You think you know how a wrestling tournament works? You seed the best guys, they march through the bracket, and the favorites hold serve. Easy. Except the 2024 NCAA wrestling brackets weren't easy. They were a violent, beautiful mess that shattered records and expectations alike.
Honestly, if you looked at the 125-pound bracket and didn't feel a little bit of second-hand anxiety for the seeds, you weren't paying attention. It was absolute carnage. But while everyone was staring at the upsets, a dynasty was quietly—well, not so quietly—rewriting the history books in Kansas City.
The 125-Pound Bracket Was Total Chaos
Let’s talk about the 125-pounders first. This weight class was a blender. Basically, anyone from seed 1 to 33 had a puncher's chance. We entered the T-Mobile Center with Braeden Davis of Penn State as the top seed, but the air felt thin.
He didn't make the finals. Neither did the number two seed, Luke Stanich.
Instead, we got Richard Figueroa from Arizona State. He was the number eight seed. Think about that. In a sport where the top guys usually separate themselves by light-years, Figueroa navigated a minefield to take down Iowa’s Drake Ayala in the finals.
The upsets started early. Number 28 Diego Sotelo from Harvard took out the five seed, Jore Volk, in the very first round. It sort of set the tone. If you were a high seed at 125, you were essentially walking around with a target on your back in a room full of snipers.
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Penn State Didn't Just Win; They Demolished the Record
While the lightweights were busy throwing the rankings in the trash, Penn State was busy turning the entire tournament into a dual meet. It's kinda wild when you look at the numbers.
They finished with 172.5 team points.
The previous record? 170 points, held by Iowa since 1997. Cael Sanderson’s squad didn't just beat the record; they did it with a 100-point margin over second-place Cornell. That is an absurd gap. It’s like winning a marathon and finishing before the second-place runner has even reached the 20-mile marker.
The Four-Timer Club Grows
The 2024 NCAA wrestling brackets will forever be remembered as the year the "Four-Timer" club doubled its membership from the same locker room.
- Carter Starocci (174 lbs): He was nursing a knee injury that looked bad enough to keep him out entirely. He wrestled with a heavy brace, gave up the first takedown in his first two matches, and still found a way. He beat Rocco Welsh in the finals to secure his fourth title.
- Aaron Brooks (197 lbs): Dominance personified. Brooks moved up from 184 to 197 and looked even better. He pinned, teched, and majored his way through the bracket, eventually beating Trent Hidlay 6-1 in the final.
Brooks ended up winning the Hodge Trophy, which is basically the Heisman of wrestling. He was that much better than everyone else.
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What Happened at 165?
If 125 was chaos, 165 was a clash of titans. David Carr vs. Keegan O’Toole. This is the kind of rivalry that makes people buy tickets. They had met so many times, and O'Toole seemed to have the upper hand recently.
But Carr, in his final ride for Iowa State, pulled off the semifinal upset. Then he had to face Mitchell Mesenbrink, the Penn State freshman who wrestled like he was powered by a jet engine.
Mesenbrink is relentless. He’s always moving, always attacking. But Carr’s veteran savvy—and that signature low single—held off the storm. Carr won 9-8 in a match that felt like it lasted twenty minutes instead of seven. It was probably the best technical display of the whole weekend.
Key Takeaways from the 2024 Brackets
Looking back, there are a few things that really stand out about how these brackets shook out.
- The Big Ten is still king, but the gap is shifting. While Penn State is on another planet, teams like Arizona State and Virginia Tech showed that the "non-traditional" powers are producing individual monsters.
- Seeding is a suggestion, not a rule. At 157 pounds, Caleb Henson from Virginia Tech (the 4 seed) took out the 1 seed and the 2 seed to win it all. He became the Hokies' second-ever national champ.
- Health is everything. Starocci won on one leg. Greg Kerkvliet (heavyweight) was also clearly banged up but still took the title. It’s not just about who’s better; it’s about who can endure the most pain for three days in March.
The 141-Pound Heartbreaker
You have to feel for Beau Bartlett. He’s an incredible wrestler, a fan favorite, and he was right there. He faced Jesse Mendez from Ohio State in the finals.
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It was 1-1 late in the third. It looked like it was heading to overtime. Then, in the literal closing seconds, Mendez scrambled into a takedown. 4-1. The Buckeye took the crown. It was a reminder of how thin the margins are in the 2024 NCAA wrestling brackets. One second you're a potential champion, the next you're a runner-up.
Actionable Insights for Following Future Brackets
If you’re trying to make sense of these brackets for the coming seasons, stop looking only at the rankings.
Start by watching the Big Ten Championships. Historically, if a guy can survive that gauntlet, he's battle-hardened for the national stage. But also, keep an eye on the "redshirt" news. A lot of the chaos at 125 happened because guys were coming off injuries or late-season weight cuts that skewed their regular-season records.
Also, pay attention to bonus points. Penn State wins because they don't just win; they hunt for pins and technical falls. In the team race, a pin is worth two huge points. In 2024, Penn State's 10 All-Americans compiled a 49-10 record. That’s an 83% win rate against the best kids in the country.
To really understand where the sport is going, look at the freshman class. Names like Mesenbrink and Rocco Welsh are the future. They aren't afraid of the established stars. They wrestle with a pace that is fundamentally changing how the middleweight classes look.
The 2024 tournament proved that while the "Penn State Era" is firmly here, the individual brackets are more volatile than they've ever been. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, watch the guys who are winning the scrambles, not just the guys who are "supposed" to win on paper.