Please post your results from the picks contest below. Post your original team in the comments. For each wrestler, list the number of points he cost followed by the number of points he earned and then post the total. Make sure you use the same name/email address combination as you used with your initial entry. This post will remain open until Wednesday, April 3rd, at which point, a winner will be selected and contacted to arrange delivery of the prize.

Points earned are as follows:

1st – 1000
2nd – 900
3rd – 800
4th – 700
5th – 600
6th – 500
7th – 400
8th – 300

Tiebreaker, if necessary:

a. Most total NCAA champions on your team
b. Most total All-Americans
c. Team with most wrestlers to win at least one match
d. Tiebreaker to be determined later (if necessary)

The NWCA conducts a team GPA competition and also gives an award to Scholar All-Americans. This year, Olivet won the team GPA contest. Each team selects ten wrestlers for the competition. At least six of these must have competed in the regional qualifiers. As many as four can be non-starters who competed in at least 50% of the dates of competition. Olivet won the team title this year with a combined 3.67 GPA for the ten wrestlers selected.

2013 NWCA Division III Scholar Team Awards

To be named an NWCA Scholar All-American, a wrestler must meet certain GPA and wrestling thresholds. This season, just 107 out of all NCAA Division III wrestlers were eligible for the award, including Cody Lovejoy of Ohio Northern, the winner of the NCAA’s Elite 89 award given to the wrestler with the highest GPA at the NCAA Championships.

2013 NWCA Division III Scholar All-Americans

Finalists:
East – 5
Midwest, Central – 4
West, Northeast – 3
Mideast – 1

Team Scores by Region:
Midwest – 269.5
East – 193.5
Central – 179.5
Northeast – 163
West – 132
Mideast – 125

Another way to analyze the tournament is to apply a point value to each placement, giving 8 points for first, 7 for second, and so on all the way down to 1 point for 8th. That gives the following breakdown:

Midwest – 90 points
East – 70 points
Central – 62 points
Northeast – 57 points
West – 43 points
Mideast – 38 points

Number of Teams that Scored Points:
East – 10
Mideast – 9
Midwest – 9
Central – 8
Northeast – 8
West – 7

Seeded All-Americans by Weight – 57 out of 80

2013 NCAA Championship Brackets | Team Scores | d3wrestle.com Tournament Coverage

Awards

Outstanding Wrestler: Greg Sanders, Concordia University Wisconsin, 149 lbs.
Most Falls: Mike Benefiel, Elmhurst, 197
Coach of the Year: Steve Marianetti, Elmhurst
Rookie Coach of the Year: Scott Honecker, Williams
Assistant Coach of the Year: John Jung, Elmhurst
Elite 89 Award: Cody Lovejoy, Ohio Northern, 285

NCAA Season-Long Awards | Results heading into the tournament
Most Dominant: Nazar Kuchystkyy, Oshkosh, 165
Most Falls: Nazar Kulchytskyy, Oshkosh, 165
Most Tech Falls: Kyle Kwiat, Ohio Northern, 174

The 2013 NCAA Championships begin today at 11:00am Central Time at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You can follow along all weekend by going to the d3wrestle.com Tournament Coverage page. There, you will find brackets, live results, video links, weight class previews, and regional results.

d3wrestle.com 2013 NCAA Championships Page

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

The final weight class is the last of the three with a returning champion, and #1 Johnson has run the table against DIII competition for the second year in a row. He is as heavy a favorite as there is in the tournament this year. He has defeated #2 Zitone 6-3, dealing Zitone his only loss. Zitone has wins over #7 Fank and #10 Camlin and was 7th last year after a round of 12 finish in 2011. #3 Buss is an outstanding freshman who get noticed with an early win over #7 Fank that he repeated at the Central Region, though Fank did squeeze a win in between those two matches. #4 Edgren was a backup to NCAA runner up Anderson last year, but has stepped in with aplomb, losing only to #5 Mayer in a match he avenged at the regional and to Coe’s Burkle, who did not qualify. Mayer has some good wins including Edgren and Buss, along with the unranked Ceslick, Pearch, and Scepaniak. #6 Bouressa finished 4th in 2011, but went 0-2 at the tournament last season. He hasn’t wrestled a huge number of DIII opponents, but his only DIII losses are to Johnson. #7 Fank was 4th at this weight a year ago and cannot be counted out. #8 Wilkinson opened his season at the NY State Championships where he took both his losses on the year, one of which was included in a split with James. He has otherwise not lost and he has a pair of wins over #9 Rieth who has had a fairly consistent sophomore season. #10 Camlin is a second semester wrestler who lost once to Messiah’s Jones late in the year and then took his second loss in the region final to Zitone. His only other match against a qualifier came in a 7-0 win against Fletcher. Others here include Sacco, a prolific pinner who last qualified in 2010 and Foote a 2011 qualifier who qualified as a wildcard in 2012 but was unable to compete due to injury.

