2016 NCAA Preview: 125 lbs.
Lucas Malmberg of Messiah was a runner-up each of the past two years at 125 lbs.
2015 Champion: Mike Fuenffinger, Augsburg
2016 Field
| Central 1 | Olea | Wartburg |
| Central 2 | Pestano | Central (IA) |
| Central 3 | Rosenberg | Coe |
| East 1 | Tan | Ursinus |
| East 2 | Murray | Stevens Institute Of Technology |
| East 3 | Velez | Delaware Valley University |
| Mideast 1 | Malmberg | Messiah |
| Mideast 2 | Kramer | Brockport State |
| Mideast 3 | Spearman | Washington and Jefferson |
| Midwest 1 | Denny | Wisconsin-Whitewater |
| Midwest 2 | Vosters | Wisconsin-Stevens Point |
| Midwest 3 | Weinmann | Wisconsin-La Crosse |
| Northeast 1 | Jordan | Johnson & Wales (RI) |
| Northeast 2 | Roden | SUNY-Cortland |
| Northeast 3 | Kaishian | Ithaca |
| West 1 | Stageberg | Concordia-Moorhead |
| West 2 | Ferguson | Wisconsin-Platteville |
| West 3 | Goman | Augsburg |
After losing in the finals each of the past two seasons, Lucas Malmberg of Messiah is hoping to finally take that last step up to the top of the podium and secure a first NCAA championship. He has dominated the rest of the field this season, with his only DIII loss coming when Chicago’s Richter, who failed to qualify, headlocked him at Wheaton. Before that match his last DIII loss to someone other than Fuenffinger came over two years ago. He appears to be pretty far ahead of the rest of the pack and is the only returning All-American to boot. A number of wrestlers can lay claim to being the second best wrestler on paper, but all have taken losses along the way. Olea lost to West region 3rd place finisher Goman, and Weinmann has lost to Denny twice late in the year. It is hard to imagine the final place order matching very well with the seeds.
Almost anyone in this bracket should be feeling like he has a chance to get on the podium. The number of upsets at the regionals shows that. The #2 ranked wrestler before the regionals (Fleck of Wilkes), failed to qualify, while numbers 3 (Weinmann), 4 (Vosters), 7 (Kaishian), 8 (Murray), and 9 (Pestano) all lost to lower ranked opponents but still made it into the tournament. Two possibly overlooked wrestlers in this weight include Bobby Jordan of Johnson & Wales and Jacob Spearman of Washington & Jefferson. Jordan won the Northeast Regional and only has one loss on the year to his teammate. Spearman is a prior NCAA qualifier who had some hiccups earlier in the year but seems to have gotten going at the right time to beat Fleck 7-0 at the regional and only lose 4-2 to Malmberg.