March 3, 2011
Event: 2011 Big Ten Wrestling Championships
Saturday, March 5 (Session I: 10 a.m., Session II: 5 p.m. CT)
Sunday, March 6 (Session III: 1 p.m., Championship Rounds: 3 p.m. CT)
Welsh-Ryan Arena
Evanston, Ill.
Live Television: Big Ten Network (Sunday, March 6, 3 p.m. CT) (BTN Channel Finder)
Live Twitter Updates: @NU_SportsLIVE (Search BTWrestling or d1wrestling)
Championships Central Page: NUsports.com (Schedule, Ticket Info, Updated Brackets, Standings)
Tickets: Available by calling 888-GO-PURPLE
Northwestern Match Notes -- Big Ten Championships 
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's 18-2 regular season was certainly one to remember, but first-year head coach Drew Pariano and his team would like even more to put its stamp on the 2011 postseason. They'll have that chance beginning Saturday when the 14th-ranked Wildcats host the Big Ten Championships at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Adding to the excitement of the weekend is the presence of the Big Ten Network, which will be on hand Sunday to provide a live telecast of the championship matches. Veteran play-by-play man Tim Johnson will be on the call along with Jim Gibbons and Lee Kemp.
Tickets for this weekend's event are still available by calling the Northwestern Athletics ticket office at 888-GO-PURPLE.
Championships Return to Evanston
With eight teams ranked in the NWCA/USA Today Coaches' poll--including three in the top five--and 64 automatic qualifier bids, the Big Ten is once again the dominant league in college wrestling this season. This year marks the first time since 2001 that Northwestern has served as the host institution and the 13th time in Conference history. NU's best-ever performance when hosting the event came in 1990 when Northwestern placed in a tie for third with 84.5 points.
NU comes into this weekend having won 37 individual Big Ten championships in its history, most recently by Jake Herbert (184) in 2009. Last season broke a string of five consecutive years in which at least one Wildcat won an individual title, a span of time during which they collected seven crowns.
Matchups Take Shape with Tournament Preseeds
Seven NU wrestlers were included in the list of tournament preseeds announced by the Big Ten on Monday, headlined by a pair of No. 2-seeded entrants in seniors Brandon Precin (125) and Andrew Nadhir (149). A three-time Big Ten place-winner, Precin is 28-1 in his senior season with his only loss coming at the hands of top-seeded Matt McDonough of Iowa on Jan. 28. Precin, who is 8-1 against the Championships field at 125 pounds this season, had previously defeated McDonough in the finals of the Midlands Championships. Both of those meetings came in NU's Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Nadhir is a two-time place-winner, will be looking to top his previous best finish of sixth, which came in 2009.
Jason Welch (157), who like Precin was a Big Ten finalist back in 2009 before redshirting the 2010 season, also has his eyes on a conference championship and enters the weekend with a No. 3 preseed. Welch is 23-3 on the season, with one of those three losses coming to Iowa's Derek St. John, who is seeded No. 2 entering the weekend.
Of Northwestern's seven seeded wrestlers, five are in line to earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships if they wrestle to their seed or better this weekend. The last time NU qualified as many as five wrestlers to the national tournament was 2008 (six) and the school record for qualifiers in one season is seven set in 2006.
Meanwhile, NU's three unseeded wrestlers will begin their tournaments in pigtail matches against a randomly drawn seeded opponent. Two unseeded wrestlers won pigtail matches at the 2010 Big Ten Championships.
Been There, Done That
At the 2010 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Northwestern trotted out a very young lineup of starters, six of whom were making their debut at the conference championships. The 'Cats' lineup in 2011 is a different story, however, as eight of the 10 starters are veterans of at least one conference meet. Five of NU's six "rookies" from a year ago will take to the mat this weekend.
Wildcats Wrap Up Strong Big Ten Season Drew Pariano's first regular season at the helm for NU came to an end on Feb. 19 with a 27-13 on the road at Ohio State, Northwestern's first win in Columbus since Pariano was a student at NU back in 1997. With that, the Wildcats finished their Big Ten dual season with a 6-2 mark, the most victories in conference action since 1987. Northwestern defeated four ranked opponents during the year -- Pittsburgh, Illinois, Purdue and Wisconsin.
Nadhir Rises in Big Ten Action
Andrew Nadhir's story at Northwestern is one of development and commitment to improvement. Nadhir struggled as a freshman starter at 157 pounds but found a home at 149, where he has posted a 17-7 record in Big Ten dual matches since his sophomore season. Currently boasting NU's longest active winning streak at five matches, he has been ranked as high as No. 6 this year and leads Northwestern with 11 wins by major decision. Looking at the national rankings, where Nadhir sits at No. 7, he now owns wins in his career over wrestlers ranked No. 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 (InterMat).
Download the Northwestern Wrestling Weekly Release (in PDF format at the top of the page) for a complete look at NU's Big Ten Championships lineup and season statistics.
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