ROSEMONT, Ill. - The Big Ten Conference announced the preliminary seeds for the 2015 B1G Wrestling Championships, with nine Boilermakers earning a pre-seed at their respective weight. The championships will be held at St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio, March 7-8.
Six schools boast at least one top-seeded wrestler, with Iowa and Ohio State leading the way with three each. Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State and Penn State will bring a seeded wrestler in each of the 10 weight classes, while Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers and Wisconsin each boast a seeded grappler in nine classes.
The pre-seeds, as voted on by the conference's coaches, rank the top eight wrestlers in two weight classes, along with all 14 starters in eight weight classes due to the B1G receiving eight or more NCAA Championships qualifier allocations in those classes.
Purdue wrestlers earning a pre-seed include:
125 // T-No. 7 Luke Welch (10-11)
133 // No. 7 Danny Sabatello (24-5)
141 // No. 8 Nick Lawrence (19-13)
157 // No. 5 Doug Welch (25-8)
165 // No. 10 Pat Robinson (12-14)
174 // No. 7 Chad Welch (19-13)
184 // No. 10 Patrick Kissel (15-11)
197 // No. 9 Braden Atwood (14-6)
285 // No. 14 Tyler Kral (8-18)
Iowa holds three No. 1 seeds, with 125-pounder Thomas Gilman, 149-pounder Brandon Sorensen and 184-pounder Sam Brooks earning top billing in their weight classes. Ohio State boasts three top-seeded grapplers in Logan Stieber (141), Bo Jordan (165) and Kyle Snyder (197). The Illini's Isaiah Martinez (157), Gophers' Chris Dardanes (133), Huskers' Robert Kokesh (174) and Badgers' Connor Medbery (285) round out the group of top-ranked grapplers.
Two of this year's top seeds claimed titles at last year's B1G Championships, with Kokesh (174) and Stieber (141) earning conference crowns last season. This season, four freshmen earned No. 1 seeds entering the championships, including Martinez, Sorensen, Jordan and Snyder.
More information on the 2015 B1G Wrestling Championships can be found here, while the complete list of B1G Championships pre-seeds can be found here.