Bryan Lantry ranked #6 in first preseason wrestling poll

We’re still two months away from the UB Wrestling season opener at home against Cal State Bakersfield; but, the first of the preseason polls are starting to trickle out. FloWrestling released their 125 pound and 133 pound rankings yesterday and standout 133 pounder Bryan Lantry was ranked 6th in the nation, and first among MAC wrestlers. Lantry is also the highest ranked UB wrestler since Kyle Cerminara who was ranked 2nd at 197 pounds in 2006.

Lantry, who is coming off of one of the best seasons in recent memory, lost in overtime to #9 Scotty Parker of Lehigh to fall just short of All-American status. However, his 22-7 sophomore campaign that saw him upset 6 ranked wrestlers, including two in the top 10, did not go unnoticed by the wrestling community. Lantry’s 6th ranking places him only behind Minnesota’s Mitch McKee (5th), Lehigh’s Scotty Parker (4th), Oklahoma State’s Kaid Brock (3rd), Michigan’s Steve Micic (2nd), and South Dakota State’s Seth Gross (1st), four of whom are returning All-Americans.

Other MAC wrestlers ranked behind Lantry are: Missouri’s John Erneste (8th), Ohio’s Cameron Kelly (15th), and Kent State’s Anthony Tutolo (18th). Lantry narrowly lost the MAC Championship to Erneste in overtime, and the two are far-and-away the top dogs in the conference this year.

The preseason polls will continue to filter out in the coming weeks, and I would expect that Lantry will be ranked in the top 8 in nearly all of them, also look for returning MAC Champion Jake Gunning to potentially start the season inside the top 20 at 285 pounds as well.