184lb breakdown:
Last March most wrestling fans were ready to just hand Ed Ruth his 3rd title without wrestling the matches, and really who could blame them. It appeared that the Ruth domination could not be touched.
Fast forward from 2013 NCAA Nationals to the Binghamton Open in early November. Ruth casually throttled a field of competitors, including a fall over a gritty freshman from Cornell. The freshman was Gabe Dean. So after Ruth pinned Dean so easily, why would anyone think anything different would happen if the two met again.
Fast forward to the 2014 Southern Scuffle championship finals. The first period ended and Dean was giving Ruth a match. The second period ended and announcers and everyone in the arena thought to theirselves, nahhhhh.....certainly the Cornell freshman could not pull this off.
5-4-3-2-1............and Gabe Dean in a matter of the final two minutes made the entire wrestling world say, Stieber & Retherford who?
With all that said, Dean has continued to continue to turn heads week after week, and constantly improving his perfect positioning at all times. Although Steinhaus has kept his matches close with Dean (dropping a SV at Dual Nationals), Gabe Dean was never in any serious trouble of being taken down.
Sheptock is perfect on the year and owns wins over Dean, Lofthouse, and other top 25 opponents. And despite being the #1 seed and undefeated holds the unspoken label of underdog to Ruth/Dean. Perhaps this is because en route to his Midlands title he had a 3-2 win over the Iowa back-up and two sudden victory wins. Sheptock will have his hands full with Michigan freshman, Abounader, who has gotten better and better as the season progressed.
Dudley has the talent and raw ability to pull upsets if his conditioning holds up.
Lofthouse and Thomusseit should have an interesting quarter-final bout.
On his journey to meet Ed Ruth in the semi's, Dean will have to deal with the unpredictable style of Rizqallah and Swartz.
Up to the semi-final round, Ruth should do what Ruth does and dominate whoever is in-front of him.
Also, don't be caught off guard to see Lofthouse, Abounader or Thomusseit in the championship finals.
Was the Southern Scuffle final a fluke? Has Dean come that far? Or has someone just 'figured' out the 2x NCAA Champ Ed Ruth? With Penn State being in a tight team race wake Ruth up to score more bonus points?
This potential semi-final bout will certainly be match that the entire arena will be anticpating next to Stieber/Retherford Part 3.
We are calling for the eventual champion to come out of the bottom half of the bracket.
OWN 184lb Prediction: Ed Ruth, Penn State
Other Brackets: 125 / 133 / 141 / 149 /157 /165 / 174 / 197
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