March 8, 2013
BLOG: Breaking Down Penn State's Session I Matchups
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The seeds and brackets have been finalized for the 2013 Big Ten Wrestling Championships and the Penn State Nittany Lions now know their first round opponents. Action begins Saturday at 11 a.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Central in Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois.
Sophomore All-American Nico Megaludis (Murrysville, Pa.) is the No. 2 seed at 125 and will receive a first round bye. Megaludis will meet the winner of the first round match-up between No. 7 seed David Thorn of Minnesota and Indiana's Joe Duca. Red-shirt freshman Jordan Conaway (Abbottstown, Pa.) will make his Big Ten Championship debut as the No. 4 seed at 133. Conaway will receive a first round bye and face the winner of the opening round bout between No. 5 Daryl Thomas of Illinois and Indiana's Alonzo Shepherd. Senior Bryan Pearsall (Lititz, Pa.) heads into his final Big Ten tourney as the fourth-seed at 141. Pearsall meets Wisconsin's Tom Kelliher in the opening round with the winner of that bout taking on No. 5 seed Brandon Nelsen of Purdue. Sophomore Andrew Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) is set as the No. 5 seed at 149 and will face Iowa's Josh Dwieza in the first round. The winner of that match will take on No. 4 Jake Sueflohn of Nebraska in the next round. Also, 149 will only have seven automatic qualifiers for the Big Ten as well (instead of eight).
Sophomore All-American Dylan Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) is the No. 3 seed at 157. Alton will face Wisconsin's Kalvin York in the first round with the winner meeting No. 6 Josh Demas of Ohio State in the second round. Two-time All-American David Taylor (St. Paris, Ohio) is the No. 1 seed at 165 and, after a bye, will meet the winner of the bout between No. 9 Mark Martin of Ohio State and No. 8 Austin Wilson of Nebraska. Sophomore Matt Brown (West Valley City, Utah) will enter his first Big Ten Championship as the fifth-seed at 174. Brown will take on 12th-seed Cheney Dale of Indiana in the first round with the winner meeting No. 4 Nick Heflin of Ohio State.
Two-time All-American Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.) is set as the No. 1 seed at 184 and will receive a first round bye. Ruth will take on the winner of the bout between Ben Cox of Wisconsin and No. 8 C.J. Magrum of Ohio State. Three-time All-American Quentin Wright (Wingate, Pa.) is set as the No. 1 seed at 197 and gets a bye. He will meet the winner of the match-up between No. 9 Alex Polizzi of Northwestern and No. 8 Max Huntley of Michigan. Sophomore Jimmy Lawson (Tom's River, N.J.) will enter his first Big Ten Championship as the No. 7 seed at 285 and will face No. 10 Kosta Karageorge of Ohio State in the opening round. The winner will take on No. 2 seed Mike McMullan in the second round.
Full brackets will be available at http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-wrestl/spec-rel/ill-big10-12-wrestl-championships.html.
The event begins tomorrow, Saturday, at 11 a.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Central and then continues with the semifinals and consolation action later tomorrow night at 6 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Central. Fans are encouraged to follow Penn State wrestling via twitter at www.twitter.com/pennstateWREST and on Penn State Wrestling's facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatewrestling. The 2012-13 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by The Family Clothesline.