Northwestern University Athletics
Big Ten Reveals Pre-Seeds in Advance of Conference Championships
3/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 2, 2010
2010 Big Ten Championship Preseeds 
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Just days away from the start of the 2010 Big Ten Championships hosted by Michigan, the Big Ten league office has announced the pre-seeds for each of 10 weight classes. Three NU wrestlers--Eric Metzler, Andrew Nadhir and Brian Roddy, Jr.--garnered top-eight seeds in the event scheduled to begin Saturday in Ann Arbor.
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. They are subject to change following the coaches' seeding meeting on the eve of the tournament.
This is college wrestling's second season under the new system for earning automatic bids to the NCAA Championships in which the NCAA assigns each weight class in each conference a certain number of automatic bids. Listed below is each weight class along with the number of automatic berths to the NCAA Championships out of this weekend's Big Ten meet the conference will receive at that weight division:
125: 6
133: 5
141: 5
149: 8
157: 4
165: 5
174: 6
184: 5
197: 7
285: 5
Entering his final Big Ten Championships, the senior Metzler drew a No. 5 seed thanks to his 12-9 overall record and 4-4 mark in Big Ten duals this season; finishing at or above his seed means an automatic berth in the NCAA Championships.
Junior Andrew Nadhir, ranked No. 14 at 149 pounds, garnered a No. 6 seed in the only Big Ten weight class to receive eight automatic trips to the NCAA Championships. Nadhir, who placed sixth at Big Tens a year ago, finished the regular season with a 20-8 mark, with five of those eight losses coming to wrestlers ranked in the top five in the nation. Four of those competitors--Iowa's Brent Metcalf, Ohio State's Lance Palmer, Wisconsin's Kyle Ruschell and Penn State's Frank Molinaro--will be in the field at the Big Ten Championships.
Roddy, a redshirt freshman, begins his first Big Ten Championships as the sixth seed at 174 pounds after going 8-6 in varsity competition and 4-3 in the Big Ten.
The schedule for this year's event in Crisler Arena is as follows:
Saturday, March 6
Session I: 11 a.m. CT
Session II: 6 p.m. CT
Sunday, March 7
Session III: Noon CT
Championship Session: 2 p.m. CT
