Five Terrapins' wrestlers will make trip to Oklahoma City

The NCAA revealed the brackets for the 2014 Championships. The tournament begins Thursday March 20 and runs through Saturday March 22 in Oklahoma City. Based on their performances in the ACC Tournament, Maryland knew four wrestlers - Tyler Goodwin, Jimmy Sheptock, Christian Boley and Spencer Myers - had qualified for the Championship. One other Terp wrestler, Shyheim Brown, was given an at-large spot. Let's take a look by weight class.

Despite finishing second in the ACC Tournament at 133 pounds, Tyler Goodwin is unseeded in the NCAA Tournament. Goodwin finished the season with a 15-8 record but won seven of his last nine matches including a win over at-large qualifier Shelton Mack. Goodwin's first round opponent is the ninth seed Johnni DiJulius from Ohio State. In an early December match against an opponent of similar quality Goodwin dropped a 5-1 decision to then tenth ranked Mark Grey of Cornell. Grey is the fifteenth seed. Should Goodwin win his first round match, he Will Likely face another Big Ten foe in the second round Minnesota's eighth seeded David Thom.

At 141 pounds, Shyheim Brown had an up and down season. Brown won a number of matches early and rose to as high as number eight in the rankings in early December in a streak that included an upset of then fourth ranked Mike Nevinger of Cornell. A mid-season slump beginning in late December and lasting through much January saw Brown fall out of the rankings as he dropped six of seven matches. He appeared to have righted the ship with a January 31st win over Virginia's Joe Spisak and followed that with four straight headed into the ACC Tournament. He won his first round match, again taking a decision over Spisak before losing in a technical fall to Virginia Tech's Devin Carter. Brown will open up against twelfth seeded Richard Durson from Franklin & Marshall who enters the match with a 34-3 record.A first round win would probably set up a match with fifth seeded Chris Mecate.

As (some on this site) expected, Maryland's Jimmy Sheptock earned the top seed at 184 pounds. Sheptock enters this year's NCAA tournament with a perfect 28-0 record after winning a third consecutive ACC title. He is the first Terrapin wrestler to enter the NCAA Tournament as the top seed. In the current season, Sheptock has beaten third seeded Gabe Dean, fourth seeded Max Thomusseit (twice), fifth seeded Ethan Lofthouse, sixth seeded Jacob Swarz, eleventh seeded Lawrence Thomas, and sixteenth seeded Nick Vetterlein. Of course, the match everyone wants to see is the potential final against two-time defending champion, second seeded Ed Ruth of Penn State. For Sheptock, the road to Ruth begins with a first round match against 27-6 Benjamin Stroh of Wyoming.

Christian Boley will carry a 22-4 record and number nine seed into the Tournament. Prior to the ACC Tournament, the only blemishes on Boley's record were a shocking loss to Frank Mattiace of Penn in November and an injury default loss in Maryland's dual meet at Virginia Tech. Boley had a tough go of things in the ACC Tournament dropping his first match to Virginia's Zach Nye before bouncing back to defeat NC State's KaRonne Jones. He ended his ACC career with a loss to Duke's Connor Hartmann in the third place match. Boley opens up against unseeded Corey Reed. If he gets by Reed and the seeding holds, his second round opponent would be Ohio's Phillip Wellington.

In the heavyweight class, Spencer Myers was given the twelfth seed. Myers began the season with fifteen straight wins peaking at number four in the rankings. He dropped a 4-1 decision to Adam Coon in the Midlands Championship and by the same score a week later in Maryland's dual meet at Michigan. Coon enters the NCAA Tournament as the fourth seed. Myers' only other losses are also both to the same wrestler - the NCAA's number two seed Nick Gwiazdowski. The NC State heavyweight defeated Myers 11-8 in the dual meet at Maryland and repeated his victory with a 10-4 win in the ACC championship match. Myers' first round opponent is Dawson Peck and he will potentially have a Big Ten foe in the second round - Iowa's Bobby Telford.