A look at who Rutgers will wrestle in the Big Ten Conference

Steven Falk, Asbury Park Press
·2 min read
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A home match with defending national champion Penn State highlights the Big Ten Conference schedule for the Rutgers University wrestling team, it was announced Tuesday.

The Penn State match will take place on Friday, Feb. 10 at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

Penn State, which has won nine of the last 11 national championships that were decided at the NCAA Tournament, returns four national champions in Roman Bravo-Young (133), Carter Starocci (174), Aaron Brooks (184) and Max Dean (197). Bravo-Young, Starocci and Brooks are all two-time champions.

Six of Rutgers’ eight conference matches are against teams that ended last season ranked in the NWCA Coaches Top 20.

They are No. 1 Penn State; No. 3 Michigan; No. 5 Nebraska; No. 6 Ohio State; No. 15 Michigan State and No. 20 Northwestern.

Rutgers head wrestling coach Scott Goodale, shown during his team's match against Illinois last Jan. 14, knows who his team will wrestle in the Big Ten Conference after the conference's schedule was announced Tuesday
Rutgers head wrestling coach Scott Goodale, shown during his team's match against Illinois last Jan. 14, knows who his team will wrestle in the Big Ten Conference after the conference's schedule was announced Tuesday

Michigan was the runner-up in the NCAA Tournament and the Big Ten Tournament champion last season.

Nebraska and Northwestern finished fifth and sixth respectively in the national tournament.

The Scarlet Knights’ other home conference matches will be against teams that ended last season ranked. They will host Michigan State on Friday, Jan. 20; Michigan on Sunday, Jan 22 and Northwestern on Sunday, Jan. 29.

Ohio State, on Sunday, Jan. 15, and Nebraska, on Sunday, Feb. 12, highlight the four-match conference away schedule.

Rutgers will open its Big Ten schedule Friday, Jan. 13 at Indiana. The other Big Ten away match is Saturday, Feb. 4 at Maryland. The Scarlet Knights will be favored in both of those matches.

Michigan will host the Big Ten Tournament March 4-5.

Princeton, which returns national runner-ups Pat Glory (125) and Quincy Monday (157), has announced it will host Rutgers on Sunday, Dec. 11 at Jadwin Gymnasium.

It has also already been announced Rutgers will participate in the Garden State Grapple Sunday, Dec. 4 at the Prudential Center, Newark. The Scarlet Knights will wrestle the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel of the EIWA in that event.

The remainder of Rutgers’ nonconference schedule will be announced soon.

The Scarlet Knights return three past All-Americans in Sammy Alvarez, who was an NWCA All-American in 2020 when the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the pandemic; Jackson Turley (eighth at 174 in 2021) and John Poznanski (fourth at 184 in 2021).

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This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers Wrestling: Big Ten schedule announced for Scarlet Knights