(from left) Vito Arujau, Roman Bravo-Young, Daton Fix (Photo/Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com)The 2023 NCAA DI Wrestling Championships are less than a week away! In a few short days, 330 wrestlers will make the trek to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with hopes of a national title on their minds. Now it's in a state that hasn't hosted nationals since 2014 and a city that has never hosted the DI Tournament. Our Big 12 friends are plenty-familiar with the venue, the BOK Center, as it has become the home of their conference tournament.
Before the action on the mat starts, InterMat will go through each individual bracket and highlight the favorites, top matches to watch, and much more.
Here’s the 125 lb Preview
The Top Seed: #1 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)
For the second consecutive year, Roman Bravo-Young comes into the national tournament as the top seed at 133 lbs. He’s in search of his third national championship and heads into Tulsa a winner of his last 52 matches. Quietly, this may have been Bravo-Young’s best collegiate campaign to date. He has amassed bonus points in 75% of his bouts with four falls and three techs. The four falls tie a career-high established during the 2021-22 season.
During the last three seasons, RBY has walked a tightrope, facing a talented top-tier of contenders and deftly escaping defeat. This year, the top talent is dispersed throughout the country, at multiple conferences and the schedule has broken so that Bravo-Young has not faced any of the top title threats. The highest-seeded wrestler he’s faced in the 2022-23 campaign has been his Big Ten finals opponent #8 Aaron Nagao (Minnesota). RBY prevailed with a 5-2 win.
Nagao, along with Dylan Ragusin and Jesse Mendez, are the opponents that have held Bravo-Young to a regular decision this season.
For the full article, Subscribe to InterMat's Rokfin Page
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now