
The brackets for this year’s NCAA Championships for wrestling came out tonight with all ten of Nebraska’s starters earning a spot in the Big Dance — eight of which are seeded in the Top-13 of the 33 wrestlers in the field in each weight class.
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Here are Nebraska’s seeds at each weight and their first-round opponent. Once I get a chance to dive into the brackets, I’ll break the tournament down in a preview early next week.
As for the team race where the Top-4 teams win trophies, Nebraska sits in 4th-place based on their seeds. Last season, Nebraska went into the weekend in 4th-place and came out of it with it’s program-best 2nd-place finish behind Penn State.
As expected, the juggernaut that is Penn State is the HEAVY favorite to win the team title again this year, but the race for 2nd-4th and the team trophies will be fierce — Nebraska will be competing with teams like Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Iowa State, Iowa, Virginia Tech and Cornell for those spots.
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Initial Thoughts and Observations
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Having beaten the odds in earning a qualifying spot at NCAAs, 25-seed Kael Lauridsen has a tough first-round match against 8-seed Dean Peterson of Iowa, but the young Husker just wrestled him tough in a close 4-3 decision loss at Big Tens. Not a terrible opening match for a 25-seed.
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Having won four straight against his first-round opponent 20-seed Julian Farber of UNI, 13-seed Jacob Van Dee would then take on 4-seed Aaron Seidel in the second round. One of the elite freshmen this year at 133, Seidel is 18-1 this year with his only loss to 1-seed Jax Forrest of Oklahoma State, a fellow freshman. Seidel is elite and will be a tough draw, but Van Dee was an All-American a year ago, so he’ll be a tough out for Seidel.
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At 141, 3-seed Brock Hardy has a pretty tough path to his second NCAA final. He’ll likely take on Penn State’s 14-seed Braeden Davis in the second round — Davis was beating Hardy in the dual before getting pinned. Hardy would then have to beat three opponents in 6-seed Vince Cornella of Cornell, 2-seed Sergio Vega of Oklahoma State and 1-seed Jesse Mendez of Ohio State in consecutive matches to win a national title — those three guys have a combined 60-1 record this season. Hardy hasn’t faced Cornella in his career, but he’s 1-6 against Mendez and 0-2 against Vega. Tough road for Hardy here.
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After needing an at-large bid to NCAAs, Nebraska’s 20-seed Chance Lamer will be up against it in this tournament. After a tough first-round matchup against 13-seed Joseph Zargo of Wisconsin who he just lost to at Big Tens, Lamer would then face 4-seed Collin Gaj of Virginia Tech and 5-seed Koy Buesgens of NC State in consecutive matches before a potential semifinal bout against 1-seed Shayne Van Ness of Penn State — Lamer got the opening takedown against Van Ness in their dual match.
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In a really deep weight class, matches are going to be ultra competitive from the quarters on at 157. Nebraska’s 2-seed Antrell Taylor looks to repeat as NCAA Champion this weekend and should cruise into the quarters where he’ll face 7-seed Kannon Webster of Illinois — Taylor needed a late takedown to beat Webster in their dual match. Taylor would then likely take on 3-seed Meyer Shapiro of Cornell in the semis — a rematch from last year’s NCAAs where Taylor won 7-2. In the final, Taylor may get a shot at revenge against 1-seed PJ Duke of Penn State who beat him in the Big Ten final via major decision — Taylor beat Duke in their dual match 2-1 in tiebreakers, so this would be the rubber match.
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After an opening match where he’s heavily favored, Nebraska’s 6-seed LJ Araujo will likely have to go through all wrestlers who have already beaten him this season if he wants to win a title — 11-seed Ryder Downey of UNI in the second round, 3-seed Mikey Caliendo of Iowa in the quarters, 2-seed Joey Blaze of Purdue in the semi, and 1-seed Mitchell Mesenbrink of Penn State in the final.
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In my opinion, Nebraska’s 3-seed Christopher Minto is favored to make his first NCAA final where he can get one last crack at 1-seed Levi Haines of Penn State. This would be a pretty epic spot to get his first win over Haines after two very close matches.
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Nebraska’s 8-seed Silas Allred should make the quarterfinal where he’ll see 1-seed Rocco Welsh who beat him via major decision in the dual. Allred should make the podium, but this is a tough weight class — he’ll likely have to work his way back through the consolation bracket to do so.
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At 197 pounds, Nebraska’s 11-seed Camden McDanel is in a brutal quad — he’ll face either 6-seed Justin Rademacher of Oregon State or 27-seed Gabe Arnold of Iowa in the second round. McDanel has multiple freestyle losses to Rademacher, and Arnold has been impressive wrestling from 174 to 197 for Iowa this year as a true utility guy.
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Nebraska’s 4-seed AJ Ferrari should advance to the quarters where he’ll face 5-seed Nick Feldman for the fourth time this season. After losing the first two matches, Ferrari beat Feldman in the Big Ten semis. With a win there, Ferrari would face top-seeded Yonger Bastida of Iowa State in the semifinal round before taking on former Millard South standout 2-seed Isaac Trumble of NC State in the final. Against two guys he hasn’t faced in Bastida and Trumble, I really think that anything can happen with Ferrari.
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