Rutgers wrestling is sending seven wrestlers to Philadelphia to compete for a national title for their school and personal weight class. The Scarlet Knights secured five automatic bids in the Big Ten tournament and were awarded two at large bids after the fact.
Below are all the Knights seeds along with their first round matchup:
125: No. 12 Dean Peterson vs No. 21 Antonio Lorenzo (Oklahoma)
133: No. 10 Dylan Shawver vs No. 23 Sean Spidle (Central Michigan)
141: No. 15 Joseph Olivieri vs No. 18 Julian Tagg (South Dakota St.)
149: No. 19 Andrew Clark vs No. 14 Chance Lamer (Cal Poly)
174: No. 30 Jackson Turley vs No. 3 Dean Hamiti (Oklahoma St.)
184: No. 16 Shane Cartagena-Walsh vs No. 17 Gavin Kane (North Carolina)
HWT: No.16 Yaraslau Slavikouski vs No. 17 Jake Andrews (CSU Bakersfield)
Rutgers comes into the tournament as huge underdogs, both in the individual brackets and the team national championship title race. The individual brackets are decided by one on one competition. With each win that a wrestler gets in their own bracket, the school they are representing earns points. Whichever school has the most points by the end of the tournament is crowned the champion. Wrestlers can also earn individual titles for their weight class.
Peterson, Shawver, Clark, Olivieri, and Cartagena-Walsh all earned bids automatic bids at the Big Ten tournament. The Big Ten was given a certain amount of bids for each weight class, meaning that whoever finished high enough in the Big Ten tournament would have a guaranteed invitation to the national tournament. Slavikouski and Turley were given at-large bids later on, meaning that they did not receive an automatic bid and were selected by a committee to fill open spots in the tournament.
Peterson and Shawver have the highest odds out of any Rutgers wrestler to win their weight class with +2000. The Knights’ odds of winning a national championship for their school sit at +100,000.
The current favorite schools to win the tournament are Penn State (-6000), Iowa (+200), Oklahoma State (+220), Northern Iowa (+350), and Virginia Tech (+550).
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