The 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Tournament is scheduled for this weekend in State College, Pennsylvania. This past Monday, the Big Ten released a laugher of a data set, rolled out as “pre-seeds.” As BSDWrestle’s JiC put it to us afterward
:The B1G threw us a twist this year and parted with the old “coaches vote” system in favor of a “Wrestlestat” based algorithm. As you would expect, it’s not as transparent as we’d like. Even Cael admitted that the coaches “haven’t seen the scoring yet.” However, as the title
implies, these pre-seeds aren’t set in stone. The coaches will meet on Friday and may challenge a seed position as long as their wrestler is with 15 points on the 100 point scale.
While the algorithm itself was shared publicly, the full data set showing the numbers of points earned by each wrestler in the simulated head-to-head battles vs each other, circling through the field, never was. Its output provided unique results, such as undefeated Levi Haines being pre-seeded #2, behind Christopher Minto, who is 6-2 in conference duals and who lost to Levi 8-6 in the dual.
That and other snafus have apparently been addressed by the coaches, though we’ll have to look long and hard to get any fly-on-the-wall takery from what was sure to have been an entertaining set of meetings. Unless maybe Nebraska coach Mark Manning has some remaining grievances that he’d like to air publicly. Can you imagine if he secretly filmed the meetings and released it as a leak like the poor wrestling students at Cal Baptist did last week? Man, count me IN for that chaos!
First, how to watch and current schedule.
Schedule & How to Watch
The number one priority for this tournament is to remain healthy while qualifying all 10 grapplers for Nationals.
It would also be fun to set some records.
For each weight, we look at what it will take for the Penn State wrestler to meet the requirements for the automatic qualification (AQ).
Let’s get after it!
125 Luke Lilledahl
- AQ allocation spots: 9 (finish Top-9, you qualify for Nationals)
Lightning Luke’s been wrestling better and better every time out. Can Bouzakis make it to the finals for a rematch on Sunday?
133 Marcus Blaze
- AQ allocation spots: 8
Marcus stays at the 1 seed due to strength of schedule over defending champ Byrd. Sorry Byrd. We’ve already seen Blaze/Davino once this year, Byrd mixes it up in the semis with Davino. Who do we see on Sunday? Also of note, can Ayala continue to round into form and be a serious contender.
141 Braeden Davis
- AQ allocation spots: 7
It’s Jesse’s World at 141, the most dominant wrestler outside of Happy Valley shouldn’t be challenged in this field. The seeding corrections move Davis’ date with Hardy to the semi’s instead of the quarters though Vombaur is no gimme.
149 Shayne Van Ness
- AQ allocation spots: 9
Outside of Van Ness, this may be the weakest weight in the B1G. Your guess is a good as mine as to who comes out of the bottom side. Zargo can get on hot. Maybe he’s the one.
157 Tyler Kasak
- AQ allocation spots: 8
Defending Champ Andrell Taylor is at the top. On the bottom side, there’s been a few questions about PJ’s conditioning, If he has it right he’ll be the guy to beat. Cannon hasn’t wrestled in over a month, rumored to have had his knee scoped. I’m looking to see how he responds.
165 Mitchell Mesenbrink
- AQ allocation spots: 9
Get your popcorn, Mitchell will put on a show. The question is- who puts up more bonus this weekend, Mitch or Barr? The bottom side sets up a rematch between Joey Blaze and Caliendo.
174 Levi Haines
- AQ allocation spots: 10
Shane Sparks has taken to comparing Patrick Kennedy to an old reliable Chevy Truck. Well, Levi’s more like a tank in this matchup. See up top when I said Luke is wrestling better than ever. So’s Levi. Minto and Kennedy in the bottom semi-final may be the most intriguing match in this bracket.
184 Rocco Welsh
- AQ allocation spots: 8
Rocco has an opportunity to open up in the quarters with our old friend Angello Ferrari. Seems “Jello” has been nursing a knee injury since he took that loss to Rocco in the dual back in January. We’d like to see Rocco continue to open up his offense and maybe see Ferrari stand up and act like a man. Ferrari has no wiggle room here, he won’t be in contention for an AQ if he fails to make the top 8. That’d be a shame.
Max McEnelly should tear up the bottom half to give us a great final.
197 Josh Barr
- AQ allocation spots: 10
I was really surprised to see the B1G get 10 AQ’s here. Like 149, outside of Barr, the rest of the field is middling as you can see by the Coaches Ranking. Mitch or Barr for the most bonus, who ya’ got?
285 Cole Mirasola
- AQ allocation spots: 9
Low key (as my kids say) this may be the most intriguing bracket of the weekend. Any of the top 4 winning would not surprise me and some guys like Hopke and Amos could pull off an upset. For the good guys, Cole has made incredible progress with the big win over Feldman and being right there with Ferrari and Ghadiali. Nobody’s gonna want to leave early.
The Takery
With 7 number ones and a 2 seed we’re looking at a boat load of byes in the first round this morning. Braeden “Scooter” Davis will be first up for your Nittany Lions then Mirasola will have an opening round match as well. That’s about the only downside that I can see. There’s little, no, doubt about the team trophy, and , tOSU is a prohibitive favorite for second. I’ll take Nebraska third and that leaves the Hawkeyes looking to stave off Michigan and Illinois.
Put your prediction on the number of individual champs for PSU in the comments below.
Keep in mind that this is the preliminary, a qualifier, of course for NCAA’s in 2 weeks. The upside is that all 10 wrestlers have the credentials for an at-large bid if necessary, though Davis is cutting it close. This weekend will be about dominating the other guy and earning the best seed possible for Nationals.
Sit back and enjoy the show.
