Hoosiers welcome Big Ten foes for tournament

Some of the best college wrestlers in the country will arrive in Bloomington this weekend. The No. 17 Hoosiers host the Big Ten Wrestling Championships at Assembly Hall on Saturday and Sunday in a tournament that will feature five wrestlers who are ranked No. 1 in their respective weight class.\n"As far as the travel and the crowd and things like that, it's always nice to be home," IU coach Duane Goldman said.\nEach team in the Big Ten will be represented by one wrestler in each of the 10 weight classes and of the 110 wrestlers, 72 will advance to the NCAA championships. The Big Ten will send more wrestlers to the NCAA tournament March 16-18 in Oklahoma City than any other conference. The top seven finishers in each weight class will advance, and the coaches will vote for two of the eighth-place finishers to join them as well.\nEven with the tough competition they will face, the Hoosiers are optimistic about their chances to place well.\n"I'm expecting a good performance from everybody," senior Brady Richardson said. "This is what we train for. It's the peak for this weekend and two weeks from now (at NCAAs). Individually, I expect everyone to do their absolute best."\nRichardson added that the team has high potential that should help them earn a high team finish even in such a great conference.\n"No way we can do worse than last year, which was top five," Richardson said. "But I'm hoping for top three. That's what I want."\nThe pre-seeds for the tournament were released last week, and the brackets will be finalized at a Big Ten coaches meeting Friday. The Big Ten has six wrestlers with pre-seeds in the top eight. Senior Joe Dubuque leads the Hoosiers with a No. 1 seed at the 125-pound weight class.\nA Big Ten title has so far eluded Dubuque, who has won two All-American awards and a national championship.\n"That's one of my goals," Dubuque said about winning a Big Ten championship. "I think I've worked hard enough and I deserve to win it. In the long run, if it doesn't happen, I still have to regroup and get ready for nationals. But obviously it's a stepping stone to accomplishing one of my goals."\nThe 125-pound weight class is one of the toughest in the tournament. It features Dubuque, University of Illinois' Kyle Ott and Michigan State University's Nick Simmons, all top-four finishers in last year's nationals.\nOther Hoosiers who were given top eight pre-seeds were Richardson, who is No. 4 at 197 pounds, freshman Andrae Hernandez, who is No. 6 at 133 pounds, sophomore Brandon Becker, the No. 5 seed at 157 pounds, and sophomores Max Dean and Dave Herman, who have No. 8 pre-seeds at the 165-pound and heavyweight divisions, respectively.\nGoldman said that the Hoosiers' pre-seeds were pretty much what he expected, but they still need to have a good weekend so they can send even more wrestlers to the NCAA championships.\n"I hope to have a good showing," he said. "According to the seeds we're going to need to wrestle really well to get some more guys to nationals. We're going to need to wrestle above ourselves if we hope to have a decent showing at nationals"