*Before we start I just want to let you know that not every person that’s on this list will be an NCAA Champ. This list looks at the wrestlers potential and how well they performed compared to their potential or maybe seed going into the tournament.*
Top 5 Individual Performances of Ncaa’s
Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) - 1 seed - Placed 1st
RBY goes in my number one spot simply based on the opponents he beat at the tournament. His tournament went MD, FALL, 13-6 over Courtney (UVA), 3-2 over Desanto, 3-2 over Fix. In any NCAA Tournament, if you are scoring bonus points in pretty much the first three rounds you are very high quality. The reason he's at #1 is because he went 3/3 this season over Desanto, who is arguably the best college wrestler to never win NCAA’s. The dude clearly broke Desanto into thinking that he had to stall RBY out to even have a chance of winning. That rivalry will go down as Top 5 of all time for me. So then the next day he goes and takes out Fix, reigning world silver medalist, in pretty controlling fashion. RBY has the ability to shut down opponents' gameplans extremely well, because I really thought Fix made the improvements to win NCAA this year. I mean god damn, he looked like the best in the world in both senior nationals, where he teched Seth Gross like nothing, and the World Championships. So RBY at 1.
2. Kizhan Clarke (UNC) - 15 seed - Placed 2nd
To be honest, I didn’t even know who Kizhan was until this tournament. I know he was an east coast kid, so he was well known on that side. If he would’ve beaten a healthy Eierman and Seabass, he would’ve been the 1. I'm giving him the two because of his ability to rise to the occasion and take advantage of the opportunity that was given to him. He also had a gauntlet to the finals having wins over Jack (NCST), Eierman (IOWA), Bergeland (MINN), Matthews (PITT). In reality, the dude probably ran through this gauntlet and felt the satisfaction of making the finals. He probably truly didn't care if he beat Lee or not, but also no disrespect to Lee because he wrestled an incredible season from start to finish. Much respect to Kizhan, we had the privilege to watch one of the best memories of his life in Detroit live.
3. Aaron Brooks (Penn State) - 2 seed - Placed 1st
That man AB comes in at #3, and arguably #2 for the incredible performance he put on in Detroit. He went MD, MD over Bolen (VT), MD over Romero (OHST), Win over Trent Hidlay, then took his throne back from Amine in a dominant fashion. I know the score was 5-3, but I felt that AB made the correct adjustments he needed from BIG 10s. It's cool, because when you watch the match after he lost at B1Gs he and Cael make eye contact with each other and then proceed to nod as if they were not worried at all. Go rewatch it if you have time, and see his performance 2 weeks later… That gave me chills. I think AB definitely has the potential to be the future rep @ 86 kg for Team USA. After DT is done of course.
4. Keegan O’Toole (Mizzou) - 2 seed - Placed 1st
Keegan is one of the most electrifying wrestlers in the world. Along with that he also has one of the biggest passions for wrestling I've seen, and matches that with his work ethic. 165 was arguably the toughest weights at the tournament, and O’Toole did not have an easy route to gold. He went FALL, 7-0 over Valencia (ASU), 2-0 over Kharchla (OHST), 4-0 over Amine (UM), 6-5 over Griffith in the finals. Keegan mentioned in an interview about competing through an injury, and I know for a fact what the injury was (not going to say) so for him to be banged up and still gut through an undefeated season is INSANE. Not to mention he went straight from 2021 NCAA’s to freestyle, trained and competed all the way through fall for Worlds (which he won), then went undefeated in college season. I know he is taking much deserving time off now, because holy crap that's a very demanding schedule for a 19/20 year old kid.
5. Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) - 10 seed - Placed 2nd
First and foremost, can we all agree that Ridge is one of the best personalities in wrestling. The dude is humble, grateful, and hard working AND you can tell all of that within his interviews. Not to mention, his persona is one of the funniest within the wrestling community. BTW the entire point of the “fruity” celebration was to be sarcastic and make people mad, just like it did in all the wrestling forums haha. Anyways, Ridge went 4-2 over Abas (STAN), 8-1 over Heil (CAMP), FALL over Wilson (NCST), and 5-4 over Andonian (VT) who also wrestled an incredible tourney. Obviously Yianni is on a completely different level then the rest of the field, but it's always refreshing to see him have to face explosive guys like Lovett. The other thing too is Lovett is still young and has a lot of room to grow at Nebraska. I really think he has the potential to win nationals before his career ends.
Honorable Mentions -
Ryan Deakin, David Carr, Carter Starocci, Bryce Andonian, and Nick Suriano
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