The Sean Bormet era just began in Michigan, and few coaches have a roster set up so well for the future. That was rounded out Tuesday with the verbal commitment of two-time Cadet world champ Kurt McHenry, a junior at St. Paul’s School in Maryland.

With McHenry announcing his verbal to Michigan, we have a great idea of the long-term plans for most of the nation’s best programs at 125lb. Each of the top six teams from this year’s national tournament has good options to get it through at least the 2022 season.

Virginia Tech redshirt freshman Kyle Norstrem qualified for NCAAs via a wild card but had a losing record this season. The Hokies are also bringing in Sam Latona (Thompson, AL) for the class of 2019, and Latona is currently ranked 10th at 120lb. 

Nebraska has Alex Thomsen (Underwood, Iowa) coming in, who should start right away. NC State has another year of Sean Fausz, plus Tommy Cox, Jakob Camacho (Danbury, CT), and Sammy Alvarez (St. Joseph’s, NJ) to fill the next five years.

The clubhouse leader for McHenry had long been Cornell, which is now definitely in the market for the lightest weight. Big Red sophomore Noah Baughman once again did not qualify for NCAAs, and the class of 2018 is now spoken for, with the exception of Brendon Fenton (Elyira, Ohio). Now that Eastern Michigan has dropped its program, Fenton is open to signing with another school. Cornell freshman 197-pounder Ben Darmstadt also went to Elyria. 

If Rob Koll and his staff want to let Baughman finish out, they could go after the likes of our #11 prospect at 125 in Anthony Clark (Delbarton, NJ) or Greg Diakomihalis (Hilton, NY), the younger brother of their 141lb national champion, Yianni.

Looking down the ladder, Illinois’ Travis Piotrowski is a junior next season, and that state is rife with lightweight talent, so it would be reasonable to see the Illini go after the 3A state finalists in Anthony Molton (Lockport, IL) and Travis Ford-Melton (Marian Catholic, IL), both of whom were juniors this year. Minnesota has Skyler Petry and Patrick McKee to man the next five years.

It won’t be easy for Lehigh to replace three-time All-American and 2017 NCAA champ Darian Cruz, but the Mountain Hawks have no shortage of options between Brandon Paetzell, Matty Parker, Jaret Lane (Southern Columbia, PA), and Mitchell Polito (East Brunswick, NJ).

Rutgers is bringing in Nico Aguilar (Gilroy, CA), and Arizona State has four more years of Brandon Courtney.  That brings us to Wisconsin, which has a new head coach in Chris Bono. The question is will he take Connor Brown with him to Madison, WI, from South Dakota State or will he try to bring in a new 125-pounder? Either way, one of those schools will need a lightweight—and soon.

Stanford might want to be in the market for Antonio Lorenzo (St. John Bosco, CA) for life after Gabe Townsell. North Carolina is very set down below, with senior Joey Melendez (Montini Catholic, IL) and junior Eric Barnett (Hortonville, WI) coming in. Depending on who takes West Virginia's head coaching job, the next big domino at 125 could be heading to Morgantown to wrestle for the Mountaineers.