Home NCAA Tournament 141 Preview

141 Preview

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2008 Champion: Michael Bonora, Rhode Island
Returning All-Americans: Austin Bautista, UW-Whitewater

This weight class cleared out considerably from last season, as 7 of the 8 All-Americans either graduated or changed weights.  That leaves 7th place finisher and wall to wall #1 ranked Austin Bautista as the top seed an favored to win.  He’s earned the spot with a 36-1 record and two wins over McKray this year.  McKray was highly ranked for much of last season before losing his spot to Matt Kelly late in the season.  With Kelly down to 133, McKray is back at 141 and poised to make a run deep into the tournament.  His only DIII losses are those two to Bautista, and he is fresh off an IIAC championship.

It looks like a step down from the top two to the rest of the field, and seeds 3-8 are all very close.  Baum is a two time qualifier coming of a strong conference tournament, while Batsukh is another qualifier fresh off a regional championship.  Beshada won the Centennial again and hasn’t lost in DIII since November.  DeCleene, Valek, and Smith are right behind that group, and even unseeded wrestlers like Paxos, Garber, and Loy cannot be overlooked.

Even though there are not a lot of returning All-Americans, five of the competitors were in this weight last year and Batsukh qualified in 2007.  It should be a competitve weight with a whole group of wrestlers looking to knock off one of the top two seeds and prevent a third meeting between Bautista and McKray.

Seeds
1. Bautista, UW-Whitewater
2. Zach McKray, Wartburg
3. Luke Baum, RIT
4. Minga Batsukh, St. John’s
5. James Beshada, USMMA
6. Chase DeCleene, UW-Stevens Point
7. Tony Valek, Augsburg
8. Derrick Smith, Oswego

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Baum cant be cast out of the finals yet. he lost a match to last years champion Bonora by one takedown and was on the wrong end of a few bad calls made by the referee in the match. Luke can hang with anyone.

  4. Ming might be the dark horse but I like McKray’s chances. He lost in OT and by 1 to Bautista..tough to beat a guy 3 times in close matches.

  5. I have always considered this sports addage that it is tough to beat a person a third time to be pretty funny. Wouldn’t it be tougher for the person who has lost twice to the same opponent to actually beat him in a third match? Is it really tougher to beat a person the third time? Give me my choice in the NCAA finals … 1) a person I have never wrestleed, 2) a person I have split with, 3) a person I have lost to twice, 4) a person I have beaten twice – whether close or not … Gee, I’ll take option 4.

  6. Baum had better get out of the first round before you start thinking finals…Paulish knocked off Valastro in last years New England’s, and Valastro beat Baum earlier this year during his stint at 41. Look for the winner of that first round match to be a sure AA though.

  7. daguru…you make no sence. winning in 2 CLOSE (that is the key word) matches is a heck of an acheivement, especially when you are the #1 ranked wrestler and it is against the #2 ranked wrestler. 2 guys, evenly matched. a scramble here or there and the match is flip flopped. I didn’t say it was tough to beat a guy 3 times. I said it is tough to beat a guy 3 times in CLOSE matches. to answer your question, I’ll take the guy that i have beat badly in two previous meetings

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