March 7, 2014
MADISON, Wis. - The seeds have been finalized and the brackets drawn for the 2014 Big Ten Wrestling Championships and top-ranked Penn State will head into this weekend's tournament with five No. 1 seeds. All ten Nittany Lions are seeded at the event. Head coach Cael Sanderson's squad is seeking its fourth straight Big Ten title at the two day championship, which begins tomorrow morning in Madison, Wis.
Junior All-American Nico Megaludis (Murrysville, Pa.) will be the No. 1 seed at 125 and will take on Northwestern's Garrison White in the opening round. The winner of the Megaludis/White match-up will take on No. 8 seed Nick Roberts of Ohio State in the quarterfinals.
True freshman Zain Retherford (Benton, Pa.) will be the No. 1 seed at 141 and faces Nebraska's Colton McCrystal in the first round. The winner of that match-up will take on No. 8 seed Jesse Thielke of Wisconsin in the quarters.
Senior David Taylor (St. Paris, Ohio) is the top seed at 165 and has a first round bye. He will take on the winner of the opening round bout between No. 8 seed Austin Wilson of Nebraska and No. 9 Pat Robinson of Purdue.
Senior Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.) is the No. 1 seed at 184 and will battle Purdue's Tanner Lynde in the opening round. The winner will face No. 8 seed Nikko Reyes of Illinois in the quarterfinals.
Sophomore Morgan McIntosh (Santa Ana, Calif.) is the top seed at 197 and has a first round bye. He will wrestle the winner of the first round match-up between No. 8 Timmy McCall of Wisconsin and No. 9 seed Nick McDiarmid of Michigan State.
Junior Matt Brown (West Valley City, Utah) is the No. 2 seed at 174 and will take on Northwestern's Kevin Bialka in the first round. The winner of the Brown/Bialka match-up will take on No. 7 seed Scott Liegel in the quarters.
Junior Dylan Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) heads into the tournament as the No. 5 seed and will take on No. 12 seed Roger Wildmo of Michigan State in the opening round. The winner gets No. 4 seed Derek St. John of Iowa in the quarters.
Red-shirt freshman Jimmy Gulibon (Latrobe, Pa.) will be the No. 7 seed at 133 and will face Northwestern's Dominick Malone in the first round. The winner of the Gulibon/Malone match-up will take on No. 2 seed Tyler Graff of Wisconsin in the quarterfinals.
Senior James English (York, Pa.) is the No. 7 seed at 149 and has a first round bye. He will face the winner of the first round meeting of No. 2 seed Nick Dardanes of Minnesota and Wisconsin's Ryan Lubeck.
Junior Jon Gingrich (Wingate, Pa.) is the No. 8 seed at 285 and will take on No. 9 Collin Jensen of Nebraska in the first round. The winner gets top seeded Adam Coon of Michigan in the quarterfinals.
Head coach Cael Sanderson and his Nittany Lions ended the dual season with a superb 15-1 mark, 7-1 in Big Ten action and owners of their second Big Ten dual co-title in three years, sharing the crown with Iowa and Minnesota. This weekend's conference championship, which is the national qualifier for the Big Ten, takes place at the University of Wisconsin's Kohl Center. Action begins at 11 a.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Central) on Saturday, March 8, and concludes on Sunday, March 9. Saturday and Sunday morning will be aired online via the BTDN. The BTN will broadcast only the Big Ten finals live on Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 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 2013-14 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by The Family Clothesline.