OSU Wrestling: NCAA Brackets Released, Every Cowboy’s Path to a National Title

The NCAA wrestling brackets are set.

The 10 brackets were released on Wednesday, and Oklahoma State’s had an average seed of 7.

Here are a look at the seeds and each Cowboys’ path to a national title.

Seeds

125 — No. 5 Troy Spratley
133 — No. 1 Jax Forrest
141 — No. 2 Sergio Vega
149 — No. 8 Casey Swiderski
157 — No. 5 Landon Robideau
165 — No. 5 LaDarion Lockett
174 — No. 8 Alex Facundo
184 — No. 22 Zack Ryder
197 — No. 7 Cody Merrill
HWT — No. 7 Konner Doucet

125: No. 5 Troy Spratley

Overall Season Record: 16-3
Other Top Contenders: 1 Luke Lilledahl (Penn State), Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech), 3 Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State), 4 Sheldon Seymour (Lehigh), 6 Jore Volk (Minnesota), 12 Vincent Robinson (NC State)

Overview: The 5 seed is nothing to be too upset about, but Spratley was hard done by his path back to the national final.

Should Spratley win his opening bout against Navy’s Andrew Binni, he would likely get a rematch from last season’s NCAA final against Vincent Robinson, who slid to the 12 seed despite his four losses this season coming to the 2 seed and the 7 seed in the seed in the bracket. Robinson beat Spratley in tiebreakers in last season’s national final. The two met at National Duals in November, where Robinson beat Spratley 3-2.

Get through that match and Spratley would likely either get a rematch of the Big 12 final against Stevo Poulin or unbeaten Sheldon Seymour out of Lehigh in the quarters.

Good seed, tough bracket.

133: No. 1 Jax Forrest

Overall Season Record: 13-0
Other Contenders: 2 Ben Davino (Ohio State), 3 Marcus Blaze (Penn State), 4 Aaron Seidel (Virginia Tech), 5 Kyler Larkin (Arizona State), 6 Drake Ayala (Iowa), 7 Lucas Byrd (Illinois)

Overview: The 133-pound weightclass might be the deepest the country has to offer this year, and a kid who left high school early will lead the way. In fact, the bracket’s top four seeds are all freshmen.

Bluntly, Forrest is better than his quadrant of the bracket, but everyone is good; he’ll need to be on his A game.

Everyone will have their eyes on a would-be rematch between Forrest and Aaron Seidel in the semifinals. Forrest beat Seidel 10-9 in a February dual — by far Forrest’s most-competitive match to this point, as Seidel won the takedown battle 3-1.

The top dogs from the other side of the bracket are almost exclusively from the Big Ten. Ben Davino won that tournament, beating Marcus Blaze in the final (after Blaze beat Davino in the regular season). But that side also features last year’s national champ and runner-up in Lucas Byrd and Drake Ayala.

141: No. 2 Sergio Vega

Overall Season Record: 19-0
Other Top Contenders: 1 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State), 3 Brock Hardy (Nebraska), 4 Anthony Echemendia (Iowa State), 5 Luke Stanich (Lehigh)

Overview: Sergio Vega enters his first national tournament still having not given up a takedown. He earns the 2 seed behind two-time national champ Jesse Mendez. It’s a match the wrestling world wants, but there are some things to take care of before he gets there.

Vega’s would-be quarterfinal would be against Iowa’s Nasir Bailey, the 7 seed. The two wrestled at National Duals, where Vega beat Bailey 3-0 in sudden-victory. That was Vega’s fourth college match.

The would-be semifinal would come against Nebraska’s Brock Hardy. Vega has had Hardy’s number this season, beating him 13-2 at National Duals before pinning him in Lincoln in December.

149: No. 8 Casey Swiderski

Overall Season Record: 14-5
Other Top Contenders: 1 Shayne Van Ness (Penn State), 2 Jaxon Joy (Cornell), 3 Cross Wasilewski (Penn), 4 Collin Gaj (Virginia Tech), 5 Koy Buesgens (NC State) 6 Caleb Tyus (SIUE)

Overview: If you’re looking for chaos, this might be the bracket for you.

Van Ness enters unbeaten but didn’t have the cleanest of Big Ten Tournaments. Past him, it sorta feels like anyone could beat anyone at any time.

Swiderski has losses to 5 seed Buesgens and 6 seed Tyus, but those were both were in the first semester.

Swiderski returned from injury to wrestle in the Big 12s, where he picked up his first conference title. He enters NCAAs on a 10-match winning streak.

Again, everyone is good, but Swiderski’s biggest test to get a quarterfinal match with Van Ness would be Utah Valley’s David Evans. The two missed each other at Big 12s, where Evans finished third.

