NCAA Preview: 133
Weight Class Previews:
125 | 133 | 141 | 149 | 157 | 165 | 174 | 184 | 197 | 285
Weight Class Preview: 133
Qualifiers by Weight
Adam Johnson had a slow start to his college wrestling career. As a freshman at 141, he finished 28-21. However, he made the right choice to drop to 133 the next season and was rewarded with a 7th place finish at the NCAA tournament, a finish he improved to 3rd the next year. Now, he’s the top seed at 133 coming off a huge win over Lang in the regional final. He’s a tremendous athlete with a wide array of offensive skills and some talent on top to go with it. He has also defeated Morgan by a 4-3 score in December.
Morgan can’t be overlooked as the returning NCAA champ at this weight. His sole loss is to Johnson, and he’s defeated qualifiers and conference foes Sarinelli and Gummerson twice each. Also a 2x All-American, he is compact and very difficult to score on with good offense of his own. NCAA tournament matches often come down to one takedown, and Morgan is able to make one takedown stand up. Lang is the #3 seed here who is very dangerous with only the loss to Johnson in D3. He has 18 first period falls this year and only 6 regular decisions. At #4 is Helvey, who cannot be overlooked with his 4-0 win over Johnson this season at the Desert Duals. He was pinned by Lang, but has defeated every other qualifier he’s faced. He won in overtime against Nothern in the IIAC final in a match where Nothern was all over his legs but could only finish once.
All-American Kolinski is the 5 seed with wins over Sarinelli and Nothern. He’s wrestled just 20 times this year and will not go down quietly against a higher seed. Nothern’s offense kept him in the match against Helvey and could do so this weekend
An intriguing wrestler to watch this weekend is #8 Hulegaard. He is a 3x All-American who fell to 5th in the IIAC without wrestling either finalist. He’s not in a great spot in the bracket, if the seeds hold, as a win in the first round coupled with a loss to Johnson in the quarters would leave him facing Bartlett who has a losing record, but defeated Hulegaard last time out.
Beyond the seeds, Gummerson is another dangerous wrestler who had Morgan on his back earlier this year. Bartlett is in the interesting situation where he has to win once to place if he loses first round, but twice if he wins.