Preview: 2018 Big Ten Wrestling Tournament

Penn State owns six of the past seven NCAA Tournament championships, but Ohio State holds two of the past three Big Ten titles. While the former is clearly the class of the sport, the Buckeyes have done everything in their power to close the gap, building a formidable rivalry with the Nittany Lions in the process.

When the Big Ten Tournament gets underway at 10 a.m. Saturday, Tom Ryan's team is markedly improved from last season's championship squad. Consider the two lineups and their tournament seeding:

The offseason additions of McKenna and Campbell allowed Ryan to move Tomasello and Pletcher down a class, and the return of Ke-Shawn Hayes from injury allowed Micah Jordan to move up to 157, putting each wrestler in a better position to make the podium.

Four Buckeyes - Tomasello, Bo Jordan, Moore and Snyder - won Big Ten titles a year ago. Rodriguez, Ryan and Burcher only one a single match between the three of them, on the other hand.

While the Buckeyes won their second title in three years - and their first outright title since 1951 - the team race with Penn State will be much tighter this year. Penn State handled the Buckeyes in a hard-fought dual, but without returning national champion Jason Nolf, who is allegedly wrestling Saturday to defend his Big Ten title; even if he doesn't, his four NCAA-champion teammates are bonus-point machines, so the Buckeyes need to advance as many wrestlers as possible to defend their title.

The tournament's first three sessions will stream via BTN Plus, with the championship round Sunday at 3 p.m. airing live on the Big Ten Network.

BIG TEN BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Saturday (March 3)
Session I (10 a.m.) - BTN Plus
Session II (6 p.m.) - BTN Plus

Sunday (March 4)
Session III (noon) - BTN Plus
Session IV (3 p.m.) - @BigTenNetwork

— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) February 26, 2018

Complete, printable brackets are available here.

125 Pounds - No. 3 Nathan Tomasello

Last season, the Buckeyes fielded eighth-seeded Jose Rodriguez, who lost in the second round to Iowa's Thomas Gilman. Rodriguez is no longer on the team, and Nathan Tomasello moved back down from 133 to make a run at his second NCAA title and his fourth Big Ten championship.

As a reminder, Tomasello is one helluva wrestler.

Tomasello opened the season as the top-ranked wrestler in the country, and maintained that ranking throughout a 12-week injury hiatus. His lone loss of the season, to Iowa freshman phenom Spencer Lee, knocked him down to No. 4 in the country, and the three-seed in the B1G tourney.

This is one of several classes that are simply loaded with nationally-ranked talent, including top seed Nick Suriano of Rutgers and second-seeded Lee. Tomasello opens his tournament versus No. 14 Carson Kuhn of Penn State, who gave NaTo all he could handle for one period in Happy Valley, but who ultimately fell to the three-time Big Ten champ in a 21-12 Major Decision.

Tomasello would likely then face No. 6 Luke Welch of Purdue, who he beat in and 18-5 Major earlier this season, setting up a semifinal rematch with Lee. Suriano will almost certainly be the finalist from the top-half of the bracket, as he will likely handle Minnesota's Ethan Lizak in the semis.

133 pounds - No. 2 Luke Pletcher

Tomasello won his third Big Ten title wrestling at 133 last season, while Pletcher finished fourth at 141. With the stocky huntsman down at 133, he has excelled, dropping only a single match this season, though keeping Buckeye backers on the edge of their seats through a series of low-scoring decisions he almost always managed to win.

Pletcher has the most manageable path to a Big Ten title of anyone on the roster. He should cruise to the semifinals, where he will most likely face Minnesota's Mitch McKee, the three-seed.

A win there sets up the rematch with Stevan Micic of Michigan, the only wrestler to blemish Pletcher's record this season. Pletcher is the most even-keel wrestler in The Room at Ohio State, and while Micic has the inside track on a title, it doesn't take much imagination to see Pletcher make his second trip to Michigan a much happier memory than the first.

141 pounds - No. 1 Joey McKenna

Pletcher had a solid tournament for the Buckeyes at 141 in 2017, falling in the semifinals to Rutgers standout and eventual Big Ten champion Anthony Ashnault. This season, the Buckeyes field the top seed in the tournament in Joey McKenna.

Wrestling analysts are hesitant to give the two-time Pac-12 champion his due, in some measure because he only faced four ranked wrestlers all season, and lost to one of them. His final win of the regular season, and upset of No. 2 Kevin Jack at N.C. State, propelled him into the top seed of his first Big Ten tournament.

His path to victory is relatively straightforward: make it to the finals, and face (most likely) Penn State's Nick Lee or Minnesota's Tommy Thorn. McKenna controlled his match against Lee in Happy Valley, earning what was then an upset of the No. 6 wrestler in the country; he did not handle his business at home versus Thorn, however, taking his second loss to his nemesis in as many outings.

