Surprises are all relative.  What shocked you, may not have shocked me.  These are the individuals whose performances surprised me.  They could have underachieved and not met the expectations I had, or they could have massively outperformed what I thought was possible for them.  

9) Myles Martin, Ohio State
Everyone saw his side of the bracket and thought he could do some damage.  Uber talented Freshman who has a favorable draw could be very dangerous.  His performance against Bo Nickal blew me away.  He was absolutely worked by Bo in their previous meeting.  He made key adjustments and didn’t back down in the upper body positions that make Bo incredibly dangerous.  Not sure I’d take Myles in the rematch, but that doesn’t much matter right now, does it?

8) Pat Downey, Iowa State
Pat Downey AKA Funky Bunky AKA Cyclone Malone’s success is a surprise in a different sort of way.  Anyone with two working eyes recognized his immense talent and feel for the sport for the last few years.  However, between out for the first semester, then going 184, then the last second weight change for ISU before conferences; it didn’t seem very likely that we’d see Downey place.  Downey looked good at Big 12’s then jumped to a whole new level for NCAA’s beating All American Jared Haught twice (by fall), All American Brett Harner of Princeton and took 3-time All American Nathan Burak to overtime.  Downey is listed as a Sophomore.  With this weight losing some firepower and him having some more time to improve in a D1 room, he could emerge into a title contender before his time at Iowa State is done.

7) Conor Youtsey, Michigan
I ridicule Willie for his "when the lights are on" this guy does better.  It's actually the case for Youtsey.  He's now been an unseeded All American in back to back years! That is incredible.  Especially when you consider his paths have not been easy and in the last two years at NCAA's he's knocked off Joey Dance, Eddie Klimara (twice), Barlow McGhee and Connor Schram.  Youtsey was down 4-1 early against Eddie before mounting a great comeback.  Interestingly, Youtsey is only a Junior and Michigan has two Freshman monster 125's Micic, and Assad waiting in the wings.  That's what we call a good problem. 


6) David McFadden, Virginia Tech
I’ve made no secret that I have been especially high on David McFadden all year.  Having watched him a ton, I am familiar with his strengths as well as his weaknesses.  I thought his draw was brutal and he hadn’t notched a big win in some time.  He did beat Weatherman in their first meeting, but the next two times they met, McFadden was out-horsed and completely controlled by Weatherman.  I thought it was the end of the line.  Not only did he beat Weatherman, he majored Perrotti the next round!


5) Alex Meyer, Iowa
I can’t figure this guy out!  He loses an absolutely bizarre match against late Lehigh replacement Gordon Wolf where he gets reversed about 5 times in round one.  Who does he get in the first round of wrestle backs?  #4 Ethan Ramos.  Goodnight, sweetheart, right!?  I thought so.  Ramos had been a beast all year and Meyer just lost to Wolf!  Not only did Meyer win that one he won 6-2.  Next round he has unranked Nick Kee.  No sweat right? Wrong! He beats him 10-9 in a match he had to come back to win. Next round is Bryce Hammond.  It comes to an end now right? Wrong!  He MAJORS the 6 seeded Hammond.  Next up is #9 Chandler Rogers.  At this point I have no idea what is going on and am just enjoying the ride.  He gets the win to ensure AA status before losing a tough one to Cody Walters.  To describe Meyer as enigmatic would be an understatement.


4) Ethan Ramos, UNC
Talking to Coleman Scott, there is nobody he is more complimentary of in terms of toughness and grit than Ethan Ramos.  Losing in round 1 to Jadaen Bernstein was slightly surprising, but anyone who watched Jadaen knew he could roll.  But to see him go out to Alex Meyer and ultimately go 0-2 was a stone cold stunner!


3) Brian Realbuto, Cornell
Like Ramos, I feel similar to Realbuto.  I felt very strongly about Realbuto making the semi’s at a minimum.  Willie called the round 1 upset against Weatherspoon.  Realbuto looked fine for the majority of that bout before appearing injured late.  Then he fell to Sean Mappes in the first round of wrestlebacks after having the match winning takedown waved off.  Unreal.

2) Dylan Peters, UNI
I wrote Peters off almost entirely.  Competing with a torn ACL at 125 is like flying blind.  The speed and agility of these guys is insane and to have your motion restricted to that degree is almost unfair.  Apparently, Dylan Peters is just that tough.  After getting thumped at MAC’s by Barlow McGhee, he stepped up huge beating Barlow in round two, then beat a hot Josh Rodriguez and Ryan Millhof by fall in back to back matches Friday night!

1) Bryce Meredith, Wyoming
His best win coming in was Tommy Thorn and he lost to an unranked Seth Gross at Big 12’s two weeks prior.  So yeah, I didn’t see him taking out #3 Kevin Jack, #6 Micah Jordan and #2 Joey McKenna in back to back to back matches.  Nobody outside of the great state of Wyoming would have entertained this notion!