By Pat Donghia gopsusports.com
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team (12-0, 8-0 B1G), winners of both the Big Ten Championship and the B1G Regular Season title, will have four top seeds and six top-two seeds at the 2024 NCAA Championships in Kansas City, Mo. Penn State will take all 10 national qualifiers at the three-day event, which runs Thursday through Saturday, March 21-23, in Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center.
This mark’s the 11th time in head coach Cael Sanderson‘s tenure at Penn State that the Lions have qualified nine or more wrestlers for the tournament and the third time Penn State will take 10. Penn State’s four top-seeded wrestlers are Braeden Davis at 125, Levi Haines at 157, Aaron Brooks at 197 and Greg Kerkvliet at 285. All 10 Penn State wrestlers are seeded in the top ten.
True freshman Braeden Davis is the No. seed at 125 and will face the winner of No. 32 Mike Joyce of Brown and Tristan Lujan of Michigan State in the first round. Davis won the 2024 Big Ten title at 125 this past weekend against four opponents with a combined 23 years of collegiate experience. He is 20-2 overall and 9-2 vs. the NCAA field this year.
Sophomore Aaron Nagao is the No. 10 seed at 133 and will meet No. 23 Marlon Yarbrough of Virginia in the opening round. Nagao, an All-American in 2023, took third at Big Tens on Sunday. He is 14-5 overall and 4-5 vs. the field this season.
Senior Beau Bartlett is the No. 2 seed at 141 and will take on No. 31 Kai Owen of Columbia in his first match. Bartlett, an All-American in 2023, was Big Ten runner-up this past weekend. He is 19-1 overall and 12-1 vs. the field this year.
True freshman Tyler Kasak is the No. 7 seed at 149 and will meet No. 26 Jaden Abas of Stanford in the opening round. Kasak placed third at his first Big Ten tourney last weekend. He is 17-4 overall and 7-3 vs. the field this year.
Sophomore Levi Haines is the No. 1 seed at 157 and will battle the winner of No. 32 Isaac Wilcox of Ohio State and No. 33 Nick Stampolous of Buffalo in his first match-up. Haines, NCAA runner-up and All-American a year ago, won his second straight Big Ten title on Sunday. He is 18-0 overall and 10-0 vs. the field this season.
Redshirt freshman Mitchell Mesenbrink is the No. 2 seed at 165 and will face No. 31 Maxx Mayfield of Northwestern in the opening round. Mesenbrink won the Big Ten title as a freshman this past Sunday in Maryland. He is 22-0 overall and 10-0 vs. the field this year.
Senior Carter Starocci is the No. 9 seed at 174 and will take on No. 24 Andrew Sparks of Minnesota in the first round. Starocci, three time NCAA Champion and All-American, took two precautionary injury defaults at Big Tens last weekend. Because he took two precautionary injury defaults, he is 12-2 overall and 3-2 vs. the field this year.
Graduate Bernie Truax is the No. 6 seed at 184 and will meet No. 27 Cameron Pine of Clarion in the opening round. Truax, a three-time All-American, earned Big Ten runner-up laurels on Sunday in Maryland. He is 14-4 overall and 5-4 vs. the field this season.
Senior+ Aaron Brooks is the No. 1 seed at 197 and will face the winner of No. 32 John Crawford of Frank and Marshall and No. 33 Evan Bates of Northwestern in the first round. Brooks, three-time NCAA Champion and four-time All-American, won his fourth Big Ten title last weekend. He is 17-0 overall and 9-0 vs. the field this year.
Senior Greg Kerkvliet is the No. 1 seed at 285 and will take on the winner of No. 32 Nick Willham of Indiana and No. 33 Jordan Greer of Ohio in Penn State’s final first round bout. Kerkvliet, a three-time All-American, won the Big Ten Championship on Sunday at Maryland. He is 15-0 overall and 10-0 vs. the field this season.
Penn State has won ten of the last 12 NCAA Championships (all since Sanderson’s arrival at Penn State, he is in his 15th season). The Nittany Lions have won 11 NCAA crowns overall, owning a championship from 1953. Penn State won four-straight team titles in 2011, ’12, ’13 and ’14 and then again in 2016, ’17, ’18 and ’19. Sanderson’s crew have won the last two (’22 in Detroit and ’23 in Tulsa).
The 2024 NCAA Championships are set for Thursday through Saturday, March 21-23, in Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center. Thursday’s action begins with session 1 at 12 p.m. and session 2 at 7 p.m. Friday features session 3 at 12 p.m. and session 4 at 8 p.m. The tournament concludes on Sunday with session 5 at 11 a.m. and session 6’s Championship Finals at 7 p.m. All times are Eastern, and the tournament will be telecast in its entirety on ESPN/2/U.
The 2023-24 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by the Family Clothesline. Penn State Fans are encouraged to follow Penn State wrestling via X/twitter at @pennstateWREST, on Penn State Wrestling’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatewrestling and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/pennstatewrest. This is PENN STATE. WRESTLING lives here.
