Fantasy Pool for the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Championships

Iowa State might be out of the team race before it even starts but there is still going to be a lot of exciting wrestling going on in St. Louis this weekend. To keep things interesting WRNL is once again presenting a fantasy wrestling pool for the 2017 NCAA Championships. As with past years, fame and fortune awaits the winner, who earns bragging rights for years to come.

How to Make Your Team

• Choose ten guys to form your team, one from each weight class
• You have a limit of one wrestler per seed for the top ten. 11-16 seeds and unseeded guys are fair game with no limit. You can use all ten #11 seeds if you feel like it.

In other words, you can pick only one #1 seed, one #2 seed, one #3 seed, and so on. Anybody outside of the top ten, including unseeded wrestlers, can be selected with no limitations. So if you think there is a wrestler seeded outside the top ten who is going to make a deep run, go ahead and use them in place of a top ten seed at that weight.

How Scoring Works

The scoring will be by the same rules the NCAA uses for the tournament.

Advancement points

• Each win in the championship bracket is worth 1 point
• Each win in the consolation bracket is worth .5 points
• Each fall, forfeit, default, disqualification is worth an extra 2 points
• Each tech fall is worth an extra 1.5 points
• Each major decision is worth an extra point

Placement Points

In addition to the points scored for winning matches, placing in the top eight and earning All American status is worth the following.

• 1st place: 16 points
• 2nd place: 12 points
• 3rd place: 10 points
• 4th place: 9 points
• 5th place: 7 points
• 6th place: 6 points
• 7th place: 4 points
• 8th place: 3 points

Basically, you want to pick guys that you think are going to make deep runs into the bracket. And ideally they’ll also get some pins along the way.

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

Where do I find the brackets?

The top ten seeds at each weight are listed below and full brackets can be found here.

125

• #1 Thomas Gilman (Iowa) 27-0
• #2 Joey Dance (Virginia Tech) 25-1
• #3 Nick Suriano (Penn St.) 16-3
• #4 Darian Cruz (Lehigh) 26-2
• #5 Tim Lambert (Nebraska) 28-6
• #6 Ethan Lizak (Minnesota) 26-6
• #7 Sean Russell (Edinboro) 32-6
• #8 Nicholas Piccininni (Oklahoma St.) 22-6
• #9 Joshua Rodriguez (North Dakota St.) 23-2
• #10 Jack Mueller (Virginia) 24-4

133

• #1 Nathan Tomasello (Ohio St.) 19-0
• #2 Seth Gross (South Dakota St.) 30-1
• #3 Kaid Brock (Oklahoma St.) 25-2
• #4 Cory Clark (Iowa) 15-3
• #5 Stevan Micic (Michigan) 24-5
• #6 Dom Forys (Pittsburgh) 19-1
• #7 Eric Montoya (Nebraska) 26-4
• #8 Zane Richards (Illinois) 25-4
• #9 Scotty Parker (Lehigh) 16-2
• #10 John Erneste (Missouri) 23-6

141

• #1 Dean Heil (Oklahoma St.) 27-0
• #2 Kevin Jack (North Carolina St.) 29-1
• #3 Joey McKenna (Stanford) 28-1
• #4 Matthew Kolodzik (Princeton) 26-2
• #5 Anthony Ashnault (Rutgers) 27-3
• #6 George DiCamillo (Virginia) 20-4
• #7 Joseph Ward (North Carolina) 26-5
• #8 Jaydin Eierman (Missouri) 24-5
• #9 Colton McCrystal (Nebraska) 31-9
• #10 Bryce Meredith (Wyoming) 28-6

149

• #1 Zain Retherford (Penn St.) 23-0
• #2 Anthony Collica (Oklahoma St.) 20-2
• #3 Lavion Mayes (Missouri) 19-2
• #4 Micah Jordan (Ohio St.) 28-3
• #5 Brandon Sorensen (Iowa) 26-4
• #6 Solomon Chishko (Virginia Tech) 21-3
• #7 Max Thomsen (UNI) 27-5
• #8 Patricio Lugo (Edinboro) 30-7
• #9 Justin Oliver (Central Mich.) 29-7
• #10 Laike Gardner (Lehigh) 21-8

157

• #1 Jason Nolf (Penn St.) 22-0
• #2 Michael Kemerer (Iowa) 27-2
• #3 Joey Lavallee (Missouri) 25-1
• #4 Tyler Berger (Nebraska) 32-4
• #5 Joseph Smith (Oklahoma St.) 11-4
• #6 Clayton Ream (North Dakota St.) 24-4
• #7 Dylan Palacio (Cornell) 9-1
• #8 Jake Short (Minnesota) 23-12
• #9 Joshua Shields (Arizona St.) 32-7
• #10 Colin Heffernan (Central Mich.) 29-7

