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| Senior Michael Morales will look to qualify for his third NCAA Championship. |
| Photo courtesy of WVU Photography |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Coach Sammie Henson and the West Virginia University wrestling team will find out how many grapplers will travel to St. Louis for the 2015 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Wednesday, when the NCAA announces at-large bids and seeding for the tournament.
The NCAA no longer considers the Big 12 Championship a qualifying tournament. Therefore, wrestlers must receive at-large bids to earn entry to the national tournament.
Starting with 125 pounds, each set of qualifiers will be announced on NCAA.com as well as Twitter (
@NCAAWrestling) and Facebook (
NCAA Wrestling) beginning at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with a new weight class announced every thirty minutes. The announcement will wrap up with the NCAA Wrestling Selection Show, slated for 6 p.m. ET on NCAA.com, where brackets and seeds for each weight class will be revealed.
With qualifying tournaments completed, the NCAA Division I Selection Committee will meet to determine bids for the remaining slots in each 33-man field. The committee will be made based on head-to-head competition, qualifying event placement, quality wins, results against common opponents, winning percentage, RPI, coaches’ ranking and the number of matches contested at each weight class.
The Mountaineers have six wrestlers ranked in the most current RPI rankings and four in the Coaches’ Panel Index.
| Wrestler |
Year |
Weight |
RPI |
Coaches' Index |
| Zeke Moisey |
Fr. |
125 |
19 |
22 |
| Cory Stainbrook |
So. |
133 |
33 |
NR |
| Michael Morales |
Sr. |
141 |
18 |
16 |
| Ross Renzi |
Jr. |
165 |
31 |
NR |
| Bubba Scheffel |
Jr. |
184 |
24 |
28 |
| Jake A. Smith |
So. |
197 |
19 |
28 |
Moisey is also ranked 18th in the nation at 125 in the latest Flo Wrestling rankings, while Morales is 19th at 141.
Four Mountaineers earned runner-up finishes at last weekend’s Big 12 Championship, including Moisey, Smith, Roman Perryman (149) and A.J. Vizcarrondo (HWT). Scheffel took third at 184 pounds.
The 2015 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships will take place March 19-21 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
