koelzer and Chattanooga’s Fabian Gutierrez are unseeded hammers on the bottom half.

Best Early Matches

Round of 16

Sam Latona, Virginia Tech vs Zurich Storm, Campbell

Jonathan Tropea, Rider vs Gabe Townsell, Stanford

Michael McGee, Old Dominion vs Fabian Gutierrez, Chattanooga

Quarterfinals

Jakob Comacho, NC State vs Gabe Townsell, Stanford

Michael McGee, Old Dominion vs Nic Aguilar, Stanford

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Pitt’s #5 Micky Phillippi is the top seed here, and, like Piccininni, is a heavy favorite to win the weight. He’s expected to see Reece Witcraft of Oklahoma State in the quarters before seeing the winner of #13 Sammy Alvarez and #18 Chance Rich in the semis.

NDSU’s #8 Cam Sykora has the second seed and is expected to see seventh seed Chandler Olsen of Drexel in the quarters. The winner there should get the winner of #14 Mosha Schwartz and #23 Devan Turner.

Iowa State’s Ramazan Attasauov, Appalachain State’s Codi Russell, Northern Colorado’s Theorius Robison, Little Rock’s Paul Bianchi, and Rider’s Anthony Cefolo could all cause serious problems here.

Best Early Matches

Round of 32

Ramazan Attasauov, Iowa State vs Codi Russell, Appalachian State

Round of 16

Sammy Alvarez, Rutgers vs Codi Russell, Appalachian State

Theorius Robison, Northern Colorado vs Chance Rich, Cal State Bakersfield

Mosha Schwrtz, Northern Colorado vs Paul Bianchi, Little Rock

Quarterfinals

Mosha Schwartz, Northern Colorado vs Devan Turner, Oregon State

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This weight should be fun. Kaden Gfeller makes his return to the mat as the #1 seed here and is expected to see Lenny Peterson of Air Force in the quarterfinals followed by the winner of Cole Matthews of Pitt and Kyle Schoop of Lock Haven.

NC State All-American Tariq Wilson has the #2 seed and is seeded to see Navy’s Cody Trybus in the quarters and the winner of #11 Real Woods and #21 Evan Cheek in the semis.

Look for potential upsets from Northern Colorado’s Chris Sandoval, Rutgers’ Jojo Aragona, Oregon State’s Grant Willits, and Rider’s Pete Lipari. Of that group, all but Aragona, who’s a freshman, are NCAA Qualifiers

Best Early Matchups

Round of 64

Cole Matthews, Pitt vs Chris Sandoval, Northern Colorado

Round of 16

Cole Matthews, Pitt vs Jojo Aragona, Rutgers

Grant Willitts, Oregon State vs Kyle Shoop, Lock Haven

Pete Lipari, Rider vs Evan Cheek, Cleveland State

Quarterfinals

Cole Matthews, Pitt vs Kyle Shoop, Lock Haven

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Oklahoma State’s Boo Lewallen has the top seed here and is expected to see Duke’s Josh Finesilver in the quarterfinals before hitting the winner of Northern Colorado’s Andrew Alirez and Cal State Bakersfield’s #19 Russell Rohlfing. If this semi is Lewallen vs Alirez, as many expect it to be, it could be one of the best matches of the tournament.

The #2 seed here is Stanford’s Requir Van der Merwe, who could see George Mason’s Colson DiBlasi in the quarters followed by the winner of #23 Gerard Angelo of Rutgers and #21 Tanner Smith of Chattanooga.

A couple of unseeded wrestlers that could cause problems here are Stanford’s Jaden Abas and Oklahoma State’s Brevin Bamaceda.

Best Early Matchups

Round of 16

Jaden Abas, Stanford vs Tanner Smith, Chattanooga

Colston DiBlasi, George Mason vs Brevin Balmaceda, Oklahoma State

Quarterfinals

Andrew Alirez, Northern Colorado vs Russell Rohlfing, Cal State Bakersfield

Gerard Angelo, Rutgers vs Tanner Smith, Chattanooga

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Hayden Hidlay is the second-ranked wrestler in the country and will be the heavy favorite here as Iowa State’s David Carr is not entered. Hidlay’s path could include NDSU’s Jared Franek in the quarterfinals and then the winner of George Mason’s Kolby Ho and Pitt’s #19 Taleb Rahmani, who is incredibly dangerous.

Rider’s #7 Jesse Dellavecchia has the #2 seed and is expected to face Rutgers’ Mike Van Brill in an all Jersey quarterfinal before a potential semi with the winner of #17 Matt Zovistoski and Oregon State NCAA Qualifier Hunter Willits.

Wyatt Sheets of Oklahoma State and Jimmy Fate of Northern Colorado have upset potential in this very large bracket.

Best Early Matches

Round of 16

Wyatt Sheets, Oklahoma State vs Taleb Rahmani, Pitt

Jimmy Fate, Northern Colorado vs Hunter Willits, Oregon State

Quarterfinals

Kolby Ho, George Mason vs Taleb Rahmani, Pitt

Mike Van Brill, Rutgers vs Jesse Dellavecchia, Rider

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The top four seeds here are #7 Shane Griffith, #9 Tanner Skidgel, #11 Thomas Bullard, and #10 Jake Wentzel. Obviously with all these guys being ranked within a couple of spots of each other, they are close.

Julian Ramirez and Joe Lee, two of the best true freshman at this tournament, both went unseeded are going to hit in the second round! With the winner getting 5 seed and three-time national qualifier Andrew Fogarty!

