Penn State wrestling: 4 takeaways from Big Ten tournament preseeds, NCAA allocations release
Penn State wrestling heads to the Big Ten tournament this weekend in Michigan. The Nittany Lions last won a conference postseason crown in 2022 and have taken five of the last six tune-up tournaments ahead of NCAAs, which will be held this year in Tulsa, Okla.
“I think we’re getting excited,” head coach Cael Sanderson said recently. “But it’s more about consistency. We don’t get too high or too low or whatever. It’s just you do your best every day and things tend to work out.”
The Big Ten released pre-seeds for each weight class on Monday. And, NCAA Tournament allocations are out, too. Read on for our top takeaways and what those mean to the Penn State title path for individual grapplers and the team race.
Four Penn State wrestlers lead their weight classes
Penn State has four number one seeds in their respective weight classes. Roman Bravo-Young is No. 1 at 133 pounds. Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks lead the way at 174 and 184 pounds, respectively. And, Max Dean has top billing at 197 pounds.
None of this is a surprise, of course. All four are defending national champs who will be picked to both win Big Tens and also nationals.
Multiple Lions draw top five spots
Numerous Penn State wrestlers who didn’t earn a top still received top-five billing in the pre-seeds from the Big Ten coaches.
At 141 pounds, Beau Bartlett checks in at No. 2 behind Iowa’s Real Woods, who beat him during the dual season. The Nittany Lion will be on track to see Nebraska’s Brock Hardy, who is the three seed, in one of the weight’s semifinals.
At 149, Shayne Van Ness is No. 5, which would put him on the same side of the bracket as top-seed Sammy Sasso of Ohio State and also four-seed Max Murin of Iowa. He’s lost close matches to both this season.
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Moving up to 157 pounds, redshirt freshman Levi Haines is No. 2 behind only Peyton Robb of Nebraska. Purdue’s Kendall Coleman is a possible semifinal foe should he, as the three seed, and Haines both get there.
Alex Facundo is No. 4 at 165 pounds. That puts him on the same side of the bracket as top-seeded Dean Hamiti of Wisconsin.
Last but not least, Greg Kerkvliet is No. 2 at heavyweight. He’d have to likely best Tony Cassioppi of Iowa to make the finals.
Gary Steen faces touch road to make NCAAs
The Big Ten will send it’s top nine wrestlers to the NCAA Tournament at 125 pounds. It means that Gary Steen will need to outperform his pre-seed, of 11, to make it to Tulsa. The Penn State wrestler should draw Northwestern’s Michael DeAugustino, who is the six seed, first. From there, he’d see three-seed Matt Ramos of Purdue, in all likelihood.
The long and short of it is that Steen will likely find his way into the consolation bracket early and need to fight back through it to qualify for nationals.
How many Big Ten wrestlers will make it to nationals?
Here’s the list by weight class:
125 pounds: 9
133 pounds: 9
141 pounds: 9
149 pounds: 9
157 pounds: 10
165 pounds: 8
174 pounds: 7
184 pounds: 9
197 pounds: 9
285 pounds: 9
The Big Ten tournament is this Saturday and Sunday in Michigan. It is televised by Big Ten Network.
