2016 NCAA Preview: 174 lbs.
2015 Champion: Conner Lefever
2016 Field
Central 1 | DeVos | Wartburg |
Central 2 | Harrington | Coe |
Central 3 | Reyes | Luther |
East 1 | Sibblies | Centenary (NJ) |
East 2 | Hamann | The College of New Jersey |
East 3 | Messinger | New York University |
Mideast 1 | Chase | Baldwin Wallace |
Mideast 2 | Swarr | Messiah |
Mideast 3 | Blanco | Washington and Jefferson |
Midwest 1 | Schneider | Wisconsin-La Crosse |
Midwest 2 | Farmer | Wabash |
Midwest 3 | Aiello | Wheaton (IL) |
Northeast 1 | Jarrell | Johnson & Wales (RI) |
Northeast 2 | Puca | SUNY-Cortland |
Northeast 3 | Ressler | Roger Williams |
West 1 | Beaman | St. Olaf |
West 2 | Goetz | Wisconsin-Platteville |
West 3 | Johnson | Concordia-Moorhead |
While only two of last year’s All-Americans return at this weight, a full third of the bracket has previously been an All-American at another weight or in a different year. Ryan Harrington is the highest returner at the weight with his fourth place finish a year ago. He finished second to Eric DeVos of Wartburg in the regional. DeVos began his college career as a 141 for the Penn Quakers, made a stop at Iowa at 157, and now sits in the top spot at 174 for Wartburg. His only DIII loss this year was to Farmer of Wabash back in November. The only other returning All-American at the weight is Garrett Chase of Baldwin Wallace who finished seventh.
There are four returning All-Americans from other weights or years. Lou Puca of Cortland is a two time All-American at 174, but he missed last year with an injury. He is the only one of the four who has placed at 174. The other three are all 165 All-Americans. Tyler Schneider of La Crosse was the NCAA runner-up at 165 last year, while Ethan Farmer was 7th in the same weight. Finally, Stephen Aiello of Wheaton was 7th at 165 in 2014 but went 0-2 last year and has 12 losses to DIII opponents this season. Of the wrestlers who are not returning All-Americans, Swarr of Messiah, Sibblies of Centenary, and Ressler of Roger Williams were all NCAA qualifiers last year.