Penn State Wrestling Dominates Pre-Seeds for Big Ten Wrestling Championships

The Big Ten Conference certified Penn State wrestling’s favorite status at this weekend’s Big Ten Wrestling Championships with the release of the tournament preliminary seeds. Penn State, the nation’s top-ranked team, has five No. 1 seeds for the championships and all 10 starters seeded among the top 4 at their weight classes. After a record-setting Big Ten tournament in 2024, the Nittany Lions are poised to reach even higher this year. The Big Ten Wrestling Championships are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Northwestern University.

Penn State’s top seeds for the 2025 Big Ten Wrestling Championships are Beau Bartlett (141 pounds), Shayne Van Ness (149), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Levi Haines (174) and Carter Starocci (184). One of the interesting seeds fell at 157, where Penn State’s Tyler Kasak, ranked No. 1 nationally by InterMat, is seeded second to Maryland’s Ethen Miller. Kasak took an injury default in his bout vs. Miller in February, technically Kasak’s only loss this season. Miller (20-0) is fifth nationally according to InterMat behind three Big Ten wrestlers: Kasak, Iowa’s Jacori Teemer and Nebraska’s Antrell Taylor.

Josh Barr (197) is seeded second to Iowa’s Stephen Buchanan, to whom the Penn State redshirt freshman lost in January. And unbeaten heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet, the defending Big Ten and national champ at the weight class, is seeded second to Minnesota’s unbeaten Gable Steveson.

Penn State freshman Luke Lilledahl is seeded fourth at 125 pounds, and sophomore Braeden Davis is the No. 4 seed at 133. All of Penn State’s starters are well within the Big Ten’s allocation guidelines for the NCAA Tournament if they wrestle to seed.

Big Ten wrestling coaches vote on the preliminary seeds, which will determine the 14-wrestler brackets at each weight class. Penn State, which went unbeaten in the Big Ten for the fifth consecutive season, seeks to win its third straight team title at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. Action begins at 11 a.m. ET Saturday with the first round. The semifinals are scheduled for 8 p.m. ET Saturday, and the championship bouts are set for 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson said the Nittany Lions are ready for the postseason.

“Our guys have always competed really well in the postseason, and I think they have a lot of confidence in that, and there won’t be an exception this year,” Sanderson said. “Our guys are going to go wrestle great and they’re going to wrestle well at Big Tens and they’re going to wrestle even better at nationals. It’s going to be fun.”