McKenna's opponents in the top-half of the bracket are relatively undistinguished compared to the grapplers in the bottom-half, so the Buckeyes are counting on plenty of advancement points - and hopefully some bonus - from their 141-pound contender.

149 pounds - No. 5 Ke-Shawn Hayes

Zain Retherford is going to win another Big Ten title. The Penn State storm trooper is on a fast train to another NCAA title and Hodge Trophy, too.

Last season he won the Big Ten tournament with a tech fall of Micah Jordan after pinning wrestlers from Purdue, Michigan State and Maryland en route to the finals. Ke-Shawn Hayes has the bad luck of being in Retherford's half of the bracket.

Hayes will open versus Eric Barone of Illinois, who holds a losing record on the season. Hayes, by comparison, is among the Top 10 in the country for number of wins by tech fall.

His second match should be a rematch with Nebraska's Colton McCrystal, who was a medical forfeit in their match at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. After that, it's a semifinal date with Retherford.

To Hayes' credit, he held his own for a period against the best pinner in the game during their dual match a month ago, managing to score a pair of takedowns in the first period. Those points seemed merely to piss Retherford off, and he won via tech fall.

Retherford will almost certainly face off against Iowa's Brandon Sorensen in the final match, the sixth time the two have met in their careers, and the sixth time Sorensen will come out on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

157 pounds - No. 4 Micah Jordan

Jordan was Retherford's final match in last season's tournament. He has acquitted himself well after moving up to 157, dropping only four matches this season - two of them to Michigan's Alec Pantaleo.

He could get another crack at Pantaleo if Penn State's Jason Nolf isn't healthy - there has been some discussion that he could simply take the mat in his opening match and medically forfeit, preserving his bid to the NCAA Tournament without risk of aggravating an injury sustained in a contentious match at Rutgers earlier in the season.

If Nolf wrestles, specifically if he wrestles like a healthy Jason Nolf, he's got a pretty straightforward path to the finals.

Jordan, in the top-half of the bracket, has a first-round bye ahead of a match versus Nebraska's Tyler Berger, and then a rematch with Iowa's Michael Kemerer. Jordan won their battle in Columbus this season in an 8-4 decision, but the result could easily go the other way in East Lansing.

If Nolf is out and Jordan handles his business, they likely meet for the first time in the Big Ten final; if Nolf is out, it's a third match of the season versus Pantaleo.

165 pounds - No. 9 Te'Shan Campbell

Tom Ryan recruited Campbell as an offseason transfer because he needed more firepower in the middle of his lineup. The reigning ACC champ has put together one of the more frustrating seasons for Buckeye fans, as he raced out to a 14-2 record with 12 bonus-point victories, followed by a string of six-consecutive losses, including a disqualification for stalling.

Campbell appeared to get back on track in his final regular season match, a rematch from last season's ACC championship versus N.C. State's Brian Hamann. Campbell's path to his first Big Ten title is, to put it mildly, a tough row to hoe.

He'll open the tournament with a third meeting versus Isaiah White of Nebraska. The two split a pair of matches at the Cliff Keen, with Campbell winning the quarterfinal match in a 3-1 decision, but dropping the third-place match in a 4-1 decision.

Presuming he wins the rubber match with White, he then faces defending Big Ten champ and two-time NCAA champion Isaiah Martinez, a match that does not look overly favorable for Campbell.

The bottom half of this bracket is loaded with firepower, including Iowa's Alex "The Bull" Marinelli, Penn State's Vincenzo Joseph, and last season's Big Ten finalist Logan Massa of Michigan. Massa and Marinelli will wrestle in the second round, and the winner will face Joseph in the semis for the opportunity to square up against IMar.

174 pounds - Bo Jordan

Jordan is the defending Big Ten champ at 174, upending Penn State's Mark Hall in a 6-4 sudden victory decision. The two finalists swapped seeds this season, with Hall getting the top spot and Jordan the two-seed.

BoJo opens against a sub-.500 Josh Ugalde from Maryland, and should then see Iowa's Joey Gunther ahead of a likely rematch with Michigan's Myles Amine, who upset Jordan in a 3-2 decision in Ann Arbor a few weeks ago. Jordan will need to avenge that loss to have the opportunity to renew his rivalry with Hall, the other Big Ten wrestler to defeat Jordan this season.

Hall and Jordan have a storied rivalry; Jordan won last season's Big Ten final, but Hall returned the favor two weeks later to win his first NCAA title. Hall had his way with Jordan in the third period a month ago during the dual meet in Happy Valley, so a rematch in the finals gives Jordan a chance to even the score ahead of the NCAA tournament in Cleveland.

