Penn State wrestling earns 2 No. 1 seeds for NCAA Championships, 3 others in top 3
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2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships
Penn State has nine wrestlers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the NCAA Championships. Read all of our coverage as the team chases its 10th NCAA title under coach Cael Sanderson.
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The 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships brackets were set on Wednesday night.
Penn State’s Roman Bravo-Young (133 pounds) and Carter Starocci (174) claimed top seeds at their weight classes. In all, the Nittany Lions had a total of five wrestlers in the top three of their weight class with Levi Haines (No. 2, 157), Aaron Brooks (No. 3, 184) and Greg Kerkvliet (No. 3, 285) joining the top seeds.
Penn State has a total of nine wrestlers in the NCAA Championships, which take place March 16-18 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There will also be three former Centre County wrestlers hitting the mats in Tulsa.
The seeds for the remaining Nittany Lions are: Beau Bartlett (No. 6, 141), Shayne Van Ness (No. 13, 149), Alex Facundo (No. 13, 165) and Max Dean (No. 9, 197).
Bravo-Young gets the winner of American’s Jack Maida and North Dakota State’s McGwire Midkiff, which is a matchup of the No. 32 and No. 33 seeds. Starocci has the winner of Appalachian State’s Will Miller and Clarion’s John Worthing, another No. 32 versus No. 33.
Haines enters his first NCAA Championships as a Big Ten champion. He faces Lock Haven’s Ashton Eyler.
Brooks takes on Chattanooga’s Matthew Waddell. Kerkvliet will look to bounce back after suffering a loss in the Big Ten finals last weekend. He gets Purdue’s Hayden Copass.
Bartlett takes on Campbell’s Shannon Hanna. Dean faces Campbell’s Levi Hopkins, with a possible Big Ten finals rematch with Nebraska’s Silas Allred in the second round.
Van Ness takes on Central Michigan’s Johnny Lovett, who he pinned in the Collegiate Duals near the end of December. Facundo gets Pittsburgh’s Holden Heller.
The three former Centre County wrestlers competing are Clarion’s Seth Koleno, Lock Haven’s Tyler Stoltzfus and Penn’s Cole Urbas.
Koleno, who is a Bald Eagle Area grad and was a PIAA finalist, won the Mid-American Conference Championship last weekend at 141 pounds. He is the No. 30 seed and faces Pittsburgh’s Cole Matthews, who is the No. 3 seed.
Stoltzfus, who competed for Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy and won a PIAA title, finished third in the MAC at 174 pounds. He is the No. 31 seed and faces Nebraska’s Mikey Labriola, who is the No. 2 seed.
Urbas, who competed for State College and was a three-time PIAA medalist, finishing no lower than fourth, earned an at-large bid. He is the No. 33 seed and faces North Carolina’s Max Shaw, who is the No. 32 seed. He wins that and he’ll get the No. 1 seed in Pittsburgh’s Nino Bonaccorsi.
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 9:27 PM.
