We have the quarter-final round being the eight All-Americans in this class.There is a clear separation from the top 6 from the rest of the field. It appears that Wilps and Walters will fall into the right spots to also secure their AA honors.
After the Perry/Howe controversy from their conference final, look for Andrew Howe to take his match up a complete different notch from the rest of the field. The Sooner senior is cut above the rest if he wrestles his match instead of letting Perry, Brown, Evans, Kokesh, and Storley hang around. But again, this is why we wrestle the matches. It's all about match-ups, but the fact remains, Howe's style is the same each bout and everyone else must figure a way to get around his 'brick wall' defense.
We have both Brown/Evans and Kokesh/Storley matching up twice in the tournament. In the quarters and in the finals. Look for Brown to do what he did last year at NCAA's and keep winning the close ones. There will be alot of Nittany Lion magic flying in the air, and a semi-final win over Perry is definitely not out of the question. Evans gets a tad bit over hyped for his 'rivalry' matches and that may hurt him come Friday morning when he and Brown get together. The Kokesh/Storley matches will likely play out much like the Brown/Evans bouts. All these wrestlers are too familiar with one another, it'll be there one who decides to take chances who climbs to 3rd on the podium.
Martin and Walters could potentially be a great 'get in' match.
Overall, this is Howe's class to win if he stays on course.
With all this said, it's the NCAA Wrestling Nationals and we've seen Howe/Perry type of guys fail to make the podium, we don't see that happening, but it has happened.
OWN Prediction: Andrew Howe, Oklahoma
Other Brackets: 125 / 133 / 141 / 149 / 157 / 165 / 184 / 197
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