Indiana wrestling placed 10th at the Big Ten Championships from Saturday to Sunday in University Park, Pennsylvania, finishing with a final score of 40 points, 15 points behind ninth-placed Wisconsin.
The championships featured 10 brackets, one for each weight class, as all 14 Big Ten wrestling teams were represented by one wrestler for each weight. Besides the individual and conference championships, participants also competed for the right to qualify for the NCAA Championships, which will take place March 19-21 in Cleveland.
No. 14 graduate student Jacob Moran represented Indiana in the 125-pound tournament, taking fourth place after dropping the third-place match to Ohio State’s No. 4 redshirt junior Nic Bouzakis. As the No. 4 seed, Moran was the event’s highest ranked Hoosier.
Moran had three takedowns and two near falls in his first-round win and five takedowns and one near fall in his win in the second round. An 11-3 semifinal loss to top-seeded Penn State sophomore Luke Lilledahl, ranked No. 1 nationally at 125 pounds, placed Moran in the consolation bracket. Moran’s top-nine performance made him the first of four Hoosiers to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Indiana did not place in the top 10 of the 133, 141 or 149-pound brackets. After an opening round loss to Iowa’s No. 9 senior Drake Ayala, Indiana redshirt junior Blaine Frazier won his opening match of the 133-pound consolation bracket, before 19-4 loss to Nebraska’s No. 10 junior Jacob Van Dee put Frazier out of contention for an automatic bid.
At 141 pounds, No. 28 redshirt junior Henry Porter was winless on behalf of Indiana in University Park, being outscored 28-1 across two matches, allowing a total of four takedowns and three near falls. First came a 15-0 shutout from Northwestern’s No. 32 freshman Billy Dekraker, followed by a 13-1 major decision loss to Rutgers’ No. 7 graduate student Joseph Olivieri.
With a 0-3 performance, No. 33 redshirt sophomore Joey Buttler failed to win a bout for Indiana in the 149-pound tournament. Buttler suffered an opening-round loss to Nebraska’s No. 16 senior Chance Lamer, a consolation-round, overtime loss to Northwestern redshirt freshman August Hibler and a tournament-ending loss to Purdue redshirt junior Gavin Brown in the ninth-place bracket.
The Hoosiers garnered their second automatic-bid to the NCAA Championships when redshirt sophomore Bryce Lowery earned a sixth-place title in the 157-pound bracket. Lowery lost his opening match but won three straight in the consolation bracket, including a 9-1 dousing of Wisconsin’s No. 17 redshirt senior Luke Mechler. Lowery forfeited his consolation semifinal bout against Illinois’ No. 8 redshirt sophomore Kannon Webster due to injury, ending his day early, and placing him sixth.
After identical 4-1 losses in his first two matches, No. 15 redshirt junior Tyler Lillard was sent to the ninth-place bracket of the 165-pound tournament. There, Lillard rallied for a 13-2 victory over Michigan State redshirt sophomore Jack Conley, by way of three takedowns and a near fall. His momentum was temporary, however, losing in the ninth-place bout to Wisconsin’s No. 31 redshirt junior Cody Goebel by a final score of 5-2.
No. 26 graduate student Derek Gilcher was awarded a 10th place finish in the 174-pound bracket, good enough to qualify for the NCAA Championships. After an injury in a consolation match flung Gilcher to the 11th place bracket, an 11-7 triumph over Northwestern’s No. 31 redshirt freshman Eddie Enright propelled Gilcher to the Hoosiers’ third automatic bid.
Some weight classes receive nine or 10 automatic NCAA Championship bids from the Big Ten. However, the 184-pound weight class only offers eight.
This proved to be detrimental for No. 14 Indiana redshirt freshman Sam Goin, whose ninth-place title was not enough to qualify him for the national championships. After losing in the consolation bracket, Goin ran the table in the ninth-place bracket, defeating Northwestern graduate student J.D. Perez 13-12 and Purdue’s No. 26 redshirt junior James Rowley 7-3.
After a first-round win by injury default, No. 22 redshirt junior Gabe Sollars ran into Penn State’s No. 1 sophomore Josh Barr in the second round of the 197-pound tournament. Despite the 21-6 loss to Barr, Sollars rattled off three consecutive defensive wins in the consolation bracket, topping his opponents by finals of 6-1, 2-1 and 8-1, setting up a third-place matchup with Ohio State’s No. 16 redshirt sophomore Luke Geog. After surrendering two takedowns in the first period, Sollars fell to Geog by a final score of 7-5, giving Sollars a fourth-place title, and an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
Indiana redshirt freshman Caleb Marzolino went winless in dual matches during the regular season, dropping all 10 he competed in. However, following a first-round loss, Marzolino pinned Purdue redshirt senior Hayden Filipovich after taking a 3-0 lead, sending him to the next round of the consolation bracket, where he lost to Wisconsin’s No. 11 redshirt junior Braxton Amos by a 7-0 final score. Marzolino got a rematch with Filipovich in the ninth-place bracket, in which Filipovich got his revenge, downing Marzolino 4-3.
Penn State ended the weekend as Big Ten Champions, accumulating 184 points and winning seven of the 10 individual titles.
The four automatically qualifying Hoosiers will compete at the NCAA Championships from March 19-21 in Cleveland. The remaining Indiana wrestlers will await the announcement of the at-large bids for each weight class, which will be released March 10.
