Forty nine schools from all across the country will be at this year?s 2006 Las Vegas Invite, including 3 top ten teams: Missouri, Michigan and Hofstra; and other forces like Cornell, Cal Poly, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn, Pitt, Arizona State and Indiana. Who will win? Well the clear favorite is Missouri with their number 3 ranking. It has to be a pretty exciting time for Coach Brian Smith. After years of brilliantly designing and building his Missouri program they are quickly becoming a power house to be reckoned with. His squad squashed a strong Ohio State team. Their early season performance cements the fact that they are the real deal while setting the tone that they will be contending for a national title this year.
An interesting weight class to follow is at 197lbs. (5) JD Bergman (Ohio State) is trying to comeback to his old form from years past after losses earlier this month to a freshman, (3) Max Askren (Missouri) and (4) Jerry Rinaldi (Cornell) who will both be at the tournament. It will be interesting to see if he can, first, make the finals and then have a chance at winning it.
The most intense weight class will be the 149lb bracket. It excites me just thinking about the different match ups. There are 4 guys in the top ten: (4) Tyler Turner (WI), (5) Jordan Leen (Cornell), (6) Josh Churella (MI) and (8) Matt Coughlin (IN).
...Or is the most intense weight class at 157lbs with 3 of the top five spots nationally competing at the tournament? With (2) Brian Stith (Arizona State) entering after a rough week where he got beat twice by (1) Trent Paulson (ISU). (3) Craig Henning (WI) and (4) Brandon Becker (IN) are smelling blood as they will try and break (2) Stith (Arizona State).
...Or is the most intense weight class at 133lbs, where 6 of the top ten ranked wrestlers will be competing for the title. Nebraska Mike Rowe recently made a strong jump into the top ten and it will be interesting to see if he can fit into the tenth ranked spot, or if it is simply too much too soon. We also have 5 other returning All-Americans wrestlers including last year?s national champion (2) Matt Valenti (Penn), (4) McCormick (MU), (5) Matt Keller (UT-Chattanooga), (6) Vasquez (Cal Poly) and (8) Headlee (Pitt).
But seriously folks, the 174lb weight class has got to be the toughest. There are 6 of the top 8 ranked wrestlers in the nation competing at Vegas. 6 of 8! The only question I have: Is this weight class a foregone conclusion with Ben Askren sweeping the entire field? The real competition might be for second place. But let me remind you that even John Smith, in his senior year, when he was already a world champion got beat in college. (1) Ben Askren (Missouri) is no world champion, at least not yet, so we will leave the possibilities open. Personally I?m interested in what (4)Ken Cook (UC Davis) will do. He was a match away from placing last year and this tournament will be telling to see if he is on the road to being UC Davis? first All-American. Others to watch are (3) Matt Herrington (Penn), (7) Matt Palmer (Columbia), and (8) Brandon Brown (Nebraska)- another wrestler from Nebraska who made a big jump in the rankings.
This Vegas tournament has every indication of pure excitement despite all of those HWT bouts that will take place! Who?s the real deal and who is bluffing? Can?t wait to find out!