Looking at OSU’s Lower Weights for the NCAA Tournament

The Cowboys wrestle for their 35th NCAA tournament title this Thursday through Saturday in Pittsburgh. We’ll be putting out a lot of content related to the tournament all week. I thought I’d start with a preview from 125-149. Let’s dig in.

125: Nick Piccininni

Piccininni finished his season undefeated and landed the No. 2 seed for it. His path to the finals is not the easiest. He’ll open with Bryce West from Northern Illinois in the first round. He’ll be a heavy favorite there and will hopefully score some bonus points. In the second round he’ll have the winner of Sean Fausz and Devin Schroder. Fauz is pretty good, he received a low seed as he didn’t wrestle a full season, but is a legit early test for Nick. Fausz won their matchup in the dual last season.

He’ll then likely have the winner of Pat Glory of Princeton and Big 12 runner-up Brent Fleetwood. Nick beat Glory in the dual, but he’s certainly a very tough out. He’s great on his feet and as a true freshman young enough to not get too wrapped up in the spectacle of the NCAA tournament. You want to pull for Fleetwood to pull the upset which he’s certainly capable of.

Whoever comes out of that one Nick will again be the favorite, he’s beat both of them this year. I like the Fleetwood match a lot more. A win there and it’s the semifinals against the defending NCAA champion Spencer Lee. Most remember how that one went in Gallagher-Iba earlier this season.

Oh my God! Picc just pinned Spencer Lee. pic.twitter.com/xyN4sHDEB4

— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) February 24, 2019

Spencer Lee was a house on fire at the NCAA tournament last year and certainly will bring his A-game here. Massive match if they both make it. Naturally if Nick takes a loss at any point he’ll have to navigate the consolation bracket from there. For Piccininni, he just needs to keep doing what he’s been doing all year, which is win, and he’ll be fine. It’s certainly going to be a grind for him.

133: Daton Fix

Fix did himself a lot of favors with his performance throughout this season at this incredibly tough weight class. With the No. 1 seed he’s opposite a lot of the top guys at this weight. He should have a pretty good chance for bonus points in his first round match then he will see start to be tested. He’ll have either Matthew Schmitt or Sean Nickell next. He’ll be a big favorite over either of them and with a good match could get a major. If seeds hold up in the quarterfinals he’ll likely see John Erneste of Missouri, who he beat 9-2 in the dual. A win there and he’s in the semifinals where it could be a number of guys. There’s a ton of talent in this very deep weight class. One possibility is Micky Phillipi, who gave Fix his only loss of the season.

If Fix wins there, he’s in the final and there’s a strong cast of characters who could find themselves facing off with him. There are three NCAA finalists on the bottom half of his bracket with Nick Suriano, Stevan Micic, and Ethan Lizak. My projection is Suriano comes out of this bunch, but it really could be any one of these guys along with a number of others. It will be a fun one to watch play out.

Fix says this all the time about himself, but his key is to “score points”. He’s got a ton of offense and an insane pace and that’s what makes him so great. That pace can be difficult to maintain, especially in a tournament where he’s wrestling a lot of matches. So that pace and that offense has to produce points to avoid any matches that are close late and give the other guys opportunities.

141: Kaid Brock 

Brock has to be the biggest wild card in this tournament for Oklahoma State. The kid can wrestle, there’s no doubt about that. He’s a two-time All-American and the highest NCAA tournament finisher from last season that is on this current roster for OSU. He just hasn’t had the success this year up at 141 like he had at 133. There’s a very real chance that it’s been brewing all season and he hits his stride at the NCAAs. There’s also a chance he wrestles similar to what we’ve seen to this point in the season, which on paper would leave him outside of being an All-American as the 15 seed.

He opens with a very winnable match against Buffalo’s Bryan Lantry. A win there and he’ll likely run into Ohio State’s Joey McKenna, the No. 2 seed in the tournament. An upset there and Kaid will blow up the bracket and be in a great spot as he’ll take over the 2 seed’s path and eliminate a lot of scoring for one of Oklahoma State’s top competitors in the team race. A loss and every match on the consolation side will be a battle in his attempt to become a three-time All-American.

149: Kaden Gfeller

Gfeller is a gamer. He’s a little undersized at this weight. But one thing we all know is he’s going to bring it in every match. He’s seeded seventh and has beaten as high a seed as the No. 3 seed. If favored wrestlers win, he’ll have to beat former Cowboy Ryan Blees, Iowa’s Pat Lugo, Ohio State’s Micah Jordan, and Duke’s Mitch Finesilver to make the final.

Similar to Brock, if Gfeller makes a run like that he will take out a lot of OSU’s competition in the team race and put OSU in a great position from that standpoint. If he doesn’t make that run the Cowboys will be fine. They will need him to battle back on the consolation side though, and it won’t be an easy path. It will be a navigable one if he does hit where his seed says he will.

Here are the complete brackets.

Stay tuned for a preview of OSU’s upper weights.