March 4, 2011
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Complete Bracket in PDF Format
The brackets for the 2011 Big Ten Wrestling Championships have been released as the seeds for the event have been finalized. The Penn State Nittany Lions of head coach Cael Sanderson have five top seeds heading into the two-day event with a line-up that features five freshmen and two sophomores.
Starting at 125, senior Brad Pataky (Clearfield, Pa.) is the No. 4 seed and will take on Michigan State's Eric Olanowski in the first round. Olanowski downed Penn State's Nate Morgan 8-5 in the dual meet this year. The winner of the Pataky/Olanowski bout will face No. 5 seed Sean Boyle of Michigan in the quarterfinals. The top five finishers at 125 get automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.
Sophomore All-American Andrew Long (Creston, Iowa) is the tournament's top seed at 133 and will face Indiana's Matt Ortega in the opening round. Long posted a 20-6 major over Ortega in the dual meet and the winner of the Long/Ortega bout takes on No. 8 seed Ian Paddock of Ohio State in the quarterfinals. The Big Ten has eight NCAA slots at 133.
True freshman Andrew Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) is the No. 5 seed at 141. Alton received a first round by and will take on the winner of the No. 5 seed Jimmy Kennedy (Illinois)/Randy Languis (Ohio State) bout in the quarterfinals. The top six finishers at 141 are automatic qualifiers for the Big Ten.
Two-time All-American Frank Molinaro (Barnegat, N.J.) is the No. 1 seed at 149. Molinaro received a first round bye and will take on No. 8 seed Danny Zilverberg of Minnesota in the quarterfinals. Molinaro beat Zilverberg 6-5 in the dual meet in February. The top eight finishers at 149 move on to nationals for the Big Ten.
Undefeated red-shirt freshman David Taylor (St. Paris, Ohio) is the top seed at 157 and will take on the winner of the No. 8 seed Matt Mincey (Minnesota)/Shawn Perry (Wisconsin) bout in the quarterfinals. Taylor posted a 16-1 tech fall over Mincey in the dual and Perry did not wrestle for UW in the dual in Rec Hall. The Big Ten will send six 157-pound qualifiers to nationals.
Red-shirt freshman James Vollrath (Richboro, Pa.) is unseeded at 165 for Penn State and will take on No. 1 seed Andrew Howe of Wisconsin in the opening round. The winner of the Howe/Vollrath bout will meet No. 8 seed Kevin Bialka of Northwestern in the quarters. Howe is recovering from an injury and did not wrestle in Penn State's dual meet win over Wisconsin in February. The top five finishers at 165 move on to nationals.
Red-shirt freshman Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.) is the No. 1 seed at 174. Ruth, who only has one loss on the year, will meet No. 8 seed Curran Jacobs of Michigan State in the quarterfinals. Ruth posted an 18-6 major over Jacobs in the dual meet in East Lansing. The Big Ten will send its top eight 174-pounders to nationals this year.
Sophomore All-American Quentin Wright (Wingate, Pa.) is the No. 8 seed at 184 and will meet Michigan's Hunter Collins in the opening round. Wright pinned Collins in just :24 in Ann Arbor earlier this year. The winner of the Collins/Wright bout will meet No. 1 seed Travis Rutt of Wisconsin in the quarterfinals. The top six finishers at 184 move on to nationals for the Big Ten.
Red-shirt freshman Nick Ruggear (Oxford, Pa.) is unseeded at 197 and will meet Purdue's Logan Brown, the No. 3 seed, in the opening round. The duo did not wrestle this year. The winner of the Ruggear/Brown match-up takes on No. 6 seed Anthony Biondo of Michigan in the quarterfinals with the top six placers getting moved on to nationals.
Junior Cameron Wade (Twinsburg, Pa.) is the No. 1 seed at heavyweight and meets No. 8 seed Ben Kuhar of Northwestern in the quarterfinals. Wade and Kuhar did not wrestle this season. The Big Ten's top six heavyweights will advance to NCAAs.
In all, Penn State has five No. 1 seeds and a No. 4, No. 5 and No. 8 seed. Penn State garnered five first round (pigtail) match-ups out of a possible 30, with five other grapplers getting opening round byes.
This weekend's event, held at Northwestern University's Welsh-Ryan Arena, serves as the national qualifier for the conference with 64 automatic bids being up for grabs. Action begins with an 11 a.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Central) session on Saturday, March 5. The Sunday session starts at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central) with the finals airing live on the Big Ten Network at 4 p.m. Eastern (3 p.m. Central). All Penn State events will once again air live on Forever Broadcasting's WRSC (1390 AM) and WSQV (92.1 FM). All radio broadcasts are streamed live at GoPSUsports.com as part of the All-Access package. The 2010-11 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by The Family Clothesline.