J'den Cox, Ultimate Renaissance Man: 197-Pound NCAA Preview
J'den Cox, Ultimate Renaissance Man: 197-Pound NCAA Preview
Now that we have our sweet, sweet brackets for the NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis on March 16. We reach the penultimate weight class of our previews now with 197.
Now that we have our sweet, sweet brackets for the NCAA Wrestling Championships, it's time to take a closer look at the weight classes. We're doing a deep dive into each division, rolling out previews one at a time, so you can pour over and digest everything before the first whistle in St. Louis on March 16.
We reach the penultimate weight class of our previews now with 197.
Two-time NCAA champion, Olympic bronze medalist, a silky smooth set of pipes, magic fingers on the guitar strings, future Division I football player? J'den Cox is the ultimate renaissance man, (and I'm probably leaving some things off here, J'den Cox contains multitudes).
Cox is, to my knowledge, the only NCAA champion capable of doing Justin Bieber justice. Enjoy the dulcet tones in the following video:
Four of last year's All-Americans return at 197, including Cox, the defending title-holder.
Cox is the obvious top contender. We'll check in on him and a few others next, followed by dark horses and a full set of predictions and analysis (2017 NCAA tournament seeds in parentheses).
Title Contenders
(1) J'den Cox, Missouri(2) Brett Pfarr, Minnesota
(3) Kollin Moore, Ohio State
(4) Jared Haught, Virginia Tech
The Missouri senior is our ninth undefeated No. 1 seed in the tournament. There is one more (spoiler alert, it's Kyle Snyder). This season, Cox has wins over the No. 2-, 3-, 4-, and 6-seeded wrestlers. So there really is no debate, Cox is the favorite, and he earned that status by wrestling and beating the best of the rest.
Minnesota senior Brett Pfarrvergnugen has wins over the No. 3 and 5 seeds and just two losses on the year, one to Cox and the other in the Big Ten finals to Kollin Moore. Only a freshman, Moore is already a Big Ten champ with 28 varsity wins, his only losses coming to Cox and Pfarr.
Virginia Tech's Jared Haught rounds out our quartet of contenders. The Hokies junior has just two losses on the season, a close dual-meet match against Cox and a pretty sound drubbing by Pfarr in the Cliff Keen Invitational finals.
Dark Horses
(13) Tom Sleigh, Bucknell(14) Corey Griego, Oregon State
(US) Ben Honis, Cornell
Bucknell sophomore Tom Sleigh lost by riding time criteria after 11 minutes of wrestling in the EIWA finals. That loss could motivate him to big things at the NCAAs.
The Oregon State Beavers always do a tremendous job with their scheduling. Head coach Jim Zalesky makes sure his team wrestles top competition, despite being several time zones and a long plane ride away from most of the best programs in the country. That preparation could pay off at the NCAAs for the 16th-ranked, No. 14 seed sophomore Corey Greigo.
Cornell sophomore Ben Honis pinned 2016 All-American Brett Harner at the EIWA tournament last week. Check out associate head coach Damion Hahn give Honis' performance nine gator claps and an overhand downward fist pump:
Damion Hahn is excited about the Big Red's dominating day at EIWA's. Cornell has 4 finalist & leads the team score. https://t.co/7fZmuAQQxd pic.twitter.com/mtbcXQpMMr
— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) March 4, 2017
Upset Special
Besides our dark horses, keep an eye out for Brad Johnson of Oklahoma in his first round match against No. 15 seed Ricky Robertson of Wisconsin. The Sooners senior comes in at No. 17 in the Flo Top 20 rankings, whereas Robertson is slotted at No. 18, so this matchup is closer than it looks on paper. Nevertheless, Johnson is the underdog and Robertson the favorite, in the eyes of the seeding committee at least.Spey's Spredictions
- J'den Cox, Missouri
- Kollin Moore, Ohio State
- Brett Pfarr, Minnesota
- Jared Haught, Virginia Tech
- Matt McCutcheon, Penn State
- Preston Weigel, Oklahoma State
- Aaron Studebaker, Nebraska
- Nathan Rotert, North Dakota State
On the other side of the bracket, Cox will prove too elusive for Haught.
Here's Cox versus Haught from a dual meet back in November, a matchup I think we'll see again in the semifinals:
Then in the finals, I think we'll see Cox win his third NCAA title, where his otherworldly agility and mat savvy gives him the edge over Moore. I doubt, however, that this is the last time we'll see Moore in an NCAA finals match.
As much as I tried to make the rest of the bracket interesting, it's very difficult to justify upsets in this weight class. The top half of the division was very stable, other than Moore's rapid ascent to the top tier. I've got the top seven seeded wrestlers making it into the quarters with only North Dakota State junior Nathan Rotert, the 9th seed, registering an "upset," over the eighth seed, Rider senior Ryan Wolfe. In the Flo Top 20, however, Rotert is ranked ninth and Wolfe is 10th, so this is only technically an upset in the eyes of the seeding committee and Rider Broncos partisans.
In those quarterfinal matches, I think Cox will beat Rotert without too much trouble. Haught will scoot by Penn State's Matt McCutcheon in a close one. Moore will defeat Oklahoma State sophomore Preston Weigel, and Pfarr will beat Nebraska senior Aaron Studebaker like he did earlier this year (though he needed overtime to do so).
It's more chalk in the consolation bracket. I think it will be Pfarr over Haught for third. Cutch over Weigel for fifth, and Studes over Rotert for seventh. That doesn't mean we won't see any upsets at the NCAAs, just that I'm not predicting them given the evidence I have in front of me.
There Will Be Bloodround
The 197 weight class opens up quite a bit after you get passed the top tier, so I'm less confident in my bloodround picks (as usual). In any event, here's what we might see in our round-of-12 matches: McCutcheon beating Old Dominion senior Kevin Beazley, Rotert beating Corey Griego, Studebaker beating Tom Sleigh, and finally, Weigel beating Ryan Wolfe.Think you can make better picks? There's a very good chance you can! Here's the 197 bracket. Let me know what you think, and enjoy the championship, wrestling fans!
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