Preview: Five Maryland wrestlers prepare for NCAA Championships

Five wrestlers will represent Maryland wrestling at the 2023 NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Action starts on Thursday and finishes on Saturday. 

Kal Miller, Ethen Miller and Jaxon Smith all picked up automatic qualifications at the Big Ten Championships, while Braxton Brown and Jaron Smith earned at-large bids due to their strong bodies of work in the regular season. The five qualifiers is the most the Terps have had since 2014. Jaron is the only Maryland wrestler with NCAA Championship experience, as the four freshmen are all making their NCAA Championship debuts. 

Brown will represent the Terps at 125, coming off a solid performance at the Big Ten Championships, where he went 3-2 overall and finished in ninth place. That place doesn’t get an automatic qualifier, however, so Brown had to wait until the NCAA announced the at-large selections to find out if he was going to Tulsa. Brown’s 21-4 regular season record, along with multiple quality wins, was more than enough for the NCAA Division One Wrestling Committee, who awarded Brown the 19-seed. Brown will face 14-seed Noah Surtin from Missouri in the first round. 

Kal Miller picked up a bid for Maryland at 141. Miller headed into the Big Ten Championships with the lowest seed in a group of 14, and an automatic qualification seemed unlikely. However, after losing two of his first three matches to drop into the ninth place bracket, Miller pulled off three-straight upset decision victories to finish in ninth and come away with the NCAA automatic qualification that came with it. Miller was given the No. 32-seed, which puts him up against Bloomsburg’s No. 33 Josh Mason in a rematch from the Maryland Duals earlier in the season. The winner of that match will face Iowa’s No. 1 Real Woods. 

Ethen Miller will wrestle for the Terps at 149. Miller had an excellent regular season for Maryland, finishing with a 25-6 record and a 3-3 mark in Big Ten Duals. In his most recent action at the Big Ten Championships, Miller lost his opening match in overtime, then picked up a win by disqualification over Wisconsin’s Austin Gomez when Gomez slammed him while trying to finish a takedown. The slam kept Miller out of his next two matches, ending his tournament, but the win was enough for him to pick up an automatic bid. Miller picked up the No. 21-seed, matching him up with the No. 12-seed Shayne Van Ness from Penn State in the opening round. 

Jaxon Smith will compete for Maryland at 197. Smith is coming off an excellent showing at the Big Ten Championships, where he won five out of his six matches for a third place finish in a talented group of wrestlers in his weight class. Smith missed a stretch of dual meets in January and February due to nagging injuries, but his performance over the last weekend put any concerns about his health to rest. Smith earned the No. 11-seed at 197, which pits him against Minnesota’s No. 22 Michial Foy.  

Jaron Smith will close things out at 285. The graduate student struggled at the Big Ten Championships, dropping all three of his matches, but his performance during the season was enough to pick up an at-large bid. Smith will look to finish his collegiate wrestling career with a strong performance in his second and final NCAA Championship, and he’ll take on Iowa’s No. 4 Tony Cassioppi as the No. 29-seed in his first round matchup. 

Coach Alex Clemsen likes the position his wrestlers are in at the NCAA Championships. 

“The seeds look strong, I feel great about where our kids are”, Clemsen said. “I’m really proud of the effort they’ve given all year. This young group has been super talented and they’ve delivered, and they’ve got an awesome opportunity to punch through and really give our program the next step.”

Action will begin Thursday at 12:00 p.m.