Wrestling Weekend That Was: Adjustment needed for NCAA Division III national qualifiers

The fields are set for the NCAA Division II and III Championships, but the road to nationals needs to be rebuilt. Grand View reigned supreme in the NAIA Championships. Big Ten and Big 12 pre-seeds were released Monday to cap the Wrestling Weekend That Was.

NCAA QUALIFYING NEEDS REVAMPED

The NCAA Division II and III national qualifying tournaments were held this weekend. Six regionals are held for each division with the top three qualifiers at each weight advancing to the NCAA tournament on March 15-16. The D-III national tournament is set for La Crosse, Wis., while the D-II event is in Tulsa, Okla.

The regional tournament format has been in place since the 2012-13 season. The NCAA Division III Wrestling Committee changed qualifying through conferences to set regionals. It also set qualifiers to three per weight and increased the field by 10 to 180 wrestlers, forming equal brackets of 18 wrestlers each.

In theory, it made each qualifier equal and eliminated the need for post-tournament meetings to dole out wildcard berths, which led to many heated moments as coaches politicked and persuaded for those spots. Those berths, by the way, were awarded based on a three-year average of All-Americans in previous seasons.

At the time of the change, the Iowa Conference (Now the American Rivers Conference) received 31 berths in 2012. Previously, the number ranged between 32-35.

The problem is things aren’t equal at the Division III level. The A-R-C teams are still thrust into the same region with a national trophy contender in North Central (Ill.) College and teams like Cornell, Millikin (Ill.) and Augustana (Ill.) College.

According to d3wrestle.com rankings, 29 ranked individuals and seven ranked teams were in the Lower Midwest Regional held last week at Alliant Energy PowerHouse. Eight weights had at least three ranked wrestlers and no less than two in the others. The 125-pound bracket had four ranked in the top-10. University of Dubuque’s Brady Koontz was a returning All-American, who wrestled in the 2023 Greco-Roman World Championships. He was beat out for one of those 125 berths. So was Wartburg’s No. 6 James Levy. Two predicted All-Americans are staying home, while the same weight at the Mideast Region had no ranked wrestlers. The Mideast had just 11 total ranked wrestlers and two ranked teams.

Among the casualties were a returning NCAA finalist from North Central, who was beaten by Luther’s Clayton McDonough for third. McDonough was a national qualifier last season, reaching the round of 12.

Augustana’s No. 3 Trevor Boryla placed fourth and didn’t advance, losing to Coe’s Bryce Parke for third at 133. Boryla’s other loss was to Wartburg’s No. 6 Joe Pins. North Central’s Robbie Precin, a two-time NCAA champion who has won at least 87 straight matches, won the bracket.

Only the Upper Midwest Region with Augsburg, Wisconsin-La Crosse and Wisconsin-Eau Claire is close to the Lower Midwest. Upper Midwest had 22 ranked wrestlers and five ranked teams.

The overall strength at the NCAA D-III level is in this area of the country. It’s not even debatable with Augsburg and Wartburg winning all of the national tournament titles over the last 30 years.

Go back to national berths based on merit. If you have to keep regionals, fine. Award the individual qualifying spots according to performance. Otherwise, the Midwest regions are going to keep being short-changed.

We’ll discuss the fact that the D-II and D-III NCAA Championships only have 18 wrestlers per bracket. It’s a much lower percentage than their D-I counterparts.

AYALA LEADS IOWA’S PRE-SEEDS

The Big Ten Conference announced the pre-seeds Monday for the conference tournament Saturday and Sunday at University of Maryland in College Park, Md. Iowa 125-pounder Drake Ayala is the No. 2 seed. The Hawkeyes’ 2022 NCAA qualifier is behind only Purdue returning national finalist Matt Ramos.

NCAA finalist and defending Big Ten champion Real Woods (141), Caleb Rathjen (149), Michael Caliendo at 165, Patrick Kennedy (174) and 197-pounder Zach Glazier are all seeded third.

Jared Franek is seeded fourth and heavyweight Bradley Hill is the No. 7 seed. NCAA qualifier Brody Teske is the No. 14 seed and Aiden Riggins is 13th at 184.

The pre-seeds answer the questions about postseason starters at 133, 149, 184 and heavyweight.

Hawkeye freshmen Gabe Arnold and Ben Kueter will keep their redshirts intact with full eligibility in the future.

Top-ranked Penn State leads the way with five top seeds.

BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The brackets have been released for the Big 12 Championships Saturday and Sunday in Tulsa, Okla. Iowa State and University of Northern Iowa combined for three top seeds and five more No. 2 seeds.

For the Cyclones, Anthony Echemendia (141) and Casey Swiderski at 149 are No. 1 seeds. NCAA champion and two-time finalist David Carr is the No. 2 seed at 165 behind Missouri defending national champion Keegan O’Toole. All-American Yonger Bastida, who bumped up to heavyweight this season, is also the No. 2 seed behind Air Force’s Wyatt Hendrickson. Iowa State’s Evan Frost (133) and 174-pounder M.J. Gaitan are seeded second.

UNI’s unbeaten NCAA runner-up and three-time All-American Parker Keckeisen will look to continue the Panthers’ conference dominance at 184. The Panthers have won the last six Big 12 titles at that weight and Keckeisen is the No. 1 seed. Former Lisbon prep and NCAA qualifier Cael Happel is the third seed at 141. Ryder Downey is the No. 2 seed at 157 for UNI, while former West Delaware prep Wyatt Voelker is the No. 5 seed at 197.

South Dakota State NCAA finalist and four-time national qualifier Tanner Sloan is the top seed at 197. Sloan, a former two-time state champion from Alburnett, is 18-1 this season.

GRAND VIEW WINS NAIA MEN’S TITLE

Grand View won its 12th men’s wrestling national team title at the NAIA Championships last weekend at Wichita, Kan. The Vikings scored 209 ½ points, beating runner-up Life (Ga.) University by 55 1/2.

Grand View finished with 12 All-Americans, including seven that placed third or better. Alex Reynolds (174), Isaiah Luellen at 184 and 197-pounder Garavous Kouekabakilaho all won national titles. Kouekabakilaho defeated teammate Owen Braungardt, 4-2, in the championship bout. Heavyweight Greg Hagan was a runner-up.

UIU’s LUENSMAN, MURTY ADVANCE

Upper Iowa’s Chase Luensman and Tate Murty earned national tournament berths at the NCAA D-II regional Saturday at Minot, N.D. The pair advance to the NCAA Championships at Park City, Kan.

Luensman, a 2023 national champion, improved to 23-5 this season, winning the 165-pound title. He went 4-0 and topped St. Could State’s Anthony Herrera, 4-2, in the final.

Murty (21-7) placed third at 141. Murty is a two-time All-American, placing eighth last season and sixth in 2021.

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com