It is unclear whether Michigan intends to have its Maize-Blue Scrimmage which generally speaking is the final wrestle-off(s) for each weight class. It is not listed on their official schedule and Covid is still a thing so I am going to assume that it will be a “no go.” I hope I am wrong because being a wrestling fan as well as a Michigan fan it is always fun to see the roster in action. Below are my thoughts and my thoughts only, feel free to disagree as I am wrong quite often but I really enjoy writing this each year and love to discuss all things Michigan. One special note before I begin because I did not see it posted to the board and I believe it is massive news for the program: Michigan added Kevin Jackson to the staff as an Assistant Coach. Jackson is a 3x World/Olympic Champion and his contributions will be greatly appreciated within the room, with the RTC, and on the recruiting trail. Welcome Coach Jackson!!

 

*All Individuals are listed as they are on the official roster, only if I hear pertinent information of a change will I consider it in these predictions*

**All Rankings are via Flowrestling.org**

 

125: Kurt McHenry (Unranked, Medley is 18th)

 

My speech professor during my undergrad career said to always start with a hook...well let's start off with a surprise. First and foremost last year's starter Dylan Ragusin held his own in a brutal weight class. Starting your collegiate career with a 61 second fall against a ranked opponent in the B1G is quite a feat. Many would figure Ragusin would reprise his role as the incumbent at 125 however there were multiple occasions last year where Ragusin’s weight was a hot topic. Quite a big 125, Ragusin is expected to compete up at 133. With Ragusin up a weight we naturally go to the other guy that spent varsity time on the mat last year in the dangerous vet Jack Medley. Medley has acquitted himself quite well the past few years at 125 and he may even prove me wrong here (he has before, and I am happy to admit it). I would not be disappointed to watch Medley navigate the deep Big Ten waters at 125. He is solid, he is tactical, and he has had the requisite size, something Ragusin seems to have outgrown and McHenry has not yet achieved. The last bit being the key to my prediction. Watching McHenry in a few bouts last year, his athleticism and technique is undeniably much better than Medley. “Does he have the size?” Is the biggest question McHenry has yet to answer. Seeing some of the weight room postings, the conditioning pictures, and some rumors I am hitting the “buy now” button here. McHenry at this weight class could provide something we have not consistently seen: bonus points. This is a classic Potential vs. Consistency battle. McHenry is a 2x Cadet world champion and twice competed at Flo’s marquee event: Who’s Number 1. Unfortunately the collegiate accolades have not yet followed. Due to McHenry’s inability to add the requisite size he has only competed in 2 varsity matches, dropping both 3-1 and 4-1 respectively. Medley on the other hand never even won a state championship, yet has numerous victories over ranked opponents and has placed 4th at Big Ten’s. Medley uses a slow pace and solid positioning to frustrate his opponents, which often results in close matches. He more often than not finds himself on the winning end of those matches. As a RS SR it is hard to pick against Medley, and his skill set and size may just make him the perfect counter to McHenry. Either way, 125 will be a position well kept for the Maize and Blue. I do expect to see both in the lineup over the course of the season regardless of who wins the wrestle-off.

 

Prediction: NCAA Qualifier, top 5 in B1G

 

133: Dylan Ragusin (Ranked 17th)

 

Here at 133 is the aforementioned Ragusin who has outgrown 125 for now and was expected to take an apprentice year in anticipation that he takes over this spot next season. Micic moving to 133 clears the runway for Dylan and clears the air as to why Drew Mattin is listed as a 133 on the official roster. Prior to the weight change I wrote, “The presence of Drew Mattin listed here at 133 is unique in the fact that he will exhaust eligibility at the conclusion of this season and with all due respect to Drew, he is not beating Micic. Drew seems more likely at 141 this season to me but that's just like...my opinion, and really I’m just a guy with a laptop.” While the weight class I selected for Mattin was wrong, the rationale is the same. He does not want to be in the same weight as Micic. So here we are at 133 with a suddenly more interesting outlook. Instead of, “Micic, next question please,” we find ourselves with a battle of former 125’s that outgrew the position. Ragusin has a lot of length and range to attack which has stymied Mattin in the past. I went with Ragusin here because I feel like he has a higher ceiling and more of an ability to score. Mattin has quite the list of victories but all are from his days at 125. A tricky point of discussion is Mattin’s year he spent at 141. Neither competitor worries me from a size aspect but Mattin has demonstrated an ability to compete at a higher weight whereas nearly all our data points on Ragusin are from his shortened year as a large 125. All things considered, I chose to ride with Ragusin. I do not think we have the horse here to challenge the top trio of RBY (Penn St.), Fix (Okla St.) and DeSanto (Iowa), then again I don’t think anyone outside of those three can either.

