OSU Comes in No. 4 in FloWrestling Preseason Rankings

FloWrestling came out with its team and individual rankings for the upcoming 2018-19 season. As a team, the Cowboys come in at No. 4 behind PSU, tOSU, and Iowa. PSU’s a pretty heavy favorite, but the margin between OSU, Iowa, and tOSU is small.

Flo has also been trickling out their individual rankings over the past week. Here’s how it shakes out for the Cowboys.

125 — Nick Piccininni — No. 5
133 — Daton Fix — No. 9
141 — Kaid Brock — No. 4
149 — Boo Lewallen — No. 5
157 — Unranked
165 — Joe Smith — No. 6
174 — Chandler Rogers — No. 8
184 — Jacobe Smith — No.10
197 — Preston Weigel — No. 6
285 — Derek White —  No. 4

My Thoughts: The guys at Flo do a great job and if this lineup ends up being the lineup for the Cowboys then I don’t think they’re too far off. With that said, the biggest flaw in the rankings for the Cowboys is no one knows exactly what the lineup will be? There will be battles at a lot of weights to decide starters and in some spots, nothing has been officially put out on what weight guys will be wrestling.

With that let’s dive in even deeper and discuss.

At 125, Piccininni is ranked 5th. I think that’s pretty fair. His ceiling at this weight is probably No. 3. The top two guys are very good, but he’s been the guy working with Daton Fix most of the summer prepping him for his international tournaments. Hopefully he’s really upped his game on his feet via that work with Daton. If he has jumped levels there, he may be able to compete with those top two. One variable here is whether or not this is Nick’s weight? There’s a chance he goes 133.

Barring injury Daton Fix will not finish 9th in the country at 133. They simply rank him there because the sample size of his college matches is pretty small. If there were gambling lines in wrestling I would bet the house that Daton finishes higher. This is a tough weight though. All are solid, but the top five or so are very good. One of the biggest questions with Daton is what’s his mat wrestling like? He’s a monster on his feet, but it’ll be interesting to see if he matches up with a guy like Ethan Lizak and has to go down on the mat. If this is Daton’s weight he’ll match up with the defending NCAA champ Seth Gross in the first dual of the season. That’ll be unreal.

As a high school sophomore Fix tech’d No. 2-ranked Stevan Micic. Micic was a college freshman at the time.

At 141, Kaid Brock comes in at No. 4. This is a jump from last year at 133. I think the ranking for him is pretty accurate, but those top three are monsters, so he’ll have to make a big jump by going up in weight to contend for a higher finish. Another weight where it’s unclear who will be the starter. Kaden Gfeller had a very good redshirt season last year. His only losses were to Eierman, who’s ranked third, teammate and two-time NCAA champ Dean Heil, and All-American Kevin Jack, who graduated last year. I really think the matchup between these two is a true toss-up, and both guys are probably at that #4 spot as Gfeller beat No. 5 last year. Also, don’t rule out the possibility of Brock going back down to 133. I don’t find it likely, but wouldn’t rule it out either.

After an All-American finish last year, Boo Lewallen comes in at No. 5. This is the first weight where I think it’s almost definitively certain the guy listed will be the starter. Some projected weight changes shift this weight around a lot. Boo’s about where he probably should be. He can contend with top guys, he beat Leeth last year. You have to hope he keeps some consistency all season. He was great last year, but had a midseason slump that hurt his seeding and thus his finish at the NCAA tournament. He was up from his natural weight of 141 last year, so another hope is he fills out the weight a bit more next year. That could make a big difference. Boo will be tested often this season. He’ll see Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, and 17 all in duals this season.

At 157, the Cowboys aren’t ranked, but the projected starter here is Edinboro transfer Andrew Shomers. I’m not sure if maybe he was just accidentally overlooked, but he’s a top 20 guy. WIN magazine had him at 16. This is a crucial weight for the Cowboys this year as there’s a lot of room to move up. If Shomers, or possibly Jonce Blaylock if he returns as the starter, can get into the All-American category it would be massive for OSU as a team.

At 165, Joe Smith is ranked No. 6. This is another one where it’s not 100 percent certain this is what weight he’ll be at, but I think they’re right on this projection. It’s a tough weight, but if healthy Joe could finish even higher. The big question though is whether or not he’s 100 percent. He’s struggled with injuries most of his career to include his redshirt season last year. If he’s healed up and going up in weight from 157 gives him a boost I think the talent is there to possibly make a jump to the top tier of this class.

They put Chandler Rogers at No. 8 at 174. This is an incredibly tough weight, the toughest in the country in mine and most others opinion. Chandler has the “funkiest” style on the team though and with the stuff he does it wouldn’t shock me if he pins his way through the NCAA tournament or he goes and loses two matches and goes home. That just comes with the territory with his high flying style. Last year he dropped his first match to an unseeded wrestler then took one of the toughest consolation paths I’ve ever seen to an All-American finish. Who knows what will happen this year? One other factor to consider is All American Jacobe Smith could come back as the starter at 174.

Jacobe Smith comes in at No. 10 at 184. Tired of me telling you it’s not certain who will be at this weight? This should be the last one. Jacobe could make the bump from 174, but OSU also landed a massive transfer in Dakota Geer from Edinboro. Jacobe is a natural 174. He’s definitely physically strong enough to make the bump, but he’s really not a very big 174, so he’d be undersized here. I think if Jacobe does go up that makes this a really interesting battle to start and I don’t know who wins. This is another tough weight. Both are certainly good enough to be All-Americans here. I just don’t know who it’ll end up being in the starting role?

Preston Weigel is No. 6 at 197. Injuries killed his NCAA tournament last year and most of his season in general, but when healthy he was great. He beat last years NCAA champ and even tech’d the guy that’s ranked second here. He also beat the No. 4 ranked guy. The big question here becomes can he stay healthy? If he can and all the right things fall in place he has the talent to be an NCAA finalist. He’s incredible on top and has developed on his feet a bit. He’s been full speed for a while this summer. If he can stay that way all year it’ll be very interesting to see what he does at the NCAA tournament.

Derek White comes in as the No. 4 heavyweight in the country. This weight cleared out after last year and it’s opened up from being a two-man race to having four or five contenders. White’s one of those guys. He’s a smaller heavyweight who came up from 197, and he wrestles like it. On his feet, he looks like a 125. It’s insane. He can take anyone down, including Kyle Snyder. He did have some struggles when he would get stuck on bottom against big guys, and there are some big boys at this weight, so he’ll need to figure that out, but if he’s been on the same improvement incline we saw last year he could have a big impact on this weight class.

It should be a fun one this year. The Cowboys kick off their season at the OCU open on November 4th. Usually, those early open’s don’t mean much, but this year it could decide many of the starting spots for the Cowboys.