The Huge Ten Convention kicks off its twin meet season with an enormous twin. Like actually massive. 

We have the defending champions and primary ranked Penn State Nittany Lions on the highway in opposition to the #8 ranked Wisconsin Badgers. To me, that could be very massive. Brobdingnagian even. 

We might be watching and partying it up within the FloWrestling studio and we do hope you be part of us. You’ll be able to watch the precise wrestling when you subscribe to a cable bundle that carries the Huge Ten Community, which is able to broadcast the twin at 9:00 PM ET.

Projected Lineups

125: Gary Steen, Penn State vs #5 Eric Barnett, Wisconsin

133: #1 Roman Bravo-Younger, Penn State vs HM Taylor LaMont, Wisconsin

141: #4 Beau Bartlett, Penn State vs #18 Joseph Zargo, Wisconsin

149: #13 Shayne Van Ness, Penn State vs #2 Austin Gomez, Wisconsin

157: HM Terrell Barraclough or Levi Haines, Penn State vs #19 Garrett Mannequin, Wisconsin

165: #18 Alex Facundo, Penn State vs #4 Dean Hamiti, Wisconsin

174: #1 Carter Starocci, Penn State vs Josh Otto, Wisconsin

184: #1 Aaron Brooks, Penn State vs Tyler Dow, Wisconsin

197: #2 Max Dean, Penn State vs #17 Braxton Amos, Wisconsin

285: #1 Greg Kerkvliet, Penn State vs #10 Trent Hillger, Wisconsin

149 and 165 Are The Marquee Matchups

The must-see bouts on the 10-match slate are between Penn State freshmen and Wisconsin All-People at 149 and 165. 

PSU’s Shayne Van Ness adopted up an injury-shortened redshirt marketing campaign with a 9-1 begin to his first yr within the varsity lineup. His solely loss this season got here within the finals of the collegiate duals in opposition to Iowa State’s Paniro Johnson, one other tremendous frosh within the midst of a breakout season. 

Van Ness’s teammate just a few weight lessons up is Alex Facundo, who additionally has however one loss on the season, which he additionally obtained by the hands of a Cyclone a few weeks in the past on the Collegiate Duals. ISU’s 2021 nationwide champ David Carr beat Facundo 4-2 handy the Michigan native his sole lack of the 2022-23 season. 

On the Badger aspect of the ledger at 149 is Austin Gomez, who completed fourth on the NCAA’s final season. Gomez additionally has a loss this yr to Paniro Johnson however he is acquired a few huge wins as nicely. The Illinois native bested Ohio State’s Sammy Sasso on the NWCA All-Star Traditional and defeated three-time NCAA champ Yianni Diakomihalis in a November twin. 

At 165, anticipate the Badgers to expire DJ Hamiti, an electrical true sophomore who positioned sixth on the NCAAs final March. Hamiti’s solely losses on the season are to 2022 157-pound runner-up Quincy Monday and 2021 157-pound champ David Carr. 

Each Van Ness and Facundo are ranked just a few rungs under their opponents, however they’ve additionally had fewer alternatives to earn larger rankings of their younger collegiate careers. The stakes are excessive for the Nittany Lions to make up floor and conversely for the Badgers to defend their turf. 

Penn State Can Boast Of 4 Quantity Ones + A Quantity Two

Not many groups within the NCAA have a primary ranked wrestler, not to mention many primary ranked wrestlers. Penn State is such a workforce with many, as defending nationwide champs Roman Bravo-Younger, Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks be part of two-time All-American Greg Kerkvliet on the high of the nationwide rankings. 

Oh and Penn State can even boast of #2 Max Dean at 197, who additionally occurs to be a defending nationwide champ.

RBY, Starocci and Brooks will all be very heavy favorites over their opponents, none of whom are at the moment within the high 24. 

Dean and Kerkvliet have taller orders, nonetheless, with Braxton Amos and Trent Hillger as their respective projected opponents. 

Dean already has two losses on the season, and Amos has been coming into kind as of late as evidenced by a wonderful Midlands efficiency the place he completed as a runner-up, shedding to Zac Braunagel in tiebreakers within the finals. Hillger is, like Kerkvliet, a two-time All-American.

Will Levi Haines Have His Redshirt Torn Off In Madison?

We can’t know till we see who takes the mat, however the truth that Haines is listed as a possible starter actually heightens the hypothesis. 

Barraclough is a really strong possibility for Penn State, who is probably not ranked for the time being, however can maintain his personal in opposition to extremely ranked contenders, as he did in a 6-3 loss to Lehigh’s #7 Josh Humphreys in December. 

Haines additionally has the head-to-head win over Barraclough from the Black Knight Invite in November, and although he is no lock for the rostrum at this level within the season, there may be possible extra upside potential for the true freshman. 

The query is what does head coach Cael Sanderson need to discover out on this twin? Wisconsin’s Garrett Mannequin is a nationally ranked 2022 NCAA qualifier, which might be a great check for both the veteran or freshman Penn State possibility. 

Since it’s now not the primary semester, as soon as Haines wrestles, he now not has the power to defer eligibility, so I think we’ll see Barraclough on the market, however maybe coach Sanderson has seen sufficient and is able to pull the set off on Haines. We’ll discover out his plan collectively on Friday night time!

Can Wisconsin Pull Off The Upset?

It should be robust, particularly if Penn State sends out all their starters. 

The more than likely outcomes at 125, 133, 174 & 184 is one win for Wisconsin and three for Penn State. That leaves six matches the place the Badgers will want 5 wins or 4 wins and bonus factors. That makes the 149 and 165 bouts must-wins, in addition to the 157 bout, assuming nothing surprising occurs. 

Then even when these three toss-ups (or near-toss-ups) all go Wisconsin’s manner, you continue to want a reasonably sizable upset at both 141, 197 or 285 simply to interrupt even on match wins after which hope you win the bonus battle or maintain tiebreakers. 

So if the twin begins at 125, the result could also be all however determined by the halfway level. Or loopy issues may occur. It has been a loopy yr to this point, so maybe we must always anticipate the surprising!