The NCAA has released its pre-allocation spots for the March 20-22 championships in Philadelphia and the Big Ten, with 87, once again earned the lion’s share of the spots.
Penn State’s top-ranked Nittany Lions will attempt to qualify each of its 10 wrestlers through the Big Ten Championships March 8-9 at Northwestern. Pre-allocations were determined by using a sliding scale of win percentage, coaches’ rank and RPI ranking, the NCAA explained.
Each wrestler who met those qualifications earned a spot for his conference. Here are the number of qualifiers the B1G received at each weight: 125-9; 133-10; 141-7; 149-8; 157-8; 165-9; 174-8; 184-8; 197-10, and 285-10.
The Big 12, the nation’s second strongest conference, earned 61 spots and the ACC followed with 38. The Ivy League, which split from the EIWA this season, has 26 while the EIWA has 22. The Mid-American Conference (MAC) earned 23, the Pac-12 has 17 and the Southern Conference 13.
Forty-three wildcards will be chosen on March 11, which means the Big Ten’s total could soar into the 90s, and NCAA pairings will be released on NCAA.com beginning at 8 p.m. March 12.
Impressively, each of Penn State’s wrestlers from 141 through 285 are ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the final coaches’ rankings. Beau Bartlett (141), Tyler Kasak (157), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Levi Haines (174) and Carter Starocci (184) are No. 1 while Shayne Van Ness (149), Josh Barr (197) and Greg Kerkvliet (285) are No. 2.
Penn State’s Luke Lilledahl is No. 8 at 125 and Braeden Davis is No. 6 at 133. Nos. 1 and 2 at 125 and 133 are Matt Ramos of Purdue and defending NCAA champ Richie Figueroa of Arizona State at 125, and Drake Ayala of Iowa and Lucas Byrd of Illinois at 133.
U.S. OPEN LEADS TO FINAL X: These days, wrestling never ends and after the NCAAs comes the U.S. Open April 23-27 in Las Vegas and the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament May 17-18 in Louisville.
Wrestlers will shift from folkstyle to freestyle and senior level wrestlers in men’s and women’s freestyle ultimately will compete in the Final X on June 14 in Newark, New Jersey. The 20 weight-class winners from that event will comprise Team USA at the 2025 World Championships Sept. 13-21 in Zagreb, Croatia.
Seven U.S. wrestlers who won a medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and four who won a medal at the 2024 World Championships are eligible to advance directly to the Final X best-of-three series, if they accept their position and compete in the same weight class in Final X, according to USA Wrestling.
