Michigan Grappler's 2010 NCAA Tournament Preview
NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
March 18-20
Omaha, NE
3/17 - The 2010 NCAA Championhips will kick off Friday in
Omaha with 21 Michigan collegiates and 13 grapplers who
hail from the state competing for All-American honors.
Central Michigan, ranked 14th nationally, is our state's
best bet to finish high, and with all 10 of their wrestlers
entered in this year's National Tournament, they have the
capability of making some noise.
One Michigan collegiate and three former Michigan prep
stars enter the weekend as Top 4 seeds. Davison graduate
Brent Metcalf of Iowa is the #2 seed at 149lbs, reigning
National Champ Franklin Gomez of MSU is seeded #3 at
133lbs, and Davison native Jon Reader of Iowa State seeded 4th at 165lbs. Former Allegan 3x state champ and returning All-American Cam Simaz of Cornell is the #4 seed at 197lbs.
Read below for a weight-by-weight breakdown of the Michigan wrestlers in each weight.
125
CMU senior Matt Steintrager comes in as the #8 seed and is a guy that the Chipps need to wrestle to his seed or better to score some valuable team points. The former Detroit Catholic Central state champ drew James Knox of Maryland in the first round, whom he beat 3-1 in a dual earlier this year. Steintrager's 2nd round match will be a tough one as he will see either the #9 seed Jarrod Patterson, a tough true freshman from Oklahoma, or the always dangerous Brad Pataky of Penn State. Pataky has one of the best cement mixers in the country and could very well knock off Patterson. If Steintrager gets through his first two matches he faces the daunting task of top seed and undefeated Angel Escobedo, who he has not wrestled this year. Steintrager has put together a great senior season in Mt Pleasant, going 23-3, and an all-american finish this weekend would be the icing on the cake. Winning his first two matches are critical as that would put him one win from being an all-american.
Overall in this weight the big three to watch are Escobedo, returning champ Troy Nickerson of Cornell and #3 Matt McDonough of Iowa. McDonough's only defeat of the year is a close Big Ten Finals loss Escobedo.
133
Four Michiganders in this weight, led by returning
champ Franklin Gomez of MSU who is the #3 seed
after losing to Daniel Dennis again at the Big Ten
tournament. Gomez's only two losses this year came
to the hands of Dennis and the Spartan senior may get
his 3rd shot at his longtime nemesis in the semifinals
as Dennis is the #2 seed.
CMU All-American Scotti Sentes will have his work cut
out for him in his bid to become a 2x All-American.
Sentes is the #11 seed and will have to get through two
redshirt seniors in Matt Fisk of Lehigh and Cory
Vombaur of Wyoming to earn a rematch with #6 Dan
Mitcheff of Kent State in the round of 16. Sentes has
split with Mitcheff this year, beating him in their dual a
few weeks ago 3-2 before losing 8-2 at the MAC
Championships. If he can win this time around the
road will not get easier as he is slated for a Gomez rematch in the quarters. Gomez beat Sentes 5-3 in their dual earlier this year.
Zac Stevens of Michigan and Sean Clair of EMU also qualified in this weight and both received tough 1st round draws. Clair drew #1 seed and undefeated Jayson Ness of Minnesota in the opening round while Stevens is slated to meet #4 Jordan Oliver of Oklahoma State right off the bat.
The Gomez-Dennis possible rematch would likely be one of the more highly anticipated semifinal matches as the returning NCAA Champ seeks to figure out his Hawkeye rival, a task he has not been able to accomplish thus far in his career.
141
Central Michigan senior Conor Beebe is the only Michigan representative in this weight and while he comes in unseeded with a lot of work to do if he wants to make a serious run, he sits in a pretty decent spot to do some damage. Beebe's first round draw is #11 Christopher Diaz of Virginia Tech, who he lost to 6-4 in a dual back on January 29th. Beebe's winnable first round match is coupled with a not-so-bad 2nd round draw of #6 seed Montell Marion who is making his first trip to the NCAA Tournament and lacks the big match expierence of the veteran Beebe. Take all this into account and there is a possibility of Beebe winning 2+ matches and scoring some much needed points for the Chipps here.
