Judging by the Big Ten pre-seeds released Monday, Penn State could be in a position to send its entire lineup to this month’s NCAA Championships. All 10 Nittany Lions likely will be seeded in the top eight of their respective weights when the conference championships begin Saturday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. The official bracket for the two-day tournament will be released Friday. Head coaches determined the pre-seeds based on regular-season results.

The top seven finishers at each weight automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships which will be held March 20-22 in St. Louis. Senior Tim Haas is the only Nittany Lion who received a pre-seed outside the top seven. Haas received the eighth seed at 133. Sophomore 165-pounder Dave Rella and sophomore heavyweight John Laboranti are the seventh seeds at their respective weights. “It’s very realistic to get our whole team through,” Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said Monday night. “Rella has been wrestling better lately, Laboranti has shown streaks of what he is capable of and Tim Haas knows that this could quite possibly be his last opportunity.”

Senior Phil Davis and sophomore Dan Vallimont are the highest seeded Nittany Lions. Davis (17-1) received the No. 2 seed behind Northwest-ern’s Mike Tamillow at 197 and Vallimont (24-1) earned the No. 2 seed behind Mike Poeta at 157. Davis and Vallimont’s only losses are to the wrestlers they are seeded behind. Sophomore Bubba Jenkins (fourth seed, 149), freshman Garrett Scott (fifth, 141), junior Phil Bomberger (fifth, 184), sophomore David Erwin (sixth, 174) and senior Mark McKnight (sixth, 125) are also competing in the event for Penn State which went 14-5 during the dual meet season. Davis, Vallimont, McKnight and Jenkins have qualified for previous national tournaments, while Haas, Scott and Laboranti are competing in the Big Ten Championships for the first time. “I think the seeds are pretty consistent with what we put in,” Sunderland said. “Nothing was out of whack. It was what we expected.”

One of the biggest surprises came in perhaps the conference’s toughest weight. Ryan Lang, a national finalist at 141 last year, received the No. 7 seed at 149. The weight also includes 2006 NCAA champion Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota, 2007 national finalist Josh Churella of Michigan and rising sophomores such as Iowa’s Brent Metcalf, Ohio State’s Lance Palmer and Jenkins. Illinois true freshman Grant Paswall, a two-time PIAA Class AAA placewinner at Bald Eagle Area, received the No. 8 seed at 149. “There is no doubt that’s a very deep weight class,” Sunderland said. “It’s amazing that a tough competitor and NCAA runner-up like Lang is the seventh seed in the Big Ten Championships.”

Iowa’s Mark Perry (165) and Metcalf (149), Michigan’s Kellen Russell (141) and Steve Luke (174), Ohio State’s Mike Pucillo (184) and J.D. Bergman (Hwt), Illinois’ Jimmy Kennedy (133), and Minnesota’s Jayson Ness (125) received the other No. 1 seeds.

Thanks to Guy Cipriano and the "Centre Daily Times" (State College, Pa.) for the article