#FreestyleFriday: Comparing U23 World Championship results with NCAA finishes

Jack Mueller finished fifth at the 2018 U23 World Championships before finishing as a runner-up at the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

The U23 World Championships is an interesting tournament for Americans given that most U.S. competitors are college-aged, and the tournament tends to be right before the start of the NCAA season. Many of the competitors that wrestle in the U23 World Championships go straight into the regular season, or are at the very least are back in time for the NCAA tournament.

Since the tournament started in 2017, there is a relatively small sample size. Let’s take a look at how the U23 World Team members perform at the NCAA Championships.

2017 U23 World Championships and 2018 NCAA Tournament

Not included in the table are Daton Fix (57 kg), Sammy Brooks (86 kg), Ty Walz (97 kg) and Michael Kroells (125 kg). While they all competed at the World Championships, none competed at the NCAA tournament. Fix took a redshirt, while the other three wrestlers were already out of eligibility.

In this small sample, of the two wrestlers that medaled, only one placed at the NCAA Tournament. Joey McKenna took bronze at the U23 Worlds and finished third at the NCAA Tournament. Richie Lewis, who was the U23 champion, fell one match short of earning an All-American finish at the NCAA tournament.

It should be noted, that Lewis essentially went up a weight class for the NCAA season. 70 kg is equivalent to 154.32 pounds. However Lewis did not compete at 157, the closest weight class to the international weight, he wrestled 165 pounds.

Martinez fell one match shy of medaling at the World Championships but finished runner-up at the NCAA Tournament in the same bracket Lewis did not place in.

McKee had a tough Worlds, dropping his only match, but finished only one match shy of All-American honors.

2018 U23 World Championship and 2019 NCAA Tournament

In 2018, the World Championships extended to ten weight classes, giving us a slightly larger sample size. Missing from the table is Colton McCrystal (65 kg), who was out of NCAA eligibility.

Looking at the U23 results, the U.S. had three finalists, two of whom became All-Americans. Both Kollin Moore and and Youssif Hemida took silver at Worlds and finished on the podium at the NCAA Tournament. Moore essentially wrestled a weight class below where he won his medal. 197 pounds is much closer to 92 kg (202.83 pounds), than it is to 97 kg (213.85 pounds)

The other finalist, Fausz also wrestled below his Worlds weight at the NCAA Tournament, where he competed at 125 pounds. 61 kg comes out to 134.48 pounds, closer to the 133 pound weight class.

Mueller, missed medaling by one match at Worlds, but he finished runner-up at the NCAA Tournament. Hidlay and Martin and McFadden did not medal at Worlds but all finished as All-Americans.

Smythe and Brunner did not medal at Worlds and did not make the NCAA podium, but Brunner did finish in the round of 12.

There are way too many variables and not enough data to conclusively pull any strong correlations between wrestling at U23s and wrestling at the NCAA Tournament, but here are a few interesting stats.

• Eight out of 13 U23 World Championship participants have become All-Americans at the following NCAA Tournament
• Three out of five U23 World medalists finished as All-Americans
• Both fifth-place U23 finishers came in runner-up at the NCAA Tournament
• Wrestlers with winning records at U23s are 4 for 6 at earning All-American honors the following NCAA season.
• Wrestlers with losing record at U23s are 0-2 at earning All-American honors the following NCAA season
• Wrestlers finishing with .500 records are 4 for 5 at earning All-American honors the following NCAA season
• 12 of 13 U23 participants made it to at least the round of 12 the following NCAA season.