Cottrell Seeded Eighth at NCAAs

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (March 8, 2017) – West Virginia University’s Dylan Cottrell will enter the 2017 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships as the No. 8 seed at 165 pounds, as announced by the NCAA on Wednesday.

Cottrell, the 2017 Big 12 Champion at 165, will face Penn’s Brooks Martino in the first round. He is WVU’s first top-10 seed since Kurt Brenner entered the 2009 championships as the No. 10 seed at 174 pounds.

Cottrell (18-4) and Martino (15-6) meet for the first time on March 16. The two share a pair of common opponents in Binghamton’s Jake Einbinder, and Harvard’s Peter Bearse. Both scored bonus points against Einbinder, as Cottrell won a 19-2 tech. fall in 4:19 at the Pitt Duals, while Martino pinned Einbinder in 4:56. Cottrell pinned Bearse in 4:00, also at the Pitt Duals, while Martino scored an 18-3 tech. fall over Bearse in 5:07.

This season marks Cottrell’s third trip to the NCAA tournament. He previously qualified for the 2014 NCAA Championships as the No. 12 seed at 149 pounds during his redshirt freshman season at Appalachian State. After transferring to West Virginia in 2015, he earned an automatic bid to the 2016 tournament with a third-place finish at 157 pounds at the Big 12 Championship. He fell one round shy of earning All-America honors last season.

Redshirt junior Jacob A. Smith earned an automatic bid as the Big 12 runner-up at 197 pounds, but was forced to withdraw due to injury.

The 2017 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships are slated for March 16-18 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Pigtails and first-round competition will begin at noon E.T. on Thursday, March 16. For tickets, visit WVUGAME.com or call 1-800-WVU-GAME.

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