Big Ten Wrestling Championships Slated For This Weekend

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Illinois and Northwestern head to West Lafayette, Indiana for conference championships

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The 2012 Big Ten Wrestling Championships are set for this Saturday and Sunday, March 3-4, in Purdue University's Mackey Arena.

The event gets underway at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday, with the preliminary and quarterfinal matches taking place in Session I. Session II begins at 5 p.m., as semifinals and the opening rounds of wrestlebacks conclude the day's action. Consolation semifinals and seventh-place matches get underway at 1 p.m. on Sunday, while first-, third- and fifth-place matches begin at 3 p.m.

BTN will offer its most extensive championships coverage ever, with all four sessions receiving either live television or online coverage. As part of the Big Ten Digital Network's subscription package and for the first time, BTN will provide live, whip-around Student U streaming coverage of the preliminaries and quarterfinal matches. Streaming coverage will continue with select matches in Sessions II and III, while the championship rounds will be carried live on the network. Tim Johnson, Jim Gibbons and Shane Sparks will call the action.

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Penn State enters the championships looking to defend its first Big Ten Championship after earning the title in 2011 by a one-point margin over second-place Iowa. The Nittany Lions earned 139 team points, followed by the Hawkeyes' 138. Six reigning weight class champions return for this year's championships, with Iowa's Matt McDonough (125 pounds), Michigan's Kellen Russell (141), and Penn State's Frank Molinaro (149), David Taylor (157), Ed Ruth (174) and Quentin Wright (184) each taking home crowns at last year's event.

The championships' 10 top seeds are spread across six schools, with Minnesota and Penn State leading the way with three each. The Golden Gophers' Kevin Steinhaus (184), Sonny Yohn (197) and Tony Nelson (285) earned top billing in their weight classes, while the Nittany Lions' Molinaro (149), Taylor (165) and Ruth (174) each took the top spots in their classes. Rounding out the group of No. 1 seeds are Iowa's McDonough (125), Ohio State's Logan Stieber (133), Michigan's Russell (141) and Northwestern's Jason Welch (157).

Nine Big Ten teams enter the championships ranked in the NWCA/USA Today Division I Coaches Poll or InterMat Tournament Rankings. Minnesota is ranked No. 1 in the NWCA poll and No. 2 in InterMat's rankings, while Penn State is ranked No. 1 by InterMat and No. 2 by the NWCA. The Gophers are followed by No. 4/3 Iowa, No. 5/16 Illinois, No. 7/8 Ohio State, No. 8/14 Nebraska, No. 14/6 Michigan, No. 18/19 Northwestern and No. 25/35 Purdue.