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Big Ten wrestling tournament preseeds: Where is each Penn State starter listed?

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•about 15 hours•

GregPickel

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Penn State wrestler Joshua Barr (Tyler Mantz/Penn State Athletics)

Pre-seeds are officially out for this year’s Big Ten wrestling championships. Regular season and defending conference tournament champion Penn State has five No. 1 seeds and 10 wrestlers seeded in the top four of their respective weight classes. The tournament is this Saturday and Sunday. Northwestern is hosting it. And, Big Ten Network will televise it. Pre-seeds will not be final until after Friday’s coaches meeting in Evanston. The official tournament bracket will be posted then.

Penn State seniors Beau Bartlett and Carter Starocci are the top seeds at 141 and 184, respectively. Also earning number one seeds are Shayne Van Ness at 149, Mitchell Mesenbrink at 165, and Levi Haines at 174.

“We don’t live to prepare for the big matches, we live for the big matches,” Lions coach Cael Sanderson said this week, per PennLive. “That’s the energy and the mentality, but we always keep things in perspective too. I think you just have a plan, and you follow the plan. There are variables, and things shift around throughout the year, and you adjust accordingly.

“But our guys have always competed really well in the postseason, and I think they have a lot of confidence in that. And there won’t be an exception this year. Our guys are going to go wrestle great, and they’re going to wrestle well at the Big Tens, and they’re going to wrestle even better at the nationals; it’s going to be fun.”

Here’s the full list of pre-seeds. It will not be finalized until Friday afternoon. The action starts at 11 a.m. ET Saturday. The semifinals start at 8 p.m. ET Saturday night. And, the finals are on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET.

125 pounds, Luke Lilledahl: No. 4

133 pounds, Braeden Davis: No. 4

141 pounds, Beau Bartlett: No. 1

149 pounds, Shayne Van Ness: No. 1

157 pounds, Tyler Kasak: No. 2

165 pounds, Mitchell Mesenbrink: No. 1

174 pounds, Levi Haines: No. 1

184 pounds, Carter Starocci: No. 1

197 pounds, Josh Barr: No. 2

285 pounds, Greg Kerkvliet: No. 2

Penn State seeks its ninth Big Ten tournament title

All eight of the previous ones have come under the direction of Sanderson. Penn State has also won two in a row and is favored to make it three. Last year, the Lions had five Big Ten champs and seven finalists while qualifying all 10 wrestlers to nationals en route to another NCAA title.

“But I think we all have to understand what we are watching,” Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft said earlier this month. “It is the greatest, it’s not even a dynasty, it’s better than what anyone has done in college sports and maybe in all sports, because the Big Ten is loaded, and we’re going to continue to do that as long as we can.”

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