149
Brent Metcalf, arguably Michigan's most well known wrestler since Kevin Jackson, will making his final NCAA Tournament appearance this weekend. The 2008 NCAA Champ and Hodge Award Winner will be looking to end his career on top after falling victim of the Caldwell upset last year, however, he suffered another setback last weekend at the Big Ten Tournament, falling to Lance Palmer in the finals. Will Metcalf be able to avenge his loss to Palmer and win his 2nd NCAA title or will Goliath go down again in the finals this year? He will be one of the most closely watched wrestlers in Omaha this weekend.
Michigan State's David Cheza narrowly missed being seeded after holding a Top 15 ranking for much of the year. The Spartan sophomore received a tough draw with #8 Jason Chamberlain of Boise State in the first round, then likely Kevin Levalley of Bucknell in the 2nd round, whom he lost 7-3 to earlier this year, then if he manages to pull off those two upsets - #1 Lance Palmer in the Quarterfinals. In his first trip to the NCAA tournament, Cheza will have his work cut out for him, however, he has proved this year that he can compete with just about anyone in this weight class.
Central Michigan's Anthony Dalie, as well as DCC grad Andrew Nadhir of Northwestern, enter unseeded in this weight as well. D'Alie actually drew a favorable 1st round draw in my eyes as the Chippewa senior will meet up with #10 Barrett Abel of UC Davis in a match that would not be huge shocker to see D'Alie win. Nadhir, meanwhile, is right above Cheza in the bracket as he drew #9 Levalley in the first round.
157
A Chippewa and a Spartan featured in this weight and they both should come in feeling good. CMU's Steve Brown is the #12 seed after winning the MAC Title and MSU's Anthony Jones comes in fresh off a 3rd place finish at the Big Ten Tournament in which he downed then #8 ranked Kurt Kinser twice on the weekend.
Brown has missed a chunk of the season due to injury, however, he appears to be back on track after winning the MAC last weekend. His first round draw is true freshman Turtogtokh Luvsandorj of The Citadel who has an un-imposing 27-10 record with losses to a couple guys that Brown has beaten. Brown's big test is going to be his 2nd round match with #5 Steve Fittery of American, who he lost to 8-4 back in November. If he can turn that around this time, he would move to the quarterfinals with Cyler Sanderson of Penn State. Making a deep run would be improbable, however, Brown is an expierenced senior with numerous big wins under his belt and in this relatively thin weight class, placing in the top 8 is not that hard to foresee.
Jones received pretty much the best draw you can hope for coming unseeded, as he wrestles another unseeded wrestler in the opening round, Andrew Sorensen of Iowa State. Jones has not wrestled Sorensen this year, however, one would like to believe that if the Spartan junior can wrestle the way he did at the confernece tournament, he should be capable of winning his first round match. His 2nd round match would likely line up #3 Jesse Dong of Virginia Tech and the way he wrestles might not have much impact on the result of that match. However, Jones, like Brown, is capable of stringing wins together and making noise in this not-so-intimidating bracket.
165
Three wrestlers to look at here from a Michigan perspective, led by former Davison 3x state champ and #4 seed Jon Reader of Iowa State. Reader is a junior looking for his 3rd all-american honor and a legitimate shot to make a run in this weight. He is 22-4 on the year with all of those losses coming by one point or overtime, including a 3-1 SV loss to #1 seed Andrew Howe at The Midlands. Reader's 1st round match is actually no cake walk as he has to get past a very athletic Chris Brown of Old Dominion who actually comes into this weekend with a better winning percentage than Reader and a 29-3 record. Should the Cyclone junior get through that match he should be lined up for a quarterfinal battle with Big Ten Runner-Up and #5 seed Colt Sponseller of Ohio State, the winner gets a shot at Howe.
Central Michigan and Michigan State are also represented in this weight with unseeded wrestlers. Tyler Grayson of CMU meets #8 Shane Onufer of Wyoming first round and right above him in the bracket MSU's Kyle Bounds has a tough pigtail match with #9 Andy Rendos of Bucknell, who beat him earlier this year 5-0. If Bounds can knock off Rendos, keep in mind that he beat Onufer earlier this year 5-3, so him stringing some wins together is not unrealistic. Grayson has beaten Bounds this year soundly, but never wrestler Rendos or Onufer.
