By Matt DiSanto and Geoff Rushton
Although Penn State finished just short of a team title at last weekend’s Big Ten Wrestling Championships, the Nittany Lions are once again primed for a strong NCAA run next week.
Penn State received received four No. 1 seeds during the 2022 NCAA Championships bracket announcements on Wednesday. In total, nine Nittany Lions qualified for the national tournament.
Below are each Nittany Lion’s respective seed, weight, and opening matchup heading into the long-awaited tournament weekend:
- 125 lbs. — No. 16 Drew Hildebrandt vs. No. 17 Anthony Noto (Lock Haven)
- 133 lbs. — No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young vs. No. 32 Dominic LaJoie (Cornell) OR No. 33 Domenic Zaccone (Campbell)
- 141 lbs. — No. 1 Nick Lee vs. No. 32 Josh Mason (Bloomsburg) OR No. 33 Dylan Cedeno (Virginia)
- 149 lbs. — No. 13 Beau Bartlett vs. No. 20 Colin Realbuto (Northern Iowa)
- 157 lbs. — No. 16 Brady Berge vs. No. 17 Hunter Willits (Oregon State)
- 174 lbs. — No. 1 Carter Starocci vs. No. 32 Dominic Solis (Maryland) OR No. 33 Connor O’Neill (Rutgers)
- 184 lbs. — No. 2 Aaron Brooks vs. No. 31 AAJ Burkhart (Lehigh)
- 197 lbs. — No. 1 Max Dean vs. No. 32 Will Feldkamp (Clarion) OR No. 33 Matthew Waddell (Chattanooga)
- 285 lbs. — No. 4 Greg Kerkvliet vs. No. 29 Brandon Metz (North Dakota State)
Penn State should be in heavy contention to bring home its ninth team title under Cael Sanderson after placing second in 2021, but will face some tough draws to get there.
At 125, Hildebrandt will look to finish strong after a rough Big Ten tournament. If he wins his opening round matchup, he’ll likely face top seed Nick Suriano of Big Ten champ Michigan.
Bravo-Young looks to win his second consecutive title at 133 in what is expected to be his final postseason run. He figures to cruise into the semifinals and could potentially see a rematch with Iowa’s Austin DeSanto, whom he beat for the Big Ten title, in the semis.
Lee is also looking for a second straight title in his final campaign. His path to the championship bout could, barring upsets, see him face No. 4 seeded Pac-12 champion Real Woods of Stanford or No. 5 seeded Big 12 champion Andrew Alirez of Northern Colorado. At the other end of the bracket, Iowa’s Jaydin Eierman is seeded No. 2. Lee beat Eierman in the national title bout last year and again in this season’s dual meet. Eierman medically forfeited their rematch in last week’s Big Ten title bout.
Bartlett would likely see last year’s NCAA runner-up, No. 4 seed Sammy Sasso of Ohio State, in the second round. Sasso has beaten Bartlett twice, but both were close matches.
Berge heads into the tourney coming off of a third-place finish at 157 in the Big Ten tournament. He would get defending national champion David Carr of Iowa State in the second round.
Starocci’s path to a second straight 174 pound title will probably face a test in the quarterfinal, where he could get Nebraska’s No. 9 seed Mikey Labriola, who took Starocci to sudden victory in their only meeting last year, or No. 8 seed Michael O’Malley of Drexel. Iowa’s Michael Kemerer and NC State’s Hayden Hidlay, a Lewistown native, are the favorites to reach the other quarter in this half of the bracket. Kemerer is responsible for one of Starocci’s two career losses last year, but Starocci got the win in their dual meet matchup this season.
Brooks is looking for his second second straight title at 184 and after a potential second round match against Iowa’s Abe Assad, seems likely to face No. 7 seed Kaleb Romero of Ohio State in the quarterfinals. Romero and Brooks did not meet in the dual meet or Big Ten tournament this season.
Dean is in search of his first NCAA title and faces a challenging path in the deep 197 weight class. A second round match would put him against Virginia’s No. 17 Jay Aiello, a U-23 bronze medalist, or Arizona State’s No. 16 Kordell Norfleet, a four-time Pac-12 champion who Dean beat by major decision earlier this year. From there he would likely face No. 8 seed Lou Deprez of Binghamton or No. 9 seed Cam Caffey of Michigan State, the only wrestler to defeat Dean this season.
State College graduate Cole Urbas of Penn is the No. 30 seed at 197 and takes on Jacob Cardenas of Cornell in the opening round. They’re at the opposite end of the bracket from Dean.
Kerkvliet looks to be in good shape to reach the heavyweight quarterfinals, where he could meet Big 12 champion and No. 5 seed Wyatt Hendrickson of Air Force. A win there would send him to a semifinal matchup with top seed and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson of Minnesota. Kerkvliet and Steveson, both Minnesota natives, have met once before at the collegiate level, a 9-4 decision victory by Steveson in last year’s national tournament.
The 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships will take place March 17 to 19 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
