Every bracket has at least one occurence of having two ranked wrestlers who could meet in the round of 16. But that's been as big a part of the outcome of this tournament as any other factor for years.

Tough draws are what you make of them. Win the key early matches you can win the title (unfavored Colby in 1999 won 17 of their first 18 matches and had some horrible draws). Lose the key early matches and lose the title (heavily favored Colby peed down their leg early in 2003 and let North Idaho take the title home).

I bet top ranked teams Meramec and Iowa Central aren't crazy about their draws (and I understand that rankings aren't all always accurate, but you have to start somewhere) -

125# #2 Young (IC) has a likely round of 16 bout w/ #5 Edgmon and R8 w/ # 4 Demison
#8 Bolin (Mer) has a likely R16 w/ #6 Adilov
133# unranked Hacchtel (Mer) R16 w/ #2 Mamalis & R8 w/ #3 Schunk or #5 Beeson
#6 Henslee (IC) R16 vs. #4 Mitchell & R8 w/ #1 Notte
141# #1 Greenwald (IC) R16 vs. #5 Kumbarov & R8 w/ #6 Lahman
#2 Senzee (Mer) R8 vs. #4 Moen
149# #2 Burns (IC) R8 vs #5 Debacco
unranked Foley (Mer) R8 vs #1 White
157# #2 Banks (IC) R16 vs #3 Cornejo & R8 #7 Giovanni
#6 Conn (Mer) has a great draw ranking wise - no ranked opponent until semis
165# #7 Woods (Mer) R16 vs #8 Palmore & R8 vs. #2 Lower
#2 Lower (IC) - see above
174 #2 Hurrin (Mer) has a great draw ranking wise - no ranked opponent until the semis
unranked Overton (IC) R32 vs. #1 Williams & R8 vs. #7 May
184# unranked Johnson (IC) R8 vs #1 Kern
#2 Winn (Mer) R16 vs. #7 Gandolfi
197# #1 Jones (Mer) R16 vs #8 Morales
unranked Kelley (IC) R8 vs. #1 Jones or #8 Morales
285# unranked Cason (IC) R32 vs unranked Parks (Mer) & R16 vs. #7 Anderson & R8 vs #2 Bates
unranked Parks (Mer) - see above

Not an ideal situation for either of those teams. Colby had some tough R16 draws. I believe Labette and North Idaho both have better placement than Meramec, IC, NIACC or Colby.

North Idaho has made a lot of success out of being in a relatively/comparatively easy regional, as they are able to bring in a lot of regional champs or runner-ups....and that can be a huge factor when the favored teams get difficult draws and those regional champs have smooth sailing until R8.

Compare that to our regional where you have 5 ranked wrestlers and two are drawn in as wild cards.....and on and on and on. Couple that with drawing the bracket pill that pairs the West Central region (us) w/ IC or Meramec early and it gets real interesting.

But if you take care of business in those matches, you can win the tournament pretty early on.....ought to be fun one!