NCAA Wrestling Brackets: Parsing Penn State's Seeds at Nationals
Penn State could contend for as many as six individual titles at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship, which begin Thursday in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Two-time defending champs Roman Bravo-Young (133 pounds) and Carter Starocci (174) earned No. 1 seeds for nationals, which run through Saturday at the BOK Center. Meanwhile, two-time champ Aaron Brooks (184) will pursue a third title from the No. 3 seed, and returning champ Max Dean (seeded ninth) must navigate a difficult draw to defend his title at 197.
And Levi Haines, the Big Ten freshman of the year, is a contender as the No. 2 seed at 157.
The Nittany Lions won the Big Ten team title and advanced nine wrestlers to the NCAA Championships, where they're favored to secure team title No. 10 for head coach Cael Sanderson.
How did the brackets break for the Penn State? Here's a look.
133: No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (16-0)
Bravo-Young brings a 52-bout win streak to nationals, where his road to the final is pretty straightforward. However, the prospect looms of a third consecutive NCAA championship bout against Oklahoma State's Daton Fix. Bravo-Young has defeated Fix in consecutive NCAA finals, scoring a takedown in the first 20 seconds of his 3-2 win last season.
Bravo-Young is 8-0 vs. the NCAA field this season.
141: No. 6 Beau Bartlett (22-2)
Bartlett, third at the Big Ten tournament, is in position to become a first-time All-American. He's a sneaky 12-2 against the field, with one of those losses to top-seeded Real Woods of Iowa. Can he make a run? Remember that a 15 seed made the final at 141 last season.
149: No. 12 Shayne Van Ness (19-6)
Initially seeded 13th, Van Ness moved up one spot because of a withdrawal. The redshirt freshman, fourth at the Big Ten championships, looks for an upset to become an All-American. If he wins his opener, Van Ness likely will face fifth-seeded Paniro Johnson of Iowa State in the second round. Johnson defeated Van Ness 3-2 in December.
157: No. 2 Levi Haines (20-1)
Penn State's amazing freshman, who won the Big Ten title, climbs into a favorable spot at his weight class. He's on course for a semifinal rematch with Nebraska's Peyton Robb, who's seeded third. Haines handed Robb his first loss of the season, in overtime, in the Big Ten final. Austin O'Connor (18-0) of North Carolina is the top seed.
Haines is an impressive 12-1 vs. the field. Northern Colorado's Vinny Zerban, the only wrestler to beat Haines this season, is seeded 32nd.
165: No. 13 Alex Facundo (19-4)
Facundo begins his first NCAA tournament by renewing the Pitt-Penn State rivalry. He meets the Panthers' 20th-seeded Holden Heller (14-6) in the first round. Facundo is 4-4 against the bracket this season.
174: No. 1 Carter Starocci (19-0)
No doubt on the top seed here, as the two-time defending champ brings a 47-bout win streak to Tulsa. Only a huge upset would prevent Starocci from reaching the final, but there it gets interesting. The second seed is Nebraska's Mikey Labriola, whom Starocci defeated for the Big Ten title. And the third seed is Virginia Tech's Mekhi Lewis, whom Starocci beat in overtime for the 2022 NCAA title. Lewis, of course, defeated Penn State's Vincenzo Joseph for his 2019 national championship.
Starocci is 11-0 vs. the NCAA field at 174.
184: No. 3 Aaron Brooks (12-1)
Is Brooks capable of wearing a chip on his shoulder? We'll find out, as the two-time champ, who bruised the Big Ten field, checks in as the No. 3 seed at NCAAs. Brooks has wrestled a limited schedule and has one loss (to Iowa State's Marcus Coleman, the fifth seed), which led to his seeding. But he scored 48 points in three Big Ten tournament bouts and has 10 bonus-point victories this season. Seeds aside, Brooks is the favorite.
194: No. 9 Max Dean (20-3)
The defending champ faces a minefield back to the final. His half of the bracket includes fourth-seeded Silas Allred of Nebraska, who beat Dean in the Big Ten final, and top-seeded Nino Bonaccorsi of Pitt. The bottom half includes Cornell's Ethan Laird and Lehigh's Michael Beard, both of whom beat Dean in December, Don't count out Dean (9-3 vs. the field), but this is an uphill climb to become a two-time champ.
HWT: No. 3 Greg Kerkvliet (15-2)
The much-anticipated final between Kerkvliet and Michigan's top-seeded Mason Parris looks quite possible. Kerkvliet's toughest opponent on his side of the bracket is second-seeded Wyatt Hendrickson the Big 12 champ from Air Force. A Kerkvliet-Parris final would be an epic Game 7 of their college careers. The two wrestlers have met six times, each winning three bouts.
Check out the brackets for the 2023 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.
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