Northwestern University Athletics
Pre-Seeds Announced for Big Ten Championships
3/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 2, 2009
2009 Big Ten Championship Pre-seeds
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Seven Wildcat wrestlers have earned pre-seeds in the upcoming Big Ten Championships at Penn State, the conference announced on Monday, surpassing the six seeded wrestlers NU boasted each of the past two years. Two 'Cats have been deemed the favorite at their weight classes, with Jake Herbert (26-0) and Brandon Precin (25-2) receiving the top seeds at 184 and 125, respectively.
Pre-seeds are determined by the league's head coaches after consideration of each wrestler's head-to-head competition throughout the course of the season. NU is one of five schools that enters the Big Ten Championships with a No. 1-seeded wrestler.
The Wildcats have had at least one Big Ten titlist each of the last four years, marking the longest such streak in program history.
Herbert, currently riding a 58-match winning streak, is the nation's top-ranked wrestler at 184 and is aiming to become Northwestern's first three-time Big Ten champion. After placing second as a redshirt freshman, Herbert won the 174-pound weight class as a sophomore and the 184-pound division as a junior, winning Most Outstanding Wrestler honors in his repeat performance.
Wrestling in Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center, Herbert will be looking to win this year's Big Ten championship just over 150 miles from his hometown of Wexford, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh. He did not face second-seeded Mike Pucillo of Ohio State this year and has twice defeated Iowa's Phil Keddy in 2008-09, including a 15-1 win in the finals of the Midlands Championships.
Third-ranked Precin finished his 2009 Big Ten dual campaign with a 7-1 mark, losing only to 2008 national champion Angel Escobedo of Indiana in sudden victory. Escobedo, however, has suffered losses to Iowa's Charlie Falck—who Precin pinned in the regular-season finale—and Brad Pataky of Penn State, against which Northwestern did not wrestle this season. Precin placed seventh at Big Tens as a sophomore on his way to a seventh-place NCAA finish and his first All-America honors.
At 157, true freshman Jason Welch earned a No. 2 seed thanks to a 6-2 dual season with losses only to top-seeded Mike Poeta of Illinois and Indiana's third-seeded Kurt Kinser. Two of Kinser's Big Ten losses came against opponents who Welch, ranked No. 14 nationally, defeated in Michigan's Aaron Hynes and Minnesota's Tyler Safratowich.
Two sophomores in Andrew Nadhir (149) and Keith Sulzer (141) received No. 6 seeds for this weekend's tournament. Nadhir came on strong in league competition, finishing 6-2 during the Big Ten dual season. Sulzer, who placed fourth in his first Big Ten Championships a year ago, finished 16-9 overall this year with all of his losses in league action coming by four points or fewer.
NU's final two seeded wrestlers are redshirt freshmen Robert Kellogg (174), a seven seed, and eighth-seeded John Schoen (197), both getting their first taste of the Big Ten Championships. Kellogg finished the league schedule with a 3-5 mark, including a last-minute pin against Travis Rutt that lifted Northwestern to a 21-19 home win over Wisconsin on Jan. 25.
The schedule for this year's event at Penn State is as follows:
Saturday, March 7:
Session One: 11 a.m.
Session Two: 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 8:
Session Three: Noon
