2022 Title Contenders: 125 Pounds
2022 Title Contenders: 125 Pounds
Who will win an NCAA championship at 125-pounds in 2022? We take an early look at the contenders.
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Many people will say Spencer Lee next topic when asked about who will be the 2022 125-lbs NCAA champion. While Lee will rightfully be the HEAVY odds on favorite to win, it won’t be a done deal until March 19, 2022, at approximately 8 pm EST.
It's extremely early to be speculating about the 2021-22 season. Spencer’s a huge favorite, but many things can happen between now and then such as surgeries, injuries, and redshirts. Plus it's fun, so who cares? We're going to do it anyway. Below is our rundown of 2022 NCAA title contenders at 125-pounds.
Spencer Lee, Iowa
Spencer Lee isn’t just the three-time reigning and defending national champion, he’s one of the most dominant wrestlers we’ve ever seen in NCAA wrestling. For goodness sakes, it took him having no ACLs for him to not bonus point his way through the NCAA tournament, and he was still just one point off. He’ll be as big a favorite as anybody next season.
He's also tech falled the top contender in the past two years. However, not before Vito Arujau picked up a couple of takedowns.
Watch Spencer Lee tech fall Vito Arujau at 2019 Senior Nationals below.
Vito Arujau, Cornell
Arguably the most important person not in the field last season was Cornell’s aforementioned Vito Arujau. All Vito did was go and make the finals of the Olympic Trials when the Ivy League denied him the opportunity to win an NCAA title last year. We haven’t seen Vito wrestle folkstyle since 2019 and Spencer didn't wrestle in the Olympic Trials, so we didn't get that rematch. However, if his freestyle improvements transcend into folkstyle, Vito vs a Spencer Lee that isn’t 100% healthy is a very interesting match.
Pat Glory, Princeton
Similar to Vito, Pat Glory didn’t get the chance to wrestle this past season. However, not only did Glory hand Vito his last collegiate loss in 2019, he was undefeated heading into the 2020 NCAA Championships and the #2 seed behind Spencer. How many gains has Glory made since we last saw him?
Watch Pat Glory defeat Vito Arujau in the 2019 EIWA finals below.
Outside Looking In
These guys are all solid wrestlers, but without a lot of improvement they're just not quite on all the way there yet to be called a "title contender."
Brandon Courtney, Arizona State
Patrick McKee, Minnesota
Drew Hildebrandt, Central Michigan
Taylor LaMont, Utah Valley
Sam Latona, Virginia Tech