Author: marklongmainstream (Page 6 of 307)

141 is a super tough weight class with anyone of 3 different wrestlers being capable of winning the NCAA title this year. Even outside of those 3 Brock Hardy is another high level wrestler capable of winning it all, and surging Sergio Lemley also has championship caliber wins on his record. Welcome to our preseason podium picks at 141

#1. Andrew Alirez

Returning with full dedication to this year after taking last season off for freestyle, has come back to find his medal kept warm by Jesse Mendez. These two are a complete toss up, but if you love recent results then Mendez is your guy, beating Alirez in beat the streets with freestyle rules in June is not enough. We don’t place a lot of stock in freestyle so we took a look at common opponents record where Mendez is still dominant 6-1 where Alirez went 5-1, but Mendez losing to #3 Beau Bartlett (Penn State) set the tone. The accolades are all there, National champion, Dan Hodge Trophy Finalist, 2X All American, 2X Big 12 Champion and 4X qualifier. 72-10 record overall at an 87 percent win rate. A preseason rank #1 from flowrestling and a disrespectful #3 from wrestlestat. he is our favorite to take the title.

#2. Jesse Mendez

Mendez can’t be any less than #2, obviously returning champion and seeks to repeat with everyone drooling over what a folkstyle match will look like with these two. On paper there’s nobody better, even Alirez. There’s still a chance Bartlett can beat him again, highly unlikely, but really puts him at #2 is an uncanny loss to #12 Cole Matthews. Yes understandably guys at the top do get upset, but the top 3 are always judged by their ability to be perfect. We can talk all we want but any of the top 3 can take a title this year either way. 48-11 record overall at an 81 percent win rate. A preseason rank #2 from flowrestling and #1 from wrestlestat.

#3. Beau Bartlett

Really trying not to have a bias and place him at #4 we regrettably agree with the experts for Beau Bartlett, while very tactical, a loss to Brock Hardy 7-3 by decision in January is a huge eyesore that we haven’t forgotten when talking about perfection within the top 3. Is Beau Bartlett a better paper warrior than Hardy? Of course, but a loss is a loss. Either way he still has yet to get a national title, to counter has won gold in Greco Roman, but needs to have a phenomenal year to win it all. 74-18 record overall at an 80 percent win rate. A preseason rank #3 from flowrestling and a #2 from wrestlestat.

#4. Cael Happel

Now get your tomatoes ready to throw, we have Cael Happel here because of his performance against Hardy. It is difficult to put him here based on head to head stats against Ryan Jack (NC State) but keep your insults in a holster, his record against like opponents with Hardy are 22-11. Hardy is 22-15 against like opponents. 61-29 record overall at an 67 percent win rate. A preseason rank #6 from flowrestling and a #7 from wrestlestat.

#5. Brock Hardy

Unanimously voted #4 across the board, Brock Hardy can hang with the top 3, having a close NCAA tourney loss to Mendez 6-2 still hasn’t gotten a shot at Alirez which we would like to see. But we have to shake up the status quo and bring up the fact that Hardy has lost to Happel twice, eye opening enough to move him a little further back. It is not out of the realm for him to end up in the semis just like Happel interdependent on the bracket layout. 61-20 record overall at an 75 percent win rate. A preseason rank #4 from flowrestling and a #4 from wrestlestat.

#6. Ryan Jack

Any preseason ranking list could put Ryan Jack at #4 and/or #5, finally grabbed his first AA last year and had a breakout year last year going 22-5 but falls behind Hardy on our list with a loss to him at the NCAA’s by fall and holding in 18-8 record against like opponents where Jack is 16-8. Hopefully we see a continuation of the rivalry with an even 500 and a tie breaker after that to end it. 66-22 record overall at an 75 percent win rate. A preseason rank #5 from flowrestling and a #6 from wrestlestat.

#7. Sergio Lemley

Sergio is our darkhorse title contender for the weight class. He has already proven he has the capability to beat the divisions best, as we saw last season when he took out NCAA finalist Read Woods as well as2x All-American Brock Hardy. Sergio did have a few strange loses during his true freshman season, but that is expected when making the jump to college competition. I expect big things from him this year.

