Brackets Released for NCAA Wrestling Championships
3/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
EAST LANSING, Mich. â€" The NCAA released the brackets and announced the at-large selections on Wednesday for the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in New York City on March 17-19 in Madison Square Garden.
Redshirt sophomore 141-pounder Javier Gasca, who is making his first trip to the NCAA Championships, will face top-seeded and Big 12 Champion Dean Heil of Oklahoma State (27-1) in the first round. Gasca automatically qualified for nationals after placing sixth at last weekend's Big Ten Championships in Iowa City.
Gasca owns a 21-8 record and leads the team in wins (21), dual wins (9), falls (7) and dual points (37). He recorded a 9-2 dual mark, including a 7-2 record in Big Ten duals.
At the Big Ten Championships, Gasca punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships early with two victories in session one, defeating Indiana's Tommy Cash by major decision, 15-4, in the first round, and fourth-seeded Jameson Oster of Northwestern in the quarterfinals, 7-2.
Gasca fell in a hard-fought match in the semifinals, 6-5, to Penn State's Jimmy Gulibon. On Sunday, Gasca dropped an 11-6 decision to second-seeded Tommy Thorn of Minnesota in the consolation semifinals, and lost a narrow 3-2 decision to Danny Sabatello of Purdue in the sixth-place bout. The top-seven finishers at 141 pounds at the Big Ten Championships were guaranteed bids to the NCAA Championships.
Gasca began the season at 133 pounds and won the MSU Open on Nov. 15, but moved up to 141 pounds for the Michigan dual on Dec. 10 and has stayed there ever since. Gasca also split time at 133 and 141 pounds as a red-shirt freshman last year in his first season in the starting lineup, compiling a 15-8 record. The Kingsburg, California, native owns a 36-16 career record for the Spartans.
The NCAA announced the qualifier allocations for the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Feb. 25. Each qualifying tournament was awarded spots per weight class based on current year data. Each wrestler was measured on the following: Division I winning percentage at the weight class; rating percentage index (RPI); and coaches ranking. For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his qualifying tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class.
Each qualifying tournament, with automatic qualifying status, was awarded a minimum of one wrestler per weight class, which will go to the tournament champion, even if they did not have any wrestlers reach at least two of the three thresholds. NCAA tournament spots for each qualifying event were awarded at the tournament based solely on place finish.
This year, the following allocation numbers per weight class for the Big Ten were: 125 (7), 133 (9), 141 (7), 149 (6), 157 (7), 165 (6), 174 (9), 184 (7), 197 (6), and heavyweight (7). The Big Ten led all conferences with 71 automatic qualifiers.
The NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee announced the remaining 49 at-large qualifiers on Wednesday. All weight classes consist of 33 wrestlers. The at-large selections were made based on the following criteria: head-to-head competition; quality wins; coaches ranking; results against common opponents; RPI; qualifying event placement; and winning percentage.
NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS COVERAGE
ESPN will televise all six sessions and carry every match on ESPN3. ESPN will televise the semifinals and championship finals while ESPNU will air the preliminary sessions and medal round. The entire tournament will be available on WatchESPN.
The tournament from Madison Square Garden in New York City will begin Thursday, March 17, with the first and second sessions on ESPNU. ESPN3's individual mat feeds will allow fans to watch every match, including the wrestle-back bracket, accompanied by live commentary throughout the tournament. Additionally, for computer users, ESPN3 will once again offer multi-mat simultaneous viewing which allows fans to watch up to four different mats at one time.
Live brackets will be available at TrackWrestling.com.
Players Mentioned
