2023 NCAA Preview: 149 lbs.
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| Northeast 1 | Hayden Brown | Johnson & Wales |
| Northeast 2 | Chase Parrott | Springfield |
| Northeast 3 | Chris Perry | Trinity |
| Mideast 1 | Thomas Monn | McDaniel |
| Mideast 2 | Matthew Beyer | Ithaca |
| Mideast 3 | Eli Sims | Brockport |
| Southeast 1 | Hunter Gutierrez | Stevens |
| Southeast 2 | Hai Siu | Averett |
| Southeast 3 | Chance Babb | Alvernia |
| Central 1 | Michael Petrella | Baldwin Wallace |
| Central 2 | Chase Sumner | Ohio Northern |
| Central 3 | Daniel Uribe | Wabash |
| Lower Midwest 1 | Kristian Rumph | Wartburg |
| Lower Midwest 2 | Javen Estrada | North Central |
| Lower Midwest 3 | Clayton McDonough | Luther |
| Upper Midwest 1 | Charlie Stuhl | Augsburg |
| Upper Midwest 2 | Jake Burford | UW-Whitewater |
| Upper Midwest 3 | Tyler Goebel | UW-La Crosse |
Michael Petrella has followed up last year’s runner-up finish with a 29-0 season that includes wins over seven other wrestlers in the bracket including Brown, Burford, Babb, Rumph, McDonough, Estrada, and Sumner. He has just five regular decision wins this season, and all of those opponents are in the bracket with him in Roanoke. His regional finals opponent, Chase Sumner of Ohio Northern, took a first week loss to Eli Sims of Brockport but has only lost to Petrella since then (save an injury default to Beyer at Budd Whitehill).
Also undefeated this season is freshman Thomas Monn of McDaniel. He won the Southeast region to become McDaniel’s first NCAA qualifier since 2016. He has wins over Beyer, Perry, and 3x qualifier Siu. Nearly, but not quite, undefeated is Northeast champ Hayden Brown of JWU. He took an opening weekend loss to Petrell and has run the table since. He has defeated five qualifiers at this weight and a couple more at 157 for good measure.
Kristian Rumph made the rankings difficult when he took the mat starting in January. The 2022 All-American and 2021 NWCA runner-up started his season by losing three in a row and getting pinned twice. Two of those losses were to Petrella and Brown, a tough draw for your first matches of the year. He has not lost since, capping a dominant regional tournament with a first period pin over Estrada. Even with the regional under his belt, Rumph is just 7-3 with five events on his schedule.
Charlie Stuhl of Augsburg and Hunter Gutierrez of Stevens won the Upper Midwest and Southeast, respectively. Stuhl has just four losses this year with two to Rumph and one to Estrada. He won by injury default against Burford in the regional final before the match really had a chance to get going. Gutierrez has beaten Siu, Burford, Estrada, and Beyer while losing just to Brown in this field along with twice to wrestlers who did not qualify. He gave up a pair of early takedowns in the regional final but followed that up with one of his own and a turn to get the fall late in the first period over Siu.