Abounader, Pantaleo Will Redshirt

Michigan officially announced today that Dominic Abounader, Alec Pantaleo, and Garrett Sutton will indeed redshirt the 2016-17 season. 

Alec Pantaleo seemed to be leaning that way after a long summer that saw him winning Junior Nationals, the World Team Trials, and going 1-1 in the Junior World Championships in France in August. 

Abounader saw time already this season off to a 6-0 start, winning the EMU Open and his match against Virginia. McFarland stated in Michigan's release that he will undergo a surgery so they will use a redshirt. He had not previously redshirted. 

Sutton was Michigan's starter at 165 for most of the past two seasons. He missed the postseason due to an injury. This is his first redshirt season. The 2-time Illinois state champ has shown promising results at times including a 5th place Big Ten finish in 2015. 

4-time Michigan state champ, Zac Hall has taken the place of Pantaleo at 149 winning the spot. He had a nice win over Kresevic (Virginia) on Friday. He is a redshirt sophomore who never was able to get things going last season due to injuries. As a redshirt, he had some positive results including winning the tough Edinboro Open. 

Abounader's replacement is a bit of a question mark. Ernest Battaglia is a Redshirt Junior is the only other listed 184 on the roster and will likely make his dual debut this weekend. He has not wrestled this season other than the wrestle-off with Abounader. Some speculation could include the revelation of Myles Amine at 174. With Davonte Mahomes being close to coming off of injury, does one of these two end up at 184 for the Wolverines? 

"Loading up" was not McFarland's goal for this season, but injuries to Coon & Abounader have pretty much played his hand for him. Nevertheless, the 2017-18 potential Michigan lineup is going to have a lot of pre-season hype in Ann Arbor and around the country. 

2017-18 Projected Lineup:

125: Austin Assad

133: Stevan Micic

141: Sal Profaci / Ben Freeman

149: Alec Pantaleo

157: Zac Hall / Layne van Anrooy

165: Logan Massa

174: Davonte Mahomes / Myles Amine

184: Dom Abounader

197: Jackson Striggow / Andrew Davidson 

285: Adam Coon