Sean Mael
27 min read
By: Sean Mael
125 (4 Automatic Qualifiers)
Preseeds:
1. #2 Drew Hildebrandt, CMU (7-0)
2. #19 Connor Brown, MIZZ (Not competing due to injury.) (6-2)
3. #23 Jake Ferri, KENT ST. (10-1)
4. Luke Werner, LH (0-0)
5. Jonathon Tropea, RID (4-2)
6. Josh Jones, GMU (7-2)
7. Lucas Rodriguez, EDIN (8-3)
8. Tristan Daugherty, UB (5-2)
Thoughts:
#19 Connor Brown suffered an extremely unfortunate injury right before the MAC tournament and will be replaced by Noah Surtin for the Tigers. Surtin was 5-3, including a 2-0 mark in conference action.
Surtin owns a win over #16 Trevor Mastrogiovanni of Oklahoma State and has been wrestling well of late. Surtin wound up grabbing the six seed in this bracket after the seeds were redone. This weight will have four automatic qualifiers and outside of Hildebrandt and Werner I think that Surtin can go with anyone.
Unfortunately Surtin will meet Werner in the quarterfinals and will likely drop to the backside fairly early.
Every bout will be tough as this weight is filled with solid if unspectacular competitors. Surtin is tough on top and wrestles with a really high pace.
He is at his best when he opens up and lets it fly. Surtin has a tendency to struggle from bottom against elite competitors and if he meets Hildebrandt or Werner I think his bottom struggles could be accentuated.
Surtin has looked great lately and I have him dropping a close third place match to Ferri and snagging the fourth and final AQ spot to qualify for NCAAs for the Tigers.
Prediction:
1. #2 Hildebrandt, CMU
2. Werner, LH
3. #23 Ferri, KENT
4. Surtin, MIZZ