174
2008 Michigan Grappler High School Wrestler of the Year Ben Bennett makes his NCAA Tournament debut this weekend at 174lbs and the Chippewa freshman has a great shot at earning All-American honors in his first trip. The former Rockford 3x state champ is riding a 12 match winning streak heading into the weekend and he is seeded 7th in his bracket. Bennett's round of 16 match should be a good one against another member of his 2008 senior class, #10 Jordan Blanton of Illinois. If Bennett can get past Blanton he will get another crack at Jay Borschel of Iowa who is 32-0 and beat Bennett 6-1 in the Midlands Finals.
Justin Zeerip of Michigan and Ian Hinton of Michigan State will both look to make a run this year in their 2nd NCAA trip. Zeerip drew #12 Bagna Tovuujav of George Mason in the opening round while Hinton will see unseeded Byron Sigmon of UNC Greensboro. Zeerip wrestled Tovuujav earlier this year at the Southern Scuffle, losing 4-3, so there is no doubt he is capable of knocking off the seeded wrestler.
184
Returning NCAA Runner-Up Mike Miller of Central Michigan has not had the follow season that he probably expected this year, however, he is back in the NCAA tournament. While he is back and being a retruning runner-up you would expect him to be a contender, he has probably the toughest road possible with a former NCAA Champ in #10 Mike Pucillo in the pigtail round. If Miller loses that match he will have a long, tough road back to the All-American rounds, however, him battling back could be huge for CMU's team standings.
MSU senior Nick Palmeiri will be making a NCAA tournament appearance in his final season for the Spartans. Palmeiri, who got in with an at-large selection, drew a very winnable first round match in Ben Clymer of Hofstra, who is an unseeded sophomore with a 24-8 record. If Palmeiri wins he runs into #3 Dustin Kilgore of Kent State, however, winning his 1st match and the possiblity of winning a couple consolation matches could help push MSU into a decent team finish.
197
This might be the strongest weight for the state of Michigan with three
guys from our state featured, including two top All-American
contenders.
Former Allegan 3x state champ Cam Simaz is a returning all-american
at this weight for Cornell and comes in this year as the #4 seed.
Simaz's 2nd round match should pit him against conference rival Mitch
Burak of Penn, who Cam has beaten twice this year 5-3, and 3-1. He
should see another familiar foe in the quarterfinals in #5 seed Trevor
Brandvold of Wisconsin, who he beat earlier this year as well 10-5. If
he continues his winning aways against those common opponents,
then Simaz should be lined up for the biggest match of his college
career thus far with undefeated NCAA Champ Jake Varner of Iowa
State. Varner scored a technical fall over Simaz earlier this year.
University of Michigan junior Anthony Biondo is the Wolverine's best
All-American bet as he is the 7th seed at this weight. Biondo has
proven he is capable of placing higher than his seed with regular
season wins over a couple guys seeded higher than him, including Cam Simaz. Biondo's road to the Quarterfinals looks clear as his toughest challegenge through the round of 16 should be #10 Jesse Strawn of Old Dominion who he beat 8-3 earlier this year. His quarterfinal match will be a tough one with #2 Craig Brester of Nebraska who he has not wrestled this year.
The third Michigander is Chippewa senior Eric Simaz. Eric and Cam make for one of 5 brother combos in this year's NCAA tournament and the only such combo entered in the same weight class. Eric is unseeded and will see unseeded Joe Kennedy of Lehigh in the first round Thursday morning. Kennedy beat Eric 5-2 earlier this year, but Cam beat Kennedy in overtime so maybe the Simaz family will have him scouted out for Eric's first match! Simaz will have his work cut out for him either way as he is lined up to see #3 Hudson Taylor of Maryland in the second round.
285
Two Michigan MAC wrestlers qualified in this weight as Central Michigan's Jarod Trice comes is as the #7 seed despite a very good 23-2 record. Trice lost his first match of the year back in November before rattling off 20 straight wins prior to his loss to Brendan Barlow of Kent State at the MAC tournament. If he is back in his Midlands Title form from this year, he is capable of competing with all the best guys in this weight, however, his #7 seed will make his road to All-American status a little tougher. Trice's quarterfinal match should be a good matchup of two athletic big men as he will see another 2 loss heavyweight in Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State.
Eastern Michigan senior David Wade qualified in his final season in Ypsilanti with a solid MAC Tournament performance. Wade has a familiar foe in the first round in Kurt Klimek of Cal State Fullerton. Wade lost to Klimek 5-3 back in December.
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Cam Simaz
