INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA announced the brackets for the 2021 NCAA Championships on Wednesday, revealing the seeding and opponents for the 21 Southern Conference wrestlers who will travel to the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 18-20. The SoCon will see five schools and 21 athletes take the national stage, with one wrestler each at 133 and 141, two wrestlers at 149, 157, 174, 197 and heavyweight and three featured at 125, 165 and 184.
 
App State’s Codi Russell, who moved down a weight class this season from 133 pounds to 125 pounds, will take on No. 17 Killian Cardinale of West Virginia, while Chattanooga’s Fabian Gutierrez will meet No. 9 Devin Schroder of Purdue also at 125. Russell was awarded the No. 16 seed and Gutierrez was awarded the No. 24 seed, one seed higher than last year’s seeding. Seeded at No. 29, Campbell’s Zurich Storm will take on No. 4 Drew Hildebrandt of Central Michigan University and App State’s Sean Carter, who is seeded at No. 31, will wrestle Penn State’s No. 2 Roman Bravo-Young at 133 pounds.
 
At 141 pounds, No. 22 seeded Anthony Brito of App State will face off against No. 11 Cody Trybus of Navy. At 149 pounds, his teammate Jonathan Millner represents the highest SoCon seed in the weight class at No. 17, taking on No.  26 Anthony Cheloni of Northern Illinois. Campbell’s Joshua Heil is the No. 20 seed after earning the second NCAA allocation at 149 pounds and will compete against No. 13 Mitch Moore of Oklahoma. 
 
Cody Bond of App State is the No. 20 seed at 157 pounds and will face No. 13 Hunter Willits of Oregon State, while No. 22 Benjamin Barton of Campbell is set to compete against No. 11 Jacori Teemer of Arizona State. There will be a rematch from the regular season at 165 pounds between No. 16 Will Formato, the SoCon Wrestler of the Year, and No. 17 Thomas Bullard of NC State. Formato defeated Bullard in a 4-0 decision in January. Gardner-Webb’s RJ Mosley and Chattanooga’s Andrew Nicholson are seeded at No. 28 and No. 26, respectively. Mosley will open his day against No. 5 Zach Hartman of Bucknell and Nicholson, the 165-pound SoCon champion, will take on No. 7 Ethan Smith of Ohio State. 
 
Campbell’s Austin Murphy earned the highest seed overall in the conference, as he is seeded 11^th at 174 pounds and will face No. 22 Mason Kauffman of Northern Illinois. Thomas Flitz of App State earned the No. 15 seed after receiving an at-large bid from the NCAA on Tuesday. Flitz will take on No. 18 Dustin Plott of Oklahoma State.
 
At 184 pounds, No. 14 Caleb Hopkins will begin his run at the championship against No. 19 Zach Braunagel of Illinois, while No. 25 Matthew Waddell of Chattanooga is set to compete against No. 8 Taylor Venz of Nebraska. Gardner-Webb’s redshirt freshman Jha’Quan Anderson is going to be among the first to compete after earning the No. 32 seed and will face the No. 33 seed, Joe Accousti of Sacred Heart.  
 
Two wrestlers are set to compete at 197 pounds in No. 22 Chris Kober of Campbell and No. 32 Logan Andrew of Chattanooga. Kober will battle it out with hopes to advance over No. 11 Jay Aiello of Virginia, and Andrew will open the day against No. 33 Billy Janzer of Rutgers.
 
The Citadel’s Michael McAleavey and Campbell’s Taye Ghadiali round out the field in the heavyweight division. The 24^th-seeded McAleavey will start off against No. 9 Greg Kerkvliet of Penn State, while the No. 33 seed Ghadiali will face No. 32 Andrew Gunning of North Carolina.
 
Click here for the NCAA’s official brackets.
 
Individual champions/NCAA qualifiers
125 – No. 16 Codi Russell, App State
133 – No. 31 Sean Carter, App State
141 – No. 22 Anthony Brito, App State
149 – No. 17 Jonathan Millner, App State
157 – No. 20 Cody Bond, App State
165 – No. 26 Andrew Nicholson, Chattanooga
174 – No. 11 Austin Murphy, Campbell
184 – No. 14 Caleb Hopkins, Campbell
197 – No. 22 Chris Kober, Campbell
HWT – No. 24 Michael McAleavey, The Citadel
 
Additional NCAA allocations
149 – No. 20 Joshua Heil, Campbell
184 – No. 25 Matthew Waddell, Chattanooga
HWT – No. 33 Taye Ghadiali, Campbell
 
At-large NCAA selections
125 – No. 29 Zurich Storm, Campbell
125 – No. 24 Fabian Gutierrez, Chattanooga
157 – No. 22 Benjamin Barton, Campbell
165 – No. 16 Will Formato, App State
165 – No. 28  RJ Mosley, Gardner-Webb
174 – No. 15 Thomas Flitz, App State
184 – No. 32 Jha’Quan Anderson, Gardner-Webb
197 – No. 32 Logan Andrew, Chattanooga