March 3, 2008

Big Ten Wrestling Championships Pre-Seeds Announcement In PDF Format

EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 13 Northwestern has six wrestlers pre-seeded for the 2008 Big Ten Wrestling Championships, the conference office announced Monday. Senior All-American Mike Tamillow leads the way as the top pre-seed at 197 lbs. Fellow All-American Dustin Fox is the No. 2 pre-seed at heavyweight. Pre-seeds are determined by voting from the conference's head coaches.

The second-ranked Tamillow takes a 27-2 record into the weekend and looks to win his second-straight Big Ten title. Tamillow went a perfect 8-0 with wins over the other pre-seeds. He scored major decisions over Iowa's Chad Beatty and Minnesota's Justin Bronson. Tamillow defeated No. 2 pre-seed Phil Davis of Penn State by a 6-1 decision in a dual.

Fox is ranked No. 3 at heavyweight and takes the No. 2 pre-seed into the weekend. Fox went 7-1 in the Big Ten with his only loss coming to No. 3 pre-seed Kyle Massey of Wisconsin. Although NU and Ohio State did not wrestle in conference action, Fox defeated No. 1 pre-seed JD Bergman when the teams faced off in non-conference action at the National Duals.

Brandon Precin -- ranked fifth in the nation at 125 lbs. -- takes the No. 4 pre-seed into the tournament. Precin fell to the top three pre-seeds in dual action, but scored wins over No. 5 pre-seed Gabe Flores of Illinois and No. 6 pre-seed Mark McKnight of Penn State and he pinned No. 8 pre-seed Colin Cudd of Wisconsin.

Redshirt freshman Keith Sulzer went undefeated in Big Ten duals with his biggest win coming against No. 4 pre-seed Dan LeClere of Iowa, but he takes the No. 7 pre-seed at 141 lbs. Sulzer went 6-0 in Big Ten duals, but injury kept him out of the Minnesota dual so he did not get to face No. 6 pre-seed Manuel Rivera of Minnesota.

Ryan Lang, who won a Big Ten title at 141 lbs. last year, takes the No. 7 pre-seed into this year's tournament at 149. The other seeded wrestler for the Wildcats is senior Nick Hayes at 174 with the No. 4 pre-seed. Hayes defeated all the pre-seeds below him, did not face top pre-seed Steve Luke of Michigan and fell to No. 2 Jay Borschel of Iowa and No. 3 Gabe Dretsch of Minnesota.

The Big Ten Wrestling Championships are taking place Saturday and Sunday, March 8-9 at Williams Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The official Big Ten Championships bracket will be set on Friday, March 7.