B1G 10 Top Ten: 2019-2020
Alright guys, as promised in my overall top 10 blog, there would be blogs to follow over the individual conferences, and it seems like the easiest and most well-known conference to start in is the Big 10. The Big 10 is usually considered the cream of the crop when it comes to Division 1 wrestling and rightfully so, as they produce more qualifiers and All Americans consistently than any other conference, but that isn’t to say that it is always the case.
Some of this will seem a bit repetitive for those of you who have seen the overall rankings, but the individual conference rankings will give you a better since of where some of your national qualifiers and above come from, as well as the competition they face along the way. Now these along with the other conference blogs will ONLY cover predictions for the conference tournament, not the actual NCAA tournament that follows. And I’m telling you, there are some very big potential dark horse picks for this year’s tournament out there, but I digress. Let’s get this thing started!
125
So, from overall first glance, four of our ten are new to the scene here in Heinselman, Sandoval, Teske, and McKee. ALMOST HALF of the top 10 has yet to wrestle in a big ten tournament, that leaves a lot of room for unpredictability. Lee and Seabass undoubtedly come in as the two most favored and will likely prove why later in the year. However, Scroeder, Mattin and McKee are looking to make some upsets here, Mattin building off a solid last season, as well as Schroeder, and McKee being a legacy at Minnesota likely to come out swinging for the fence. Here are my picks for the 125lb weight class for the 2019-2020 season:
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133
133 is riddled with Olympic Redshirts taking out our original number one and two in Nick Suriano and Stevan Micic, but in their absence some scrappy young guys are up at the plate looking to make their own name this year. Gross is a returning NCAA champ from two seasons ago and we have 3 more All Americans in DeSanto, Pletcher, and RBY that still make 133 tough for the new guys to break in to. Pepple, Silva and Konrath are three guys you want to keep an eye on as they all have the potential to break lose if left to their own devices. Here’s how I see the top 10 shaking down for the 2019-2020 season:
141
141 should be pretty interesting with a few returning All Americans and qualifiers, and a few guys anxious to have a breakout year. Luigs, Red and Lee have all also wrestled each other before and represent the state of Indiana, so all you Indiana wrestling fans will like this one. The top 5 here are pretty solid and I don’t see much fluctuation to be honest, so it’ll be the bottom 5 guys that potentially have the most scrappy matches as 141 will probably get a decent number of allocators for the NCAA tournament. Here are my picks for the conference for the 2019-2020 season:
149
149 will be interesting because there are a few young guys, but even some of the upperclassmen are just now hitting the scene to throw their hat in the ring. Sasso had a phenomenal redshirt season having good matches with nationally ranked guys, as did Lee, Lugo is an All American from last year, Parriott punched a ticket and Verkleeren is as tough as they come. The rest will be a bit harder to place but I’ll do my best. Here are my picks for the upcoming season:
157
I personally am really excited to watch 157 go down. There are a lot of young guys here with a lot of potential and the energy level is absolutely insane! While we do have Deakin and Young as the vets of the field, Mattox and Lewan are two guys you want to mark on your radar. Most of the upperclassmen here aren’t original starters so it will be interesting to see how they fair out in this pool of fresh competition. Here are my picks for the season:
165
Vincenzo comes in as the obvious favorite here and for good reason, he has shown the most dominant performances on the big stages, but numbers 2-4 will make sure the road isn’t easy. Wick is a solid national competitor, tougher than a 2-dollar steak, and a callous disregard for the competition. Massa has fallen off the horse quite a ways, but we have to keep in mind he has gotten as high as third in prior years. Marinelli was a seemingly sure-in pick at number 2 or 3 before dropping a big match come tournament time and finishing 7th. Out of the bottom 5, Drew hughes is the most likely I see to place, but not if he continues to let his attrocious attitude and match demeanor weigh him down. Here is how I see the top 10 going down:
174
174 definitely belongs to the upperclassmen this year so sorry to the young guys. Markie Mark is the obvious favorite having 2 titles and his achilles heel being up at 184 this year. There is no confirmation yet on Amine’s potential redshirt but he is definitely the most athletic guy in the class with a ton of big move potential. Dylan Lydy is a strong pick that should be on everyone’s radar. He kept a close match with Hall and almost garnered All American honors all with a torn labrum. Other than those 3, the rest of these guys present strong cases but I don’t expect much extravagance. Here is my top ten for the 174lb class:
184
I do not personally see a lot of room for error here. There are a lot of new guys in the field looking to make a name for themselves and only time will tell if they are up for the challenge. Shakur is the favorite but I am not sure that I see him claiming the title. Wilcke, Venz, and even Lyon look to punch their ticket and upset him along the way. Here’s my top ten at 184:
197
197 has some SERIOUS talent this season. In my opinion, one of the best guys in the bracket comes in at number 9. Conel took a year off with injury and transferred to PSU, after claiming 3rd at the national tournament the year before. Moore is the fan favorite with Nickal being gone, Davison is the epitome of freshman superhero and Brunner has serious pin power that makes him deadly regardless of score. There is a lot to consider here, but these are my top ten picks for the year:
285
Heavyweight is one of the few where I see most of these guys holding pretty true to form. The top four here are insanely good and leave little margin of error for their opponents to get by with. However, the two seniors in the mix look to liven things up on their last go around and make a statement. Everyone has their favorite, but for me it is hard to pick one here so before I try and give myself a headache, here is my top ten for the year:
Conclusion
Regardless of how you feel about my rankings or the rest of the nation, there is no doubt that this year’s big ten tournament is going to be absolutely explosive and a majority of the weight classes are stacked with studs. Despite some of the rankings we see as givens we all know that anything can happen, guys have bad days, people get hurt, grades, conduct issues and so on. To do what these young men do is not easy by any means, and they pour their heart and soul into their performance. Win, lose, favorite, or not they all deserve respect and with the work ethic they all possess just to compete at that level, any of them could manage the unthinkable. Until the time comes, enjoy the season and the ride. Till next time fanatics!
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