3 Burning Questions for Penn State Wrestling at B1G Championships

Burning Question No. 2

Where will some of Penn State’s wrestlers end up seeded by the B1G?

Nothing says white-hot conversation like numbers, right?

Okay. All of the accountants, you can put your hands down now.

But look, for several of the Nittany Lion wrestlers, how the B1G seeds them may make a major difference in the outcome of the tournament.

For now, I think it’s safe to say Roman Bravo-Young and Aaron Brooks will be No. 1 seeds in their respective classes. Nick Lee will be No. 2 and Carter Starocci should most likely be No. 3.

I already stated Brady Berge is making the finals, so his seeding is irrelevant

So this leaves some questions for where Robbie Howard, Joe Lee, and Michael Beard get slotted. All rankings are based on InterMat’s latest rankings.

Let’s start with Joe Lee at 165.

B1G Top 20 Ranked 165
No. 1 Alex Marinelli (Iowa)
No. 8 Danny Braunagel (Illinois)
No. 10 Ethan Smith (Ohio State)
No. 13 Cameron Amine (Michigan)
No. 14 Andrew Sparks (Minnesota)
No. 15 Joe Lee (Penn State)
No. 19 Peyton Robb (Nebraska)

Lee has already lost to both Smith and Amine so logic will tell you he’s not going to be seeded above either of them. Will the B1G put him above Sparks?

The reason this matters is simple. Marinelli is clearly the No. 1 seed and between Braunagel, Smith, and Amine you’ll have your 2-4 seeds. Based on rankings alone this leaves Sparks as the No. 5 seed, and assuming the 2021 B1G tournament is going to continue to follow 1-14 seeds for each weight class, this puts him in an opening round 5/12 match. This also puts him on Marinelli’s side of the bracket.

If Lee is the 6th seed then he would have a 6/11 opening round match and would then get the winner of the 3/14 match. If Lee drops to the No. 7 seed then he would have an opening 7/10 match and the winner would take on the No. 2 seed.

What I’m hoping for is for Joe to be on the lower half of the bracket, win his opening round match, and then have the opportunity to enact some revenge on Ethan Smith and/or Cameron Amine. And hey, the same thing can happen in to the top half of the bracket too. He could win a 5/12 match and then take on the No. 4 seed in the quarter-finals. If Lee can somehow win this match then he’s not going to beat Marinelli.

Sorry, it’s just not happening.

What could Michael Beard’s path look like at 197?

B1G Top 20 Ranked 197
No. 1 Eric Schultz (Nebraska)
No. 2 Myles Amine (Michigan)
No. 3 Jacob Warner (Iowa)
No. 13 Cameron Caffey (Michigan State)
No. 14 Lucas Davison (Northwester)
No. 15 Michael Beard (Penn State)
No. 17 Thomas Penola (Purdue)

Talk about your rankings log jams. The 197 weight class in the B1G is bunched together both at the top and in the middle. Schultz or Amine could be the No. 1 seed and Warner is most likely the No. 3 seed. This leaves seeds 4-7 scattered between Caffey, Davison, Beard, and Penola.

As with Joe Lee, I’m rooting for a No. 6 seed for Beard for two reasons.

First, is this would potentially give him a quarter-final matchup with Jacob Warner. And who doesn’t like to see an Iowa wrestler lose at the hands of a Nittany Lion? I know, I’m being incredibly optimistic here, but it’s my article so therefore I can reject your reality and substitute my own.

Second, in the reality flying around the inside of my head, it keeps Beard away from Amine and Shultz until the semi-finals. Which is important for Penn State if they want to grab some unlikely wins on the weekend.

Now let’s look at Robbie Howard and the difficult 125 group.

B1G Top 20 Ranked 125
No. 1 Spencer Lee (Iowa)
No. 7 Dylan Ragusin (Michigan)
No. 8 Liam Cronin (Nebraska)
No. 9 Malik Heinselman (Ohio State)
No. 12 Eric Barnett (Wisconsin)
No. 13 Patrick McKee (Minnesota)
No. 15 Michael DeAugustino (Northwestern)
No. 16 Rayvon Foley (Michigan State)
No. 17 Devin Schroder (Purdue)

Anyway you slice it, Penn State Wrestling fans would surely love an opening round win for Howard. It’s the next match which could really determine how far Robbie can go, so seeding plays a huge part of this.

I previously predicted Howard would get 3 wins in the upcoming B1G tournament. How he gets these wins and how far he can make it hinges on whether the B1G seeds him 9th or 10th (or possibly 11th). If he’s 9th then it would mean (cue the broken record) he would be in the top half of the bracket, which can also be referred to as “Spencer Lee’s Victims”.

But if he’s the No. 10 seed, it would mean a 7/10 opening match and then a possible match up with Liam Cronin as the No. 2 seed. I’m putting Cronin there because Ragusin wrestled his last two dual matches at 133 so maybe he actually ate the cheeseburger he was looking at a couple of weeks back and 133 is his new home.

Cronin is 7-1 on the season with his lone loss coming against Mr. Perfect Spencer Lee. Lee pinned Cronin 1:21 into the match, and while I didn’t watch it, I’m going to assume it was one of those WWE matches where the opponent was so thoroughly defeated, that all Lee had to do was stand up, put his foot on Cronin’s chest and flex while the referee awarded the fall. That’s probably how it went.

Anyway, Cronin hasn’t been overly dominating in his other victories and maybe Howard can match up well with him?

Now onto our last burning questions before we spontaneously combust.