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

#1 Myhrberg has led the way this season and comes into a second straight NCAA tournament without a DIII loss on his record. He defeated #3 Karns and #6 Benefiel this year and is a definite favorite at the weight. He narrowly missed the finals last year and is looking to improve upon last year’s 3rd place finish. #2 Coolidge is also undefeated in DIII and comes out of the tough Central Region where he has defeated both #4 Soriano and the returning All-American #5 Flegel multiple times this season. #3 Karns has just that one loss to Myhrberg in DIII and has wins over five of the wrestlers in the bracket. He was in the round of 12 in 2011. Soriano stepped into the lineup for graduated 3x champion Byron Tate and has had a good season. Flegel was 6th last year and has split with Soriano. #6 Benefiel has settled in at 197 and looks to finish out his career on a high note after spending time at both Northwestern and Oklahoma State. He lost to #8 Faber at the regional  but beat him earlier in the year. The only other losses for Benefiel were to Myhrberg on an overtime pin and to Olsen, Faber’s teammate who qualified at 184. #7 Siefert is a tough freshman who won the region with Faber and Benefiel and has improved as the year progressed. #9 Lovins and #10 Landis met in the Mideast final and round out the top ten. Schmitz is not ranked, but he was 5th at this weight a year ago.

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

Both of last year’s finalists are gone from list weight, leaving last year’s 3rd place finisher, #1 Rau as the favorite. Rau has not lost in DIII this year, and his only two losses came to DI wrestlers at the Midlands. He has wins over 6 wrestlers in the field. #2 Broderick is also undefeated against DIII, and he has not had any matches that were in doubt, save for a tight 3-2 win over #4 Thomson, an outstanding freshman who won the Mideast Region. #3 Hagen was a round of 12 wrestler last year who bounced back from a pair of early season losses to win the West Region. #5 Dunlap is one of Whitewater’s multiple 2nd-semester-only wrestlers and his only loss is to Rau. #6, #7, and #8 all come from the Central Region in DeVilbiss, Upah, and Broll, and that’s how they finished in the Regional. #9 Lenhardt and #10 Ajayi are both repeat qualifiers from the Northeast. Lenhardt was a qualifier in 2010, while Ajayi placed 7th last season. Lenhardt defeated Ajayi 3-2 in the regional final. It is a fairly strong field after the top ten, with the always dangerous Meaney ready to throw a wrench into the seedings and several others with excellent records making their first appearance at the tournament.

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

Here is the second weight with a defending champion back at the same weight class. #1 Kwiat has led the rankings all season and is undefeated against DIII. He is extraordinary on top and leads the whole NCAA by a wide margin in tech falls. #2 Doliscar was an All-American here last year, and he is another tough top wrestler who is undefeated against DIII. #3 Puca has a single DIII loss to Doliscar in their dual meet, but Doliscar forfeited to Puca in the Northeast Region final. #4 O’Brien was 4th at 165 last year, and has wrestled a string of close matches throughout the last month of the season, coming out on top in all but one tech fall loss to Kwiat. Both of his other losses came earlier in the year at 165. Two of those close wins came against #5 Conat who did not lose until late January this season and has just one other DIII loss to a wrestler not in this tournament. #6 Schiferl lost in the round of 12 last year and won the West Region. #7 Pieper has lost mainly to those above him and has a win over #8 Thomson, the East Region winner whose only other loss was to Puca back in December. #9 Azinger was a 184 placewinner last year who has two wins over Ball but lost to him at the Central Regional. #10 Roach rounds it out and was 2nd at the West Region. Outside the top ten are the previously mentioned Ball, Zotollo and Winston, who each beat the previous #3 Dufresne of Centenary to keep him from qualifying, and Hartzell, the first qualifier from WPI since 2004.

This link will have results all weekend long.

