Undefeated (33-0) and top-ranked sophomore Jayson Ness earned the number one at 125 pounds, the only Golden Gopher to do so. Ness won his first career Big Ten championship last season as the number one seed. Minnesota had four top seeds last year en route to their second consecutive conference championship.
Four other Minnesota wrestlers were pre-seeded in the top three for this year's event – junior Dustin Schlatter (No. 3 at 149 pounds), junior Tyler Safratowich (No. 3 at 165 pounds) and senior Gabriel Dretsch (No. 3 at 174 pounds).
Also pre-seeded for Minnesota were seniors Mack Reiter (fifth at 133 pounds), Manuel Rivera (sixth at 141 pounds), C.P. Schlatter (No. 4 at 157), Roger Kish (fourth at 184), Justin Bronson (No. 6 at 197) and redshirt freshman Ben Berhow (No. 8 at heavyweight).
The two-time defending conference champion Gophers boast one of the most experienced starting lineups in the Big Ten. Minnesota's starters have participated in a combined 17 Big Ten Wrestling Championships and won seven individual conference titles.
The Big Ten pre-seeds are determined by a vote amongst the conference's head wrestling coaches after consideration of regular season results. The official Big Ten Championships bracket will be set on Friday, March 7.
Tickets are still available for this weekend's tournament, which will be held at Williams Arena for the first time since 1997, and may be purchased via www.gophersports.com or by calling 1-800-UGOPHER or 612-624-8080.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now