The Big Ten has finalized the brackets for the 2025 wrestling championships. The two-day event will be held Saturday and Sunday at Northwestern . Penn State is sending all 10 starters to Evanston. Eight of them are top two seeds. And, five are No. 1 in their respective weight class. With the field set, we now know who each Nittany Lion will face first.
Because the tournament features 14 wrestlers in each weight class but uses a 16-man bracket, only two Nittany Lions will have first-round matches. The other eight will have byes into the quarterfinals.
Freshman Luke Lilledahl will open his tournament in the first round opposite No. 13 Caelan Riley of Illinois . Lilledahl is 16-2 and the four seed at 125 pounds. The Fighting Illini freshman is 3-13 on the year. In February, he lost to Lilledahl by technical fall, 19-4 in 4:19.
Penn State sophomore Braeden Davis has a first-round date with No. 13 Andrew Hampton of Michigan State . Davis is 8-3 on the year and the four seed at 133 pounds. The Nittany Lion beat the Spartan by technical fall back in January. And, Aaron Nagao beat Hampton in the first round of last year’s Big Ten tournament. Hampton is 5-13 this season.
The rest of head coach Cael Sanderson’s team will not know their quarterfinal opponent until after the first round is over. We have a full breakdown below. And find full brackets here.
Who will each Penn State wrestler face first at Big Tens?
The action starts at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday. Big Ten Network will televise the first session, which includes first round, quarterfinal, and consolation bracket action. Here’s who each Nittany Lion will face first. N ote: The number in paratheses is the wrestler’s Big Ten seed, not his national ranking. And, * denotes a first round match:
125 pounds: No. 4 Luke Lilledahl, Penn State vs. No. 13 Caelan Riley, Illinois *
133 pounds: No. 4 Braeden Davis, PSU vs. No. 13 Andrew Hampton of Michigan State *
141 pounds: No. 1 Beau Bartlett, Penn State vs. No. 8 Henry Porter of Indiana OR No. 9 Greyson Clark of Purdue
149 pounds: No. 1 Shayne Van Ness, PSU vs. No. 8 Kal Miller of Maryland OR No. 9 Dylan Gilcher of Michigan
157 pounds: No. 2 Tyler Kasak, Penn State vs. No. 7 Trevor Chumley of Northwestern OR No. 10 Conner Harer of Rutgers
165 pounds: No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink, PSU vs. No. 9 Paddy Gallagher of Ohio State OR No. 8 Maxx Mayfield, Northwestern
174 pounds: No. 1 Levi Haines, Penn State vs. No. 8 Brody Baumann of Purdue OR No. 9 Lucas Condon of Wisconsin
184 pounds: No. 1 Carter Starocci, PSU vs. No. 8 DJ Washington of Indiana OR No. 9 Ryder Rogotzke of Ohio State
197 pounds: No. 2 Josh Barr, Penn State vs. No. 7 Camden McDaniel of Nebraska OR No. 10 Remy Cotton of Michigan State
285 pounds: No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet, PSU vs. No. 7 Ben Kueter of Iowa OR No. 10 Hayden Filipovich of Purdue
