2023 NCAA Wrestling Pick’em Results

The results are in! And let’s just say that I’m a little better at running this than competing in it. In our third year with this format, we saw our most entries yet, with 181 (compared to 113 last year). Among those 181, your humble commissioner finished in 140th place. But enough about me.

Our winner, with 351 out of a possible 740 points, is Mikey V! Mikey picked 5 champions correctly, and got 62 of 80 all-Americans. Overall, we did a little worse than last year, but with major upsets at 125 and 133, I don’t think that’s an indictment of our skillz. Just a point behind Mikey for second was Jason R, and behind him was JR in third place. See full results below.

Now, for those of you who like stats, let’s see how we did as a group.

125 Pounds:

Unsurprisingly, very few people predicted Spencer Lee not winning his fourth national title (man that hurts to type). Surprisingly, two did! And they both correctly had Pat Glory atop the podium Saturday night. Those would be noah71 and sbistline. Three people correctly had Ramos in second, but all three had him losing to Spencer in the finals… which wasn’t possible. Regardless, they got more points than me, so congrats.

133 Pounds:

74% of entries had RBY as the champion, and another 25% had Fix. One had Colaiocco, and only JODOKO had Vito doing the nearly-unthinkable. 22 people did get partial credit for having Vito in the finals, and 47 had RBY finishing second.

141 Pounds:

56 of 181 had Alirez finishing first, with 96 people choosing Woods and another 19 choosing one of Hardy, Matthews, or Bartlett. Woods was also the most popular second-place pick, though by a very thin margin. He had 57 entries, Alirez had 48, and 76 picked someone else.

149 Pounds:

Yianni was the second highest picked, behind Lee, to win his weight. Only 14 people chose against the now-4-timer. 12 of those were for Sasso, 1 was for Paniro Johnson, and 1 was for Doug Zapf. Most people had Sasso in second, but ten different wrestlers had at least one believer (or detractor, for the 12 who had Yianni).

157 Pounds:

Levi Haines was the most popular choice, with 76 responses, but O’Connor wasn’t far behind with 55. Robb had 42, and four others had at least one. O’Connor was overwhelmingly the most picked for second place, with 83 compared to Robb’s 33 and Haines’s 30. Seven others had one or more.

165 Pounds:

118 had David Carr as their champion, mostly picked to get his third victory over the defending champion O’Toole. Instead it was O’Toole who reversed their season series results, and 41 people saw that coming. 52 had Carr in second, which was behind O’Toole’s 87. Six different wrestlers were chosen as a champion, and ten were picked runner-up.

174 Pounds:

Starocci was a massive favorite, with 160 respondents taking him in first place. 13 had Mekhi, and 7 had Labriola. One had Dustin Plott. Only 45 had Labriola finishing second, with the lion’s share (113) going to Lewis. Eight total wrestlers were chosen, including 25-seed Nick Incontrera.

184 Pounds:

146 people were not dissuaded by the seeding committee and had Brooks in first, while 18 took the top-seeded Keckeisen and 15 had Hidlay (2 had Munoz). 123 had Keckeisen in second, with 24 choosing Hidlay and 34 taking Brooks, Coleman, or Munoz.

197 Pounds:

Only 53 people had the top-seeded Bonaccorsi running the gauntlet, with 55 taking last year’s champion Max Dean. Nine different wresters were selected to win it all, and eleven were chosen runner-up. Only 11 people had Sloan correctly in second-place, while Rocky Elam was the most popular choice with 59.

285 Pounds:

122 had Parris finishing on top, and 108 had Kerkvliet in second place. Five different wrestlers were selected as champions, but only six for second-place, showing how tight the top of this weight was. Only one of those six didn’t all-American, and that was Sam Schuyler (who only received one response).

So there it is. I’m gonna leave a link to the results doc (edited for privacy) so you all can see your complete entries, but I’m warning you, it’s just a big Google Sheet. And because I use it for the scoring, it’s pretty heavily edited. 15 is a correct champion, 14 is a correct runner-up, 11 is third, 10 is fourth, 8 is fifth, 7 is sixth, 5 is seventh, 4 is eight. 7 is incorrect 1st/2nd, 5 is 3/4, 4 is 5/6, 3 is 7/8. 2 is all-American but wrong placement bout. Link

Thanks for playing, y’all. Hope you had fun.