March 6, 2009
2009 Big Ten Wrestling Championships Bracket
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Bolstered by No. 1 seeds Jake Herbert and Brandon Precin, No. 19 Northwestern travels to Penn State this weekend for one of college wrestling's showcase events, the Big Ten Championships. NU's recent return to prominence has been apparent at the annual event as the 'Cats have had at least one league champion each of the past four years, the longest such streak in program history.
A year ago in Minnesota, heavyweight Dustin Fox captured his first Big Ten title on his way to the 2008 NCAA championship.
The Big Ten Network will provide a three-hour live broadcast of the championships' final bouts beginning at 1 p.m. CT on Sunday with Tim Johnson, Ken Chertow and Jim Gibbons on the call. Fans can check in at the official tournament Web site for updates throughout the two-day event.
Final seeds announced Friday (available above in PDF format) remained unchanged from pre-seeds distributed earlier in the week. Northwestern enters the weekend with pre-seeded wrestlers in seven weight classes, surpassing the six pre-seeds it earned each of the past two years.
Herbert (26-0, 8-0), the nation's No. 1-ranked 184-pounder, is coming off the third undefeated regular season of his career and is striving to become the first three-time Big Ten champ in program history. It has been two years since he last faced second-seeded Mike Pucillo of Ohio State but he registered two wins this season against No. 3 seed Phil Keddy of Iowa.
Herbert drew a bye in the first round and begins his weekend against the winner of the first-round match between Indiana's Eric Cameron and Wisconsin's Eric Bugenhagen.
Precin (25-2, 7-1) also opens the weekend with a bye before facing the winner of Michigan State's Eric Olanowski and Illinois' B.J. Futrell in what figures to be one of the most competitive weight classes among the top four seeded grapplers. His only two losses this year have come in overtime to defending national champions, including Indiana's third-seeded Angel Escobedo. Precin enters the weekend with a 95-25 career record.
Jason Welch (21-7, 6-2), ranked 14th nationally at 157, garnered the second seed in the championships after suffering league losses only to top-seeded Mike Poeta of Illinois and third-seeded Kurt Kinser of Indiana. Only one freshman in the nation—No. 11 Scott Winston of Rutgers—is ranked ahead of Welch in his weight class.
Welch will face Penn State's Tim Darling for the first time in the opening round of the tournament.
2008 NCAA qualifier Keith Sulzer (16-9, 3-5), the No. 6 seed at 141, placed fourth at Big Tens a year ago and is tied for third on Northwestern's roster for career wins with 40. Sulzer landed a first-round matchup against Purdue's Juan Archuleta. Also earning a six seed is sophomore Andrew Nadhir (12-9, 6-2), who enjoyed a five-match winning streak during the Big Ten season and picked up two major-decision victories in that stretch.
In their first seasons as starters for NU, redshirt freshmen Robert Kellogg (12-12, 3-5) and John Schoen (5-17, 1-6) picked up seventh and eighth seeds, respectively.
The schedule for this year's event at Penn State is as follows:
Saturday, March 7:
Session One: 11 a.m.
Session Two: 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 8:
Session Three: Noon