Big names, high-level competition, and elite teams, this is what the Big 10 wrestling championships are all about. Not only are the Big 10 championships very difficult, but they are a stepping stone for the National Championship, the most difficult D1 wrestling tournament.
Schools like Penn State, Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, and Ohio State compete in the Big 10 championships, making for some very tough competition. It is more than likely that a Big 10 wrestler will be a national champion.
Winning this conference makes you well known fast. Names like Jesse Mendez and Dylan Shawver have experienced this. The Big 10 teams are what all young wrestlers dream of joining, teams like Iowa are the pinnacle of D1 wrestling.
This year Penn State won the conference making it the tenth time they have achieved this feat. Penn State ended the conference tournament with 184 team points. Which is far greater than the second highest, Ohio State, which had 148.5 points. Teams earn points through wrestlers winning and advancing through a tournament but also placing in the top eight.
Penn State is a large threat to the competition. They left the Big 10 tournament with seven champions from ten weight classes. Not only that, but everyone that didn’t place first, still qualified for the national championships. The Nittany Lions have been breaking records, dominating teams, and making legendary wrestlers for many years, but it seems that this time it is special.
“Some of my favorite wrestlers that competed are Marcus Blaze, PJ Duke, and Levi Haines. I was rooting for Penn State in this tournament,” freshman Bentlee Hall said. The love for Penn State wrestlers is popular throughout Happy Valley.
There are definitely a lot of competitors in the Big 10 that can avenge their losses in the NCAA championships. Iowa has a couple standout wrestlers such as Drake Ayala, Nasir Bailey, Michael Caliendo, and Ben Kueter. The same could be said for Ohio State. They crowned two champions Jesse Mendez and Ben Davino and they also had five more place winners, putting them in second for the team scoring.
The Big 10 conference is a serious threat to the NCAA championships, and the competition is out of this world.
