No. 1 Olson, Six Other Wolverines Among NCAA Seeds

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Top-ranked senior 174-pounder Otto Olson (Everett, Wash./Everett HS) leads a list of seven University of Michigan wrestlers who are seeded for this week's NCAA Championships. Olson, two-time Big Ten Conference champion and a 1999 NCAA runner-up, is seeded No. 1 in his weight class in the NCAA brackets which were announced Monday (March 18). The top 12 wrestlers in each weight class are seeded.

Olson

The Wolverines have six others seeded wrestlers, all listed in the top 10 in their respective classes. Senior captain Andy Hrovat (Gates Mill, Ohio/St. Edward HS), who joins heavyweight Matt Brink (Muskegon, Mich./Fruitport HS) as four-time NCAA qualifiers, is the No. 3 seed at 184 pounds after finishing runner-up at the Big Ten Championships.

Michigan has three No. 6 seeds -- senior/junior Mike Kulczycki (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Edward HS) at 149 pounds, redshirt freshman Ryan Bertin (Broadview Heights, Ohio/St. Edward HS) at 157 pounds, and senior/junior Kyle Smith (Butte, Mont./Butte HS) at 197 pounds -- while junior/sophomore Foley Dowd (Howell, N.J./The Peddie School) is seeded eighth at 133 pounds and junior A.J. Grant (Clarkston, Mich./Clarkston HS) is No. 10 at 125 pounds.

Unseeded Wolverines competing at the NCAA Championships include Brink and senior 165-pounder Charles Martelli (Naperville, Ill./North HS). The nine NCAA qualifiers represent Michigan's largest contingent at the national meet since 1965 and its third largest ever.

Competition runs Thursday through Saturday (March 21-23) at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, N.Y., with two sessions scheduled each day. Thursday's action gets underway at 11 a.m. Michigan, which placed third in this year's Big Ten Championships, finished seventh at last year's NCAA meet.

Michigan's Opening NCAA Matchups
(Numbers listed are NCAA Championships seedings)

125 -- #10 A.J. Grant (U-M) vs. Tommy Hoang (Duke)

133 -- #8 Foley Dowd (U-M) vs. Evan Sola (North Carolina)

149 -- #6 Mike Kulczycki (U-M) vs. Wayne Watts (The Citadel)

157 -- #6 Ryan Bertin (U-M) vs. Zachariah Doll (Pittsburgh)

165 -- Charles Martelli (U-M) vs. Nick Harrington (Rider)

174 -- #1 Otto Olson (U-M) vs. Mark Canty (North Carolina)

184 -- #3 Andy Hrovat (U-M) vs. Pat Miller (Drexel)

197 -- #6 Kyle Smith (U-M) vs. Greg Sawyer (Rider)

Hwt -- Matt Brink (U-M) vs. Bronson Lingamfelter (Brown)

Contact: Leah Howard (734) 763-4423