With Ryan Crookham announcing he was done for the year, Lucas Byrd pinning Drake Ayala, Dom Serrano winning Big 12s, and all the other crazy stuff that happened in the past couple of weeks, 133 might have emerged as the most up-for-grabs title of any weight in Philadelphia. Below is a complete preview with predictions to have you ready to go for NCAAs!

More NCAA weight class previews: 125, 141, 149, 197, 285

Complete FloWrestling news coverage of the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships

Complete FloWrestling 125-pound rankings

2025 NCAA TrackWrestling brackets

2024 All-Americans

1st Place - Vito Arujau of Cornell

2nd Place - Daton Fix of Oklahoma State

3rd Place - Ryan Crookham of Lehigh

4th Place - Nasir Bailey of Little Rock

5th Place - Dylan Ragusin of Michigan

6th Place - Evan Frost of Iowa State

7th Place - Dylan Shawver of Rutgers

8th Place - Kai Orine of NC State

2025 Top 8 Seeds

Lucas Byrd, Illinois

Drake Ayala, Iowa

Nasir Bailey, Little Rock

Zeth Romney, Cal Poly

Dominick Serrano, Northern Colorado

Connor McGonagle, Virginia Tech

Nic Bouzakis, Ohio State

Braeden Davis, Penn State

The Favorites

#1 Lucas Byrd

#2 Drake Ayala

#3 Nasir Bailey

After going 18-1 during the season and avenging his only loss in the Big Ten finals, Lucas Byrd is your rightful #1 seed at 133 lbs. He lost 4-1 to Ayala in the dual this year, giving up a single leg in the third. However, in the Big Ten finals last week, Byrd hit one of the tightest cow catchers you’ll ever see to take Ayala over to his back and get the fall.

Down goes No. 1 ‼️

No. 2 Lucas Byrd delivers his first pin of the season en route to becoming the 133 lbs @bigten Champion 📌#B1GWrestling x @IlliniWrestling pic.twitter.com/2xlVt8uNg8

— Big Ten Wrestling (@B1GWrestling) March 9, 2025

Watch Ayala’s victory over Byrd this year below.

After getting off to a rocky start to the season where he was majored by now 20 seed Blake Boarman, lost to Braeden Davis 1-0, and pinned by Zeth Romney, Nasir Bailey has looked really good since the start of February. He’s gone undefeated, won PAC 12s, and avenged his loss to Romney twice. Bailey also took a loss to Dom Serrano at Southern Scuffle last season before looking great in the post season, only losing to Ryan Crookham and taking 4th place at NCAAs.

The Contenders

#4 Zeth Romney

#11 Evan Frost

The contender category is tough at this weight. While there are several guys like Nic Bouzakis, Braeden Davis, Tyler Knox, Braxton Brown, Dominick Serrano, and Dylan Shawver who are capable of knocking off one of the top 3 seeds, I haven’t seen the consistency out of any of them yet to confidently say they can string five matches together against the nation’s best. However, if any of those guys get hot in Philadelphia, watch out.

The above paragraph might seem contradictory to putting Iowa State’s Evan Frost in the contender category after he went 3-2 at Big 12s and needed an at-large bid. That performance was so contradictory to everything we had seen from Frost this season I almost throw it out. There have been rumors that Frost was sick. Going into the conference tournament, his only losses of the year were to Ayala and Romney.

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Romney’s win over Frost in the CKLV finals was his breakout moment this season. He was ranked #15 going in and emerged as a national title contender after. Going through a CKLV bracket is no joke. Romney also picked up wins over Bouzakis, Van Dee, and Derrick Cardinal. If Romney has his weight in check and can wrestle for a full seven minutes, he can beat anyone in the country.

Watch Romney pin Bailey below.

Sleepers & Landmines

#26 Kai Orine

#14 Zan Fugitt

A 2X All-American it’s not really fair to call Kai Orine a sleeper. However, after a pedestrian regular season where he went 1-4 in his last 5 regular season matches, I think a lot of people are writing Orine off. It can be hard to gage where a lot of these sixth-year COVID seniors are at mentally. Orine could have just been a little checked out during the regular season and ready to turn it on at the national tournament. If that’s the case, he can make the podium again. However, if he really is over college wrestling and ready to move on, I expect a 1-2/2-2 performance. It really does depend on Kai.

Conversely, Zan Fugitt is a freshman to watch out for. The 14 seed is about right for him this year, maybe even a little high considering his best wins are Anthony Noto and Jacob Van Dee and he’s struggled against the top tier at this weight. I don’t think we see him hit the podium this year, but we sometimes we see freshmen come out of nowhere and ball out at the national tournament. I like the potential in Fugitt.

Early Round Matches To Watch

#11 Evan Frost vs #22 Tyler Wells

This is the best first-round match at 133 lbs in my opinion. Tyler Wells is no joke at the 22 seed and this is where we find out if Frost is going to be the regular season version of himself or the Big 12 version of himself. 

#15 Anthony Noto vs #18 Julian Farber

Anthony Noto is a returning 2X All-American taking 4th in 2023 and 3rd in 2024. However, that was down at 125 lbs. He hasn’t quite been the same at 133 lbs, but he clearly knows how to perform in March. If he can get right for his senior year, he’s a podium threat. However, he’s going to be tested right away against a scrappy Julian Farber who is part of a red-hot Northern Iowa team.

#7 Nic Bouzakis vs #10 Dylan Shawver

Every Nic Bouzakis match is a must-watch match, but especially against a high-quality opponent like Shawver. They’re seeded to hit in the second round. The two split this year with Shawver winning in the dual and Bouzakis winning at Big Tens. I’m not going to pretend like I have a clue what is going to happen if they meet at NCAAs.

#13 Tyler Knox vs #4 Zeth Romney

After beating Drake Ayala and Zeth Romney in the first two weeks of the season, people were circling Tyler Knox as a title contender this year. He’s stumbled a bit as of late and is only 2-3 in his last five matches. However, if he can channel that early season version of himself, he could do some damage.

Predictions

1. Drake Ayala

2. Lucas Byrd

3. Nasir Bailey

4. Evan Frost

5. Zeth Romney

6. Braeden Davis

7. Dylan Shawver

8. Nic Bouzakis

R12. Dominick Serrano

R12. Connor McGonagle

R12. Ethan Oakley

R12. Braxton Brown

I don’t have a lot of confidence in my predictions at this weight, but Ayala looked like the best guy during the regular season, so I’m going with him here.