Ohio Athletic Conference Preview
Please Note: These are predictions of what will happen at a specific tournament on a specific date. They are not seedings or rankings. d3wrestle.com has seen all the results and made predictions based off those results. We may predict someone to win, even if he recently lost to a conference opponent, but that does not mean we did not see the results.
All week long, d3wrestle.com will be publishing previews of each of the NCAA qualifying tournaments to be held this weekend. In addition to predicting winners and identifying the top athletes at each weight, we will attempt to predict all 160 qualifiers based on the number of wildcards available for each qualifying tournament.
Ohio Athletic Conference – 11 Qualifiers – Saturday, February 20th at Mount Union
Predicted Team Champion – Ohio Northern
Top Individual: Luke Miller, Ohio Northern, 157
Returning NCAA Qualifiers: Luke Miller (Ohio Northern 157), Zach Mizer (Heidelberg 157), Matt Curley (Heidelberg 165), Andrew Scavuzzo (Baldwin-Wallace 174), Ben Adams (John Carroll 184), Bill Schindel (Mount Union 197)
Ohio Northern won the dual meet championship this year, but Heidelberg has won the last four OAC tournament titles. It could be a three way battle for the championship as ONU and Heidelberg will contend with a rapidly improving Mount Union squad led by returning All-American Bill Schindel. The best weight at the tournament will clearly be 157, as #3 Zach Mizer and #5 Luke Miller will likely meet again in the finals. Though Mizer is ranked higher and has defeated a pair of returning All-Americans this year, he has lost twice to Miller this season already. Kyle Kwiat of Ohio Northern is another to keep an eye on, as the freshman has surged to the #4 ranking in his first season of competition.
Predicted qualifiers in bold
125: Riki Reynolds, Mount Union
Top Challengers: Delian Schneider, Heidelberg; Donny Herrington, Wilmington
133: Tom D’Alessandro, Heidelberg
Top Challengers: TJ Arnone, Mount Union; Philip Payne, Baldwin-Wallace
141: Sam Delpra, Heidelberg
Top Challengers: Josh Malave, Mount Union; David Malkus, John Carroll
149: Michael Letcher, Ohio Northern
Top Challengers: Richie Clark, Mount Union; Connor Suba, John Carroll
157: Luke Miller, Ohio Northern
Top Challengers: Zach Mizer, Heidelberg; Bryan Skoff, Mount Union
165: Matt Curley, Heidelberg
Top Challengers: William Painter, Mount Union; Sean Gill, John Carroll
174: Kyle Kwiat, Ohio Northern
Top Challengers: Andrew Scavuzzo, Baldwin-Wallace; Dan Jon Henry, Heidelberg
184: Ben Adams, John Carroll
Top Challengers: Matthew Alexander, Ohio Northern; Ed Bizorik, Heidelberg
197: Bill Schindel, Mount Union
Top Challengers: Tristan Stoll, Baldwin-Wallace; James Neumanitis, John Carroll
285: Adam Salyers, Wilmington
Top Challengers: Derrick Hesson, Mount Union; Jerry Knapp, Heidelberg