The best wrestlers in America will soon descend upon Las Vegas in search of U.S. Open titles. At 57kg, that means Thomas Gilman, Daton Fix, and hopefully Spencer Lee all in one bracket.

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Since Gilman did not win a medal at the 2018 world championships in Budapest, the winner of this weight will get a bye to Final X: Lincoln. Everyone else will have to wrestle at the World Team Trials challenge tournament next month in Raleigh, provided they qualify of course.

Let's start off by looking at the last five years of world and Olympic team members at 57kg, which is when the weight was reinstated (it was previously a contested weight at the world level from 1951-1996).

Past Five World/Olympic Team Members

2014: Tony Ramos, Hawkeye WC

2015: Tony Ramos, Hawkeye WC

2016: Dan Dennis, Hawkeye WC

2017: Thomas Gilman, Hawkeye WC

2018: Thomas Gilman, Hawkeye WC

Every year since the weight class change, the world or Olympic team member has trained in Iowa at the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. They all have been sponsored by Titan Mercury as well.

The past four times Thomas Gilman has tried to make a world team, and five of the last six times overall, he’s succeeded. The only blip there was in 2012, when he lost in the Junior challenge tournament finals to Caleb Richardson. The past three times he’s done it though, he hasn’t wrestled in the Open, last competing in it as a second year Junior in 2013.

All of that is to say, Gilman has repeatedly shown himself to be our best domestic lightweight and has wrestled for a medal the last three times he’s represented Team USA at the world championships. He’s also more experienced than his main competition Daton Fix, who is definitely wrestling freestyle this spring, and Spencer Lee, who we are unsure if he is wrestling this summer.

Looking at Gilman’s performance at the Yarygin and Dan Kolov, he was much more offensive than the guy we saw at the world championships, but the most concerning area was his defense on leg attacks. A more wide open and offensively minded Gilman is a good sign, but the leg defense is more concerning at the world level than domestically where his challengers aren’t high volume shooters.

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Daton Fix shot five times in the first Final X match against Gilman last year, but never got his hands locked or seriously threatened a takedown. He was more active in the first period of their second match, but once again was not close to scoring a takedown. That fell in line with his college season, where he made the NCAA finals but did not fire off a lot of leg attacks against the absolute best in the country.

One thing Daton does very well is take ground early and get his opponents on the shot clock in the first period. Guys like Gilman and Tony Ramos though do not necessarily move as much as he would like them to when Fix does his jab step and level changes. In the past, his slideby was one of his go-to takedowns, but he doesn't do it as often now that guys are falling into singles off it, which is how Ramos scored in last year's Open final.

More concerning though than anything to do with tactics or on the mat technique is the weigh-in. Yes, Daton is very short and has been wrestling at this weight for years. But he spent an entire college season at 133, and has a thicker torso and legs than just about everyone in the weight. I have no idea how tough the cut will be in Vegas, but it's something I'm keeping an eye on.

Spencer Lee is absolutely someone who could win the Open. As of now though, he's not registered. He's only wrestled one freestyle tournament above 50kg in his life, and that was in 2015 at Akron. His last freestyle event was Junior worlds in 2016, the summer in between his junior and senior year of high school. Given how his college season went, along with the outcome of the Dan Dennis/Tony Ramos situation a few years ago, I think we won't see Spencer wrestling at the Open. It must be noted though that as the NCAA champ he is qualified for the Trials.

U.S. Open Registration in FloArena

As for guys who are registered, the ones that could present the most threat to Gilman and Fix are Nathan Tomasello, Sebastian Rivera, and Vito Arujau. Tomasello has wrestled Gilman numerous times in both freestyle and folkstyle during their careers, with NaTo's only win coming in the Big Ten championships his freshman year. He wrestled Fix in the finals of the U23 Trials in 2017, losing both matches and getting injured in the second.

All of those losses are well over a year old now, so we're not sure how much they come into play other than just the general idea of looking at past results against someone. The story recently for NaTo has moreso been about his injuries. He missed the first half of his senior season at Ohio State with injuries, then did not wrestle at all last spring and summer while he recovered from surgery. He made his return to the mat at Midlands in December, but only wrestled one match and then had to get another surgery. He has been drilling for over a month now though and will hopefully be at 100% in Vegas.

If Rivera has ever wrestled freestyle, it hasn't been lately and certainly hasn't been at a high level. But based on his level of performance this year and the way he scores most of his takedowns, is there any doubt that he'll come in right away and have success?

Vito Arujau has long been a freestyle guy, having made the Cadet world finals back in 2016. Last year he won the U23 at 61kg and made the finals of Junior Trials at the same weight. Rivera beat Arujau twice at NCAAs, in the quarterfinals and again for third, and I could see them meeting in similar rounds at the Open.

Someone who Arujau beat in both freestyle and folkstyle this past year is Nick Piccininni. The Cowboy has never wrestled senior level before, but has just one year left in Stillwater before he can start training freestyle full time. There were a handful of matches this college season where he didn't score takedowns, so I'm not sure he's ready to jump into the top tier of 57kg freestylers just yet.

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Frank Perrelli has qualified for the last two WTT and is registered. He has competed in four international competitions since last year's Trials and is in contention to qualify again this year. He lost to Darian Cruz in the finals of the Guelph Open in July. Cruz, a 2017 NCAA champ for Lehigh, is already qualified for Raleigh after getting bronze at the Dave Schultz in January.

After spending a year at the Cavalier Wrestling Club in Charlottesville, "Fast" Eddie Klimara has returned to Stillwater to train with the Cowboy WC. Klimara beat Cruz in the Open last year and is looking to qualify for Trials for a second year in a row.

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Zane Richards is the finals athlete to qualify for last year's WTT who is registered for the Open. The Illini RTC athlete lost his only match at both the World Cup and Ivan Yarygin.

Two-time NCAA champ Jesse Delgado is registered, along with college athletes like Austin Assad and Ian Timmins, as well as former college starters like Austin Miller, Luke Welch, Joey Palmer, and Jarrod Patterson.

It amounts to a tremendous field, and registration is still open. Rivera has expressed interest in wrestling for Puerto Rico, so we might not see him wrestle in the Open ever again. It all adds up for interesting matches from the Round of 16 on, as well as guys having to battle back through the consolation bracket to qualify for the Trials.

All signs point to an Open final that is a replay of last year's Final X matchup, especially if Spencer doesn't enter. The only points Gilman gave up last year were shot clock points and a crotch lock when Fix was on bottom. I'm not sure if anything changes this time around, but Fix has excellent coaches and can make adjustments better than almost anyone.

Nomad's Picks

1) Gilman  2) Fix  3) Tomasello  4) Rivera