2022 Upper Midwest Region Preview
Friday & Saturday, February 25 & 26
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Teams (18): Augsburg, Aurora, Carthage, Chicago, Concordia-Moorhead, Concordia Wisconsin, Elmhurst, Lakeland, MSOE, Pacific, St. John’s, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater, Wheaton
NWCA Ranked Tournament Teams
6. Augsburg
9. UW-La Crosse
12. UW-Oshkosh
16. UW-Eau Claire
T-18. UW-Stevens Point
T-18. Chicago
21. Elmhurst
23. UW-Whitewater
Top Ten Ranked Wrestlers – February 4th Ranking
125:
133: #3 Fleetwood (UW-Eau Claire), #7 Berlin (UW-Stevens Point), #10 Harsted (Wheaton)
141: #1 McAuliffe (Elmhurst), #7 Stuhl (Augsburg), #8 Sato (UW-Eau Claire)
149: #8 Parker (UW-Platteville), #9 Burford (UW-Whitewater)
157: #2 Smiley (UW-Stevens Point), #3 Shilson (Augsburg), #6 Hertel (UW-La Crosse), #7 Estevez (Chicago)
165: #5 Schmidt (UW-Eau Claire), #6 Brossard (UW-La Crosse), #7 Peckham (UW-Stevens Point)
174: #3 Sarasin (Chicago), #4 Nielsen (Augsburg), #10 Silva (Aurora)
184: #5 Shinhoster (UW-Whitewater), #9 Pecci (Chicago)
197: #2 Lahr (UW-Lacrosse), #3 Yineman (UW-Oshkosh)
285: #3 Lemcke (UW-Oshkosh), #4 Hawkins (UW-Eau Claire), #5 Kim (Augsburg), #9 Kawczynski (UW-La Crosse), #10 Koeppel (UW-Whitewater)
There are six teams in the WIAC, and five appear in the latest tournament team rankings. All five are in this region along with Augsburg, the top ranked team in the Upper Midwest. The sixth WIAC team has two wrestlers ranked in the top ten. There should be a real battle for the top spot in the standings, and a surprise winner is not out of the question.
The lone top-ranked wrestler in the region is Jimmy McAuliffe of Elmhurst at 141. He won the NWCA DIII tournament last year and has held onto the top ranking since then. He was an NCAA All-American when he finished 7th way back in 2018 and is a 3x NCAA qualifier. The NWCA has McAuliffe ranked 2nd but has Beau Yineman of UW-Oshkosh as the lone #1 ranked wrestler in the region. Yineman has one DIII loss and is coming off a WIAC Championship.
157 and 165 will be hard-fought with multiple top-ten wrestlers in each weight. Smiley was undefeated until Hertel knocked him out in the WIAC finals. Shilson has put up a ton of bonus points this year and finished 3rd in the NWCA DIII last season. Estevez has multiple ranked wins and was the runner-up to Smiley at Wheaton. Three ranked WIAC wrestlers will fight it out a 165. Brossard beat Schmidt in the WIAC finals after Schmidt beat Peckham in the semis to take a 2-1 lead in the season series.
Heavyweight is the headliner here with five ranked wrestlers. The four WIAC guys plus NWCA DIII runner-up Kim have been beating up on each other all season. Koeppel might be the only one of the five without a win over one of the other four. Stick around to the end to see how many ranked wrestlers make it, and how many have their season end.