The 2018 U.S. Open is finally here. With it comes the final opportunity to qualify for the World Team Trials challenge tournament and, for five weights, the chance to get a bye to Final X.

Men's freestyle begins Friday, April 27, at 9 AM Pacific. All 10 weights will be competing that day in Las Vegas, and today's preview covers the first three weights. Registration can be found in FloArena, which will soon turn into brackets. The top seven placers at each weight qualify for the Trials.

At 57kg, Thomas Gilman waits in Final X in Lincoln, NE, on June 9 and will not be competing. NCAA champ Spencer Lee will wait until the challenge tournament in Rochester, MN, next month to compete. Once again 61kg looks to be the weight where everyone wants to break the scoreboard, and the winner gets a Final X berth. Logan Stieber is bumping up to 65kg and is the favorite to win the Final X spot in State College, PA, on June 16.

Watch the 2018 U.S. Open LIVE on FloWrestling

When: April 25-28 | Where: Las Vegas, NV

57kg

In the four years and change that this weight has existed, there has been a single constant: Tony Ramos. The 2014 NCAA champ came right off a national title and made the world team following his senior year at Iowa and then made it again the next year. He made the Olympic Trials finals in 2016 and then left for North Carolina. Despite the different location, he once again made the World Team Trials finals last year.

At the Dave Schultz Memorial in November, Ramos wrestled 61kg and lost in the semis, the first time since the 2012 NCAA tournament that he failed to make the finals of a domestic tournament. But he announced he would once again be down at 57kg and is looking to win his third straight U.S. Open. Previously, he beat Andrew Hochstrasser in the 2015 Open finals and Nahshon Garrett last year in Vegas.

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But there will be a young buck waiting to dethrone Ramos, one who has wrestled at age-level world championships four years in a row. Daton Fix made two Cadet world teams, two Junior world teams, as well as a U23 world team and also wrestled at the Youth Olympic Games in 2014. In total, he brought home four medals from those events, highlighted by his dominant Junior world title a year ago.

So this means something’s gotta give. Ramos is the comeback kid, time and time again proving that he can beat you if there’s time left on the clock. In tournaments in America, Ramos is insanely frustrating to wrestle because he can consistently win matches even after trailing in the final minute.

Meanwhile, Fix is a pitbull. He’s never been a voracious leg attacker, instead relying on a steady, constant pace when he does shoot but more often sticking with his slide-bys and inside trips. However, if he can take you down, he will almost definitely turn you with his devastating trap arm series. Mike Mal recently broke that down here.

Daton Fix's Age-Level Placement

The highest returning placer from last year's Open, aside from Ramos, is Frank Perrelli. Additionally, the two guys he lost to at the World Team Trials are now up at 61kg. Overall this season, Perrelli is just 3-4 after competing in tournaments in France, Ukraine and Bulgaria. One of those losses is to unseeded Austin Miller.

Already qualified for the Trials is Tim Lambert, who made the finals of both the Dave Schultz and the Bill Farrell. Zane Richards has one of the fastest shots in the game and spent a month training in Ossetia. Richards is also already qualified.

NCAA champ Darian Cruz is once again in the mix, as is the always dangerous David Terao. A great dark horse right now is Josh Rodriguez, who was third at U23 trials and wrestled for a medal in Ukraine.

Last year I picked against Ramos, not making the same mistake this year. He's too good at go-behinds to not score off Fix's straight on shots. Mike Mal did a three part tech breakdown of the potential Ramos/Fix final.

The veteran Ramos should be able to both create his own offense and score some off counters. In particular, the righty collar tie to snapdown that Azerbaijan scored three times off Fix at U23 worlds could be prominently featured in Ramos' arsenal. All in all, there's not enough senior level data on Fix, and plenty on Ramos, to make me believe the UNC assistant gets the job done.

Nomad's Picks

1) Tony Ramos  2) Daton Fix  3) Frank Perrelli  4) Darian Cruz

61kg

Unquestionably the deepest senior-level weight in that it has the most people capable of winning the world team spot. There are at least five NCAA champs in the bracket, including each of the last four at 133lb, plus Nico Megaludis. However, the favorite right now might be Joe Colon. 

Training at Fresno State with the Valley RTC, Colon qualified for the challenge tournament by winning the Dave Schultz in November with wins over Nahshon Garrett and Cody Brewer, averaging 14 points a match in the process. While not quite the same prodigious output as he had in Colorado Springs, CO, he followed that up with a strong bronze medal at the Ukrainian Memorial in February. There he registered wins over a U23 world silver medalist in Kuat Amirtayev (KAZ), 2017 Yasar Dogu champ Galib Aliyev (AZE), and Petr Bileichuk (UKR), who has wrestled for a medal the past two years at the European championships.

Just like Colon, there’s another non-NCAA champ who has had a great season. Morrison went clutch twice late at the Farrell to beat Seth Gross and Tyler Graff, using a head pinch to perfection. Now training in Michigan with the Cliff Keen WC, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy should likely be the two seed in Vegas.

