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2024 Big Ten Wrestling Championships: 5 takeaways from wild tournament

IMG_6598by:Nick Kosko•03/11/24•

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Big Ten Wrestling Tournament Takeaways
Big Ten Conference

The 2024 Big Ten Wrestling Championships are in the books and a lot of wild things happened individually and team wise.

Every year, somehow, someway, the Big Ten tournament is always the wildest of the big conferences. That’s what happens when the best overall collection of teams come together for two days of madness.

Here are some takeaways from a wild weekend in College Park.

Penn State showcases dominance, again

The Nittany Lions claimed five champions in the 10 weight classes: Braeden Davis (125), Levi Haines (157), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Aaron Brooks (197) and Greg Kerkvliet (285). With that, Penn State put up 170.5 points in the team race, beating 2nd place Michigan by 47 points.

Absurd numbers out of the way, the Nittany Lions did this without Carter Starocci. The three-time NCAA champion medically forfeited out and his status for NCAAs is up in the air, although he said he’s good to go. But even in the unlikely event he doesn’t wrestle in two weeks, it’ll be hard to see any team top Penn State for a team national title. As far as scoring goes, this is one of, if not the best, Cael Sanderson squad.

Top 174 pounders injured

Speaking of Starocci’s injury, more happened at 174 pounds. Michigan’s Shane Griffith, the No. 2 seed, was injured in his semifinal bout. It was a very unfortunate sight to see on the floor where he clinched a spot in the finals, but had an apparent knee injury.

Griffith had to medically forfeit the Big Ten finals and Illinois’ Edmond Ruth was granted victory. Now, the seeds will be all sorts of challenging for NCAAs. Starocci and Griffith will certainly drop to an extent. Ruth will get a boost. So who’s No. 1 now? Virginia Tech’s Mekhi Lewis?

Dylan Shawver stands out

The Rutgers’ 133 pounder put on a scoring clinic throughout his weekend, going 3-0 and winning the title, the Scarlet Knights’ first champion in five years. He went to overtime with Maryland’s Braxton Brown, winning 9-6 in his quarterfinal matchup Saturday.

But then, he took down Iowa’s Brody Teske 12-6 off some wild scrambles and saved his best for last. After losing to Michigan’s Dylan Ragusin twice this season, Shawver might as well have sold instructional videos based on his performance Sunday. Multiple takedowns, catching Ragusin on his back and more led to the 23-8 tech fall win. He might just be in the national title picture now.

What happened with Iowa?

The Hawkeyes finished fourth in the team race with 110.5 points, so it doesn’t look bad on paper, but Iowa had just one finalist. 197 pounder Zach Glazier had a great run, but ran into Brooks, who won by tech fall.

Other than that, it was an unusually quiet weekend. Teske was a No. 14 seed at 133 pounds and made a run to the semifinals, but last year’s NCAA runner up Real Woods fell in the semis to eventual champion Jesse Mendez (Ohio State). Is this a sign of things to come for the Hawkeyes at NCAAs?

Nebraska was quietly awesome

Ridge Lovett had the headlines of course, winning the 149 pound title over rival Austin Gomez (Michigan). The two wrestle so many fun matches. But the Huskers punched nine tickets to NCAAs out of their 10 wrestlers.

With that, Nebraska finished third in the team race but it feels like the team went under the radar. Expect a handful of All-Americans in Kansas City, a high team score and a national title threat in Lovett in two weeks. Mark Manning? A beast of a coach.

Now that conference tournaments are in the books it’s time to look at the three days in March. The NCAA Championships take place in Kansas City from March 21st to 23rd.