Michigan Grappler - Everything wrestling in Michigan

Michigan Grappler's inside look at 2011 NCAA's

Ton of Michigan names looking to make major noise this weekend in Philly

3/15/11

The NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships will get kicked off this weekend in Philadelphia, PA and the state of Michigan will be on full display. Every D1 team in Michigan will be represented including 8 Wolverines, 5 Spartans, 4 Chippewas, and two Eagles. In addition, 7 former Michigan high school standouts will be competing for out-of-state colleges, including two wrestlers who landed #1 seeds for their respective weight classes. To say that the state of Michigan is making its presence known on the college scene would be an understatement.

Michigan Colleges Outlook

The University of Michigan, fresh off their 5th place

finish at the Big Ten Championships, comes in with a

great shot at scoring big points led by top seeded

Kellen Russell at 141lbs. While Russell is the only

Wolverine with a seed, Coach McFarland and company

have 7 other wrestlers competing this weekend and

many are capable of sneaking into the all-american

picture. If the Wolves can get two other guys into the

All-American rounds with Russell they have a shot at

finishing towards the top.

Central Michigan may only have four qualifiers this

year, but they could still end up being the highest

placing Michigan team in the final standings because three of their four wrestlers have been All-Americans before. A pair of Michigan natives, Jarod Trice (285) and Ben Bennett (174) are both legitimate contenders to finish very high and contend for national titles. Trice comes in as the #2 seed while Bennett is #6. Scotti Sentes, the #11 seed at 133, was an all-american two years ago as a freshman so he knows how to win big matches in March. If all three of these guys AA and one of them can make the finals, then the Chipps could end up with a strong finish this weekend.

Michigan State and Eastern Michigan both failed to earn a seed, however, advanced some quality wrestlers to the tournament. The Spartans got five wrestlers out and 4 of their 5 qualifiers are Michigan natives. While none of the Spartans are seeded, Dan Osterman (149), Tyler Dickensen (197), and Joe Rizgallah (285) have all seen time in the national rankings this year and are capable of stringing some wins together and moving MSU up in the final team finish.

EMU has a chance for their highest NCAA finish of the Delporto era if their two qualifiers, Aaron Sulzer and David Wade, can win a couple matches and advance in their bracket. Both Sulzer and Wade received favorable first-round draws as they avoided any seeded wrestlers in the opening round of action.

Michigan natives wrestling out-of-state

Aside from the Wolverines, Chipps, Spartans, and Eagles their will

be 7 other wrestlers for the Michigan wrestling community to keep

an eye on this weekend who are competing for out-of-state schools

including five former MHSAA State Champions.

The two most notable wrestlers to watch are former 3x state

champions Cam Simaz of Cornell University and Jon Reader of

Iowa State University. Both Simaz, a native of Allegan, and Reader

who hails from Davison, are the #1 seeds in their respective weight

classes. Interestingly enough, both Reader and Simaz could be

meeting fellow Michiganders early in their run for an NCAA title.

Reader will wrestle former 4x Michigan State Champ Justin Zeerip

of UM in the opening round of action, a dream type match for

Michigan high school gurus who watched these two dominate back

in their prep days. Simaz, meanwhile has two former Michiganders

in his quarterbracket and he could meet one of them, either

Anthony Biondo of UM or LJ Helbig of Wyoming, in the quarterfinals.

The only other Michigander with a seed is DCC graduate Andrew

Nadhir of Northwestern who is the #11 seed at 149lbs. Wyoming’s

Helbig, a former State Champ from Mason, joins fellow former state

champs Jackson Morse of Illinois and Andrew Schutt of Buffalo.

Morse won three titles for Lowell High School and was the 2010 MI

Grappler High School Wrestler of The Year. Schutt, meanwhile, was

a state champ for Yale High School. The University of Buffalo features

two Michigan natives competing this weekend as Brett Correll joins

Schutt. Correll was a 3x Division 1 state placer for Utica Eisenhower,

placing 3rd three times before graduating in 2008.

An interesting note – since its inception in 2007 Michigan Grappler

has named 4 “Wrestlers of The Year”. All four of them are competing

this weekend at the NCAA Championships – Justin Zeerip (2007),

Ben Bennett (2008), Dan Yates (2009), and Jackson Morse (2010).

TV Coverage of this weekend’s NCAA Championships

For the first time ever, the ESPN networks will live broadcast all six rounds of the NCAA Wrestling Championships this week beginning Thursday. Thursday's sessions will air on ESPN3.com. The quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches will be aired on ESPNU, while Saturday's championship finals will be on ESPN. Session III and VI will also air on ESPN3.com.

2011 NCAA Qualifiers

Michigan

125 – Sean Boyle

133 – Zac Stevens

141 - #1 Kellen Russell

149 – Eric Grajales

165 – Dan Yates

174 – Justin Zeerip

197 – Anthony Biondo

285 – Ben Apland

Central Michigan

133 - #11 Scotti Sentes