Brandon Wright broke through last year, making the U.S. Open finals and finishing third at WTT to be on his first national team. Wright only wrestled once this season, going 0-1 in Ukraine, but is still a threat to make the finals once again. At a weight with no returning world team member, the winner of the Open gets to sit in Final X. Lehigh hosts the 61kg Final X in Bethlehem, PA, on June 23.

Tyler Graff has perhaps the best par terre of any American wrestler in this bracket. Now training with the Southeast RTC at Virginia Tech, both of Graff’s last two tournaments at 61kg were at the Bill Farrell. In November 2016, he made the finals of the non-Olympic weight world team trials and then last month lost to Morrison in the finals.

We’ve yet to discuss any of the five NCAA champs at this weight: Seth Gross, Cory Clark, Nahshon Garrett, Cody Brewer, and Nico Megaludis. That doesn’t include Kendric Maple, as it is unclear what weight he is going. Half of last year’s world team wrestled in the 2016-17 Division I season, and two of them had eligibility left for the 2017-18 season. Of all this season’s collegiate wrestlers, Gross represents a good opportunity for one to make a world team.

NCAA Champs at 61kg

Clark hadn’t wrestled freestyle in years but has four matches this season. He lost to Joey Palmer in November and to a Mongolian University world champ in January, so the results don’t point to him being a serious threat to win the Open.

Garrett and Brewer should almost be required to wrestle each other in tournaments in which they are both entered. Garrett won the most recent battle in November at the Schultz. Brewer might take more shots than anyone in the entire tournament, and Garrett has always been a dangerous finisher on his leg attacks.

The ways seeds might shake out, Garrett and Graff is a quarterfinal, with the winner getting Colon in the semis. On the bottom side, Brewer faces Brandon Wright in a quarter, and that winner squares off with Jon Morrison. I think Morrison is looking better than ever, but I'm a little hesitant on picking him, especially with him already qualified for Rochester.

Right now, Colon looks like the best guy in the weight. He has the most ways to score from both neutral and top and has an improved gas tank since moving to Fresno State. However, he also got destroyed 11-0 by Graff in February 2017 and lost to Brewer in Lincoln. This weight has the most guys who can win, so good luck getting the champ right.

Nomad's Picks

1) Joe Colon  2) Cody Brewer  3) Nahshon Garrett  4) Tyler Graff

65kg

In America, 65kg and the old 66kg have struggled to achieve medals. The last medal came in 2006, when current head coach Bill Zadick won gold in Guangzhou, China.

With Zain Retherford either moving up to 70kg or not wrestling in the Open, that basically leaves Logan Stieber among guys with world-level experience at this weight. He won the non-Olympic weight worlds at 61kg in 2016 and has a Junior world silver going back to 2011. Even though he did not medal last year at 61kg in Paris, he lost to the silver and bronze medalists.

Beyond Stieber, this weight is heavily populated with college stars. Joey McKenna made three age-level world teams, getting a Junior silver in 2014. Jaydin Eierman qualified for the 2017 Trials and was an All-American for the second season in a row at 141lb. Anthony Ashnault is a three-time AA who has won University Nationals in the past.

As for the older generation, Andy Simmons looked fantastic at the Bill Farrell, coming off a six-year hiatus to put up three techs and a pin. But Simmons did not win the Farrell—that was Evan Henderson. The newest member of the Badger RTC had a close match with Nick Dardanes, then teched Anthony Abidin and got a pin in the finals over the Frenchman that beat Simmons.

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Robbie Mathers looked excellent in winning University Nationals last year but has not had the same level of success since then. Josh Kindig and Joey Ward both give the Tar Heel WC a great shot of getting guys in the Trials. Dean Heil has not had a great deal of success in freestyle but is still a two-time national champ.

Joey Lazor is among the more dangerous and creative lightweights in the country, always good for a big throw, spladle, or otherwise generally ridiculous highlight. Dardanes is rock solid and never the guy you want to draw in the round of 16 or quarterfinals. Anthony Abidin hopes to join his Valley RTC buddies Joe Colon and Blaize Cabell in the challenge tournament next month.

A late addition to the field is Jayson Ness, whom Stieber beat in the non-Olympic Trials finals in November 2016. However, Ness is just 4-7 in his last 11 matches.

With Retherford not in the field, Stieber might tech his way through the weight. He just had a win over three-time world champ Haji Aliyev at the World Cup and is still a nightmare in par terre. But who will Stieber have to beat to get the Final X bye?

Can Simmons' body hold up? Is Henderson making the jump this year? Will it be an all-Ohio RTC battle featuring McKenna? Bet the farm on Stieber, and then wait for the brackets to figure out the rest of your placers.

Nomad's Picks

1) Logan Stieber  2) Andy Simmons  3) Evan Henderson  4) Joey McKenna