UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A dozen current Nittany Lions or members of Penn State's Olympic Regional Training Center/NLWC will compete in the 2023 U.S. Open in Las Vegas, Nev., on Thursday and Friday, April 26-30, as South Point Arena. The U.S. Open helps finalize the field for the 2023 United States World Team Trials/Final X on June 10 in New York City.
Current Nittany Lions Beau Bartlett, Aaron Brooks, Tim Levine and Carter Starocci will compete in the senior men's freestyle tournament along with Olympic RTC/NLWC teammates Ceron Francisco, Nick Lee, Morgan McIntosh, Jason Nolf and Josh Rodriguez. The senior freestyle tournament is set for Thursday and Friday, April 27-28.
Nittany Lions Jack Kelly and Connor Pierce will compete in the U20 Freestyle bracket on Saturday and Sunday, April 29-30. Jennifer Page represents the RTC/NLWC in the senior women's freestyle tournament on Friday and Saturday, April 28-29.
Two members of the Happy Valley contingent will be top seeds in their bracket, led by Jason Nolf who will be the No. 1 seed at 74 kg. Jennifer Page will be the No. 1 seed at 62 kg in the women's freestyle bracket. Carter Starocci is the No. 2 seed at 79 kg and Aaron Brooks is the No. 3 seed at 86 kg. Nick Lee will be the No. 3 seed at 65 kg and Morgan McIntosh is the No. 5 seed at 92 kg. Josh Rodriguez is the No. 8 seed at 61 kg, Beau Bartlett the No. 10 seed at 68 kg and Ceron Francisco the No. 10 seed at 125 kg. Tim Levin is unseeded at 61 kg. Jack Kelly and Connor Pierce will compete at 86 kg and 70 kg respectively in the U20 bracket.
Former Nittany Lion greats Vincenzo Joseph (SKWC, 74 kg) and Mark Hall (TMWC, 86 kg) will have high seeds at the event. Joseph will be the No. 3 seed at 74 kg and Hall the No. 2 seed at 86 kg.
The only adjustments that will be made to the seeds will be if a wrestler drops out of the field. In that case, the wrestler in question will be removed from the list and every wrestler underneath him will bump up to the next seed.
The winners of each weight class in senior competition, men's and women's, will advance to Final X on Saturday, June 10 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Five current Olympic RTC/Nittany Lion Wrestling Club standouts already await U.S. Open winners at Final X as the overall top-seed at their respective weights: Thomas Gilman (57 kg), Zain Retherford (70 kg), Kyle Dake (74 kg), David Taylor (86 kg) and Kyle Snyder (97 kg).
Final X will determine the 2023 U.S. Senior World Teams in all three Olympic disciplines: men's and women's freestyle and Greco-Roman. There will be 30 weight classes contested, 10 in each Olympic discipline. The top two U.S. athletes in each weight class will compete in a best-of-three series in Final X to determine who will wrestle at the 2023 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
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.