The bottom half of this bracket is solid as well. It would take a big upset to stop Bullard form making the semis, but Skidgel is going to have to get past the winner of Connor Flynn and Chase Straw.

Best Early Matches

Round of 32

Julian Ramirez, Finger Lakes vs Joe Lee, Penn State

Round of 16

Andrew Fogarty, North Dakota State vs winner of Ramirez and Lee

Connor Flynn, Missouri vs Chase Straw, Iowa State

Quarterfinals

Andrew Fogarty, North Dakota State vs Jake Wentzel, Pitt

Thomas Bullard, NC State vs Travis Wittlake, Oklahoma State

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The return of Joe Smith baby!! He got the #1 seed and I can’t wait to see how he looks back at 174. 174 is a somewhat shallow weight compared to some of the loaded weights here, so Smith is a heavy favorite to not only make the finals, but win. Joe Grello, Spencer Carey, and Dean Sherry round out the top four seeds. 

Unseeded and on the bottom side of the bracket is freshman stud Chris Foca. Foca is greyshirting at Cornell and is one of the many young studs at this tournament. He’ll meet Grello in the round of 16.

Trent Knight is another solid young talent in this bracket. If he gets past Scott Joll of West Virginia in the first round, he’ll face #8 seed Gregg Harvey of Pitt in a match a potential upset alert match. 

Best Early Matchups

Round of 32

Billy Higgins, Northern Colorado vs Chirs Foca, Finger Lakes

Round of 16

Chris Foca, Finger Lakes vs Joe Grello, Rutgers

Quarterfinals

Daniel Bullard, NC State vs Dean Sherry, Rider

Spencer Carey, Navy vs Carter Starocci, Penn State

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Trent Hidlay, Anthony Montalvo, George Walton, and Anthony Waddell all on the top side here. Hidlay is the clear favorite, and will probably come out unscathed, but it’s still going to be fun. 

The bottom side features #6 Louie Deprez as the #2 seed and #8 Nino Bonaccorsi as the #3 seed, plus #15 Corey Hazel.

Unseeded, but solid is Julien Broderson of Iowa State. The redshirt Cyclone actually beat Abe Assad earlier this season. If he’s able to get past Anthony Walters in the opening round, he’ll have Hazel in the round of 16.

Beast Early Matchups

Round of 32

Nick Addison, Stanford vs Anthony Montalvo, Oklahoma

Round of 16

Julien Broderson, Iowa State vs Corey Hazel, Lock Haven

Quarterfinals

Nino Bonaccorsi, Pitt vs Corey Hazel, Lock Haven

George Walton, Rider vs Matthew Waddell, Chattanooga

Nick Addison, Stanford vs Anthony Montalvo, Oklahoma

Round of 16

Julien Broderson, Iowa State vs Corey Hazel, Lock Haven

Quarterfinals

Nino Bonaccorsi, Pitt vs Corey Hazel, Lock Haven

George Walton, Rider vs Matthew Waddell, Chattanooga

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Pre-seeds held true here, so it’s Dakota Geer, Nathan Traxler, Nick Reenan, and Noah Adams boasting the 1-4 seeds. 

Reenan’s health and ability is still a big question mark. Sam Deprez, the younger brother of Louie Deprez, will be a good opening test for Reenan. In the same quadrant of the bracket as Reenan is national qualifier Jordan Pagano, who go ended up with the #6 seed. However, I expect Penn State redshirt Michael Beard will be able to get through Pagano, setting up an exciting Reenan - Beard quarterfinal.

Also on the bottom side and receiving the #7 seed was Cornell greyshirt stud Jacob Cardenas. Cardenas vs Traxler could be an interesting quarterfinal.

On the top side is Geer, Ethan Laird, Jacob Seely, and Adams. After Army’s impressive Midlands, it would be unwise to overlook the Armed Forces and Jacob Koser of Navy at this weight. Koser is off to a solid freshman season, but will have Adams in the round of round of 16.

Beast Early Matchups

Round of 32

Nick Reenan, NC State vs Sam Deprez, Binghamton

Round of 16

Michael Beard, Penn State vs Jordan Pagano, Rutgers

Quarterfinals

Michael Beard, Penn State vs Nick Reenan, NC State

Jacob Seely, Northern Colorado vs Noah Adams, West Virginia

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Pitt’s #10 Demetrius Thomas is the top seed here. He’s seeded to see Brandon Ngati of West Virginia in the quarterfinals. Thomas already has a win over Ngati this year. His expected semifinal is between the winner of Northern Colorado’s #21 Dalton Robertson and NDSU’s #20 Brandon Metz.

Gannon Gremmel of Iowa State is ranked 14th and has the #2 seed here. He’s seeded to face Air Force’s Kayne Hutchison in the quarters and the winner of Cary Miller of Appalachian State and #22 Chris Beck of VMI in the semis.

Look for upset potential from NC State’s Deonte Wilson, Oklahoma State’s Austin Harris, and Oregon State’s Jamarcus Grant.

Best Early Matchups

Round of 32

Jamarcus Grant, Oregon State vs Chris Beck, VMI

Round of 16

Deonte Wilson, NC State vs Brandon Ngati, West Virginia

Austin Harris, Oklahoma State vs Brandon Metz, NDSU

Quarterfinals

Dalton Robertson, Northern Colorado vs Brandon Metz, Northern Colorado

Kayne Hutchison, Air Force vs Gannon Gremmel, Iowa State