The NCAA today released its qualifier allocations for the 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships to be held in in Pittsburgh, PA starting March 21.  The county’s eight Division I wrestling conferences were awarded automatic bids to the NCAA championship based on its individual competitors results in three criteria:  Division I winning percentage at the weight class, ratings percentage index (RPI), and coaches’ ranking.  Each wrestler that reached the threshold in two of the three criteria received an automatic qualifier spot for his respective conference.  Each conference receives one automatic qualifier even when no wrestlers within the conference qualify.  Fourty-four at large qualifiers will be announced on March 12 for those wresters that do not place within their conference’s automatic qualifier margin.

The Big 12 received 53 qualifying spots for the NCAA tournament. That number is second behind the Big 12, which received 78 allocations.  The per-weight breakdown of Big 12 qualifying spots is as follows:

125:  5

133:  5

141:  6

149:  7

157:  1

165:  6

174:  5

184:  5

197:  7

285:  6

Wrestling By Pirate Editor-in-Chief and number cruncher extraordinaire Britt Malinsky has posted a list of each wrestler that earned the Big 12 a qualifying spot.  Based on those numbers, NDSU earned the conference five automatic qualifiers from 125 Brent Fleetwood, 133 Cam Sykora, 165, Andrew Fogarty, 175 Lorenzo de la Riva, and 285 Brandon Metz.  Bison transfer 157 Michael Weber does not have the 17 wins against NCAA Division I opponents to qualify for a automatic bid.  Weber will have his work cut out for him at the Big 12 tournament, as only the champion will automatically qualify for NCAAs at 157 pounds.  Weber’s lone Big 12 loss cane at Oklahoma in the last dual of the season 8-7 to Sooner Justin Thomas.  West Fargo product Brandon Metz received the sixth of six automatic qualifying for the Big 12 at 285 pounds.  Metz is on a four match Big 12 win streak and ranks 29th in the coaches poll and 22nd in RPI.