Tag: NCAA Wrestling Championships

Rutgers wrestling head coach Scott Goodale on Big Ten champ Dylan Shawver: ‘He believes he can win this tournament’

Dylan Shawver won the Big Ten Tournament at 133 pounds and now goes into the NCAA Wrestling Championships as a favorite.

Fresh off a successful Big Ten Tournament where seven from his team outright qualified for the NCAA Tournament, Rutgers wrestling head coach Scott Goodale has the task to center and focus his squad on a bigger task ahead.

With the NCAA Wrestling Championships kicking off this week, Rutgers has the legitimate chance to place several wrestlers as All-Americans. But the attention will be the brightest on Dylan Shawver.

Shawver is the fourth-seed at 133 pounds and is fresh off taking the title at the Big Ten Tournament. He is one of eight wrestlers from Rutgers who qualified for the NCAA championships but his situation heading into this week is unique.

As a conference champion, Shawver must now his turn his focus back to once again competing. As the Big Ten Tournament champion at 133 pounds, he enters the NCAA championships with a target on his back.

“The biggest thing for me from a staff standpoint is getting off that high,” Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale said on a conference call this week.

“It’s one of the harder things we have to deal with is getting off the highs with the Big Ten Tournament and getting right back in the mindset of  ‘Let’s get ready for the national tournament’ because the Big Ten is over .Of course, it’s great when there’s momentum when you’ve wrestled well, and you’re training well,

“He’s (Shawver) done that – he’s really, really trained well. I really think he wants the tournament….he believes he can win this tournament. So that’s that’s our job and that’s really, really important.

“But at the end of the day, it all starts over around. 11 o’clock Thursday morning. He’s got a very difficult match. So that’s the way we got to move on and that’s the way to approach it. And he’s super confident but you got to get off of what happened two weeks ago and really lock in on to what’s about to take place. These next – I shouldn’t say these next three days but the three days Thursday, Friday, Saturday – nothing can happen unless you get the first one.”

Shawver is 22-5 on the season and looks very comfortable at 133 pounds. He will start the NCAA Wrestling Championships against No. 29 Jace Koelzer (Oklahoma).

Can Ohio State qualify ten wrestlers for the NCAA Championships again?

Last year, the Ohio State Buckeyes were the only team in the country to place ten wrestlers in the NCAA Championships. Can they repeat that?

Last year, the Ohio State Buckeyes were the only wrestling team in the country to place ten wrestlers in the NCAA Championships.

That record seems very unlikely to repeat this year, as the Iowa Hawkeyes will almost certainly qualify a full squad for the NCAAs. Additionally, Campbell might be able to pull off that by sweeping the SoCon, and Oklahoma State looks to be competitive in the Big 12 at every weight class, except maybe heavyweight.

However, the big question for the Buckeyes is whether Ohio State can put a full lineup in the NCAAs. And, if they can’t, just how many spots can the Buckeyes earn? Let’s go through the lineup and break it down.

The Locks

141, 149, and 197 pounds

There’s no need to get too into the weeds of the bracket and number of bids at these three weight classes. Luke Pletcher, Sammy Sasso, and Kollin Moore are going to get in the NCAA Championships. Even if all three lose early in the Big Ten Championships, they’re still getting in to the NCAAs. And while Pletcher would obviously like to avenge his loss to Penn State’s Nick Lee in the process, for our purposes right now, we know he’s done enough this season to reach the postseason.

What about the rest of the Buckeyes? Some of them, like Kaleb Romero and Rocky Jordan should have pretty easy paths to the NCAA tournament. Some–like No. 14 seed Jordan Decatur–will have a very challenging path indeed. In a series of articles over the next few days, we will break down the paths and brackets for the other seven Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championships. We will look at how many spots are available for Big Ten wrestlers, and how tough each Buckeye’s path to those spots will be.

For now, let’s just give a quick overview of where the rest of the Buckeyes stand.

Near-Locks

174 pounds: Kaleb Romero
184 pounds: Rocky Jordan

Should make it

165 pounds: Ethan Smith
Heavyweight: Gary Traub

Very difficult path

125 pounds: Malik Heinselman
133 pounds: Jordan Decatur
157 pounds: Elijah Cleary