#12 Beau Bartlett (149)
1st Round Opponent: #6 Michael Blockus (MINN)
The path for Bartlett is identical to Howard at 125. Both are 11 seeds, though 149 has one fewer pre-allocated plus AQ slots (8 at 125, 7 at 149). Hopefully that doesn’t matter.
Blockus has had mixed success, beating #4 Thomas, #12 Scharenbrock, #10 Omania, and #14 North , while losing to Carr (replaced by #13 Kanzler, ILL, so he must be injured), #8 Van Brill, #2 Murin, and Nebraska’s back-up Hardy. I wouldn’t call Bartlett the favorite, but neither is Blockus. Let’s call it a close toss-up the talented Penn State freshman can win.
2nd Round Opponent: #3 Griffin Parriott (PUR) OR 1st Round Wrestlebacks: #14 Michael North (MD)
-- Win his first round bout above, and it’s on to wrestle Parriott. Parriott has had two close wins, Bergeland (MINN) in an “extra” bout and #8 Van Brill, both by one point. He also has two dominating wins, a major decision vs #10 Omania, and a pin vs #9 Rooks). I remember Parriott from past Big Ten’s, he’s a physical wrestler that can take you out of your game. He’s also a guy that can be beaten. If it goes this way, win and it’s on to St. Louis.
-- Lose his first round bout above, and it’ll be #14 North. North is 0-3, and is returning from injury. He hasn’t wrestled since January 16. If it goes this route, it should be a relatively easy Bartlett win.
Next Bout: The three possibilities are; Round three of championships, or two different places in wrestlebacks round two. Opponents could be any of; #2 Murin (IOWA) (20%), loser of #5 Kanen Storr (MICH)/#4 Yahya Thomas (NU) (40%) or the # 12 Drew Scharenbrock (WIS)/#13 Christian Kanzler (ILL) (40%) winner. Since winning two bouts in the championship bracket already earns an NCAA spot, I’ll pass on Murin. Storr and Thomas win more than they lose, but they win close against middle of the pack guys. They also never lose big. Expect a close bout if it goes this route – I’ll take two takedowns from Bartlett here, and predict a win.
As I said at 125, winning in the first round of championships is huge. It’s better in the early wrestleback rounds to displace the 6 seed in the championship bracket by winning than to go down into the first round of wrestlebacks after losing in the first round. To continue, Scharenbrock has a decent win against Hardy (NEB back-up to Lovett), but nothing else on his 2-5 resume which includes a loss to Luke Gardner. Kanzler is 2-3, and only wrestled “extra” bouts this year, wrestling all back-ups.
A win in round two of wrestlebacks would not be enough to earn a pre-allocated (+AQ) spot at NCAA’s as 149 gets 7, and a win only guarantees 8th. It does go a long way towards at-large selection, if it comes to that. I’ll stop here and say that a win in the second wrestleback round will earn Bartlett a spot in St. Louis.
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