157: No. 5 Landon Robideau

Overall Season Record: 16-2
Other Top Contenders: 1 PJ Duke (Penn State), 2 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska), 3 Meyer Shapiro (Cornell), 4 Kaleb Larkin (Arizona State)

Overview: Outside of 133, this 157-pound bracket might be the most competitive.

Freshman PJ Duke earns the top seed after he avenged his only loss of the year in the Big Ten final to reigning national champ Antrell Taylor.

Robideau’s would-be second round match would be a tough one against Iowa State’s Vinny Zerban. Zerban got hurt at Big 12s and didn’t place, but Robideau beat Zerban 4-1 in their dual this season.

In the semi, Robideau would get a rematch of the Big 12 final against Arizona State’s Kaleb Larkin. Larkin beat Robideau 4-3 in that match, but the Cowboy freshman was close on a few takedowns.

165: No. 5 LaDarion Lockett

Overall Season Record: 16-2
Other Top Contenders: 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State), 2 Joey Blaze (22-1), Mikey Caliendo (Iowa), 4 Nicco Ruiz (Arizona State)

Overview: This bracket feels like a Mesenbrink vs. the field, but that’s more a compliment to Mesenbrink than it is a knock on the field.

Lockett could get a rematch of the Big 12 final against Nicco Ruiz in the semis. Ruiz won that bout in tiebreakers.

The would-be semi would almost certainly be against Mesenbrink, one of the most offensive wrestlers in the country and a Hodge favorite. But if Lockett could upset the Nittany Lion, he can beat anybody.

174: No. 8 Alex Facundo

Overall Season Record: 16-6
Other Top Contenders: 1 Levi Haines (Penn State), 2 Simon Ruiz (Cornell), 3 Chris Minto (Nebraska), 4 Carson Kharchla (Ohio State), 5 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa), 6 Matty Singleton (NC State), 7 Cam Steed (Missouri)

Overview: This is an interesting bracket for Facundo. He opens with Virginia Tech’s Sergio Desiante, the 25 seed. The two had a close bout in a dual this year, that Facundo took 4-1.

Should he win that, he’d likely get a tough Beau Mantanona in the second round.

So that’s two matches of intrigue, but if he wins both of those, he’d like get a bout with top seed Levi Haines, his former teammate in the quarters.

It’s a fun, but tough, draw.

184: No. 22 Zack Ryder

Overall Season Record: 12-8
Other Top Contenders: 1 Rocco Welsh (Penn State), 2 Aeoden Sinclair (Missouri), Max McEnelly (Minnesota), 7 Angelo Ferrari (Iowa)

Overview: As far as 22 seeds go, Ryder is a dang good one.

He had to medical forfeit out of the Big 12 Championships after he dislocated his shoulder four times at the event, but he still battled long enough to earn his bid.

With that seed, the road will be tough, starting with Rutgers’ Shane Cartagena-Walsh before he’d likely see Big 12 runner-up Eddie Neitenbach (Wyoming) in the second round.

With that being said, Ryder, if healthy, will be competitive in both of those bouts.

197: No. 7 Cody Merrill

Overall Season Record: 17-4 
Other Top Contenders: 1 Josh Barr (Penn State), 2 Rocky Elam (Iowa State), 3 Stephen Little (Little Rock), 4 Sonny Sasso (Virginia Tech), 5 Joey Novak (Wyoming), 6 Justin Rademacher (Oregon State)

Overview: Like 149, this is a bracket that has an undefeated Nittany Lion at the top but should be competitive throughout.

Merrill has wrestled three of the guys seeded ahead of him, and though he’s lost all of those bouts, one was in tiebreakers (Elam), one was in sudden-victory (Novak) and the other was by one point (Sasso). So, he’s right there with all of those guys, and his ability to keep matches close could make for an upset or two.

HWT: No. 7 Konner Doucet

Overall Season Record: 17-3
Other Top Contenders: 1 Yonger Bastida (Iowa State), 2 Isaac Trumble (NC State), 3 Taye Ghadiali (Michigan), 4 AJ Ferrari (Nebraska), 5 Nick Feldman (Ohio State), 6 Nathan Taylor (Lehigh)

Overview: Sort of a tough seed for Doucet given two of his three losses this season came to the 1 seed and the other came to the 4 seed.

The likely second-round match against Arizona State’s David Szuba would be a big match. Doucet beat Szuba 5-2 back in November.

The would-be quarterfinal against Isaac Trumble would also be a big one, as some are predicting Trumble as the favorite in the bracket. They didn’t wrestle when their teams met at National Duals, instead Doucet teched backup Everest Ouellette.