Big Ten Championships Pre-Seeds

ROSEMONT, Ill. - The Big Ten announced pre-seeds for this weekend's Big Ten Championships on Monday afternoon. Redshirt sophomore Mike Carr will head to Minneapolis as the No. 1 seed at 141-pounds. Seven Illini were tabbed with pre-seeds. Joining Carr with top five seeds are No. 4 Emery Parker at 184-pounds, and fifth-seeded Travis Piotrowski at 125-pounds. No. 8 Dylan Duncan (157), No. 8 Eric Barone (157), No. 9 Joey Gunther (165) and No. 11 Carver James (174), round out the Illini pre-seeds. 

The pre-seeds, which are determined through a vote by Big Ten coaches, rank the top eight wrestlers in three weight classes. Seven weight classes seeded all 14 starters due to the Big Ten receiving eight or more NCAA Championships qualifier allocations in those classes. 

This is the first top-seed at the conference meet for Carr in his career. He was the runner-up last season at 141-pounds at B1G Championships, going 3-1 at the 2018 Championships held in East Lansing, Mich. Carr finished the regular season going an undefeated 7-0 in Big Ten duals, and 11-2 overall. 

Illinois returns four place-winners from last year's Big Ten Championships. Carr finished as the runner-up at 141-pounds, while redshirt sophomore Dylan Duncan upset Nebraska's Jason Renteria and Minnesota's Mitch McKee to place third at 133-pounds. Parker placed fifth at 184-pounds, and Piotrowski finished ninth at 125-pounds. Redshirt junior Joey Gunther also placed sixth at 174-pounds last season while wrestling for Iowa. 

The Big Ten Championships will be held next weekend, Saturday March 9 and Sunday March 10 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sessions I and II will take place on March 9, with Session I beginning at 10 a.m. CT and Session II starting at 6 p.m. CT. Both sessions can be streamed on BTN2Go. The final two sessions will be held on March 10, with Session III starting at 12 p.m. CT on BTN2Go, and the Championship Session beginning at 3 p.m. CT live on Big Ten Network. 

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