Cronin Earns At-Large Bid, Nine Huskers Qualify for NCAA Championships

Liam Cronin earned an at-large bid to the 2021 NCAA Championships as nine Huskers join the field of 330 total qualifiers for the national championship tournament set for March 18-20 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo., the NCAA announced Tuesday afternoon.

Cronin, who earns his second NCAA Championships qualification and makes his first appearance at the national championship tournament this year, finished 2-2 and in ninth place at the Big Ten Championships. The senior is 9-3 on the year, including four wins over ranked opponents.

The at-large selections were made by the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee using the following selection criteria: head-to-head competition, quality wins (defined as wins against wrestlers already in the field), coaches ranking, results against common opponents, conference tournament placement and winning percentage. The committee was also able to use subjective criteria such as, but not limited to, historical performance.

Eight Huskers, including Chad Red Jr. (141), Ridge Lovett (149), Caleb Licking (157), Peyton Robb (165), Mikey Labriola (174), Taylor Venz (184), Eric Schultz (197) and Christian Lance (285), secured automatic bids with their respective finishes at last weekend’s Big Ten Championships. Nebraska has qualified at least eight wrestlers for the NCAA Championships for the past three seasons and six times in the last ten seasons.

Brackets and seeding for the NCAA Championships will be announced, Wednesday, March 10 during the NCAA Selection Show. The show will be streamed live on NCAA.com starting at 5 p.m. (CT).