Spartan Wrestling Heads to B1G Championships in Nebraska

2022 Big Ten Championships
Date: Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6
Time:      Session 1                              Saturday, 10 a.m. CT
                Session 2                              Saturday, 5:30 p.m. CT
                Session 3                              Sunday, 11 a.m. CT
                Session 4                              Sunday, 3:30 p.m. CT
Location: Pinnacle Bank Arena (Lincoln, Neb.)
Watch: Big Ten Network and B1G+
Live Results: TrackWrestling
Championship Central: BigTen.org

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Championship season begins this weekend for Michigan State, as the Spartans travel to Lincoln, Nebraska for the 2022 Big Ten Wrestling Championships.

Ranked No. 15 in the country in the final NWCA coaches poll, the Spartans will send their starting 10 wrestlers to Pinnacle Bank Arena on Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6 to try and win MSU's first team conference title since 1972 and the first individual Spartan crown since 2009.

Hosted by Nebraska, the B1G Championships will air on the Big Ten Network (BTN) and be streamed via Big Ten Plus (B1G+). Big Ten Network veterans Shane Sparks, Jim Gibbons and Tim Johnson, along with Jordan Burroughs and Ray Flores, will cover all the action.

ENDING DUAL SLATE WITH THE IN-STATE WIN

Then-No. 16 Michigan State wrapped up its dual season on Friday, Feb. 18 when it toughed out a 19-17 victory over No. 21 Central Michigan in front of the Spartan faithful on Senior Night.
Sophomore Tristan Lujan got MSU rolling at 125 pounds when he defeated Brock Bergelin (No. 33 on Intermat) in a 3-2 decision for his first ranked win of the season, and redshirt senior Rayvon Foley followed by scoring a 15-4 major decision over 133-pound Vince Perez.
After MSU had losing decisions at 141 and 149, sophomore Chase Saldate picked up his own ranked win when he squeezed out a 4-3 decision against Johnny Lovett (16th on Intermat), but CMU's Tracy Hubbard then had late takedown to beat 165-pound sophomore Caleb Fish, 6-4.
After losing by decision in the 174 bout, MSU got big bonus points at 184 when redshirt junior Layne Malczewski pinned Ben Cushman at 3:58 to regain the lead for the Spartans, and redshirt senior Cameron Caffey extended it with a 10-5 decision over CMU 197-pounder Aaron Bolo. The Chippewas cut it to the final 19-17 score when redshirt senior Brad Wilton was pinned by No. 7 Matt Stencel in the third period.

B1G PRE-SEEDS ANNOUNCED

The Big Ten Conference announced pre-seedings for this week's B1G Wrestling Championships on Monday afternoon, as Michigan State landed five wrestlers with top-6 seeds.
The highest-seeded Spartan is Caffey, coming in at No. 3 for the 197-pound class after being the fourth seed at last season's conference championships.
The 133-pounder Foley is the No. 4 seed in his weight class, as the former NCAA All-American enters the week at No. 7 in the national rankings.
At 165 pounds, Fish has earned the No. 5 seed for his first B1G Championships after going 5-3 in conference dual-meets this year.
A pair of Spartans are No. 6 seeds, as Saldate was seeded sixth in his second conference tournament after being the No. 7 seed at 157 pounds last season, while 184-pound Malczewski will be the No. 6 seed in his third B1G Championships.
Lujan was seeded at No. 11 for the 125-pound weight class, while graduate student Matt Santos checked in as the No. 12 seed at 141 pounds.
The 149-pound redshirt sophomore Peyton Omania will be the No. 13 seed, as will Wilton at heavyweight, while redshirt junior Nathan Jimenez is the No. 14 seed in the 174-pound weight class.

