Cael Sanderson's Big Ten Wrestling Seeds Challenge Pays Off For Penn State

Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson's seedings challenge paid off. Two Nittany Lions saw their pre-seeds for the Big Ten Wrestling Championships improve Friday, when the conference released the final seeds and brackets for this weekend's tournament at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center.

Levi Haines, the unbeaten defending Big Ten champ at 174 pounds, moved up to the No. 1 seed after initially being seeded second. And Braeden Davis, pre-seeded seventh at 141, enters the tournament as the No. 6 seed.

In addition, freshman Marcus Blaze (133) held his No. 1 pre-seed over defending NCAA champ Lucas Byrd of Illinois, who is seeded second in the bracket. Penn State now has the No. 1 seed in seven of 10 brackets for the two-day Big Ten Wrestling Championships, which begin at 10 a.m. ET Saturday on Penn State's home floor.

Sanderson, whose team seeks its fourth straight Big Ten Tournament title, questioned the pre-seeding process earlier this week. The Big Ten used WrestleStat’s Tournament Seeder Program to pre-seed the event. According to the Big Ten, coaches approved the allocation criteria to rank 14 wrestlers at each weight class.

Previously, coaches conducted the seeding process. The third-party platform produced seeds with which some coaches disagreed. Among them were Haines and Byrd as No. 2 seeds. Haines' seed was changed, while Byrd's was not.

"I can’t explain it," Sanderson told reporters in State College on Monday. "... In the past, our coaches spent a lot of time seeding the tournament and the bracket, so we thought if a third party could do a good job [that might help coaches]. But obviously what happened isn't going to work."

Coaches met Friday before the tournament to determine the final seeds. WrestleStat issued the pre-seeds based on a points system that considered head-to-head records, common opponent records, RPI and coaches rankings, among other criteria. Coaches could appeal a seeding if a wrestler was within 15 points of the closest seed.

"It just doesn't make sense. Anybody could look at it and say, 'You have the undefeated national champion [Byrd] or a top-ranked guy [Haines] who won head-to-head," Sanderson said. "There's a lot of different cases. There has to be a human element in all things, especially in a sport like wrestling."

Penn State enters Big Tens with seven No. 1 seeds

Penn State's Levi Haines wrestles Ohio State's T.J. Schierl during a Big Ten wrestling match. — Penn State's Levi Haines, right, wrestles Ohio State's T.J. Schierl at 174 pounds during a Big Ten wrestling dual inside the Bryce Jordan Center. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Haines, who seeks to win his fourth Big Ten title, is the seventh Nittany Lion to earn a top seed for the tournament. He joins defending Big Ten champ Luke Lilledahl (125), Shayne Van Ness (149), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Rocco Welsh (184) and Josh Barr (197).

With Davis' upgrade to sixth at 141, that means all 10 Penn State wrestlers are seeded in the top six for the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. PJ Duke is second at 157, and Cole Mirasola is fourth at 285.

Penn State's seven top seeds will have first-round byes Saturday morning at the Bryce Jordan Center. Davis (9-3) opens his tournament against 11th-seeded Dario Lemus of Maryland. Davis won their regular-season match by an 18-4 major decision.

Duke (16-1) also has a bye and opens his first Big Ten Tournament against either Ohio State's Brandon Cannon or Iowa's Victor Voinovich in the quarterfinals. Mirasola (14-4) takes on No. 13 Gabe Christenson of Northwestern in his first Big Ten Tournament bout. Mirasola scored a 19-4 technical fall over Christenson in January.

The semifinals of the Big Ten Wrestling Championships are scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center. The championship finals are set for 4;30 p.m. Sunday. The complete brackets are available on the Big Ten wrestling website.

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