2010 NCAA Wrestling Championships 125 Weight Class Preview

Two seniors on a collision course and a freshman who wants to reverse his only loss are just some of the stories at this weight.

Angel Escobedo from Indiana the 2008 National Champion who is 33-0 looks to capture his 2nd title in 3 years. Then there is Troy Nickerson of Cornell who is the defending Champion and brings his 13-1 record into the event.

Laying in wait and hoping to derail this match up are several other talented wrestlers.

Freshman Matt McDonough of Iowa brings his 32-1 record in to the tournament with his only loss of the year coming in the Big 10 finals to Escobedo. With the #3 seed he will be looking to knock off Nickerson and take another crack at Escobedo.

On the top of the bracket our #4 seed Junior Anthony Robles of Arizona State (28-2) looks to improve upon last years finish and add a National Title to his already storybook career.

Other looking to make some noise and reverse some results from the regular season are Minnesota’s Zach Sanders (23-5), an AA as a freshman last season. Keep an eye on another freshman, Iowa State’s Andrew Long (23-6) has made some noise this year as well.

Some key match ups: (Brackets here)

Round 1

I see one real interesting match up here. The #9 seed and Big 12 Champion (Fr.) Jarrod Patterson (28-9) from Oklahoma faces, Penn State junior Brad Pataky (26-8). This should be an exciting match in the first round of this weight.

Round 2

We see going pretty much according to seed.

Round 3 (Quarterfinals)

Look to see Escobedo vs. #8 Matt Steintrager (23-3) a senior from Central Michigan. In the next match up we see Long from Iowa State vs. Robles of Arizona State.

On the bottom part of the bracket look for McDonough (IA) to match up yet again against Sanders (MN) in the first quarterfinal. Then we expect to see James Nicholson (30-1) Jr. Old Dominion square off against Nickerson (Cornell).

Round 4 (Semi-finals)
In the first semi we see Escobedo fending off the tilts of Robles and in the second semi we see McDonough and Nickerson butting heads.

Round 5 Finals

Well, this is just our guess and we will not know until they wrestle the matches, but we see the final match up as a rematch of the Big 10 Finals. Escobedo will try and fend off a game McDonough.

TOM’s top 3

1. Escobedo
2. McDonough
3. Nickerson