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IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa sophomore Alex Marinelli was named the top seed at 165 pounds when the NCAA released the official brackets for the 2019 NCAA Wrestling Championships on Wednesday.
Marinelli is 23-0 this season and won the Big Ten Championship last weekend at the national qualifying tournament. Marinelli placed sixth at the NCAA Championships in 2018.
For the first time in tournament history, the 33-man brackets were seeded 1-33.
Five Hawkeyes are seeded eighth or better, including returning NCAA champion Spencer Lee, who is seeded No. 3 at 125. Redshirt freshman Jacob Warner is fifth at 197. Sophomore Kaleb Young is sixth at 157, and sophomore Austin DeSanto is seventh at 133. DeSanto was an NCAA qualifier for Drexel in 2018. Warner and Young are making their national tournament debuts.
Redshirt freshman Max Murin is also making his debut as the No. 22 seed at 141. Pat Lugo, a two-time NCAA qualifier for Edinboro in 2016 and 2017, is seeded 10th at 149.
Junior Cash Wilcke is in the tournament field for the third straight year, this time seeded 12th at 184. Senior Sam Stoll, an All-American at 285 last season, enters his third NCAA Championships as the No. 29 seed.
The 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship are March 21-23 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Evening sessions are all on ESPN. Day session are on ESPNU, and single mat coverage of every match is available on WatchESPN.
IOWA’S FIRST ROUND NCAA MATCHUPS (# indicates tournament seed)
125 – #3 Spencer Lee (Iowa) vs. #30 Christian Moody (Oklahoma)
133 – #7 Austin DeSanto (Iowa) vs. #26 Cody Russell (Appalachian State)
141 – #22 Max Murin (Iowa) vs. #11 Tristan Moran (Wisconsin)
149 – #10 Pat Lugo (Iowa) vs. #23 Joshua Maruca (Arizona State)
157 – #6 Kaleb Young (Iowa) vs. #27 Dan Reed (Columbia)
165 – #1 Alex Marinelli (Iowa) vs. #32 Joseph Smith (Oklahoma State)/#33 Tyler Morland (Northwestern)
184 – #12 Cash Wilcke (Iowa) vs. #21 Nick Gravina (Rutgers)
197 – #5 Jacob Warner (Iowa) vs. #28 Drew Phipps (Bucknell)
285 – #29 Sam Stoll (Iowa) vs. #4 Jordan Wood (Lehigh)
