Flowrestling released their 174 pound preseason rankings and the state of Iowa returns two NCAA All-Americans from the 2016 Championships. The first wrestler from Iowa making the list is Iowa State’s Lelund Weatherspoon at No. 7, followed by Hawkeye Alex Meyer at No. 8.
Last season Weatherspoon shocked the wrestling community with his surprise run to the NCAA semifinals taking out No. 2 seed Brian Realbuto in the quarterfinals. With that he clinched a top six finish and is now one of head coach Kevin Jackson’s three returning All-Americans this season. He will be joined by a pair of Big 12 wrestlers in the rankings with Oklahoma State’s Kyle Crutchmer ranked No. 4 and Oklahoma’s Matt Reed starting the season No. 10.
Meyer entered last season with a lot of expectations, but fell just short of his preseason top five status to finish eighth last March. This year won’t be any easier for Meyer with half of Flowrestling’s top 20 wrestlers at 174 all coming out of the Big Ten conference. Even with the fact that both NCAA finalists (who were Big Ten wrestlers) have announced they are moving up, the Big Ten has four of the top eight wrestlers in the nation.
From the Big Ten: Ohio State’s Bo Jordan (No. 1), Indiana’s Nate Jackson (No. 5), Illinois’s Zac Brunson (No. 9), Michigan’s Davonte Mahomes (No. 12), Northwestern’s Johny Sebastian (No. 15), Penn State’s Shakur Rasheed (No. 16), Minnesota’s Nick Wanzek (No. 17), and Nebraska’s Micah Barnes (No. 20).