The field is now set for this season’s inaugural National Duals Invitational that will take place November 15-16 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The top four seeds for the tournament were announced on Tuesday night
with Nebraska receiving the 2-seed. The remaining 12 teams were randomly drawn in with lotto balls live on FloWrestling. Iowa received the top seed, while Ohio State will be the 3-seed, and Oklahoma State earned the 4-seed. The full bracket is below.
This sets up potential semifinal matchups between Nebraska and the Buckeyes, and the Hawkeyes against the Cowboys for a tournament that will pay out over a million dollars in prize money to the wrestling programs — $200k to the winner.
Here are my initial thoughts with more to come in the future:
- Nebraska starts with a first-round matchup against Lehigh, a solid team with seven ranked wrestlers — five are ranked in the top-8 at their weight class, setting up a lot of exciting matchups. Nebraska’s #5 Jacob Van Dee will take on #2 Ryan Crookham at 133 pounds, while #2 Brock Hardy will face Lehigh’s #3 Luke Stanich, a U20 World Champion. Also, there are big-time matchups between Nebraska’s #4 Christopher Minto and Lehigh’s #7 Max Brignola at 174 pounds, and #1 AJ Ferrari against #8 Nathan Taylor at heavyweight. I do anticipate a much deeper Husker squad to get the win here, but it’ll be a tough opening-round matchup where we could see some Huskers take their lumps.
- If Nebraska gets past Lehigh, it will have either Michigan or Arizona State in the quarterfinal round — most likely Michigan, a team with eight ranked wrestlers and three in the top-10 at their weight. I’m most interested in seeing the heavyweight match there between Ferrari and #4 Taye Ghadiali.
- In the semifinal round, Nebraska will most likely see Ohio State, Virginia Tech or Minnesota. Each of these teams are stacked with talent, but the Buckeyes are the most likely opponent here. This would set up a rematch of the NCAA final at 141 pounds between #1 Jesse Mendez and Hardy. Ferrari would see yet another top opponent in #6 Nick Feldman if this dual materializes.
- If Nebraska makes it to the final, it would most likely see Iowa, Oklahoma State or NC State here, setting up a ton of great potential matchups — such as Minto against #2 Patrick Kennedy of Iowa at 174 pounds, #5 Silas Allred against #2 Angelo Ferrari of Iowa at 184, Taylor against #7 Jordan Williams of Iowa at 157, Van Dee against #3 Drake Ayala of Iowa at 133, and AJ Ferarri against yet another top-10 foe in either #2 Isaac Trumble of NC State, #5 Ben Kueter of Iowa, or #9 Konner Doucet of Oklahoma St.
- One wrinkle for the Huskers is that #10 Chance Lamer, a transfer from Cal Poly, isn’t eligible until the second semester, so they will need to have a plan in place at 149 pounds for this tournament. Nebraska has a few options here in sophomore Scott Robertson, senior Blake Cushing, and true freshman Nikade Zinkin. Ranked #45 on the FloWrestling Big Board for the 2025 class and #2 in the country at 144 pounds coming out of high school, Zinkin seems like the play here — the two-time California state champion is really talented and can wrestle here without losing his redshirt status. I think he has the best shot at getting a win for his team against guys like #3 Lachlan McNeil of Michigan, #4 Ethan Stiles of Ohio State, and #5 Casey Swiderski of Oklahoma State.
- It looks like trial by fire for Nebraska’s two redshirt freshmen starters — #27 Kael Lauridsen at 125 and LJ Araujo at 165. Lauridsen will face Lehigh’s #5 Sheldon Seymour in the first round before potentially facing #4 Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech in the semifinal round. If Nebraska makes the final, Lauridsen could see #1 Vincent Robinson of NC State, #2 Troy Spratley of Oklahoma State, or #10 Dean Peterson of Iowa. Araujo will first take on #7 Max Brignola of Lehigh before facing ranked opponents in the quarters and semis. In the finals, Araujo would likely take on #2 Michael Caliendo of Iowa.
- Nebraska has three wrestlers who will likely be favored in every match if Nebraska makes the final — #1 Taylor at 157, #7 Camden McDanel at 197, and #1 AJ Ferrari at 285. The highest-ranked guys McDanel will probably face will be #9 Seth Shumate of Ohio State and potentially #10 Cody Merrill of Oklahoma State.
- Honestly, it looks like Antrell Taylor should be undefeated going into a late January tilt at Penn State — his highest-ranked potential opponent will be Iowa’s #7 Jordan Williams before then.
- It looks like the Hardy vs. Mendez match will happen again in the semis at this tournament, but that won’t be the end of things. Last year’s NCAA final match at 141 pounds (Mendez won 12-9), Hardy and Mendez have wrestled multiple times with Mendez holding the 3-1 advantage. These two could wrestle at National Duals, in their dual matchup on Jan. 25, at the Big Ten Championships, and at the NCAA Championships. Every single match has been a barn burner, and I expect more of the same.