 

Prediction: NCAA Qualifier

 

141: Stevan Micic (Ranked #5)

 

Stevan Micic is one of a few wrestlers that will be entering their 7th (!!!) collegiate wrestling season. Starting all the way back in the 2014-15 wrestling season with Northwestern he redshirted going 19-3 unattached. In the 2015-16 season Micic took an Olympic redshirt, attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games, the Rio Games that is. His 2016-17 wrestling season saw him ascend to All-American status with a fourth place finish losing to eventual champion Clark (Iowa) and former champion Tomasello (Ohio St). Following up his 4th place finish, Micic made the national finals in the 2017-18 season, where he fell to Gross (SDSU). The 2018-19 season, entering as a returning national runner-up, big things were expected from Micic and he did not disappoint during the season. Micic took out Rivera  (Northwestern) who was #1 at 125 at the time, Suriano (Rutgers) the eventual champion, and dominated the rest of the B1G field (Pletcher and DeSanto both being top 8). The injury bug bit Micic prior to the Big Ten tournament and Micic defaulted after his quarter final bout. When he arrived at the NCAA tournament he was wrestling in a hefty knee sleeve that seemed to slow his movements just enough to drop his semifinal bout against eventual champion Suriano. 2019-20 Micic did not compete, again taking an Olympic Redshirt trying to qualify for the Tokyo games, and we all know what happened to the world at the tail end of this season. Covid-19 sent the world into a tailspin, postponing the Tokyo Olympics to the following year. This postponement in a way forced the NCAA into a position it had never been (in my recollection). They decided to allow a “free year” which allowed Micic to take another Olympic redshirt during the 20-21 season. Some groaned that Micic should have taken advantage of a free year of eligibility but to be fair, the toll competing at the NCAA and World level takes on your body is abrasive. Micic was already dealing with a knee injury, and had locked up the top seed at the Olympics through his placement at senior level tournaments. In a way Micic had no reason to compete collegiately as risking further injury would jeopardize his chances to compete for the pinnacle award of the sport: an Olympic Gold Medal. Bad news: Micic did not place at the Olympics. Good news: we get one more year of the Serbian Sickle wearing Maize and Blue. It seems Micic has made an 11th hour jump to 141. I had finished this preview a few days ago and planned to publish but parenting duties prevented that. Micic has a penchant for picking out the toughest weight classes so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he lands here at 141. The top 2 at this weight class are returning national champions Nick Lee (Penn St, 2021 champ) and Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell, 2018 and 2019 champ). After those two, returning national finalist Eirman (Iowa) and former All-American Rivera (Rutgers) provide solid depth. Micic will have his work cut out for him, I would see him as a favorite against all but Yianni. Micic here at 141 is better than the alternatives (C. Mattin, D. Mattin, Lamer) but I liked Micic’s title odds better at 133.

 

Prediction: NCAA All-American

 

149: Kanen Storr (Ranked #24)

 

I am going to cheat and copy and paste what I wrote last year here…

 

I flipped a coin. Not on who to put here at 149, Storr is the incumbent and qualified for NCAA’s last season, placed at Midlands (for the second time) and only lost one 2-0 match in B1G duals last year (to Lugo from Iowa). Storr has earned the spot for sure. I flipped the coin because that's what I do nearly every time Storr wrestles. Mattin, Storr and Lewan are the stretch in the lineup that I like to call the Russian Roulette Crew. There's one bullet in the chamber. It could hit anytime, which makes it a very dangerous and well known factor. All the other chambers shoot blanks though. Storr, Mattin (one might even include Medley) and Lewan win the lion’s share of matches, and they are right there with just about everyone. Then again...they are right there with just about EVERYONE. Almost annoyingly so Storr will be in a 2 point match. Wrestling a top 5 opponent? 2 point match. Wrestling a solid upperclassmen or returning All-American? 2 point match. Wrestling a freshman that no one really knows? 2 point match. First match of the year? 4-2 2OT victory, latest match of the year? 5-2 victory over Indiana. The coin landed tails by the way. Which means saddle up for overtime folks!

 

Storr secured exactly 0 bonus points all of last season. On top of that his record (9-6) left a lot to be desired for a wrestler of Storr’s experience and pedigree. He did however, continue his consistent ways and took 5th place at B1G’s (for the third time). The problem with Storr is there has been no growth. Storr seems to have hit his ceiling early and now everyone is catching up. 149 has been a weakness of the Wolverine lineup for years now and will likely again keep them from a team trophy. Storr is not as glaring of a weakness as there has been in years past however and does provide a sort of duct tape bandage on the position. He’s not what you want but it works for now. As far as future outlook, we see our third Mattin come to Michigan in Zack. Both of the previous two Mattin brothers hit the mat almost immediately so...eye balls emoji looking your way Zack. Mattin brings much more of the same as his brothers, not shocking, though Zack does have a bit more suddenness. He has put on a bit of weight ending up here at 149, so movements have likely slowed a bit. He remains at this time a relative unknown.

