From: Bradly Derechailo [email protected] Subject: Big Ten Announces Pre-Seeds for Conference Championships Date: March 4, 2019 at 1:58 PM To: Bradly Derechailo [email protected]

RUTGERS ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF 1 Scarlet Knight Way | HighPoint.com Stadium, Suite A | Piscataway, NJ 08854 O: 732-445-7028 • F: 732-445-8899 • www.scarletknights.com • @RUAthletics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bradly Derechailo (office: 732-647-5034; e-mail: [email protected])

Big Ten Announces Pre-Seeds for Conference Championships Ashnault earns top seed at 149 pounds

ROSEMONT, Ill. (March 4, 2019) – The released its preliminary seeding for the 2019 Big Ten Championships, scheduled for March 9-10 in Minneapolis. These seeds will be confirmed and finalized in bracket form by league coaches on March 8 prior to the start of the tournament.

The pre-seeds, as voted on by the conference’s coaches, rank the top eight wrestlers in three weight classes, along with all 14 starters in seven weight classes due to the Big Ten receiving nine or more NCAA Championships qualifier allocations in those classes.

Eight Scarlet Knights earned pre-seeds for the tournament, highlighted by No. 1 at 149 pounds. Ashnault (23-0) finished the 2018-19 regular season 10-0 against the Big Ten Championships’ field and owns wins over six top-20 opponents, according to Intermat. Ashnault’s seed marks the third consecutive year RU will have a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, as Nick Suriano earned the No. 1 seed at 125 pounds in 2018, while Ashnault was the No. 1 seed at 141 pounds in 2017.

Suriano also earned a top-four seed at the Big Ten Championships, as the junior is seeded third at 133 pounds. Suriano (20-3) is 4-2 against the projected field and owns four wins over ranked individuals. Suriano closed out 2018-19 as the team leader in bonus-point victories (18) and was second in dual points (73).

Others seeded for Rutgers include No. 9 Peter Lipari (141), No. 9 Joseph Grello (174), No. 9 Nicholas Gravina (184), No. 10 John Van Brill (157), No. 12 Stephan Glasgow (165) and No. 13 Shane Metzler (125).

Matthew Correnti (197) and Christian Colucci (HWT) are both unseeded against the field. This will be Correnti’s second trip to the Big Ten Championships, while Colucci will make his first appearance at Big Tens since his transfer from Lehigh last summer. Glasgow, Lipari and Metzler will also make their Big Tens since his transfer from Lehigh last summer. Glasgow, Lipari and Metzler will also make their Big Ten Championships’ debuts this weekend.

To qualify automatically for the NCAA Championships from March 21-23 in Pittsburgh, each Scarlet Knight will have to finish within the threshold listed at his weight. The Big Ten leads the country with 78 of the total 286 automatic bids on the table, with a total conference breakdown below.

Session I of the Big Ten Championships is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 9.

2019 NCAA Wrestling Championships Conference Allocations Conference 125 133 141 149 157 165 174 184 197 HWT Total ACC 2 4 4 4 4 4 3 5 4 3 37 Big 12 5 5 6 7 1 6 5 5 7 6 53 Big Ten 9 8 9 6 9 9 8 8 5 7 78 EIWA 4 4 3 5 6 4 5 6 6 4 47 EWL 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 2 14 MAC 4 3 4 1 5 1 2 2 1 4 27 PAC 12 3 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 17 SOCON 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 13 Total Qualifiers 29 29 29 28 29 29 27 29 28 29 286

125 lbs. 1. Sebastian Rivera, NU 2. , IOWA 3. Sean Russell, MINN 4. RayVon Foley, MSU 5. Travis Piotrowski, ILL 6. Drew Mattin, MICH 7. Zeke Moisey, NEB 8. Malik Heinselman, OSU 9. Devin Schroder, PUR 10. Elijah Oliver, IND 11. Brandon Cray, MD 12. Devin Schnupp, PSU 13. Shane Metzler, RU 14. Ethan Rotondo, WIS

133 lbs. 1. Stevan Micic, MICH 2. Austin DeSanto, IOWA 3. Nick Suriano, RU 4. Roman Bravo-Young, PSU 5. Luke Pletcher, OSU 6. Ethan Lizak, MINN 7. Ben Thornton, PUR 8. Dylan Duncan, ILL 9. Anthony Tutolo, MSU 10. Colin Valdiviez, NU 11. Jens Lantz, WIS 12. Paul Konrath, IND 13. Jevon Parrish, NEB 14. Orion Anderson, MD