#8. Vance Vombaur

Looking at who we have left, drawing straws would sort out the last two ranks but we’ll go with Vance Vombaur who hit podium last year, but putting him behind Ryan Jack is ideal having lost to him in the NCAA’s. Only by a point though, so it’s safe to say if this list was a current in real life ranking then Vombaur could challenge and overturn Jack, hard maybe. Could he beat any in the top 5? Highly unlikely but we always have an open door to be surprised. 37-18 record overall at an 67 percent win rate. A preseason rank #8 from flowrestling and a #12 from wrestlestat.

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After a huge blow to the Wolverines in losing Cam Amine, some are asking, are they out this year? The team finishing 3rd in the NCAA’s seems like an unlikely repeat entering the 25 season, yet they have made some strategic moves bringing in Jacob Cardenas (Cornell) and Chase Saldate (Michigan State) and six freshman to help fill some of the void. Returning two AA’s and four NQ’s, Michigan will need to see big action at 33 and 97 to carry the team deep into the NCAA’s, let’s take a closer look. There is a lot to be excited about in Michigan, as they bring in a young and talented team. I’m pumped to see what Ragusin and Lemley can do this year. Both have the potential to make the finals, I could see Montanona reaching the podium as well.

125- Nolan Wertanen- this will be the year for Wertanen to really show up and establish a presence at the 25 for this team. Redshirting in 23, a better year in 24, carries a 9-7 overall record with a 56 percent win rate, he has improved over the last two years. A national qualification and a couple wins over higher ranked opponents would offer some deep credibility to this weight

133- Dylan Ragusin- Signed and sealed, there’s no one else to challenge this position for Michigan, pretty set in stone. More than just carrying bonus points this year, he probably wants to move beyond the mid top ten limitations that all of the preseason rankings have listed him as. Is he up to the task to get in the conversation with Crookham, Ayala and get revenge on Bailey from a 5-0 loss in the NCAA’s last year? A pretty illustrious career going 74-27 overall with a 73 percent win rate says so.

141- Sergio Lemley- Once again, pretty set in stone being one of the four NQ’s to return, Lesley has had some feature moments. Knocking off #4 Brock Hardy in the quarterfinals at the Big Ten’s avenging a dual loss earlier on. Also Majored our very own #1 Real Woods 14-2 the year prior tells us he’s dexterous enough to make a deeper run than a 1-2 last year at the NCAA’s. Posting an 18-9 overall with a 66 percent win rate, hopeful to crack the top 5.

149- Dylan Gilcher- little bit of a gap here at 49, four listed freshman so this is open to debate but Gilcher carrying experience at the CKLV and Midlands is the likely option. 10-8 record overall, Michigan fans hopeful for a cracking of the top 20 with a preseason rank at #35 coming off a redshirt year.

157- Chase Saldate- searching for a 5th straight NQ, the irony of filling the shoes of Lewan Will who beat him at the NCAA’s is looking to erase the past. Getting beyond a rivalry with #13 Johnny Lovett where Saldate is up 2-1 head to head and ranked #16. Wins against #6 Ryder Downey and #4 Jacori Teemer could but him in a championship situation.

165- Beau Montanona- An interesting case where flo and intermat can’t seem to agree on a preseason rank at all, how can you not rank this guy? Flo has a fat NR where intermat places him at #12, absolutely wild considering he’s beaten top 10 opponents. Last season taking out Michigan State’s #10 Caleb Fish and #18 Maxx Mayfield (Northwestern) placing 3rd at Midlands proves he deserves a top 20 rank. Holding a 14-6 record in his redsirt year, a 70 percent win rate, we are expecting an experience building year followed up next year with something big

174- Joseph Walker- Will have to swim through some heavy water to make podium this year, how many times have we talked about 74 and how loaded it is? Joseph walker is sitting at #38 with wrestlestat, they may be sleeping on him a little as he did take down #21 Donnell Washington (Indiana) but hasn’t really had a breakout season since 2022. He has a real opportunity in his final year of eligibility to help Ragusin and Cardenas this year.

