University of Minnesota Athletics
Pre-Seeds Announced for B1G Championships
3/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
The Big Ten Conference today announced preliminary seeds for the 2015 Big Ten Championships, which will be held at St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio this weekend, March 7 and 8. The Gophers will have eight seeded competitors in the tournament, including a top seed and a pair of wrestlers seeded second.
Chris Dardanes, currently the nation's No. 1-ranked wrestler at 133, will be the conference's top seed at his weight. Dardanes is 20-0 this season, the longest undefeated run to begin a season in his career, and has defeated a team-high nine ranked wrestlers along the way. Dardanes is 5-0 this season against those in this weekend's 133 field.
Two Gophers will be seeded second at their weight this weekend. At 141, Nick Dardanes will look to avenge one of his two losses this season if he has the opportunity to wrestle top-seeded Logan Stieber of Ohio State. Dardanes was 6-0 against the rest of this weekend's field, including the four wrestlers seeded directly below him. At 157, Dylan Ness also will be a second seed. Ness is 26-1 this season and posted a perfect 7-0 record in Big Ten dual competition. Outside of conference action, Ness also defeated third-seeded James Green of Nebraska in the finals of the Cliff Keen Invitational in early December.
Other seeded Gophers include: Scott Schiller (third seed at 197), Logan Storley (fourth seed at 174), Brett Pfarr (fourth seed at 184), Michael Kroells (sixth seed at 285) and Nick Wanzek (eighth seed at 165).
To view a full listing of the tournament's preliminary seeds, check out today's release from the Big Ten Conference. The number of seeds at a particular weight classes reflects the NCAA qualification allocations announced last week. For more information on those allocations and how many automatic qualifiers the Big Ten will have at each weight, check out NCAA.com.
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