This was a fun weight last season, with four clear freshmen frontrunners bound to meet in the NCAA tournament semifinals and place in the top four. 

Oklahoma State’s Jax Forrest topped Virginia Tech’s Aaron Seidel, 14-3, to reach the finals. These two have an entertaining history, with Forrest winning the match of the college season in a 10-9 shootout where Forrest scored one takedown to Seidel’s three. That’s on top of, arguably, the most entertaining high school match ever in the 2025 Pennsylvania state finals, where Forrest won 7-1 in a wild slugfest. 

In the other semifinal, Ohio State’s Ben Davino defeated Penn State’s Marcus Blaze, who is nearly impossible to take down. If Forrest and Seidel share an entertaining history, then Davino and Blaze share a stingy one. 

The two Big Ten rivals met three times last season, and all were 3-2 in tiebreakers. Blaze won the dual, and Davino won at the Big Tens and NCAA Championships. Seidel defeated Blaze, 5-0, for third.

Blaze finished fourth at nationals, but got two of them back over the summer in freestyle. The Perrysburg, Ohio, native topped Davino, 4-1, in the U.S. Open finals, then defeated Forrest at Final X. Blaze won the opening match 2-2, fell 6-1, before rebounding for a 5-2 victory against an opponent he didn’t see during the college season. 

We’ll see how Blaze does at the 2026 Senior World Championships, but it's safe to say that these four will be in the mix again — if they stay at the same weight. Making room for 2024 Senior World champion Masa Ono will take creativity (if the Nittany Lions use him), so Blaze could move up to 141. 

That changes everything if it happens. 

Davino fell to Ono, 4-0, on a Real American Freestyle card, adding to the intrigue of what this weight could look like if the Penn State brass maneuver the line-up. 

Iowa’s Ryan Crookham adds another layer of intrigue after transferring from Lehigh. His ceiling is high, and he could disrupt the four-man round-robin at the top if he’s healthy. At his best, he can win it all. 

Crookham knocked off 2023 World champion Vito Arajau twice during the 2023-24 season, before falling to him 13-3 in the semifinals, then bouncing back for third and finishing 24-1. That was his last healthy year, and he has competed in 12 college matches since. 

Jacob Van Dee (Nebraska) and Tyler Knox (Stanford) were All-Americans last season, but it could be a tall task to push past the top five. 

Blaze and Davino had three 3-2 tiebreaker matches last season, including this one at the NCAA Championships

Returning 2026 All-Americans

Jax Forrest (Oklahoma State) — 1st
Ben Davino (Ohio State) — 2nd
Aaron Seidel (Virginia Tech) — 3rd
Marcus Blaze (Penn State) — 4th
Tyler Knox (Stanford) — 6th
Jacob Van Dee (Nebraska) — 7th

Past All-Americans

Ryan Crookham (Iowa) — (3rd, 2024)

Key Departures

Lucas Byrd (Illinois) — 4x All-American (5th, 5th, R12, 1st, 8th)
Drake Ayala (Iowa) — 3x All-American (2nd, 2nd, 5th)
Kyler Larkin (Arizona State) — moving up to 149

Entering From Injury/Transfer/New Weight

Ryan Crookham (Iowa) — from Lehigh
Carter Schmidt (Northern Colorado) — from Oklahoma
Brett Ungar (Rutgers) — from Cornell

The Favorite: Jax Forrest (Oklahoma State)

Forrest’s rookie campaign was unprecedented. He wrestled in seven matches for Bishop McCort during his senior high school season — including a thrilling 20-13 win over Karson Brown in the 139-pound 2025 Powerade finals — before enrolling at Oklahoma State the following semester. 

The Johnstown, Pennsylvania, native was hardly the youngest wrestler to compete in college. Forrest is about five weeks older than Blaze, who also completed his first season of college wrestling. 

It was less about the age and more about the oddity. One day, Forrest was in high school, and the next, he’s enrolled in college and competing for the Cowboys. 

On December 30, 2025, he’s wrestling in a high school tournament.