184- Jaden Bullock- a little more hope here with Jaden Bullock, seems to have battled in the low teen rankings for a while dominating a rivalry with #19 ranked Brian Soldano (Rutgers) 3-0 all time, also up one match with #12 Dylan Fishback (NC State) who’s two ranks this preseason higher than himself. Bullock has had moments of greatness taking out #8 Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State) at the CKLV last year, along with payback to #16 Ryder Rogotzke (Ohio State) in the Big Tens. If he can pull off an upset against Edmond Ruth and stay consistent against Nelson Brands he could podium this year. Showcasing a 35-25 record overall at 58 percent, he needs a breakout year this year.

197- Jacob Cardenas- There is not a scenario outside of injury where Cardenas doesn’t start for Michigan, a true cornerstone piece here. 2X AA, 3X NQ and 2X 92 kg medalist his biggest challenge will be Stephen Buchanan, meeting his fate at the NCAA’s last year 9-4 by decision there’s probably a desire to remedy this. Buchanan preseason ranked #1 and Cardenas at #2, this would have been a a beautiful match for the NWCA this year, but we can’t always get what we want. With Cornell he went 70-22 at 76 percent, Michigan can’t ask for much more for a 97 in 2025.

285- Josh Heindselman- Josh is another exciting pick up from the transfer portal. Spending most of his career at Oklahoma. He has a career record of 82-46 and is already a 4x NCAA qualifier. He enters the season ranked 10th in the country. It would’t take much for him to out perform his preseason rank and reach the podium.

With Ragusin and Cardenas at the front, they could use some breakouts at the middleweights to carry the 25 and HWT for team points, if things go good they could probably place somewhere between 7th-10th place, pretty good considering losing Cam Amine, we’ll just say that things could be a lot worse for Michigan.

The NWCA Classic is once again bringing some of the best talent together in 2024 as it has done since its inception in 1967, featuring the likes of Cael Sanderson in 1999 before his legendary season, two appearances from Dan Gable, iconic matches between Kyle Dake vs Dave Taylor in 2012 and Yianni Diakomihalis vs Sammy Sasso in 2022. This year will be no different, showcasing 9 AA’s with 5 national champs but one match everyone wants to see that will add to the events all star allure. We like to feature them in the order of interest level rather than by weight, let’s take a look. This event takes place Saturday November 16th at 7 pm on Flowrestling.

184 Carter Starocci Vs Parker Keckeisen Sparing you no wait, the single greatest match up of this event is #1 Starocci Vs. #2 Keckeisen. An unforgettable match, but whether you favor one side or the other we all will be begging for a rematch during the NCAA’s. Both of these guys are once in a decade wrestlers, take Aaron Brooks out of the 2023 season and Keckeisen is the Hodge trophy finalist without question. Parker with only 6 career losses, half of those being to Brooks there is nobody currently rostered that has beaten him, Holding a 102-6 record with a 94.44 winning percent. Makes sense that Starocci is his only challenge holding a 93-4 overall record at 174 with a 95 percent winning percentage. Starocci did get taken down twice in the NCAA’s last year. Historically, Starocci doesn’t get taken down. Which leads us into talking about the relentless takedown pursuit of Keckeisen, if Starocci wrestlers scared, he’s going to get taken down again. You would assume that there’s no reason for him to be scared as there’s no title pressure or all time record on the line. But with the ego of Starocci, he can’t walk away losing, which might lead him to wrestle different. Pure conjecture though, if he remains confident then Starocci could probably hold him off until the 3rd where we think Keckeisen takes him, 4-1.

