Not that anyone cares, but here’s OU’s draws:
133: Anthony Madrigal finished the year only 6-8, but due to his great Big 12 tournament and his really good year last year (my own narrative), he gets the #11 seed. He’ll face the #22 seed Mario Guillen from Ohio who finished the year 8-3. We should get a win here, then will probably face higher seeds from here on out.
141: Dom Demas gets the #5 seed with his 12-1 record. He faces Marcos Polanco, the #28 seed from Minnesota who went 6-7. I like his seed here. He’ll have a tougher than normal match next with a kid I think is underranked. But he should be good until the quarterfinals at least.
149: Mitch Moore went 9-4 on the season and has his work cut out for him. He gets the #13 seed, which puts him up against #20 seed Josh Heil of Campbell, and is seriously underrated here with a 7-2 record. For his troubles if he wins, he gets to face #4 seed Boo Llewelyn of OSU, who he just faced in the Big 12 finals, and who he has lost to three times this year already.
157: Justin Thomas parlayed his 10-3 record into the #10 seed. He’ll face the #23 seed from Wyoming, 16-4 Jacob Wright. Good matchup as we’ve beaten him already (twice I think).
174: Anthony Mantanona finished the season 7-7 and gets the #23 seed. He is our lone At-Large wrestler, and he faces Peyton Mocco of Missouri, the #10 seed. Mocco was 11-1 for Missouri. Ant Man is a guy who has the potential to finish higher than his seed.
197: Jake Woodley ended the regular season at 9-7, but that record was against some of the tougher guys in the nation. He only gets the #26 seed, and will face the #7 seed Rocky Elam of Missouri who finished 11-0. That’s a tall order, but he’s much better than his seed indicates. IF he could get past Elam, I think he’s got a legit shot to get much farther than his seed. If not, getting through the backside of consolations will be extremely tough.
HWT: Josh Heindselman gets the #19 seed and faces Trent Hilger of Wisconsin. Heindselman’s 9-5 record looks better than the Wisconsin HWT’s 6-4 record, but most of the best HWTs are in the #14 seed’s conference.
All in all, not bad. Definitely could have been a lot worse. I like our chances to advance most of our squad.