141 lbs. 1. Michael Carr, ILL 2. Nick Lee, PSU 3. Joey McKenna, OSU 4. Tristan Moran, WIS 5. Kanen Storr, MICH 6. Mitch McKee, MINN 7. Max Murin, IOWA 8. Chad Red, NEB 9. Peter Lipari, RU 10. Nate Limmex, PUR 11. Kyle Luigs, IND 12. Austin Eicher, MSU 13. Danny Bertoni, MD 14. Alec McKenna, NU

149 lbs. 1. Anthony Ashnault, RU 2. Micah Jordan, OSU 3. Pat Lugo, IOWA 4. Thomas Thorn, MINN 5. Cole Martin, WIS 6. Brady Berge, PSU 7. Shayne Oster, NU 8. Malik Amine, MICH

157 lbs. 1. Jason Nolf, PSU 2. Tyler Berger, NEB 3. Ryan Deakin, NU 4. Alec Pantaleo, MICH 5. Kaleb Young, IOWA 6. Steve Bleis, MINN 7. Ke-Shawn Hayes, OSU 8. Eric Barone, ILL 9. Griffin Parriott, PUR 10. John Van Brill, RU 11. Jake Danishek, IND 12. Jake Tucker, MSU 13. Garret Model, WIS 14. Alex Whitesell, MD

165 lbs. 1. Vincenzo Joseph, PSU 2. Alex Marinelli, IOWA 3. Evan Wick, WIS 4. Isaiah White, NEB 5. Logan Massa, MICH 6. Te’Shawn Campbell, OSU 7. Bryce Martin, IND 8. Carson Brolsma, MINN 8. Carson Brolsma, MINN 9. Joseph Gunter, ILL 10. Tyler Morland, NU 11. Phillip Spadafora, MD 12. Stephan Glasgow, RU 13. Austin Hiles, MSU 14. Cole Wysocki, PUR

174 lbs. 1. Mark Hall, PSU 2. Myles Amine, MICH 3. Dylan Lydy, PUR 4. Mikey Labriola, NEB 5. Devin Skatzka, MINN 6. Ethan Smith, OSU 7. Ryan Christensen, WIS 8. Drew Hughes, MSU 9. Joseph Grello, RU 10. Mitch Bowman, IOWA 11. Carver James, ILL 13. Jake Covaciu, IND 14. Josh Ugalde, MD 15. Braxton Cody, NU

184 lbs. 1. Myles Martin, OSU 2. Shakur Rasheed, PSU 3. Tyler Venz, NEB 4. Emery Parker, ILL 5. Cash Wilcke, IOWA 6. Mason Reinhardt, WIS 7 .Jelani Embree, MICH 8. Max Lyon, PUR 9. Nicholas Gravina, RU 10. Cameron Caffey, MSU 11. Norman Conley, IND 12. Brandon Krone, MINN 13. Kyle Jasenski, MD 14. Brendan Devine, NU

197 lbs. 1. Bo Nickal, PSU 2. Kollin Moore, OSU 3. Jacob Warner, IOWA 4. Christian Brunner, PUR 5. Eric Schultz, NEB 6. Jackson Striggow, MICH 7. Dylan Anderson, MINN 8. Brad Wilton, MSU

285 lbs. 1. Gable Steveson, MINN 2. Anthony Cassar, PSU 3. Mason Parris, MICH 4. Trent Hilger, WIS 5. Chase Singletary, OSU 6. Conan Jennings, NU 7. David Jensen, NEB 7. David Jensen, NEB 8. Sam Stoll, IOWA

Follow Rutgers Athletics on Facebook (/RutgersAthletics) and Twitter (@RUAthletics) for all of the latest news and updates. For specific updates regarding Rutgers wrestling, follow the program on Twitter (@RUWrestling) and Instagram (@RUWrestling). Fans can receive timely information, including special offers and giveaways throughout the year on our social media outlets along with www.ScarletKnights.com. For additional updates, please download the Gameday App.

–RU–

This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e- mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.

If verification is required, please request a hard-copy version.

Rutgers University - DIA 83 Rockafeller Road Piscataway, NJ 08854 www.scarletknights.com