Brackets, seeds released for 2024 NCAA DI Men’s Wrestling Championship
INDIANAPOLIS – Tonight (Wednesday, March 13), the NCAA released the pre-tournament seeds and brackets for the upcoming 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championship, and the trio of Bald Eagles set to compete at the national championships knows its first-round opponents.
The 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championship is set for March 21-23 (Thurs. – Sat.) at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Anthony Noto (Lima, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima), Gable Strickland (Benton, Pa./Benton) and Wyatt Henson (Waynesburg, Pa./Waynesburg) are all set to compete for No. 24 Lock Haven.
Noto is the No. 12 seed at 125 pounds, Strickland is the No. 27 seed at 133 pounds and Henson is the No. 12 at 141 pounds.
Noto, a returning All-American, is now a three-time NCAA qualifier. The three-time Mid-American Conference (MAC) champion is 17-2 on the season and 82-9 for his career. Last season, Noto finished fourth at the NCAA Championship and became Lock Haven’s 44th Division I All-American. Overall, Noto is 6-4 lifetime at the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, when Noto earned All-American status on the mats, he became The Haven’s first All-American since 2019, and he will look to become the Bald Eagles’ first two-time All-American since Chance Marsteller in 2018 and 2019.
Strickland is set for his second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. He went 0-2 in his debut last season in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but he’s coming off his second straight MAC title, and has looked outstanding down the stretch. Strickland is a remarkable 32-11 on the season and he’s 80-39 for his career.
Henson, a first-year Bald Eagle, was a national qualifier last season at Oklahoma. He went 1-2 at the 2023 NCAA Tournament, but he’s been on an absolute tear all season now that he’s found his way in The Haven. Henson is coming off his first MAC title and he was named the Co-Outstanding Wrestler at the recent Mid-American Conference Tournament.
On the season, Henson is 35-2 with 19 tech falls. The 19 tech falls stand as a Lock Haven single-season record and he also sits atop the Division I standings in the category.
Notably, both Strickland Henson rank among the top-5 in the nation in Division I victories on the season.
Lock Haven is known as Mat-Town U.S.A for a reason, and the three Bald Eagles set to compete at the 2024 NCAA Division I Championship this year will look to add their names to a long line of All-Americans before them. In all, 44 Lock Haven wrestlers have earned All-American status. Individually, The Haven has claimed nine individual Division I national championships with the last coming from Cary Kolat at 142 pounds in 1997. The Bald Eagles most recent national finalist came by way of Ronnie Perry – current assistant coach – who became the first No. 15-seed to reach a national final during his Cinderella-run to the 149-pound title-match in 2018.
As a team, Lock Haven will head to the NCAA Championship ranked No. 24 in the latest (March 12) InterMat Team Ranking.
Lock Haven First Round Bouts:
125: #12 Anthony Noto vs. #21 Brandon Kaylor (Oregon State)
133: #27 Gable Strickland vs. #6 Vito Arujau (Cornell)
141: #12 Wyatt Henson vs. #21 Josh Edmond (Missouri)
# = NCAA Tournament Seed
