Southern Scuffle Pre-Seeds

The Southern Scuffle looks to be a good one, and I love that it's on New Year's Day. It'll be nice to have Flo on one screen and football on the other for a great day of sports & recovery. 

There are a lot of stacked weight classes with most notably the anticipated matchup of defending J'Den Cox (Missouri) vs current #1 Kyven Gadson (Iowa State). We also get to see Max Thomusseit (Pittsburgh) defend his #1 ranking with Gabe Dean (Cornell) lurking. 

Here are the pre-seeds with some commentary by your's truly.

 125
1. Nahshon Garrett- Cornell
2. Alan Waters- Missouri
3. Jordan Conaway- Penn State
4. Tyler Cox- Wyoming
5. Darian Cruz- Lehigh
6. Eddie Klimara- Oklahoma State
7. Evan Silver- Stanford
8. Trey Andrews- Northern Colorado
9. Tim Lambert- Nebraska
10. Max Soria- Buffalo
11. Sean Boyle- Chattanooga
12. Dalton Macri- Unattached

- Remember when Waters was the #1 seed at the 2013 NCAA's? 2014 runner-up Garrett has been on a tear this year as well and all signs point to an awesome final between the two.

133
1. Jimmy Gulibon- Penn State
2. Mason Beckman- Lehigh
3. Rossi Bruno- Michigan
4. George DiCamillo- Virginia
5. Earl Hall- Iowa State
6. Nick Soto- Chattanooga
7. Mark Grey- Cornell
8. Mackenzie McGuire- Kent State
9. Kevin Devoy- Drexel
10. Matt Manley- Missouri
11. Troy Heilmann- North Carolina
12. Gary Wayne Harding- Oklahoma State

- I'm not completely sold on any of these guys, but someone will win here and make a nice statement heading in to dual season.

141
1. Lavion Mayes- Missouri
2. Zach Horan- Central Michigan
3. Geo Martinez- Boise State
4. Joe Spisak- Virginia
5. Joey Ward- North Carolina
6. Anthony Abidin- Nebraska
7. Randy Cruz- Lehigh
8. Dean Heil- Oklahoma State
9. Tyler Small- Kent State
10. Dante Rodriguez- Iowa State
11. David Pearce- Drexel
12. Brandon Gambucci- Duke

- Horan is tough and the first big test for Mayes this year. Several other guys are right in the hunt here.

149
1. Josh Kindig- Oklahoma State
2. Drake Houdashelt- Missouri
3. Dyllan Cottrell- Appalachian State
4. Gus Sako- Virginia
5. Alec Pantelo- Michigan
6. Gabe Moreno- Iowa State
7. Edgar Bright - Pittsburgh
8. Zach Beitz- Penn State
9. Michael DePalma- Kent State
10. Luke Frey- Penn State
11. Mike Racciato- Pittsburgh
12. Shawn Greevy - Chattanooga

- I like Houdashelt here to really make a statement. Pantaleo had a great run at the Cliff Keen. Can he prove at the Scuffle it wasn't just a good tournament?

157
1. James Green- Nebraska
2. Ian Miller- Kent State
3. Brian Realbuto- Cornell
4. Mitch Minotti- Lehigh
5. Dylan Alton- Penn State
6. Joseph LaValle- Missouri
7. Russell Parson- Army
8. Anthony Collica- Oklahoma State
9. Steven Hernandez- Boise State
10. Brian Murphy- Michigan
11. Tommy Gantt- North Carolina State
12. Immanuel Kerr-Brown- Duke

- Green and Miller is always fun. What's weird about it though for two takedown masters it is Green who wins these matchups on the mat. This otherwise is a very deep weight. Is Alton healthy and ready to live up to potential? Parson has looked great in spots. Murphy had a terrible Cliff Keen, but as a 10 seed could really screw up this bracket in a hurry. 

165
1. Alex Dieringer- Oklahoma State
2. Nick Sulzer- Virginia
3. Dylan Palacio- Cornell
4. Jim Wilson- Stanford
5. Peyton Walsh- Navy
6. Mike England- Missouri
7. Austin Trott- Gardner Webb
8. Austin Wilson- Nebraska
9. Dakota Friesth- Wyoming
10. Chandler Smith- Army
11. Elton Ramos- North Carolina
12. Chandler Rogers- Oklahoma State

- Can anyone stop Dieringer? Sulzer couldn't at the all-star classic. 

174
1. Robert Kokesh- Nebraska
2. Matt Brown- Penn State
3. Tyler Wilps- Pittsburgh
4. Tanner Weatherman- Iowa State
5. John Eblen- Missouri
6. Andy McCulley- Wyoming
7. Jordan Rogers- Oklahoma State
8. Keaton Subjeck- Stanford
9. Brian Crutchmer- Oklahoma State
10. John Staudenmayer- North Carolina
11. Bo NIckal- Penn State
12. George Pickett- Cornell

- Kokesh vs Brown is always fun....but Wilps could be making his first appearance of the year after a hand injury. He is ready to enter the top 4 fray. 

184
1. Gabe Dean- Cornell
2. Max Thomusseit- Pittsburgh
3. Nate Brown- Lehigh
4. Willie Miklus- Missouri
5. Nolan Boyd- Oklahoma State
6. Matt McCutcheon- Penn State
7. Ben Stroh- Wyoming
8. Dominic Abounader- Michigan
9. Timothy Dudley- Nebraska
10. Jacob Kasper- Duke
11. James Suvak- Virginia
12. John Lampe - Chattanooga

- Thomusseit is the #1 after Dean went down (twice) at Cliff Keen. Maybe it was a bad tournament for Dean who would love to get his top ranking back. McCutcheon is pretty good and worth keeping an eye on. Abounader hasn't wrestled much this season and will look to earn a spot back in the top ten rankings in this bracket. 

197
1. J'Den Cox- Missouri
2. Kyven Gadson- Iowa State
3. Conner Hartmann- Duke
4. Morgan McIntosh- Penn State
5. Max Huntley- Michigan
6. Nick Bonaccorsi- Pittsburgh
7. Elliot RIddick- Lehigh
8. Shane Woods- Wyoming
9. Zach Nye- Virginia
10. Jace Bennett- Cornell
11. Bryce Barnes- Army
12. Cole Baxter- Kent State

- Of course we have Cox & Gadson, but this is a deep bracket. McIntosh has looked absolutely unstoppable this year, Hartmann took 5th at NCAA's after being unseeded, and Huntley has been very impressive so far this year to make this bracket the most interesting of the tournament.

285
1. Austin Marsden- Oklahoma State
2. James Lawson- Penn State
3. Adam Coon- Michigan
4. Denzel Dejournette- Appalachian State
5. Riley Shaw- Cleveland State
6. Jon Gingrich- Penn State
7. Devin Mellon- Missouri
8. Collin Jensen- Nebraska
9. Nathan Butler- Stanford
10. Josh Marchok- Stanford
11. Tanner Harms- Wyoming
12. Ethan Hayes- Virginia

- Lawson beat Ty Walz (Virginia Tech) which is Coon's only loss this year to get a seed higher than him. Coon really should dominate this bracket to assert himself as a true national championship contender. If he doesn't, you have to start wondering about what happened to the guy who only had one loss heading in to the post season last year.