Previewing the 125 pound weight class

This page is a preview of the 125-pound weight class at the 2015 NCAA Division I Championships, which will be held March 19-21 in the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo

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2015 NCAA Preview: 125 pounds

A year ago, Illinois’ Jesse Delgado became his school’s first back-to-back NCAA champion in 56 years with plans on becoming the Illini’s first-ever three-time champion in 2014-15.

That goal is still alive for the native of Gilroy, Calif., but will be much tougher as injuries limited the senior to just seven matches before the start of this year’s Big Ten tournament, where Delgado settled for fourth place.

Alan Waters

Entering this year’s NCAAs, the man to beat at 125 pounds is Missouri senior Alan Waters, who redshirted last year but returned this season to defeat Delgado at the NWCA National Duals in February and 2014 NCAA runner-up Nahshon Garrett of Cornell for the Southern Scuffle championship in early January. Waters is a native of Kansas City, Mo., was also seeded No. 1 two years ago in the NCAAs but settled for fourth place.

Garrett’s setback to Waters in Chattanooga was just one of three losses for the junior from Chico, Calif., who responded by capturing a third straight EIWA championship.

After these three stars, it could be a toss-up of several young 125 pounders, who all made an impact this winter:

Virginia Tech sophomore Joey Dance, who finished fourth in last year’s NCAAs and enters this year’s Nationals with both a Midlands championship in December and an ACC title;
Ohio State’s redshirt freshman Nathan Tomasello, who comes to St. Louis with a 13-match winning streak, including big wins over Delgado and Iowa sophomore Thomas Gilman, who defeated Garrett in the National Duals. The Hawkeye also finished second at the Midlands to Dance.

Another returning All-American from 2014 is Northern Iowa’s Dylan Peters, who finished second to Waters in the MAC championship, but did pin Tomasello at the Las Vegas Invitational in December.