NCAA RANKINGS AND PRE-ALLOCATIONS RELEASED

The third edition of the NCAA Coaches' Individual Rankings came out on Feb. 24, along with the second RPI rankings and the announcement of pre-allocations per weight class for each conference.
Five Spartans appeared in the coaches rankings, led by Caffey being the No. 5 wrestler at 197 pounds and Foley landing ninth in the 133-pound rankings … Saldate is No. 18 among the 157-pounders and Malczewski sits 20th for 184-pound wrestlers, while Fish made the cut for 165-pounders at No. 31 nationally.
All five also appear in the RPI Top-33 for their weight class, along with 125-pound Lujan … Foley ranks No. 5 and Caffey is No. 6 in RPI, with Malczewski being 12th, Fish sitting No. 18 and Saldate ranking 21st, while Lujan holds the No. 28 spot for his weight.
The Big Ten Conference is guaranteed double-digit wrestlers in four weight classes at the NCAA Championships, boasting 88 total pre-allocations. There will be a minimum 12 Big Ten wrestlers at 184 pounds and 11 from the conference at 197 pounds, while the 125 and 133 weights will have 10 B1G wrestlers at least. The 285-pound class will include nine Big Ten heavyweights, while 174 pounds is set for eight B1G wrestlers. Four other weight classes (141, 149, 157 and 165) will all have a minimum of seven from the Big Ten.

RANKING THE SPARTANS

Michigan State bumped up one spot in the final National Wrestling Coaches Association poll of the season, landing at No. 15 in the country. The team cracked the Top-25 on Jan. 18, initially being ranked 21st and moving up to 18th, 17th and 14th over the next three weeks before dropping to #16 in the penultimate rankings.
The No. 15 ranking is the highest final NWCA ranking for MSU since ending the campaign at No. 7 in the 2002-03 season.
The team holds the No. 15 on WrestleStat's tournament rankings, also finding itself at No. 22 in both the Intermat tournament rankings and WIN Magazine's Tournament Power Index, and landing 23rd in the tournament rankings for FloWrestling.
MSU ended the dual season at No. 18 on Flo's dual rankings, 19th by WIN, No. 21 with Intermat and 27 according to WrestleStat.
Foley ranks No. 7 in all five weekly 133-pound rankings (Flo, WrestleStat, Intermat, The Open Mat and WIN).
Ranking No. 5 on WrestleStat for 197-pounders, Caffey is No. 5 according to Flo, Intermat, Open Mat and WIN.
Malczewski sits at No. 9 for WrestleStat's 184-pounders, also ranking 20th with Flo and the Open Mat, and landing at No. 23 with Intermat.
Saldate ranks as high as No. 16 with WrestleStat and Intermat, also ranking 17th on the Open Mat and 18th with WIN for 157-pound wrestlers.
Fish is No. 36 on WrestleStat at 165 pounds, while Lujan is an honorable mention for FloWrestling's 125-pound rankings.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS

After finishing eighth in last year's Big Ten Championships and sending eight Spartans to the NCAA Championships, Michigan State came out this season with Foley winning 133-pound title at the Navy Classic and Southern Scuffle. Saldate (MSU Open at 157), Fish (MSU Open at 165) and Omania (Navy Classic at 149) all won individual crowns as well.
The Spartans then went 10-4 in dual meets and 4-4 in the Big Ten, their best conference dual record since 2004-05, and Caffey became the first MSU grappler to post an undefeated dual record (14-0) since MSU Hall of Famer Franklin Gomez in 2007-08. Caffey and Foley (13-1 in duals) both earned B1G Wrestler of the Week honors during the dual season, as both had weekends with two top-10 wins.
Caffey's 14-0 dual record puts him in the team lead, while his 25 overall wins are tied for a Spartan high with Foley.
Caffey, Foley and Saldate all have a team-best seven major decisions, while Saldate also paces MSU with seven falls this season.
Graduate student Ryan Vasbinder has a Spartan-best five technical falls while competing unattached, and Foley is second on the squad with four tech. falls.
Caffey led the team in dual points at 50, while Foley and Malczewski were second with 48 points each.
Eight different Spartans had a .500-or-better record in dual meets.
Along with Caffey and Foley, three other MSU wrestlers reached 20 wins this season: Malczewski, Saldate and Fish.

