All the chips will be on the table this weekend when 15 teams and 150 wrestlers collide during the West Region Tournament at Colorado Mines in Golden, Colorado. The only way wrestlers can qualify for the national tournament is to place among the top four in their weight class at regionals.
The competition will be stiff. The field includes seven teams that are ranked in the top 25 in the latest NCAA Division II Coaches Association poll and 33 wrestlers who are in the top 12 nationally in their weight classes.
Nine of the teams at the regional showdown are RMAC members while the remaining six are from four different states and a Canadian province. Three in the latter group are the highest ranked. Nebraska-Kearney is tied for second, Central Oklahoma is fifth and Fort Hays State is tied for 11th.
Four RMAC teams also are ranked. Cal Baptist shares 13th, CSU-Pueblo is 16th, Colorado Mesa is tied for 17th and Chadron State is 25th.
The other non-RMAC members assigned to the West Regional are Newman of Kansas, Ouachita Baptist of Arkansas and Simon-Fraser of British Columbia.
Kearney received 47 points in the latest national poll to share second place with Maryville of Missouri. Defending national champion St. Cloud State of Minnesota is first with 48 points.
Kearney has the most nationally-ranked grapplers with seven. Central Oklahoma and Fort Hays both have four, Cal Baptist, Mesa and CSU-Pueblo have three apiece, Chadron State, Western State and Newman two each and Adams State, San Francisco State and Ouachita one each.
The ranked Eagles are senior Taylor Summers, seventh at 133 pounds, and junior Chance Helmick, sixth at 174.
Although Summers lost his most-recent match, he had won his previous 10 and is 23-5 for the season. He was the 133-pound runner-up at last year’s regional tourney and was the Eagles’ only representative at the national tourney. Summers figures to be seeded among the top three at his weight in this year’s regional.
Helmick has won 20 in a row against collegiate wrestlers, including 14 in a row overall, and is 27-3 this winter. He finished sixth at 165 at regionals a year ago. He has defeated all of the other top entries in the region during the dual meet schedule, and expects to be the top seed in the West Region.
Although he’s not nationally ranked, CSC’s sophomore heavyweight, Cooper Cogdill, also has had an outstanding season. He’s won 13 of his last 15 matches and is 24-7. On paper, at least, he should be seeded fourth.
Despite the profusion of talent, Eagles coach Brett Hunter is not counting out some of his other wrestlers this weekend. For instance, redshirt freshman Sean Glasgow has a 20-8 record at 149 pounds. There will be three nationally-ranked wrestlers at his weight, but none is higher than ninth. Also, Matthew Kindler has improved steadily throughout the season and is coming off a third-place finish at the RMAC Championships. His 197-pound weight class is top-heavy with the first, second, and third-ranked wrestlers in the nation, however the fourth spot appears wide open.
Live video and results will be available for the regional tournament. The links can be found on the wrestling schedule at ChadronEagles.com.