184 pounds - No. 2 Myles Martin

Martin came up short in last season's Big Ten final, dropping a 12-2 major decision to Iowa's Sammy Brooks. With Brooks gone, the class is all about Martin and Penn State's Bo Nickal, another defending NCAA champion for the Nittany Lions.

Nickal owns the series versus Martin (5-2 in favor of Nickal), but Martin's best matches against Nickal have come in tournaments, including Martin's NCAA championship and last season's Big Ten final.

Martin opens his tournament versus Purdue freshman Max Lyon, and should face Wisconsin's Ricky Robertson in the second round. Then it will be a second match versus Michigan's Domenic Abounader in the semifinals; Martin won the 5-3 decision in Ann Arbor in February.

Nickal comes into the tournament 23-0, and faces a relatively easy path to a rematch with Martin, who would very much like to win a second Big Ten title.

197 pounds - No. 1 Kollin Moore

Kollin Moore won his first Big Ten title a year ago by defeating Minnesota bruiser Brett Pfarr. With Pfarr gone, 197 appeared to be Moore's class to lose. In a puzzling turn of events, however, Moore dropped two of his final three matches in the regular season.

He should have a straightforward run to the Big Ten finals, with an opening-round bye and second-round match against Nebraska's Eric Schultz. He defeated Schultz in a 3-2 decision at the Cliff Keen tournament.

His semifinal opponent will be either Kevin Beazley of Michigan or Hunter Ritter of Wisconsin, both men Moore defeated by major decision this season. A win there sets up a finals match versus either Penn State's Shakur Rasheed or Iowa's Cash Wilcke.

Moore defeated Wilcke in the dual this season, but didn't face Rasheed in the Penn State dual, losing instead to Anthony Cassar in a match where Moore looked like anything but a returning All American.

The storyline in this class is which Kollin Moore made the trip to East Lansing - the one who opened the season 18-0 with 11 bonus point victories... or the one who dropped two of his final three matches of the regular season.

Heavyweight - No. 2 Kyle Snyder

It's weird to see anything but "No. 1" in front of Kyle Snyder's name. The reigning, defending Olympic, Big Ten, NCAA and World champion is acknowledged as the best pound-for-pound wrestler on the planet.

And yet he enters the Big Ten tournament as the No. 2 seed, having lost his first collegiate match in nearly three years to Michigan's Adam Coon in Ann Arbor in mid-February.

The loss was shocking because it was so rare, but sets up a fairly incredible storyline for the postseason.

Coon is one helluva wrestler, let's get that right up front. He has competed and won titles at the international level in freestyle and Greco-Roman, and moves incredibly well for a man of his stature.

Much is made, and rightfully so, about the size difference between Snyder and Coon. It's the epitome of the David and Goliath story: Coon is 6-foot, 6-inches tall and weighs every ounce of the 285 pounds allowed in the class. Snyder, meanwhile, is on the other side of 6-feet tall, and wrestles internationally at 213 pounds.

But Snyder can't focus on the Captain America vs. The Incredible Hulk storyline just yet. After he tech falls opponents from Indiana and Purdue in the first two rounds, he'll face Penn State's Nick Nevills, an excellent wrestler in his own right.

Nevills scored his points against Snyder in their meeting in Happy Valley, a 15-10 decision. Nevills also has a size advantage on Snyder, though not quite the advantage Coon holds, and is likewise a solid wrestler.

The outcome of that match was never in doubt, but Snyder's need to chase points for a team victory led him to pursue some moves he'd normally never attempt; most memorably a lateral-drop that ended with a takedown for Nevills rather than points for Snyder. Nevills, having seen Coon eke out the victory over Captain America, undoubtedly sees a path to his own victory, so it will behoove Snyder to take things one match at a time.

The Team Race

This is a tough one to call. Ohio State won four individual titles from six finalists last season, and beat Penn State by 9.5 points. Penn State turned around at the NCAA tournament and won the title by three times the margin.

Tom Ryan will expect more advancement points from the first half of his lineup than he got last season, but Penn State's returning champions score bonus points by the bushel basket.

Campbell's draw is the most problematic in terms of advancement points, but if he can get past White and make a run in the wrestlebacks, that could help even things out a bit. I'm fairly comfortable seeing the Buckeyes win four individual titles again (125, 133, 141 and HWT), and likewise thing Penn State has a comfortable four titles to their benefit (149, 157, 174 and 184, assuming Jason Nolf wrestles healthy).

If Moore can take care of business at 197, Campbell wrestles well in the consolation bracket and the team scores bonus points in the early going, it will be a competitive race.

This team is built to peak in March, and March is now.