Quarterfinal Takeaways from the 2024 Big Ten Championships

The 2024 Big Ten Tournament got underway Saturday morning from the Xfinity Center in College Park, Maryland.

While top-ranked Penn State is the overwhelming favorite to claim the team title, that doesn’t mean this year’s edition is shy on storylines.

Here are our top takeaways from Session I. 

1) Carter Starocci Will Need An At-Large Selection For The NCAA Tournament

Three-time NCAA champion and Hodge Trophy contender Carter Starocci’s status was in major doubt after suffering a knee injury in the final dual of the season against Edinboro.

Earlier this week, head coach Cael Sanderson said that Starocci was still in “search and destroy“ mode when it came to his view of things.

While Starocci showed no signs of a limp while walking into and around the Xfinity Center, he apparently was not well enough to compete on Saturday.

The Penn State star took the mat for one second before injury defaulting out against eighth-seeded Andrew Sparks of Minnesota. 

Barring a strange twist, he’ll do the same on the back side and head to the NCAA Tournament with two losses to his record and in need of an at-large spot. 

He’ll almost assuredly get that spot. But where he ends up in the 174-pound bracket in Kansas City now becomes the question.

2) The 125-pound weight class remains an absolute agent of chaos

It’s not exactly breaking news that the 125-pound weight class in college wrestling this year is about as crazy as they come. 

That extended to the Big Ten Tournament on Saturday.

After all seeds held true in the opening round, an absolute bomb went off in the quarterfinals.

It began with Rutgers’ Dean Peterson stunning everyone in attendance with an impressive 7-1 victory over top-seed and top-ranked Matt Ramos of Purdue. 

But it didn’t stop there.

On the bottom side of the bracket, Michael DeAugustino of Michigan, the seventh seed, replicated his feat from earlier in the season by taking out second-seeded Drake Ayala of Iowa with a takedown in short time of the third period. 

Perhaps the wildest match of them all involved sixth-seeded Braeden Davis of Penn State and third-seeded Eric Barnett of Wisconsin.

Barnett took an early 3-0 lead and added another point thanks to a technical violation to go up 4-0 mid-way through the first period. Davis escaped to cut it to 4-1 after 1 then used an escape and takedown to take a 5-4 lead into the third period.

Once there, the wrestlers exchanged reversals, with Davis’ coming as time wound down to send the match to overtime thanks to a Barnett riding time point. Davis then got in deep on what looked like it would be the winning takedown in OT only for it to get blown dead for a technical violation by Barnett that handed the true freshman the win.

The lone seed that held true in the round was Minnesota’s fourth-seeded Pat McKee, who notched a 5-2 victory over fifth-seeded Caleb Smith of Nebraska. 

3) Never Count Out Will ‘The Thrill’ Lewan

You don’t have to like it, but you do have to respect it!

Michigan senior Will Lewan just knows how to win matches. 

Lewan, a two-time All-American, entered the tournament with just a 9-6 record and was the seven seed. 

In classic Will Lewan fashion, he won a 2-1 match in tiebreakers over Isaac Wilcox of Ohio State in the opening round.

But what came next, nobody saw coming.

Lewan swung for the fences and connected with a big headlock for the fall against second-seeded Michael Blockhus of Minnesota in the quarterfinals.

He’ll now take on Brayton Lee of Indiana (formerly Minnesota) in the semis, and would anyone put it past him to win that match?

4) Michigan’s Strong Opening Session Puts The Wolverines In A Good Spot

Is Penn State the favorite? Sure.

Are they a lock? Let’s not go that far.

This is perhaps the best Big Ten Tournament team the Nittany Lions have had yet under Cael Sanderson. But Penn State’s record at the conference tournament is not quite as outstanding as it is at the national tournament.

So, who could dethrone the Nittany Lions?

What about Michigan?

The Wolverines entered the tournament looking like they’d be in a three-way battle for second with Iowa and Nebraska.

While it’s early on, Michigan currently holds down the second spot with 70.5 points, 13.5 ahead of Iowa and a whopping 24.5 ahead of Nebraska.

The Wolverines have eight semifinalists, with the lone exceptions coming at 165 and 197. You could argue they’ll have the favorite in five of those semifinals, with toss-ups at two others.

So, why not Michigan?

5) Maybe Iowa Knew What It Was Doing All Along?

Since the release of preseeds earlier this week, all the talk has been about Iowa’s apparent mistake that led to Brody Teske being seeded 14th at 133 pounds.

Teske, a redshirt senior, battled for the starting job all season with teammate Cullan Schriever. By the time he’d finally won it, it was too late for Iowa to enter him into consideration for seeding.

That meant that he’d likely need to beat either third-seeded Nic Bouzakis of Ohio State or the loser of a quarterfinal between Nebraska’s Jacob Van Dee and Penn State’s Aaron Nagao to secure a spot at NCAAs.

No easy task!

But it appears that Teske was, in fact, the bad draw.

After falling behind Bouzakis 10-2 mid-way through the second period, Teske clawed his way all the way back and locked up a late cradle for a dramatic 15-13 victory.

That pushed him into the quarterfinals against Purdue’s Dustin Norris, who upset sixth-seeded Anthony Madrigal of Illinois in the opening round.

Teske rolled past Norris, 11-5, and now looks like a genuine threat to reach the final or, perhaps, win the whole dang thing.

Score one for Tom and Terry Brands.