ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Penn State wrestling team (16-0, 8-0 B1G) will have seven first round byes at the 2023 Big Ten Championships, which begin on Saturday, March 4, at the University of Michigan. The Nittany Lions, under the guidance of head coach Cael Sanderson, will have four top seeds and three second seeds, all of whom get byes in the opening round. All individual rankings listed are InterMat (Feb. 21, 2023).
Gary Steen will be the 10th-seed at 125. He will face No. 15 Braxton Brown of Maryland. Because an initial competitor who earned the conference an automatic qualifier slot had to bow out of the tournament, the Big Ten has only eight AQs at 125 and the national at-large pool increases by one.
Roman Bravo-Young, ranked No. 1 at 133, is the top-seed. He will take on the winner of the first-round match-up between No. 18 Brody Teske of Iowa and No. 21 RayVon Foley of Michigan State.
Beau Bartlett, ranked No. 4 at 141, is the second seed. He will meet the winner of the first-round battle between No. 18 Joey Olivier of Rutgers and No. 28 Cole Mattin of Michigan.
Shayne Van Ness, ranked No. 13 at 149, is the fifth seed. He will battle Jake Harrier of Illinois.
Levi Haines, ranked No. 7 at 157, is the second seed. Haines takes on the winner of the first-round bout between No. 13 Michael Carr of Illinois and No. 24 Derek Gilcher of Indiana.
Alex Facundo, ranked No. 9 at 165, is the fourth seed. He will meet Purdue's Stony Buell in the opening round.
Carter Starocci, ranked No. 1 at 174, is the top-seed. He will face the winner of the first-round battle between No. 15 Troy Fisher of Northwestern and No. 29 Max Maylor of Michigan.
Aaron Brooks, ranked No. 1 at 184, is the top-seed. He meets the winner of the first-round bout between No. 14 Brian Soldano of Rutgers and No. 22 Dylan Connell of Illinois.
Max Dean, ranked No. 3 at 197, is the top-seed. He faces the winner of the first-round meeting between No. 20 Braxton Amos of Wisconsin and No. 23 Michael Foy of Minnesota.
Greg Kerkvliet, ranked No. 2 at 285, is the second seed. He battles the winner of the first-round meeting between No. 16 Tate Orndorff of Ohio State and Hayden Copass of Purdue.
Penn State's seven first-round byes are for Bravo-Young (133), Bartlett (141), Haines (157), Starocci (174), Brooks (184), Dean (197) and Kerkvliet (285).
The 2023 Big Ten Championships are a two-day event and the national qualifier for the conference's 14 teams. It takes place on Saturday and Sunday, March 4-5. Action begins on Saturday with sessions at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sunday's action begins at 1 p.m. with the conference title bouts slated for 4:30 p.m. The tournament is a B1G Network national telecast and will be streamed on B1G+ as well.
Penn State's NCAA qualifiers will head to Tulsa, Okla., for the 2023 NCAA Championships on March 16-18, 2023, in Tulsa's BOK Center. The six-session title tournament features sessions at 12:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 16; 12:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Friday March 17; and 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 18 (all times Eastern). The NCAA tournament will be broadcast national on the ESPN family of networks.
The 2022-23 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by the Family Clothesline. Penn State Fans are encouraged to follow Penn State wrestling via twitter at @pennstateWREST, on Penn State Wrestling's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatewrestling and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/pennstatewrest. This is PENN STATE. WRESTLING lives here.