2013 NCAA Division III Brackets (trackwrestling.com)

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

This is the first of three weight classes that has a defending champion in the bracket. Adding to the excitement is the fact that last year’s champ at the previous weight class is also here. #1 Williams has gone wire to wire at the top this season with only a single non-DIII loss on his record. He has yet to face #2 Kulchystskyy, the defending champ at 157. Kulchytskyy has put together an amazing 40-1 season with an NCAA all division leading 21 falls and a nigh insurmountable lead in the Most Dominant standings. The rest of the top five here include last seasons 5th place finisher #3 Favia, the 6th place finisher from 157 in #4 Darling, and last year’s 3rd place finisher #5 Longo. Favia beat the other two, and Darling defeated Longo. #6 Gibson wrestled unattached in the first semester, then spent most of the second at 157 before heading up to 165 for the last few weeks, culminating in a Midwest Region title against #7 Schulte. #8 Myers was 6th at this weight last season and was 3rd in the Midwest. #9 Crowell reversed an earlier loss to Longo to win the Northeast Region and was a qualifier here last year, with #10 Vernon used a 3rd period comeback to win the final spot out of the East. Outside the top ten, Schuler is 16-2 with both losses to Kulchytskyy. Guidi won the Mideast over Plummer and lost twice and won once against Powell, while Plummer defeated Powell last weekend.

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

A pair of returning All-Americans from this weight in 2012 lead the pack at 157. #1 Larson only wrestled once before Christmas, but he has gone undefeated in 2013 after finishing 4th at this weight a year ago. The 5th place finisher in 2012 is #2 Burdge. Burdge also has no DIII losses and is coming off a solid East Regional performance. Each of the top two are looking for his third All-American award. #3 Krawchuk had not lost since the first day of the season until dropping the East final to Burdge, and he also has a win over the one wrestler to defeat Burdge this year. #4 Welter just missed placing last year and won the Central Region. He did not have to face #10 Boyer who defeated him earlier in the season but lost to #9 Warczynski in the semifinals. #5 Sterling and #6 Gott both qualified at the weight last year but came up short on placing. Sterling had a rough National Duals, but has otherwise been very solid, while Gott took all three of his DIII losses at the Wheaton tournament. #7 Lefever has had an excellent debut season with just a loss to Larson after the first tournament of the year. #8 Sarbacker only started wrestling for Whitewater in January, but he put together a good half season with a few big wins. Finally, the bottom three here all came from the West Region, including one of two wrestlers in the tournament (both from the West) that have losing records.

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

Like 141, none of last year’s placewinners return at 149, leaving the weight wide open. There is just one returning All-American at a different weight, but that is 2012 141 lbs. champion and #1 ranked Silvestri. He has a single loss to Pederson of Olivet (who did not qualify) back in December, but he has cruised since then and dominated the C entral Region. #2 Polizzi shocked some by defeating the then #2 Hartenstine in the East final right after topping then #3 Ajagbe.  If he has another weekend like that, he could be high on the podium. Hartenstine is a midyear transfer from Campbell who had been outstanding until last weekend, and he should still be very much in the mix for a title. Ajagbe struggled a bit in an overtime loss to Polizzi and a tiebreaker win just to make the tournament, but will also be in the hunt. #4 Dierna and #5 Pisani are both outstanding newcomers. Dierna has only lost to Ajagbe in DIII, while Pisani has only a pair of losses to Dierna and a tiebreaker loss to Hartenstine. #7 Long got himself noticed with a win in the West Region and a win over #9 Engle, though he has split this year with Stevermer. #8 Sanders won every match from November 17th until last Saturday when he injury defaulted to Long and is now 36-4. #10 Mirman finishes out the top ten, while Lopez is just behind and has flown quietly under the radar during a very strong season. Perkin won the Midwest and had to beat an opponent he had lost to three times just to make the finals where he topped Strobel, who dropped to 149 late in the year.

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

None of last year’s top 8 at this weight return in 2013, but there are several returning 133 All-Americans who have made the move up this year. #1 Sheley and #2 Grippi were both All-American’s last season at 133, while #9 Mirocha was a 4th place finisher at 133 in 2010. #3 Earley dropped to the weight this year and has gone undefeated so far with wins over Sheley and several other entrants at this weight. #4 Antista lost twice to Mirocha and once last weekend to Grippi, but has otherwise put together a strong season in his quest for a first All-American award in his third try. #5 Fredricksen is up from 133 and #6 Marcello is back at 141, where they qualified last year. Marcello is now a four time qualifier who is still in search of his first NCAA win. #10 Fava is an interesting story, as he was last seen as an undersized 165 in 2011. He was also in the round of 12 at 149 in 2009. He returned for the second semester and finally seemed ready to go at the region where he lost in the finals in overtime. #7 Travis and #8 Meaney round out the top ten at 141. Travis won the Central Region and has a win over Sheley this season, while Meaney has a few wins over other qualifiers and has done very well since the calendar flipped to February.

