Next Season's Returning NCAA All-Americans: 141 Pounds

Next Season's Returning NCAA All-Americans: 141 Pounds

It may be the NCAA offseason, but October will be rolling around soon enough. We're goingthrough each weight class and highlight every All-American to look out for in the 2017-18 season. Up now is 141 pounds.

Jul 11, 2017 by Andrew Spey
Next Season's Returning NCAA All-Americans: 141 Pounds
It may be the NCAA offseason, but October will be rolling around soon enough.

We've already taken a look at the top 20 teams ranked by order of returning NCAA points. Now we are going through each weight class and highlight every All-American returning for the 2017-18 season.

Top 20 Returning NCAA Team Points | 125 Returning AAs | 133 Returning AAs

We will have a better idea of who will be taking redshirts and what weight classes they will be in as we get closer to the start of the season. Until then, here are our best guesses, though feel free to holler at us with any updates on those topics.

141 Pounds

Returns 2 National Championships and 12 All-American Honors

The 141 weight class marks the start of an insane run of stacked weights across the NCAA. All but one of last year's top eight return at the weight class. Virginia's runner-up George DiCamillo is the sole graduate, meaning there is little room for any newcomers, unless they knock a returning All-American off his precarious perch on the podium. Anyone not on this list who wants to wrestle on Saturday of the NCAA tournament is going to have a tall task ahead of him.

It should also be noted that we have Joey McKenna penciled in at 149 next year. Whatever weight McKenna goes will likely depend on what school he transfers to, and until we know that, his weight is anyone's guess. But we just wanted you to know that we didn't forget about the talented New Jerseyan.

We also didn't forget about any guys coming off redshirt. You can read about them here. Most of them, like many other studs not on this list, have yet to become All-Americans, and thus, are not compiled here on our list of returning All-Americans.

Dean Heil, Oklahoma State 4, 1, 1, ?

Can a rising senior with two national championships possibly be underrated? With the low level of buzz around Heil's upcoming season, it would appear so. Nonetheless, Mean Dean Heil will be looking to cement himself as one of the all-time greats with back-to-back-to-back championship seasons. Additionally, Heil has just one loss in the last two seasons, in sudden victory, to Joey Ward, in 2016. It will be a rather large upset if anyone manages to stop Heil on his quest for a three-peat.

Bryce Meredith, Wyoming DNP, 2, 4, ?

After a one-year detour to North Carolina State and 133 pounds, Meredith returned to his home state of Wyoming and moved up to 141. He found immediate success in a brown and gold singlet, making the finals before losing to Dean Heil. Meredith followed up his dark-horse season with a fourth-place finish in St. Louis, losing to Dicamillo in the semifinals and then to his former teammate Kevin Jack in the consolation finals.

Kevin Jack, North Carolina State 5, DNP, 3, ?

As a true freshman in 2015, the Nutmeg Nightmare came from out of nowhere to upset the No. 4 seed Devin Carter in the quarterfinals. Jack would eventually finish fifth. He didn't place his sophomore campaign but showed up for the 2016-17 season in rare form, losing just twice on the season, once to Lehigh's Randy Cruz early on and once more in St. Louis to Meredith in quarterfinals, a loss Jack would avenge in the third-place match.

Anthony Ashnault, Rutgers 8, 4, 6, ?

If it's possible for Heil to be underrated and still on track for three NCAA titles, then Ashnault is potentially likewise underrated as he attempts to earn his fourth consecutive All-American honor. The Scarlet Knight is the fourth multiple All-American returning senior at this weight. He, along with Heil, Meredith, and Jack, have an astonishing 10 total top eight finishes between them. Already the only wrestler in Rutgers history with three career trips to the podium, Ashnualt will look to extend his record by one more.

Jaydin Eierman, Missouri 5, ?, ?, ?

A lot of folks expected Jaydin Eierman to be good, but few knew he was going to be this good this fast. Eierman followed up a excellent redshirt campaign with a spectacular inaugural varsity season, capped off by an outstanding NCAA tournament that saw him knock off three All-Americans on his way to a fifth-place finish. He also gave Dean Heil all he could handle in their two matches last year. Eierman will be expected to step up and be a cornerstone of the Tigers program following the departure of superstar J'den Cox.

Matt Kolodzik, Princeton 7, ?, ?, ?

Kolodzik was a known commodity coming into the season, having wrestled a full schedule against Division I competition while deferring enrollment to Princeton. The former Blair Academy student scored wins over two All-Americans, Richard Durso and Anthony Ashnault, while wrestling unattached last year. Kolodzik continued to impress once he donned an orange and black singlet, finishing runner-up in the always tough Midlands Tournament and then a seventh-place finish in the extremely crowded 141 pound NCAA bracket.

Tommy Thorn, Minnesota DNP, 8, ?, ?

Golden Gopher Tommy Thorn fell short of his All-American goal his freshman season, getting stopped by Jack in the round of 16. Thorn made up for that last years in St. Louis, knocking off the No. 3 seed Joey McKenna in one of the biggest upsets of the tournament. Thorn managed to hold on to a spot on the podium by stopping Nebraska's Colton McCrystal in the bloodround.

You can watch Thorn upend McKenna in St. Louis in the video below.


Did we miss anybody? Let us know! And stay tuned for 149 coming up next!

Get all of the hottest FloWrestling content!

Sign up for the FloWrestling newsletter for instant access to: breaking news, live events, results, rankings, archived matches and more!