2024 NCAA DI National Championships Preview (165 lbs)

The 2024 NCAA DI Wrestling Championships are less than a week away! In a few short days, 330 wrestlers will make the trek to Kansas City, with hopes of a national title on their minds. Now it's in a city that hasn't hosted nationals since 2003 , but by all accounts, should be a great host. 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. The Top Seed: Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) This is the weight class that most wrestling fans have anticipated all year long. Last season, we were treated to a trilogy of matches between returning national champions Keegan O’Toole and David Carr. O’Toole, now famously, dropped both their dual meeting and Big 12 final before prevailing when it counted in the national finals. In doing so, O’Toole locked up back-to-back national titles at 165 lbs. This year has been and will be different between the two. An illness ran its way through the Mizzou team and forced multiple team members, including O’Toole, to sit out of their dual with Iowa State. At the Big 12 Championships, it was O’Toole who got the best of Carr. Now, with O’Toole as the top seed and Carr as the number four, they are slated to meet in Friday night’s semifinals rather than the finals. While that isn’t ideal, there are plenty of intriguing storylines at this weight, which we’ll get to later. O’Toole’s win over Carr and the top seed at nationals also has put him in contention for the 2024 Hodge Trophy. He heads into Kansas City with a perfect 19-0 record and bonus points in almost 75% of his matches. Even for the high-scoring O’Toole, that figure would represent a career-high. O’Toole tallied those numbers on the strength of seven falls and four tech falls. O’Toole starts this final stretch towards his third nation title with an 83-3 career record. Two of those losses came to Carr last season and only one occurred during an NCAA Championship event. Oftentimes, people are quick to label the Big Ten as the best up-and-down the brackets; however, O’Toole’s Big 12 bracket was deeper and contained three returning All-Americans, in addition to O’Toole. In 2023-24, O’Toole went a combined 4-0 against those past AA’s and even bumped up to defeat the eventual Big Ten champion, Edmond Ruth. The Contenders: #2 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State), #3 Julian Ramirez (Cornell), #4 David Carr (Iowa State) The Conference Champions ACC: #30 Nick Hamilton (Virginia) Big 12: #1 Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) Big Ten: #2 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) EIWA: #3 Julian Ramirez (Cornell) MAC: #29 Evan Maag (George Mason) Pac-12: #13 Joey Bianchi (Little Rock) SoCon: #16 Will Miller (Appalachian State) Top First-Round Matches #16 Will Miller (Appalachian State) vs. #17 Tyler Lillard (Indiana) #12 Garrett Thompson (Ohio) vs. #21 Caleb Fish (Michigan State) #11 Andrew Cerniglia (Navy) vs. #22 Noah Mulvaney (Bucknell) #10 Cam Amine (Michigan) vs. #23 Derek Fields (NC State) #15 Brevin Cassella (Binghamton) vs. #18 Connor Brady (Virginia Tech) So we can’t have that NCAA finals rematch that most wanted between O’Toole and Carr; however, a new challenger has emerged and makes for some fun storylines. The second seed belongs to Mitchell Mesenbrink, a redshirt freshman for Penn State. Like O’Toole, Mesenbrink is a product of Askren Wrestling Academy and Arrowhead High School in Wisconsin. Could we see an NCAA final between two high school and club teammates? Mesenbrink secured the second seed after his wild win over returning Big Ten champion Dean Hamiti. In the early going, Hamiti appeared to be on track to handing Mesenbrink his first collegiate loss. Mesenbrink was not flustered and kept the pressure on and won 13-11. Something to monitor is that Hamiti appeared to leave the mat with a pronounced limp. The top half of the bracket could see Hamiti and Carr meeting in the quarterfinals, as Hamiti now has the fifth seed. The pair met early in the season and Carr took the 2-0 win largely on the strength of his mat wrestling. That loss was the only other one on the year for Hamiti. Carr has the fourth seed in large part because of a Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational semifinal loss to Julian Ramirez. That defeat was Carr’s first at a regular season event since December of 2019 (Also the CKLV semis). After Vegas, Carr won 13 straight bouts and earned bonus points in ten of those contests. In addition to Mesenbrink, the bottom half of the bracket contains Ramirez as the third seed. Ramirez went on to take second at the CKLV, after beating Carr, as he fell to Izzak Olejnik in the finals. Ramirez recently won his second straight EIWA crown in a solid weight class that featured six eventual national qualifiers. Olejnik is also on the bottom half of the bracket as the seventh seed. He started the