141 Jesse Mendez vs Beau Bartlett Maybe not a second favorite on everyone else’s list but for us the P4P #8 and #9 with #1 Jesse Mendez vs. #3 Beau Bartlett should be pretty exciting. They will see each other in the Big 10’s this year and possibly the NCAA’s later on but there is no better way to continue building a rivalry than with a preseason rematch of the NCAA’s last year. Mendez taking Bartlett 4-1 by decision with 5 seconds left in the third there was really no offense up until that point. Some Buckeye fans were actually disappointed to have a champion with little offense, but being critical of anyone winning in the finals means nothing. A win is a win. Either way Mendez leads the series 2-1. Mendez is 13-2 against like opponents losing to Bartlett in February 4-1 and Cole Matthew’s in December of 2023. Bartlett going 14-4 against like opponents, two of those to Mendez, the other two to Brock Hardy and Real Woods in the 22-23 season. Mendez with a 49-11 record all time with an 86 winning percent and Bartlett 74-18 overall with 84 winning percent, these stats make them an evenly matched to if they finish .500 against each other, a rivalry to remember.

149 Shane Van Ness vs Ty Watters The battle at 49 has not been seen before and will be interesting, some say that their styles don’t really match up as #2 Van Ness is more of a slow starter and makes a lot of come behind wins, no matter how you view it, last years NWCA match against Kyle Parco he looked rather more aggressive than usual getting a takedown late in the second leading 4-0. He’ll have to look out for #3 Ty Watters on a misdirection shot that he has absolutely perfected, Van Ness has really good defense so hopefully we’ll get to see Watters try to use it. But being that Van Ness is shorter and stockier it might not work that well. Watters being heavily reliant on scrambling, will Van Ness even let him get there? They both finished well at the NCAA tournament finishing in  3rd and 4th place in consecutive years and have both beaten Parco but Van Ness has beaten Caleb Henson where Watters lost to him at Midlands so this collision is a must see. Van ness holding a 29-7 all time and Watters with 30-6, they are evenly matched with Van Ness 3-0 against common opponents and Ty Watters being 2-2. Watters losses came against NCAA Champion Henson. This match will definitely gauge Van Ness if he’s title ready this season.

133 Nasir Bailey vs Evan Frost We would love to see a better matchup at the this year’s NWCA between #2 Nasir Bailey and #4 Evan Frost than what we had seen last year. Two true freshman returning as All-Americans in their sophomore year Bailey at 29-4 record holding an 87 winning percentage and Frost with 33-12 at 73 winning percentage, Bailey holds a stronger record. Verses common opponents Bailey is more dominant going 11-3 where Frost is 8-4, but the biggest indicator for the outcome of this match is how much has Evan Frost improved since they last faced off in December of 23. Where Bailey teched him 15-0 1:57 minutes into the match. This loss raises questions as to whether Frost can reverse the doubts and assumptions about whether this will even be close. We think it will be closer this time around with Bailey still on top, 6-2.

Heavyweight Nick Feldman vs Taye Ghadiali Originally Feldman was expected to face Greg Kerkvliet and then Yonger Bastida, and now the week of the event we get Taye Ghadiali. This should still be an exciting matchup, as Taye is a very athletic 285lber, and he has similiar speed as Nick Feldman. These two are both returning all-americans with Taye finishing 8th while going 36-6 and Nick with a 5th place finish. They met at last year’s NCAA tournament where Nick scored a 10-4 victory.  I expect Nick to widen the gap this year and put on a display.

157 Tyler Kasak vs Peyton Kellar Without Teemer or Shapiro in appearance we get a fresh match with yet another Penn State wrestler even with Haines moving up in #3 Tyler Kasak vs. #5 Peyton Kellar. Interestingly we have had one like opponent between the two even though Kasak has just moved up. Aiden Vandenbush, Kassak pinned him where Kellar lost to him 6-4. Kassak holds a 24-5 record overall at 82 percent where Kellar stands at 58-17 overall and a 77 percent rate. Kellar had an impressive 11 pins last year, some would say being in a weaker conference that would be more than possible but two of those pins came again Bryce Andonian and Ed Scott in the NCAA’s which makes him dangerous. With Kassak adjusting the move in weight, Kellar could pin him early on.