On January 11, 2026, he’s wrestling against Oklahoma in the Bedlam dual — one of wrestling's most intense rivalries. That’s on top of making the 2025 Senior World Team (61 kg) at 18.

Forrest didn’t disappoint during his lone semester of college wrestling. His innovative and exhilarating style made him a fan favorite, lifting the sport and creating a stir everywhere he went. 

The Cowboy star left us wanting more, posting a 19-0 season record, including 16 bonus-point wins, and his first NCAA title. 

Will it be more of the same in 2027? 

Forrest is the favorite, but the margin for error is small. He fell to Davino in the U.S. Open finals, 8-4, before a 9-4 win over Seidel and avenging the loss to Davino, 11-1, in the World Team Trials finals.

Then, he fell to Blaze a Final X in a best-of-three series. Folkstyle isn’t freestyle, but there are enough indicators that Forrest won’t breeze his way to a second NCAA title. 

Forrest and Seidel squared off in the 2025 Pennsylvania state finals in an all-time classic

The Contenders

Ben Davino (Ohio State)
Aaron Seidel (Virginia Tech)
Marcus Blaze (Penn State)
Ryan Crookham (Iowa)

Byrd and Ayala graduated, but Crookham will more than make up for their absence. The Hellertown, Pennsylvania, native is a welcome addition to a team that needed to replace consistent points. As long as he stays healthy, Crookham will vie for his first NCAA title and make this a five-way battle for the top spot. 

Don’t expect many spotless records. Davino, Blaze, and Crookham could face each other multiple times in duals and at the Big Ten Championships. And then the NCAA Championships. 

Blaze was 25-3 last season with a win over Davino, two losses, and a consolation finals setback to Seidel. 

Davino was 31-2 last season, falling to Blaze and Forrest.

Seidel was 22-2 with losses to Forrest and the win over Blaze. 

The country should be on high alert when these five face off. No one in this group should want the four- or five-seed at the NCAA Championships, so the race is on to get high-quality wins and a higher seed.

Crookham topped Vito Arajau in the 2024 EIWA finals

All-American Threats

Jacob Van Dee (Nebraska)
Tyler Knox (Stanford)

Van Dee and Knox were All-Americans last season, but they feel a little like outsiders against five wrestlers who will grab the headlines. Van Dee entered the NCAA Championships as the 13-seed, lost in the first round to Northern Iowa’s Julian Farber, then got hot on the back side, winning four straight before falling to Knox and taking his seventh-place match against Byrd.

Van Dee’s season losses were to Ayala, Davino (twice), Blaze, and Byrd (by injury default), along with a mandatory medical forfeit loss at the Big Tens. The Cornhusker star has a deep rivalry with Farber (holding the series record at 4-3), so the opening round loss wasn’t surprising. 

Van Dee was likely seeded a little low at the NCAA Championships given his body of work and back-to-back seventh-place finishes at nationals. He might place a notch or two higher, but this feels like the range for him this season.

Knox entered as the 15-seed and also got hot at the right time, finishing sixth with a win over Van Dee. His losses indicate he’s not ready to break into the upper echelon, even though he’s a returning All-American threat. He fell to Ayala (16-5), Blaze (20-4 & Fall 6:44), Davino (21-5), Seidel (18-3 & 12-0), and Larkin (8-3). 

Sleepers & Dark Horses

Markel Baker (Northern Illinois)

Earning the eight-seed at the 2026 NCAA Championships felt high, especially since the final Flo rankings had Baker at 25. The Northern Illinois star had a decent showing, winning his first two matches before falling to Forrest in the quarters, 18-3, and to Van Dee 2-1 in the Round of 12. Don’t sleep on him this year.

Pre-season 133-pound Predictions

1. Marcus Blaze (Penn State)
2. Jax Forrest (Oklahoma State)
3. Ben Davino (Ohio State)
4. Aaron Seidel (Virginia Tech)
5. Ryan Crookham (Iowa)
6. Jacob Van Dee (Nebraska)
7. Tyler Knox (Stanford)
8. Markel Baker (Northern Illinois)