Penn State will send nine wrestlers, including four top-three seeds, to the NCAA Championships on March 18-20, in St. Louis. Five freshmen and a sophomore are among the qualifiers.
Two-time All-American and Big Ten champion Roman Bravo-Young (9-0) at 133 pounds and senior Nick Lee at 141 will be No. 2 seeds. Bravo-Young, a junior, will meet No. 31 Sean Carter of Appalachian State in the opening round. A three-time All-American and a Big Ten runner-up this season, Lee (8-1) will wrestle against No. 31 Julian Flores of Drexel.
Penn State’s No. 3 seeds are Big Ten Freshman of the Year Carter Starocci (9-2) of Erie at 174 and sophomore Aaron Brooks (9-0) at 184. Starocci will meet No. 30 Victor Marcelli of Virginia. Brooks, an All-American and two-time Big Ten champion, will confront the winner of the No. 33/32 pigtail bout between Joe Accoustie of Sacred Heart and Jhaquan Anderson of George Washington.
Junior Brady Berge (8-2) will be the No. 12 seed at 157 and will wrestle No. 21 Andrew Cerniglia of Navy. Freshman Robert Howard (5-4) will be the No. 23 seed at 125 and will meet No. 10 Malik Heinselman of Ohio State in the first round.
Freshman Greg Kerkvliet (6-2) is the No. 9 seed at 285. He faces No. 24 Michael McAleavey of The Citadel. Kerkvliet’s classmate, Michael Beard (9-6), is the No. 15 seed at 197. He will meet No. 18 Jacob Koser of Navy. Another freshman, Joe Lee (6-5), is the No. 23 seed at 165 and is scheduled to wrestle No. 10 Travis Wittlake of Oklahoma State.
Penn State has won eight of the past nine and four consecutive contested NCAA Championships under coach Cael Sanderson, plus another in 1953. The Nittany Lions also won four in a row from 2011-14.