year red-hot with 16 straight wins; however, he took some lumps when it came to the conference dual meet portion of the season. West Virginia’s Peyton Hall (the #9th seed) handed him his first loss of the year and a few weeks later he was beaten by Carr and O’Toole. At the Big 12 meet, Olejnik got some semblance of revenge when he defeated Hall for third place. Other returning All-Americans on the bottom half of the bracket are #6 Michael Caliendo and #10 Cam Amine. The pair met twice at the Big Ten Championships and both matches needed sudden victory, and in both instances, Caliendo prevailed. Amine is a three-time All-American who missed significant time this season, but may be rounding into form at the right time. Caliendo AA’ed last year for North Dakota State, but hasn’t missed a beat after moving to Iowa. A good second-round match to watch on the top portion of the bracket is the #8/#9 bout between Hall and Antrell Taylor. The freshman from Nebraska finished fifth in the Big Ten and has a win over Amine on his resume. The winner of this bout is set up well to get on the podium, while the loser may have to pull a big upset to crack the top-eight. Darkhorse All-American Candidate: #11 Andrew Cerniglia (Navy) Andrew Cerniglia came to the Naval Academy as one of the top-25 recruits in the Class of 2020. Unfortunately, two of his previous three seasons have been disrupted by injury and he was unable to consistently show the talent that made him so highly regarded. 2023-24 was a welcome change as Cerniglia was able to get on the mat for 27 matches prior to the national tournament. Generally in good health, Cerniglia was very good, making the EIWA finals and pushing Ramirez before falling 5-3. Once the calendar flipped over to 2024, Cerniglia started the year with 13 straight wins. He’ll enter Kansas City with a 22-5 record; one of his losses came via injury default in the second week of the season. With the way Cerniglia is wrestling and the way the brackets could end up breaking, I think there’s a good chance he advanced to the Round of 12. Extreme (20+) Darkhorse All-American Contender: #21 Caleb Fish (Michigan State) One of the surprises in last year’s tournament was Caleb Fish. As the 29th seed, Fish knocked off the fourth seed, EIWA champion Julian Ramirez, in the opening round. He advanced to the quarterfinals after a slightly lesser upset, over #20 Holden Heller. Even with Fish having to rely on an at-large berth to qualify this season, we’re not getting fooled again. Especially considering Fish has a win this season over his first opponent, #12 Garrett Thompson of Ohio. Should Fish get another first-round victory, there’s a decent path for him to make the bloodround, again. The Team Race: The team race implications at this weight aren’t as strong as other weights, but there are still some intriguing points to consider. All year, Missouri has been considered a trophy threat; however, they were fourth at the Big 12 meet and tailed off in the regular season. A title from O’Toole, with a couple of bonus point wins thrown in for good measure, could be a great starting point for the Tigers. I’d keep an eye on that potential three versus six quarterfinal with Ramirez and Caliendo. That’s a guaranteed top-six finish for the winning team. Also, wrestlers like Olejnik, Taylor, and Amine are not necessarily locks for the podium, so getting there would be a plus for their respective squads. Projected Quarterfinals #1 Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) vs. #8 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) #5 Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) vs. #4 David Carr (Iowa State) #3 Julian Ramirez (Cornell) vs. #6 Michael Caliendo (Iowa) #7 Izzak Olejnik (Oklahoma State) vs. #2 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) Projected Semifinals #1 Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) vs. #4 David Carr (Iowa State) #6 Michael Caliendo (Iowa) vs. #2 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) Projected All-Americans 1st: Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) 2nd: Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) 3rd: David Carr (Iowa State) 4th: Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) 5th: Michael Caliendo (Iowa) 6th: Izzak Olejnik (Oklahoma State) 7th: Julian Ramirez (Cornell) 8th: Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) Projected Round of 12 Finishers: #10 Cam Amine (Michigan), #11 Andrew Cerniglia (Navy), #21 Caleb Fish (Michigan State), #9 Peyton Hall (West Virginia) Projected Consolation Round of 16 Finishers: #16 Will Miller (Appalachian State), #19 Gunner Filipowicz (Army West Point), #14 Giano Petrucelli (Air Force), #15 Brevin Cassella (Binghamton)

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2024 NCAA DI National Championships Preview (165 lbs)

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