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.
