2023 NCAA Preview: 141 lbs.

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Northeast 1Victor PerlleshiJohnson & Wales
Northeast 2Nate FittCoast Guard
Northeast 3James RodriguezCastleton
Mideast 1Xavier PenaCentenary
Mideast 2Domenic DifrancescantonioTCNJ
Mideast 3Cahal DonovanCortland
Southeast 1Josh WilsonGreensboro
Southeast 2Kyle SlendornStevens
Southeast 3Avery LeonardAlvernia
Central 1Jacob ReedOhio Northern
Central 2Zachery AndersonBaldwin Wallace
Central 3Evan BurgeWabash
Lower Midwest 1Bradley RosenNorth Central
Lower Midwest 2Zayren TerukinaWartburg
Lower Midwest 3Eric KinkaidLoras
Upper Midwest 1Cameron JohnsonAurora
Upper Midwest 2Ethan HarstedWheaton
Upper Midwest 3Sam StuhlAugsburg

The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers all return from 2022 at this weight, and they were lined up as the top three spots in the rankings before the regional. #4 Josh Wilson of Greensboro muddied the seeding waters with his first period pin over #3 Kyle Slendorn of Stevens. Wilson’s only DIII loss is to James Rodriguez of Castleton, the 8th place finisher at this weight a year ago.

Zayren Terukina of Wartburg and Jacob Reed of Ohio Northern finished 2nd and 3rd last year. They never met, both losing to the champion Jordin James. This season, they have gone wire-to-wire as #1 and #2 as both have gone undefeated. Reed picked up his 40th win in the regional final, though that 40th win was his first match against another wrestler in the field. Terukina is 23-0 with a win over Slendorn and three other wrestlers in the tournament, though he did forfeit the regional final.

There are seven wrestlers in the bracket who were also at this weight last year. Terukina (2nd), Reed (3rd), Slendorn (4th), and Rodriguez (8th) are the returning placewinners that are joined by qualifiers Xavier Pena of Centenary, Domenic Difrancescantonio of TCNJ, and Sam Stuhl of Augsburg. Pena is undefeated in DIII so far while Difrancescantonio is just 14-2 but has squeezed matches against six other qualifiers in already (not counting his forfeit to Pena in the regional). He has wins over Rosen, Perlleshi, Rodriguez, Donovan, and Burge to go along with a loss to Kinkaid.

Cameron Johnson won the Upper Midwest region for Aurora to give the team its first national qualifier since bringing the team back last season. He was a semifinalist in the region in 2022 where he was injured and withdrew from the tournament. He’s wrestled a limited schedule this year and is just 13-2, but he has defeated Lower Midwest champ Rosen and Wheaton’s Ethan Harsted.