2014 NCAA Preview: 184 lbs.

2013 Champion: Joe Rau, Elmhurst

2014 Field (with rankings)

West 1 Harrison Concordia-Moorhead
West 2 Teigen Augsburg
West 3 Malychewski Pacific
Central 1 (7) DeVilbiss Luther
Central 2 (9) Sheldon Coe
Central 3 Reyhons Augustana
Midwest 1 (1) Lefever Wabash
Midwest 2 (5) Holm Olivet
Midwest 3 (3) Twohey La Crosse
Mideast 1 (10) Dibenedetto Washington & Jefferson
Mideast 2 Fine Waynesburg
Mideast 3 (8) Thomson Messiah
East 1 (2) Broderick TCNJ
East 2 Dormann Stevens
East 3 Santiago Centenary
Northeast 1 (6) Deupree Southern Maine
Northeast 2 (4) Welch Roger Williams
Northeast 3 Chorzepa Williams

The rest of this weight is a mess, but the top spot is pretty obvious, at least before the NCAA Championships. Riley Lefever of Wabash has gone 37-0 in a fantastic debut season. He defeated #5 Holm of Olivet and #7 DeVilbiss of Luther multiple times during the season and also defeated Harrison of Concordia-Moorhead and Balderas of Elmhurst, who is #9 at 197. After Lefever, nobody has gotten through this group of 184 wrestlers without a loss. #2 Broderick lost to #4 Welch but nobody else. Both of them defeated #8 Thomson of Messiah, the 3rd place finisher at this weight last year. Thomson beat #5 Holm. #6 Deupree stopped Welch in the Northeast final after two previous losses to the Roger Williams wrestler. #3 Twohey split with #6 Holm, losing the last in the Midwest final, but beat Thomson. As you can see, the seeding here is pretty complicated.

What is not complicated is the great tournament #10 David Dibenedetto of Washington & Jefferson wrestled to even get here. He started the year at 174 and was successful, but not dominant at either weight. However, he got hot at the right time and beat last year’s 3rd and 4th place NCAA finishers at this weight in the regional before avenging an earlier loss to Fine of Waynesburg to win the Mideast Regional. Dibenedetto isn’t the only guy at this weight who started the year at 174. Ryan Dormann of Stevens is a three time qualifier at 174 who started this year hoping to make it four times. He moved up during the season and will look for his first All-American award after a second place finish in the East.