Four Teams Who Are Loaded At Middleweight

Four Teams Who Are Loaded At Middleweight

Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa, and Michigan are loaded at the middleweights this year. Here's why all four teams will be an absolute nightmare to deal with between 149 and 174 at the 2018 NCAA tournament in Cleveland this March.

Sep 15, 2017 by Wrestling Nomad
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Most wrestling coaches will preach about being strong in the middle. You never want to go into the heart of a dual worrying about losing three or four matches, or having holes in your lineup for big tournaments.

Here are four teams that are an absolute nightmare to deal with between 149 and 174 and will put up huge points at the 2018 NCAA tournament in Cleveland this March.

Four Teams With Killer Lightweights

Penn State

149: No. 1 Zain Retherford
157: No. 1 Jason Nolf
165: No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph
174: No. 1 Mark Hall

This is the easiest no-brainer, layup, obvious choice of the year. Penn State returns all four champions at these weights, and all rightfully start the year ranked first. Maybe even scarier, Zain Retherford is the only senior of the bunch.

Retherford spent his offseason making a world team and wrestling at the world championships in Paris, while Hall won his second consecutive junior gold medal at 74kg, helping USA win a team title along the way. Retherford is on pace to finish as one of the greatest wrestlers in NCAA history.

Jason Nolf is one of the highest volume shooters we've ever seen. His bonus rate will once again be up around or over 90 percent and is a solid bet to score 25 points in Cleveland at the NCAA tournament in March.

Joseph is the only "question mark" of the bunch, which is to say, he could regress from first to third, and it wouldn't be terribly shocking. Barring injury, this group can easily score 80 team points and should all be in either the first- or third-place matches.

Joseph's unforgettable pin against IMar


Ohio State

149: No. 9 Ke-Shawn Hayes
157: No. 4 Micah Jordan
165: No. 12 Te'Shan Campbell
174: No. 3 Bo Jordan

Based on current rankings and excluding bonus points, this group projects to 30 team points at NCAAs. However, Te'Shan Campbell and both Jordans combined for 37.5 last year in reality, so this group is more likely to score between 40-50 in Cleveland.

Hayes is really the X-factor, as he will be moving up in weight, and we don't have a full season worth of information on him. What we have seen from him in college and high school suggests he has the potential to All-American. He starts the year ranked ninth.

Micah Jordan projects as a guy to bonus 65-70 percent of his matches and be an outside shot to make the finals, with his floor being fifth place. We'll have a much better idea after Jan. 21, when Iowa travels to OSU's Schottenstein Center and Jordan wrestles No. 3 Michael Kemerer.

Campbell was 2-2 last year at NCAAs, but Buckeyes fans and coaches will be expecting him to jump a level and put himself in the conversation to place. He'll be pushed by Cody Burcher throughout the year to keep him from getting comfortable in his starting spot.

This is Bo Jordan's last go-round, with career placings of third, third, and second. He'll either get it done or be one of the best to never win it.

Micah's CKLV finals win


Iowa

149: No. 2 Brandon Sorensen
157: No. 3 Michael Kemerer
165: No. 17 Alex Marinelli
174: NR Kaleb Young

A few teams have every guy at these four weights ranked but don't necessarily project out to a lot of team points at NCAAs. Iowa projects out to 30 points right now based on ranking and excluding bonus, but Brandon Sorensen has hit 17 and 16.5 the last two years and Michael Kemerer hit 19.

Sorensen is an overwhelming favorite to make the finals and could walk into the weekend of Feb. 9 undefeated. He beat No. 3 Max Thomsen at University Nationals in June and may not face No. 4 Solomon Chishko this year. Much like Bo Jordan, if Sorensen doesn't win NCAAs this year, he'll go down as one of the best to never win it.

Kemerer and No. 2 Joey Lavallee of Missouri did not meet last year, so that projects as an intriguing semifinal right now. Kemerer will be a mainstay in the top five for the rest of his career.

The last two weights are what makes or breaks Iowa this year. Marinelli starts 17th and Young is unranked, but both are likely to qualify for NCAAs and score a handful of points. If Marinelli can break through and AA this year, it will lock in Iowa's strength at the middleweights as the Hawkeyes bring in Pat Lugo for the next two seasons to replace Sorensen.

Kemerer's third place match in St. Louis


Michigan

149: NR Malik Amine
157: No. 8 Alec Pantaleo
165: No. 3 Logan Massa
174: No. 4 Myles Amine

The Wolverines return 34 points from last year in Malik Amine and Logan Massa, and nothing suggests those two will regress too hard this season. Alec Pantaleo was sixth back in 2016, the same year he made the junior world team, but wrestled no folkstyle last season and is up a weight after competing at 70kg for freestyle. With Zac Hall not listed on the roster, we're going with Amine at 149. Qualifying for NCAAs is a reasonable goal for him.

Pantaleo will start off the dual year with ranked opponents from Arizona State and Lehigh, so we'll be watching closely to see how he looks at the Michigan State Open on Nov. 5. After CKLV at the beginning of December, it will be clear if he can AA once again.

Massa is an absolute terror on the mat who bonused at a 63 percent clip last year and only lost to the NCAA finalists. He'll get his rematch with Vincenzo Joseph in mid-January but won't get to see Isaiah Martinez again until Big Tens. The redshirt sophomore Massa had 22 bonus point wins and scored 18.5 points in St. Louis, I expect those to bump to 25 and 20 this year.

Amine was a bit more of a surprise than Massa, walking in as the eighth seed but beating guys seeded ahead of him in Ryan Preisch and Brian Realbuto. The way the current rankings look, Amine will see Daniel Lewis in the quarterfinals in their first meeting of the year. If No. 4 Amine can make the semis, the maize and blue are looking good for a team trophy.

Massa dominates Anthony Valencia


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