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    Andrew Hipps •

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    A look at some NCAA Division I seeding blunders

    The seeds and brackets for the 2012 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships were released on Wednesday, and as is the case every year, there were some seeding blunders.

    Stanford's Nick Amuchastegui is the highest returning NCAA finisher and has been dominating opponents all season (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)
    The biggest seeding blunder came at 174 pounds, where Stanford's Nick Amuchastegui was given the No. 3 seed. Amuchastegui should have been the No. 1 seed. Giving him the No. 2 seed would have been unfortunate. But giving him the No. 3 seed is just a slap in the face. Instead the top seed was given to a wrestler Amuchastegui defeated at the NCAAs last season, Penn State's Ed Ruth, and the No. 2 seed was given to Oklahoma State's Chris Perry, a wrestler who failed to earn All-American honors last season. There's no denying that Ruth and Perry have been dominant this season. But so has Amuchastegui. He began the season as the No. 1 wrestler in the weight class based on his performance last season, and Stanford's Superman has done nothing to surrender that No. 1 spot. He enters the NCAAs with a perfect 20-0 record. He has faced two wrestlers who have earned seeds at this year's NCAAs, and has major decision victories over both of them. Amuchastegui has picked up bonus points in 15 of his 20 wins this season.

    Amuchastegui is not the only Stanford wrestler who received a raw deal with his seed. So did returning All-American Ryan Mango, who was given the No. 8 seed at 125 pounds, and put in the same quarter bracket as No. 1 Matt McDonough of Iowa. Mango spent the majority of the season competing at 133 pounds to help his team, and had a strong season, picking up quality wins, and losing only to ranked 133-pounders. Mango notched a win over Harvard's Steven Keith, who earned the No. 11 seed at 133 pounds. Late in the season Mango made the move back down to 125 pounds, where he is the third-highest returning NCAA finisher, behind only McDonough and Minnesota's Zach Sanders. Mango has not lost a match at 125 pounds this season, and last season had wins over three wrestlers who are seeded ahead of him at this year's NCAAs. Seeding Mango anywhere from third to fifth would have been reasonable, but giving him the eighth seed is discrediting what he has accomplished in the weight class.

    Maryland All-American Josh Asper is 24-1 and seeded No. 7 (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)
    Maryland's Josh Asper, a returning All-American, entered the ACC Championships undefeated and ranked No. 2 at 165 pounds, behind only Penn State's David Taylor. Asper suffered his first and only loss of the season in the finals of the ACC Championships, in overtime, to Virginia's Tech's Peter Yates. With that single overtime blemish, Asper fell out of the top five and received a head-scratching No. 7 seed, while four of the six wrestlers seeded in front of him enter the NCAAs with four or more losses. It just doesn't add up.

    Another major seeding blunder came at heavyweight, where defending NCAA champion Zack Rey of Lehigh was given the No. 4 seed, and placed on the same side of the bracket as his rival Ryan Flores of American. Rey would have likely earned the No. 1 seed if he would have defeated Flores in the EIWA finals. But he didn't. He lost in overtime. Rey should have been given the No. 2 seed, or at worst the No. 3 seed. His only other loss this season came in the first month of the season to Arizona State's Levi Cooper. The No. 2 seed was given to Minnesota's Tony Nelson, who, like Rey, has two losses, but one of Nelson's losses is to a wrestler who is not seeded, Central Michigan's Peter Sturgeon. The No. 3 seed was given to Oregon State's Clayton Jack, who has a loss this season to Nelson and has not faced Flores or Rey.

    Perhaps the most baffling seed is at 174 pounds, where Iowa State's Chris Spangler earned a No. 8 seed despite being out for the season because of repeated concussions.
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