165

• #1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) 27-0
• #2 Logan Massa (Michigan) 27-2
• #3 Vincenzo Joseph (Penn St.) 17-4
• #4 Isaac Jordan (Wisconsin) 24-4
• #5 Chad Walsh (Rider) 29-2
• #6 Daniel Lewis (Missouri) 24-3
• #7 Anthony Valencia (Arizona St.) 32-5
• #8 Dylan Cottrell (West Virginia) 18-4
• #9 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma St.) 20-6
• #10 Te`Shan Campbell (Pittsburgh) 20-2

174

• #1 Zahid Valencia (Arizona St.) 33-0
• #2 Brian Realbuto (Cornell) 23-1
• #3 Bo Jordan (Ohio St.) 14-1
• #4 Zach Epperly (Virginia Tech) 19-1
• #5 Mark Hall (Penn St.) 26-3
• #6 Ryan Preisch (Lehigh) 22-4
• #7 Kyle Crutchmer (Oklahoma St.) 18-5
• #8 Ethan Ramos (North Carolina) 19-6
• #9 Myles Amine (Michigan) 26-5
• #10 Zach Brunson (Illinois) 28-8

184

• #1 Gabe Dean (Cornell) 30-0
• #2 Bo Nickal (Penn St.) 21-1
• #3 Samuel Brooks (Iowa) 24-2
• #4 Nolan Boyd (Oklahoma St.) 21-4
• #5 Zachary Zavatsky (Virginia Tech) 24-2
• #6 Myles Martin (Ohio St.) 26-7
• #7 Timothy Dudley (Nebraska) 27-4
• #8 Jack Dechow (Old Dominion) 28-3
• #9 Nathan Jackson (Indiana) 29-3
• #10 Michael Macchiavello (North Carolina St.) 24-6

197

• #1 J`den Cox (Missouri) 23-0
• #2 Brett Pfarr (Minnesota) 27-2
• #3 Kollin Moore (Ohio St.) 28-3
• #4 Jared Haught (Virginia Tech) 24-2
• #5 Matt McCutcheon (Penn St.) 18-4
• #6 Preston Weigel (Oklahoma St.) 18-5
• #7 Aaron Studebaker (Nebraska) 27-8
• #8 Ryan Wolfe (Rider) 20-4
• #9 Nate Rotert (South Dakota St.) 21-7
• #10 Kevin Beazley (Old Dominion) 22-5

HWT

• #1 Kyle Snyder (Ohio State) 12-0
• #2 Connor Medberry (Wisconsin) 25-1
• #3 Ty Walz (Virginia Tech) 22-2
• #4 Jacob Kasper (Duke) 27-3
• #5 Nick Nevills (Penn St.) 20-3
• #6 Austin Schafer (Oklahoma St.) 22-1
• #7 Tanner Hall (Arizona St.) 29-5
• #8 Michael Kroells (Minnesota) 27-9
• #9 Denzel Dejournette (Appalachian St.) 26-6
• #10 Nathan Butler (Stanford) 23-9

I'm so excited, what do I do now?

Create your team! Put your ten guys in the comments. We'll leave a reply letting you know if your team works or if you need to make some changes. Submissions are due before the first pigtail matches kick off on Thursday morning. And don't worry if someone has already picked a wrestler you want - duplicates are fine. Just don't duplicate someone's entire team.

I'm so scared, can you give me an an example?

Sure thing. Here's a sample team.

125: #8 Nicholas Piccininni (Oklahoma St.) 22-6

133: #2 Seth Gross (South Dakota St.) 30-1

141: #7 Joseph Ward (North Carolina) 26-5

149: #1 Zain Retherford (Penn St.) 23-0

157: #10 Colin Heffernan (Central Mich.) 29-7

165: #4 Isaac Jordan (Wisconsin) 24-4

174: #3 Bo Jordan (Ohio St.) 14-1

184: #5 Zachary Zavatsky (Virginia Tech) 24-2

197: #9 Nate Rotert (South Dakota St.) 21-7

HWT: #6 Austin Schafer (Oklahoma St.) 22-1

How will results be updated?

Updated fantasy pool results will be included in our daily NCAA tournament previews & open threads.

If you have any questions please just leave a comment and we'll help you out.