165 Hunter Garvin vs Peyton Hall Surprisingly we don’t have #1 Mitchell Messenbrink at the 165, nobody should be expecting every top guy to be here as they don’t have to be. We would have loved to see him square off with Caliendo again for a revenge in a 17-9 beat down or maybe even a return of Sammy Sasso against anyone but we’ll take #3 Hunter Garvin vs. #4 Peyton Hall. The argument for these two could be made in the case of their match against Keegan O’Toole, where Garvin was teched by him in the NCAA’s 6 minutes in, but Hall barely lost to him 8-7 in their last meeting. Beyond that this is a rematch of the NCAA’ s where Garvin majored Hall 14-4 already so Garvin knows how to wrestle him. Garvin holds a 30-18 record overall at 62 percent and Hall is 92-27 with 77 percent. We hope to see Hall do a lot better this time around.

197 Steven Little vs Zac Braunagel The face off at 197 could be a little more interesting barely cracking the top five with #5 Steven Little vs. #9 Zac Braunagel they have never each other on the mat before. Braunagel known more better in Greco, Little did beat Lou DuPrey in overtime as a highlight last season. The two are evenly matched against like opponents, Little being 3-5 where Braunagel is 5-4. Both have bigger wins against Michael Beard but both have lost to Jacob Cardenas. Braunagel is 71-41 overall at 63 percent and Little is 35-8 at 81 percent. Being indifferent on this one, it could go either way.

125 Tanner Jordan vs Jore Volk Hopefully we see a win coming from #6 Tanner Jordan and get a little payback in this 5th match up with #3 Jore Volk who’s had the upper hand for quite a while. Jordan hasn’t beaten him since their dual in February of 24 2-1 by decision. Other than that not much to see here as Volk beat him 2-1 in the Big 12’s and then shut him out 4-0 in the NCAA’s. Volk holds a 28-11 record against like opponents where Jordan is 28-28, we will stand for the underdog again with a 2-1 decision. It would have been really nice to see Luke Lilledahl against any of these two.

174 Levi Haines vs Cade Devos With Rocco Welsh pulling out of the event in the last week we are given yet another substitution.  Its a battle of #2 vs #3 however I still wish it was Haines vs O’Toole, this is the match everyone is wanting. Oh well, Cade does present a serious challenge to Levi, mostly with his size and strength. DeVos is a 4x NCAA qualifier, and the reigning Big 12 Champion and is also a returning all-american finishing 5th last season at 174. Haines on the other hand is a returning  NCAA champion at 157 lbs. It will be interesting to see how he does against one of the divisions bigger and stronger wrestlers. I can see Haines escaping with a hard fought win.

This year does have the highlight match of the year at 184 and makes up for any other match that you may deem undesirable, if the whole tournament was just this match it would be more than worth it to see. Being Iowa matmen its still a little disappointing as to why nobody from Iowa or Iowa State even responded when there are six guys from Penn State going. Especially when Brands likes to test and measure, maybe it just point to the fact that the rivalry between Iowa and Penn State is alive and well.

Located at 2060 Cascades Drive, Pembroke, VA 24136, Cascades Falls is a breathtaking natural wonder in Jefferson National Forest. This 69-foot cascade is a must-visit destination for outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers. For more information, click here.

Kevin Sawyer

Cascades Falls is surrounded by lush vegetation and towering trees, creating a picturesque setting. The falls are formed by the Cascades Creek, which flows into the Little Stony Creek. The cascade’s unique rock formations and tranquil pools make it a photographer’s paradise.

Seth Drewery

The Cascades Falls Trail is a 4-mile round-trip hike considered moderate in difficulty. The trail takes you through a scenic forest, crossing several bridges and offering stunning views of the surrounding landscape.

Claudine Wurst

Points of Interest 1. Cascades Falls Overlook: A wheelchair-accessible platform offering breathtaking views of the falls. 2. Lower Cascades: A series of smaller waterfalls and pools perfect for relaxation. 3. Stony Creek Trail: A connecting trail leading to the Appalachian Trail. 4. Jefferson National Forest: Explore the surrounding forest’s diverse wildlife and vegetation.

Jackie Trischman

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Kim Taylor

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