Last year, NWCA All-Star Classic participants produced 11 All-Americans and three NCAA titles.
We expect the matchups to be announced in the coming weeks, but before that happens, we took a shot at laying out ten match-ups that should happen at the 2018 NWCA All-Star Classic.
Ronnie Bresser edged Spencer Lee at the Midlands (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)125: Spencer Lee (Iowa) vs. Ronnie Bresser (Oregon State)
The reigning 125-pound NCAA champion Spencer Lee suffered two losses during his true freshman campaign. His first college loss came at the hands of Oregon State's Ronnie Bresser at the Midlands Championships. He suffered his second loss at the Big Ten Championships to four-time NCAA All-American and 2015 NCAA champion, Nathan Tomasello (Ohio State).
Lee avenged his loss to Tomasello in the semifinals of the national tournament but has yet to get his hand back on Bresser to try and avenge that 3-2 loss.
133: Seth Gross (South Dakota State) vs. Tariq Wilson (North Carolina State)
One of the fan favorites from a season ago was Tariq Wilson of North Carolina State. The long and lengthy true freshman lost six of eight matches coming into Cleveland but knocked off three top-five wrestlers on his way to a third-place finish.
In the semifinals, Wilson accomplished what very few wrestlers have been able to do over the past two seasons, and that was to score multiple takedowns on Seth Gross. Wilson snatched up the left leg of Gross with ease, scoring five takedowns, while nearly stunning the No. 1 seed before giving up the fall in overtime.
141: Joey McKenna (Ohio State) vs. Jaydin Eierman (Missouri)
One has to imagine that reigning NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) will be out for a significant portion of the season after tearing his ACL against Jaydin Eierman in the semifinals.
After taking out graduated seniors, next in succession is reigning Big Ten champion and two-time All-American Joey McKenna and two-time All-American and two-time MAC champion, Jaydin Eierman.
These two split their pair of career meetings. Eierman handled then Stanford Cardinal, McKenna 8-0 at the 2016 NCAA Championships. Mckenna rebounded and closed out last season with a 7-2 victory over the Tiger in the third-place bout of the NCAA Championships.
149: Matthew Kolodzik (Princeton) vs. Grant Leeth (Missouri)
With the departure of two-time Hodge Trophy winner Zain Retherford (Penn State) and four other top-eight finishers, Matthew Kolodzik and Grant Leeth are two of the favorites to take supremacy over the 149-pound weight class.
These two are no strangers to each other, as Princeton's two-time All-American Matthew Kolodzik defeated Grant Leeth in the NCAA quarterfinals, 4-3 and went on to finish in third-place.
In mid-May, both Leeth and Missouri learned that he would be award two additional years after facing a catalog of injuries, including a neck injury that required surgery to fix a herniated disk that was causing repetitive stingers.
Jason Nolf repeated as NCAA champion, defeating Hayden Hidlay in the NCAA finals (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)157: Jason Nolf (Penn State) vs. Hayden Hidlay (North Carolina State)
This would be a rematch of the NCAA finals where Nolf defeated Hidlay, 6-2. Coming into Saturday night in Cleveland, and taking out the injury default "loss" that sidelined Jason Nolf for nearly half the season, these two entered the NCAA finals with a combined record of 52-0.
165: Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State) vs. Evan Wick (Wisconsin)
Without question, reigning two-time NCAA champion Vincenzo Joseph is one of the most electrifying and dangerous wrestlers in the country on his feet. Joseph has shown that he can hit his inside trip on anyone from anywhere.
While Joseph is dominant on his feet, Wick controls matches on the mat. The Badger used his top-work to pummel Iowa's Alex Marinelli (19-6) and Chance Marsteller (Lock Haven) on his way to a third-place finish in Cleveland.
174: Zahid Valencia (Arizona State) vs. Mark Hall (Penn State)
Zahid capped off his unblemished run to an NCAA title last year by nearly majoring Hall in the NCAA finals, 8-2. That was their second meeting of the year after Zahid snuck past Hall 3-2 in the 52nd Annual NWCA All-Star Classic.
Zahid, with his two wins last season, gained the 2-1 (college) career advantage against Hall.
184: Bo Nickal (Penn State) vs. Myles Martin (Ohio State)
These two have met nine times, with Nickal winning seven of those bouts. Most recently, Nickal scored the fall over Martin in the finals of last year's NCAA Championships, clinching Penn States' third straight team title and seventh in eight years.
Kyle Conel defeated Kollin Moore twice at the NCAAs (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)197: Kollin Moore (Ohio State) vs. Kyle Conel (Kent State)
Kent State's Kyle Conel returned to wrestling after sitting out the 2016-17 season and entered the national tournament as an unseeded wrestler, but went on to become an All-American. His third-place run included four upset wins over seeded wrestlers, with two of those big wins coming against No.1 seed Kollin Moore of Ohio State.
285: Amar Dhesi (Oregon State) vs. Nick Nevills (Penn State)
The departure of Adam Coon (Michigan), Jacob Kasper (Duke) and Kyle Snyder (Ohio State), along with the questions surrounding Sam Stoll (Iowa), heavyweight is another weight class that finds itself wide open.
Heading into the season, the most intriguing heavyweight match-up is between Amar Dhsei and seventh-place finisher Nick Nevills.
Dhesi, the returning third-place finisher knocked off third-seeded Nick Nevills, 4-2, making the NCAA semifinals and capturing his second career All-America honor.
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