MADISON, Wis. — No. 7 Wisconsin (12-2, 6-2 Big Ten) has qualified nine wrestlers to the 2022 NCAA Championships this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 17-19, at Little Caesars Arena (20,491 cap.) in Detroit, Michigan.

There will be six sessions of the NCAA Championships (TrackWrestling Live Stats Hub):

• Thursday, 11 a.m. CT - Session I (ESPNU) - Recap (11th, 7.0 points)
• Thursday, 6 p.m. CT - Session II (ESPN2)
• Friday, 10 a.m. CT - Session III (ESPNU)
• Friday, 7 p.m. CT - Session IV (ESPN)
• Saturday, 10 a.m. CT - Session V (ESPN2)
• Saturday, 6 p.m. CT - Session VI (ESPN)

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will provide live broadcast coverage of all six sessions. Visit NCAA.com for more info. You can also view all ESPN live web streaming options here at https://go.wisc.edu/espn_wrestling.

Quick Links

• NCAA Championships Central Website
  • Info, links and Brackets available
• Follow live stats on TrackWrestling
• Watch ESPN live streams for all mats: https://go.wisc.edu/espn_wrestling
• Read Wisconsin's Match Notes with team/individual stats
• Live results will be available via @BadgerWrestling on Twitter

Don't miss head coach Chris Bono's latest Jump Around Weekly update video.


 

Here are five more things to know before the Badgers step on the mats:

1. NCAA SEEDS: One of the largest rosters to qualify in school history, three of nine Badgers earned top-10 seeds, led by Austin Gomez (3rd, 149 pounds). True freshman Dean Hamiti (4th, 165) and Eric Barnett (6th, 125) join Gomez in high seedings. Trent Hillger (285) is also 17th at heavyweight. Four Badgers also earned their first-ever career qualifications to NCAAs. UW's three true freshman — Hamiti, Joseph Zargo (27th, 141) and Braxton Amos (23rd, 197) — join senior Garrett Model (27th, 157), who placed seventh at Big Tens to earn an automatic qualification in his last career appearance at the conference tournament. Kyle Burwick (31st, 133) and Chris Weiler (29th, 184) return to NCAAs after trips in 2021, along with 2021 All-Americans Barnett (8th place) and Hillger (6th place). Read the NCAA At-Large Selection announcement.

3. BADGERS BREAKDOWN BY WEIGHT

• Returning NCAA All-American Eric Barnett is 16-3 overall at 125 pounds, ranked 5th overall by Intermat. He's seeded 6th for the NCAA Championships after finishing 2nd at Big Tens with a 3-1 record and will wrestle #27 Justin Cardani (Illinois) to open NCAAs. One of Barnett's top wins this season was an 8-5 upset decision of Minnesota's No. 8 Patrick McKee to help the Badgers defeat the Golden Gophers on the road.
   
• Kyle Burwick is 14-15 overall at 133 pounds. Burwick is seeded 31st in his weight class for NCAAs after earning an At-Large Qualification and will open against #2 Daton Fix (Oklahoma State). Looking back, one of Burwick's top wins is a sudden-victory upset decision of Minnesota's Jake Gliva, 6-4.
   
• True freshman Joseph Zargo battled his way through the Big Ten season to a 15-10 overall record at 141 pounds. Zargo's ranked 24th by Intermat. After earning an At-Large Qualification, he's seeded 27th heading into his first-ever NCAA Championships and will open against #6 Cole Matthews (Pitt). Coming on strong to end the season, then-unranked Zargo earned a 8-6 sudden-victory upset of Illinois' fourth-ranked Dylan Duncan for one of his top wins of the season.
   
• The comeback story of the year, 2022 Big Ten Champion Austin Gomez is 18-2 overall at 149 pounds. He's ranked No. 3 by Intermat and is seeded No. 3 for NCAAs. Gomez starts against #30 Marshall Keller (Princeton) on Thursday. He claimed the Big Ten crown with a 20-second pin of Nebraska's Ridge Lovett before upsetting top-seeded Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) with a gritty 8-5 decision.
   
• Garrett Model is 15-12 overall at 157 pounds. He's ranked 30th by Intermat. Model is seeded No. 27 for the NCAA Championships in his first-ever career appearance and will open against #6 Jared Franek (NDSU). Ranked 33rd earlier this season, Model upset No. 4 Brayton Lee (Minnesota) in a 10-5 decision and earned both Big Ten and USA Wrestling weekly honors for the victory.
   
• Gaining notice across the country, true freshman Dean Hamiti is 24-2 overall at 165 pounds and is considered among the Most Dominant wrestlers in the NCAA. Hamiti is ranked fourth by Intermat. He's seeded No. 4 in his first-ever NCAA Championships and will open against #29 Andrew Nicholson (Chattanooga). Hamiti finished third at Big Tens and was named the Freshman of the Year for the conference.
   
• Chris Weiler is 11-13 overall at 184 pounds. Weiler's ranked 25th by Intermat. He's seeded 29th in his third qualification to the NCAA Championships (2020 NWCA Honorable Mention All-American) and will wrestle #4 Parker Keckeisen (No. Iowa) on Thursday. Weiler earned three Big Ten upsets this season including major decisions against Purdue's No. 28 Max Lyon (11-3) and Maryland's No. 11 Kyle Cochran (12-4).
   
• True freshman Braxton Amos is 17-9 overall at 197 pounds and is ranked No. 6 by the NCAA for Most Tech Falls (6) in the nation. Amos is ranked 22nd by Intermat. He's seeded No. 23 for his first-ever NCAA Championships and will wrestle #10 Yonger Bastida (ISU) to open the first session.
   
• Three-time All-American Trent Hillger is 19-6 overall at heavyweight (285). He's ranked 14th by Intermat. Hillger is seeded No. 17 for his fourth NCAAs and will wrestle #16 Zach Elam (Mizzou) to open his national tournament. Hillger ended UW's dual season with three-consecutive wins, including two major decisions of No. 16 Luke Luffman (Illinois) and No. 16 Lewis Fernandes (Cornell). He finished ninth overall at Big Tens to automatically qualify to NCAAs.

4. BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS: One of four Badgers taking spots on the podium, Wisconsin's Austin Gomez claimed the 2022 Big Ten title at 149 pounds on March 6 and joined six of his teammates in earning automatic qualifications to the upcoming 2022 NCAA Championships. Wisconsin finished eighth overall in the team standings with 68.0 points. Following Big Tens, two more Badgers — Kyle Burwick and Joseph Zargo — earned NCAA At-Large selections to bring Wisconsin's total to nine heading to the national tournament.

5. BADGERS LAST DUALS: Wisconsin earned two highly-ranked victories to close the dual season with a 24-10 win against No. 17 Northern Iowa on the road and a 19-16 win against No. 11 Cornell at the UW Field House.