2015 Midwest Regional Preview
2015 Midwest Regional
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Wabash College – Crawfordsville, Indiana – Event Website
February 18th d3wrestle.com Rankings
Teams
Alma, Chicago, Elmhurst, Manchester, North Central, Olivet, Trine, Wabash, Wheaton, Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wisconsin-La Crosse, Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Top Ten Ranked Individuals – 2014 All-Americans in bold
125 – none
133 – #8 Balsiger (La Crosse)
141 – #7 Adcock (Whitewater), # 9 Binion (North Central)
149 – #7 Perkin (Whitewater), #8 Einerson (La Crosse), Savenok (Wheaton)
157 – #2 Lefever (Wabash), #10 Gerszewski (Whitewater)
165 – #2 Schneider (La Crosse), #9 Tuttle (Alma), Aiello (Wheaton)
174 – #1 Lefever (Wabash), #3 Newman (Whitewater), #6 Jakes (Alma)
184 – #1 Lefever (Wabash), #7 Carlson (La Crosse), #9 Olsen (Wheaton)
197 – #1 Twohey (La Crosse), #2 Siefert (Whitewater)
285 – #3 Green (Trine), #8 Edgren (Whitewater), #10 Mahler (North Central)
Top 30 Teams (d3wrestle.com list)
#2 Whitewater
#5 La Crosse
#6 Wabash
#16 Alma
What the Midwest Region lacks in quantity of teams, it more than makes up for in quality of teams and individuals. Whitewater, Lacrosse, and Wabash all are legitimate contenders for the National Championship, if they can make it through the region with enough qualifiers. While other teams in the region may not have the same number of All-American candidates, almost every team has multiple individuals who are capable of making their own run at hardware in Hershey. Alma and North Central each boast two top ten individuals, while Wheaton will have two All-Americans from 2014 and one All-American from 2013 in the tournament.
The strength of the Wabash squad lies in the brothers Lefever. Riley (184) is defending national champ, Reese (157) a returning All American, and Conner is currently #1 ranked at 174. Still, for the Little Giants to have a chance to win it all in Hershey, they will need some of their lesser known grapplers to step up at home. La Crosse and Whitewater both seem to have the numbers and Whitewater has been one of the national favorites all year long. They have been impressive in tournaments winning most notably at the Messiah-Petrofes, Wheaton Invitational and WIAC championships.
The best overall weight appears to be 174 with three top 10 ranked wrestlers and two other solid contenders in Frank Aiello (Wheaton) and Nick Allen (Olivet) who both have wins over individuals in the current top 10. Also of note, arguably the most dominant wrestler in all of DIII this season, 197 defending NCAA runner-up Shane Siefert (Whitewater) took his first loss of the year last week to Eric Twohey of Lacrosse. We could see a rematch in the regional finals.