 

Prediction: NCAA Qualifier

 

157: Will Lewan. (Ranked 9th)

 

Last year I stated Lewan would have a shot at All-American status depending on his draw. Lewan drew into a second round (round of 16) bout with David Carr (Iowa St) and then followed up with Teemer (Ariz St) in his second round wrestle-back. If you’re a casual fan and do not know those names, go ask your nephew/niece/son/daughter (whomever it is cannot be older than 6 Human, Earth years...yes apparently those need to be stated) to draw you a picture of the Las Vegas strip. Look at this picture. You probably think, “Not bad, they did good here,” or “This part isn’t so bad.” This was Lewan’s draw. He’s your guy so when you judge the body of work you first look for positives (he won an opening round OT match, and even his bounce back match in the Consolation bracket), but once you take your bias away along with any qualifiers and judge the picture based on merits of overall quality, it likely falls short of good and more accurately it is closer to, “What the heck is that?” Lewan had some high points last season, clinching a win in OT to seal the dual victory over Ohio St and only dropping one match in the B1G slate. This year will be a good litmus test for Lewan, I would like to see him crack the top 4 in B1G and be north of .500 at NCAAs. Could he get there? Absolutely, but it's a steep climb and Lewan needs to be more decisive with his matches. Carr, Teemer, and Deakin return as well as reigning 149 national champ O’Connor added to the field. To quote Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park, “Hold onto ya butts…”

 

Prediction: NCAA Qualifier

 

165: Cameron Amine. (Ranked 13th)

 

After writing the 141(Prior to Micic bumping)-157 pieces, 165 is a breath of fresh air. Amine burst onto the scene last season as a Redshirt Freshman and made some good waves en route to accepting my challenge. Last year I wrote, “I am very excited that Amine is in the line up, I believe he has a bright future ahead, but looking at this season I just cannot bring myself to project a top 8 finish. Cam...prove me wrong please!” Ask and ye shall receive, Cam climbed to 7th on the podium last season exceeding my expectations and his tournament seed. No one can take that A.A. away from Cam, but my prediction likely would have been spot on had Amine actually had to take the mat against his intended bloodround opponent: Alex Marinelli (Iowa). Injury is part of the equation and at the NCAA tournament likely everyone is dealing with something. Amine had several close matches and really honed his skill set at the end, look for more of the same here as a Sophomore. Amine will still have Marinelli to deal with but outside of him the conference looks fairly open, Kharchla (Ohio St.) is a tough, up and coming Freshman and a dangerous one at that. Flo decided to rank the young Buckeye one spot ahead of Amine in their early batch of rankings which is out of character for them. Usually flo starts with the most recent national tournament and sprinkles in any returning redshirts or known weight changes. Understandable that Marinelli and Valencia are ranked ahead of Amine even though Cam was on the podium and they were not. Coincidentally both medical forfeited to Cam, and Flo always omits medical forfeits from their ranking criteria. There are others that are higher AA’s or previous champs that make sense...Kharchla is not one that makes very much sense. Amine will have his opportunity or maybe even multiple opportunities to correct this ranking throughout the year. Health will be the key down the stretch but Amine should land on the podium again or at the very least a match away in a deep field.

 

Projection: NCAA All-American, 8th

 

174: Jaden Bullock (Unranked)

 

Massa is the lone Senior from last season's starting squad not to return. Massa made a fairly quiet exit falling well short of expectations last year. Logan simply could not exercise his Penn State demons and that mental block likely did him in. I look for big things from Massa at the senior level where he can hopefully remain healthy and challenge the upper echelon at 65 or 74kg.

 

Jaden Bullock versus Joe Walker is the matchup here. Both spent time last year trying to band-aid the 184 weight class with Massa here at 174 and Myles Amine up at 197. Both true freshmen wrestled fairly well but ironically Bullock, who started lighter, looked better equipped than Walker. For that reason I am going with Bullock. Giving up weight and going toe to toe with B1G and National Champion Brooks (Penn St.), Bullock showed good fight and an expansive arsenal of scoring. At 174, his more natural weight, I am intrigued to see Bullock compete. 174 is a deep field with #1 Starocci (Penn St.) #2 Kemmerer (Iowa) and #3 Labriola (Neb) all returning within the league. Add in Smith (Ohio St.) and Turley (Rutgers), both of whom are All-Americans, and we have possibly the deepest weight in the Big Ten here at 174. Bullock will have to learn and learn quickly because the schedule is not very forgiving. This year may be an extension of last year when Bullock was pretty much asked to beat the low hanging fruit and stop the bleeding when the other guy had a number by his name. I have a bit higher expectations than that for Mr. Bullock, I think he cracks the top 15 and claws his way to top 5 in the conference. 

