While most weight classes have a lot of familiar faces due to the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA, there was a mass exodus at 141 lbs after the 2021-2022 season. 1-5 in FloWrestling’s final season ranking all graduated and moved on. This leaves 141 lbs as one of the most up-for-grabs and intriguing weight classes of the season!

Other preseason weight class previews: 125 | 133

Departed

Nick Lee, Penn State

Sebastian Rivera, Rutgers

Jaydin Eierman, Iowa

Chad Red, Nebraska

Kizhan Clarke, North Carolina

Grant Willits, Oregon State

Stevan Micic, Michigan

Dylan Duncan, Illinois

Ian Parker, Iowa State

Dresden Simon, Central Michigan

Like I said, a mass exodus of talent. It’s been entertaining watching Nick Lee fight for supremacy the past two seasons over Jaydin Eierman and Sebastian Rivera. And I won’t be forgetting Kizhan Clarke’s NCAA finals run anytime soon. A truly fun group of wrestlers who I will miss watching.

Returning 2022 All-Americans

Cole Matthews, Pitt (5th)

Real Woods, Stanford (6th)

Jake Bergeland, Minnesota (7th)

CJ Composto, Penn (8th)

Despite the incredible loss of talent to this weight class, half of last year’s All-Americans will be returning. While I don’t want to discredit these wrestlers’ accomplishments, part of that is due to the older wrestlers lack of ability to stay healthy at the NCAA tournament.

Watch Jake Bergeland defeat Andrew Alirez in the bloodround below.

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Healed

Jesse Vasquez, Arizona State

The #21 overall prospect in the class of 2020, Jesse Vasquez was a 4X California state champion coming out of high school. He earned the 141 lbs starting spot at Arizona State after redshirting a year and went 7-1 before suffering a season-ending injury.

Bumping Up From 133

Sammy Alvarez, Rutgers

Jordan Titus, West Virginia

Sammy Alvarez’s weight has notoriously been an issue for him the past two seasons. He even was unable to make 133 lbs for the Big Ten Tournament in 2021. He should perform much better up a weight. 

Jordan Titus competed at 133 while in redshirt last season, but will be moving up and taking over the 141 lbs starting spot for the Mountaineers. He went 20-7 last season while competing unattached, winning the Ohio Intercollegiate and Edinboro Opens.

Moving Down From 149

Beau Bartlett, Penn State

With 2X national champion Nick Lee holding down the 141 spot, it’s clear why Beau Bartlett has been competing at 149 despite many believing his optimal weight class would be 141.

Coming Off Redshirt

Vince Cornella, Cornell

Wyatt Henson, Oklahoma

Lachlan McNeil, North Carolina

Jordan Titus, West Virginia

Ethen Miller, Maryland

Vince Cornella, Wyatt Henson, Lachlan McNeil, Ethen Miller and the aforementioned Jordan Titus are all 2nd year college wrestlers who I’ve circled that could have an impact. Wyatt Henson will be in an interesting roster battle with another Oklahoma transfer in, Mosha Schwartz.

Rider’s McKenzie Bell redshirted last season after qualifying for the national tournament as a true freshman in 2021.

True Freshman Who Could Be In The Mix

Casey Swiderski, Iowa State

Ryan Crookham, Lehigh

Ismael Ayoub, Nebraska

Nash Singleton, Oregon State

Michael Gioffre, Virginia

Garrett Grice, Virginia

In recent exciting news, Kevin Dresser confirmed that the plan is to start #2 overall recruit, Casey Swiderski. With the departure of a lot of the top talent at the weight class, many are saying that Swiderski could compete for a spot on the podium come March. 

At one point, Ryan Crookham was considered to be the #1 overall recruit in the class of 2022. Injuries have plagued his last two years in high school, but if he can remain healthy, he will be a factor on the national level. 

On-Paper-Favorites

Cole Matthews, Pitt

Real Woods, Iowa

The two odds-on favorites to win are going to be the two highest returning place winners, Cole Matthews and Real Woods. Although many would probably consider Woods to be the sole favorite, with the help of a big six-point through, Matthews defeated Woods for 5th place at last year’s NCAAs.

Watch Matthews throw Woods to his back and defeat him at NCAAs last year below.

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Don’t count Woods out, however. He’ll have a slightly different look and training regime this year as he transferred to the University of Iowa. People also forget how good Woods looked with a full normal season of training. In 2020, Woods was the #3 seed at NCAAs behind Luke Pletcher and Nick Lee.

Contenders

Jakob Bergeland, Minnesota

CJ Composto, Penn

Andrew Alirez, Northern Colorado

Clay Carlson, SDSU

Allan Hart, Missouri

These guys won’t bring in the Vegas money to win the title, but they’ve got the skill if they can put it all together and things fall in the right way to get it done in Tulsa. Alirez, Carlson, and Hart meet several times throughout the year and often trade wins and losses. While this is fortunate for fans, it makes things rather hard to predict and rank.

Watch Clay Carlson break down his exciting CKLV final with Andrew Alirez below.

All-American Threats

Carter Young, Oklahoma State

Beau Bartlett, Penn State

Frankie Tal Shahar, Northwestern

Ryan Jack, Northwestern

Dylan D'Emilio, Ohio State

Joseph Zargo, Wisconsin

Parker Filius, Purdue

Dylan Droegemueller, NDSU

Matthew Kazimir, Columbia

Casey Swiderski, Iowa State

All eight of these guys are national qualifiers, but not one podium finish between them. I expect that to change this year.

Landmines

Brock Hardy, Nebraska

Josh Mason, Bloomsburg

Cael Happel, Northern Iowa

The guys you don’t want to draw first round at NCAAs. Brock Hardy was a top-10 recruit coming out of the class of 2018. He was used selectively in 2021 at 149 lbs before losing the spot to Ridge Lovett. Turned out not to be too bad. Josh Mason is a national qualifier with very good pinning capabilities. Cael Happel is typical Panther Train tough as hell.

Predictions

1) Woods 2) Matthews 3) Carlson 4) Bergeland 5) Young 6) Alirez 7) Swiderski 8) Composto