Official Great Midwest Wrestling Championship Page
VIDEO: Great Midwest Digital Network (Mat 1 / Mat 2 Feeds)
TrackWrestling Tournament Page
Digital Program (PDF)
Brackets (PDF) | Brackets (TrackWrestling - instructions below)
(For Real Time Brackets, visit TrackWrestling.com, click Browse, click Tournaments, click Search Events, type in g-mac)
OWENSBORO, Ky. – A total of 76 student-athletes from five institutions are entered to compete this Saturday for the 2021 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Wrestling Championship on the campus of Kentucky Wesleyan College.
Whereas the previous two seasons Great Midwest team champions were determined through duals, this year's format will be on an individual scale with champions crowned in each weight class.
That means the decisive theatrics unfolding at heavyweight delivering team titles for Lake Erie in 2019 (Evan Loughman pin) and 2020 for Tiffin (David Henson decision) that fans have grown accustomed to is going to take on a different form.
Host Kentucky Wesleyan will welcome new associate member Ashland, Findlay, Lake Erie and Tiffin. League member Ohio Valley also sponsors the sport but announced its withdrawal from the bracket earlier this week.
The Great Midwest Digital Network (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV platforms – search 'Great Midwest') will be home for streaming coverage of Mat 1 and Mat 2 inside Jones Gymnasium of KWC's Woodward Health & Recreation Center. Due to COVID-19 guidelines established by the host institution, no spectators or fans will be allowed into the facility.
Wrestling will officially start at 9 AM CT (10 ET) and continue through the afternoon on two mats. The awards ceremony will recognize the top three place winners in each weight class as all-conference performers while additional hardware will be presented to the Wrestler of the Meet and the first recipient of the Elite 23 Award.
Mat 1 will also exclusively feature interviews with coaches and student-athletes throughout the day.
The official Great Midwest Wrestling Championship page can be viewed here.
Brackets on TrackWrestling will be unveiled to the public Friday night following the coaches meeting and will be updated in real time on Saturday. Each school was permitted (2) entries per weight class and the top advancing wrestler will count towards the team point scoring totals.
Coaches have been chomping at the bit to compete since the turn of the new calendar year. With the 2020 NCAA Championships canceled due to COVID, there is a lot of unfinished business in the minds of these grapplers as they push for Super Regionals and redemption at nationals.
Kentucky Wesleyan has four duals under its belt already while Findlay and Tiffin broke the seal on the season at UIndy against the Greyhounds and Davenport this previous weekend. Ashland's first competition of 2020-21 is going to be on Saturday along with Lake Erie.
The Great Midwest is well represented both individually and as teams in various Division II national rankings published this season. In preseason alone, NWCA/Intermat recognized 13 wrestlers from the league in its weight class rankings, The Open Mat ranked 8 and FloWrestling had 10 names listed.
In the initial NWCA team rankings, Tiffin and Ashland were ranked at No. 8 and No. 9, respectively. Findlay was also in the mix at No. 17 and Lake Erie was in the receiving votes category.
While each weight class may feature incumbent favorites based on those rankings, in a championship format, anything can happen this early in the season. Findlay's James Wimer and Tiffin's Nick Mason are legitimate national title contenders at 157 and 197. Mason has that national championship feeling already after winning a title in 2019.
Wimer is coming off Great Midwest Wrestler of the Week status after a major decision and a pin. He last saw the mat in 2019 after redshirting last season and secured All-American status.
A number of 2020 NWCA All-Americans by virtue of their seeding will also be in the brackets including Findlay's Branson Proudlock (141), Ashland's Carson Speelman (149), Tiffin's Bryan LaVearn (165), Ashland's Aidan Pasiuk (184), Mason, Lake Erie's Chris Droege (197) and Ashland's Tristen Weirich (HWT).