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Four Northwestern Wrestlers Seeded for 2012 NCAA Championships 

'Cats send group of six to St. Louis, Mo.

March 7, 2012

List of Division I NCAA Wrestling qualifiers

2012 NCAA Championship Bracket

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern learned its fate for the 2012 NCAA Wrestling Championships Wednesday and four of the six ’Cats competing in this year’s tournament are seeded in their respective weight classes. Jason Welch is the No. 3 seed at 157 lbs., Levi Mele and Lee Munster are the No. 9 seeds at 125 lbs. and 174 lbs., respectively, and Mike McMullan pulled in the No. 10 seed at heavyweight.
 
NorthwesternÂ’s group of six brings a range of NCAA experience and first-time wrestlers as Mele, Welch and sophomore Kaleb Friedley are returning qualifiers, while redshirt freshmen Munster, McMullan and Pierce Harger are competing in their first NCAA championship.
 
At 125 lbs., Mele faces a familiar opponent in the first round, taking on PrincetonÂ’s Garrett Frey. These two met at the Keystone Classic, where Mele won 8-3 en route to his 125 lbs. title. Mele brings a 30-6 record into NCAAÂ’s while Frey is 26-9. The winner of the Mele/Frey match would face whoever advances between No. 8 Ryan Mango of Stanford and Shane Young from West Virginia. Top-seeded Matt McDonough of Iowa, Eastern MichiganÂ’s Jared Germaine, North Dakota StateÂ’s Trent Sprenkle and Vince Rodriguez of George Mason are all on the same side of the bracket as Mele. The NU junior has a 7-5 record against the NCAA tournament field.
 
Friedley is unseeded at 149 lbs. and takes on the No. 3 seed, Cole VonOhlen of Air Force in his first-round match. Friedley earned a spot in the NCAA championship field by placing seventh at Big TenÂ’s and has a 20-11 record. VonOhlen has a 36-2 record and the winner of their match meets the winner of the Steve Santos (Columbia)/Owen Willkinson (Lock Haven) bout. This year, Friedley has a 4-7 record against the 149 lbs. field.
 
Welch also faces a regular season rematch in his first bout. Welch, the No. 3 seed, takes on OklahomaÂ’s Matt Lester, an opponent he beat 7-3 en route to his Midlands title. Lester brings a 20-9 record into the tournament while Welch is 23-1. The winner of that bout will meet whoever emerges from the Tommy Churchard (Purdue)/Colton Palmer (North Carolina State) bout. Four other Big Ten wrestlers are on the same side of the bracket as Welch, including No. 11 James Green of Nebraska, No. 7 Dylan Alton of Penn State, No. 10 Anthony Jones from Michigan State and second-seeded Derek St. John of Iowa. Welch went 7-1 against this yearÂ’s field, with his lone loss coming in a one-point defeat to St. John in the Big Ten championship finals.
 
Harger is unseeded at 165 lbs. and drew another unseeded wrestler, Marshall Peppelman of Cornell. Harger went 21-12 in the regular season with a sixth place finish at Big TenÂ’s, while Peppelman is 26-15 on the year. The winner of that match faces the winner of the No. 3 Andrew Sorenson (Iowa State)/Joe Booth (Drexel) match. Harger has a 3-11 record against the NCAA championship field this year.
 
Munster drew the No. 9 seed at 174 lbs. and another rematch with an early-season opponent. Munster looks to avenge his 7-5 loss to RiderÂ’s Jim Resnick, which came at the Keystone Classic in November. Munster is 23-10 on the year while Resnick brings an 18-4 record into the tournament. The winner of that match meets the victor from No. 8 Chris Spangler (Iowa State)/Chris Moon (Virginia Tech). Munster has an 8-9 record against the field and is 4-2 in his last six matches against other NCAA competitors.
 
After finishing fourth at the Big Ten championships, McMullan drew the No. 10 seed and meets Brendan Barlow of Kent State for the first time this season. McMullan is 23-10 while Barlow has a 27-11 record. The winner of this match faces a second-round bout against the winner of the No. 7 Jeremy Johnson (Ohio)/Cole Tobin (Wisconsin) bout, two opponents McMullan faced during the regular season. Ten heavyweights from the Big Ten received automatic bids to the NCAA championships and six of those wrestlers, including McMullan, are on the same side of the bracket. McMullan is 8-9 against the NCAA championship field.
 
The 2012 NCAA Wrestling Championships run from Thursday, March 15-Saturday, March 17 inside the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo. The ESPN family of networks will provide complete coverage of the championships, beginning March 15 at 11 a.m. as ESPN3.com will stream Session 1 and Session 2 at 6:30 p.m. ESPNU and ESPN3.com will provide coverage of Sessions 3 (10 a.m.) and 4 (6 p.m.) on March 16 and Session 5 (10 a.m.) on March 17. The sixth and final session will air live on ESPN and ESPN3.com, beginning at 6:30 p.m. CT.

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