Penn State hoping to defend its title at the Big Ten Championships
Penn State heads to Bloomington, Ind. this weekend for the 2017 Big Ten Championships. The tournament starts Saturday morning and finishes up Sunday evening.
The Lions have won five of the last six Big Ten Championships (2015 wasn’t their year). They are favored to win this year as well.
The big story for this year’s Big Tens, is the status of freshman No. 2 Nick Suriano.
The 125-pounder is still recovering from an ankle injury from the Oklahoma State match. Coach Cael Sanderson said Suriano will be a game-time decision for Big Tens.
The Big Ten tournament serves as the NCAA qualifier for the division. Even if Suriano doesn’t wrestle, he can and will still qualify for NCAAs. Suriano would take injury default losses at Big Tens and the seeding committee will decide if those losses will be taken into account when picking his seed for the NCAA tournament. Most likely, his high seed will be unaffected by those losses.
While this is great for Suriano, the injury defaults put Penn State at risk for the Big Ten title. Iowa and Ohio State will be close behind on the scoreboard and those extra point wins won’t do Penn State any favors.
Again, this all depends on if Sanderson decides to wrestle Suriano or not. I guess we’ll find out Saturday morning.
The first session begins at 10 a.m. Saturday morning and the second is at 6 p.m. Both of these sessions will be available online at btn2go.com.
On Sunday, sessions 3 and 4 will start at 12 p.m. The Big Ten Network will be airing the finals starting at 3 p.m.
Big Ten Tournament Penn State Lineup:
125 #2 Nick Suriano Fr., 16-2
133 Triston Law Fr., 0-2
141 #10 Jimmy Gulibon Sr., 13-7
Placed 2nd at 2016 Big Tens behind Rutger’s Anthony Ashnault
149 #1 Zain Retherford Jr., 19-0
Placed 1st at 2016 Big Tens
157 #1 Jason Nolf So., 19-0
Placed 2nd at 2016 Big Tens behind Illinois’ Isaiah Martinez
165 #4 Vincenzo Joseph Fr., 14-3
174 #5 Mark Hall Fr., 24-2
184 #2 Bo Nickal So., 18-0
Placed 1st at 2016 Big Tens
197 #7 Matt McCutcheon Jr., 15-3
Placed 5th at 2016 Big Tens
285 #3 Nick Nevills So., 16-2
DNP at 2016 Big Tens
The Lions have won five of the last six Big Ten Championships (2015 wasn’t their year). They are favored to win this year as well.
The big story for this year’s Big Tens, is the status of freshman No. 2 Nick Suriano.
The 125-pounder is still recovering from an ankle injury from the Oklahoma State match. Coach Cael Sanderson said Suriano will be a game-time decision for Big Tens.
The Big Ten tournament serves as the NCAA qualifier for the division. Even if Suriano doesn’t wrestle, he can and will still qualify for NCAAs. Suriano would take injury default losses at Big Tens and the seeding committee will decide if those losses will be taken into account when picking his seed for the NCAA tournament. Most likely, his high seed will be unaffected by those losses.
While this is great for Suriano, the injury defaults put Penn State at risk for the Big Ten title. Iowa and Ohio State will be close behind on the scoreboard and those extra point wins won’t do Penn State any favors.
Again, this all depends on if Sanderson decides to wrestle Suriano or not. I guess we’ll find out Saturday morning.
The first session begins at 10 a.m. Saturday morning and the second is at 6 p.m. Both of these sessions will be available online at btn2go.com.
On Sunday, sessions 3 and 4 will start at 12 p.m. The Big Ten Network will be airing the finals starting at 3 p.m.
Big Ten Tournament Penn State Lineup:
125 #2 Nick Suriano Fr., 16-2
133 Triston Law Fr., 0-2
141 #10 Jimmy Gulibon Sr., 13-7
Placed 2nd at 2016 Big Tens behind Rutger’s Anthony Ashnault
149 #1 Zain Retherford Jr., 19-0
Placed 1st at 2016 Big Tens
157 #1 Jason Nolf So., 19-0
Placed 2nd at 2016 Big Tens behind Illinois’ Isaiah Martinez
165 #4 Vincenzo Joseph Fr., 14-3
174 #5 Mark Hall Fr., 24-2
184 #2 Bo Nickal So., 18-0
Placed 1st at 2016 Big Tens
197 #7 Matt McCutcheon Jr., 15-3
Placed 5th at 2016 Big Tens
285 #3 Nick Nevills So., 16-2
DNP at 2016 Big Tens
