Big Ten 285 Preview: The Big Three's Impact On The Team Race
Big Ten 285 Preview: The Big Three's Impact On The Team Race
It’s not often that the heaviest weight class is the most anticipated and could be the most exciting, but that’s what we have here this weekend.
It’s not often that the heaviest weight class is the most anticipated and could be the most exciting, but that’s what we have here this weekend. With the three top-ranked guys in the country and eight ranked wrestlers, you don’t want to skip 285 this year. While the action is live on the Big Ten Network, we'll be breaking it down from Flo HQ on a watch party. Here's everything you need to know about this 184 lbs bracket.
Watch the Big Ten/Big 12 Championships Watch Party LIVE on FloWrestling
Below are the 285 pre-seeds along with the main storylines heading into championship weekend.
Pre-Seeds (7 Auto Qualifiers)
1. Gable Steveson Minnesota
2. Mason Parris Michigan
3. Tony Cassioppi Iowa
4. Luke Luffman, Illinois
5. Christian Lance, Nebraska
6. Trent Hilger, Wisconsin
7. Greg Kerkvliet, Penn State
8. Tate Orndorff, Ohio State
9. Christian Rebottaro Michigan State
10. Jack Heyob, Northwestern
11. Christian Colucci, Rutgers
12. Dorian Keys, Purdue
13. Rudy Streck, Indiana
14. Garrett Kappes, Maryland
The Big Three
Gable Steveson. Mason Parris. Greg Kerkvliet. These are the big three at this weight. Gable has established himself as the top dog, but Mason has shown clear signs of improvement and Kerkvliet is still a big question mark at this point in time.
Gable beat Mason 8-6 last season when they met in the Big Ten finals. Mason’s clear improvement has a lot of people wondering if he can reverse that result this time around. Gable has shown improvement as well, however. The Minnesota junior is 9-0 with 100% bonus rate this season including three pins and five tech falls. The two were scheduled to meet in December at the RTC Cup, but Gable opted not to wrestle after beating Nick Gwiazdowski. This started a little fun between the two on social media.
— Gable Steveson (@GSteveson) December 5, 2020
Can’t run forever. See you soon. ;) https://t.co/577JSrkEaq
— Mason Parris (@Parris58) December 6, 2020
Now, as I said before, Kerkvliet is a bit of a wildcard. If you’re unfamiliar with the Penn State heavyweight, he was a four-time Minnesota state champion, Cadet World Champion, and the #1 overall recruit in the class of 2019. However, with only two matches so far in his redshirt freshman year, Kerkvliet received the seven seed. That means he’ll have to go through Parris in the quarters and most likely #3 Anthony Cassioppi in the semis.
Watch Kerkvliet make the 2019 U23 World Team over Jordan Wood below.
Watch Gable Steveson break down his 2020 Big Tens match with Mason Parris below.
Impact On The Team Race
My friend and colleague Andrew Spey conveniently calculated team scores using the pre-seeds as hypothetical tournament finishes.
Now, this is without bonus and clearly hypothetical, but as you can see Penn State, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Michigan are all quite close and have a good shot at second place behind Iowa. It just so happens that those four schools all have major players at heavyweight.
Not including bonus points, there is a 6.5 point difference between finishing in first place and third place. That might not seem like a lot, but when you look at how close these teams are projected to finish, every point is crucial. It will be essential for their squads that these men perform to their abilities.
Early Matches To Watch
#2 Mason Parris vs #14 Greg Kerkvliet: the two have never wrestled
#10 Luke Luffman vs #12 Christian Lance: Luffman won 4-2 in the dual this year
#3 Tony Cassioppi vs #13 Trent Hillger: the two haven’t met this year, but Cassioppi went 2-0 last year