As we always do at this time, we have begun our projected seeding for the upcoming Big Ten championships at Rutgers. I will do one every weekday, continuing here with 149 pounds.

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The seeding rules changed once again this year. In 2019, they seeded all 14 guys if a weight had eight or more automatic qualifier allocations. This year, they are seeding every entry at all 10 weights no matter what the allocations look like.

The picture at 149 looks pretty crystalized after last weekend, though that doesn't necessarily mean the seeding decisions made by the coaches will be easy ones in a few key places.

Seed Projections: 125 | 133 | 141

Projected 149 Seeds

1. Sammy Sasso, Ohio State
2. Pat Lugo, Iowa
3. Brayton Lee, Minnesota
4. Kanen Storr, Michigan
5. Graham Rooks, Indiana
6. Cole Martin, Wisconsin
7. Collin Purinton, Nebraska
8. Jarod Verkleeren, Penn State
9. Gerard Angelo, Rutgers
10. Yahya Thomas, Northwestern
11. Griffin Parriott, Purdue
12. Alex Hrisopoulos, Michigan State
13. Mousa Jodeh, Illinois
14. Michael Doestch, Maryland

Sammy Sasso got the job done against Jarod Verkleeren and locked up the one seed. His only conference loss was to Brayton Lee in the CKLV finals, which he avenged in the dual meet. He beat everyone from 2-9 this year except for Graham Rooks, who he pinned in 1:21 last year at Midlands.

Following him up are Pat Lugo and Brayton Lee. That match went down Saturday night, with Lugo winning 3-2 in Carver-Hawkeye to lock up the second seed. Lugo beat Kanen Storr on February 8, but Lee did not wrestler Storr this season. However, Brayton has a win over Sasso while Storr has a loss to Vince Turk, so he's a pretty clear four seed.

Storr is the clear four, and his loss to Vince Turk is not enough to pull him below Graham Rooks of Indiana at the five; Storr and Rooks did not meet this year. Rooks fell to the nine seed Gerard Angelo, but also defeated Collin Purinton, Griffin Parriott, and Yahya Thomas, as well as earning the most recent win over Cole Martin. Storr teched Angelo, and also beat Martin and Collin Purinton this season.

The Badger senior, a three-time national qualifier, has a rock-paper-scissors situation going with Collin Purinton, who he pinned, and Jarod Verkleeren, who he lost to by one in Madison. Our own Andrew Spey settled this ranker's delight with Martin at #15, followed by Purinton and Verkleeren in the next two spots, so that's how we're settling this as well. There's no clean way to solve unless Purinton beats Brayton Lee, so it will really just come down to how these coaches view it.

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Next comes Angelo, though his win over Rooks is not enough to put him ahead of the trio mentioned above, mainly because of his loss by tech to Purinton. Angelo did not get to wrestle Yahya Thomas, instead beating his backup Eric Yang, though he also lost to Griffin Parriott's backup Nate Limmex.

Thomas has wins over the three guys seeded 11-13, plus a win over Ryan Garlitz of Maryland. With no wins over guys above him, he falls to the 10 spot. Parriott does have a win over Purinton, but that was avenged in the dual, and his only other conference win is over Mousa Jodeh.

Alex Hrisopoulos of Michigan State beat both Jodeh and Maryland's Michael Doestch. Jodeh beat Garlitz in the dual, so Doestch is either out or the last seed.