To the rest of the world, it might be spooky season, but here at the FloWrestling office, it’s preview szn. Rolling right along with 141 pounds, a trio of title contenders should make for an action-packed season at this weight.

141lb Preseason Rankings

The triumvirate of Yianni Diakomihalis, Joey McKenna, and Jaydin Eierman esnures that the fans will be locked in all season debating who’s going to come out on top in March. The 2019 NCAA tournament is in Pittsburgh, and 141 promises once again to be one of the most entertaining brackets.

The loss of Dean Heil, Bryce Meredith, and Kevin Jack to graduation has a bit of impact, and they will certainly be missed, but there are still plenty of able-bodied 141s ready to shine this year. We've included some sleepers and landmines to keep an eye on, as well as new blood ready to make an impact in their first seasons as starters.

NCAA Previews: 125 | 133

The Favorite: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis, Cornell

Just like at 125 and 133, the champ returns. The tournament Yianni had in Cleveland will likely go down as the stuff of legend, winning the 2018 national title on a torn ACL, and knocking off a two-time defending champ and two-time finalist in the process.

Not just that, he was a true freshman, he also avenged his only loss of the season, and was trailing with fewer than 30 seconds to go in his quarter, semi, and finals matches. The 2017 high school class had some potentially transcendent talent, and both Yianni and Spencer Lee showed it right away.

At this time, there's no timetable for his return from the knee injury. Barring a major setback, he is absolutely going to compete this season, it's just a matter of whether it will be right away or if it will come some time after Cliff Keen Las Vegas.

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Title Contenders

#2 Joey McKenna, Ohio State

#3 Jaydin Eierman, Missouri

Considering that McKenna has never wrestled Yianni in either folk or free, it's very easy to peg him as a guy who can unseat the defending champ, especially after his run to Final X - State College this summer.

Since Eierman knocked McKenna out of the 2017 tournament with an 8-0 major on the backside, the Buckeye has since beaten the Tiger 7-2 in the third place match at NCAAs and 7-3 in the U.S. Open finals. It's the Blair grad's final college season, having placed third as both a freshman and a junior last season.

Now a junior, Eierman was the one guy to beat Yianni last season. One of the most dynamic wrestlers in the country, he racked up 16 pins and is always a threat to put someone away early.

We'll get into this in the key dates portion, but Cornell duals both Missouri and Ohio State this year, and all three could be at CKLV. Could Yianni get trilogies with his two main rivals this season? We can only hope.

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Best of the Rest

#4 Kaid Brock, Oklahoma State

#5 Nick Lee, Penn State

#6 Chad Red, Nebraska

Kaid Brock is bumping up from 133, where he twice finished on the podium. His low singles, slidebys, and inside trips pretty much allow him to take anyone down, but he has never been dominant on top and has sometimes given matches away late. However, he was the only Cowboy to improve year-over-year at NCAAs, scoring 11 team points in 2017 and 12 this past March.

When Yianni and Spencer Lee win titles as true freshman, it's easy to forget that Nick Lee pulled off the extremely difficult feat of placing in his first year of eligibility. He beat Kevin Jack and took McKenna to the brink, but also had freshman moments like getting pinned by Ryan Diehl and losing takedown battles to Brock Zacherl and Mikey Carr.

Red had a redshirt freshman season similar to Lee's when you look at some of his 11 losses in comparison to how he finished at the national tournament. His pin of Dean Heil was his signature moment of the season, and he beat Lee the last time they wrestled, but it will be interesting to see if he cleans up his offense to prevent some of those losses to non-AAs.

Sleepers and Landmines

#11 Ryan Diehl, Maryland

#14 Bryan Lantry, Buffalo

#16 Tristan Moran, Wisconsin

#18 Kanen Storr, Michigan

I changed my completely arbitrary rules for defining what a sleeper is from my 125 preview, and if you don't like it, well too bad. However, we are continuing to rule out the term "darkhorse" because it is too contentious.

Diehl falls firmly in the "landmine" category, as evidenced by his career pins over Nick Lee, Tommy Thorn, Jimmy Gulibon. But he ended last season with a losing record and has been majored by non-AAs, so it's hard to place him firmly in the camp of a likely All-American. Storr has always had potential, but has yet to get a chance to wrestle at a conference tournament. Hopefully we get to see the full range of his skills in his first season in Ann Arbor.