DUALING WITH THE BEST

Michigan State finished 10-4 in duals, its best winning percentage (.714) since a .778 mark (14-4) in 1995.
The Spartans' 4-4 mark in the B1G is their best conference dual record since 2004-05, when MSU posted a 4-3-1 record during the Big Ten slate.
At 4-4, Michigan State finished tied for sixth in the conference with Purdue and Northwestern.
It is also only the fourth time since 2000 that the Spartans have posted double-digit wins during dual season, and is the second time the program has done so in head coach Roger Chandler's six years at the helm.
The four B1G wins is also the most for Coach Chandler during his six seasons in the top spot.

CAFFEY TAFFY AND MR. VON

When the 133-pound Foley became the second B1G Wrestler of the Week for the Spartans this season, adding to Caffey winning the honor on Jan. 26, it was another sign of the resurgence within MSU Wrestling.
Foley's recognition made it the first time since 2006-07 that MSU has won two B1G Wrestler of the Week honors in the same season, with Nick Simmons receiving the award twice that year.
It was also the first time since 2005-06 that the Spartans have had multiple wrestlers earn weekly conference honors in a season, as that campaign that saw Simmons (twice), Tony Greathouse and R.J. Boudro all earn Big Ten Wrestler of the Week.
Sharing the team lead in wins at 25 overall, Caffey and Foley have both been dominant in duals and tournaments
Caffey's 14-0 dual record is in part due to his current 11-match winning streak entering the weekend. For Foley, his lone blemish in dual season came at Indiana against 18th-ranked Brock Hudkins, but had won 16-straight matches overall before that and has won six-straight since then.
Foley's 133 crowns at the Navy Classic and Southern Scuffle followed a runner-up performance at the MSU Open, while Caffey took second place at the Navy Classic and then wrestled back to take third at the Southern Scuffle.

MILESTONES INCOMING

Foley sits at 99 career wins representing MSU (103 including unattached victories), looking to become the 19th wrestler in Spartan history to reach the 100-win plateau with one victory at the B1G Championships.
Caffey is right behind Foley, needing four more attached wins to reach the 100-win milestone, as the redshirt senior is at 95 wins for MSU while also having 22 unattached wins from his redshirt season in 2017-18.

A LOOK BACK AT 2021 B1G CHAMPIONSHIPS

Michigan State was able to tally a 73.5 team score at last season's Big Ten Championships, taking eighth place in the conference.
Foley had the highest finish for the Spartans, taking bronze at 125 after pulling off an 8-2 decision over Ohio State's Malik Heinselman in the third-place match.
Caffey was on the losing end of the 197-pound third-place match, finishing fourth after an 8-3 decision went in favor of Iowa's Jacob Warner, while Saldate also finished fourth, losing the third-place match at 157 to Brayton Lee of Minnesota (6-3 decision).
165-pound Jake Tucker placed sixth in his weight class after dropping a 10-3 decision in the fifth-place match to Purdue's Gerrit Nijenhuis, and Malczewski ended up sixth at 184 pounds when he had to medically forfeit his last match against Wisconsin's Christopher Weiler.
Jordan Hamdan used a 9-2 decision over Boo Dryden of Minnesota in the seventh-place match at 133 pounds to earn a spot on the conference podium.
The eighth-place finish by MSU was the program's highest finish since placing seventh in 2010.

B1G COVERAGE

The 2022 B1G Championships will air on the Big Ten Network (BTN) and be streamed via Big Ten Plus (B1G+).
Big Ten Network veterans Shane Sparks, Jim Gibbons and Tim Johnson will anchor the weekend broadcasts.
Two-time NCAA champion and 2011 Dan Hodge Trophy Winner Jordan Burroughs will also join the crew as a guest analyst along with Ray Flores as the on-site reporter.
Full coverage schedule is available HERE.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cameron Caffey

Caleb Fish

Rayvon Foley

Jordan Hamdan

Nathan Jimenez

Tristan Lujan

Layne Malczewski

Peyton Omania

Chase Saldate

Matt Santos

Jake Tucker

Ryan Vasbinder

Brad Wilton