See the chart below for a comparison of qualifiers according to the old conference system. The two changes from last year are the implementation of the Regional qualifying system and the addition of 10 qualifiers to bring the total up to 180.

Here is a list of the 20 wrestlers who appeared in the final pre-region d3wrestle.com Top Ten who did not qualify for the 2013 NCAA Championships in the format of Name (School, 2013 Region, 2012 Conference). Wrestlers in italics did not compete in the regionals. Wrestlers in bold were 2012 All-Americans. If I have missed anyone, please note it in the comments.

• 125 #5 Rice (Hunter, East, Metro)
• 133 #5 Herr (TCNJ, East, Metro), #6 Mendoza (Wilkes, East, Metro), #7 Steger (Loras, Central, Iowa)
• 141 #6 Black (MSJ, Mideast, Midwest), #8 Bistis (Cortland, Northeast, Empire)
• 149 #7 Pederson (Olivet, Midwest, Midwest)
• 157 #5 Savenok (Wheaton, Midwest, Great Lakes), #6 Brenon (Ithaca, Northeast, Empire), #9 Jasinski (Ursinus, East, Centennial)
• 165 #8 Rice (NYU, East, Centennial)
• 174 #3 Dufresne (Centenary, East, Metro), #5 Balderas (Elmhurst, Midwest, Great Lakes)
• 184 #7 Beckwith (Cortland, Northeast, Empire), #8 Holm (Olivet, Midwest, Midwest), #9 Einerson (Dubuque, Central, Iowa)
• 197 #5 Wozniak (Stevens Point, Midwest, Wisconsin), #10 Horner (Coe, Central, Iowa)
• 285 #4 Burkle (Coe, Central, Iowa), #10 Robinson (Alma, Midwest, Midwest)

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

Both finalists from 125 are now at 133 and look to be on a collision course to again meet in the finals. #1 Anderson has picked up right where he left off last season and remains undefeated this season. Also undefeated in DIII is #2 Fitzenreider. His only loss so far was up at 141 to a wrestler from Northwestern. He recently shut out the field at the Midwest Region. Both Fitzenreider and Anderson have wins this year over last year’s 3rd place finisher #3 Bullard. Four of Bullard’s five DIII losses are to the two guys ranked above him, and he has a pair of wins this year against #9 Sutter, the 3rd place finisher at 125 a year ago. #4 Gomez and #5 Jones are newcomers to the NCAA tournament. Gomez has a close 1-0 loss to Anderson and wins over several of the entrants here. Jones is an Iowa State transfer who spent some time in Ames as the 125 starter over the past two years, but he joined NYU at the semester and has yet to lose, winning twice so far over #6 O’Boyle. The only other wrestler in the weight with NCAA experience is Ohio Northern’s Jones, and his matches at last year’s tournament ended in a fall and 16-0 tech fall. This year, he slipped in as the final qualifier out of the Mideast. Central region qualifiers Sokol and Obert have both had nice seasons and will be worth watching.

d3wrestle.com Ranking #11 – March 5, 2013

Even though this is a weight without a clear cut favorite for most of the season, things still managed to get even more jumbled after the Regional tournaments. #1 Giorgio and #2 Bewak both went down but at least still managed to qualify. The top five in the rankings are all from the eastern half of the country, and #1 Gomez has wins over #2 Giorgio, #3 Frankel, #8 Camacho and #10 Ellis to go along with an undefeated record against DIII 125 lb. wrestlers this year. Giorgio is the highest returning finisher after a 4th place finish a year ago, but the fact that he only made 125 twice before the regional may leave questions about his effectiveness with a day two weigh in looming. The 6th, 7th, and 8th finishers from last year are also back. Gotto is a bit of a surprise as he took some tough losses this year and also seemed to have lost the starting spot at one point, yet here he is looking for another spot on the podium. Bewak, who was 7th last year, spent a chunk of the year at #1 before Giorgio dropped to the weight, and he could not regain the #1 spot after taking a Regional loss to Donaldson for the first time in five career matches against him. Frankel was the 8th place finisher a year ago, and he comes in at #3 after winning that same Regional with a dramatic win over Donaldson in the finals. Others to watch include #7 Preston, who has been much better in the second half than the first, the talented, if sometimes inconsistent Camacho, and #6 Ambrocio, who has not lost since December 16th.