2019 Senior Nationals - US Olympic Trials Qualifier

Why You Have To Watch Every 86 kg Match This Weekend

Here's why you have to watch every 86kg match this weekend.

Dec 19, 2019 by JD Rader

Any tournament NCAA champion Drew Foster, four-time All-American Willie Miklus, and All-American Logan Massa don’t even get pre-seeded in, is going to be an awesome tournament. That’s exactly what we’re getting at 86kg in Fort Worth.

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Watch the Olympic Trials Qualifier LIVE on Flo

December 20-22 | 11:00 AM Eastern

With the pre-seeds being released, we have a pretty good idea of what the bracket is going to look like.

86kg Pre-Seeds

Alex Dieringer (Titan Mercury WC)
Zahid Valencia (Sunkist Kids)
Sammy Brooks (New York AC)
Nick Heflin (Titan Mercury WC)
Myles Martin (Titan Mercury WC)
Aaron Brooks (Nittany Lion)
Nate Jackson (New York AC)
Brett Pfarr (Gopher WC)

Don’t sleep on 86kg this weekend. You’re going to want to tune in, here’s why.

Ringer Zahid Part IV

As Nomad so eloquently put it, Alex Dieringer vs Zahid Valencia is the strangest rivalry in all of wrestling. There have been nine total takedowns, but in each match the winner has scored every takedown. The scores of every match haven’t been that close. With Ringer taking the last two matches by a combined score of 24-3, most would consider him the favorite BUT the series is still tied at two matches apiece AND this is the first time the two will wrestle at 86kg.

Will the weight change be a factor? 86kg approximately translates to 189.5 lbs. Ringer looked good in his 86kg debut at the Bill Farrell, running through the field with relative ease and beating Myles Martin in the finals 7-2. We’ve never seen Zahid wrestle that heavy.

After winning Farrell, Ringer is already qualified for OTT, meaning he’s simply out for blood and to take a spot in the process.

Who Comes Out Qualified For OTT?

The whole point of US Senior Nationals this year is to qualify for Olympic Team Trials, and with the top five spots qualifying, the backside is going to be just as much of a fight as the front side with some good matchups. Remember when Nick Heflen got up 9-0 on Sammy Brooks at the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament before Brooks came storming back?

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Or how about when Heflin and Brett Pfarr scored 17 points in the first period alone in this barn-burner at last year’s US Open?

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Those could both very well happen again along with plenty of other exciting matchups. So yeah, there’s going to be solid matches both days and on both sides of the bracket at 86kg.

Aaron Brooks vs Senior-Level Competition

You may have noticed that Penn State FRESHMAN Aaron Brooks picked up the sixth pre-seed. At just 19 years old, he is the highest top-six seed in MFS, but that seed was earned. Brooks is a Cadet World champion and a Junior World silver medalist. In his only senior-level action, he teched seven-seed Nate Jackson 13-0.