 

Projection: NCAA Qualifier via At-Large 

 

184: Myles Amine. (Ranked 2nd)

 

Much like Micic, Myles Amine returns for one final ride. Amine has a lot of hardware in his trophy room at home. All-American (4x), Big Ten Champion, World Medalist (Freestyle, San Marino) and now he even has an Olympic Bronze Medal. One thing that eludes Myles is a national title. If I am being honest, I think that is the only reason Myles is returning. Had he achieved the feat last year I think Myles graduates and focuses full time on competing at the Senior level freestyle circuit. Last year while up at 197, Amine in a shortened season had the most impressive hit list of any competitor. Dealing with a hand injury much of his season, Myles also had one of the gnarliest black eyes you will ever see at the national tournament and in the end fell to Ferari (Okla St.). Finishing 3rd is not what he came for, and thus here we are. Myles is back down to 184, which I believe is a perfect fit both from a rostering perspective and for himself. Brooks returns as the reigning Big Ten and National Champion and honestly I’d call Brooks the underdog here. Both are well decorated and this is by no means a given so call me a homer: Amine is taking the title this year.

 

Projection: Amine National Champion

 

197: Pat Brucki (Ranked #8)

 

Michigan brought in a transfer of note last year in returning All-American Patrick Brucki. Brucki makes his way to Ann Arbor by way of Princeton (EIWA conference). If you follow wrestling you know the Ivy league actually tends to have pretty good teams and may even produce a title contender. Brucki’s addition to the team is huge. First and foremost it covers a major hole in the line up with a significant contributor. Ending a dual with Amine, Brucki, and Parris is like having the early 2000’s Yankees bullpen. They will win you matches you haven't done your best and they will close matches that you are leading. From a tournament aspect Brucki brings almost assured placement points which can be the difference in a team trophy and going home empty handed or in last years case the difference between a team title with 1 champ (Iowa) and second place with four champs (Penn St.). Brucki brings a midwestern style of wrestling (originally from Illinois), with hard ties and a decent knee pull single/outside ankle pick combo. I would be remiss if I did not call some attention to the most impeccable mustache on the team. Brucki has immediate offers to join the police academy, be a PE teacher or be an actor specializing in these roles. Now for the bad, Brucki did not compete last season due to a hip injury. Hips are instrumental to any sport but wrestling relies on hip movements and I am concerned about the severity of the injury, WOTS was nerve damage. Should Brucki miss any extended time, this is where you may see Jelani Emberee. I do not need to belabor the point, but seeing Emberee for more than a handful of matches would be a bad thing. Gone is Gaige Garcia who left for the greener pastures for the Football/Wrestling combo. I am disappointed because he would have had a bright future as a wrestler here at 197 and maybe even as a Heavyweight after Parris graduates. Unfortunately 197 is not a viable weight for a Big Ten running back of Garcia’s nature and playing both sports full time was a lofty goal. Depth takes a hit but we should not feel that until next year. 

 

Projection: NCAAAll-American somewhere 4-6

 

HWT: Mason Parris. (Ranked #2)

 

Spot on. Last year's prediction put Parris as both a B1G and NCAA runner-up and both came to fruition with a loss to the same foe: Gable Steveson (Minn.). There was talk that Steveson would not return to the ranks of mature wrestling but then again “ameture” has been stretched and amended with NIL legislation. Now Steveson is planning on returning to Minnesota as well as wrestling in the WWE. Steveson is the only barrier of relevance for Mason this year. It is again possible that Parris finds a way to take out Steveson but the chances are very low. The two most decorated, and oddly enough also most recent,  Wolverine Heavyweights run into possibly the best wrestler in the country regardless of style. Coon coincided with Snyder and now Parris is coinciding with Steveson. Both Snyder and Steveson are/were returning Olympic Champions and are insanely athletic. This year will be lather, rinse, repeat. The only wrinkle thought to be happening is the possibility of Ferrari (Okla St.) bumping up to try his hand at wrestling Steveson. Ferrari brings a strength and athleticism combo that could pose problems for Parris but he is no match for Steveson.

 

Projection: NCAA and B1G runner up

 

Team: Solid team that will compete with everyone. Tournament-wise I can see a top 5 finish but not quite enough to catch Iowa, Penn State and Oklahoma State. 

 

Projection: 5th place