Penn State heads to NCAA Championships with four No. 1 seeds; PSU – LHU matchup in first round

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA  – The Penn State Nittany Lions will be sending nine wrestlers to the 2022 NCAA Wresting Championships on March 17-19 in Detroit, Mich. Penn State will have four No. 1 seeds at the event. Pairings for the tourney were announced on Wednesday.

The NCAA is seeding all 33 wrestlers once again. Please note that the records vs. the field listed below include only results at the qualifying weight. Penn State is sending four seniors, two juniors and three sophomores to the event. The Nittany Lions’ nine qualifiers are a combined 70-15 against the field at their respective weights.

Senior Drew Hildebrandt (Granger, Ind.) will be the No. 16 seed at 125. Hildebrandt will take on No. 17 Anthony Noto of Lock Haven in the opening round. He earned a trip to NCAAs with a ninth-place finish at Big Tens. Hildebrandt is 9-3 overall and 2-3 vs. the field.

Senior Roman Bravo-Young (Tucson, Ariz.) will be the No. 1 seed at 133 and will face the winner of the 32/33 pigtail between Cornell’s Dominic LaJoie and Campbell’s Domenic Zaccone. Bravo-Young won his second straight Big Ten title on Sunday. He is 17-0 overall and 10-0 vs. the field.

Senior Nick Lee (Evansville, Ind.) will the No. 1 seed at 141 and will take on the winner of the 32/33 pigtail between Josh Mason of Bloomsburg and Dylan Cedeno of Virginia. Lee claimed his first Big Ten crown on Sunday in Nebraska. He is 17-0 overall and 9-0 vs. the field.

Sophomore Beau Bartlett (Tempe, Ariz.) will be the No. 13 seed at 149 and will meet No. 20 Collin Realbuto of Northern Iowa in the first round. Bartlett qualified for his first NCAA tournament thanks to a seventh-place finish at Big Tens. He is 14-8 overall and 5-7 vs. the field.

Senior Brady Berge (Mantorville, Minn.) will be the No. 16 seed at 157 and will battle No. 17 Hunter Willits of Oregon State in the opening round. Berge took third place at Big Tens last weekend to earn a trip to Detroit. He is 9-2 overall and 4-1 vs. the field.

Sophomore Carter Starocci (Erie, Pa.) will be the No. 1 see at 174 and will take on the winner of the 32/33 pigtail bout between Dominic Solis of Maryland and Connor O’Neill of Rutgers in the opening round. Starocci is coming off claiming his first Big Ten title in Lincoln on Sunday. He is 18-0 on the year and 9-0 vs. the field.

Junior Aaron Brooks (Hagerstown, Md.) will be the No. 2 seed at 184 and will meet No. 31 A.J. Burkhart of Lehigh in the first round.  Brooks lost a tough sudden victory decision in the Big Ten finals and took second at the event. He is 16-1 overall on the year and 11-1 vs. the field.

Junior Max Dean (Lowell, Mich.) will be the No. 1 seed at 197 and will take on the winner of the 32/33 pigtail match between Will Feldkamp of Clarion and Matthew Waddell of Chattanooga the opening round.  Dean won the Big Ten title in his first trip to the tournament on Sunday.  He is 18-1 overall and 11-1 vs. the field.

Sophomore Greg Kerkvliet (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) will be the No. 4j seed at 285 and will face No. 29 Brandon Metz of North Dakota State in the first round. Kerkvliet took third at the Big Ten tournament on Sunday. He is 18-2 overall this season and is 9-2 vs. the field.

Penn State has won eight of the last ten contested NCAA Championships (all since Sanderson’s arrival at Penn State and he is in his 13th season this year). The Nittany Lions have won nine NCAA titles overall, owning a championship from 1953.  The Nittany Lions won four-straight titles in 2016, ‘17, ‘18 and ‘19 and again in 2011, ‘12, ‘13 and ‘14.

Penn State’s qualifiers are headed to the 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 17-19 in Detroit, Mich. The three-day event will be held in Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena. Thursday’s sessions begin at 12 p.m. (ESPNU) and 7 p.m. (ESPN2); Friday’s at 11 a.m. (ESPNU) and 8 p.m. (ESPN); and Saturday’s at 11 a.m. (ESPNU) and 7 p.m. (ESPN). The entire event will be telecast nationally on the ESPN family of networks (ESPN/2/U).