NCAA Wrestling Tournament 2023: 10 championship finals matchups set
The finals at the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships are set. After 20 bouts of insanity, only 20 wrestlers remain alive for a gold medal Saturday night.
The highlight of the round happened right at 125 pounds. Purdue’s Matt Ramos stunned Iowa’s Spencer Lee with a pin in the waning seconds of the third period. Ramos prevented Lee from going for a fourth NCAA title.
Below are the 10 finals matchups for Saturday night:
125: No. 4 Matt Ramos (Purdue) vs. No. 2 Pat Glory (Princeton)
133: No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) vs. No. 3 Vito Arujau (Cornell)
141: No. 1 Real Woods (Iowa) vs. No. 2 Andrew Alirez (Northern Colorado)
149: No. 1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) vs. No. 2 Sammy Sasso (Ohio State)
157: No. 1 Austin O’Connor (North Carolina) vs. No. 2 Levi Haines (Penn State)
165: No. 1 David Carr (Iowa State) vs. No. 2 Keegan O’Toole (Missouri)
174: No. 1 Carter Starocci (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Mikey Labriola (Nebraska)
184: No. 1 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) vs. No. 3 Aaron Brooks (Penn State)
197: No. 1 Nino Bonaccorsi (Pitt) vs. No. 7 Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State)
285: No. 1 Mason Parris (Michigan) vs. No. 3 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State)
More on the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships
The 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships were held March 16-18 at the BOK Center in Tulsa (Okla). The tournament consists of 330 wrestlers in total across 10 weight classes. Each weight class features wrestlers seeded No. 1 through No. 33.
Over the course of the three-day tournament, wrestlers can achieve national champion status by going 5-0 in their bracket, through Saturday night’s finals. The top eight placewinners in each bracket are considered All-Americans.
Losing one match does not eliminate a wrestler from competition. The consolation bracket is designed to determine the remaining spots on the podium (third through eighth place).
Since there are 33 wrestlers in each weight, the competitors seeded No. 32 and 33 compete in a “pigtail bout” prior to the first round to determine who matches up against the No. 1 seed in Round 1.
Losing the pigtail drops the wrestler to the consolation bracket where there is still opportunity to finish as high as third place in the weight class.
The 2024 NCAA Wrestling Tournament is set to take place in Kansas City (Mo.).