We've identified Lantry and Moran as potential sleepers, in part because they're transitioning from other weights. Lantry was Buffalo's 133 last season, while Moran manned 157 for Oklahoma State. Now at Wisconsin, Moran's best results came as a 141 and twice beat Matt Kolodzik in freestyle. Lantry might fall into the Tyler Smith prototype and ultimately not place, but Smith was a three-time bloodrounder who was Top-10 for most of the 2017-18 season.

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New Blood

#17 Max Murin, Iowa

#20 Yahya Thomas, Northwestern

Two guys from the Big Ten who were featured in the redshirt report, Murin and Thomas can have huge impacts for their respective programs. Iowa enters the season ranked third as a team and has all 10 weights ranked, with Murin being the lowest among all his teammates. The heavy hands he displayed this summer in freestyle should transition well into the winter folkstyle season.

Thomas was a good under-the-radar pickup for coach Matt Storniolo's Wildcats, not landing on the final 2017 Big Board. Here's a guy who didn't place at Fargo in 2016 garnering a legitimate ranking after placing at Midlands during his redshirt year (one of his losses there was to Murin). Both of these guys were brought up by Willie in FRL 308 as being able to jump levels this season.

Key Dates

Dec. 14th - Arizona State at Penn State (Mason Smith vs Lee)

Dec. 30th - Cornell vs Missouri (Yianni vs Eierman)

Jan. 12th - Northern Iowa at Nebraska (Josh Alber vs Chad Red)

Jan. 20th - Nebraska at Penn State (Red vs Lee)

Jan. 27th - Illinois at Nebraska (Mikey Carr vs Red)

Feb. 8th - Penn State at Ohio State (Lee vs McKenna)

Feb. 16th - Oklahoma State at Missouri (Brock vs Eierman)

Feb. 17th - Nebraska at Ohio State (Red vs McKenna)

Feb. 22nd - Ohio State at Cornell (McKenna vs Yianni)

Nomad's Predictions

1. Yianni Diakomihalis, Cornell
2. Joey McKenna, Ohio State
3. Jaydin Eierman, Missouri
4. Nick Lee, Penn State
5. Kaid Brock, Oklahoma State
6. Chad Red, Nebraska
7. Mikey Carr, Illinois
8. Mason Smith, Arizona State

Fight me for nearly going chalk once again. This is the inherent problem in making predictions several months out: you have to go on your most recent data. But this weight is a great example of why these picks will get blown to smithereens, as Sa'Derian Perry placed after going into NCAAs with a losing record and Chad Red finished on the podium while starting unseeded.

If there is one flaw in McKenna's game, it's scrambling, so I think Yianni is a bad matchup for him. He's shown himself to be better than Eierman, but we'll have plenty of data on those three against each other come mid-March. I'm betting on Nick Lee making a PSU jump in his second year.

Brock gets the movie phone number guy title for finishing 5-5-5 all in a row. Red was a blue chipper in high school and, while I think some people have caught or surpassed him, it's not by much, and he's closer to the Alll-American than the guy the with 11 losses.

Yes, Mikey Carr is on my fantasy team, but this isn't a homer pick. The kid beat Nick Lee and Chad Red, so that's enough wins over AAs to make me a believer. Based on the order here, that also means he's avenging a 3-0 loss to Mason Smith from Midlands last year.

I don't think Perry replicates his magical run again, and Alber is too limited offensively for me to feel he can knock off some of these guys in March. Ryan Diehl is more an upsetter than a placer.  Call me a doubting Thomas, but I need to see the coaches in Indiana get some placers before I'm predicting them, though I certainly would not mind if Cole Weaver or Nate Limmex gave Angel Escobedo or Tony Ersland an AA. Mitch McKee and Kanen Storr are very, very good, but it remains to be seen if they can be great in college.

Ultimately, my main takeaway from 141 is that we might get to see some of the best rivalries in college wrestling played out for a second year in a row. There aren't enough of them at the D1 level, so let's all pray Yianni, McKenna, and Eierman all wrestle against each other as many times as possible.