125 POUNDS
Last year’s Hodge Trophy winner as the sport’s top performer, Iowa’s Spencer Lee (7-0) won NCAA titles in 2018 and 2019 and earned All-America honors again last year when the tournament was shut down because of COVID-19. This season, he has five pins and two technical falls and has outscored opponents by a staggering 82-7 count. Virginia Tech’s Sam Latona (10-0), Arizona State’s Brandon Courtney (11-0) and Central Michigan’s Drew Hildebrandt (10-0) are the other top seeds.
Local line: Mizzou’s Noah Surtin, from Edwardsville High, replaced injured Connor Brown and ended up as a runner-up at the MAC tournament.