2010 NCAA Wrestling Championships 165 Weight Class Preview

Evenly matched weight should make for some close matches..

The 165 bracket appears to be very balanced and could produce any number of scenarios. Do not be shocked to see the majority of overtime matches come from this bracket.

Wisconsin’s #1 seed Andrew Howe (32-0) has been perfect the year after his freshman runner-up performance. But let’s not forget that returning national champion and #2 seed from Edinboro Jarrod King (34-1) is waiting to capture back-to-back titles.

Those are just two of the possible contenders in this weight. King’s only loss of the year came at the hands of Bloomsburg #11 seed Rick Schmelyun (28-7) and they are on the same side of this bracket. That is just one example of possible match ups here.

All signs point to the top two guys meeting up in the finals but let’s break the rounds down and see if that will be the case.

Round 1

Big 12 Champ and #3 seed Nick Marable (33-3) gets a tough draw out of the gate with Pac 10 champ and unseeded Nick Amuchastegui (30-4) of Stanford. Could make for an interesting first round match up for Marable who we predict will get by in a close one.

This will also be our chance to see how healthy Iowa’s #7 Ryan Morningstar (26-6) is.

Round 2

Round 2 seems on the surface pretty straight forward and in our opinion will follow seed.

Round 3 (Quarterfinals)

Starting us off we expect to see Howe matched up against Bucknell’s #8 Shane Onufer (27-5). Howe should get by here and move into the semifinals.

On deck look for Ohio State’s #5 Colt Sponseller (27-5) to take the mat against Iowa State’s #4 John Reader (22-4). This should be a good match and we can see it going either way. For now we anticipate Reader coming away with a hard fought win.

On the lower half we are looking at another Big 10 vs. Big 12 match up with Marable wrestling Penn State’s #6 Dan Villimont (27-7). It will be interesting to see how this ends up. Marable has maybe one of the tougher draws at this weight. But as with the last quarter we give the nod here to the Big 12 and Marable.

On the bottom we figure it to be a match up of King vs. Oklahoma State freshman #10 Alex Meade (28-8). While Meade is capable of knocking people off, we see King advancing in this one.

Round 4 (Semifinals)

Howe and Reader have met once before this season. Howe came out on top in overtime. Has Reader made the appropriate changes to reverse the loss? We say Howe wins another one in OT.

On the bottom half we expect to see Marable and King mixing it up. King’s one loss is a bit of an oddity in an otherwise very good senior campaign. Marable has wrestled well most the year. We pick King to advance here and take his shot at his 2nd title in as many years.

Finals

One of the few weights where I see the seeds holding true.

King vs. Howe

Not much to say on this one, except I would not hold your breath for a high scoring affair. We are predicting another OT match with King coming out on top of this one. If the reverse occurs we would not be shocked by that at all.

Dark horses

1. Andrew Rendos (Bucknell)
2. Josh Asper (Maryland)
3. Amuchastegui (Stanford)

TOM’s Picks

1. King
2. Howe
3. Reader