Big Ten Wrestling Championships: 6 Rutgers wrestlers earn pre-seeds

The Big Ten announced pre-seeds for the conference wrestling championships which run this Saturday and Sunday at Michigan State.

Six Scarlet Knights earned pre-seeds for the tournament, highlighted by No. 1 Nick Suriano at 125 pounds. Suriano (20-0) is 5-0 this season against the Big Ten Championships field and owns wins over five top-20 opponents in 2017-18. Suriano is the second RU wrestler in as many seasons to earn a top seed at the tournament, joining teammate Anthony Ashnault, who was the No. 1 seed at 141 pound last season when he captured his second consecutive conference title.

Others seeded include No. 4 Richie Lewis (14-3) at 165 pounds, No. 5 seed Scott DelVecchio (18-4) at 133 pounds, No. 5 Nicholas Gravina (14-3) at 184 pounds, No. 6 Eleazar DeLuca (10-9) at 149 pounds and No. 8 John Van Brill (18-9) at 157 pounds.

Six schools have at least one top-seeded wrestler, with Penn State leading the way with four top-seeded wrestlers. Ohio State and Penn State will bring a seeded wrestler in each of the 10 weight classes, while Michigan boasts a seeded grappler in nine weights.

The pre-seeds, as voted on by the conference’s coaches, ranked the top eight wrestlers in seven weight classes, along with all 14 starters in three weight classes (125, 149, and 165) due to the Big Ten receiving nine or more NCAA Championships qualifier allocations in those classes. All of the seeds will be confirmed and finalized in bracket form by league coaches on March 2 prior to the start of the tournament.

NCAA Weight Class Allocations by Conference

On the Bank graphic

On the Banks will have a full preview of the tournament later this week. We will cover 125 through 157 on Thursday and then 165 through heavyweight on Friday.

List of Big Ten pre-seeds here

Big Ten Tournament Central here